[3] The mastermind behind the alleged Marxist plot was Tan Wah Piow,[4] a former University of Singapore Students' Union president who had been in de facto exile in London since 1976.
Cheng's role was allegedly to use the Catholic church in Singapore as a "ready cover" to organise the infiltration of disparate groups of influence including the Law Society, the opposition Workers' Party and various student bodies.
"[11] Nevertheless, the People's Action Party (PAP) government maintained its stand that the ex-detainees "were not detained for their political beliefs, but because they had involved themselves in subversive activities which posed a threat to national security.
They were Vincent Cheng Kim Chuan, Teo Soh Lung, Kevin Desmond de Souza, Wong Souk Yee, Tang Lay Lee, Ng Bee Leng, Jenny Chin Lai Ching, Kenneth Tsang Chi Seng, Chung Lai Mei, Mah Lee Lin, Low Yit Leng, Tan Tee Seng, Teresa Lim Li Kok, Tang Fong Har, Chia Boon Tai, Tay Hong Seng and William Yap Hon Ngian.
According to the paper, the conspirators were "hybrid pro-communist types who...augment traditional CPM (Communist Party of Malaya) tactics with new techniques and methods, using the Catholic church and religious organisations.
It also affirmed that "the Catholic Church... must continue its mission of spreading its teachings on matters pertaining to justice as they apply to social, economic and political issues.
On 2 June 1987, a meeting was arranged between Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and Archbishop Gregory Yong as well as nine other Catholic Church representatives who had been cleared by the Internal Security Department.
"[22] In a press conference given immediately after the meeting, Yong said that he accepted the Internal Security Department's evidence against Cheng and was satisfied that the government had nothing against the Catholic Church when they arrested him.
[23] However, two years later in 1989, speaking in court during the defamation suit launched by the government against the Far Eastern Economic Review, Father Joachim Kang gave a different account of the meeting.
One of the Catholic priests who was present at the meeting, Kang said that Lee Kuan Yew was dismissive of Vincent Cheng and the detainees, saying they were "stupid novices" and calling Tan Wah Piow a "simpleton".
[25] Lee criticised them for venturing into the political arena and gave the impression that he considered the priests to be "subversives, Marxists or communists", and mentioned that the government had full rights under the Internal Security Act to arrest them.
He withdrew the most recent issue of The Catholic News which focused on the Church's support for the detainees[27][28][29] and accepted the resignation of the four priests involved with the organisations named in the conspiracy as well as suspended them from their preaching duties.
He also ordered his priests not to mix politics and religion in sermons and shut down the Justice and Peace Commission and the Catholic Centre for Foreign Workers.
Wong Souk Yee spoke of how the drama group, Third Stage, used plays as a tool to portray Singapore's social and political system in an unfavourable light.
[36] Major Asian news publications such as the Far Eastern Economic Review, Asiaweek and The Star followed the affair closely and offered minute analyses, generally taking a critical tone with regard to the actions of Singaporean authorities.
On 4 July 1987, fifty-five members of the United States Congress, among whom were several presidents of Justice Commissions, signed a letter demanding that legal procedures begin or else that the detainees be set free.
[44] In the statement, Teo Soh Lung, Kevin Desmond de Souza, Tang Lay Lee, Ng Bee Leng, William Yap Hon Ngian, Kenneth Tsang Chi Seng, Wong Souk Yee, Chng Suan Tze, and Tang Fong Har said that even though they had hitherto kept a "fearful silence", they decided to release a statement because of "the constant barrage of Government taunts and its public invitation to speak the truth".
[48] Seow was held in detention for 72 days and was released, subject to restrictions on his freedom of movement and association, as a result of pressure by international human rights organisations.
He was later charged and convicted in absentia for tax evasion, having left Singapore to live in exile in the United States where he became a Fellow at the Department of Asian Studies at Harvard University.
[50] In response to the ex-detainees' allegations of ill-treatment, the Ministry of Home Affairs announced on 19 April that a Commission of Inquiry would be held to determine if the Marxist conspiracy was a government fabrication and whether the detainees were assaulted and tortured.
"[52] Ow Chin Hock, Member of Parliament for Leng Kee, revealed later that Singaporeans, notably intellectuals, had "harped on the need to protect detainees' rights".
[55] Minister for Home Affairs S. Jayakumar stated that there was no longer a need to hold a Commission of Inquiry as investigations had showed that the ex-detainees "were not... seeking judicial or legal redress but were acting as political propagandists out to discredit the Government.
[57] See Changes to the law After the re-arrests, four of the detainees – Teo Soh Lung, Kenneth Tsang Chi Seng, Wong Souk Yee and Kevin Desmond de Souza – were issued with one-year detention orders.
They engaged Anthony Lester and Geoffrey Robertson, Queen's Counsels (QC) from the United Kingdom, to apply to the High Court for writs of habeas corpus, a legal action that requires a person under arrest to be brought before a judge to challenge detention lacking sufficient cause or evidence.
[60][61] The Far Eastern Economic Review, a weekly news publication under Dow Jones Inc., was gazetted[further explanation needed] and its circulation restricted as a result of an article about the Marxist conspiracy, "New Light on Detentions", that offended the Singapore government.
In addition, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew commenced a personal action for defamation against the Far Eastern Economic Review, its editor, the reporter, and all those connected with its publication.
Asiaweek, a regional weekly owned by Time Inc., was also gazetted due to its refusal to publish two letters from the government concerning the magazine's cover story on the detentions.
[10] Goh Chok Tong revealed in his interviews for Men in White: The Untold Stories of the PAP[63] that former Minister for National Development S. Dhanabalan left the Cabinet in 1992 because he was not comfortable with the way the government had dealt with the 1987 Marxist conspiracy.
[66] According to Catholic priest Joachim Kang, who was present at the same meeting, Lee also dismissed Vincent Cheng and the others as "stupid novices" and called Tan Wah Piow a "simpleton".
[67] During the protest, Wham also pasted two sheets of A4 paper on an MRT train panel, for which he was charged with vandalism in addition to organising public assemblies without a permit.