If u think the biggest problems right after SG independence
were
communists,communalists, unemployment,lack of housing,u are
wrong.
......What was the biggest problem he faced when he and his
People's Action Party began to piece Singapore back together in the
1960s? Surprisingly, Lee (Kuan Yew)said it wasn't the economy,
national security nor public schools, but rather the omnipresent,
oppressive, lawless, marauding drug gangs who roamed the streets,
terrorised the citizenry and kept the decent people of Singapore
indoors at night.
The British had largely ignored the gangsters during their reign.
As a result of this debilitating carte blanche, the problem
mushroomed into a living nightmare. Roaming gangs controlled the
streets not only by night but also during the day, and the threat
of being an innocent but dead bystander in a drug gang gun battle
or drive-by was real. It was impossible to build a peaceful society
with that kind of arrant misconduct, insisted Lee.
I (Tom Plate)asked him what he did to combat the gangs.
'We had the army arrest them and put them in jail.'
'So, how did the trials go?' I said, reasonably.
'We didn't have trials,' the senior statesman replied
directly.
'What?!' I tried to seem unruffled but I think I failed. My
Americanness was shining through too obviously.
'You see, Tom, we inherited the British system of justice which
requires the first-person testimony of one gang member to convict
another one. But the gangs would kill off anybody who talked, so
what developed was a revolving door system in which an arrest would
be made and there'd be a trial which hinged on the testimony of a
witness who then would be killed by agents of the indicted
gangsters, and out the door would go the criminals, back onto the
streets.'
'Why couldn't the police protect the witnesses?'
'They weren't strong enough.'
'So what did you do?'
'We let the army round them up and put the gang members in jail,'
Lee said.
'So, where are they today?'
'By and large, they are still in jail.'
'But that's preposterous!'
He looked me in the eye clearly and evenly, and said directly,
without a trace of apology: 'Mr Plate, haven't you noticed? The
streets of Singapore are safe.'
He had me there. Years later, my spunky wife Andrea put this to me:
I want to go away for a week, by myself, without obnoxious you or
pain-in-the-neck child around me. I need a week all to myself.
What, in your view, is the most interesting and safe place for a
woman alone? Easy, I answered, Singapore. She went and mainly loved
it. She went several times again, and again mainly loved the place,
though she has been developing the very strong view that the former
prime minister ought to lighten up a little and let his people
enjoy themselves more. Then the place might be near-perfect.
....
---http://luminosita.livejournal.com/275384.html
by
Tom Plate is a UCLA professor, columnist and regular
contributor to
The South China Morning Post, Mainichi Shimbun, The China Times,
The Korea Times, The Khaleej Times, The Seattle Times, The San
Diego Business Journal, and The Straits Times. A longtime
journalist, he is the founder of the Asia Pacific Media Network,
now called AsiaMedia and Asia Pacific Arts, and of the new UCLA
Media Center. His latest book, Confessions of a Media
Man, is to be published in October by Marshall
Cavendish.
The above articel has appeared in ST.
2.No need to trust LKY 100%.Pl ask your grand/parents now
and
post their answers now.
3.Dunt blame ISA and CRIMINAL LAW (TEMPORARY PROVISIONS) ACT(CHAPTER
67)
We have been protected by the Acts...
4.HK is a good example of organised gangsters.
A series of criminal damages in Hong
Kongshows HK is
deeply disturbed by organised gangsters.
police guarding house of HK richest man,boss of New
World Group
16 buildings of the Group,incl HQ were vandalised.
Security Room was crashed and nearly hurted few secuirity men.
