Open letter from J B Jeyaretnam to PM
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Open letter from J B Jeyaretnam to PM
22 September 2004
OPEN LETTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER
I decided to wait until you got over the intoxication of your appointment as Prime Minister and the media ovation following your National Day speech before I wrote to you.
In your speech you tried to make yourself out as a harbinger of change in contrast from your father and Mr Goh Chok Tong. But what is the change that you hold out for our people?
In your marathon speech you have not shown that you understand how changes are brought about in a society and who are the vehicles of change. Change must come from and must be made by the people. You do not seem to understand that the changes must come from the people and not imposed on them from above. If our people are to bring about the changes, then it must be made very clear to you that they must be freed from any fear that any action by them to bring about change will be met with incarceration, loss of civil rights, financial or material loss to them.
In your speech you do not show that you understand this. What steps will you take to remove this fear from the minds of our citizens? The biggest fear is that one may be arrested at 2 a.m. in the morning, blindfolded and taken to a detention centre and denied all access to the courts. What is your plan to remove this fear? Please do not tell us that this fear exists only in my mind or other political activists out to make trouble. This fear will exist as long as this power of detention without trial exists. That must be plain to anyone.
No number of assurances by your ministers that this power will not be abused is good enough unless at the same time you put in place checks to prevent any abuse of that power. What plans have you got in mind to prevent an abuse of this power? David Marshall, after he took over from the British, introduced a check on the exercise of this power but the moment your father took over from him, that check was abolished.
What steps have you in mind to permit our citizens to elect their representatives to Parliament without any fear or compulsion? That is the only way the electorate can bring about any change.
Elections in Singapore are neither free nor fair. What steps have you got in mind to bring about a more transparent free and fair elections and that elections cease to be a government show?
What steps have you got in mind to ensure that the Rule of Law is strictly applied from the President down to the lowest member of society?
The Rule of Law is the bedrock of citizens to sleep soundly knowing that they will not be punished in any way if they have not committed any act punishable in a court of law.
Your speech is completely silent on all these - the essentials for any change in society.
Nor have you said any said anything in your speech, going by what has been reported, what change you propose in the lives of:
1. the thousands of Singaporeans who are dependent on welfare agencies for their daily sustenance;
2. our citizens who are struggling to provide for themselves and their families the basic amenities of life;
3. Singaporeans and particularly the elderly who find the cost of medical care very prohibitive and resort to suicide;
4. Singaporeans who are too old to work and have no income to maintain themselves;
5. our workers who have been reduced to the position of serfs in the Middle Ages without any rights and dependent entirely on the employers' goodwill. These classes form the majority in our society and you have nothing to say to them.
6. Have you any plans to end the great disparity in income in our society with ministers earning a million dollars or more every year while there are still numbers in our society earning less than $7,000 a year? Have you any plans to bring down the cost of living to our citizens earning less than $18,000 a year?
Unless you tell us what you intend to do about these problems that I have addressed, I am afraid your speech will go down as pure rhetoric, mere sound and fury signifying nothing.
Even the cosmetic changes that you announced were further refined a few days later to remove the hope of any real change. Freedom of speech cannot be confined within walls. It must be free like the wind to blow where it will.
I do not know whether you will reply to this letter but I can assure you many Singaporeans will be waiting to hear your response.
J B Jeyaretnam
Chairman
Open Singapore Centre
7 Sept 2004 -
Is it better for JBJ to let go of the past and move on ? Retire from politics and let the public decide who's right and who's wrong.
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we all make our own choices, and i respect his though i do not like the way he's been getting himself suedOriginally posted by paperchicken:Is it better for JBJ to let go of the past and move on ? Retire from politics and let the public decide who's right and who's wrong.
since we're not speaking up for ourselves, why not let others speak for us
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Why JBJ did not send the letter to MM instead ?
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Tien Sze Ti Li Ren Her - in everything there is a timing.
JBJ suggestions seem to be becoming more and more reasonable as time goes by.
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For the first time , I seen a well reasoned JBJ.
Damn where did I put my lottery ticket. -
where did u get the letter?
didn't see it in our propaganda filled straits times..
You think MM Lee will bother to reply to this letter?
hahaahahaahha, MM Lee is not really that "flexible" as you all think..
PM Lee is younger and more flexible..
And btw, it's such a waste JBJ gave up his PAP job years ago and disagreed with LKY. -
I only can say is my biggest fear is kidnapped at 2am by insurgents and ended up blindfolded infront of a recording camcorder with a black flag behind me......that is my biggest fear.........
If money is what 'they' want, i have not much to give them.....kakakakakaaa...i will try to save in other countries......if they force me to do so.......one day, if our road is too congested, i will buy car elsewhere.....BUT....i must confess truthfully that my heart is with Singapore...hahaha -
Originally posted by SibeiSuayKia:
The letter is taken from the think centre
where did u get the letter?
didn't see it in our propaganda filled straits times..
You think MM Lee will bother to reply to this letter?
hahaahahaahha, MM Lee is not really that "flexible" as you all think..
PM Lee is younger and more flexible..
[b]
And btw, it's such a waste JBJ gave up his PAP job years ago and disagreed with LKY. [/b]
http://www.thinkcentre.org/index.cfm -
Seems like a well penned letter. However, i believe that it is never in any ruling parties' interest to have a "fair" election. Any party in power will do anything they can to stay in power. It is for the opposition and citizens to ensure it is fair. How possible that is, is another question.
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The letter is really nice and sweet. I like the points he brought up but then again, I really do not think that anyone is going to reply to this letter. None of the issues raised will be addressed, that is for sure.
I'm not pointing fingers nor am I taking sides, but if you were in power, would you address these issues? -
He made some good points, but none, I think cannot be quite easily answered.
A few statements were vague ... 'change must come from the people' .. what is he referring to? What does he want changed? The ISA? I don't think the people want that changed! If it wasn't for the ISA, we wouldn't have caught the JI members!
What does he mean we don't have fair and free elections?
Low and Chiam cheated their way into parliament too?
I think Singaporeans are not dumb. If an opposition member makes sense, he will get voted in. He should know, he got in.
But as he found out - it's hard to stay in if one makes libellous statements.
He is the one creditted for introducing "Today in Parliament" so that we could see what goes on in parliament. It was a good idea. But it showed him making some silly comments. The one that strcuk me most was the one where he went on and on about some surcharge.
After his questioning, the minister responsible responded by stating, in one line, that no surcharge existed. Man ... that incident made him look quite bad.
No Govt and country is perfect. Sure we need change. I think that's what everyone in parliament is trying to do, both the majority as well as the NMPs and the opposition. -
Originally posted by paperchicken:
When shd ordinary citizens be afraid if they have done nothing wrong ? The law protects the ppl from dangerous elements of the society. The ISD shd remain.
Open letter from J B Jeyaretnam to PM
22 September 2004
OPEN LETTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER
In your speech you do not show that you understand this. What steps will you take to remove this fear from the minds of our citizens? The biggest fear is that one may be arrested at 2 a.m. in the morning, blindfolded and taken to a detention centre and denied all access to the courts. What is your plan to remove this fear? Please do not tell us that this fear exists only in my mind or other political activists out to make trouble. This fear will exist as long as this power of detention without trial exists. That must be plain to anyone.
No number of assurances by your ministers that this power will not be abused is good enough unless at the same time you put in place checks to prevent any abuse of that power. What plans have you got in mind to prevent an abuse of this power? David Marshall, after he took over from the British, introduced a check on the exercise of this power but the moment your father took over from him, that check was abolished.
[/b] -
JBJ did not ask for the ISA to be removed, he asked for checks to be in place to prevent abuse of the system.Originally posted by sgsentinel:When shd ordinary citizens be afraid if they have done nothing wrong ? The law protects the ppl from dangerous elements of the society. The ISD shd remain. -
i hope he can last longer. basically singapore need more of his kind to really know what freedom is. but hey, doesnt singaporean like to be lead by the nose? most if not all.
good work JBJ. i hope u strike consecutive big sweep first prize to get ready to pay registration fees for next election. -
Why do people want to "serve" us and the nation? . I refuse to believe that our political leaders are serving us truly for altruistic reasons. If this was done so, the opposition would not be writing such letters.
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How come WP never help JBJ raise money to help him discharge from bankruptacy ?
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I thought u r a PAPist. Shouldn't u know better?Originally posted by sgsentinel:How come WP never help JBJ raise money to help him discharge from bankruptacy ? -
Because our OB Markers are poorly defined, there is no one definition of libel in Singapore. Basically, all you need for a defamation suit is for the minister to have a bad hair day on the day when you try voicing out a criticism.Originally posted by Bamboozler:He made some good points, but none, I think cannot be quite easily answered.
A few statements were vague ... 'change must come from the people' .. what is he referring to? What does he want changed? The ISA? I don't think the people want that changed! If it wasn't for the ISA, we wouldn't have caught the JI members!
What does he mean we don't have fair and free elections?
Low and Chiam cheated their way into parliament too?
I think Singaporeans are not dumb. If an opposition member makes sense, he will get voted in. He should know, he got in.
But as he found out - it's hard to stay in if one makes libellous statements.
He is the one creditted for introducing "Today in Parliament" so that we could see what goes on in parliament. It was a good idea. But it showed him making some silly comments. The one that strcuk me most was the one where he went on and on about some surcharge.
After his questioning, the minister responsible responded by stating, in one line, that no surcharge existed. Man ... that incident made him look quite bad.
No Govt and country is perfect. Sure we need change. I think that's what everyone in parliament is trying to do, both the majority as well as the NMPs and the opposition.
We don't have fair and free elections means that there are far too many walkovers in elections, and it is pretty dictatorial for the govt to claim victories in walkover constituencies since, after all, the people in those places did not vote for them. Elections are also unfair because the agency in charge of Elections is a department of the govt, which means that it is open to (c)overt manipulation, which damages the Integrity of our "democratic" system. One last point: Gerrymandering is very prevalent down here; Constituencies change boundaries at teh whim and fancy of the government, and this confuses voters, as well as candidates (not from the Ruling Party) as they can no longer recognize which constituency they are contesting for. I suspect that results in the invalid applications the opposiiton is constantly accused of. Also, the government seems to enjoy snap polls, which gives it an unfair advantage in elections since only THEY know the timetable. ANd I believe, that is also what got UMNO pissed with su in 1963. And to think our history textbooks are still praising that move as "shrewd and clever"! *sigh*
As for the ISA, the reason why it must be changed is because it is far too vague and gives the police and law enforcement officials too many sweeping powers to arrest people. It goes back to that same question: what defines "national" in "national security"? Sometimes, one can really wonder if it merely refers tot eh security of the govt's power.
the pikamaster -
"THE ONLY THING NECESSARY FOR EVIL TO
FLOURISH IS FOR GOOD MEN TO DO NOTHING"
EDMUND BURKE