Category: Politik

The PAP’s “aim number one” 60 years ago

The People’s Action Party (PAP) was formed on 12 November 1954.

This year thus marks the party’s 60th anniversary.

According to the PAP Facebook page:

“Lee [Kuan Yew] formed the socialist People’s Action Party (PAP)… with a group of English-educated middle-class colleagues and pro-communist trade unionists…”

The next year, 1955, the PAP nominated five candidates for the Legislative Assembly elections. Described as “action candidates” by The Singapore Free Press then, four of the five were:

And before the PAP was officially formed, in fact one month before – on 28 October 1954 – the Straits Times reported the party’s aims as a political organisation.

The Straits Times reported the PAP’s “aim number 1” as:

“The repeal of the Emergency Regulations heads the list of aims and objects of the People’s Action Party…”

The PAP, however, never did repeal the Emergency Regulations.

The Emergency Regulations were the precursor to the Internal Security Act (ISA) which the PAP Government, after it came into power, used to arrest and jail its political opponents, including those which it had partnered with – such as the “pro-communist trade unionists” – when it formed the party.

According to this online entry:

British colonial Malaya introduced the Emergency Regulations Ordinance 1948 on 7 July 1948 during the Malayan Emergency in response to a Communist uprising and guerrilla war. The regulations allowed the police to arrest anybody suspected of having acted or being likely to act in a way that would threaten security without evidence or a warrant, hold them incommunicado for investigation, and detain them indefinitely without the detainee ever being charged with a crime or tried in a court of law.

The successor to the Emergency Regulations Ordinance, the Preservation of Public Security Ordinance 1955 (“PPSO”), was introduced a result of the 1955 Hock Lee bus riots by the Labour Party government in Singapore. There was strong opposition to the PPSO by the party then in opposition, the People’s Action Party (“PAP”).

In 1958, Lee Kuan Yew of the PAP accused the Lim Yew Hock government of using the PPSO to stifle political dissent.

In 1960, three years after Malaya’s independence, the Emergency was declared over. However, the Malayan Internal Security Act 1960 (“ISA”) was passed in place of the PPSO with much of the same powers. During parliamentary debates on the Act, Malayan Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman stated that the ISA would only be applied against only the remaining Communist insurgents. The Malayan Communist Party and its insurgents eventually surrendered in 1989.

Nonetheless, the ISA was retained in Malaysia.

The drafter of the Malayan ISA was Hugh Hickling, a British lawyer, author and professor.

In 1989, he commented that he “could not imagine then that the time would come when the power of detention, carefully and deliberately interlocked with Article 149 of the Constitution, would be used against political opponents, welfare workers and others dedicated to nonviolent, peaceful activities”.

Nonetheless, he commented that he supported review of the ISA but it was not for him to say if the law should be scrapped, as “you’ve got a multi-racial society [in Malaysia] in which emotions can run high very quickly”.

When Singapore joined the Federation of Malaya in 1963, the Malayan ISA was extended to Singapore. The Act was retained in Singapore even after its separation from Malaysia in 1965. The current version of the Act is known as Chapter 143 of the 1985 Revised Edition.

In 1991, then deputy prime minister Lee Hsien Loong said the government “will seriously consider abolishing the Internal Security Act if Malaysia were to do so”.

Source: National Library Archives

In September 2011, Malaysia announced that it was repealing the ISA.

A month after Malaysia’s announcement, Singapore’s deputy prime minister Teo Chee Hean, told Parliament on 19 October 2011, that “[for] the foreseeable future, Singapore will need a law containing provisions like those in the ISA, including preventive detention, to empower the Government to pre-empt and prevent serious threats to our security.”

“The precise form the law takes may evolve with time and circumstances,” he said. “But for the present, the ISA is a shield that we need that protects us against these threats, allowing us to deal with them swiftly and effectively before they cause us serious and possibly permanent harm.”

The PAP’s “aim number 1” at its founding – to repeal the security laws – thus remains unfulfilled.

Among the PAP’s other pledges at its founding 60 years ago was “[the] restoration of the right to assemble in public; for any purpose that does not intend force’.”

Public assembly in Singapore remains banned, unless a police permit is granted.

Straits Times, 28 Oct 1954

Source: www.theonlinecitizen.com

November 8, 2014
Roy Ngerng Found Guilty of Defamation

SINGAPORE: Blogger Roy Ngerng has been found guilty of defamation, with damages to be assessed.

Justice Lee Seiu Kin on Friday (Nov 7) has also ordered Ngerng to be restrained from publishing or disseminating the allegation that the plantiff, Prime Minster Lee Hsien Loong, is guilty of criminal misappropriation of the monies paid by Singaporeans to the Central Provident Fund, or any words and/or images to the same effect.

“I therefore find that the Disputed Words and Images convey the natural and ordinary meaning that the plaintiff, the Prime Minister of Singapore and the Chairman of GIC, is guilty of criminal misappropriation of the monies paid by Singaporeans to the CPF,” said Justice Lee in his judgement. “There is no doubt that it is defamatory to suggest that the plaintiff is guilty of criminal misappropriation of the CPF monies.”

The Prime Minister filed the defamation suit against Ngerng on May 29, and on July 10 applied for a summary judgment, where the plaintiff asks the court to rule without trial, on grounds that the defendant has no real defence to contest his claim.

The suit against Mr Ngerng arose from a blog post in May entitled Where Your CPF Money Is Going: Learning From The City Harvest Trial, which alleged that CPF monies had been misappropriated.

Mr Ngerng had been sent a letter from Mr Lee’s lawyers, demanding that he apologise, remove the post and offer damages. Though he complied with several of the demands, his offer of S$5,000 in damages was rejected as “derisory” by Mr Lee. Mr Ngerng had also emailed some local and international media on how to access other posts, which Mr Lee’s lawyers said was “further aggravation”.

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

November 7, 2014
PAP Contributing to Congestion In Town To Celebrate Its 60th Birthday
The People’s Action Party (PAP) is celebrating its 60^th birthday today and it just couldn’t wait to let Singaporeans know that its birthday is here.

And to do so, the PAP has deemed it fit to create traffic congestion in the centre of the city just so that Singaporeans will be aware of its birthday.

Welcome to uniquely Singapore – where the ruling party believes that after 55 years of controlling government, it can, as a netizen called it, turn the roads in Singapore into its own “grandfather’s road”.

Today, if you face any jams in the centre of town, don’t worry. You can thank the PAP for it, or blame them, whichever way you fancy.

The roads that will be closed are near the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall.

Old Parliament Lane and Empress Place will be closed from 11am to midnight.

The two right lanes of Parliament Place in the direction of Saint Andrew’s Road will be closed from 11am to 1.30pm.

The centre lane of Parliament Place in the direction of Saint Andrew’s Road (between Connaught Drive and Saint Andrew’s Road) will be closed from 1.30pm to 2pm.

The carriageway of Fullerton Road in the direction of Parliament Place (between Esplanade Drive and Parliament Place) will be closed from 2pm till midnight.

Parliament Place in the direction of Saint Andrew’s Road (between Fullerton Road and Saint Andrew’s Road) and the two left lanes of Fullerton Road in the direction of Esplanade Drive will also be closed from 2pm till midnight.
Of course, no one is saying don’t barge onto the road. If a political party has a birthday, we should all give way and let it have the right of way, shouldn’t we?

Well, not unless you are the Worker’s Party. Then, even when you decide to organise a cycling event at the perfectly legit East Coast Park, as it tried to in 2007 to celebrate their 50^th anniversary, then the police are going to tell you that it “does not allow political parties to organise outdoor gatherings because such activities have the potential for public disorder and mischief, and may disrupt community life.”

But of course, if you are the PAP, the police can tell Singaporeans that “Traffic delays may be expected” and that “Motorists are advised to plan their route early”.

But because it is the PAP, and even as the road closures will “disrupt community life”, hey, it’s the PAP.

Of course, cycling in East Coast Park would definitely cause more disruption to community life than closing roads and creating traffic jams, and causing delays to the hundreds of Singaporeans who will be rushing home for dinner, right?

But hey, it’s the PAP’s 60^th anniversary. Who are we to argue about the “grandfather’s road”, unless we think they have been in power for far too long?

Source: www.therealsingapore.com
November 7, 2014
Gaza: Where Have All The Activists Gone?

I have always thought that those who resort to violence or those who go as far as exploding themselves are sick and inhuman. But now I know how it feels to have nothing to lose but your worthless life. I know how it feels to be so desperate that you literally cry from disappointment when you actually wake up in the morning, and to spend the night before asking God for a last favor … to take your life because you’re just too cowardly to take it yourself. #‎Gaza‬ is no longer a city or a territory. It is a disease. It is an unbearable pain, an un-treatable wound. Gaza is the opposite of life, but at the same time far beyond death.

This is the Facebook post to which I woke up yesterday, written by Maisam Morr, one of the few Gazans who typically serve as my “rocks” – resilient spirits who never give up, and keep my hope alive that we can beat back the grinding, dehumanizing force that is the Israeli occupation. She is the one who dreamed up the Rubble Bucket Challenge (the Palestinian response to the ALS ice bucket), and who – in the midst of the unremitting “gray” of the destruction that is Gaza – asked for a pink laptop for her birthday. And yet now, she was succumbing.

The breaking point for Maisam was the announcement Sunday that Israel had closed its two crossings into Gaza for all but the most critical humanitarian aid, in response to the firing of a single rocket fired. No injuries or property damage resulted, and no groups in Gaza claimed responsibility or credit. According to Maisam, “almost all Gazans swear that it is some sort of a trick (a planned trap) to open another front with Israel.” F16s are now flying low over Gaza again, as if on cue.

According to news reports, Israel had not decided how long the crossing would be closed. “It will depend on the security situation.” There’s that code phrase…”security situation” – a cover for just about any action Israel chooses to take, and which no one in the international community (in the West at least) is courageous enough to challenge. (Update: the crossings re-opened today, and Palestinian officials said 330 truckloads of goods, as well as one of cement, would be allowed in. Seriously? ONE truckload of cement? In a way, I think that’s how Israel uses closures – as a device to make Gazans happy for crumbs when they come.)

Meanwhile, in the wake of the Oct. 24 attack on an army checkpoint in the northern Sinai that killed 31 soldiers, Egypt has emulated Israel. It declared a three-month lockdown in the area, including a dawn-to-dusk curfew, and indefinitely closed the Rafah crossing, Gaza’s only non-Israeli-controlled bridge to the outside world. Meanwhile, Egypt is demolishing an estimated 800 homes housing 10,000 residents to set up its own buffer zone along the border with Gaza (546 yards wide, 8 miles long). As with the Israeli rocket, no group claimed responsibility, yet the Egyptian government has been quick to implicate Hamas and other Gaza-based “terror groups.” In addition to slamming its doors shut to thousands of Palestinians seeking medical treatment or opportunities to study abroad, the Egyptian government canceled indefinitely the indirect talks between Israelis and Hamas on a long-term truce.

“My dearest Egypt,” wrote Maisam on her blog. “You treat me like an infectious disease. You see me as a threat to your national security while all I ever wanted is to protect my life, my dignity and my very being. Forgive me for being so selfish and so blind for I simply cannot understand how come my call for freedom collides with your mighty security. Only few years ago, I thought we fought a shared enemy but it looks like that I AM the enemy.”

Abu Marzouk, deputy chairman of Hamas’ political bureau and a member of the Palestinian reconciliation delegation, describes the closures as collective punishment, in contradiction of all understandings, agreements and international law, and adds that it will be impossible to sit idly by. And can you blame him? Since the ceasefire was announced on Aug. 26, two Palestinian rockets were shot by unknown parties. Israel, however, has violated it 19 times by shooting at fishermen and farmers, and opened the crossings on an extremely limited basis – far less than implied by the spirit of the ceasefire terms. (It doesn’t help that Israel wants the “civilian nature” of every project to be verified by Israeli and U.N. officials.) See my blog post for a complete listing of ceasefire violations and an overall status report.

Yet, Nicole Ganz, spokeswoman for the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, says the Palestinian Authority has yet to file a complaint. And the international activist community? It sometimes seems it takes a war to mobilize us in mass numbers as well – which explains why we’re all focused on Syria and Iraq, with barely a mention or attempt to push back on the daily deteriorations in Gaza and the West Bank.

“During the war, I was getting messages all the time from foreigners who wanted to help, who promised to help me get out for a bit after it was over,” recalls Maisam. “But now..nothing. Even during the war, I never felt like I wanted to die. This is new to me. I guess we’ll just keep breathing until we stop.”

Source: http://mondoweiss.net

November 6, 2014
Ng Eng Hen Justifies $25,900 English Language Course for PLA Officer

SINGAPORE: Officers from the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) participate in exchanges with other militaries for staff college courses.

The staff college courses attended are useful to establish good relationships with the militaries of other countries, and understand their perspectives, said Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen on Wednesday (Nov 5). When incidents occur, they can also be very useful resource persons on the ground.

“So for these reasons, militaries all over have for many years exchanged officers to each other’s courses to establish better ties,” he said.

Dr Ng said this in response to a question from Non-Constituency Member of Parliament Lina Chiam. Mrs Chiam had asked about a tender that had been called to provide an English Language course for an officer from China’s People’s Liberation Army.

Dr Ng noted that the language of instruction can pose a problem for officers who attend courses run by other militaries, and language proficiency is important if the officers are to benefit from the course.

“For some foreign officers who attend SAF’s military courses, we have to help them gain language proficiency so that they can benefit from their time here,” he said, adding that Singapore’s military officers spend time gaining language proficiency when they go to other countries for the same purpose.

Dr Ng said that one officer from the People’s Liberation Army required a personalised 360-hour English Language course. The Defence Ministry had put out a tender on the Government’s e-procurement portal, and awarded the contract to the lowest offer that met the requirements. This came to S$25,900, which amounted to about S$70 per hour.

Dr Ng emphasised that this was in strict compliance with the Government’s regulations.

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

November 6, 2014