Those old enough remember shock when iconic building was bombed
By M. Nirmala, The Straits Times, 12 Feb 2014
THE bombing of MacDonald House by two Indonesian saboteurs might have taken place 48 years ago, but that event long ago casts a shadow that still falls over today's Singapore.
Those old enough remember the shock of the event when the pair of Indonesian marines bombed the Orchard Road building on March 10, 1965.
At 3.07pm, a bomb went off at the 10-storey building.
The explosion ripped off one lift door and shattered windows right up to the ninth floor. The wall separating the staircase and the adjoining room of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank housed in the building was completely demolished, exposing a view of the carpark on the other side of Orchard Road.
It was raining and Mrs Rosie Heng of Malaya Borneo Motors in the building thought the explosion was a loud thunder clap, according to news reports then.
On the ground floor, plaster and bricks rained on bank employees busy closing their accounts.
After the blast, office worker Lim Chin Hin, 45, wiped the blood off his face, picked up his spectacles which had been knocked off, and groped his way out of the room filled with twisted steel.
Thirty-three people were injured. Three people died.
The bodies of Mrs Elizabeth Suzie Choo, 36, private secretary to the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank manager, and Miss Juliet Goh, 23, a clerk in the bank, were found buried in the rubble. The third victim, Mr Mohammed Yasin Kesit, 45, a driver, slipped into a coma after the blast, and did not come out of it.
Recalling the incident, Mr Barry Desker, dean of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said: "At that time, MacDonald House was an iconic building as it was the tallest in Orchard Road. The other buildings were single- or double-storey buildings and the land at Ngee Ann city was a burial ground."
The choice of MacDonald House for the bombing was significant as it was about 1.4km from the Istana, the official residence of the President of Singapore.
Mr Lee Khoon Choy, now 90, was even more directly involved. Singapore had caught and tried the two Indonesian saboteurs, Harun Said, 21, and Osman Mohamed Ali, 23.They were convicted of murder and hanged in 1968.
Tempers in Indonesia were raging after Singapore turned down appeals for clemency from President Suharto.
Mr Lee, who became ambassador to Indonesia in 1970, used his understanding of Javanese culture to pave the way for smoother ties.
The veteran diplomat persuaded then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew to do two things on an official visit to Indonesia in 1973.
One was to wear the Indonesian attire of a batik shirt, a gesture that surprised his hosts. The other was for PM Lee to scatter flowers on the graves of the two dead men.
The following year, President Suharto visited Singapore, in a further sign of the strong ties developing between the two countries.
What is needed now, said Mr Lee Khoon Choy, is for today's leaders and diplomats to make a similar gesture to soothe wounded feelings.
Singapore leaders have raised their concerns over the naming of an Indonesian frigate KRI Usman Harun after the two bombers.
But Indonesian leaders are sticking to their stand that their decision is final and in line with the country's tradition of honouring heroes. They also say that the ongoing row will not affect bilateral relations.
Mr Lee Khoon Choy believes the recent row is the work of either a group that is "ignorant of history" or a group of extremists.
Asked whether Mr Lee Kuan Yew's act of scattering flowers could be seen as Singapore apologising for executing the bombers, he said no.
"The flowers were scattered as the Javanese believe that the souls of the dead will be pacified through this gesture," he said.
"It was a matter of Singapore showing its big heart. It said 'I forgive you'. But that doesn't mean 'I approve of your bombing of MacDonald House'.
"Don't link the two events, as Singapore, and countries that respect the rule of law, cannot allow terrorists to become heroes."
The two saboteurs had arrived in Singapore from Java at 11am on that fateful day, wearing civilian clothes.
The two saboteurs had arrived in Singapore from Java at 11am on that fateful day, wearing civilian clothes.
They had been instructed to bomb an electric power house but, after lunch, they headed to MacDonald House.
They placed a blue travelling bag containing explosives near the lift of the mezzanine floor of the building. After lighting the fuse at 3pm, they boarded a bus and fled the scene.
Three days later, a bumboat pilot found the two men in Singapore waters, holding on to a floating plank. The vessel they had been travelling in had capsized.
The bumboat pilot rescued them and handed them to the marine police.
When captured, the pair were in civilian clothes, not army uniforms. This became an issue during their trial.
They claimed to be prisoners of war, but Senior Crown Counsel Francis Seow said they were merely "mercenary soldiers" who had been paid $350 to carry out a particular assignment.
As they were in civilian clothes and had targeted a civilian building, the men were tried for the murder of the three people who died in the blast.
They were sentenced to death on Oct 20, 1965.
For Mr Desker, the bombing still holds lessons for Singapore today. Now, as then, Singapore remains vulnerable to such an attack.
MacDonald House, built in 1949, was gazetted a national monument on Feb 10, 2003.
Today, it houses various offices, including a large Citibank branch.
WHY IS SINGAPORE SO CONCERNED OVER INDONESIA’S NAMING OF A NAVY SHIP? THE STRAITS TIMES RECOUNTS THE EVENTS AT THE TIME OF KONFRONTASI AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR RELATIONS BETWEEN THE TWO COUNTRIES.
Series of explosions in Singapore
The Straits Times, 12 Feb 2014
"KONFRONTASI" or confrontation refers to the period between January 1963 and August 1966 when Indonesia used military, economic and diplomatic means to break up the newly formed Federation of Malaysia of which Singapore was a part.
The Straits Times, 12 Feb 2014
"KONFRONTASI" or confrontation refers to the period between January 1963 and August 1966 when Indonesia used military, economic and diplomatic means to break up the newly formed Federation of Malaysia of which Singapore was a part.
Indonesia broke off ties with Malaysia and went on to instigate its nationals to infiltrate and sabotage key installations in Malaysia and Singapore.
One attack carried out in Singapore was on March 10, 1965, at 3.07pm, when a bomb exploded at MacDonald House, Orchard Road's tallest building at that time. A lift door was blown off. Windows of buildings 100m away were shattered, as were windscreens of cars across the road.
Three people died and 33 were injured. Two Indonesian marines, Harun Said and Osman Mohamed Ali, were caught, tried and hanged for murder.
Other incidents included an explosion on April 13, 1964, which caused extensive damage at 21 Jalan Rebong off Changi Road, killing a woman and her daughter and injuring six.
Three days later, on April 16, another explosion completely wrecked a telephone booth at the junction of Jalan Betek, Jalan Timun and Jalan Badarah. Four men and a woman were injured.
Indonesian saboteurs are reported to have caused at least 42 explosions in Singapore from September 1963 to May 1965. In August 1966, Konfrontasi ended with the signing of a peace treaty between Malaysia and Indonesia. The toll in Singapore: seven killed and more than 51 others injured.
Coming as it did soon after the racial riots in July 1964, the bombing of MacDonald House cast a dark shadow over the fledging country's future, a situation made worse after the island was expelled from the Malaysian federation in 1965.
Independent Singapore, however, went on to become a successful city.
The days when bombs went off in my kampung
By Salim Osman, The Straits Times, 12 Feb 2014
By Salim Osman, The Straits Times, 12 Feb 2014
WHEN a bomb went off one Sunday night in April 1964 at Jalan Rebong in Kampung Ubi, the impact was so large that I could feel it from my home in Geylang Serai a kilometre away.
A 50-year-old Malay widow and her only child, a 19-year-old schoolgirl, who were at a neighbour's house were killed when the bomb exploded nearby.
Three days later, another bomb went off about a kilometre away, at the junction of Jalan Betek and Jalan Timun, at a public telephone booth. Five people were injured, including a 62-year-old Chinese woman and three Malays who lived near the booth.
As a 12-year-old boy who had just entered secondary school, I was curious as to why a bomb had gone off in my kampung area.
I cycled to Jalan Betek, the scene of the second explosion, to see the mayhem. Only the concrete base of the phone booth was left; the booth and its roof had been blown to bits. The house next door was in shambles, its sitting room badly damaged.
Months earlier, terrorists had planted a bomb at Katong Park in front of the Ambassador Hotel in Meyer Road. That park by the beach was a favourite picnic site for many of us who lived in Geylang Serai.
The series of bombings in Singapore occurred at the height of Indonesia's "Konfrontasi" - "Confrontation" - against the Federation of Malaysia formed in September 1963. Singapore was then a part of this federation.
We were told that it was the work of Indonesian soldiers who had infiltrated the island to launch a campaign of terror in line with its "Ganjang Malaysia" - "Crush Malaysia" - campaign against the fledgling federation.
It was an act of military aggression without a formal declaration of war against Malaysia, which then President Sukarno considered a "British puppet".
For the Malays in my kampung, Konfrontasi was a campaign of terror against civilians. The series of bombings against targets such as telephone booths, public parks and beaches targeted ordinary people.
Soon, people were afraid to visit these places.
The biggest attack was the bombing in March 1965 of MacDonald House in Orchard Road, which killed three civilians and injured 33 others.
Indonesian marines Osman Mohamed Ali and Harun Said were arrested, tried and convicted of murder and hanged.
Konfrontasi was a source of disappointment to my late father, who was Javanese, and his Javanese friends.
They had come to see Sukarno as a leader who had united the sprawling archipelago, and were disappointed that he had launched the campaign of terror against Malaysia, a newly emerging nation in the Nusantara, the Malay world.
Konfrontasi also became the first test of our loyalty to Singapore - and to then Malaysia of which we were a part.
The Indonesian soldiers who infiltrated Singapore to carry out the bombings were all of Malay stock. Some could have well been relatives of Malays who had migrated to Singapore from Java before the Japanese invasion in 1942.
I recall the swirl of talk in the kampung then: What should the Malays do if the saboteurs came to them to seek refuge? Should we provide food and shelter, or should we surrender them to the authorities?
I recall the swirl of talk in the kampung then: What should the Malays do if the saboteurs came to them to seek refuge? Should we provide food and shelter, or should we surrender them to the authorities?
Those conversations inevitably ended with the same decision: To hand over any infiltrator or wandering saboteur to the authorities.
This was no easy decision, given our kinship ties.
My father's only sister lived with her family in Indonesia. But he lost contact with her because of Konfrontasi; they renewed contact years later, in 1971.
All that was over four decades ago. Now, the Indonesian military plans to name a navy ship after the two marines who had bombed MacDonald House and struck terror in Singapore.
We may not be the families of those who died or were injured in the bombing, but as Singaporeans, we feel outraged by the move to honour two terrorists by naming a vessel after them.
According to Indonesian Armed Forces chief General Moeldoko, the decision to name the ship was made in December 2012 with no intention to stir emotions.
But surely there are hundreds of Indonesian heroes whose names can be chosen for the vessel. Why pick the names of the two marines, when this would only open up old wounds?
Survivor of 1965 MacDonald House bombing tells his story
By Rennie Whang, The New Paper, 12 Feb 2014
By Rennie Whang, The New Paper, 12 Feb 2014
When a bomb went off at MacDonald House on March 10, 1965, Mr Zainal Kassim (above), then 26, was badly injured.
He said: “I was bleeding all over... My head had swelled to double its size, like a watermelon."
Last week, he was stunned to hear news of Indonesia naming a navy ship after the two men responsible for the attack.
Mr Zainal, now 75, said: “I was hurt because these men planted a bomb and other people were killed and injured. These are innocent people.”
Three people died and 33 were injured in the incident.