For some reason Calvin Cheng deleted this post:
"BICENTENNIAL HISTORY TIDBIT
My own thoughts on the post below, regarding the Arabs in Singapore:
Lee Kuan Yew in his memoirs, recounted how he decided to set up the SAF in response to General Syed Mohammed Alsagoff, then the commander of the armed forces in Singapore. The Alsagoffs were the leading Arab clan in Singapore back then.
Alsagoff insisted that his (Malaysian) troops escort LKY from City Hall to Parliament, during the opening of first Parliament of Singapore. Alsagoff then joked he could have had LKY shot and taken over Singapore.
LKY did not find Alsagoff funny and proceeded to not only form the SAF after independence, but also dismantle the vast wealth of the Alsagoffs.
What was once one of the richest families in SE Asia are now a footnote of history, after LKY confiscated their property for a pittance under the Land Acquisition Act, including the whole of Geylang Serai.
You may come across modern day Alsagoffs in Singapore. They were once one of the richest clans in Singapore (Raffles Hotel and the land it sat on was owned by them), and their clansman commanded the troops here.
But they lost it all due to his unfunny joke to LKY 😉"
I am unable to find a citation for Alsagoff's joke (perhaps why Cheng deleted the post) beyond a Quora post by Terence Kenneth John Nunis, who says his "source is direct, not third party".
There is a letter to the New Straits Times from an (ex?) Malaysian soldier claiming that Alsagoff was a big joker so he probably didn't mean anything by his insistence on escorting Lee, but that's about it.
It is true that the Alsagoff family had land bought by the government under the Land Acquisition Act, but this happened to the Arabs in general so it most likely was not targeted retribution.
Here are all Lee's mentions of Alsagoff in From Third World to First:
"When Parliament was due to open in December 1965, four months after our separation from Malaysia, Brigadier Syed Mohamed bin Syed Ahmad Alsagoff, who was in charge of a Malaysian brigade stationed in Singapore, called on me and insisted that his motorcycle outriders escort me to Parliament. Alsagoff was a stout, heavy-built Arab Muslim with a moustache, a Singaporean by birth who had joined the Malayan Armed Forces. To my amazement he acted as if he was the commander-in-chief of the army in Singapore, ready at any time to take over control of the island. At that time the First and Second Singapore Infantry Regiments (1 and 2 SIR) of about 1,000 men each were under Malaysian command. The Malaysian government had placed 700 Malaysians in 1 and 2 SIR, and posted out 300 Singaporean soldiers to various Malaysian units.
I weighed up the situation and concluded that the Tunku wanted to remind us and the foreign diplomats who would be present that Malaysia was still in charge in Singapore. If I told him off for his presumptuousness, Alsagoff would report this back to his superiors in Kuala Lumpur and they would take other steps to show me who wielded real power in Singapore. I decided it was best to acquiesce. So for the ceremonial opening of the first Parliament of the Republic of Singapore, Malaysian army outriders “escorted” me from my office in City Hall to Parliament House...
We had to have a credible force to protect ourselves. I had no fear of the Tunku changing his mind but other powerful Malay leaders, like Syed Ja’afar Albar who so strongly opposed separation that he had resigned as secretarygeneral of UMNO, might persuade Brigadier Alsagoff it was his patriotic duty to reverse separation. The brigadier with his brigade based in Singapore could have captured me and all my ministers without difficulty. So we maintained a quiet, non-challenging posture, while Keng Swee as defence minister worked feverishly to build up some defence capability...
Shortly after separation, at the request of the Malaysian government, we had sent the 2nd battalion SIR to Sabah for Confrontation duties. We wanted to demonstrate our good faith and solidarity with Malaysia even though a formal defence treaty had not been concluded. This left their barracks, Camp Temasek, vacant. We then agreed to a Malaysian proposal that one Malaysian regiment be sent down to Camp Temasek. The 2nd battalion SIR was due to return from its duties in Borneo in February 1966, and arrangements were made at staff level for the Malaysian regiment to withdraw. The Malaysian defence minister requested that instead of reoccupying Camp Temasek, one Singapore battalion should be sent to the Malayan mainland to enable the Malaysian regiment to remain where it was. Keng Swee did not agree. We wanted both our own battalions in Singapore. We believed the Malaysians had changed their minds because they wanted to keep one battalion of Malaysian forces in Singapore to control us.
The Malaysians refused to move out, so the SIR advance party had to live under canvas at Farrer Park. Keng Swee saw me urgently to warn that if our troops were under canvas for too long, with poor facilities for their mess and toilets, there was the risk of a riot or a mutiny. He compared himself to a British general in charge of troops the majority of whom were Italians. The Malaysians could take advantage of this and, through Brigadier Alsagoff, mount a coup. He advised me to move from my home in Oxley Road into the Istana Villa in the Istana domain and to post Gurkha police guards around just in case. For the next few weeks, my family and I stayed there with a company of Gurkhas on standby."
