Who Is Dominic Puthucheary?

Dominic Puthucheary appeared for Mohd
Adnan Robert and Joseph Pairin Kitingan
 in the 1985 Sabah state election case

Dominic Puthucheary was mentioned only once in Lee Kuan Yew's memoirs, "The Singapore Story", on page 367. He was described as one of the "Big Six" trade union leaders - including Lim Chin Siong, Fong Swee Suan, Sidney Woodhull, Jamit Singh and ST Bani - who called for "genuinely full internal government" and abolition of the Internal Security Council. Lee had private plans for keeping the latter, it would be his weapon of mass destruction for political adversaries.

His brother James Puthucheary was more active and featured on pages 159, 196, 209, 249, 290, 310, 312, 373, 378-81, 399, 473, and 513-14. Lee first met James in 1963 when he was released from St John's Island together with Samad Ismail and Devan Nair, and summed him up dismissively as "superficially clever but unreliable". Regardless of what Lee thinks, he was part of the English educated associates who helped the Chinese-educated to demolish the British colonial system, a first step for Singapore's path to independence. For all their nationalistic efforts, which included a spell in Changi prison, every single soul was swept up in the treacherous Operation Cold Store of 2 February 1963. Even Dominic Puthucheary was not spared.

Recent declassified documents from the British National Archives suggest that the “communist threat” was “played up” by then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew to persuade the British and Malayan governments to agree to a joint security operation to eliminate his political opponents in Singapore.

Then British Commissioner to Singapore Lord Selkirk told his superiors in London that:
“Lee is probably very much attracted to the idea of destroying his political opponents. It should be remembered that there is behind all this a very personal aspect…he claims he wishes to put back in detention the very people who were released at his insistence – people who are intimate acquaintances, who have served in his government, and with whom there is a strong sense of political rivalry which transcends ideological differences.”

It is hard to believe that a man of Janil Puthucheary's education level can fail to grasp the significance of the betrayal. But wait, this man openly declares that "the philosophy is not as important as the pragmatic implications for our state". Which speaks volumes of the heartless mercenary crowd he plans to hang out with, pillaging and raping peasants mercilessly to satiate their unquenchable lust for greed and power.