THE TEMASEK REVIEW

By Richard Lu

The foundation of a free society is the general level of morality.  If there is no morality or accountability, freedom does not work.  Freedom is the absence of interference with the sovereignty of an individual and when that morality becomes unimportant, we lose our freedom and we head towards a dictatorship.  This has happened to Singapore.

Our generation of the Sixties and Seventies failed to understand the importance of morality / amorality.  For dictatorship to take root, morality of the people must firstly be eroded.   In the case of Singapore, the erosion was subtle – little by little – employment, economic progress, material gains, the 5 C’s, etc.  

How we sold ourselves cheap!  Look at these:

The Newspaper and Printing Presses Act (NPPA of 1974) and subsequent legislations effectively put the media in the hands of the Government.

In 1986 Mr. Francis Seow became the President of the Law Society.  He attempted to involve the Law Society to comment and check on legislations that the Government had then rushed through unrestricted and without appropriate and quality parliamentary debate. Then-PM Lee Kuan Yew had him castigated.   And to ensure that lawyers could not repeat their acts of disobedience, then-PM Lee introduced amendments to the Legal Profession Act that barred the Law Society from commenting on existing or proposed legislation, unless its views were specifically sought by government.

In 1988 the GRC was imposed on us and in 1992 the Elected President.  All these were fiat accompali, thrust upon us seemingly innocuously at first. 

The decimation of the opposition ranks mainly through foul methods;

Lastly the lack of transparent separation of powers between the Elections Department and the ruling party should be clear for all to see. 

As a matter of fact, Goh Chok Tong admitted in 2006 that the GRC system is a method to enable new PAP candidates to win election easily.  So what is this telling us?  Younger Singaporeans must awake or we will soon we will vote either PAP Team A, PAP Team B or even a PAP Team C – the election process merely a sham democratic exercise.

Tang Liang Hong was accused for being a Chinese chauvinist made a bankrupt and had to flee Singapore.  Today Singapore leaders’ noses are deep in the butts of the powers-that-be in China.  What hypocrites!  

There is a lack of morality in the present Government from the Ministerial salaries to the appointment of the Judiciary.  In a recent interview, Dr. Lim Hock Siew said his integrity (and that of Chai Thye Poh, Zaid Zahari, Dr. Poh Soo Kai, Lim Chin Siong, etc.) was sustained by 17 years in jail but the integrity of the Ministers and Government leaders are sustained by their shamelessly high salaries!

On 18 July 2008, Singapore together with ASEAN called on Myanmar to release all political prisoners.  Political prisoners are not only found in the confines of prisons.  Political exiles, asylum-seekers and conscientious political objectors are also prisoners.  Ayn Rand quotes “The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.”  We are arriving towards this end for the Government sadly lacks morality. 

Chia Thye Poh, Dr. Lim Hock Siew, Dr. Poh Soo Kai, Francis Seow, Said Zahari, Tan Wah Piow, Tang Hong Liang and others who have sacrificed much because in the words  of Aung San Suu Kyi “It is not power that corrupts but fear.  Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.”

I now call MM Lee and PM Lee to do two things: to go back to Confucian basics to practice morality and be moral guides to the rest of society.  We call on them to cultivate themselves morally, show filial piety and loyalty where these are due and cultivate humanity, or benevolence.  Isn’t this the gracious society they countenance?

Give us back our original constitution (minus Elected President, GRC, etc.) as in the words of Patrick Henry: “The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government”. 

Finally let me quote my then-1955 hero Lee Kuan Yew and ask him to re-examine what he said and ask if he deviated:

”If you believe in democracy, you must believe in it unconditionally. If you believe that men should be free, then, they should have the right of free association, of free speech, of free publication. Then, no law should permit those democratic processes to be set at nought ,…. “ – Lee Kuan Yew, Legislative Assembly Debates April 27, 1955.

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