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Media
Release: Stop harassing Mr Brown and let him speak freely 9
Jul 06
The
worst of the PAP’s pubescent mind has surfaced yet again
with the latest silencing of Mr Lee Kin Mun and the removal of
his newspaper column. It is an act worthy of a regime insecure
and untrusting of its own citizens.
It
is confirmation, as if more is needed, that the PAP governs from
a political fortress isolated and under siege. It dictates that
criticism and dissenting views are unwelcome, and moves swiftly
to eradicate them. The arbitrariness and
top-down-we-couldn’t-care-less-how-the-people-feel approach
is wielded with increasing frequency.
The treatment of Mr
Lee aka Mr Brown is not unlike that of Dr Catherine Lim in years
past. This is testimony to the fact that under the PAP –
whether it is Mr Lee Kuan Yew or Mr Goh Chok Tong or Mr Lee Hsien
Loong as prime minister – the wrapper may change but the
package remains decidedly antiquated.
Dr Vivian
Balakrishman then fans the flame by saying that "if someone
says something which we disagree with, we will say so. If someone
says something which is unhelpful we have a right to say it is
unhelpful.” The minister ignores the fact that citizens, in
whatever capacities, have just as much right to tell the
Government what we disagree with and find unhelpful about
policies that affect our lives.
Such disagreements between
the governors and those governed are bound to exist. The
attendant debate and their resolutions must, however, be carried
out in an open manner through the mass media – not shut
down with Communist-like excuses that no one understands, much
less believes.
The Singapore Democrats call on the
Government to stop harassing Mr Lee Kin Mun and to restore his
rights as a citizen to freely express his views. It goes without
saying that this can only be done if the PAP desists in its
unconstitutional control of the media.
The PAP needs to
catch up in its development with the rest of the Singapore.
Chee
Soon Juan
Secretary-General
Singapore Democratic Party
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