But during my school time, those foreign lecturers said LKY is good
and capable person, most of them have high respect for him. And the
poor old man is still doing good for Singaporeans, he needs to
travel to Beijing for olympic and tomollo back to Singapore for NDP
celebration. Very hectic, but he loves singapore so much that he is
willing to rush back, National Day is his great moment,
Happy National Day Singaporeans!!!
Long Live LKY!!!, King of Singapore
Try telling that to this chap:
(words of Chia Thia Poh)
“They tried very hard to break prisoners, to extract confessions
from them, to have them confess on television. They made me pay a
very high price for not kowtowing to them.
In 1966 they put me in a dark cell and said some people had gone
insane under such circumstances. Sometimes you could hear people
kicking the doors as if they had gone insane. I went from one
prison to another and was in solitary confinement several times.
Sometimes I was deprived of reading material for months at a
stretch. They said that there's no end to this, that it will go on
year after year if I don't confess, that even if I'm made of steel,
they have means to break me.
I told them that I had nothing to confess, and that if the
government had the evidence it should try me in an open court,
where I could see the evidence against me and defend myself.
There were day-long interrogations in a freezing cold room. They
pressurised my family. But I always thought, no matter how long
they keep me in this way, some day they will have to release me,
because I'm innocent and I have support. It's part of the broad
struggle for democracy all over the world.
When you are in solitary, there is nothing in the cell. But you can
explore, and see faint scribblings from previous prisoners. I still
remember one of them. It was a poem in Chinese:
”Ten years behind bars
Never too late
Thousands of ordeals
My spirit steeled.“
When you were alone and helpless, and you saw things like that, you
were encouraged.”
“The best part of my life was taken away just like that, without
even a charge let alone a trial in the court.”
-Chia Thye Poh 1998
