Reginald Hugh Hickling

Infobox person
name = Reginald Hugh Hickling

imagesize = 130
caption =
birth_name = Reginald Hugh Hickling
birth_date = 2 August 1920
birth_place = Derby, Derbyshire, East Midlands, England, UK
death_date = Death date and age|2007|2|11|1920|8|2|df=yes
death_place = Malvern, Worcestershire, England, UK
death_cause =
nationality = British
known = Drafting the Malayan Internal Security Act (1960) which is still in force in Malaysia and Singapore
occupation = Lawyer, colonial civil servant, law academic and author
title = Professor
religion =
spouse = Beryl (Bee) Dennett
children =
footnotes =
Professor Reginald Hugh Hickling (2 August 1920 – 11 February 2007), who generally went by the name Hugh Hickling,cite news|last=Hale|first=Robert|title=Illness claims life of lawyer|url=http://www.malverngazette.co.uk/mostpopular.var.1198480.mostviewed.illness_claims_life_of_lawyer.php|publisher="Malvern Gazette"|date=2007-02-16] was a British lawyer, colonial civil servant, law academic and author.

Educated at the University of Nottingham, Hickling joined the Colonial Legal Service and served in a variety of appointments. One of these was the Commissioner of Law Revision of Malaysia, in which capacity he drafted the Internal Security Act 1960 providing for the detention of persons without trial for, among other things, acting in any manner prejudicial to the security of Malaysia. Hickling later said that he did not expect the law to be used against political opponents or those dedicated to non-violent activities; however, he stopped short of calling for its repeal. After retiring as a civil servant, Hickling became a law academic, taking up teaching positions in Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and the United Kingdom, and writing books and law journal articles. Throughout his career he also authored novels and short stories.

Education and early career

The son of Frederick Hickling, a police inspector, and his wife Elsie,cite web|title=The Papers of (Reginald) Hugh Hickling|url=http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0014%2FHICK|publisher=Janus, University of Cambridge|date=October 2001|accessdate=2007-05-08] of Malvern, Worcestershire, England, Hickling was born on 2 August 1920 in Derby, Derbyshire, in the East Midlands, and was educated at Buxton College. He applied to study at the University of Oxford, but was unsuccessful at his interview when he shocked his examiner by rating the poetry of A. E. Housman over that of William Wordsworth. In the end, he went to the University of Nottingham, where he became the youngest student to graduate with a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.). He then joined a law firm as an articled clerk,cite news|title=Professor Hugh Hickling: Lawyer who drafted Malaya's controversial Internal Security Act but later regretted the way it was applied obituary|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/17/db1701.xml|publisher="The Daily Telegraph"|date=2007-04-17] and enrolled for one year of approved academic study at the East Midlands School of Law. [cite book|last=Hickling|first=R.H.|title=Memoir of a Wayward Lawyer|location=Bangi, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia|publisher=Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia|year=2000|isbn=9679424685|pages=56]

During World War II, between 1941 and 1946 Hickling served as an ordinary seaman with the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve on board "HMS La Malouine", a convert|96|ft|m|adj=on French corvette taken over by the British. The ship was part of Convoy PQ-17, carrying war matériel from Britain and the USA to the USSR. PQ-17 sailed in June–July 1942 and suffered the heaviest losses of any Russia-bound convoy, with 25 vessels out of 36 lost to enemy action. On D-Day, he was a sub-lieutenant commanding a Mk IV Landing Craft Tank 1013 with LCT 1018 of the 43rd LCT flotilla, which carried several hundred tons of ammunition to Sword Beach, Normandy.

Hickling married Beryl (Bee) Dennett in 1945, and the following year he resumed his legal career as Deputy Solicitor with the "Evening Standard" in London. However, after the death of their firstborn son, his wife suggested that they move as far as possible from England.

Colonial Legal Service

Hickling joined the Colonial Legal Service, and in 1950 was posted to Sarawak, then a British colony, as assistant attorney general and, as he put it, "cheerfully assisted in the dissolution of Empire". [Hickling, "Memoir of a Wayward Lawyer", p. 23.] In 1954, he spent two months in the sultanate of Brunei to research its constitutional status and to brief colonial officials on its history and traditions before the introduction of a written constitution, and submitted his memorandum on the matter in 1955. [The memorandum appears in cite book|last=McArthur|first=M [alcolm] S [tewart] H [annibal] |coauthors=introduced and annotated by A [nthony] V [incent] M [ichael] Horton|title=Report on Brunei in 1904 (Monographs in International Studies, Southeast Asia Series; no. 74)|location=Athens, Oh.|publisher=Ohio University Center for International Studies, Center for Southeast Asian Studies|year=1987|isbn=0896801357 For a commentary on Hickling's Constitutional Memorandum on Brunei, which also contains biographical information about him, see cite web|last=Hussainmiya|first=B.A|title=Trials and Tribulations of Decolonizing and 'Constitutionalising' Brunei: A Critical Study of R.H. Hickling's 1955 Constitutional Memorandum on Brunei|url=http://www.bruneiresources.com/pdf/nd06_hussinmaya.pdf|publisher=BRUNEIresources.com|accessdate=2007-05-06]

Immediately thereafter, Hickling was transferred to Malaya as its first parliamentary draftsman, and in that capacity he helped to prepare the Malayan (now Malaysian) constitution for that country's independence from Britain in 1957. Subsequently, as Commissioner of Law Revision he drafted the Internal Security Act of 1960, based on the Emergency Ordinance 1948 which had been enacted to provide the British colonial authorities with powers to tackle a communist insurgency. For his contributions to Malaya, Hickling was made a Companion of the Order of the Defender of the Realm (known in Malay as the "Johan Mangku Negara" or JMN) by the Malaysian head of state, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, in 1960. [cite news|title=Colonial architect of Security Act surprised by its longevity|url=http://www.freeanwar.net/news012001/scmp260401.htm|publisher="South China Morning Post" (reproduced on the International Free Anwar Campaign website)|date=2001-04-26]

The Internal Security Act allows persons to be detained without trial for acting in any manner prejudicial to the security of Malaysia or to the maintenance of its essential services or economic life. It is authorized by Article 149 of the Malaysian Constitution, which stipulates that if an Act recites that action has been taken or threatened by any substantial body of persons, whether inside or outside the Federation in respect of certain situations – including organized violence against persons or property, the excitement of disaffection against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong or the government, or the promotion of feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes of the population likely to cause violence – then any provision of that law designed to stop or prevent that action is valid notwithstanding that it is inconsistent with certain articles of the Constitution guaranteeing fundamental liberties. Upon Singapore's independence from Malaysia in 1965, the island republic retained both the Internal Security Act and Article 149 of the Constitution in its statute book. [Singapore Statute|title=Internal Security Act|c
ed=1985; Singapore Constitution|rep=1999.]

According to the "New Straits Times", Hickling later wrote in 1989, "I could not imagine then that the time would come when the power of detention, carefully and deliberately interlocked with Article 149 of the Constitution, would be used against political opponents, welfare workers and others dedicated to nonviolent, peaceful activities." However, he commented that it was not for him to say if the Internal Security Act should be scrapped. "As a lawyer, I'm all for its review but on whether it should be scrapped, I don't know. You've got a multi-racial society [in Malaysia] in which emotions can run high very quickly." [cite news|title=Draconian ISA not intended for politics: Singapore has maintained its own version of the ISA|url=http://www.singapore-window.org/sw01/010418re.htm|publisher=Reuters (reproduced on Singapore Window)|date=2001-04-18] Interviewed on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's radio programme "PM" in April 2001, Hickling agreed with the interviewer, Geoff Thompson, that he supported the law's continued existence and said he was "sorry to say that, in the light of my own experience, I'm inclined to think you couldn't really safely get rid of it at the moment". [cite news|last=Thompson|first=Geoff|title=Malaysia security scare|url=http://www.abc.net.au/pm/stories/s282497.htm|publisher=PM, Australian Broadcasting Corporation|date=2001-04-24] Worldwide terrorist attacks such as 9/11 confirmed his views on the matter.

Hickling later served with the Commonwealth Office in 1964, and as legal adviser to the High Commissioner in Aden and the Federation of South Arabia between 1964 and 1967. He was also Maritime Law Adviser in Thailand (1968–1969), Malaysia (1969), Sri Lanka (1970) and the Yemen Arab Republic (1984 and 1986). His last colonial post was that of attorney general of Gibraltar between 1970 and 1972. [cite news|last=Garcia|first=Joe|title=The Attorney General, the threat, and the pleasure of meeting him again|url=http://www.panorama.gi/archive/031117/updates.htm|publisher="Panorama" Gibraltar|date=?2000|accessdate=2007-05-05]

Academia and later life

After retiring from the civil service, Hickling became a law academic. He was a lecturer at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London (which awarded him a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Law) from 1976 to 1978 and from 1981 to 1982 where he taught Southeast Asian law, and a visiting lecturer at the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law from 1974 to 1976 and again from 1978 to 1980.cite journal|last=Lee|first=Jeth|title=Remembering Reginald Hugh Hickling|url=http://www.singaporelawreview.org/2007/04/remembering-reginald-hugh-hickling/|journal=Juris Illuminae|volume=3|issue=5|publisher=Singapore Law Review|date=2007-04-15] He was also adjunct Professor of Southeast Asian Law at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (National University of Malaysia) in Bangi, Selangor, for six years. [cite web|last=Hussainmiya|first=B.A|title=Trials and Tribulations of Decolonizing and 'Constitutionalising' Brunei: A Critical Study of R.H. Hickling's 1955 Constitutional Memorandum on Brunei|url=http://www.bruneiresources.com/pdf/nd06_hussinmaya.pdf|publisher=BRUNEIresources.com|accessdate=2007-05-06]

He authored books and law journal articles, particularly about public law in Malaysia and Singapore; some of the latter were collected into two works, "Essays in Malaysian Law" (1991) and "Essays in Singapore Law" (1992). In 1995, in recognition of his reputation and standing in the legal profession, he was appointed adjunct professor of law at the Centre of South East Asian Law at Charles Darwin University in Darwin in the Northern Territory, Australia. Until 2006, Hickling continued travelling to the Far East and Australia, delivering lectures, reviewing examination papers and visiting friends, colleagues and students. Despite his many accolades, he lived simply and impressed staff and students with his disarming humility. In addition to his legal writings, Hickling wrote novels and short stories, mostly drawing on his experiences of life in different British colonies. Hickling was appointed a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (CMG) in 1968 and a Queen's Counsel (Gibraltar) in 1970.

Upon his retirement, Hickling chose to settle in Malvern, Worcestershire, because of family connections to the town, and indulged his lifelong passion for the music of Mozart. He died after a short illness on 11 February 2007 in St. Richard's Hospice, Malvern, survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter, and 12 grandchildren.

Works

Autobiographies

*In 1973–1974, while waiting for a Foreign Office posting, Hickling wrote an unpublished personal memoir recalling his time as legal adviser to the High Commissioner in Aden and the Federation of South Arabia between 1964 and 1967. Hickling deposited documents relating to this memoir at the Churchill Archives Centre of Churchill College, University of Cambridge, in 1996, where they may be accessed under the title "The Papers of (Reginald) Hugh Hickling" (reference GBR/0014/HICK).
*cite book|last=Hickling|first=R.H.|title=Memoir of a Wayward Lawyer|location=Bangi, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia|publisher=Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia|year=2000|isbn=9679424685

Non-fiction

Fiction

Notes

References

Further reading

*cite news|title=Author of Malaysia's notorious Internal Security Act died in Britain – report|url=http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/28/asia/AS-OBIT-Malaysia-Security-Law-Author.php|publisher="International Herald Tribune"|date=2007-02-28
*cite news|title=Briton behind the ISA dies|url=http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/2/28/nation/16999129&sec=nation|publisher="The Star"|date=2007-02-28

ee also

*Internal Security Act (Malaysia)
*Internal Security Act (Singapore)

Persondata
NAME = Hickling, Reginald Hugh
ALTERNATIVE NAMES = Hickling, Hugh; Hickling, R. H.
SHORT DESCRIPTION = British lawyer, colonial civil servant, law academic and author
DATE OF BIRTH = 2 August 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH = Derby, Derbyshire, East Midlands, England, United Kingdom
DATE OF DEATH = 11 February 2007
PLACE OF DEATH = Malvern, Worcestershire, England, United Kingdom

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