Who said this?
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I don't know if anyone else received this, but an email was sent to me containing an alleged excerpt which reads as follows:-
"Repression, Sir, is a habit that grows. I am told it is like making love - it is always easier the second time! The first time there may be pangs of conscience, a sense of guilt. But once embarked on this course with constant repetition you get more and more brazen in the attack. All you have to do is to dissolve organizations and societies and banish and detain the key political workers in these societies. Then miraculously everything is tranquil on the surface. Then an intimidated press and the government-controlled radio together can regularly sing your praises, and slowly and steadily the people are made to forget the evil things that have already been done, or if these things are referred to again they're conveniently distorted and distorted with impunity, because there will be no opposition to contradict."
I'm trying to confirm the veracity of the allegation made as to the person who spoke these words. If true, it'll be shocking indeed... and very, very sad too... -
Err....isn't that by LKY himself?
Back in the old days, when he trying to free singapore....before he turned evil.... -
If so, the plan was already hatched and vocalised in 1956.
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Dude.........you understand what he is talking about or not?Originally posted by Rexdriver:If so, the plan was already hatched and vocalised in 1956.
LKY was speaking AGAINST undemocratic processes and political repression there......
Which is what makes it so shocking in today's context, because how drastically different he is from before.....
I think he should retire ASAP with a good reputation rather than just making things from bad to worse and finally going the way of Suharto... -
This one is lagi classic...
"If it is not totalitarian to arrest a man and detain him, when you cannot charge him with any offence against any written law - if that is not what we have always cried out against in Fascist states - then what is it?Â… If we are to survive as a free democracy, then we must be prepared, in principle, to concede to our enemies - even those who do not subscribe to our views - as much constitutional rights as you concede yourself." - LKY (opposition leader), 1955.
I tell you, if I was born in those times, he would be my idol and and I would have been prepared to die for PAP.....
But skarlee.....after he is in power, everything changes....
That's the Animal Farm for you....
When the animals chase away the humans, the pigs start to walk on 2 legs and send the horse away to die... -
For general information, some extracts from Singapore Ink
From September to October, the new Chief Minister Lim Yew Hock ordered the arrest of some trade union and civic leaders, putting down a sit-in in two Chinese middle schools, and deregistering three apparent Communist front organisations. In an Assembly session, Lee proposed a motion of “grave concern” over these actions. He deplored the purge as a careful plot hatched with the “colonial masters as fellow conspirators” to “ensure no organized challenge at the next election”.12 He quoted positive Western news reports, insinuating that Lim had ordered the arrests to gain their favour. He warned of the danger of such powers used illegitimately against real or imagined threats:
If it is not totalitarian to arrest a man and detain him when you cannot charge him with any offence against any written law - if that is not what we have always cried out against in fascist states - what is it?Â… If we are to survive as a free democracy, then we must be prepared, in principle, to concede to our enemies - even those who do not subscribe to our views - as much constitutional rights as you concede yourself - LKY (August 1954)Repression, Sir, is a habit that grows. I am told it is like making love - it is always easier the second time! The first time there may be pangs of conscience, a sense of guilt. But once embarked on this course, with constant repetition, you get more and more brazen in the attack and in the scope of the attack.13
Reflecting that “repression is an easy substitute for hard work and organisation”, Lee portrayed the arrests as the beginning of a systematic Labour Front campaign to eliminate rival organisations and societies and detain political opposition. Even if this succeeds, it would ultimately lead to “complacency” and “degeneration”.14 “Indiscriminate suppression” was not the answer:I agree… that if any act is done to overthrow a government by force, that act must be suppressed. But if we say we believe in democracy, if we say that the fabric of democracy is one which allows the free play of ideas, which avoids revolution by violence because revolution by peaceful methods of persuasion is allowed, then, in the name of all the gods that we have in this country, give that free play a chance to work within the constitutional framework. 15
The following month, Lee’s fellow assemblyman Lim Chin Siong was detained along with hundreds of trade unionists and activists for stirring up student riots in late October. Lee moved a motion deploring the detention, done “without, in his view, proper justification”.16
"Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear."
- Harry S Truman (1884 - 1972), August 8, 1950 -
Simply put.....if the Govt at that time acted the same way as LKY is acting nowadays.....singapore would still be very very much a 3rd world country today....and LKY would still be in jail to this day.
So at least it allowed for a democratic process which gave LKY the chance to win elections and turn singapore around....
.....of course, after LKY wins, he couldn't believe the stupidity of David Marshall and as soon as he got enough power, he changed ALL the rules of the game so that he doesn't repeat Labour Front's mistake and that's why until today he still is number 1 man.
Super lao gan....but you gotta hand it to him......and vote against him.....er.....5 yrs later...
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Yeah, I understand. Which is why I said it's shocking and sad. He already knew the formula for authoritarian rule in 1956. Whether he switched alignments subsequently or was insincere at the outset (when he uttered those words) is anybody's guess?Originally posted by Himbo:Dude.........you understand what he is talking about or not?
I'm sure someone must have confronted him with these quotes before. What was his response? -
Sue them?Originally posted by Rexdriver:I'm sure someone must have confronted him with these quotes before. What was his response? -
edited
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Actually, it's really quite clear why people are generally submissive (myself not excluded), it's because of our own ambitions, goals in life, achievements attained and yet to be, financial and family commitments, self-centered interests (business because of money usually - myself not spared from greed
) , and just basically don't want any hassles to disrupt all that is 'cosy' to each and every one of us.
Therefore, we have no one out there (besides CSJ) screaming MURDER about PAP and trying to change the - "singapore world-machine".