Free The Best I Could by Subhas Anandan

Students from Raffles Hall, Dunearn Road Hostel and some medical students led by the always-ready Adam Liew gathered at Union House. There were about 70 to 80 students, most of them in pyjamas. Some Sikh students deliberately removed their turbans and let their hair loose. We marched to Ladyhill Hotel. At about midnight, all of us jumped into the pool. We created quite a din. Bedroom lights came on and guests were peering out of their balconies or windows to see what the ruckus was about. The same manager who had chased us away earlier saw me and asked me what was happening.
    “Are you blind? Can’t you see what is happening?” I replied after taking a deep drag on my cigarette.
    He didn’t know what to do. I told him we were university students and he shouldn’t have behaved so arrogantly earlier. I also said that we would be calling the journalists and his hotel would have great publicity the next day. I advised him to call the police if he wanted to. When he tried to speak again, I told him I’d rather not speak to the help and to let me speak to the general manager of the hotel.
    Ten minutes later, I was told that the general manager would like to see me. She was an attractive Swedish lady and introduced herself only as Mrs Philip Seow. With two of my friends, we explained to her what had happened with her staff member earlier that evening. She apologised for his behaviour but I said that that the apology was insufficient. We sought some compensation from the hotel, perhaps some alcoholic drinks to warm everyone up. She smiled and said no. As we were students, she was prepared to give us hot chocolate and cookies. So we had a small party by the hotel’s pool, drinking hot chocolate and eating cookies and cakes under the moonlight. It turned out to be one of those fantastic, surreal moments in your life that you never forget.
    To me and my friends, university life was not just about lectures, tutorials and hours spent in the library. It was about moments like the one at the Ladyhill Hotel. We did so many more things which would seem amazing to students in Singapore’s universities today. You have to realise the backdrop during those times. Singapore had recently been handed its independence from Malaysia and there were pockets of turbulence all across the island. The relatively new Lee Kuan Yew-led government was more worried about the threat of racial riots than what university students like us got into, such as taking part in demonstrations outside embassies.
    I personally led a demonstration outside the American embassy to protest against the horrible incident which took place on March 16, 1968 in My Lai, Vietnam, when US marines indiscriminately killed old men, women and children. Students gathered outside the embassy which was located along Hill Street, opposite the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce building. Before the demonstration, we sent Violet Oon and Linda Neo to scout the area. They came back and reported that there were police everywhere. It didn’t stop us. The students arrived at the embassy in a convoy of cars that had proceeded gravely and full of intent down North Bridge Road. The union bus was also used to carry banners condemning the United States. When we arrived, we saw US marines guarding the embassy. It appeared as though they were expecting us. We demanded an audience with the ambassador. We were told he was not in and that we could see the first secretary instead. Francis Khoo (now in exile in London), Peter Chen (who, if I am not mistaken, was our ambassador to Russia a few years ago) and I went inside to hand over our petition as well as challenge the absent ambassador to a debate.
    As soon as we entered the embassy, the doors were shut. The din from the street outside vanished and we were completely cut off from our fellow protesters. We saw marine soldiers walking around on the grounds carrying guns. They were all more than 1.8 m tall and each of them must have weighed more than