Madai Puthan Damodaran Nair (12 March 1920 – 15 January 1989), commonly known as M. P. D. Nair, was a Singaporean politician and lawyer who served as the second minister for communications and works from February to March 1959. He represented Seletar Constituency in the Legislative Council from 1952 to 1955 and in the Legislative Assembly from 1955 to 1959.
Born in the British Raj, he came to Singapore after World War II. He was a founder-member of the Labour Party (SLP) in 1948 and contested unsuccessfully in the April 1949 and December 1949 Municipal Commission elections under their banner, before winning South Ward as an SLP candidate at the 1950 Municipal Commission election. During his term as a municipal commissioner (renamed to City Council in 1951), Nair had disputes with the SLP, culminating in his expulsion in April 1952. He went on to contest at the 1952 Seletar by-election as an independent, which he controversially won in a walkover.
At the 1955 general election, he won Seletar in a four-way fight as an independent candidate. He later joined the ruling Labour Front coalition and was appointed as an assistant minister to the chief secretary in 1956, which he served in until 1959. With Lim Yew Hock as the chief minister, Nair joined Lim's new political party, the Singapore People's Alliance (SPA), in 1958. He subsequently succeeded Francis Thomas as the minister for communications and works in the SPA government in February 1959, serving until the end of his term in March. Nair contested at the 1959 general election as an SPA candidate, but was unsuccessful. From 1959 to 1963, Nair studied law in the United Kingdom, being called to the bar in London. He unsuccessfully contested for Jalan Kayu at the 1963 general election under the Singapore Alliance Party's banner, of which the SPA was a member.
Nair then began contesting as an independent candidate, being unsuccessful at the 1966 by-election, the 1967 by-election, and 1968 general election. He later joined the Workers' Party (WP) and contested Jalan Kayu unsuccessfully at the next four general elections (1972, 1976, 1980, and 1984) as a WP candidate. His best performance was at the 1984 general election, where he garnered 48.8% of the vote and was offered a seat as a Non-constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP). However, he rejected the seat as the WP were against the NCMP scheme. He retired from politics prior to the 1988 general election and died the following year.
Early life Nair was born on 12 March 1920 in Cannanoor, Kerala, India, which was then-under British rule. He travelled to Sitiawan, Perak, in the 1930s, before moving to Singapore in the Straits Settlements after World War II. He was educated in India and was an insurance agent. Nair was of Malayalee descent. In Singapore, he worked as a civilian clerk for the Military Police Service. Nair was a founding member of the Army Civil Services' Union (ACSU), a body representing employees within the military civil service, and served as its vice-president in 1947.
Early political involvement
In early 1948, Nair joined fellow unionists M. A. Majid and P. M. Williams to create a political party. Majid wanted to form a new labour party to divide the Malayan Communist Party's hold on the labour movement and planned to obtain the Indian vote in elections. Nair became a founder-member of the Labour Party (SLP), which was established on 1 September 1948. He was later responsible for bringing in Lim Yew Hock, a unionist who had large support from English-speaking workers, in 1949.
In March, he was announced as an SLP candidate ahead of the April 1949 Municipal Commission election, where he was the youngest candidate at 29-years-old. During the election, Nair contested for West Ward against C. F. J. Ess, Gaw Sien Khian, and Phyllis Eu Cheng Li, all of whom were Progressive Party (PP) candidates. His campaign symbol was a vase. He held a rally in Dhoby Ghaut, which saw appearances from SLP campaign organiser Francis Thomas and ACSU president S. S. Manyam, who both spoke in support of Nair. In the results of the election, Nair was unsuccessful and placed fourth with 293 votes, while Ess, Gaw, and Eu were elected as they were the top three with 431, 424, and 403 votes, respectively. Following the election, he was made the honorary general-secretary of the SLP.
In June, he spoke on behalf of the SLP their support of PP president C. C. Tan's plan to create legislature in protest of the White Australia policy. Nair described Australian immigration minister Arthur Calwell's policies as "a mad racialist ideology". In October, the SLP announced Nair as a candidate for the December 1949 Municipal Commission election. During the election, he contested for South Ward against the PP's Duncan Robertson. SLP campaign organiser V. J. Mendis expressed confidence in Nair winning a majority against Robertson. In the results, Nair lost narrowly by 31 votes to Robertson, who gained 654 votes against Nair's 623.
In June 1950, Nair was made one of three SLP vice-presidents. In July, he was announced as an SLP candidate for the upcoming 1950 Municipal Commission election, being planned to contest for South Ward. However, in August, Nair was suspended by the SLP for making disparaging comments about former SLP member Pat Johnson, stating that Johnson left the party after being "nursed" by them to a position of power; Johnson originally announced his intention to leave due to disagreements with the party. Following this decision, a group of SLP members resigned in protest of Nair's suspension, considering it to have been "not constitutional". Nair further defended his actions, stating that he retracted the statement in a private letter to Johnson and criticised the SLP for suspending him while he was overseas in India and thus unable to respond. He then offered the SLP to either withdraw their suspension or accept his resignation.
The SLP discussed the matter at a general council meeting in October, concluding with general secretary Williams announcing their decision to rescind Nair's suspension. The Singapore Free Press reported that SLP supporters in the South Ward – which Nair was contesting for – opposed Nair's candidacy in their ward along with the SLP's decision to retain him, but Williams believed that Nair would see support in the South Ward nonetheless. During the election, he contested for South Ward against the PP's Chan Kum Chee. In his campaign, Nair acknowledged the flooding problem in the area and pledged to work in the interests of labourers. In the results, Nair won South Ward with 1,871 votes, as compared to Chan's 974 votes. He was the only SLP candidate to win a seat that election, with his South Ward win being considered significant by The Straits Times as it was traditionally held by the PP for the past two elections.
Municipal Commission (1950–1953)
As a member of the Municipal Commission, Nair was made a member of its Public Utilities Committee and Service Committee in December 1950. One of his first motions was providing accommodation from the Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT) for employees of the military service, but the motion was postponed after commissioner Ess suggested hearing the SIT's position on it first. In February 1951, he was appointed to a committee by the commission to plan the creation of a Municipal Electricity Department. He also suggested an amendment to a motion introduced by commissioner Robertson, where Nair proposed nationalising the housing board and controlling private construction. However, his amendment did not see support and Robertson's original motion was passed. In March, Nair was elected the SLP's president.
In September, the Municipal Commission was renamed to the City Council, following Singapore being granted city status via royal charter. Municipal commissioners were subsequently known as city councillors. To celebrate the occasion, Nair was among several councillors who were a part of the City Day Celebrations Committee, and, alongside fellow councillor J. M. Jumabhoy, encouraged the Indian community to partake in such celebrations. In February 1952, he faced criticism from SLP legislative councillor C. R. Dasaratha Raj and SLP members V. P. Abdullah and A. D. Edward for comments he made supporting the UMNO–MCA alliance, which recently performed well at the 1952 Kuala Lumpur local elections. Abdullah stated that Nair encouraged Indians to support the UMNO–MCA alliance instead of the Selangor Labour Party or the Independence of Malaya Party. Raj attacked Nair and his statements as "[strengthening] the capitalists and others as opposed to Labour."
In March, Nair was expelled from the SLP for his statements about the UMNO–MCA alliance. It was revealed that, following their win, Nair had congratulated MCA chairman H. S. Lee in a letter. SLP general secretary Williams stated that the SLP considered the alliance "a coalition of capitalistic and feudalistic interests aimed at the destruction of the working class." Of his expulsion, Nair stated in the Singapore Standard that "[he] just couldn't care less" and promised to continue working in the interests on Singapore. In response to his expulsion, some members of the SLP found it to have been unfair, as Nair had not been given a chance to explain his position, along with a group of South Ward voters petitioning for the SLP to reinstate him.
However, in April, Nair said he still represented the SLP on the City Council because he had not been officially notified of his expulsion by the party leader. SLP leader E. V. Davies likewise considered Nair a member, as Davies had not been formally informed of the expulsion. In contrast, general secretary D. Stevens stated that Nair was no longer a member of the party. His expulsion was later officially approved by the new SLP general council that same month. Thus, Nair continued his term as an independent. In July, Nair was a part of a nine-member walkout that protested an amendment to the Labour Ordinance by councillor A. P. Rajah. In his amendment, Rajah stated that the council should be made up of 18 elected through elections, with six additional members elected amongst the councillors. It was criticised as beneficial for the ruling party, as it allowed them six more members to strengthen their majority. Rajah's motion was later passed.
In November, Nair announced his intentions to form a new political party called The Peoples' Congress, which would focus on attaining self-governance for Singapore, a merger of Singapore and the Federation of Malaya, and improving bilateral relations within Southeast Asia. He planned to form the party after the December City Council election. During the December election, he supported independent candidate S. Jaganathan for South Ward and accused SLP candidate Williams of going against the interests of the working class. He later met with councillors V. K. Nair, Lee Choon Eng, and Jaganathan to discuss forming a new labour party. In May 1953, Nair suggested a ban in smoking in theatres to the council's Health Committee; a prior suggestion of his banning smoking in buses saw support.