AP: Singapore-Chee's Challenge (fwd

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Subject: AP: Singapore-Chee's Challenge (fwd)

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Dear Netters,
We can see the meaning of Asian's value in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia
and Burma.  Here is Singapore example.



>Associated Press 
>January 30, 1999
>
>Singapore-Chee's Challenge
>JASMINA KUZMANOVIC 
>
>SINGAPORE 
>
>
>Chee Soon Juan goes on trial Monday for an unprecedented challenge to
>Singapore's free speech restrictions that has created some buzz for
>the nation's weak opposition movement. 
>
>But the question is whether the 36-year-old politician has misjudged
>the readiness of people to support political reform in this closely
>regulated island state where opposition groups hold only three of
>Parliament's 84 seats. 
>
>Chee, leader of the tiny 200-member Singapore Democratic Party, faces
>trial because he ignored a requirement that he get a police permit to
>speak in public. He will have a separate trial on Feb. 9 on a second
>count of the same charge. 
>
>It is no small matter in Singapore. Each count carries a maximum
>penalty of a dlrs 3,000 fine and a possible five-year ban on running
>for office. 
>
>But the former university lecturer said in a speech Wednesday that he
>would rather go to jail than pay a fine, in order to focus attention
>on what he considers Singapore's unjust restrictions on speech and
>assembly. 
>
>''I'm trying to raise the level of consciousness of Singaporeans,''
>Chee told The Associated Press in an interview. 
>
>During one speech that resulted in the charges he read parts of the
>constitution to Singaporeans, who are often unaware of what the
>document says. 
>
>''It's time to break the atmosphere of fear, to say it's all right to
>criticize the government, to hold it accountable for its actions,'' he
>said. This ''entire generation of Singaporeans have grown up reading
>just one paper and listening to just one TV station. It's time for
>change.'' 
>
>This thriving financial center has been controlled for 40 years by the
>People's Action Party. The government bans movies or videos made or
>distributed by political parties, including campaign ads. It controls
>the sole TV corporation and only newspaper publishing house. Police
>can detain people indefinitely without charge, and opposition
>politicians are frequent losers in libel suits brought by government
>leaders. 

>
>The constitution guarantees freedom of speech and assembly. But the
>governing party has imposed tight restrictions on civic activity,
>citing fears about the emotions that could be generated in discussions
>of political, religious, ethnic and language differences in
>Singapore's multiethnic society of 3.1 million people. 
>
>Police have the power to deny requests for speaking permits, including
>at indoor functions. They can order the timing or the venue changed,
>sometimes to inconvenient or more expensive locations. 
>
>Chee argues that permits, when they are granted, can take up to six
>weeks and are often issued at the last minute in a city that prides
>itself on efficiency. 
>
>He wants all that changed, even if he has to break the law. 
>
>But civil disobedience does not sit well with Singaporeans, most of
>whom believe the government is the guarantor of the nation's
>prosperity and racial harmony. 
>
>Although Chee attracted crowds of up to 600 at his speeches in the
>central business district, few of his countrymen feel his effort will
>succeed. 
>
>''It's a valiant campaign, but he's going up a huge mountain. The
>government is too powerful,'' said Kevin, a 28-year-old banker, who
>like many Singaporeans would not give his full name when talking to a
>foreign reporter. 
>
>Like other middle-class kids in rich Singapore, Chee studied in the
>West, earning a doctorate in psychology from the University of
>Georgia. He returned in 1990 to become a lecturer at the National
>University. 
>
>Then, in 1992, he joined the Singapore Democratic Party, which has
>never won a seat in Parliament. 
>
>Three months later he was fired for allegedly misusing dlrs 100 of his
>research funds. When Chee alleged that his dismissal was politically
>motivated, his boss, who is a member of the ruling party, won a
>defamation case for dlrs 235,000. 
>
>''We had to sell our house,'' Chee said. 
>
>He said he now supports himself and his wife, eight months pregnant,
>by selling his book, ''To Be Free,'' on the streets at lunch time. 
>
>The book is about Asia's political prisoners and democracy advocates,
>and was written in Australia over the past two years after Chee lost a
>bid for a Parliament seat in 1997. 
>
>During that campaign, a government-controlled newspaper ran a cartoon
>depicting Chee as a puppet in the hands of the foreign press. And
>government leaders now dismiss him as an attention-seeking,
>out-of-touch expatriate. 
>
>Bruce Gale, analyst for the Hong Kong-based Political and Risk
>Consultancy, feels Chee has mistimed his actions. 
>
>''Supposedly he was thinking that if Singaporeans are going to change
>the law, now is the time,'' Gale said, referring to Asia's recession
>and rising unemployment. ''But he must have known how they will
>react.'' 
>
>Chee, however, told the Foreign Correspondents Association on
>Wednesday that his defiance of the permit rules was only one step on a
>long road toward creating a ''level playing field'' in civic matters. 
>
>''I've been sacked, sued, fired, harassed and robbed of my career,
>robbed of the means to make a living,'' Chee said. ''When you push

>someone into a corner where there is no way out, he either submits or
>fights back. I have a family to raise and a party to lead.'' 
>
>
>Copyright 1999 Associated Press   
>
>
>
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