The Tiger and the Trojan Horse

“Some mug had to do it,” said Lee Kuan Yew, explaining what appeared to be an act of pure folly—the decision of a politically puny group of young nationalists to take on the powerful communist movement in a crucial struggle for the strategic gateway to the East—Singapore. In the first phrase, the antagonists became partners, for while the nationalist were obliged to ride the communist tiger to gain the support of the masses, the outlawed communists saw their group as the Trojan Horse, through which they could capture constitutional power in a key British colony. But the ultimate aim of the ambitious ‘moderates’ was to rid Singapore of both colonialists and communists, in that order. And they succeeded. This is no academic study, and the often bizarre inside story of that duel between ill matched adversaries—the People’s Action Party and the Communist United Front—is brought startlingly to life in an account full of irony and paradox, strange encounters, bloody riots, and brutal assassinations. Dennis Bloodworth takes us into the half-world of the communist underground, with its elaborate tradecraft and secret rendezvous in a vivid tale of ruthlessness matched against ruthlessness, seen from both sides, and told with cool impartiality.