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"He did not
pay because it was partly a matter of principle...
...It's
ridiculous that they even flagged a fine on a bankrupt."
Chee Soon Juan
has been jailed five times since 1999 for speaking in public
without a permit, and...
...for
questioning the independence of Singapore's judiciary.
Singapore's
leaders maintain that Western-style liberal democracy is not
suitable for the tiny, multi-racial nation.
They dismiss
criticism from human rights groups who have said the government
uses libel laws to silence critics.
The leaders say they
have to protect their reputations.
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Singapore
jails opposition leader over bid to leave
Reuters
05
Sep
07
http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-29339820070905
Singapore
has jailed a prominent opposition leader for three weeks after he
failed to pay a fine for trying to leave the city-state without
permission from the government, as required of him as a
bankrupt.
Chee Soon Juan, an outspoken critic of the
government and leader of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP),
was fined S$4,000 ($2,621) after he tried to leave in April last
year to attend a democracy conference in Turkey, his sister Chee
Siok Chin said.
Under Singapore's laws, bankrupts who
leave the city-state without permission from the government may
be fined up to S$10,000 or jailed up to two years.
Chee,
who has had multiple run-ins with the Singapore government, was
declared bankrupt in February 2006 after he failed to make libel
payments of S$500,000 to former prime ministers Lee Kuan Yew and
Goh Chok Tong.
"He did not pay because it was partly
a matter of principle," said Chee Siok Chin, also a senior
SDP member. "It's ridiculous that they even flagged a fine
on a bankrupt."
Chee Soon Juan has been jailed five
times since 1999 for speaking in public without a permit, and for
questioning the independence of Singapore's judiciary.
A
neuropsychologist by training, Chee was sacked from his job as a
lecturer at the National University of Singapore in 1993 after he
was accused of improperly using S$226 for postage.
The
Hong Kong-based Far Eastern Economic Review magazine - owned by
Dow Jones - is being sued by Lee and Prime Minister Lee Hsien
Loong after it featured Chee last year criticising the
government's handling of a pay-and-perks scandal at Singapore's
largest charity.
Chee's party did not win any parliament
seats in last year's May poll, but won 23 percent of the votes in
the wards it contested.
Bankrupt Singapore
activist jailed
AFP
05 Sep
07
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jQghnEXmyBZ8iR7YVQeQ5bUtiZfA
A
bankrupt pro-democracy activist who has repeatedly spoken out
against Singapore's rulers has begun a three-week jail sentence,
his sister said Wednesday.
It is the second time in less
than a year that Chee Soon Juan has been jailed.
Chee,
secretary general of the Singapore Democratic Party, was locked
up after the High Court on Tuesday dismissed his appeal against a
conviction for attempting to leave the city-state without
permission.
A lower court convicted him in February of
trying to leave the country last year without permission of the
official in charge of his bankruptcy.
Chee was fined 4,000
dollars (2,627 US) and faced the jail term if he did not pay.
He
was declared bankrupt in February last year for failing to pay
500,000 Singapore dollars in libel damages to Singapore's
founding father Lee Kuan Yew and former prime minister Goh Chok
Tong.
"As a result of the unsuccessful appeal, the
Singapore Democrat Party secretary general has begun his prison
term at the Queenstown Remand Prison," said a statement late
Tuesday from his party.
Chee's sister, Chee Siok Chin,
told AFP that his wife and three children, aged three, five and
eight, were able to meet him at the court before he was taken
away.
"That was the main thing, that he got to see
his kids and kiss them goodbye," she said.
In
November and December he served three weeks in prison after he
refused to pay a fine of 5,000 Singapore dollars in a separate
case.
He and two of his supporters were jailed for
speaking without a permit during party activities ahead of May
general elections won overwhelmingly by the conservative People's
Action Party (PAP), which has ruled since 1959.
Singapore's
leaders maintain that Western-style liberal democracy is not
suitable for the tiny, multi-racial nation. They dismiss
criticism from human rights groups who have said the government
uses libel laws to silence critics. The leaders say they have to
protect their reputations.
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