Labor activist Michael Fernandez led a month-long, 10,000-strong strike at the Singapore Naval Base in Oct-Nov 1963. Fernandez was then General-Secretary of the Naval Base Labour Union. Under the Internal Security Act, Fernandez was arrested for being a member of the ‘Communist United Front’, a claim he has denied. He was detained without trial from 1964 to 1973.
(Michael Fernandez was present at the Face to Face forum organized by The Online Citizen on 16th Dec 2010. He posed the question on whether the opposition agrees that ex ISA detainees should receive compensation from the Government.)
The following is SDP’s interview with Mr Fernandez recorded earlier this year in which he talked candidly about the events leading to his arrest, as well as his nine-year detention.
Read also ISA: Nine years in Changi and after
