In 1999, SDP CSJ spoke about the Constitutional Rights of
Singaporeans to information and accounting:
http://www.singapore-window.org/sw99/90105csj.htm
Talk by Dr Chee at Raffles Place on 5 January 1999.
(2) Now what I want to say to you today, it's got everything to do
with you, I want to talk to you about your rights, your rights as
citizens of this country. What it means to you. I'm going to do it
in three parts. The first part is to ask what are rights? Then I
want to ask, tell you how the PAP has systematically denied you of
these rights. And thirdly, I want to tell you how important it is
that you not be denied of these rights, not just in very vague
terms but by denying you of these rights, it will affect our
economic prosperity and development for the long term. But most of
all, I want to tell you that not only must we demand our rights, we
must also be mindful of the fact that we are responsible citizens
who want our rights. And what do I mean by being responsible
citizens?
(4) We, human beings, are born with a brain and we need a brain to
think, not only do we need a brain to think we need a brain to
communicate. Communication is what makes us humans. If you take
away our rights to be able to communicate with each other, and by
communications, I just don't mean that the government talks to us
and we listen, I mean the fact that we are able to gather together,
to discuss, to listen, to argue and to be critical. That is
communication. That is all part of our brain, which you cannot,
which no government can take away.
(5) Now all these rights are all embedded in agreements, in written
documents, in Constitutions. December the 10th, 1948, the General
Assembly of the United Nations got together and they signed and
proclaimed the universal declaration of human rights. Singapore was
a signatory to this declaration, quarantees that all citizens in
every country have the rights to freely associate, to speak and to
assemble in a peaceful manner. The Constitution of the Republic of
Singapore and I'll quote you some articles from it: 'Article 14(1)
(a) every citizen of Singapore has the right to freedom of speech
and expression; (b) all citizens of Singapore have the right to
assemble peaceably and without arms; and (c)all citizens of
Singapore have the right to form associations....'
(6) That is quaranteed to us by the Constitution of the Republic of
Singapore. But, of course, the PAP, then goes to Parliament and
they put in clauses to restrict us and passes it as law, saying
that under certain conditions, these rights must be restricted. I
said fair enough. But under what conditions? Those conditions
existed in the 1960s when we were talking about secret societies,
about triads and about communist insurgence. Tell me, today, which
one of you will stand and say that are you communist and you want
to change Singapore and revert back into communism? You don't have
the government coming down on you. Everybody will be laughing at
you. What we want to do is to exert our rights as respectful
civilised citizens of this country.
(9) You have a situation in Singapore where laws are put in place
to make sure none of us can ever gather together so that the
government can always tell you, like what George Yeo did last week
on TV, "Singaporeans are not interested in political freedom,
Singaporeans are not interested in democracy." How does he know? As
long as he can keep you divided, you'll think that others are not
interested, everyone thinks that they are in the minority, no one
can ever gather together and see what the commonality is. You have
a serious problem. Even as I talk about laws, about not breaking
laws, you have a situation whereby the PAP themselves break law.
I'll give you a few examples.
(10) In 1996, the government always says that if it is not during
election times, you cannot put up your party's flags or display
your party's logos without permission. So when our party decided to
put up some banners congratulating Singapore on National Day, the
Public Works Department very promptly came down and removed all our
flags. We went to a neighbouring constituency and we saw the PAP
flags fluttering away. And they tell us that what you need is to
have permits to speak. So we applies for one for the MP of the
constituency to speak to his residents on National Day. They said
no, no permit granted. A few days later, Lim Boon Heng came down to
the SDP's constituency and gave a most public address.
(11) Then you have a situation where the PAP says, "during the
elections, 1unauthorised personnel are not allowed within 200
meters of the polling station." I know, because the Police stopped
me when I was about to walk into one in the constituency that I was
contesting in. They said, 'Dr Chee, you are not allowed to enter
without your identification sticker.' I said I'm sorry. Fair
enough. I went back out and put on my sticker and he allowed me
through. You know what happened? I saw Goh Chok Tong walking out of
a polling station in my constituency, without a sticker, and he was
not even a candidate there. When we brought this up, the
Attorney-General said they cannot be prosecuted because they are
'inside' of the polling station, not outside of it.
(14) If you tell me that I am breaking the law that my Constitution
guarantees me. It doesn't make sense at all. But what are these
rights? How are these rights taken away from you? Those of you who
are here last week, you heard what I said. You heard me talking
about our investments together with the drug lord Lo Hsing Han. Our
government funds, our public funds, are invested together with this
drug lord. Our government is supporting a regime that raped the
women of Burma, murdered its people and does not allow the
democratic elected-government to take power. I talked about the
investment in Suzhou. How much we have lost? More than 30 billion
dollars. I asked a question. Who is responsible for this? Who is
responsible for making the decision? And then I talked about our
government's loan. Goh Chok Tong went over to Indonesia and pledged
10 billion US dollars, 17 Singapore billion dollars, to a corrupt
Suharto regime. You know what the newspaper said? You read it
yourself. Even until today, it refuses to publish a single word.
All it said is that Chee has criticised Singapore's investment in
Myanmar and Suzhou and Singapore's financial aid to
Indonesia.
(15) I never questioned or criticised our financial aid to
Indonesia. You've got to draw this distinction where Singaporeans
donate money to help the Indonesian people. It's very different
when Goh Chok Tong, without consulting Parliament or the people,
takes 17 billion of our money and goes over to pledge into the
Suharto government which has known to be corrupted over and over
again.
(16) Why up until today won't the Straits Times publish this? Why
won't the TCS report any of this? Let the people know because the
people have a right to know. You take away that right, you take
away our citizenship. Do you understand what I'm saying about
rights? If you don't bother with what your rights are today, it's
going to be tremendously difficult from here on now, for us to be
knowledgeable about what happened in our country.
(17) I want to talk to you also, about why these rights will affect
your pockets. When we talk about rights we are not just talking
about ideals that we cannot touch, that we cannot feel. I want you
to think because you are denied of this information, you cannot
hold the government accountable. What happens is that they pass
policies and they keep telling you only one side of the story. You
don't know know to think, you don't know what to think.
Chee Soon Juan
January 5, 1999.