Ladies and Gentlemen,
If you happened to be a reader not accustomed to the "peculiar Singapore", you may well answer that it was impossible. Believe it or not, it is true. It happens daily in Singapore. Singapore politicians, in particular the dictators Lee Kuan Yew, his son and the former Prime Minister Goh Chock Tong, as a routine matter, use the country's courts, and the civil servants to prosecute and sue any opposition politician who had uttered the mildest criticism against them, through false charges, with the assistance of corrupt judges, to order huge libel and slander judgments against the hapless victim. Thereafter, they use the Official Assignees office, a government department, through obedient and complaint and politicised civil servants, to promptly bankrupt that victim, impoverish him and his innocent family, and literally keep him under city arrest by confiscating his passport.
And you may well ask the legitimate question that if this incredible practice does exist in that island Republic, why do the people not protest. Should not they behave like other normal human beings and complain if their rights are trodden upon? The reason for the same behaviour has to be that since 1959, these people have been ruled by this man, and who has so often repeatedly punished anyone who had the temerity to raise so much as a whimper and destroy them completely, that they have been, en mass, been terrified into total submission. Lee can do whatever he wants in his country. There will not be any cries of indignation.
Here is one example. Dr. Chee Soon Juan is the Secretary General of the Singapore Democratic Party, a minuscule party of a handful of people who are fighting for change. Dr. Chee Soon Juan is the prominent member in this organization. He fearlessly demands change to the present system. So naturally, Lee and his government has to destroy him, like they have destroyed every other attempt by anyone else to challenge them.
The facts are these. In 2001, during the electioneering period for the country's elections, Dr. Chee while going about with the hustings in market places, saw the then Prime Minister Goh Chock Tong. Earlier it was reported in the state controlled Straits Times that the Singapore government had loaned several million dollars to General Suharto, then President of Indonesia. The circumstances surrounding this loan coming from state funds were unclear. Was it a loan? A gift? Were the people consulted? And if not, why not? There were many questions surrounding this loan which the people had a right to know. It was after all, their money. Public money.
So therefore, Dr. Chee had asked Mr. Goh who was at the very moment passing him, about the money and why was the money lent? I think Dr. Chee may have been carried away somewhat by the stress of the moment and said something to the effect " You can run but you cannot hide". Mr. Goh Chock Tong immediately took offence. The law was made to stand on it's head. What Dr. Chee had said was turned around as being another way of saying that both Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Chock Tong were corrupt. They claimed therefore that their reputations were badly tarnished. Therefore they had to sue. That Sikh Indian lawyer that I had earlier mentioned was promptly deployed to carry out the dirty work. A necessary compliant corrupt Singapore judge was promptly instructed. As expected, Dr. Chee Soon Juan was found guilty of "seriously" defaming both Lee Kuan Yew and Mr. Goh Chock Tong, who by the way, are already multi millionaires if not billionaires. The judge found that because of the serious damage to the said Messrs reputation, they have to be handsomely rewarded. Therefore the appropriate judgement was to be Singapore dollars 500,000.00 equivalent to about US$ 350,000.00. And if Dr. Chee could not pay these multi millionaires immediately, Dr. Chee should be promptly bankrupted, which he has. End of case!
Now the civil servant in the bankruptcy office or the Official Assignees office who has to do the ongoing dirty work to continue punishing Dr. Chee is Miss Kalaselvi daughter of Rengasamy( her full name written in the Indian style), Manager, Individual Insolvency Division, Official Assignees Office. She is, as you know a public servant. As part of her job, she destroys or impoverishes Lee's opponents whenever advised. She has in the past been responsible for punishing various political opponent's of Lee Kuan Yew and Company for which Lee has awarded her many medals of appreciation. I had written to her to stop this dirty work, but takes no heed. She is paid a large salary and enjoys security of employment. She is paid from public funds. Lee uses her and other civil servants who willingly allow themselves to be used for Lee's political ends. They appear to have no qualms in doing this shameful work. Please go to the Singapore Democratic Party's web page at http://www.singaporedemocrat.org/ and see the shameful work she has done lately to punish Dr. Chee to stop him from travelling outside the country. Please see the article "harassment continues as yet another trial takes place for CSJ" dated January 02, 07 for details of the evil goings on with her. Dr. Chee is now being charged with a new case of "attempting to leave the country without a permit", yet another attempt to silence Dr. Chee Soon Juan. His trial in the Singapore courts is fixed for this month.
You have recently heard that Saddam Hussein's chief judge was sentenced to death, because he put to death many of Saddam's opponents. In Singapore, judges do not put to death Lee's political opponents. What they do is to impoverish them. Turn them into "booksellers", peddlers of books they they themselves wrote on the streets of Singapore! Let me explain. Mr. JB Jeyaretnam was an political opponent of Lee Kuan Yew. Over a period of as along as 30 years, Lee Kuan Yew sued Jeya for libel, sent him to jail, made him pay millions of dollars of his to Lee, bankrupted him, took his livelihood away and all his money. In order to keep alive, the impoverished Jeya had to sell the books he wrote to passers by to scrape out a living. He became so to speak, a bookseller. Dr. Chee soon Juan too has been divested of all his money by Lee. Dr. Chee now is similarly a bookseller. He sells the books that he writes at public places. Dr. Chee Soon Juan has no more money left. And no other means of livelihood.
The question is whether it is more merciful for Lee to just use his courts to kill his opponents. Or is it worse for Lee's judges to slowly impoverish Lee's opponents this way. Perhaps it is worse to take away all the money of a political opponent rather than just kill him. If Saddam Hussein's judges are to be hung for killing Saddam's opponents, should not the Singapore judges who do much more damage by impoverishing Lee's opponents suffer a worse fate? I think they should be charged for crimes for deliberately abusing the law for an illegal purpose and put away for life. I am against the death penalty.
Impoverishing someone by taking away any means of livelihood of a person is much worse in Singapore than in other countries. Singapore is a built up island with no farmland or hinterland. One has to find work in the city. Once Lee publishes the fact that someone is his political opponent, no one will dare employ that man. He will starve or he has to rely on public assistance. All his family members will suddenly be turned into paupers living on government charity. This prospect frightens every possible opponent of Lee even contemplating challenging Lee.
This is why Lee does what he does. The abuse of the public funds and civil servants to hound and destroy any political opponent. He manages to do this because the people have been terrified into submission. There is nothing left.
Gopalan Nair
39737 Paseo Padre Parkway, Suite A1
Fremont, CA 94538, USA
Tel: 510 657 6107
Fax: 510 657 6914
EMail: gopalnair@us-immigrationlaw.com
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