Jeremy Goh, University of Warwick*
Amongst the vast collection of the Tan Chin Tuan Private Papers and David Marshall Private Papers are three folios on the lesser-known Singapore Ratepayers Association (SRA).[1] Formed in 1932, the SRA scrutinized the operations of the colonial legislature and municipal council and sought to protect its members against ‘overassessment’, or being taxed beyond what was necessary.[2] The SRA spoke on a range of issues that went beyond taxation, having taken up matters like pirate taxis, illegal parking, and poor traffic control.[3]
Prior to the SRA, a similar association, the Singapore Landowners and Ratepayers Association, had been established in December 1915 to safeguard the interests of landowners. Comprising prominent community leaders such as Lim Boon Keng, Tan Jiak Kim, Seah Liang Seah, Lim Peng Siang, Syed Alwi Alsagoff, and D. J. Galloway, this association was short-lived, having been ‘allowed to disappear’.[4] Writing in 1923, Song Ong Siang observed that the Association was inactive and Singapore remained in an ‘anomalous position’ without a ratepayer’s association.[5]
Unlike the Singapore Landowners and Ratepayers Association, the SRA took reference from similar ratepayers’ associations in England and sought to represent a larger segment of society beyond rich landowners. It interpreted the word ‘ratepayer’ in the broadest sense, referring then to anyone who not only paid government taxes, but also public services such as utilities. R. M. Meyer, founding honorary secretary of the SRA, announced publicly that the Association welcomed members and tenants ‘paying even the smallest sums in rates’ either directly or indirectly to the colonial Government.[6] The SRA charged an annual individual membership fee of three Straits Settlements dollars (S$5 in 1965, which is roughly equivalent to S$22.26 in 2023) with the aim of attracting more members, particularly those from the clerical class.[7] As noted by Tay Lian Teck, Municipal Commissioner and Manager of the Ho Hong Conglomerate, the SRA was more likely to obtain a reduction in electricity, gas, and water rates if it approached the colonial administration with a membership of 20,000.[8]
The two folios on the SRA in the Tan Chin Tuan Private Papers comprise important meeting minutes, correspondences, and reports on the SRA’s operations between 1946 and 1968, when he was President of the Association. These documents shed light on key themes pertaining to the Association and its civic activism in the history of modern Singapore.
The SRA’s Annual General Meetings saw the attendance of not only its members but also reporters from major newspapers such as The Straits Times, Singapore Standard, and Nanyang Siang Pau (see Image 1 above), which demonstrates the Association’s intent to reach out widely to different communities in Singapore. At these meetings, the Association reviewed its objectives, confirmed its financial accounts, and discussed matters relating to current issues. For example, at the Association’s Annual General Meeting in April 1953, the Chair of the Meeting, S.H. Peek, highlighted the issues of overlapping duties between the Singapore Improvement Trust and City Council, increases in property tax, overly high cash deposits required to access electricity, and the authorities’ flood management efforts.[9] Members voted on its Managing Committee in the upcoming year, which saw the appointment of office-holders representing the European, Jewish, Chinese, Arab, Indian, Eurasian, and Malay communities. Prominent members included David Marshall (first Chief Minister of Singapore)[10], Wee Cho Yaw (Former Chairman of United Overseas Bank)[11], and V. Pakirisamy Pillai (Former President of Singapore Indian Association)[12].
The folios also contain correspondence between Tan Chin Tuan and various committee members of the SRA. They include letters from Tan indicating that he would not seek renomination as President as he was unable to attend meetings in-person, citing ‘overwork’ due to his busy schedule running the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation and other social commitments (see Image 2).[13] Despite this, Tan remained active in rendering consultation and advice to committee members of the SRA, which led to his long tenure as SRA’s President.[14]
The problem of declining membership in SRA became acute from the mid-1950s due partly to the growing public (mis)perception that the Association represented only big landlords. In fact, the percentage of ordinary ratepayers among the Association’s membership had actually increased from 51% to 56.5% between 1956 and 1959.[15] This problem became critical in 1964 when the SRA received a mere $16 in subscriptions and no new memberships.[16] In the face of such declining membership subscriptions, Tan Chin Tuan’s donations of substantial sums of money to the Association were important to keeping it financially afloat.[17] At the Association’s Annual Meeting in 1965, Tan assured members that he would meet future financial deficits, if any (Image 3).[18]
Not much is known about the development of the SRA after the 1970s. Newspaper reports mention the Association’s appeal to the Housing and Development Board for the relaxation of regulations on the eviction of flat owners gaining ownership of private properties in the mid-1970s, and its unsuccessful attempt in bringing together residents’ associations and expanding membership numbers.[19] However, there are no more reports of the SRA from 1980 onwards, and it is likely to have turned dormant.[20]
In sum, the two folios contain interesting material on the Singapore Ratepayers Association, a civic organization which is not well understood in the historiography of Singapore and Southeast Asia. These materials highlight how community leaders representing different ethnic groups not only spoke out on public issues, but also sought to represent a wider section of community by being inclusive in their agendas. Further research should be done to better understand the SRA and civic activism in modern Singapore.
*Jeremy Goh is a PhD student in History at the University of Warwick, United Kingdom. His interests lie in business and financial history, Chinese overseas, capitalism, transnationalism, and, more generally, Southeast Asia’s past and present. His current project, ‘Globalizing from the Periphery: Chinese banking transnationalism in colonial Singapore, Malaya, and China (1900-1950)’, investigates how Southeast Asian Chinese bankers, small shareholders, and customers contributed actively to the spread of capitalism and growing economic integration of the region. His research is supported by the ISEAS PhD Scholarship.
Notes
[1] TCT_036, and TCT_037, and DM_079.
[2] ‘A Ratepayers’ Association’, Malaya Tribune, 1 July 1932, p. 8; ‘Memorandum to Special Sub-Committee of Ratepayers’ Association, undated, p. 3. (TCT 36)
[3] Minutes of Committee Meeting of the SRA, 17 June 1965, pp. 65-67 (TCT_037).
[4] ‘Ratepayers’, Straits Times, 29 June 1932, p. 12; ‘Singapore Ratepayers Association’, Straits Echo, 29 December 1915, p. 5.
[5] Song Ong Siang, One Hundred Years’ History of the Chinese in Singapore (London: John Murray, 1923), p. 371.
[6] ‘The Ratepayers’ Association’, Malaya Tribune, 5 July 1932, p. 8.
[7] ‘Singapore Ratepayers’ Meeting’, Straits Times, 10 August 1932, p. 18; https://eservices.mas.gov.sg/statistics/calculator/GoodsAndServices.aspx (Accessed 9 April 2024)
[8] ‘Singapore Ratepayers’ Meeting’, Straits Times, 10 August 1932, p. 18; Jeremy Goh and Koh Keng We, ‘Industrialization and Chinese Big Business in Colonial Singapore: The Transnational Enterprises of Lim Peng Siang (1904-1941),’ Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. Vol. 54, No. 1 (2023), 89-115.
[9] Speech by S. H. Peek at AGM, 23 April 1953, pp. 23-24 (TCT 36)
[10] Letter from G.H. Kiat to David Marshall, 18 April 1955, p. 59 (DM_010).
[11] Minutes of Committee Meeting of the SRA, 26 May 1960, pp. 6-7 (DM_079).
[12] Minutes of Committee Meeting of the SRA, 28 July 1960, pp. 11-12 (DM_079); ‘S’pore Indian Assn. President Resigns’, Malaya Tribune, 9 June 1941, p. 2
[13] Letter from Tan Chin Tuan to S. H. Peek, 7 April 1953, p. 17; Letter from Tan Chin Tuan to SRA, 4 May 1955, p. 29.
[14] Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of Members of the SRA, 25 April 1958, pp. 39-45. (TCT 36)
[15] Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of Members of the Singapore Ratepayers Association, 19 April 1956, pp. 33-37; Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of Members of the Singapore Ratepayers Association, 3 April 1959, pp. 46-50. (TCT 36)
[16] Minutes of the Meeting of Members of the Singapore Ratepayers Association, 30 January 1964, pp. 2-3; Minutes of the Meeting of Members of the Singapore Ratepayers Association, 26 March 1964, pp. 12-14. (TCT 37)
[17] Letter from Tan Chin Tuan to G. H. Kiat, 10 October 1963, p. 82 (TCT 36); Letter from Tan Chin Tuan to Ee Peng Liang, 8 December 1965, p. 77 (TCT 37).
[18] Minutes of the Extraordinary General Meeting of Members of the Singapore Ratepayers Association, 29 April 1965, pp. 45-46. (TCT 37)
[19] ‘Assn. to shed ‘for the rich only image’, Straits Times, 5 May 1975, p. 8; Letter from Lee Choon Eng to the Straits Times, 17 December 1976, p. 14.; Wang Look Fung, ‘Appeal to relax HDB Rules’, New Nation, 2 January 1976, p. 2.
[20] According to a search done on the NewspaperSG search engine on 3 July 2024.