Singapore Opposition leader again defies speech ban
SENSITIVE
Singapore Opposition leader again defies speech ban
BARRY PORTER in Singapore
An opposition party leader already facing trial for
speaking without a police permit defied restrictions for
a second time, drawing a larger crowd yesterday to
hear a wide-ranging attack on the Government's
performance.
Chee Soon Juan pledged to continue his public
campaign for greater democracy and transparency
even if court fines disqualified him from running for
Parliament.
He says official harassment has blocked all other
avenues for presenting his platform.
A crowd of more than 600 gathered in the Raffles
Place business district to hear the Singapore
Democratic Party leader - more than twice the
number he drew for his inaugural speech at the same
spot a week ago.
"Being convicted is the least of my worries. I want to
work towards democracy," the 36-year-old US-trained
neuropsychologist told his quiet and polite lunchtime
audience.
In his 45-minute speech, he read out chunks of
Singapore's constitution, accused the Government of
censorship and torturing political prisoners, and
criticised the excessive cost of public housing and
vehicle permits.
He claimed victims of last year's Silk Air plane crash
were being short-changed compared to those of the
China Airlines jet which crashed soon afterwards in
Taipei.
He said factory workers made redundant by
state-linked technology firm Micropolis in Thailand got
more compensation than those in Singapore.
And he said state-run enterprises were stifling
competition.
He also repeated his accusations of questionable
government investments in, and aid to, Burma, China
and Indonesia.
Before he began speaking, two senior police officers
reminded him he would be breaking the law.
As his speech drew to a close, Chee was approached
by the police a second time and asked to visit the
Central Police Station at 5pm for questioning. He
refused.
Superintendent Low Hui Hui said he would not be
arrested if he failed to surrender himself, but "we will
still investigate the case according to the law".
Chee said: "They are going to continue to charge me
in court and I will just have to take it as it comes."
He
feared detention without trial under the Internal
Security Act.
He has written a book about dissident Chia Thye Poh,
who was held for 23 years without trial under the act,
then subjected to nine years of restrictions on public
speaking, publishing, and meeting groups of people.
The final restrictions on him were lifted in November.
As for losing his right to stand for Parliament, Chee
said elections were meaningless without democracy.
Chee announced he hoped to speak next Tuesday in
the grounds of the National University of Singapore.
Wednesday January 6 1999
Singapore Public apathy feared, not arrest
BARRY PORTER
Chee Soon Juan confesses he has been scared - not
of being arrested for making illegal political speeches,
but that no one will come to hear him.
Singaporeans have shown little interest in political
opposition for decades, repeatedly voting
overwhelmingly for Lee Kwan Yew's People's Action
Party (PAP) for the past 38 years.
Opposition parties failed to win a seat in the general
election held in late 1996.
So when 250 people turned up to hear the youthful
Singapore Democratic Party leader defy police
warnings and attack the PAP's authoritarian style of
government last Tuesday, he breathed a sigh of relief.
And when more than 600 turned up yesterday, he told
them: "I was wrong . . . I don't think Singaporeans are
apathetic."
Nevertheless, political analysts are sceptical of
Chee's chances of instigating a mass popular reform
movement.
Bob Broadfoot, of the Political and Economic Risk
Consultancy, said the chances of such a movement
were "very, very low".
"I would very much doubt that the numbers will reach
much larger. The average Singaporeans today is very
much concerned with economic well-being," he said.
"That is far from being apathetic. But they don't view
this as an appropriate time for political change."
Chandra Muzaffar, politics professor at the University
of Malaya, said: "I don't think this will turn into a
mass protest.
"I don't think Singaporeans feel they are in a crisis or
going down the tube."
Unlike recent street protests in Malaysia and
Indonesia, Chee's rally yesterday attracted just two
uniformed police officers.