In the most recent issue of Intelligence and National Security, Leon Comber (abstract) points to the 1915 Singapore Mutiny as the key event in the genesis of a political-internal security organization that the current Internal Security Department can trace its lineage to.

I'm not sure how much Comber adds to Popplewell's Intelligence and Imperial Defence or Ban Kah Choon's Absent History (both of whom he cites) but I enjoyed the succinct account and the photographs of the relevant plaques at St Andrew's Cathedral.

Taking several tangents off Comber's piece, my first thought was how, many things, good and bad, were bequeathed to us by our colonial legacy. Some things have been done away with, others seem to have been set in stone (think turban versus tudung in national schools). It also bears remembering how the PAP denounced the evilness of the ISA and ISD prior to assuming power; it won't take too far a stretch of the imagination for opposition politicians of today - who promise the abolition or scaling back of such laws and agencies - to do what the PAP did if and when they ever come to power.

Second, while Comber's article focuses on Singapore, it is also manifestly clear that, to work effectively, Singapore's internal security apparatus worked as part of the whole British imperial intelligence network, with particular influence from India. Another reminder of the residue of the legal legacy of empire via British India was the origin of Sect 377A. Given the importance of regional and international cooperation for internal and international security, I was slightly disappointed at the lack of any mention of cooperation between British and other powers, or explanation of the lack thereof.

Third, Comber's account begins with his account of the mutiny of the Indian 5th Light Infantry and the actions as well as policies of Major General Ridout but the military angle fades out of the story, with the Indian police moving centre-stage soon after. The story of the origins and colonial influence (if any) on Singapore's modern military intelligence apparatus (SID, MIO, MSD) still remains to be told.