Lilies that fester -- and festering problems

The summer's flower is to the summer sweet,

Though to itself it only live and die,

But if that flower with base infection meet,

The basest weed outbraves his dignity;

For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds;

Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.

It was in Singapore that a Professor Enright incurred the wrath of Mr Lee Kuan Yew. Mendicant Professor Dennis Joseph Enright was Professor of English at the University of Malaya in Singapore from 1960 to 1970. He angered the newly-enthroned People's Action Party government in his inaugural lecture when he attacked the Government's plans to curb so-called "yellow culture" by banning jukeboxes and pornography… There were other weighty issues, of course. The Enright Affair exacerbated fears of the university losing its autonomy. Did it lose it eventually? You be the judge.

For his transgression, the professor almost lost his work permit; but a conciliatory letter to LKY resolved the controversy and he remained in Singapore until 1970. His story is one of the earliest recorded cases of how LKY deals with anyone who crosses him. He silences them -- he has also gone on record for throwing dissenters and opponents into jail. It was from LKY that the scurrilous "Mendicant" label came to be associated with the professor. It was uncalled for. The amiable professor was highly respected and he is remembered fondly by former undergraduates.

The "Mendicant Professor" is how you can find out more about him in a Google search. He never lived down The Affair. It was even dredged up by the newspapers in his candidacy for the British Poet Laureateship.

Back to LKY. In tones dripping with vitriol, with a smile or smirk on his face, he was wont to apply labels on others with scant regard for their feelings -- or the feelings of journalists like me. Answering questions at a meeting with reporters, he called Mr David Marshall "a buffoon." Scurrilous and gratuitous insult again. Perhaps he redeemed himself many years later by offering the eminent lawyer the opportunity to represent our country in France wiith distinction as His Excellency the Ambassador of the Republic of Singapore. I recall the strongest words Mr Marshall uttered in my presence on learning of some egregious wrong that had been brought to his attention: "A tawdry affair!" was all he allowed himself to say. Keeping a civil tongue is one of the hallmarks of an English gentleman. It is common knowledge that LKY went to Cambridge!

And what did he think of editors of English-language newspapers? "Ah, those timorous editors!" -- this with a sneer! Or a scowl! Give him due credit for a passing grade in Political Theatre 101. Why not a higher grade? Well, to tell the truth, he blots his own copybook. He is disingenuous on occasion on TV -- and he doesn't know when his slip is showing.

University librarian Beda Lim, dear friend and boon companion went to meet his Maker a few years back. Before he departed, he reminded me that I had decided on a title for a book now in gestation for about 30 years. "Lilies that fester" would be it, I declared. If you will be patient with me you will soon find out why. It's a good thing we now have blogging!

In any lifetime, most of us can count on perhaps the fingers of both hands the people we truly respect and admire. As a journalist earning a living with words, those I most admire are the few I have known personally who can use English with precision -- Francis Wong, Lee Siew Yee, Adibah Amin (Sri Delima), Samad Ismail (bilingual), T.J.S. George and Tarzie Vittachi.

I have not met Harold Evans and his wife, Tina Brown, author of an eminently readable book on the late Princess Diana. These two, and Alistair Cooke and Mark Twain, also command my respect and admiration.

I also admired (note the past tense) LKY, not for his command of English but for other reasons. I was the sub-editor in K.L.who chose to sub (edit) the reports of his performances haranguing or rallying the Suleiman Court crowd on the subject of "a Malaysian Malaysia" when Singapore was part of Malaysia. To be fair, he was not really mouthing bad English but his mouth and brain were often not quite in synch, e.g. subject-verb agreement was sacrificed when he leapt into the water as it were, launching a sentence, going upstream into a tributary, down again, thinking of something else to add emphasis etc ... and coming up with the verb in his mouth on the other side of the river. I am sure I have lost most of you here. But if you know how German sentences are structured, you will understand. He has improved, speaking more deliberately, in measured tones.

Reporters used tape recorders in those days and I often asked to hear the verbatim speeches for confirmation of this speaker's deviation from his usual language patterns. But enough of the subbing job. My father, a Chinese language school headmaster (graduate of an agricultural college in China) also admired this man, saying to me after reading of his Suleiman Court performance in a Chinese newspaper: "Thank heaven for this man!" I guess you could say that most non-Bumiputra people in Malaysia felt the same way then.

So far so good, as the Irishman said, passing the fifth floor after jumping from the roof! But LKY blew it as the years went by. The man I once admired has feet of clay. So "Lilies that Fester...." (To be contd.)