Singapore. Another of Lee's dirty trick to win elections. Abusing the Sub Judice rule.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Another dirty trick that Lee used to win the last elections in 2006 was abusing the Sub Judice rule. The Sub judice rule states that when an action has been filed in court, any discussion about it publicly is forbidden lest the court hearing the case will be biased by reason of the public discussion.

The last general elections was held in Singapore in May 2006. More than 10 months earlier, Dr. Chee had written an article in his publication the Democrat criticizing the lack of transparency in the National Kidney Foundation, a public charity which resulted in misuse of public funds in it, and stating that the government should be equally concerned about their own management lest the same thing happens to them as what had happened at the National Kidney Foundation.

As expected, Lee Kuan Yew, having very delicate nerves, as he certainly appears to have, would have taken umbrage and forthwith sued Dr. Chee for defamation of character for which he is world renowned . But he did not do so immediately. He had planned the elections to take place in May of 2006. Therefore he waited a while before filing suit. About a month before the elections he sues Dr. Chee for the article about the NKF breaches in the Democrat which appeared a long time ago. The reason for this was clear. If Lee Kuan Yew has the case filed in court before the elections, Dr. Chee will not be able to raise it in the hustings, a very valuable issue for the oppostion. This way he silences the opposition on an important point which would have clearly advanced the position of the opposition, had they been able to raise the illegalities in the NKF.

This is yet another dirty trick that Lee Kuan Yew used to win the last elections. It is quite clear by now to anyone that if Lee Kuan Yew did not use the shameful litany of tricks and illegalities, it is quite clear to me and to any observer that he would not have won the last election. In any case, as Lee Kuan Yew has no qualms to engage in all sorts of dirty tricks to remain in power, I guess he would have won anyway. He would have stuffed the ballot boxes to win, if he knew that he was not going to.

I was in Singapore during the last elections. At one of the rallies of the Singapore Democratic Party, at Woodlands, the police were at hand to specifically inform the SDP speakers that Dr. Chee is not allowed to speak from the stage and that no reference could be made to the NKF issue. The SDP candidates were held to ransom, so to speak to comply with these unjust demands. Held to ransom, because they must comply and if not, Lee Kuan Yew would have disqualified the candidates from standing. Surely this is a low down despicable dirty trick on the part of Lee Kuan Yew. Having no choice, since they risked being disqualified, they had to submit to these unreasonable and unlawful demands of Lee Kuan Yew.

For those interested in this issue, this is clearly a wrong use of the sub judice rule. This rule in English law came about because in England, where there are jury trials, juries being laymen, may be swayed by public discussion for the issues in the case, one way or the other. The fear is therefore that they would assume their duties being biased as a result of influence from the public discussion. Therefore the need to forbid public discussion of the issues before the court, until after the trial. Quite a reasonable rule. Reasonable if you have juries made up of laymen.

But in Singapore, you do not have juries. Judges try all cases. Judges being trained in law can resist any temptation to bias, however much the public discussion. Therefore in all countries where trials are by judge alone, this rule is inapplicable.

Lee Kuan Yew conveniently hides the exception to this rule in Judge alone trials, and claims with no shame whatsoever that the sub judice rule also applies in Singapore. Since he has no shame and will stoop to any lengths to win the elections for him and his family members to remain in power, I have said this before and I will say it again. You have to have mass public protests to demand your rights. Otherwise you will remain slaves.

Gopalan Nair
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