Shunmugh Subra Manyam (1912 or 1913 – 4 June 1955) was a Singaporean politician and union leader who served on the Municipal Commission of Singapore and then on the City Council of Singapore, and as the president of the Army Civil Services Union, the Singapore Federation of Services Unions and briefly, the Labour Party of Singapore.
Manyam was a prominent figure in the Army Civil Services Union, being elected its president in 1948 and continuing to serve in that post until he narrowly lost re-election in 1950. He ran for it again in 1951 and lost by a single vote to M. P. D. Nair, with whom he frequently clashed, after which he was elected the vice-president. He was also the head of the Singapore Federation of Services Unions, though he resigned in 1952 after objecting to an agreement accepted by the leaders of its constituent unions.
A founder of the Labour Party, he served briefly as the party's interim secretary before it was officially registered in late 1948. He was initially to contest the Municipal Commission election in December 1949, though he withdrew when it was found that he was not on the electoral register and would thus be disqualified if he followed through. He then broke with the party and joined the Progressive Party in the first half of 1950.
As a Progressive candidate, he won the North Ward seat, considered a Labour Party stronghold, in the 1950 election. His victory was attributed to his influence within the labour movement and the overconfidence of the Labour Party in the ward. On the Municipal Commission, Manyam advocated for increased wages and better working conditions for employees of the Municipality, as well as for the establishment of community centres. However, he often disagreed with other Progressives on the commission, later the City Council, culminating in his resignation from the party in late 1951.
After leaving the Progressives, Manyam briefly attempted to form a party of his own before continuing as an independent. Before the 1953 election, he rejoined the Labour Party at a time when it had already suffered severely from infighting and lost many of its members. He unsuccessfully contested that election as the only official Labour candidate. In January 1955, he was elected the president of the Labour Party, serving in that post until his death several months later. He was the party's last president.
Early life and career Manyam was born in the city of Jaffna in British Ceylon in the early 1910s. He came to Malaya in 1929 as a 13 year old on his own as his parents remained in Jaffna. He first went to Kuala Lumpur, where he took his Senior Cambridge Examinations as a private student, after which he came to Singapore. Manyam spent three years as a teacher. During the Japanese Occupation, which lasted from 1942 to 1945, Manyam made a living as a hawker selling coconut water. After the occupation, he joined the War Department as a Special Grade Clerk, eventually rising to the position of chief clerk at the HQ and Control Accounts Section, which he claimed was the "highest grade" a civilian could attain within the department, by the end of the decade. He was also member of the Panel of the Industrial Court. He later began freelancing as a journalist.
Union work ACSU While at the War Department, Manyam joined the War Department Civil Staff Association. At its first general meeting of 1947, held in March, he was elected to its governing council, under V. K. Nair as president, V. S. Phillips as vice-president and M. P. D. Nair as honorary secretary. He then became a member of the Army Civil Services Union (ACSU). At a general meeting of the ACSU on 20 July 1947, he was elected the union's honorary general secretary, under V. K. Nair as president and Lee Choon Eng and M. P. D. Nair as the vice-presidents. He then viewed the union, which represented 5,000 clerks of the department at the time, as having been formed out of a "dire need for collective bargaining and co-ordinated action" among employees of the department.
Tenure as president By April 1948, he had succeeded V. K. Nair as the ACSU's president. He then proclaimed that the labour movement in Singapore had yet to move "[past] the talking stage because the local authorities [had] chosen to turn a deaf ear to [their] problems." He then felt that a strike called by the ACSU was "long overdue", though they would attempt to obtain the right to strike from the government before doing so. The union then reportedly had about 270 members. At a talk in May, Manyam proclaimed that the reason the local labour movement's progress had thus far been "unsteady" was that the unions had failed to put up a "united front strong enough to effect any substantial improvement", instead relying on the support of the "alien" government.
At the end of May, Manyam announced that the ACSU would be forming a union to represent the over 10,000 manual workers of the War Department, to be known as the Army Industrial Workers' Union. The new union was to operate independently of the ACSU, which would serve as advisers only in an unofficial capacity. Manyam was recognised as its organiser. The union was formed in late July, becoming the first labour union to be established in Singapore following the imposition of the Emergency Regulations in June as part of the Malayan Emergency. He proclaimed that the union was to be "strictly non-Communist" and that it would thus be unaffiliated with the Singapore Federation of Trade Unions. He opined in September that the department actively sought to improve working conditions and was "willing to meet the union half-way."
Manyam and ACSU general secretary P. M. Williams, his brother-in-law, sent a memorandum to the Governor-in-Council, complaining that the War Department had "openly refused" to consult the union on "members vitally concerning the members." The memorandum contained 24 requests, including full recognition of the union and a 36-hour work week. A spokesperson for the Army then responded, stating that the claims made in the memorandum was "absurd" and "factually untrue", and that the Army had previously told the union that "a solution would take a long time." At a meeting on 1 December, Manyam opined that the ACSU was now the "strongest trade union in Malaya" and supported the formation of the union's women's section, of which Wee Kiat Neo was appointed founding chair. On 9 December, the War Department officially responded to the memorandum, stating that it did not recognise the ACSU. Manyam was "puzzled" by this, claiming that the union was already recognised as a trade union in Singapore, and decided to write to the Labour Department, seeking "clarification" on its status.
The ACSU held its conference in early February 1949, at which it was decided that the union should also represent the manual workers of the War Department instead of relegating them to a separate union. Manyam was re-elected the president, S. Sankaran the vice president and Piara Singh the general secretary. Two days after, the ACSU was notified that the War Office had given the local War Department the authority to officially recognise the union. In May, Manyam claimed that he had received letters from members and branches of the union "hinting at strike action" unless the War Department did not quicken in revising salaries. He told the ACSU's members that he hoped that they would "force" the union into a course of action that would "strain the good relations" between the department and the union.
In May, the ACSU served the War Department a one-month notice asking for salary revisions and the introduction of a 60% "cost-of-living allowance". If the department did not meet the demands by the deadline, the union would call a meeting to determine a further course of action. At the start of June, the department agreed to revise the workers' salaries, though Manyam stated that the ACSU was "not satisfied" with the changes. The union found that the pay rises were generally "very low", with certain categories facing cuts instead and others being "entirely neglected." A delegation of three, comprising Manyam, Sankaran and M. K. Nair, met with the Brigadier in Charge of Administration and told him that while the ACSU was prepared to accept the revision, it would only do so "under protest and subject to certain conditions." The Army then agreed to pay $2,000,000 in arrears with the revised salaries and to have the dispute referred to the War Office. Manyam stated that there were no plans then for a mass meeting.
Still unsatisfied with the salary revisions, as well as the lack of "security of service" in the War Department, the ACSU sent a letter to the British Parliament in early July asking that the working conditions of the Imperial Defence Departments be investigated. The threat of calling a 'Mass Protest Meeting' for the union returned. However, by January, "certain factors" had come up that were believed to stand a chance a "[neutralising] the pent-up feelings" of the department's employees, including the arrival of a Civilian Administrative Officer from the United Kingdom who had set up a local office. It was hoped that this officer would "deal with the administration of Army civilians." Manyam later explained that the lack of a mass protest meeting was due to the fact that they "[did] not wish to disrupt or even weaken the programmes" of the War Department as they were "cognisant of [their] responsibilities as citizens", hoping to instead resolve the dispute peacefully.
At the ACSU's Third Annual Delegates Conference in early February, Manyam stood for re-election as president and narrowly lost to V. K. Nair; Manyam had received 49 and Nair 50. In his address, Manyam stated that the Executive Council of the union would have to "guard against the go-easy policy adopted during the past few months in discussing matters relating to the Union." He then told the local press he intended to leave for the United Kingdom to study law soon, though he did not ultimately follow through with this. The Malaya Tribune reported that, under his tenure, membership of the ACSU rose from 270 to either 6,000 or 15,000. He was also credited with having played an important role in bringing the "plight of civilian defence service workers" to the notice of the War Office and the local government.
1951 conference At the 1951 Delegates Conference of the ACSU, held on 18 March and attended by 109 delegates, Manyam, now also a Municipal Commissioner, was one of five candidates nominated to run for president. M. P. D. Nair, also a Municipal Commissioner, announced his withdrawal from the race, stating that he "could not do full justice" to the post of president while serving simultaneously as a commissioner. He was followed in this by D. Stevens and Khng Jit Cheng. However, Manyam charged Nair with "not having the interests of the Union at heart" by withdrawing, and so Nair chose to remain in the race. V. K. Nair then withdrew, leaving the election a straight fight between Manyam and M. P. D. Nair. A letter to the Singapore Standard later remarked that this was because Manyam saw Nair as his "favourite opponent". In the first ballot, Manyam and Nair tied at 54 votes each, with one spoiled vote. In the second ballot, the remaining vote went to Nair, who was named President of the ACSU. Both rounds were a secret ballot. Manyam was instead elected a vice-president, alongside V. K. Nair.