NTUC leader and prominent unionist Mahmud Awang dies, aged 93

[SINGAPORE] Mahmud Awang, one of the founders of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), and its first caretaker president, died on Monday.

Awang, who was also a People's Action Party (PAP) MP, was a prominent unionist who laid the foundations for Singapore's pragmatic approach to union issues and helped workers here improve their wages and working conditions.

Born in Kluang, Johor, in 1928, Awang moved here during the Second World War as one of many young men compelled by the Japanese occupying forces to work at their naval school in Sembawang.

He went back to Kluang after the war but returned to Singapore to find work . He then joined the Singapore Traction Company, which ran buses, as a conductor.

It was there that Awang became involved in union work. In 1955, he joined several other workers to lead a five-month strike by the company to protest against low wages.

Following a brief detention the year after by colonial authorities, Awang joined the United Malays National Organisation (Umno) but left in 1959 as he felt party leaders were too chauvinistic towards other races.

But in that time, he earned a reputation for his leadership skills and was elected the president of the Singapore Traction Company Employees' Union in 1958 - a post he was re-elected to for several years.

Awang went on to become president of the Singapore Trade Union Congress (STUC) in 1960. The STUC brought various unions together, but had a rival in the Singapore Association of Trade Unions (Satu), which was rife with communist elements.

Awang and other union leaders decided that the workers had to be united under one flag and made the decision to disband STUC to form NTUC. He helmed it as the caretaker president, before Ho See Beng became the first president.

Where Satu employed a more aggressive approach to union issues by continuing to organise protests and strikes, NTUC and Awang opted for a more pragmatic approach by bringing cases to court.

"NTUC's approach proved successful and caused workers aligned with Satu to switch sides as they saw how continued striking did not improve their working conditions and even threatened their livelihoods," said NTUC on its website.

Not long after, PAP leaders convinced him to stand for election and despite some initial reluctance, he did.

When the MP for Anson, Baharuddin Ariff, died in 1961, Cabinet minister Ahmad Ibrahim approached Awang to stand as a candidate in the constituency. He agreed, and narrowly lost to former chief minister David Marshall by about 500 votes.

In 1963, he again stood for election to the legislative assembly in Kampong Kapor, and won the seat for the PAP. He served as an MP for the next five years, stepping down in 1968.

North West District Mayor and PAP executive director Alex Yam on Monday paid tribute to Awang on Facebook, saying that he was lucky to have learnt from the latter's experience.

Mr Yam was a trade unionist with NTUC for seven years and still serves as Advisor to its United Workers of Petroleum Industries union.

"I was privileged to have met Encik Mahmud on a number of occasions over the years and to have learnt from his vast experience," said Mr Yam.

"He was a first-hand witness to the tumult of our early years and was a key player in ensuring that Singapore stayed non-communist and non-communalist."

THE STRAITS TIMES