Francis Seow swears affidavit in support of
SDP
Singapore Democrats
10 Feb 08
Former Singapore solicitor-general and Law Society president Mr
Francis Seow filed an affidavit in support of the SDP in the
lawsuit against Mr Lee Kuan Yew and son, Mr Lee Hsien Loong.
The Lees sued the Singapore Democrats and its executive members
over an article which the party published drawing parallels between
the NKF scandal and the way the PAP runs Singapore.
The High Court awarded the Lees the case without giving the SDP a
fair trial despite the fact that the defendants had filed their
defence and raised the fact that there were disputes in fact and
law.
The judiciary will now decide how much the Lees have to be paid in
damages in a hearing. Mr Seow filed an affidavit last week as a
witness for the Singapore Democrats. In it, he refuted the claims
made by the Lees that they are worth the amounts they claim (see
below).
Earlier, the SDP and two other defendants Ms Chee Siok Chin and Dr
Chee Soon Juan, filed their Affidavit Evidence in Chief,
stating that the reputations of the Lees have inflated by the
system they control.
Mr Seow has stated that he stands ready to be cross-examined at the
hearing.
Affidavit of Mr Francis Seow
I, Francis T Seow, do hereby make oath and say as follows:
1. I am a witness for the defendants in this suit.
2. I was the former Solicitor-General of Singapore and the
former President of the Law Society of Singapore.
3. As the former Solicitor-General, I have some knowledge of how
the Government works under the Lee Kuan Yew (LKY). From my
interactions with him, there is no doubt that LKY is bent on the
total control of the Singaporean society.
4. The use of the Internal Security Act (ISA) to quarantine and
rehabilitate his political opponents, the wholesale subjugation of
the print and broadcast media, the prohibition of public protests,
and ironically the use of defamation laws have all had one effect:
To silence opposing views in Singapore.
5. I was one of his victims. I was arrested and detained without
trial under the ISA for opposing LKY's ways and his autocratic
policies. My experience under detention is recounted in my book
To Catch A Tartar: A Dissident in Lee Kuan Yew's Prison
published by the prestigious Yale University Southeast Asia
Studies. Pertinently, no one, not even the ever-litigious Lee Kuan
Yew, has challenged the accuracy of what I had related in my
book.
6. During my imprisonment I was told during my interrogators
that they were going to neutralize me and that I should give up my
idea of going into politics:
"So, you think, you can take on and bully the second-generation
leaders? Well, our job is to make sure that you do not succeed. We
are here to neutralize you. You know, to neutralize you! For your
infomatioon, Lee Kuan Yew is running for another term. And you will
be locked up here for at least two years, if not more. So, where
will you be? You can give up all your ideas of going into
politics." (Francis T Seow, To Catch A Tartar: A Dissident in Lee
Kuan Yew's Prison published, Yale University Southeast Asia
Studies, 1994).
7. If the State can treat the country's former solicitor-general
in such a contemptible manner, how much more can it intimidate the
ordinary citizen – such is the persecution of dissenters and
opponents of the PAP Government?
8. When his political opponents and dissidents are persecuted
few would dare join the ranks of the opposition, much less stand
for elections. Given such an arrangement it is no wonder that the
PAP is repeatedly returned to power.
9. When such an undemocratic practice is in place, how does the
plaintiff claim that he is the duly elected leader of Singapore?
And yet, Lee Hsien Loong (LHL) pretends that he operates in a
democracy and claims that his position in the Government is a
mandate given by Singaporeans. He has inherited the system put in
place by his father.
10. The effulgence with which the media speaks of the plaintiff
is not without contrivance. Journalists and editors who have been
critical of LKY and the system he devised have been detained
without trial, and newspapers that have demonstrated an independent
streak have been closed.
11. Legislation has been passed to prohibit news organizations
without Government control from being established. The Singapore
Press Holdings which publishers all of Singapore's newspapers is
chaired by Tony Tan, LKY's protégé and former deputy prime
minister. Dr Tan's predecessor is Lim Kim San, a former cabinet
minister and loyal friend of LKY.
12. With the media in the hands of LKY and those close to him,
it is not possible for a balanced view of LHL to emerge.
13. There is no getting away from the fact that the political
system that the PAP has devised in Singapore is not a democratic
one. In fact the PAP Government thrives on fear. LKY himself
boasted that: "If nobody is afraid of me, I'm
meaningless." (Lee Kuan Yew, The Singapore Story: The Man
and His Ideas,1998).
14. Only those operating within the PAP system will agree that
the system is not designed to inflate the plaintiff's reputation
and to curtail opposing views.
15. Given such a climate of fear and intimidation, there can be
only be praise of the plaintiff. His critics, especially the
prominent ones, have all been silenced. Given such a scenario,
LHL's reputation is based on his own opinion and those of his
minions. This is no way to assess a plaintiff's reputation
especially in a court of law.
16. To obtain a reliable and valid assessment, a broader
spectrum of views and opinions must be sought especially from
persons/groups who are not within the control of the Singapore
Government.
Sworn by me,
Francis T Seow
Before William Francis Galvin
Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
On January 30, 2008
Filed on this 5th day of February 2008
http://www.singaporedemocrat.org/articlenkflawsuit28.html
