Widely regarded as Singapore’s best criminal lawyer, David Marshall was relentless in his pursuit of justice.
Taking on role as Singapore’s first Chief Minister, he championed for self-governance for Singapore. Though his tenure in the role only lasted 14 months, many of his ideas were later implemented as policies in the years to come.
Watch more: https://www.asiaone.com/video
Taking on role as Singapore’s first Chief Minister, he championed for self-governance for Singapore. Though his tenure in the role only lasted 14 months, many of his ideas were later implemented as policies in the years to come.
Watch more: https://www.asiaone.com/video
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00:00Whether it was politics, or it was law, or it was anything else he chose to do,
00:06I'm quite sure if he chose to become a great violinist, he would have poured everything into it.
00:12The pursuit of justice was straight, exactly the right thing for him.
00:30He genuinely believed in a sense of equal rights and respect for people.
00:36He is a fighter. He fights for values, he fights for people, he fights for justice.
00:42He was able in a system which could only be made fairer, to rise to the top.
00:51David Saul Marshall was born in Singapore in 1908 to a Baghdadi Jewish family.
00:56I think his childhood played a part in shaping David to who he is.
01:02He read the Bible, he read his Talmudic, and it shaped his ethical beliefs.
01:07Also reading the Bible so often. He said he learned his cadence and how he speaks from reading the Bible.
01:14Actually considering the fact that he couldn't speak a word of English till he went to school,
01:19his progress was remarkable.
01:21In school, he was always fighting against prejudice.
01:24You know, he said as Jewish, he later learned a lot of people don't like Jews.
01:29That came as a shock to him.
01:31And in school, some kids said to him,
01:34Jowdy Jew, mend my shoe, bring it back by half past two.
01:38He was so shocked at that kind of statement that he boxed the person to the ground.
01:45I think the beginnings of a fight for racial discrimination began there.
01:50David Marshall was extremely clever, had very high native intelligence,
01:55had no problems with his schoolwork at all.
01:58So he made up his mind that he would win one of the two Queen's scholarships
02:03that were made available at the time.
02:05And so he was studying very hard.
02:08His dream of pursuing a medical degree was shattered
02:10when he collapsed before taking the scholarship exam.
02:13By his late 20s, he decided to go to London to take the bar and pursue a degree in law.
02:18And David Marshall, being a very clever fellow,
02:21was able to pass the bar exam in half the time.
02:23He actually cleared all his exams in one and a half years.
02:26So the reason why he did law was because it was the shortest course
02:30that would give him a professional qualification.
02:33Upon returning to Singapore after his studies,
02:35he joined Aitken and Ong Siang to begin his career in law.
02:39However, his career was put on hold due to World War II,
02:42where he volunteered in a Singapore volunteer corps company
02:45and was eventually captured and sent to a forced labour camp in Japan.
02:49Because for volunteering, one of the Singaporeans who volunteered
02:54to fight against the Japanese and ending up for years in prison,
02:58I think all of that would have created a strong sense of
03:03man's inhumanity to man, as he would say,
03:06and his strong desire, powerful desire to work against that.
03:13People remember one particular incident just before the fall of Singapore
03:17and before his entire battalion was surrendered.
03:21When everybody was down,
03:22they were all stuck in some tennis courts down in Pearce Road.
03:25And who should come marching up the road but David Marshall with two pails of tea?
03:33And nobody knew where he got the tea from.
03:35And having tea in the afternoon when you're about to surrender,
03:38they thought, well, you know, can't be that bad.
03:40So David Marshall had that kind of reputation.
03:43It was clever. He could get things done.
03:45And he was irrationally courageous.
03:48And yeah, yeah, I saw the war coming.
03:51And I managed to get my brothers and my father out.
03:54I was a real Machiavelli.
03:56Maneuvered them out of Singapore.
03:58Before the war?
03:59Before the fall.
04:00Why didn't you go with them?
04:03I've just told you.
04:05Singapore was my country and I was going to fight.
04:08I was going to defend.
04:10David worked himself to the bone, learning the law,
04:13honing his craft and advocacy skills.
04:16Before long, he was considered one of the most formidable and knowledgeable lawyers in Singapore.
04:21Everyone acknowledges that David Marshall was Singapore's greatest criminal lawyer ever.
04:29But he never started out to be a criminal lawyer.
04:33His first few cases when he started out were really about maritime claims.
04:37Then there was a case which involved a shoemaker who had killed his wife.
04:43And David Marshall was able to save him from the gallows.
04:47Probably the most sensational was the Nonis case.
04:51That one, oh, that hogged the headlines for weeks.
04:55And so from there, one after the other,
04:58you know, high-profile murder cases tended to land on David Marshall's lap.
05:03Some people, you know, love religion or are devoted to that religion or spirituality.
05:08He was devoted to the law.
05:10The law was like something so profound in him.
05:14There are many stories where David Marshall was so sick,
05:18he should have been in hospital,
05:19but he turned up in court so that his client would not hang.
05:23I mean, that's the kind of person David Marshall was.
05:26David continued to contribute to society
05:28by serving as the founding secretary of the Singapore War Prisoners Association
05:33and as president of the Jewish Welfare Board.
05:36David is a person with leadership qualities.
05:39That's a natural leader.
05:40And people turn to you for advice.
05:43It doesn't surprise me that later he entered into politics.
05:47His move into politics was sort of a natural extension
05:52of his general involvement in public life.
05:57By 1953, the British were set up the Constitutional Commission.
06:14And I think by then, people got a bit more serious
06:17about what to pitch to the Rendell Commission
06:20to say what they wanted for Singapore.
06:22Marshall began to get more interested in politics.
06:26And one of the things that he was asked to do by the Singapore Labour Party
06:30was to draft a new constitution for them, which he decided to do.
06:34So they offered the presidency of the Labour Front to David Marshall.
06:38He won the elections and he became chief minister.
06:41So in a way, David Marshall didn't seek political office.
06:45It came to him.
06:46People came asking him to be head of this, head of that, and so on.
06:51If you feel the strong sense of leadership for your community,
06:55working on issues, it prepares you for a career in politics.
07:01I imagine the law empowered him and also just a tremendous sense of justice,
07:07which meant that he was daring.
07:09He was willing to say things and get into trouble and do what he thought was right.
07:13In 1955, David went on to become Singapore's first chief minister.
07:18Marshall is an advocate par excellence.
07:21He spoke well, he's articulate, he's eloquent.
07:25His style was to be slightly sensational.
07:28He did it on purpose.
07:29He decided that he would go to the Legislative Assembly,
07:33not in a suit, as was required by everybody, but in his safari bush jacket.
07:39He even persuaded Francis Thomas to do the same.
07:41Francis Thomas, in fact, went one up.
07:43He went in bush jacket and sandals.
07:46This was his way of combating the colonial authorities,
07:50to show that it is now no longer the British who caught the shots.
07:55He knew how to push the envelope, how to embarrass the British just right.
08:00They gave him an office, which was the broom cupboard under the stairs.
08:03His response was, no problem.
08:05We put my desk in the middle of the padang.
08:08You're not going to sit in public, in the official business.
08:20Of course I wasn't, but I knew how to kick them where it hurts.
08:25The people loved David Marshall.
08:28You know, when he stood under the old apple trees, not an apple tree, it's just a tree.
08:32He could get the crowds at lunchtime, clapping, you know, coming, cheering him on
08:38as he spoke his anti-colonial rhetoric.
08:42He was a sensation of independence.
08:45He made you feel that sensation.
08:48I think he had integrity and people could feel that.
08:51As a thought leader, I think he was brilliant.
08:53He saw his job as delivering independence to Singapore as soon as he could.
09:01David Marshall's resignation as chief minister was largely his own doing.
09:07He told the people of Singapore, I will come back with independence.
09:11And if I don't, I will resign.
09:14I think he saw what was going on in the Federation of Malaya.
09:19And plans were being made for Malaya to become independent in 1957.
09:23So David Marshall was thinking, well, if they can be independent by 57,
09:27we should be.
09:28Why should we have to wait till 59?
09:30This was why he pushed very, very hard to try to get Singapore towards independence.
09:38Where I think his leadership was lacking is with people.
09:41He didn't grow up in an environment of like team sports and working with individuals.
09:48He was a thought leader, I think.
09:51But as a team leader, as a manager, I think he didn't have the experience.
09:57In 1956, David stepped down as chief minister after failing to obtain self-governance for
10:02Singapore.
10:03He remained involved in politics and founded the Workers' Party in 1957.
10:08Though his tenure as chief minister only lasted 14 months,
10:11many of his ideas were later implemented as policies even after he left politics.
10:16The very short time that he was chief minister, one of the first things he did
10:21was to make politicians accessible.
10:25And this he did through a meet the people session.
10:29He would station himself at the Legislative Assembly every Saturday,
10:34and he would meet with people who want to talk to him, tell them their problems.
10:38David Marshall started, it was the figure that started us on the road to constitutional
10:46advancement.
10:46With his speeches, he stirred up the Singapore masses,
10:50locked youths to politics and getting them interested.
10:53And because of his histrionics, he could get everyone interested in an anti-colonial struggle
11:00and fight.
11:01He had the most multi-ethnic cabinet you could ever find.
11:06That set a tone that the cabinet had to, in some way,
11:13be a semiotic representation of the multi-ethnic country that Singapore is.
11:22Certainly he had this sense of devotion, a sense of devotion to a country,
11:28which to me is an abstract thing.
11:29It's not a person, but to him was very real.
11:33Throughout his life, even after he left politics, he yearned to serve Singapore.
11:39And it was Rajaratnam who actually had this brainwave,
11:43that when Singapore began opening our foreign relations with Europe,
11:47and particularly with France, that we needed an ambassador to France,
11:51and that he would do a splendid job, which David Marshall did.
11:54It was stupendous.
11:56David served as Singapore's first ambassador to France, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland.
12:02He eventually retired as ambassador in 1993, after 15 years.
12:06He felt frustrated there, from being a criminal lawyer,
12:09where you're dealing with people living and dying,
12:13or being a constitutional lawyer, or being a chief minister.
12:15These are very action-packed jobs.
12:17As an ambassador, he explained, it's a long game.
12:21You're having lunch here with this person, and dinner here with that person,
12:25to try and establish relations that may get better in the future.
12:29And if you want a secret, you talk to...
12:31Oh, it sounded tedious and long and boring.
12:34It was tough to go from the pace and action of his normal life to a slower pace.
12:38But he believed in it too.
12:39He believed it was important for Singapore as well.
12:42And I think when David came out of power,
12:45he found that, frankly, a lot of people were still very warm towards him.
12:50For my dad to take a taxi ride, and to have to pay for it, was kind of rare.
12:54Like, taxi drivers, even when my dad was like,
12:56oh, you took the wrong turn, you might be grumpy.
12:58Taxi drivers really would almost never charge my dad.
13:02It was just this incredible sense of privilege and respect.
13:07I think he felt regularly, genuinely touched.
13:10I first met David Marshall when I was in the first year studying law at NUS.
13:16Tommy Koh had invited him to go to the law faculty to give us a talk.
13:21There was this aura about this man.
13:24And I'll never forget the words he used.
13:26Very colourful language.
13:28The last thing you should do is to leave this place
13:31with gold dust coursing through your veins.
13:35That was David Marshall.
13:37It was a performance.
13:39Of course, all of us were totally taken in by this phenomenal man
13:45who came in and impressed us all,
13:48made us all want to go out and change the world.
13:51David passed away in 1995 at the age of 87.
13:55Though he experienced many ups and downs in life,
13:57his spirit of fighting against injustice is admirable
14:00and something that will be remembered for generations to come.
14:03David Marshall was a true Singaporean at heart.
14:08He was born in Singapore at a time when Singapore, Malaya and so on
14:12were just parts of the British Empire.
14:15But he really believed that Singapore was something special.
14:19What he would probably want is to be remembered for human rights
14:24because that was his religion.
14:26That was so important to him.
14:28I have thought if David Marshall did not come on the scene
14:33and we did not have a David Marshall,
14:36what would Singapore have lost?
14:39You see, in politics, you need standard bearers.
14:42We would have conservative politicians, many self-interested.
14:47Then you have the slightly centre-left politicians.
14:51But I think we would have missed considering
14:55what really a liberal model and the strengths of liberal democracy would be.
15:02He represented something that we should aspire to continue to have,
15:07which is that you have a society where,
15:10regardless of your station in life, regardless of who your parents were,
15:14you are able to, by dint of hard work, merit, capability,
15:20you know, luck, rise to the top.
15:26In a sense of service is a good thing.
15:29Follow your values.
15:31Try and serve people in whatever way makes sense.
15:34Don't get lazy.
15:35That's not good for anybody.
15:36Not for you, not for anyone.
15:37Don't do it for the money.
15:39Do it out of a sense of service
15:42and hopefully money will come as a secondary thing.
15:46Those were values that I felt I got from him.
15:48I hope he'll be appreciated.
16:18you