http://yoursdp.org/index.php/news/3-internation…
HRW calls on S’pore govt to drop charges
against Chee
Wednesday, 09 February 2011
Human Rights Watch
Chee Soon Juan Faces Prison for Conviction Violating Free Speech
Rights
The Singaporean government should drop politically motivated
charges brought in 2006 against opposition party leader Dr. Chee
Soon Juan that will lead to a prison term on February 10, 2011, if
he does not pay a fine, Human Rights Watch said today.
Chee faces a prison term of 20 weeks starting February 10 if he
cannot pay fines of S$20,000 (US$15,720) for “making an address in
a public place without a license,” which was upheld by an appeals’
court on January 20. Human Rights Watch said that the convictions
violated Chee’s rights to freedom of expression and assembly.
“The Singaporean government is once again abusing the justice
system and trampling on basic rights to remove an opposition
politician from the political playing field,” said Phil Robertson,
deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The government should
end this persecution of Dr. Chee and show that free speech is not a
dead letter in Singapore.”
Chee, 48, is the secretary-general of the opposition Singapore
Democratic Party (SDP). He was convicted four times, in each case
for speaking in a public area with street vendors for four to five
minutes about upcoming elections ultimately held in May 2006. He
spoke to crowds that observers estimated ranged up to 40 or 50
people. In each instance, Chee encouraged people to purchase copies
of the The New Democrat, the party newspaper, as a way to support
his party. The courts convicted Chee of violating the Public
Entertainments and Meetings Act (PEMA), which provides that “any
person who provides … any public entertainment without a license
under this Act, shall be guilty of an offense and shall be liable
on conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000.”
Chee is currently prohibited under the Singaporean constitution
from serving in Parliament. Section 45 of Singapore’s constitution
states that anyone who “has been convicted of an offence by a court
of law in Singapore … and sentenced to imprisonment for a term of
not less than one year or to a fine of not less than $2,000 and has
not received a free pardon” is not qualified to be a member of
parliament. Political observers believe that national elections for
parliament will be held in the first half of 2011.
For years the government has relied on repressive laws to jail
and bankrupt Chee. Between 1999 and 2006, Chee was arrested four
other times for violating Singapore’s laws restricting public
speech and assembly. In November 2006, he chose imprisonment rather
than pay a S$5,000 fine. In 2002, senior leaders Lee Kuan Yew and
Goh Chok Tong sued Chee for remarks he allegedly made regarding a
loan to Indonesian President Suharto. In February 2006, after Chee
failed to pay the S$500,000 (US$393,000) in court-awarded damages,
he was declared bankrupt, which prohibited him from running in the
2006 elections and from leaving the country.
Other members of the Singapore Democratic Party also have been
fined and jailed, many repeatedly, for speaking without a permit or
for peacefully demonstrating.
Singapore’s human rights record will undergo international
scrutiny in May in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process at
the United Nations Human Rights Council. Singapore’s violations
over many years of the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful
assembly should be prominently raised by governments commenting on
Singapore’s human rights record, Human Rights Watch said.
“If the penalties were not so severe, it would be laughable that
a so-called ‘democratic’ government would actually lock up someone
for giving a speech on a sidewalk and encouraging people to buy
their party’s broadsheet,” Robertson said. “The governments
reviewing Singapore’s record at the Human Rights Council should
highlight cases where Singapore’s oppressive laws make peaceful
speech a criminal offense.”
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/02/08/singapore…
http://www.facebook.com/yoursdp