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Democracy limps out of courtroom in a Singapore sling PDF Print E-mail
Friday, 27 June 2008
The Australian


The Wall Street Journal editorialises on a defamation battle between the litigious Lee Kuan Yew and the opposition

Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore can rightly be proud of many achievements, but full democracy is not one of them. Which makes a recent David v Goliath exchange between one of the country's few opposition politicians and Lee worth noting. The dialogue took place in a courtroom and is therefore privileged - which means we can report on it without risking a lawsuit, which Lee often files against critics.

The setting was a hearing to assess damages against Chee Soon Juan, head of the Singapore Democratic Party, and his sister and colleague, Chee Siok Chin. In 2006, the Chees lost a defamation suit brought by Lee and his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, over an article they published in their party newsletter that was interpreted by the court to imply corruption on the part of the government.

Chee Soon Juan is no orator but when the subject turned to the moral underpinnings of democracy the debate went game, set and match to Chee. Chee set out his philosophy while questioning Lee: "What I'm interested in is justice, the rule of law, because ultimately it is not about you, Mr Lee. It is not about me. You and I will pass on, but I can tell you, the practice of the rule of law, the entire concept of justice, democracy that is going to last for all eternity."

Trial transcript that appears on Singaporerebel.blogspot.com

Chee Siok Chin: Mr Lee, it has been reported that you are paid $3.7 million a year for your role as Prime Minister. Can you confirm that to this court?

Lee's counsel Davinder Singh: Objection.

Judge Belinda Ang: Sustained.

Chee: Do you know, Mr Lee, that you are the highest paid Prime Minister in the world, six times more than George Bush. Your salary is equivalent to eight leaders in the European countries, do you know that?

Singh: Objection, your honour.

Chee: Do you know that you are in the Guinness Book (of World) Records for the highest-paid prime minister?

Singh: Objection, your honour.

Chee: Mr Lee, you had said that as Prime Minister, you lead your government based on honesty, integrity, meritocracy and competence. Am I right?

Lee Hsien Loong: Yes.

Chee: Do you believe that cabinet ministers in Singapore, including yourself, have obtained their positions through meritocracy and competence?

Lee: We strive our best to reach the ideal.

Chee: Do you believe that you were appointed Prime Minister on your own merit?

Lee: Yes

Chee: Do you think that if your father had not been the former prime minister of Singapore you would still be the Prime Minister of Singapore today?

Lee: It is hypothetical question but I would say yes.

Chee: Well, it's very good to see the leader of the country so confident. Reassuring, really.

Chee: Is it not true that your father, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, was the prime minister of Singapore, he's now the Minister Mentor. You are the current Prime Minister and your wife Madam Ho Ching is the CEO of Temasek Holdings, is that true?

Singh: Objection, your honour.

Judge: Sustained.

Chee: Mr Lee, Mr Francis Seow had said the ministers in Singapore, and that includes you, are not worth a cent that they are paid. Do you agree?

Singh: I object, your honour, Mr Francis Seow doesn't have the guts to turn up in court himself so he shouldn't use the -

Chee: Let us not take pot-shots -

Judge: Sustained.

Chee: Do you sleep at night, Mr Lee?

Singh: Objection, your honour.

(Pause)

Chee: Do you know that as the leader of the country that your Government deprives Singaporeans of much-needed welfare for the poor, the elderly and the infirm, that HDB (Housing and Development Board) prices are artificially inflated, and that many of us are not able to draw on our CPF (Central Provident Fund) savings even though we have tens of thousands of dollars in there and all this time, when Singaporeans are left rather ignored -

Singh: Objection, your honour.

Chee: By the Government -

Judge: Sustained.

Chee: While you live your life as a millionaire minister?

Singh: Objection, your honour. This is a classic example of the abuse that I had referred to earlier for the purpose of making all sorts of wild, unsubstantiated, and speculative allegations.

Footnote: Chee Siok Chin served a 10-day sentence at the Changi Women's Prison for contempt of court for her cross-examination.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23928377-20261,00.html


Comments
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Anonymous  -  WWII: MM sets the record straight    Sat, 28 Jun 2008 7:03 am
August 9, 2008,
Singapore

In an interview to mark the 63rd anniversary of the end of the Pacific War …

Reporter:
MM, in your memoirs, you owned up to the fact that you actually worked for the enemy by volunteering as a translator for Shonan Rajio Hoso…

MM:
Now that the war has been over for so long, and my Japanese backers and friends would not mind me saying this, but I actually volunteered only because my intention was to get behind enemy lines to observe and report what they were doing. I was working for the British secretly, the Japanese imperial Army, their Kempeitai didn’t know, of course.
And by doing so, I put my personal life, the lives of my entire family at risk…

Reporter:
So you are saying you helped liberate Singapore to a certain extent…

MM:
Not certain extent. I directly caused their defeat in the War!

Reporter:
How so, MM?

MM:
The intelligence I gathered, the observations I cleverly made and assessments and workarounds I got the British, the Allies, as a whole, these were immensely valuable to their later actions in ultimately ending the war. In fact, the British War Cabinet, Churchill no less, admired my work, the courage I showed during those perilous times, they acknowledged, they agreed wholeheartedly that were it not for me, South East Asia would still now be in Japanese hands.
And this is a historical truth. You can go verify with them.

Reporter:
…

MM:
And to let you something not many know. The Japanese then already in fact had the rudiments of a workable atomic bomb. The Americans, Dr Oppenheimer and his team were not even clos to being at this stage, where the Tokyo labs were.
I managed to get my hands on a Japan Pacific Command secret document detailing the work of the Japanese atomic scientists, the blueprint for a rudimentary A-bomb.
I passed it on to the British who then showed it to Truman.
And the rest, as they say, is history.

Reporter:
So there you were, a pre-college Chinese native teenager, working secretly for the His Majesty’s Army, you single-handedly helped to end the War because the secret document you got hold of somehow going to Britain going to America, landing in Nevada in Oppenheimer’s hands that led to the Manhattan Project becoming a success by allowing them to fine-tine the bomb so that it became ultimately Little Boy and Fat Man that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that then secured Japan’s Declaration of Surrender?

MM:
I single-handedly ended it for the Allies and the entire Western world. Liberated the world, you can say.

Reporter:
Thank you, MM.
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19 3
Justice  -  Hard to swallow...    Sat, 28 Jun 2008 7:21 am
I find what MM said in the interview a little hard to swallow.... I have to take it with a LARGE GRAIN OF SALT.

Does anyone know what the secret British documents that have been declassified lately says?? I vaguely remember that it says something to the effect that this interview is false or something. Can anywone who knows better please post the findings of the declassifoed British documents, please!!!
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8 1
curious  -     Sat, 28 Jun 2008 8:00 am
let's remain at the very least objective reporters of affairs and issues, and not degrade the quality of this discourse to one of falsifying or fabricating information or interview transcripts, shall we?

such transcripts will only inaccurately and unfairly affect the more susceptible ones amongst us, and we dont want to be committing the very crime we are decrying the mainstream papers for committing, right? :)
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2 1
MM  -     Sat, 28 Jun 2008 8:09 am
Quote:
Justice - Hard to swallow... Sat, 28 Jun 2008 7:21 am


I find what MM said in the interview a little hard to swallow....



Dear Justice,

Do you find anything else I say or do in the context of policies for this country - a country I shed my virgin tear for in that televised Indeendence announcement back on Aug 9, 195 - do you find any of that hard to swallow too?

Even if they are, do force them down somehow - I KNOW WHAT'S BEST FOR THIS COUNTRY I SINGLE_HANDEDLY BUILT UP, WHAT'S BEST FOE ALL OF YOU!
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9 2
Anonymous  -     Sat, 28 Jun 2008 8:31 am
Quote:
Quote:
curious - Sat, 28 Jun 2008 8:00 am

let's remain at the very least objective reporters of affairs and issues, and not degrade the quality of this discourse to one of falsifying or fabricating information or interview transcripts, shall we?


I think the contributor was merely trying to raise the point that shameless old thing will say and do anything to justify his being, albeit in a tongue-in-cheek manner. What's the harm in such lightheartedness? Must we be stoic, so serious about things in life the way the old fox takes politics to the extent he treats opponents so viciously?

But I guess he has no choice and has to crush any opposition - since he's done too much evil to get to where he and family are right now, too much to lose if his un-reveable deeds are eventually shed light on...

I mean, look at the date of the 'article' :D Lighten up, curious :)

And Justice, yes, one should be able to lay one's hands on those documents if they have been declassified but being a little person struggling to make ends meet and one with no means and connections, i really do not know how to go about it.

But politics being politics and the fox being the fox, it's only natural that deals were cut - being humans, you and I should know such things - untold things done, secret agreements and arrangements made.

For why else do you think colonial powers would so readily and easily grant independence, self-governments, etc, then? Just because it was the right thing to do? No way.

Even if the Crown did do so willingly, unscrupulous greedy officers out here in the Far east, far away from His majesty's prying eyes, would do secret deals to, if not enrich themselves, at least ensure a steady source of income to feed themselves and their families since the Empire was now setting and they would sooner be out of an 'iron rice bowl' job.

Agree?

PS - I will let anyone come chop my head off - I wil galdly even do so myself - for his/her use at pleasure if what I say above isn't true, has no shred of truth about dirty deals cut in achieveing any 'political' ends.
Ask Tang Liang Hong.
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14 1
Just in for the money, nothing  -  Of Politics, Politicians & Political Deals    Sat, 28 Jun 2008 8:41 am
Quote:
Quote:
curious - Sat, 28 Jun 2008 8:00 am

let's remain at the very least objective reporters of affairs and issues, and not degrade the quality of this discourse to one of falsifying or fabricating information or interview transcripts, shall we?


I think the contributor was merely trying to raise the point that shameless old thing will say and do anything to justify his being, albeit in a tongue-in-cheek manner. What's the harm in such lightheartedness? Must we be stoic, so serious about things in life the way the old fox takes politics to the extent he treats opponents so viciously?

But I guess he has no choice and has to crush any opposition - since he's done too much evil to get to where he and family are right now, too much to lose if his un-reveable deeds are eventually shed light on...

I mean, look at the date of the 'article' :D Lighten up, curious :)

And Justice, yes, one should be able to lay one's hands on those documents if they have been declassified but being a little person struggling to make ends meet and one with no means and connections, i really do not know how to go about it.

But politics being politics and the fox being the fox, it's only natural that deals were cut - being humans, you and I should know such things - untold things done, secret agreements and arrangements made.

For why else do you think colonial powers would so readily and easily grant independence, self-governments, etc, then? Just because it was the right thing to do? No way.

Even if the Crown did do so willingly, unscrupulous greedy officers out here in the Far east, far away from His majesty's prying eyes, would do secret deals to, if not enrich themselves, at least ensure a steady source of income to feed themselves and their families since the Empire was now setting and they would sooner be out of an 'iron rice bowl' job.

Agree?

PS - I will let anyone come chop my head off - I wil galdly even do so myself - for his/her use at pleasure if what I say above isn't true, has no shred of truth about dirty deals cut in achieveing any 'political' ends.
Politicians, especially the likes of the Fox even in his 'less sophisticated' younger days, are NOT ANGELS.
Trouble with Singaporeans, imgrained in their immigrant-DNA since their forebears fled from opression and suppression from imperial China and elsewhere, is their obssesion for divine help and/or messiah to come rescue them and so they worship their leaders in the new land, just like they thought the Fox was the answer to their prayer to deliver them out of the wilderness like Moses, thinking leaders can DO NO WRONG.
That minset still exists, persists, in today's young too to a certain extent, partly DNA, mainly schooling system in which you are taught to REVER national leaders, not to mention the fact that Singaporeans were inculcated (read brainwashed) this way since what, five, six, even earlier, in PAP Community Foundation kindergartens, wear that Lightning symbol badge since Day One of preschool, not different from the brainwashing done in communist China.
Don't believe? Go ask Tang Liang Hong.
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9 1
Chinny  -     Sat, 28 Jun 2008 9:38 am
http://theonlinecitizen.com/2008/06/whose-future-is-%E2%80%9Cshining%E2%80%9D-really/

Pay rise again~ woot!! many good years ahead~
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2 1
Anonymous  -     Sat, 28 Jun 2008 10:22 am
He's such a coward that I can hardly believe a word I have read. How come nobody-no reputable historian- ever recorded this down, esp. when our Mr Lee Kuan Yew is such an illustrious elder statesman?
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7 0
Yoong Kheong  -  Another lawsuit in brewing?     Sat, 28 Jun 2008 11:01 am
Will the government be taking actions with these foreign media next?
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6 1
Paul  -  re: WWII: MM sets the record straight    Sat, 28 Jun 2008 12:53 pm
Anonymous wrote:
August 9, 2008,
Singapore

In an interview to mark the 63rd anniversary of the end of the Pacific War …


Anonymous, that was an excellent spoof. You could have dated it April 1st but it would not have been so convincing. However, that imagined interview is not beyond the realm of possibility as some of us think that the old man suffers from delusion of grandeur. In other words, the day is not far off when he can be certified as stark, raving bonkers.
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15 0
Anonymous  -     Sat, 28 Jun 2008 6:11 pm
Thanks, Paul.

My whole point was, this shameless thing will go any lengths to justify his being, his place in Singapore's history - world history if he can help it but others know better.

Just fail to understand how we have allowed this to have gone on and on the way he did, espousing 'grand theories' (which we call common sense and basic knowledge) and spouting non-sense (which Singapore Media Inc hangs on - or pretends to, since spinesless needs to feed family) - to like The Word).

When are all these ever going to stop?

Not very soon likely, the way his global army of doctors from London Heart to Chicago Hope ferevently devising plans to prop up that very vicious and evil organ of his with ever more sophisticated stents and what-nots.

We can only hope that he won't live long enough to see significant advances and breakthroughs in the life sciences
- his deputy Philip has been tasked with tens of billions to splurge on bio-hobbies, pocketing a few mils here and there every so often, may one add -
which may prolong his life even by a day longer, for he's simply done too many unspeakable and wicked things, heinous crimes of such evilitude even Mr. Lucifer S.A. Tan would be proud of.

Let's pray.
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7 0
ikan rajah  -     Sat, 28 Jun 2008 6:11 pm
I invite readers to look at an advanced country where it is relaxing libel laws while Singapore wannabe holds onto repressive laws:

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5jdP5CRF6hm0H_fuYFL_m6d_jI7GQ
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5 0
Don Joe  -  Let's stay objective    Sat, 28 Jun 2008 6:40 pm
The court was convened to assess damages, right?

So how exactly are the questions from Chee about how much the ministers get paid, whether the Lee Jr was elected without biasness, or any other quetion relevant to the whole purpose of the court?

I think the Chees try to score political points at every chance they get & fail to show objectivity. They might score some pts among those who are ignorant & like minded ... but their tactics gain no ground among the majority; ultimately, a democracy is about the rule of the majority. How do they propose to garner the support of the majority by actions like this? I assume that that is their goal, right? To gain a majority?

It cannot be that they want to change the current system in opposition to the majority; that's not democratic.
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2 10
Anonymous  -     Sat, 28 Jun 2008 6:49 pm
Quote:
Yoong Kheong - Another lawsuit in brewing? Sat, 28 Jun 2008 11:01 am

Will the government be taking actions with these foreign media next?



Actually nobody outide of your little country cares what he does, much less what he thinks - he's only in print because there's space to fill up and what better way than to let this thing blabber on and on and in the process debunks himself, provides some kind of 'light relief' to the serious isssues of the day.

He's 'entertainment' news per se, the clown that he is - Ah Boy and gang have been worried for sometime now how Dad's senility is going to affect them, especially in 2011.

The prognosis isn't too good and they are scrambling to find an 'antidote' (not discounting something to 'calm' him down, for good if possible).

And unlike Singaporeans who have nowhere to run to hide and so fear being sued for the last torn and tattered undies they have on, foreigners, foreign media have no such reservations, can even afford the hundreds of thousands and millions the kangaroos penalize them for.

After all, these puny sums of money are going to come round the mountain and go back into western pockets, wouldn't they? And with sterling returns too!

In the form of tens of billions - how many folds of those lawsuit 'penalties' which are PEANUTS! - that go to prop up once-mighty but now ailing banks (in which of course the LEEsons have stashed away a good deal after vacuuming your vaults).

So no big deal, suit or no suit. Foreign media go along with his shams in court, put on a good show, pay a few hundreds of thousands - and who's to say the money ain't 'returned', eg, donations to charities (these foreigners might have connections with, see)?

"Anyway, as long as we aren't banned entirely and can still do business in Singapoe - which we often do - there's bigger money to be had, since we would've paid 'protection money' (fines) and he is to ensure our further prosperity in his casino." goes the oft-heard argument in the party circuits.

So, don't you go worrying and fretting for these foreign media - they may sometimes just be teasing, antagonizing him just so he gets mad enough to want to control them through buyouts and pay through the roof (nothing shocking) using cooperative funds so that their traps get shut,falling into THEIR traps in the final analysis.

So murky, and dirty, and unscrupulous this world, did you say? But of course it is! What do you expect?

The truth - about how that family got to be where they are today - is even uglier, dirtier than the dirty linen that has so far been revealed.

Nothing shocks anymore when it comes to that family. Right, Weiling :D ?
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11 0
Tough life  -  Tough Life in Singapore    Sat, 28 Jun 2008 6:52 pm
Singaporean are currently suffering due to the high costs in governing the country. On the other hand there are so many foreign workers in Singapore which lead to high unemployment for those over 40 years of age.

Really sad to see all these happening now over here.
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7 0
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