SDP writes to American Bar Association about conference
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SDP writes to American Bar Association about conference in Singapore
30 August 2007
Mr William H. Neukom
President
American Bar Association
Dear Sir,
I have just come to learn that the American Bar Association, together with Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is organising the World Justice Project's (WJP) International Multidisciplinary Outreach Conference on September 20, 2007, in Singapore.
I note that the Conference is an initiative that “recognizes that the rule of law is an essential foundation for communities of opportunity and equity.” This being the case, it is difficult to understand why the Singapore Government is the co-organiser/co-sponsor of this event.
As I understand, the rule of law is based on at least two principles: One, that the legal order regulates the power of the government and, two, it ensures equality before the law. Neither of these tenets are respected nor practiced by the Singapore Government. Let me elaborate.
Detention without trial
Scores of the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) opponents have been jailed and, according to Amnesty International reports, tortured under the Internal Security Act (ISA) which allows detention without trial. I cite you the three longest serving political prisoners in Singapore.
1. Mr Chia Thye Poh, Member of Parliament with the now-defunct opposition Barisan Sosialis, imprisoned for 32 years from 1966-1998.
2. Dr Lim Hock Siew, medical doctor and leader of the Barisan Sosialis, imprisoned for nearly 20 years from 1963-1982.
3. Mr Said Zahari, Journalist and chairman of the Partai Rakyat, imprisoned for 17 years from 1963-1980.
Dozens more are being held without trial under the ISA today.
In 1987 the president of the Law Society of Singapore (LSS), Mr Francis Seow, who was also the former solicitor-general of Singapore, was detained without trial for 72 days because he had tried to represent some of his fellow lawyers who were under ISA detention. Mr Seow had during his tenure as president of the LSS criticized proposed legislation by the cabinet and wanted the LSS to take a more active role in contributing towards the process of lawmaking. Because of this the Singapore Government banned the LSS from commenting on proposed legislation unless invited.
During his detention, a confession was extracted from Mr Seow that he had colluded with American diplomats to set up an opposition in Singapore. He now resides in exile in Boston.
The use of defamation suits
The PAP has also resorted to using defamation lawsuits to silence its critics. Opposition leader Mr J B Jeyaretnam has been sued repeatedly and ordered to pay costs and damages amounting to more than a million dollars. He was made bankrupt and only recently managed to get himself discharged from his bankruptcy.
Mr Tang Liang Hong, another leading opposition figure was sued and ordered to pay US$3 million of dollars in damages by Mr Lee Kuan Yew and his colleagues. Like Mr Jeyaretnam he too was declared bankrupt when he couldn't pay the amounts and now lives in exile in Australia.
I was sued in 1993 and 2001. To date I have been ordered to pay the Mr Lee Kuan Yew and other PAP leaders US$600,000. I was sued again in 2006 together with my party, the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP). The SDP stands to be made bankrupt and wound up.
In the recent two cases, the courts awarded summary judgment denying the SDP and I of open trials. As a result of these suits, I too have been made bankrupt.
As bankrupts, we are barred from standing for elections. We are also banned from traveling overseas. My passport has been impounded. I was convicted of attempting to leave Singapore in April 2005 to attend the World Movement for Democracy in Istanbul, Turkey. My appeal will be heard next week on 4 September and I fully expect to serve the three-week jail sentence imposed by the trial judge. Since my bankruptcy in 2005 I have made 16 applications to the Singapore Government to attend democracy and human rights conferences overseas. All of them have been rejected.
Because of such defamation cases Singapore's legal system has been repeatedly and strongly condemned by organizations such as the New York City Bar Association, Amnesty International, International Commission of Jurists as well as by legal experts and senior judges across the world.
The media
The entire local media in Singapore is owned and run by the Government. In its latest annual survey, Reporters Without Borders ranked Singapore 146th out of 168 countries, one spot below countries like Somalia and Sudan.
The foreign media have also been sued and/or prosecuted. The Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER) is the latest case. Lee Kuan Yew and his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, sued FEER for publishing an interview it did with me. Because it refused to apologise, the journal was banned in Singapore. Other publications that were targeted over the years include Time, Newsweek, Asiaweek (defunct), Asian Wall Street Journal, International Herald Tribune, Economist, and Bloomberg News, leading the Committee to Protect Journalists to comment:
“State control of the media in Singapore is so complete that few dare to challenge the system and there is no longer much need to arrest or even harass journalists. Even foreign correspondents have learned to be cautious when reporting on Singapore, since the government has frequently hauled the international press into court to face lengthy and expensive libel suits.”
Crushing human rights
Singaporeans are banned from gathering and speaking in public places. When a group of four persons staged a silent protest outside a government building in August 2005, they were met with the riot squad and ordered to disperse. The four protesters then filed a legal action, taking the Minister for Home Affairs and Police Commissioner to court for overstepping their powers (under the law only five or more people gathered in a public place with common intent constitute an illegal assembly). High Court Judge V K Rajah not only dismissed the protesters' application but also warned them that they did not have the right to "picket public institutions" because to do so would be to "question the [institutions'] integrity and cast a slur on their reputation."
The protesters were then ordered to pay the Attorney-General's costs amounting to US$15,000. When they could not afford to do so, the Singapore Courts declared them bankrupt.
My colleagues and I have been repeatedly convicted and imprisoned for "speaking in public without a permit" even though the Minister for Home Affairs openly declared that "The government does not authorise protests and demonstrations of any nature."
There are seven outstanding charges against me and another activist for speaking in public. I have already served five prison terms in the last few years.
During the World Bank-IMF meeting in Singapore in September last year, 12 activists were deported and another 28 who had accreditation with the World Bank were banned from entering the country. One activist, Wilfred D'Costa, general secretary of the Indian Social Action Forum, was even interrogated for several hours before he was deported. The Singapore Government banned all outdoor protests at the meeting.
Practitioners of the Falungong faith have likewise faced these repressive curbs on freedom of speech and assembly in Singapore. Several of them have been, and continue to be, prosecuted for illegal assembly when they gathered in parks to exercise their faiths. Jehovah's Witnesses remain banned.
Homosexuality in Singapore continues to be criminalised and their efforts to hold functions have been repeatedly denied by the Government.
On the academic front, the University of Warwick rejected the Singapore Government's invitation to set up a campus here. The university had written to the Government asking that its students in Singapore campus be exempt from laws limiting freedom of assembly, speech and the press. It also wanted its staff and students not to be punished for making academic-related comments that might be seen "as being outside the boundaries of political debate". The Government turned this down. The Imperial College of London and the London School of Economics had previously also rejected similar invitations from Singapore...
http://singaporedemocrat.org/articleABA.html -
Despite all you said,
the United Nations never questioned singapore on all the above, of did they ever? -
i think the SDP is stupid beyond reason...
it's as if my dad yells at me because i keep throwing a tantrum.. so i get my neighbourhood bully to come talk to my dad..
effing SDP hasn't the slightest clue what DIGNITY is...
running to some other country in order to complain that "we have no free speech" and other things like that.. just because the people can't bring themselves to believe the verbal diarrhoea of CSJ?
what a pathetic idiot...
he is a disgrace to our country.. even more than the MIW
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At least Chee Soon Juan dares to challenge the PAP regime.
This act alone is quite impressive.
How many singaporeans dare to do that?
We all know what happens to those who dares to go against the PAP regime. -
i second that.Originally posted by Poh Ah Pak:At least Chee Soon Juan dares to challenge the PAP regime.
This act alone is quite impressive.
How many singaporeans dare to do that?
We all know what happens to those who dares to go against the PAP regime. -
we shall see....Originally posted by the Bear:i think the SDP is stupid beyond reason...
it's as if my dad yells at me because i keep throwing a tantrum.. so i get my neighbourhood bully to come talk to my dad..
effing SDP hasn't the slightest clue what DIGNITY is...
running to some other country in order to complain that "we have no free speech" and other things like that.. just because the people can't bring themselves to believe the verbal diarrhoea of CSJ?
what a pathetic idiot...
he is a disgrace to our country.. even more than the MIW
interesting.... -
challenge what challenge?
he's going to go make noise, whinging to some judiciary of some other country... like some crybaby crying to some stranger because his parents spanked him...
he's not 'daring' anything.. his disreputation speaks for himself..
remember this: your enemy's enemy may not be your friendOriginally posted by Poh Ah Pak:At least Chee Soon Juan dares to challenge the PAP regime.
This act alone is quite impressive.
How many singaporeans dare to do that?
We all know what happens to those who dares to go against the PAP regime. -
x 3Originally posted by alwaysdisturbed:i second that. -
well.. he's not doing it for himself. if i were him, why would i go through so much suffering for people who don't appreciate it?
he gave up his job, put his future at risk, he poured his entire life into standing up for what he believes in.
that alone i respect la. he could have given up, go to canada, get a proper job etc, and leave the whole mess behind, he could have lived a better life, if he didn't bother about politics. then why isn't he doing so?
i don't believe that his backside itchy, aching for a good kick in the butt...
the least u can do is appreciate people like him. even if u don't agree, give him the respect. -
Francis Seow was/is a faculty of Harvard... CSJ is also of that calibre but he gave that up for this....Originally posted by dumbdumb!:well.. he's not doing it for himself. if i were him, why would i go through so much suffering for people who don't appreciate it?
he gave up his job, put his future at risk, he poured his entire life into standing up for what he believes in.
that alone i respect la. he could have given up, go to canada, get a proper job etc, and leave the whole mess behind, he could have lived a better life, if he didn't bother about politics. then why isn't he doing so?
i don't believe that his backside itchy, aching for a good kick in the butt...
the least u can do is appreciate people like him. even if u don't agree, give him the respect.
There is more to life than money money money... -
CSJ and comrades are perceived as a threat. Otherwise thereÂ’s no reason to bankrupt them.
Those who are not supportive of PAPÂ’s methods of running the country cannot at the same time conclude that CSJ is a loser. HeÂ’s not given the opportunity to prove himself yet. -
if he can't get the support from his country, of course has to look for alternatives.Originally posted by the Bear:challenge what challenge?
he's going to go make noise, whinging to some judiciary of some other country... like some crybaby crying to some stranger because his parents spanked him...
he's not 'daring' anything.. his disreputation speaks for himself..
remember this: your enemy's enemy may not be your friend -
but some people don't agree... they think that he should just give up...
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PM LHL met US President Bush for bond building and every bilateral free trade inked is a death nail on CSJ.
"But suppose it does the unimaginable, the truly ingenious. Suppose it turns things around and proves to the free world that this very condemnable act can lead to greater stability and prosperity for the society. Suppose it proves that dispensing with a major tenet of democracy can actually save democracy from itself.
The truth is that this is already happening. When the Singapore Government confidently tells inquisitive journalists and critics that it is developing a model of governance that is geared specifically to the needs and aspirations of the people, it is in effect showcasing an alternative to the Western model of democracy." -
The absolute power of the PAP is already well known worldwide,which is by the way gained through corruption since the 1960s.
That said,the PAP party enjoy state immunity from the greased hand of the Government. -
Before I read the letter that SDP wrote, I had already had a mindset that our system is seriously wrong in the first place.
I do not read local newspaper or local news cos I know that all the news published are controlled. Either stupid reports on how well the system had been mantained or some stupid news that is unworthy of reporting.
I agree that this system of us need a change. Everything is covered up, who would know the truth?
Do you know that most of the older generations in SG actually hated that person who say one thing and does another? Everyone do not wish to voice out before all fear the wrath that he could bring.
I admire SDP for writing that letter and in hope that someone would actually aid him in his course.
I hunger for change in the system but I am no position to actually challenge the system now.
But who knows, he might become anothe LKY when he actually gain power? I just hope that I will out-lived the lee dynasty and see some light after this reign...
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I admire the fella for his guts and his passion. I do wish him though, a little more wisdom.
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Originally posted by the Bear:
Regretably, I have to used the word that it is 'unfortunate' that you can have PAPa to be your father, whom you think that SDP is complaining to the wider world about - while most of us will be contented to be orphans.
i think the SDP is stupid beyond reason...
it's as if my dad yells at me because i keep throwing a tantrum.. so i get my neighbourhood bully to come talk to my dad..
effing SDP hasn't the slightest clue what DIGNITY is...
running to some other country in order to complain that "we have no free speech" and other things like that.. just because the people can't bring themselves to believe the verbal diarrhoea of CSJ?
what a pathetic idiot...
he is a disgrace to our country.. even more than the MIW
Who do you think a little girl will turn to - after being raped by her step-father - and when her mother and siblings ignored and attempt to cover up the evil that the step-father has done ?
Does the little girl continue to keep silent, when her family will not confront the step-father ?
Is it not obvious that when matters cannot be settled within the Family, outside help is needed despite the embarrassment ?
By your standard, perhaps you will expect the Bosnians to remain continuously silent in the face of the ethnic cleansing on-slaught by the Serbians forces, as the Serbs continuously persecute and annihilate the Bosnians ?
It is time that the Singapore Government and Singaporeans learn that we are living in a larger World Community - and we cannot pick and choose which part of the world standards we wish to allow ourselves to have, as we attempt to engage the wider World Community for our own economic survival.
The Singapore Government and Singaporeans have got to learn that we are part of the World Community, and we are soon to be measured by a common yardstick - in environmental standards, health, education, housing, welfare, creativity in culture, sciences and engineering - and soon we will be meaured by the political standards in the treatment of the Citizens' Human Rights.
As matters stand, ASEAN has decided that as a member of the World Community, the Association cannot be seen as ebing less developed in our values than those whom we are negotiating as Equal Partners.
ASEAN has now decided to form a Human Rights Commission that is in response to the high standards on such issues that are imposed by Others from the First World Countries.
Can Singapore continue to resist such changes in this 21st Century ?
If the MIW and the Singapore Government - that they formed - insist on being dogmatic that it is their God-given Right to perpetually govern Singapore in any way they think fit - [including manipulating all systems to stay in political power], then Singapore will be in for a rude shock, when a day will arrive that the ASEAN Human Rights Commission will take action to correct the inequities and abuses towards the Basic Human Rights that Singaporeans are entitled.
When the DPM-Minister of Home Affairs - Wong Kang Seng - said that ''... Voting is a Privilege and NOT a RIGHT'' and that ''... having the use of a Singapore passport is a privilege and not an entitlement'' - it was already clear that the MIW has changed the game rules that will make the basic structure of Singapore resemble close to North Korea System, while the external facade is close to Westminster complete with a replica of Big Ben. -
I just have this thought,
Imagine singapore parliament without Low Thia Kiang, Sylvia Lim and Chiam See Tong.
What would that singapore be like?
I am sure the majority would be ecstatic and believe their world becomes a better place.
Who will voice the concerns of the People, the lower class, the poor, and the middleclass of HDB owners ?
What I am saying is that we need to give these rare talents of singapore more credit than is given to them. They have a purpose and they took up the responsibility and mission to help singaporeans, at unimaginable expense. So far, the treatment they receive has a lot of room for improvement. Only the people can balance the situation , to give them a little push to propell forward. To develop and help them strengthen and then can we better assess their capability in a fairer way.
Only the People can help them. Only the People.
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Originally posted by Atobe:
Here Here.... Best Argument I've seen in all the forums
Regretably, I have to used the word that it is [b]'unfortunate' that you can have PAPa to be your father, whom you think that SDP is complaining to the wider world about - while most of us will be contented to be orphans.
Who do you think a little girl will turn to - after being raped by her step-father - and when her mother and siblings ignored and attempt to cover up the evil that the step-father has done ?
Does the little girl continue to keep silent, when her family will not confront the step-father ?
Is it not obvious that when matters cannot be settled within the Family, outside help is needed despite the embarrassment ?
By your standard, perhaps you will expect the Bosnians to remain continuously silent in the face of the ethnic cleansing on-slaught by the Serbians forces, as the Serbs continuously persecute and annihilate the Bosnians ?
It is time that the Singapore Government and Singaporeans learn that we are living in a larger World Community - and we cannot pick and choose which part of the world standards we wish to allow ourselves to have, as we attempt to engage the wider World Community for our own economic survival.
The Singapore Government and Singaporeans have got to learn that we are part of the World Community, and we are soon to be measured by a common yardstick - in environmental standards, health, education, housing, welfare, creativity in culture, sciences and engineering - and soon we will be meaured by the political standards in the treatment of the Citizens' Human Rights.
As matters stand, ASEAN has decided that as a member of the World Community, the Association cannot be seen as ebing less developed in our values than those whom we are negotiating as Equal Partners.
ASEAN has now decided to form a Human Rights Commission that is in response to the high standards on such issues that are imposed by Others from the First World Countries.
Can Singapore continue to resist such changes in this 21st Century ?
If the MIW and the Singapore Government - that they formed - insist on being dogmatic that it is their God-given Right to perpetually govern Singapore in any way they think fit - [including manipulating all systems to stay in political power], then Singapore will be in for a rude shock, when a day will arrive that the ASEAN Human Rights Commission will take action to correct the inequities and abuses towards the Basic Human Rights that Singaporeans are entitled.
When the DPM-Minister of Home Affairs - Wong Kang Seng - said that ''... Voting is a Privilege and NOT a RIGHT'' and that ''... having the use of a Singapore passport is a privilege and not an entitlement'' - it was already clear that the MIW has changed the game rules that will make the basic structure of Singapore resemble close to North Korea System, while the external facade is close to Westminster complete with a replica of Big Ben.
[/b]
RESPECT. -
That is just the "normal" standards of most of his replies.... and it shows how high his standards areOriginally posted by maven2:Here Here.... Best Argument I've seen in all the forums
RESPECT.
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PAP is eliminating the competition. So much for democracy
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How else can they charge so much for HDB... and so on...
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HDB also paid high market prices to enbloc old HDB estates.Originally posted by AndrewPKYap:How else can they charge so much for HDB... and so on...