SDP writes to American Bar Association about conference
in Singapore
30 August 2007
Mr William H. Neukom
President
American Bar Association
Dear Sir,
I have just come to learn that the American Bar Association,
together with Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is
organising the World Justice Project's (WJP) International
Multidisciplinary Outreach Conference on September 20, 2007, in
Singapore.
I note that the Conference is an initiative that recognizes that
the rule of law is an essential foundation for communities of
opportunity and equity. This being the case, it is difficult to
understand why the Singapore Government is the
co-organiser/co-sponsor of this event.
As I understand, the rule of law is based on at least two
principles: One, that the legal order regulates the power of the
government and, two, it ensures equality before the law. Neither of
these tenets are respected nor practiced by the Singapore
Government. Let me elaborate.
Detention without trial
Scores of the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) opponents have
been jailed and, according to Amnesty International reports,
tortured under the Internal Security Act (ISA) which allows
detention without trial. I cite you the three longest serving
political prisoners in Singapore.
1. Mr Chia Thye Poh, Member of Parliament with the now-defunct
opposition Barisan Sosialis, imprisoned for 32 years from
1966-1998.
2. Dr Lim Hock Siew, medical doctor and leader of the Barisan
Sosialis, imprisoned for nearly 20 years from 1963-1982.
3. Mr Said Zahari, Journalist and chairman of the Partai Rakyat,
imprisoned for 17 years from 1963-1980.
Dozens more are being held without trial under the ISA today.
In 1987 the president of the Law Society of Singapore (LSS), Mr
Francis Seow, who was also the former solicitor-general of
Singapore, was detained without trial for 72 days because he had
tried to represent some of his fellow lawyers who were under ISA
detention. Mr Seow had during his tenure as president of the LSS
criticized proposed legislation by the cabinet and wanted the LSS
to take a more active role in contributing towards the process of
lawmaking. Because of this the Singapore Government banned the LSS
from commenting on proposed legislation unless invited.
During his detention, a confession was extracted from Mr Seow that
he had colluded with American diplomats to set up an opposition in
Singapore. He now resides in exile in Boston.
The use of defamation suits
The PAP has also resorted to using defamation lawsuits to silence
its critics. Opposition leader Mr J B Jeyaretnam has been sued
repeatedly and ordered to pay costs and damages amounting to more
than a million dollars. He was made bankrupt and only recently
managed to get himself discharged from his bankruptcy.
Mr Tang Liang Hong, another leading opposition figure was sued and
ordered to pay US$3 million of dollars in damages by Mr Lee Kuan
Yew and his colleagues. Like Mr Jeyaretnam he too was declared
bankrupt when he couldn't pay the amounts and now lives in exile in
Australia.
I was sued in 1993 and 2001. To date I have been ordered to pay the
Mr Lee Kuan Yew and other PAP leaders US$600,000. I was sued again
in 2006 together with my party, the Singapore Democratic Party
(SDP). The SDP stands to be made bankrupt and wound up.
In the recent two cases, the courts awarded summary judgment
denying the SDP and I of open trials. As a result of these suits, I
too have been made bankrupt.
As bankrupts, we are barred from standing for elections. We are
also banned from traveling overseas. My passport has been
impounded. I was convicted of attempting to leave Singapore in
April 2005 to attend the World Movement for Democracy in Istanbul,
Turkey. My appeal will be heard next week on 4 September and I
fully expect to serve the three-week jail sentence imposed by the
trial judge. Since my bankruptcy in 2005 I have made 16
applications to the Singapore Government to attend democracy and
human rights conferences overseas. All of them have been
rejected.
Because of such defamation cases Singapore's legal system has been
repeatedly and strongly condemned by organizations such as the New
York City Bar Association, Amnesty International, International
Commission of Jurists as well as by legal experts and senior judges
across the world.
The media
The entire local media in Singapore is owned and run by the
Government. In its latest annual survey, Reporters Without Borders
ranked Singapore 146th out of 168 countries, one spot below
countries like Somalia and Sudan.
The foreign media have also been sued and/or prosecuted. The Far
Eastern Economic Review (FEER) is the latest case. Lee Kuan Yew and
his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, sued FEER for publishing
an interview it did with me. Because it refused to apologise, the
journal was banned in Singapore. Other publications that were
targeted over the years include Time, Newsweek, Asiaweek (defunct),
Asian Wall Street Journal, International Herald Tribune, Economist,
and Bloomberg News, leading the Committee to Protect Journalists to
comment:
State control of the media in Singapore is so complete that few
dare to challenge the system and there is no longer much need to
arrest or even harass journalists. Even foreign correspondents have
learned to be cautious when reporting on Singapore, since the
government has frequently hauled the international press into court
to face lengthy and expensive libel suits.
Crushing human rights
Singaporeans are banned from gathering and speaking in public
places. When a group of four persons staged a silent protest
outside a government building in August 2005, they were met with
the riot squad and ordered to disperse. The four protesters then
filed a legal action, taking the Minister for Home Affairs and
Police Commissioner to court for overstepping their powers (under
the law only five or more people gathered in a public place with
common intent constitute an illegal assembly). High Court Judge V K
Rajah not only dismissed the protesters' application but also
warned them that they did not have the right to "picket public
institutions" because to do so would be to "question the
[institutions'] integrity and cast a slur on their
reputation."
The protesters were then ordered to pay the Attorney-General's
costs amounting to US$15,000. When they could not afford to do so,
the Singapore Courts declared them bankrupt.
My colleagues and I have been repeatedly convicted and imprisoned
for "speaking in public without a permit" even though the Minister
for Home Affairs openly declared that "The government does not
authorise protests and demonstrations of any nature."
There are seven outstanding charges against me and another activist
for speaking in public. I have already served five prison terms in
the last few years.
During the World Bank-IMF meeting in Singapore in September last
year, 12 activists were deported and another 28 who had
accreditation with the World Bank were banned from entering the
country. One activist, Wilfred D'Costa, general secretary of the
Indian Social Action Forum, was even interrogated for several hours
before he was deported. The Singapore Government banned all outdoor
protests at the meeting.
Practitioners of the Falungong faith have likewise faced these
repressive curbs on freedom of speech and assembly in Singapore.
Several of them have been, and continue to be, prosecuted for
illegal assembly when they gathered in parks to exercise their
faiths. Jehovah's Witnesses remain banned.
Homosexuality in Singapore continues to be criminalised and their
efforts to hold functions have been repeatedly denied by the
Government.
On the academic front, the University of Warwick rejected the
Singapore Government's invitation to set up a campus here. The
university had written to the Government asking that its students
in Singapore campus be exempt from laws limiting freedom of
assembly, speech and the press. It also wanted its staff and
students not to be punished for making academic-related comments
that might be seen "as being outside the boundaries of political
debate". The Government turned this down. The Imperial College of
London and the London School of Economics had previously also
rejected similar invitations from Singapore...
http://singaporedemocrat.org/articleABA.html
