as a result of the hock lee bus strike
Hock Lee bus riots While the Hock Lee incident has conventionally been portrayed be one of communist subversion, other sources suggest that the students and workers' involvements in the Hock Lee incident were also due to anxieties felt by these two groups as a result of the conditions of colonial society. The Hock Lee bus workers' strikes can also be seen as one of the catalysts for the modernisation of the bus transportation industry in Singapore. The Hock Lee workers' strikes as well as other similar transportation workers' strikes resulted in the nationalisation of the Singapore transportation industry, specifically the Chinese owned bus companies. Shortly after the Hock Lee workers' strikes, the Singapore Traction Company strikes occurred which motivated the Hawkins Report of 1956. The Hawkins Report called for the reformation of the transportation industry in Singapore through a consolidation of the Chinese bus companies.[53] The Hawkins report advocated for a single entity to control transportation.[54] The report was an evident reaction to the operational challenges, poor administration and labour discontent that was evident in many of the bus companies.[55] In 1970, RP Wilson[56] was appointed to look into the reorganisation of public transportation in Singapore which resulted in the establishment of the government-led Singapore Transport Advisory Board in 1970, which sought to not only nationalise the bus companies but also to create a more efficient transportation system.[57] To many of the workers, these strikes helped them to gain a 'Singaporean' consciousness outside of colonialism.[58] The strikes and the workers' sentiments however were quickly put out. Part of Singapore's modernisation project was to expand its tourism sector and an efficient transportation system was important for this growth.[59] This did not leave room for any form of activism that would disrupt Singapore's necessary path towards modernity and economic development.