2nd merdeka talks

Question 1

brief description of merdeka talks

Answer 1

• delegation led by lim yew hock to london to negotiate for full self government
• british agreed to grant it to singapore
• passed state of singapore act that converted singapore into state with control over all issues except internal security

Question 2

why were british initially reluctant to grant full self-government to singapore

Answer 2

reluctant to surrender full control of internal security due to fears about communist threat as internal/external communist influences could subject it to a communist takeover

Question 3

why did british grant singapore full self government when lim yew hock went to negotiate

Answer 3

• he took aggressive actions to suppress the protests and riots during chinese middle school student riots when they broke out
• this was unlike david marshall who was reluctant to use violence on the people, making british think he was incompetent in defending singapore against communist threat
• british were satisfied with low lim yew hock handled riots and trusted him as someone who could steer singapore out of its communist wreckhole