Friday, April 23, 2010

Singapore judges who retire in shame.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In Singapore, unlike anywhere else, judges always retire in secrecy. Their whereabouts are not usually revealed and nothing further is heard of them thereafter.

Some manage to go abroad but no one knows where exactly they are or what they do. Some remain in Singapore to live out the remaining years of their lives but in almost total secrecy.

Take TS Sinnathuray, Lee Kuan Yew's handpicked right hand man, responsible for an entire disgraceful career of using the law to silence, bankrupt and imprison his master's (Lee Kuan Yew's) political opponents.

Recall he was the judge to repeatedly bankrupt and fine the late JB Jeyaretanm to please Lee Kuan Yew. He appeared to have no conscience at all.

It was he that fined me $8,000.00 in 1991 for a statements I made at an election rally in the Bukit Merah elections of that year, totally harmless statements, such as the need for reform in the system of appointing Subordinate Court judges.

Numerous foreign newspapers were fined hundreds of thousands of dollars merely for having made unflattering remarks about Lee Kuan Yew.

Recently Singapore's state controlled newspapers reported him being awarded a medal for good work as a judge. Other than that, nothing more has been heard of him. Noone knows even where he exactly lives in Singapore.

GP Selvam, a Tamil, was another such man. In about 1993, while I was in the US, 3 Singapore judges, one of whom was this man, had ordered be suspended from practicing law there for 2 years merely for questioning the then Attorney General of Singapore, Tan Boon Tiek on certain developments about the late JB Jeyaretnam.

Today he runs a law practice in Singapore in partnership with his wife also a Tamil, his daughter and her Tamil lawyer husband. Apparently he does well out of government contracts given to him by Lee's government, no doubt the reward for all the years of dirty work faithfully carried out to silence and put away Lee's critics.

He too lives a quiet obscure life. Nothing much is heard about him.

The pattern for Lee Kuan Yew seems to be to use such men and women with neither principles nor a conscience, who do his dirty work misusing the law to destroy his political opponents.

Once that is done, he literally puts them out to grass, like an old workhorse who has done his bidding and now put out to grass the remaining years of their pathetic lives.

One reason why nothing much is said about men such as TS Sinnathuray is perhaps also for their own good. After all, if Sinnathuray is seen often in public, would not another Singaporean disgusted by his evil manifestation, may even throw a brick at him, or even worse.

If you live in shame, you have to do it in secret. There is no other way out for them. One may even feel sorry for them. It is bad enough for people like TS Sinnathuray to have to struggle with their conscience. What is worse is to have to hide from their fellow citizens the rest of their lives.

Gopalan Nair
39737 Paseo Padre Parkway, Suite A1
Fremont, CA 94538, USA
Tel: 510 657 6107
Fax: 510 657 6914
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Blog: http://singaporedissident.blogspot.com/

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6 comments:

mycroft said...

Uneasy lies the kangaroo that wears the judge's gown. I know that at least from the 60s onwards, judges were offered a pistol and entitled to carry a concealed weapon for personal protection. How many were wandering the streets of Singapore packing heat then I don't know but there was for sure more than one.

Don't be too rude to Belinda, Gopalan. God only knows what she's got in her handbag or tucked into her knickers!

Anonymous said...

"We must fight, fight and fight for our liberties" - quote by the late Michael Foot, leader of UK Labour party.

Sunny said...

Harry is modern mafia of Singapore version.

The different from Sicily mafia, Harry can use judges, state police,HDB, IRAS, URA, ISD and other goverment body to intimidate or " kill " his political opponent.

Anonymous said...

Dear GN,

No reply from Lee Kuan Yew on petition sent by 15 year old Singaporean to him to apologize
April 26th, 2010 | Author: Your Correspondent

It has been nearly a month since a petition was emailed to the PAP MPs on 27 March 2010 and as a letter to the Prime Minister’s Office, Istana and Lee Kuan Yew’s Residence calling for for Lee to apologize for making disparaging remarks about Singaporeans during an interview with National Geographic magazine, but there was no response from anybody on the matter, according to the petition organizer Kenneth Lin.

Kenneth is a 15 year old Singaporean currently studying in a Singapore school. He started the online petition in February and sent hard copies to the above recipients after it garnered 500 signatures.

He has also started a Facebook group calling on Lee to apologize for his remarks which has more than 600 members so far.

The remarks in contention from the article are:

“Over time, Singaporeans have become “less hard-driving and hard-striving. That is why it is a good thing that the nation has welcomed so many Chinese immigrants (25 percent of the population is now foreign-born).

and

“But taking a typically Darwinian stance, the MM describes the country’s new subjects as “hungry,” with parents who “pushed the children very hard.” If native Singaporeans are falling behind because “the spurs are not stuck into the hide,” that is their problem.”

In an email interview with Temasek Review, Kenneth said he started the petition because he is “sick” of Lee making insensitive remarks about Singaporeans which shows that he is completely out of touch with the ground.

He added that he is not afraid of getting into trouble with the authorities as he strongly believes in what he is doing.

Lee is the one of the founders of the ruling PAP which has governed Singaporeans for 50 continuous years. He was the Prime Minister of Singapore from 1959 to 1990 and currently holds the honorific title of “Minister Mentor”.

By his own admission, he is not doing much work except “forecasting”. His son is the present Prime Minister of Singapore.

Though Singapore is a democracy in name, it resembles more of a totalitarian state like North Korea where the police is often used to monitor and harass political dissenters.

International NGO Human Rights Watch described Singapore as a “textbook example of a politically repressive state” in its latest annual report this year.

You can find the Facebook here http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&gid=220683258665

You will find more details here.
http://www.jialat.com/2010/02/17/kenneth-lin-15-year-old-who-started-a-petition-against-mr-lky/

Anonymous said...

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/lkyapologise/#sign_petition

THE PETITION

We, the undersigned, request for the full, unreserved and
public apology to the people of Singapore from Mr Lee Kuan Yew, NRIC No.
S0000003E of 10 Oxley Rise, Singapore 090001, elected Minister Mentor of the
Singaporean Parliament, which we very much deserve over the spate of remarks that he made in an interview to the
National Geographic magazine(http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/01/singapore/jacobson-text/3).


The remarks in contention from the article are "Over time, the MM says,
Singaporeans have become "less hard-driving and hard-striving." This is why it
is a good thing, the MM says, that the nation has welcomed so many Chinese
immigrants (25 percent of the population is now foreign-born). He is aware that
many Singaporeans are unhappy with the influx of immigrants, especially those
educated newcomers prepared to fight for higher paying jobs. But taking a
typically Darwinian stance, the MM describes the country's new subjects as
"hungry," with parents who "pushed the children very hard." If native
Singaporeans are falling behind because "the spurs are not stuck into the hide,"
that is their problem."

It is especially deplorable that such insensitive remarks can be issued forth
from the very person responsible for the social engineering of our Nation to the
state of being it is today. By forcing through dubious policies that have
largely tanked, such as the Stop At 2 policy, Graduate Mothers scheme, Mr Lee
Kuan Yew's irresponsible attempts at altering the demographics of our society
have left the present leadership no choice but to import foreign workers in such
large numbers in such a short period of time in order to make up for the
shortfall in labour requirements. This has led to widespread disgruntlement and
social unrest in amongst the citizenry.


To then turn around and put the blame on the citizenry for being "less
hard-driving and hard-striving" is utterly reprehensible, when Singaporeans are
already clocking one of the longest working hours in the world, but yet their
wages continue to slip (source:http://www.asiaone.com/Business/News/Office/Story/A1Story20100105-189718.html).
This act of hitting at Singaporeans through the international media,
of the very people he had been elected to serve, in the midst of what many claim
to be the worst recession in this present era, shows an appalling lack of
empathy to the hardships of the citizenry.


We, the citizens of Singapore, did not elect him into his current position,
pay him one of the highest salary amongst all the politicians in the world, only
to have him talk down to us.
*The phrase "the spurs are not stuck into the hide" is a term used only for animals, and I think I speak for all Singaporeans when I say that I certainly do not approve of him saying that*. In order to assuage
this grievous insult he has inflicted upon the collective psyche of the
Singaporean people, we ask that a full, unreserved public
apology be made if he hopes to retain any semblance of goodwill amongst the
citizenry.

The Undersigned.

Sunny said...

That Harry, arrogant b******d would not apologise to singaporean for his wrong doing.