Originally posted by LazerLordz:
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Original post by MamaRos:
Tis Chee guy has a PERSONAL vendetta against the PAP and he's using
all ways and means to make a mockery out of MMLee and his cohorts.
I don't see Chee's actions are beneficial to Singapore at
all.
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Chee is an activist. Can't you guys get this into your skulls. His
work has no short-term benefit, but don't forget to look around in
the future.
Oh well, to each his own, the freedom of belief. That's something
even beyond the ruling party's ideology. 
It seems that CSJ is taking
politics via the 'activist' route when faced with a
population that has shown apathy as a result of decades of
political disenfranchisement through the purposeful policy
pronounced by LKY with his statement of - 'Filling the stomach and dull the
Minds'.
In such a barren political environment, with a population that is
largely 'dissuaded' from
being actively involved in political matters, can CSJ find any
Singaporean supporters for the SDP - after he was unexpectedly
pushed into the SPD leadership role by the internal politics of the SDP ?
Since Singapore's independence - even as early as during the days
of Self-Rule - Singaporeans have witnessed the use of the Internatl
Security Act towards those that threatened the State; but it was
during the late 1970s and up to the 1990s, that the Internal
Security Act was used to purposefully placed Political Opponents to
the Ruling Party under severe restrictions.
All government agencies were mobilised - from the Tax Department to
the Environment Ministry - to find any smallest possible reason to
pile all the charges to bind up the resources and neutralize anyone
who dare pop up to challenge the State in any organized form.
CSJ's effort is attempting to change the ground rules that were
originally enshrined in the Singapore Constitution - the same
ground rule that LKY had so eloquently fought for the sake of
Singaporeans when he was a young lawyer representing the Trade
Unions persecuted by the Colonial Government.
Whatever that CSJ is doing today is similar to LKY's efforts
confronting the Colonial Government :
Lee Kuan
Yew, once one of the worlds most articulate voices of
freedom, had this to say in 1956 as an opposition member of
Parliament:
But either we believe in
democracy or we do not. If we do, then we must say categorically,
without qualification, that no restraint from any democratic
process, other than by ordinary law of the land, should be allowed.
If you believe in democracy, you must believe in it
unconditionally. If you believe that men should be free, then they
should have the right of free association, of free speech, of free
publication. Then no law should permit those democratic processes
to be set at naught. . .
In a subsequent speech made when Singapore was part of the
Malaysian federation, Lee articulated his feelings about freedom of
the press and media.
Let us get down to fundamentals.
Is this an open or a closed society? Is it a society where men can
preach ideasthe novel, unorthodox, heresies. . . where there is a
constant contest for mens heats and minds on the basis of what is
right, of what is just, or what is in the national interest? Or is
it a closed society where the mass mediathe newspapers, journals,
publications, TV, radio. . . feed mens minds with a constant drone
of sycophantic support for
a particular orthodox philosophy?
Is it not sad that after over 45
years of independence, Singaporeans have lost the Basic Freedom to
Free Political Association, a Free Press and Media, and all we have
is a "sycophantic support
for a particular orthodox philosophy" as pronounced
by the Ruling Party guided by MM LKY ?
