Singapore. Judge Belinda Ang's Kangaroo Court

Ladies and Gentlemen,

This is Gopalan Nair in Singapore today, May 29, 2008. I have been in Singapore since May 25, 2008, and staying now at Broadway Hotel, Room 708, 195 Serangoon Road, Singapore 218067.

I am deliberately stating my identity and my present exact location for a definite purpose. On day 2 of the trial in Singapore, day before yesterday, in the Lee Kuan Yew and son verses Dr. Chee Soon Juan case, Lee senior had said in answer to a question by Dr. Chee, that if he, Lee Kuan Yew, knew the identity of bloggers in cyberspace who defamed him (defamation being used of course in the Singaporean sense), he will sue and bankrupt them.

He had earlier sidestepped the question by saying, that he had difficulty suing critics of his in the Internet because their identities were not usually known. When pressed, he categorically and deliberately stated that he will sue if they made known their identities.

Well, what you are going to read should be without question defamatory of Mr. Lee and his son, that is in the warped and hare brained Alice in Wonderland meaning of the word "defamation". It will be interesting to see if this Singapore strongman, Lee Kuan Yew and son, who strut around the small island of Singapore bullying everyone who so much as criticized, will sue me now for calling him nothing more than a small time street bully; since now, we have myself Gopalan Nair who has the temerity to identify himself and state his presence with full address in Singapore.

Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, see here. I am now within the jurisdiction of your courts; I repeat, "the jurisdiction of your courts" because literally they are your courts, willing to commit any crime or injustice you will demand of them.

During the last 3 days of the court hearing, up till yesterday, in the High Court, before your stooge of a judge, Belinda Ang in Court 4, you and your Prime Minister son conducted yourselves as expected, no better than cowards hiding behind the coat tails of your equally cowardly counsel doubling up as a PAP politician in court; who managed with the full co-operation of the said judge to ensure that you came to court merely for form, refusing to answer almost all questions that went directly to your integrity or rather the lack of it.

After the end of the 3 days in court, it left no doubt in my mind that you and your son are indeed what international human rights organizations say you are, nothing more than tin pot tyrants who remain in power by abusing the courts to eliminate your political opponents. You are clearly corrupt, as is your government, because paying yourself $3.7 million is corruption pure and simple and in the end you have lost all credibility and moral authority to govern Singapore.

The following transpired during the last 3 days in court. The judge Belinda Ang was throughout prostituting herself during the entire proceedings, by being nothing more than an employee of Mr. Lee Kuan Yew and his son and carrying out their orders. There was murder, the rule of law being the repeated victim.

The issue in the said court was the determination of the quantum of damages payable by the innocent victim, Dr. Chee Soon Juan who had earlier been found liable by this judge for defamation of character of Mr. Lee and son, where the law was once again abused through the contrivance of a process known as summary proceedings, thereby disallowing Dr. Chee to produce any witnesses or to cross-examine those of Mr. Lee because there were none.

The said 3 day of hearing before the court was nothing more than a mockery of justice; a charade, a make believe that appeared right out of the pages of Alice in Wonderland with Belinda Ang playing the role of the Queen of Hearts before the trial of the Mouse who stole the Tarts very well indeed. It almost appeared that she was going to dispense with all testimony and come straight to the verdict of guilty so as not to waste her valuable time!

It would be fair to say, in fact an understatement, that in effect she disallowed Dr. Chee any effective cross examination of either the father Lee Kuan Yew or the son, as Mr. Singh, their counsel was almost having a workout like in a gym; standing up to object, and sitting down after almost each and every question that Dr. Chee put to his father and son clients. In fact Singh was popping up and down almost without let up during the several hours of the hearing so much so, that someone suggested to me that it would have been a good idea if he remained standing throughout the case to facilitate his expected objections at each and every question of Dr. Chee.

If Dr. Chee did manage to ask even one question, it was because he went ahead and asked it despite the objection of both Mr. Singh and the judge because if he did not, he would not have been able to ask any questions at all!

Dr. Chee has asked Lee's son how much he was being paid, that is $3.7 million, 6 times what George Bush is paid! Question disallowed and the son shamefully just sits there, protected by his counsel Mr. Singh and the kangaroo judge.

Chee asks whether it is just for him to corruptly steal this amount of taxpayer's money while the poor in the 1 room flats starve without any financial assistance! Question disallowed and the son shamefully just sits there, protected by his counsel Mr. Singh and the kangaroo judge.

Chee asks why the GIC and HDB function under a shroud of secrecy without any transparency, when the moneys in them is taxpayers money? Question disallowed and the son shamefully just sits there, protected by his counsel Mr. Singh and the kangaroo judge.

Chee asks whether he knew that those who read the Internet overwhelmingly hated him as a tyrant and a bully and the only ones singing praises in his name are the Singapore state owned and controlled media? Question disallowed and the son shamefully just sits there, protected by his counsel Mr. Singh and the kangaroo judge.

Chee asks whether the international community looks at him no better than a despot and a father's son? Question disallowed and the son shamefully just sits there, protected by his counsel Mr. Singh and the kangaroo judge.

Chee had asked this Lee Kuan Yew's son why he said in the 2006 elections that " if there were more opposition candidates at elections, he will have to "fix" them and bribe his voters to win elections"? Question disallowed and the son shamefully just sits there, protected by his counsel Mr. Singh and the kangaroo judge.

There were many more questions put to him just as the above questions, all very relevant, which, had they been answered, would have shown that he had no integrity or reputation whatsoever, and since integrity and reputation are the issues in deciding quantum of damages, Lee Kuan Yew's son should have been awarded no damages at all; that is provided we have an independent judiciary, which we have not.

Any honest spectator in the court's gallery would have come away with one opinion alone, that is, this man is Prime Minister only because he happens to be the son of his father. If he really wanted to show that he was in fact in control, he could have easily told his lawyer to stop being the Jack in the Box and stop popping up and down with his objections and let him handle the questions. At each question, he was looking meekly at his counsel to see whether he has to answer it. If I could put it in a simple way, he was nothing more than a helpless boy.

The following refer to Lee Kuan Yew's testimony or rather the lack of it.

Chee asked him whether he came to power through unfair means in 1959, as shown by declassified British Colonial Office documents in London? Question disallowed and the father shamefully just sits there, protected by his counsel Mr. Singh and the kangaroo judge.

Chee asks about his throwing Lim Chin Siong, his political compatriot, in jail under the ISA in solitary confinement for several years in the 1960s and whether this was a sign of a man with a reputation and integrity? Question disallowed and the father shamefully just sits there, protected by his counsel Mr. Singh and the kangaroo judge.

Chee asks about the Operation Cold Store in the 1960s where he jails political opponents because he fears he might be overthrown? Question disallowed and the father shamefully just sits there, protected by his counsel Mr. Singh and the kangaroo judge.

Chee asks about Chia Thye Poh, Zaid Zakaharia and Lim Hock Siew, his political opponents whom he imprisons without cause for many many years? Question disallowed and the father shamefully just sits there, protected by his counsel Mr. Singh and the kangaroo judge.

Chee asks whether the only people who have a good opinion of him are his state owned and controlled Singapore press, whereas everyone else in Singapore as well as the entire list of respectable foreign organizations and countries including the entire European Union consider him as a thug and small time street bully? Question disallowed and the father shamefully just sits there, protected by his counsel Mr. Singh and the kangaroo judge.

Other than the dubious Transparency International Kula Lumpur Chapter (not to be confused with Transparency International of Berlin Germany) he was asked whether anyone else considered him in high regard other than the local press which he controls? His answer was that PERC and a Swiss organization, both of whom cater for businessmen thought highly of him. But when asked whether highly respected Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Lawyers Without Borders, Reporters without Borders, ILRW and several other international bodies considered him a crook; he had nothing to say, because as usual the Jack Rabbit Davinder Singh stood up once again to object and the judge obediently sustained the objection.

Then Lee Kuan Yew went on to insult Dr. Chee with impunity, that he is a liar, a cheat a charlatan, a criminal and what not. Of course the judge permitted these insults, since after all Lee Kuan Yew and his son owned the courts and the judge as well.

These court proceeding were nothing more than a sham, a charade and a mockery of justice. It was very clear that both father and son had no integrity or credibility whatsoever. They were ruling Singapore through fear and those who are able to leave the country leave it in droves, only to be replaced by Mandarin speaking immigrants from the Peoples Republic of China who speak no English at all.

If there was one result of these proceedings it was this. Dr. Chee' impeccable reputation was vindicated. He came out of these proceedings truly as the statesman that he is, and he demolished these two petty thugs Lee and his son, perhaps not in this Singapore kangaroo court, but truly in the court of truth and conscience.

And in fact despite the objection of Mr. Singh and Belinda Ang, Dr. Chee Soon Juan did manage to say to both father and son, that regardless of what the court decides, in the court of natural justice, in the court of truth and in the court of moral conscience, they had that day lost all moral authority to govern Singapore.

I believe, not only me, but every single person who walked away from that courthouse yesterday came away with that same judgment.

As the Lees know, I am a lawyer practicing in Fremont California and a member of the California Bar. My question to Lee Kuan Yew and his son is this. Are you going to stand by your threat and sue me for defamation as well? I am presently physically within your jurisdiction and the jurisdiction of your kangaroo courts. Are you going to going to send your process server to me with your writ of summons? Or are you, as expected, all talk and no action, when you meet those not afraid of you, just as how a petty street thug would behave?

Gopalan Nair
Broadway Hotel,
Serangoon Road, Singaproe

May 29, 2008