Singaporeans
appeal
Open letter from a group of Singaporeans.
WE are a group of Singaporeans presently working and living in Singapore.
Our country is on the verge of being tyrannised. Injustice has exceeded all limits of tolerable thresholds.
We are hereby launching Operation Justice in an attempt to bring about some justice in the wayward system in Singapore.
1. Ultimate aim of this operation:
To advocate that the court cases of Mr Tang Liang Hong (Western style: Mr Liang-Hong Tang) to be tried in an International Court.
2. Background of the situation in Singapore:
Singaporean Ministers are among the highest paid ministers around the world. (Average : S$120,000 = US$83,333 per month) However, they are presently more interested in seeking personal interests instead of governing the country to make it more prosperous and viable. One of the ways of protecting their personal interests is to ensure that they themselves stay in power. Thus, any opposing voices from any credible sources will be destroyed and perished in Singapore.
3. Background of Mr Tang:
Mr Tang is a lawyer by profession. He is also the former chairman of the management committee of the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and a member of the Hwa Chong management committee member, which looks after a secondary school and a junior college.
4. The case:
Related:
Tang Liang Hong legal saga
Mr Lee Kuan Yew (senior minister and former prime minister of Singapore) and his son, Mr Lee Hsien Loong (deputy prime minister) each received a discount of S$700,000 (US$486,111) from Hotel Properties Limited (HPL) to buy condominium units. This event was somehow made known to the general public and sparked off speculation that such practices were corruptions.
Mr Lee and son maintained that there was nothing wrong with such purchases. These purchases were "normal" and "legalised". Subsequently, Mr Lee and his son donated S$1,400,000 to a local charity.
Mr Tang was interviewed by Yazhou Zhoukan (Asia Weekly), a Hong Kong based magazine and was asked to comment on the above purchases. Mr Tang suggested that such cases should be referred to the Corruption Practices Investigation Bureau. The editor of the Asia Weekly published Mr Tang’s comments in their Mandarin magazine. Mr Lee and son sued Asia Weekly for a sum exceeding S$800,000 (US$554554,017). Asia Weekly admitted manipulating Mr Tang's words, paid up the fine and gave a public apology unreservedly.
Mr Tang was subsequently ousted from the Hwa Chong management committee, a position which he had held for 20 years.
Thereafter, Mr Joshua B Jeyaretnam invited Mr Tang to join his political party, Workers Party, which is an opposition party in Singapore. Mr Tang subsequently joined the party and stood for election on January 2, 1997.
During the election campaigns, the current prime minister, Mr Goh Chok Tong, and ten other ministers accused Mr Tang of being an "anti-Christian Chinese chauvinist". This accusation was based on these two statements made by Mr Tang. The first in a speech in August 1994 and the second at a seminar some time after.
The first statement was made in the context that the proportion of English-educated Christians in parliament is very high as compared to the whole of Singapore. (This is a fact!) As such, the interests of the common Singaporean may not be well-represented in the Parliament.
The second statement was made in the context that the Chinese population had been repressed in the society for far too long. We need to understand a bit of Singapore history to appreciate this statement.
Singapore had been a British colony since 1819. In the former days, British governmental officials only allowed the locals to hold low-ranking posts in the government. And the local population consisted mainly of Chinese. Therefore, a group of Chinese workers carrying a British high governmental official in a sedan chair was traditionally used as a metaphor to illustrate the different social standings during those times.
Even today, most of the top governmental officials are still English-educated and the non-English-educated population generally cannot go very far up in the hierarchy within the government.
Mr Tang has a good command of English, Mandarin and Malay and he also learned classical Indian dancing. His daughter is a Christian. So it is very difficult to believe that he is an "anti-Christian Chinese chauvinist".
During the election campaigns, Mr Tang was repeatedly accused by the ruling party of being "an anti-Christian Chinese chauvinist", an extremist and a very dangerous element in Singapore. They cautioned that Mr Tang should never be allowed to enter the Parliament at all costs. Mr Tang said those accusations were "lies" - in effect calling his accusers "liars".
During the campaign, Mr Tang received anonymous letters to take his life. Immediately after the elections, in which Mr Tang narrowly lost, he fled to Malaysia.
The ruling party, which is synonymous with the government, charged him of defamations. The government froze his total assets of S$11.2 million (US$7.6 million), raided his house in the middle of the night "to investigate" if he was evading taxes.
On March 9 the Singapore High Court struck Mr Tang's defences and entered judgements against him. On May 29, the court awarded S$8.08 million damages to Mr Lee and the other plaintiffs.
For six months Mrs Tang was prevented by the Singapore government from leaving the country.
Mr Tang is now a political refugee fighting a losing battle.
5. Singapore's style of administrating justice:
The judge presiding Mr Tang's trial, Justice Lai, was a former partner of Lee and Lee, the legal firm of which Mr Lee Kuan Yew was a former partner. Mr Lee's wife is still a consultant with the firm.
Justice Lai also bought a condominium unit (Nassim Jade) with huge discount from the same company, Hotel Properties Limited (HPL). Justice Lai signed the contract of sale and purchase on the same day (May 16, 1995) as Mr Lee and son themselves.
6. Our appeal to you::
To bring some justice to the wayward legal system in Singapore, we appeal that you try to help Mr Tang in the following ways.
3. Prime Minister Mahathir (Malaysia)
4. Parliamentary Human Rights Foundation
In particular, please state that your nationality if you are a Singaporean. This is to ensure that it is easier for them to help us Singaporeans since the case is requested by Singaporeans for Singapore.
Please also state your nationality to President Clinton if you are an American or to Prime Minister Mahathir if you are a Malaysian. This is to allow them to know that their own countrymen are also supportive of helping Singapore to seek justice.
If you know how to post articles on the Internet anonymously, please post this letter to any discussion forums, usenets or chatrooms. Thank you very much.
In the event that this operation fails and Mr Tang is not given a fair trial, then the operation will also at least let the world know what type of justice dissenting voices in Singapore face. We will let future historians to pass the ultimate judgement whether Singapore's political and judicial systems are fair and just.
7. Some declarations:
On the other hand, you may just add a disclaimer that you are not responsible for the content of this letter before forwarding this letter to others.
Mr Tang, if you ever get to read this letter, we thank you for all your selfless service you have rendered the nation in the area of education. This is reflected in the development of Nanyang Academy Of Fine Arts, the Chinese High and the Hwa Chong Junior College. We also thank you for all your contributions to the development of a stronger Chinese culture among Singaopreans. This is despite the fact that none of us in the group are from the above mentioned schools and not all of us are Chinese. Thank you very much indeed. You have done a lot for Singapore and it is time that we Singaporeans should do something for you.
One final question : why are we doing this if we have no personal gains at all?
The answer is very simple. All of us in the group are Singaporeans. Our forefathers have worked very hard to make Singapore what it is today. We are born here, we live here, we work here and we will probably die here. This is the place where our own families live and our children grow. All of us love our country.
We appreciate what the government has done for all of us and what it had done for the growth of Singapore. We know that Singapore probably cannot be what it is today if not for the hard work of the government.
On the other hand, we have to stand up for justice and democracy in Singapore. That is why we are undertaking this project. All of us know the risks involved. It is really dangerous. If any of our identities are ever exposed, we know that probably all of us will have to sacrifice ourselves and end up in jail. Our families will probably not be spared from the dangers of being arrested by ISD (secret police) or being sued to bankruptcy. Even our children will risk being segregated from the society.
If any of you think that we are exaggerating the risks, please send this whole letter to the PAP headquarters complete with your full name and NRIC number. Also remember to claim responsibility for the origination and mass distribution of this letter. Then see what will happen to yourself.
This is our country and our home. If we ourselves do not stand up for justice and democracy in Singapore and do not protect our own country from being tyrannised by power and politics, then who will do it for us? So we sincerely believe that this operation is a necessity for the future development of Singapore. For the sake of Singapore, we sincerely believe this potential sacrifice is worthwhile, even if it means costing our lives eventually.
Enough have been said of defending Singapore against external aggression. True Singaporeans must also defend Singapore from internal corruption. And this is the aim of Operation Justice.
Our greatest fear is not the fear of being caught by the authorities. It is the fear that Singaporeans will choose to think of their own interests. They will choose not to get involved in this project despite that fact that they feel that Mr Tang is facing gross injustice. In short, they do not mind living in a grossly unjust society simply because they do not want to get themselves into unnecessary troubles. However, we respect Singaporeans who choose not to get involved in this project if they sincerely believe that Singapore is still a just and democratic society.
Singapore will definitely collapse on the day when each Singaporean places his own interests above the interests of the nation. What will be the use of clinging onto our own self interests when the very nation we are living in is on the verge of decline, with the basic pillars of democracy and justice falling apart?
Always remember : Unity is strength. It is time that we should stand together and demand some justice in Singapore. Thank you very much.