The first Singaporean admitted to Harvard College,[2] he is known for pioneering fundraising in Southeast Asia[1] and for his involvement in Operation Spectrum in 1987.
In 1987, he was one of 22 persons arrested under Singapore's Internal Security Act, on the grounds that they were members of a clandestine communist-front network.
[11] Detainees under Operation Spectrum were accused by Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs of planning to “subvert the existing social and political system in Singapore through communist united front tactics to establish a communist state.” By the end of 1987, all but one of the detainees had been released, subject to restrictions on their freedom of movement.
Most of the detainees were subsequently released in stages in late 1988 and throughout 1989, after signing statutory declarations (while in custody) recanting earlier allegations.
Chew, in a statement before the Internal Security Act Advisory Board after 12 weeks of detention, declared: “I am a democrat, a believer in an open and democratic polity and in the virtues of an open and accountable government ... A citizen of a democracy, to be worthy of that society, has not just the right, but indeed the duty to participate in the political life of his or her society.”[12] His great-grandfather was the Singaporean immigrant and pioneer Chew Boon Lay, after whom the Boon Lay area of Singapore is named.