Marxist Plot More Detained
Monday, 20th July 1987
The three detained today are Chew Kheng Chuan, a 29-year-old 1982 graduate of Harvard University who owns a typesetting business in Singapore; Tang Fong Har, a lawyer, and Chng Suan Tse, president of an experimental drama group. Officals say the arrests are largely pre-emptive. On television, the three were asked to explain how they became involved in what officials describe as a London-based Communist plot to subvert Singaporean organizations engaged in social action. They portrayed themselves as well-meaning people who dabbled in reading and talking about social change and who might, in retrospect, have been used by political hard-liners. While on a junior-year-abroad program at the London School of Economics, Mr. Chew was associated with Tan Wah Piow, an exiled Singaporean whom the Government accuses of being the mastermind of the plot. Mr. Tan denies the subversion charges.