Ladies and Gentlemen,
The recent Singapore national elections are clearly flawed because the state has disqualified certain citizens they don't like from standing for office.
They do this by using the country's judges to criminalize certain targeted individuals without cause or bankrupt them. Being fined above a certain amount, which is very low by the way, a mere $2,000 I believe, or a prison sentence of as low as 3 months can disqualify an individual. Disqualification also applied to bankrupts.
On the face of it, even though these thresholds for disqualification appear on the low side, these laws are justified as no country in the world wants criminals and those incapable of looking after their finances sitting in Parliament.
But you see that is not the case at all in Singapore. Take the case of the well known political opponent of Lee, Chee Soon Juan. Chee has not been able to stand for elections for several years now, as well as the last one this year, because he has been repeatedly fined above the limits set for qualification, repeatedly sent to jail and bankrupted. According to Lee Kuan Yew and his laws, Chee is a criminal and a bankrupt and therefore unfit to run.
But in truth, Chee is not a criminal at all, far from it. In fact he is, what one would call him anywhere else, an exemplary model citizen.
The numerous occasions when he was fined and imprisoned, sent to jail and bankrupted were all because he exercised his rights under the Constitution. He had peacefully protested the injustices of the PAP and the Lee family and he had written about it, resulting in his inability to pay the monstrous damages awards of millions of dollars, jailed and bankrupted.
Lee Kuan Yew uses his judges to selectively target his political opponents whom he considers threats to his power, who willingly create these false criminal charges and defamation of character lawsuits instituted by Lee Kuan Yew, and have them disqualified from running for public office.
Chee Soon Juan is a citizen of Singapore and under the Constitution entitled to hold public office. By the Singapore government disqualifying him from standing for elections, the entire national elections 2011 has been tainted by gross impropriety and fraud and therefore of no real effect in law or fact.
These elections should be nullified.
Chee is not the only one who has been disqualified. Gandhi Ambalam, the Chairman in Chee's party was also unable to run this time because he too had taken part in a number of peaceful protests against the government and as a result fined and jailed by the courts for an amount or time just enough to have him disqualified. Amabalam is not a criminal, far from it. But he is Lee's political opponent who therefore has to be removed from politics.
Yap Keng Ho, is another such person disqualified also for the same reason, peaceful protests. I know that a number of others too are in the same boat, disqualified for merely standing up to Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew and his government.
Every one of these men and women disqualified from standing for office would have run if they could and what is more, they could even have won.
But even if that is not so, the very fact that honest decent citizens are disqualified from running for office for nothing more than legitimate lawful acts guaranteed under the Constitution makes the entire elections just held null and void ab initio and of no effect.
And the first thing I would do, if I was one of the 6 opposition recently elected into Parliament would be to demand an explanation from Lee Kuan Yew and his son the Prime Minister to explain their actions. And if no satisfactory explanation is provided I would not stop there. I would stand outside Parliament holding up a placard and peacefully protest demanding an explanation.
I suppose if I did that, Lee Kuan Yew would have me charged in court, imposed a sufficient fine and threw me out of Parliament.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
39737 Paseo Padre Parkway, Suite A1
Fremont, CA 94538, USA
Tel: 510 657 6107
Fax: 510 657 6914
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Blog: http://singaporedissident.blogspot.com/
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2 comments:
Thanks for posting this.
Nothing frighten Lee Kuan Yew than having another Lee Kuan Yew in opposition.
But with the current lineup of PAP DSD* in govt, a slightly more capable opposition member will easily be a threat to the PAP cosy $600000-salary-is-peanuts club and cause sleep deprivation for the Old Man.
Lee Kuan Yew & his yes-men may have succeeded in making Chee Soon Juan's name a liability. This good man is very much an outcast in mainstream Singapore society today.
But with the Lee Kuan Yew era coming to an end, and a PAP losing its shine, it will be a national treason not to level the playing ground for the Opposition. For goodness sake, the Oppositions are not Singapore's enemies.
It is only a matter of time before Singaporeans realise that the PAP government is the one that need to be reined in by PROPER APPLICATION of law because it is leading Singapore toward retardance.
* departmental store dummies
Hi Gopalan
In your future blog, can you highlight the double standard. PAP ministers like Tharman and few others were convicted under Official secrets Act for insider dealing, somwhere in mid 80 or 90s.Yet Tharman can become the holder of second highest office in an elected govt, as contrasted with alternative party candidates, whose only wrong if it is wrong at all, is to speak out.
From
Charles lim
cllk1959@gmail.com
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