Mr Lee Kuan Yew
Minister Mentor
Dear Mr Lee,
As you grieve over the loss of Mdm Kwa Geok Choo, many Singaporeans
grieve with you. Everytime someone dear to us passes away, the pain
is deep. Losing a loved one is the cruelest act that life can
inflict on us humans.
Even as you mourn the loss of Mdm Kwa, I am certain that you think
of the happier moments that the both of you shared and that you, of
all the people in this world, were the one to have had the pleasure
of spending a lifetime with her. That, at least, is to be
celebrated.
But while you had Mdm Kwa on whom you cultivated your affection,
there were others who were deprived of that very same joy. They
were not separated from their loved ones by that surly grasp of
death, but by political power with which you wielded, and wielded
so ruthlessly and unjustly.
You had Mr Chia Thye Poh locked up for most of his adult life. He
was incarcerated when he was only 25 and regained his freedom only
when he turned 57. Even Nelson Mandela spent less years under
detention. The best years of Mr Chia's life was so inhumanely taken
away. He had a
girlfriend who could not wait for him and who left him when he was
still in prison.
Dr Lim Hock Siew married Dr Beatrice Chia. When I met them
recently, I saw the love - unspoken but abiding - that they had for
each other despite the fact that you had kept them apart for 20
years.
Then there is Mr
Said Zahari whom you also imprisoned for years, 17 years to be
exact. He spoke lovingly of his late wife, Salamah,
whom he adored. She faithfully and lovingly tended home while
waiting for her soulmate to return and to hold her and to talk with
her. She struggled with their four children, running a foodstall to
eke out a living while Said languished in prison. Their children
often had no money to go to school.
To this day, he asks for God's forgiveness for breaking the oath he
made with Salamah to be together when they married each other. When
she died in 2004, his heart must have broken into a thousand
pieces, just like yours is breaking into a thousand pieces.
While you loved your wife, they loved theirs too.
There are scores of others who cannot be reunited with their
families because you have made it so. Ms Tang Fong Har, who was detained in
1987 and who subsequently fled to Hong Kong, has been wanting to
return to Singapore to see her ailing mother. But
she cannot because there is still the threat of her being
re-arrested if she returns.
Others like Mr
Tang Liang Hong are also separated from their families because they
cannot return to Singapore without facing
incarceration.
I, too, have family. My wife wishes for me to return to Taiwan with
her to be with her family. I cannot fulfill that obligation
because you have made it so. I did go to Taiwan
last year, but only to attend my father-in-law's funeral. He had
asked about me before he died but by the time I got to his bedside
after I managed to get the OA's approval to leave the country, he
had lost consciousness. I never got to say goodbye.
It pains me to think that the only time I can be with my wife and
children in Taiwan is when someone in the family dies.
You have taken away much of what I have but despite all that you
have done to me and mine, I bear you no ill-will. As I said to you
during our trial in 2008, you are an intelligent man, I only hope
that you will become a wise one. I meant it then and I mean it now.
Love and the relationships we have with family and friends are what
matter most. Riches and power mean little when those dearest to us
leave us.
I extend to you my deepest sympathies on the demise of Mdm Kwa. I
want to express my condolence in the sincerest manner I know how.
While I commiserate with you on your loss, I would be remiss if I
did not take this opportuinity to tell you, if you don't already know, how much
pain you have inflicted on your political opponents and whose
families you have torn apart, the same kind of pain that you
presently feel.
In the remaining time while you still walk this
earth with us, turn from your ways. Free
yourself from the prison of wealth and power that keeps you from
cherishing that most precious of life's qualities - humanity.
It is still not too
late.
Sincerely,
Chee Soon Juan
http://yoursdp.org/index.php/news/singapore/4213-chee-soon-juan-writes-to-lee-kuan-yew
