In 1999, SDP CSJ spoke about the Constitutional Rights of Singaporeans to information and accounting:
http://www.singapore-window.org/sw99/90105csj.htmTalk by Dr Chee at Raffles Place on 5 January 1999.
(2) Now what I want to say to you today, it's got everything to do with you, I want to talk to you about your rights, your rights as citizens of this country. What it means to you. I'm going to do it in three parts. The first part is to ask what are rights? Then I want to ask, tell you how the PAP has systematically denied you of these rights. And thirdly, I want to tell you how important it is that you not be denied of these rights, not just in very vague terms but by denying you of these rights, it will affect our economic prosperity and development for the long term. But most of all, I want to tell you that not only must we demand our rights, we must also be mindful of the fact that we are responsible citizens who want our rights. And what do I mean by being responsible citizens?
(4) We, human beings, are born with a brain and we need a brain to think, not only do we need a brain to think we need a brain to communicate. Communication is what makes us humans. If you take away our rights to be able to communicate with each other, and by communications, I just don't mean that the government talks to us and we listen, I mean the fact that we are able to gather together, to discuss, to listen, to argue and to be critical. That is communication. That is all part of our brain, which you cannot, which no government can take away.
(5) Now all these rights are all embedded in agreements, in written documents, in Constitutions. December the 10th, 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations got together and they signed and proclaimed the universal declaration of human rights. Singapore was a signatory to this declaration, quarantees that all citizens in every country have the rights to freely associate, to speak and to assemble in a peaceful manner. The Constitution of the Republic of Singapore and I'll quote you some articles from it: 'Article 14(1) (a) every citizen of Singapore has the right to freedom of speech and expression; (b) all citizens of Singapore have the right to assemble peaceably and without arms; and (c)all citizens of Singapore have the right to form associations....'
(6) That is quaranteed to us by the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore. But, of course, the PAP, then goes to Parliament and they put in clauses to restrict us and passes it as law, saying that under certain conditions, these rights must be restricted. I said fair enough. But under what conditions? Those conditions existed in the 1960s when we were talking about secret societies, about triads and about communist insurgence. Tell me, today, which one of you will stand and say that are you communist and you want to change Singapore and revert back into communism? You don't have the government coming down on you. Everybody will be laughing at you. What we want to do is to exert our rights as respectful civilised citizens of this country.
(9) You have a situation in Singapore where laws are put in place to make sure none of us can ever gather together so that the government can always tell you, like what George Yeo did last week on TV, "Singaporeans are not interested in political freedom, Singaporeans are not interested in democracy." How does he know? As long as he can keep you divided, you'll think that others are not interested, everyone thinks that they are in the minority, no one can ever gather together and see what the commonality is. You have a serious problem. Even as I talk about laws, about not breaking laws, you have a situation whereby the PAP themselves break law. I'll give you a few examples.
(10) In 1996, the government always says that if it is not during election times, you cannot put up your party's flags or display your party's logos without permission. So when our party decided to put up some banners congratulating Singapore on National Day, the Public Works Department very promptly came down and removed all our flags. We went to a neighbouring constituency and we saw the PAP flags fluttering away. And they tell us that what you need is to have permits to speak. So we applies for one for the MP of the constituency to speak to his residents on National Day. They said no, no permit granted. A few days later, Lim Boon Heng came down to the SDP's constituency and gave a most public address.
(11) Then you have a situation where the PAP says, "during the elections, 1unauthorised personnel are not allowed within 200 meters of the polling station." I know, because the Police stopped me when I was about to walk into one in the constituency that I was contesting in. They said, 'Dr Chee, you are not allowed to enter without your identification sticker.' I said I'm sorry. Fair enough. I went back out and put on my sticker and he allowed me through. You know what happened? I saw Goh Chok Tong walking out of a polling station in my constituency, without a sticker, and he was not even a candidate there. When we brought this up, the Attorney-General said they cannot be prosecuted because they are 'inside' of the polling station, not outside of it.
(14) If you tell me that I am breaking the law that my Constitution guarantees me. It doesn't make sense at all. But what are these rights? How are these rights taken away from you? Those of you who are here last week, you heard what I said. You heard me talking about our investments together with the drug lord Lo Hsing Han. Our government funds, our public funds, are invested together with this drug lord. Our government is supporting a regime that raped the women of Burma, murdered its people and does not allow the democratic elected-government to take power. I talked about the investment in Suzhou. How much we have lost? More than 30 billion dollars. I asked a question. Who is responsible for this? Who is responsible for making the decision? And then I talked about our government's loan. Goh Chok Tong went over to Indonesia and pledged 10 billion US dollars, 17 Singapore billion dollars, to a corrupt Suharto regime. You know what the newspaper said? You read it yourself. Even until today, it refuses to publish a single word. All it said is that Chee has criticised Singapore's investment in Myanmar and Suzhou and Singapore's financial aid to Indonesia.
(15)
I never questioned or criticised our financial aid to Indonesia. You've got to draw this distinction where Singaporeans donate money to help the Indonesian people. It's very different when Goh Chok Tong, without consulting Parliament or the people, takes 17 billion of our money and goes over to pledge into the Suharto government which has known to be corrupted over and over again.(16) Why up until today won't the Straits Times publish this? Why won't the TCS report any of this? Let the people know because the people have a right to know. You take away that right, you take away our citizenship. Do you understand what I'm saying about rights? If you don't bother with what your rights are today, it's going to be tremendously difficult from here on now, for us to be knowledgeable about what happened in our country.
(17) I want to talk to you also, about why these rights will affect your pockets. When we talk about rights we are not just talking about ideals that we cannot touch, that we cannot feel. I want you to think because you are denied of this information, you cannot hold the government accountable. What happens is that they pass policies and they keep telling you only one side of the story. You don't know know to think, you don't know what to think.
Chee Soon Juan
January 5, 1999.