Conference 'to raise interest and awareness'

It was not, as Mr Low implied, as an exercise to "win Jeyaretnam, Chee or Tang the next election". The organisers of the conference maintain that the purpose was rather to raise interest and awareness in the difficulties of freedom of speech and political diversity in Singapore.

The association is a non-partisan group, and nowhere during the conference did any of the opposition politicians use it as a platform for their respective parties. Further, Fr James Minchin, gave two papers at the conference, giving overview analyses of the political climate in Singapore.

Regarding "fear or electoral engineering", these issues were discussed during the conference, and the validity and legitimacy of the general elections was questioned.

Indeed, for example in the 1997 elections, Prime Minister Goh and other PAP members were assembled inside the polling areas of certain constituencies contested between the PAP and opposition parties. This was contrary to the Parliamentary Elections Act.

However, the attorney general of Singapore conveniently overturned the complaint filed by the opposition. We believe that due to the fraught nature of both the judiciary, media and civil service in Singapore today, there is little hope for ordinary citizens to express independent views or to exercise independent political choices.

As can be seen by the example of just three citizens - Mr Tang Liang Hong, Dr Chee Soon Juan and Mr JB Jeyaretnam. Attempting to speak freely in Singapore is detrimental to one's reputation as well as one's financial well-being.

Little wonder then, that this conference had to take place in Sydney, Australia instead of Singapore. If Mr Low or other interested parties would like a window into political diversity in Singapore, they can look up our website for both conference and post-conference information at http://www.pactok.net/docs/singapore