Ladies and Gentlemen,
Singapore's lawyers dress in their traditional black suits
pulling formal leather briefcases looking all serious and
hurrying in and out of Singapore courtrooms.
You cannot be faulted if you believed that they were real lawyers.
Sadly, except for their outward appearance,
they are far from lawyers in the real sense. Truly, they are not in
a position to further the interests of their client one bit, except
with the agreement of Lee Kuan Yew and his complaint judges. They are helpless in
furthering the law. They can go through the motions, but truly, the
law is Lee unto himself, through the medium of his willing
judge.
Any red blooded lawyer in this situation would have protested to
high Heaven and demanded that the law should
rule, not Lee Kuan Yew. But not in
Singapore. In Singapore, the lawyers
themselves are terrified of him and therefore their main purpose is
to stay out of prison and earn a living, because to demand that the law be upheld would mean
ruination in every sense of the word.
I had to remain in Singapore for 6
months, 2 of which I spent in prison for writing an article critical of one of his
judges. During the rest of the time, I spent
a great deal of time in court defending myself, where I met many
lawyers going about their work.
One of the lawyers I met, whom I knew from
the days I practiced in Singapore was G. Raman. The meeting with him was short. I asked him
whether he was aware of the abuse of the
legal system by Lee Kuan Yew and what was he
doing about it. He answered me with a question. He asked me
whether I wished that he should lose his
house, meaning of course that if he challenged Lee Kuan Yew, he would be sued and would have to sell his
house to pay him. And then he promptly left, wearing his black suit
and tie and pulling a large bag with many
files in it, looking very intelligent and wise.
Another lawyer I spoke to in court was
Mangalam Amaladass. To
the same question, he had nothing to say, and after that meeting he
never spoke to me again when I met him.
If there is one profession that should be ashamed of themselves, it
is the lawyers. It is they who have intimate knowledge of the law,
the importance of the Constitution, and the
need to uphold it. It is upon their shoulders that lie this burden
by the very fact they are lawyers. And it is very sad to see their
complete abdication of their duty to their calling.
Dr. Chee Soon Juan has to fight his cases
himself because no Singapore lawyer is
prepared to represent him. Chia Ti Lick, solicitor, is one lawyer who is
prepared to do it, and we give him credit for
it. But understandably he too is constrained
from going the full extent of calling a rat a rat. He has to
moderate his arguments, making sure that it will not invite the
wrath of Lee Kuan Yew
which would be the end of his career. So in effect, sadly, someone
who is being persecuted by Lee Kuan Yew in
his courts might feel it best to argue his own case, since there is
no one; not a single lawyer who is
prepared to say it as it should, come what
may, because that is what the duty of a
lawyer really is.
I understand the legal profession in Singapore is shrinking, which shows that many lawyers are
unwilling to continue with this charade. Many are emigrating. New
entrants to the profession are declining. We must applaud those who
take this route. But it is those who stay behind and continue
practicing without protest who must think of what they are doing.
They must examine their conscience. Pretending to be lawyers, going
around dressed in black suits and pulling
bulky files in and out of courtrooms is not enough.
Gopalan Nair
http://singaporedissident.