Throughout my years of participating in opposition politics, there are many people who always ask me about "moles" or "ISD agents" in various opposition parties. Many are "concerned" about these people and such.
My reply to them is pretty standard:
1) Knowing PAP as a "control freak" party which will suppress opposition parties' growth, there will definitely be moles and ISD agents in ALL opposition parties. So if you are afraid of these people, then stay out of opposition politics. This is based on the fact that PAP has built very extensive "intelligence network" in universities (the years of "professional students" in Nantah and University of Singapore aka NUS) in the past and that's how it rules with FEAR in all aspects of Singapore.
2) Granted that we would expect all opposition parties to be infiltrated, it is how we are supposed to deal with them. If they are just listening post, making secret reports back to PAP's controlled intelligence units, so be it. If we can make them MPs, would they want to be "secret agents" anymore? Agents being agents, they are just money face people. They work for money, not loyalty. That is why in history and reality, there will always be "double agents". Thus, it is possible to work with them if you know how to manage them.
3) If I find certain people are out to "sabotage" the working and progress of the opposition parties, they will no longer be regarded as just "listening post agents" but "agent provocateurs" by me. These people will need to be get rid of. How? It will take some time and some skills. In fact, even if we do not know for sure whether they are "ISD agents" or moles or not, as long as these people have obvious actions that aim to hinder or even sabotage the party, they will have to be get rid of.
The most important thing to bear in mind is, always keep yourself alert and NEVER try to do stupid things thinking that nobody will know about it in opposition politics. eg. illegitimate love affairs (actually this applies to PAP people as well because they have also planted agents to keep a look out on their own people!), taking kick backs from party transactions, take funny photos, get drunk and fool around with women etc etc. You may think that you are "lucky" after one or two try and can get away with such hanky panky things but the truth is, they will just keep all these information on you KIV until the RIGHT TIME to use them against you!
Always act in good ways, always be mindful and keep reminding yourself that there will be eyes watching you. Basically, that's what I do and tell people I live like a monk! Only then, you can survive such "dirty political monitoring".
Goh Meng Seng
*The author is a former secretary-general of the NSP.