Two Things that must be done now.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

There are two things that have to be done now. First since Dr. Chee is now in jail, he should not be forgotten. His sacrifice must not be seen to be in vain.

Vigils, demonstrations, protests; whether singly or in mass, does not matter; but it must be done. Honest Singaporeans must show that they protest Dr. Chee's illegal incarceration and they will tell the government that this must stop. It does not matter whether or not your protest produces immediate results. What matters is that the signal must be unmistakably sent to this overbearing government now, that what it is doing is wrong; wrong morally; wrong legally; wrong in every way possible. And you have to tell this government that you will not take this lying down anymore. For the sake of Dr. Chee who is now in prison for no fault of his own you have a duty to protest. Do it now.

Second Sept 8, 2007 Centerpoint protest. What I am about to say to you now is from personal experience. I have been harassed by the Singapore police in the past, and I can tell you this much. The Lee Kuan Yew government and his police are a whole lot of hot air; but no more than that. They are even more afraid of you than you are of them. Now in 2007 all the more so.

All the display of Gurkha police and their elaborate gear is only intended to instill fear. But true infliction of hurt, they cannot do. Lee Kuan Yew is being faced with difficulties from all sides. First, he has already had bad publicity from the nations of the world. Anymore of that will mean Singapore being permanently and squarely equated with the military junta of Burma. For the moment, it is one notch better than Burma; and Lee Kuan Yew wants to keep it that way. If he ever shot a single Singaporean, that will be the end of Singapore's reputation, or what little is left of it, it will be the end of foreign offshore banking; the few remaining Singapore born citizens would pack up and leave for Australia, adding to the thousands who have already left; leaving Singapore entirely peopled by foreigners.

Lee Kuan Yew recently told the International Herald Tribune that Singapore exists entirely on wits alone. He is right. Only thing now is that he is at wit's end.

My personal example. Some time in 1988, JB Jeyaretnam was sued for defamation, as he was sued many other times, by Lee Kuan Yew. The Singapore corrupt political courts as usual ordered damages of something like $200,000.00. JB could not pay. He asked for public donations. Since he was already a bankrupt, he did not have a bank account. He asked me a favor. He asked me to set up a JB Jeyaretnam trust bank account to receive public donations. After about $15,000.00 was received by me in my account, the police contacted me and all the Workers Party Committee members. They charged us with an offence under the House to House Street Collections Act of receiving public money without a permit.

This is what happened. At that time I lived in Jalan Kayu. Police sent me a letter to come to Central Police Station to be interviewed. I looked up the Singapore Criminal Procedure Code. There was a provision that a person can only be ordered to attend a police station for interrogation provided the station was within 5 miles of his residence. Jalan Kayu was more than 5 miles from Central Police Station. Therefore I rang Central Police Station and directed them to the provision stating that I will not go.

Next week I got a letter to attend Yeo Chu Kang Neighborhood Police Post. Since it was within 5 miles of Jalan Kayu, I went. There was a Eurasian police officer; a thorough government stooge. He wrote down himself almost a confession and asked me to sign saying that that was what happened anyway; and that was how these things were done. I reminded him that I was not born yesterday, and I am not prepared to sign a confession

I refused. I told him that I was going to write whatever I wanted to write and sign it. If he is not agreeable, then so be it. He will not get any statement. He tried to persuade me to accept what he wanted but he could see that I wasn’t prepared to budge. Finally he had no choice but to agree.

I do not know if you have read Nelson Mandela’s speech at the Rivona Trial; the speech being commonly known as the "I am prepared to die" speech. Well mine was not as long as that but it was very comprehensive. I took the opportunity to tell the police officer exactly what I thought of him and the Lee Kuan Yew government. I started off by stating that the Singapore judiciary was corrupt and beholden to Lee Kuan Yew, that there was no freedom of speech and it was not a democracy by a mile. I wrote about 3 or 4 long pages of this while the poor Eurasian police officer helplessly looked on. Finally, on finishing, I signed it and handed it to him.

I could see that he was quite upset, poor fellow. But there was nothing he could do. I asked if there was anything else and being told nothing more, I left. When I was leaving he said that the police and Attorney General will decide whether to proceed with charging me in court.

Next week, I received a letter in the mail from the police. In it, as expected, the police said they had decided not to charge me in court. Instead they are giving me a stern warning not to break any more Singapore’s laws. Since I did not consider the House to House Street Collections Act a legally or morally binding law, I did care two hoots. I threw that letter into the dustbin.

End of Chapter.

And now my friends, there is nothing the police can do to you. As in my case, the whole idea of the police is to try to intimidate you. But if you are not prepared to be intimidated, there is nothing they can do. The government knows that these laws are unjust. They do not have a leg to stand on. So take them on at their word. And in the end, you will see who is afraid of whom. I am sure it will not be you.

I therefore ask that you protest, and protest in groups of 5 or ten or even more. Let the police threaten to charge all ten or 20 of you, but they will not because they cannot. Their position now in the eyes of Singaporeans is very weak and there is nothing they can do.

You must protest in numbers against the CPF fraud, against the requirement of annuities and last but not least for Dr. Chee who has sacrificed everything for you by being in prison.

Whether you are a Christian, A Muslim or an ancestor worshipper, it does not matter. Being human alone is enough to require you to do this duty.

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