11 October 2002
I refer to the Strait Times’s article of Sept 27: JI members: Not poor, not stupid, not marginalised.
I say this to the PAP Government of Singapore: Give them a fair trial in open court.
Before this article was published the PAP Government and the Straits Times have already labelled these detainees as “terrorists”, claiming that evidence have been found.
Further, the article refers to: “But these ‘foot soldiers’ knew they were surveying and photographing local installations for future attacks, Mr Wong said.” The vital word is “knew”.
The question is not why they don’t “let legalities get in the way of swift action”. Rather, the question is: are the evidence genuine? Did they confess voluntarily? Are the evidence fabricated? Did they “admit and cooperate”?
Granted the Internal Security Department did their part with swift action. If the evidence are genuine, Mr Wong should know that under the law the detainees could be prosecuted, even for attempt or conspiracy. Don’t tell me he doesn’t know the law.
Remember Chia Thye Poh, accused of being a communist, he lost 32 years, the best years of his life, as a political dissident, including some time confined to a fortress on the island of Sentosa, if I remember correctly.
What does Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto advocate? The French Code Penal classifies terrorism as a crime. As at 1 October 2002 the French Senate comprises 6 political groups with 321 Senators among whom are 23 members belonging to the Communist Republican and Citizens Group. Karl Marx is buried in Highgate Cemetery, London.
Is the Singapore PAP Government saying that terrorism is a “political crime”?
Are the detainees ethnic-Singaporean-Malays or are they Cheap-foreign-imports-become-Singapore-Citizens? Do ethnic-Singaporeans have fewer rights than Cheap-foreign-imports-become-Singapore-Citizens?
You want to know why there are those who join terrorist groups? I can forward one theory. I define ethnic-Singaporeans as all those ethnic and racial groups in Singapore as at 9 August 1965: Cheap-foreign-imports-become-Singapore-citizens-and-sit-in-Parliament, ethnic-Singaporeans have fewer rights.
Does the world know that the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, among others, were tributary states of “ancient China”? Don’t confuse this “ancient China” with today’s “People’s Republic of China”.
Yours truly,
JH