Source: Ng Yi Sheng

UPDATED: 10 November 2008: “My Country and My People” in the 1970s, “Hill Street Blues” in 1981, and a whole bunch of events from this year…

• 2008: After opposition politician Dr Chee Soon Juan visits Nanyang Technological University to hand out flyers, student journalists at The Nanyang Chronicle write a news article on the unexpected visit. NTU President Su Guaning pulls the article a day before publication. A video news segment on the visit by The Nanyang Spectrum is also pulled off the air by the university’s corporate communications department after only three days of being available online. Students respond to the censorship with a protest at Speakers’ Corner. See here and here.
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WP Parliamentary Speech

by Sylvia Lim, NCMP

Malaysian National News Agency, 05 Apr 2008
Link

SINGAPORE, April 5 (Bernama) — Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew has defended the impending salary increase for ministers and told its critics to have “a sense of proportion” when debating the issue.

Lee said that for the average family earning S$1,500 or S$3,000 a month, the proposed salary increase might be an astronomical figure.

“But for people in government like me, having to deal with these sums of money which we have accumulated through the sweat of our brow over the last 40 years, you have to pay the market rate,” he told the Singapore media covering his visit to Australia published in The Straits Times today.

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TODAY, 05 Apr 2007

Take a step back and look at the bigger picture, as Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew would have Singaporeans do.

To an average family earning, say, $1,500 a month, a minister’s annual salary -$1.2 million at entry level — might seem “astronomical”.

But what if that paycheque comes with the responsibility for running a $210-billion economy?

Here is another comparison to put things into perspective. Political appointment-holders — from parliamentary secretaries to ministers — take home $46 million in total a year.

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Channel News Asia, 04 Apr 2007
CNA link

SYDNEY: Singapore cannot afford to have a “revolving door” style of government where top leaders change every five years.

Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said the country needs good, competent people who will stay.

And this is why they must be paid market rates.

Mr Lee was speaking to reporters in Sydney at the end of his visit to Australia and New Zealand.

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On DEMOCRACY

“If you believe in democracy, you must believe in it unconditionally. If you believe that men should be free, then, they should have the right of free association, of free speech, of free publication. Then, no law should permit those democratic processes to be set at nought.”
- Lee Kuan Yew as an opposition leader, April 27, 1955

“If we are to survive as a free democracy, then we must be prepared, in principle, to concede to our enemies – even those who do not subscribe to our views – as much constitutional rights as you concede yourself.”
- Opposition leader Lee Kuan Yew, Legislative Assembly Debates, Sept 21, 1955

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21 July 2008

The politically motivated persecution of Anwar Ibrahim is getting ridiculous and absurd, not to mention manifestly unjust.

It is amazing the Malaysians have the brazen audacity to subject Anwar Ibrahim to a repeat of the 1998 sodomy allegations, charges which were later overturned in 2004 by Malaysia’s highest Court.

That those charges were overturned proves that Anwar’s original conviction was not made beyond reasonable doubt, and that the same charges are now repeated just at the precise moment that Anwar has a real possibility of engineering a change of Government removes all doubt in my mind that those charges are fabricated and politically motivated.

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This is my response to Mr Syu Ying Kwok’s letter to the Straits Times Forum page published on 08 July 2008 (print edition).

In the letter entitled “Five years? MM Lee’s estimate was optimistic”, Mr Syu argues that with modern telecommunications and banking infrastructure which allows trillions of dollars to be transferred out of Singapore in an instant if the current leaders and their policies change overnight, Singapore’s success might be undone within “within weeks”.

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26 June 2008

Once again, MM Lee Kuan Yew has unleashed his old, tired brand of propaganda. He told around 650 participants of a dinner forum at the Shangri-La Hotel on Wednesday that one freak election result is all it will take to wipe out Singapore’s success. This is an old refrain that he has used repeatedly before.

MM Lee warned that a freak result could happen if voters became bored and decided to give the “vociferous opposition” a chance — out of “light-heartedness, fickleness or sheer madness”.

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24 June 2008

“The cure to all this talk is really a good dose of incompetent government,” Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew told the Straits Times on 5 Apr 2007 while speaking on the subject of Ministerial pay and the grouses people had over them.

This year, we got that “dose of incompetent government” from the Ministry of Home Affairs which has committed one serious blunder after another.

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23 June 2008

The headline in the Straits Times newspaper screamed “Govt doesn’t make money from ERP”. I cringed.

As I expected, the points raised in the article were mostly hogwash.

The article begins with Labour Chief Lim Swee Say’s lament that he pays a hefty sum on ERP charges because he passes through many gantries to and from work. Apparently, Mr Lim was in the midst of making the point that ERP exists solely to control road congestion and not to enrich government coffers.

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21 June 2008

The PAP’s Organising Secretary (Special Duties), Dr Ng Eng Hen, has hit out strongly at the Worker’s Party, in particular, its Secretary-General Low Thia Khiang, in the latest edition of Petir, the official PAP magazine.

In an article entitled “Credible Opposition: Taking A Clear Stand”, Dr Ng Eng Hen, who is also the Minister for Education and Second Minister for Defence, criticized the WP for failing to make its stand clear on important issues at critical points. He said that Low Thia Khiang, who is also the MP for Hougang, was often “quick to criticise, yet offers no serious proposals”.

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20 June 2008

On 18 April, a group of 13 bloggers, which included myself, submitted a paper to the Minister for Information, Communication and the Arts entitled “Proposals for Internet freedom in Singapore”.

The paper outlines the various defects in current media laws and regulations governing internet content in Singapore, such as instituting vague restrictions which gives authorities too much leeway in interpretation of the law, conferring arbitrary power on the Media Development Authority (MDA) to penalize owners of websites that in its judgment have violated MDA’s own rules, and the regulation of political content which is unjustified in principle and unenforceable in practice.

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10 June 2008

My first foray into the issue of human rights was as a speaker at a forum on an ASEAN human rights mechanism held on 18 Nov 2007, organized by the advocacy group SG Human Rights.

At that time, ASEAN was holding its annual summit in Singapore. The issue of Burma and the atrocities committed by the junta was of grave concern to all of us, especially our Burmese friends in Singapore.

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08 June 2008

Although I have been a contributor to the Straits Times Forum page now and then, I know full well that it is a well-oiled propaganda machine designed to support the establishment and spin the yarn of the PAP Government.

Throughout the entire hearing of PM Lee’s and MM Lee’s defamation suit against SDP leaders Dr Chee Soon Juan and his sister Ms Chee Siok Chin, the Straits Times has been telling the story in a one-sided fashion, demonizing the Chee siblings as inept trouble-makers out to create a political theatre out of a court case and peppering the court proceedings with irrelevant questions, questionable antics, even outright lies.

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04 June 2008

I visited Worker’s Party Open House on 02 Jun, Monday, because I wanted to clarify some things with them, in particular, their opinion on the rule of law in Singapore.

The recent events concerning the conviction and incarceration of Dr Chee and Ms Chee for contempt of court, as well as the arrest of Gopalan Nair for insulting a High Court Judge, weighed heavily on my mind.

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04 June 2008

I have been following the recent events concerning the arrest and remand of Mr Gopalan Nair for insulting High Court Judge Belinda Ang, as well as the rapid conviction and incarceration of the Chee siblings for contempt of court with great sadness in my heart.

The harsh treatment of these people would make anyone who was not in the know think that they had committed a serious felony like robbery or arson.

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27 May 2008

On 21 Apr, DPM Wong Kan Seng gave an update to Parliament on how Mas Selamat Kastari escaped, and on Monday 26 May, he explained to Parliament the various disciplinary measures taken against those deemed responsible for the escape. In the interim period, the Ministry of Home Affairs has also given periodic updates on the latest developments in the ongoing search and investigation.

So far, all aspects of the saga have been explained or elaborated on except for one crucial facet: DPM Wong’s own culpability in the matter.

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