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A section of the
crowd
Jeyaretnam
taled about the ISA and CLTP
Jolovan
Wham talked about the importance of human rights in social work.
Alex Au in the background
 
Participant
after participant...
...speaking
up
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Singaporeans
come together to form group for human rights
24
Sep 07
At a forum held at the Allson Hotel yesterday, a
group of Singaporeans came together to push for human rights in
Singapore.
Motivated partly by the recent announcement
that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) would
include a mechanism to look into human rights issues in its
charter to be signed later this year, the forum participants
decided to form a group that would facilitate the development of
human rights in this country.
Moderator Mr Alex Au,
writer and gay rights activist, kicked off the session by
explaining how ASEAN had agreed to include a segment in its
charter that promised to respect the rights of its peoples. This
came about after years of engagement with civil societies within
and outside of ASEAN.
But in Singapore, as Mr Au noted,
there was little activity. He pointed out that Singapore lagged
behind our "less-developed" neighbours when it came to
the issue of human rights.
"We seem to be the
dullards of the class," he said. "Of the five founding
members of ASEAN (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand
and Singapore), Singapore is the only state that doesn’t
have a human rights commission."
Even the Cambodian
civil society has established a working group to get its
government to establish a human rights commission.
He
then called on the first speaker, Mr J B Jeyaretnam, to address
the audience which had swelled to about 80 (The Today
newspaper reported that the number was 50. A headcount of the
photo will show the newspaper lying yet again). Mr Jeyaretnam
spoke about the "complete disregard" of human rights
in Singapore where people can be arrested and imprisoned under
the Internal Security Act and the Criminal Law Temporary
Provisions without the Executive having to prove its case in a
court of law.
The opposition leader said that "it
was time" that Singaporeans came forward to campaign for a
body that would protect the rights of the people.
Forum
convenor, Mr M Ravi, spoke about the regional effort spearheaded
by Forum-Asia, a human rights NGO based in Bangkok, to form
"Task Force" groups in the various ASEAN countries.
He urged those present to sign up to form the
Singaporean Task Force, which would coordinate with their ASEAN
counterparts to push for an effective regional human rights
body. More than 40 did.
Social worker Mr Jolovan Wham
spoke of the need the public to recognize that human rights was
part and parcel of social work. Dealing with disenfranchised
segments of society such as the homeless and migrant workers, Mr
Wham said that the need for human rights in such circles was
natural and understandable.
Mr Isrizal, an independent
researcher in the arts community spoke next. He encouraged the
arts community not to shy away from standing up for human rights
and quoted the late playwright and author Kuo Pao Kun who was
detained under the ISA from 1976-1980:
"I’m
very concerned of this country as a working artist that we have
yet to effectively pry open and make valid a cultural space, a
space that has its own rights and laws of operation...The great
Chinese write Lu Xun said that progressive politics and
progressive art very often seem to be fellow travelers, partners
in struggle. But once that political movement assumes power,
their paths begin to part because it is the nature of every
political movement or party to hold on (to) power and perpetuate
its role; and it is in the nature of art to always pursue truth,
even to the extent of incurring the hostility of the ruling
powers."
Dr
Chee Soon Juan then spoke of the need for political and civil
rights to address some of the issues that the people are unhappy
with such as the proposed compulsory purchase of annuity by
Singaporeans.
Without human rights, he pointed out, the
people are not able to hold the Government accountable. He said
that while other peoples are actively campaigning for human
rights for their countries, it was the duty and responsibility
of Singaporeans to do the same for Singapore.
It was
pointed out in the course of the ensuing discussion period that
there were several upcoming conferences and forums being planned
in Singapore that would provide Singaporean human rights
defenders more opportunity to raise awareness and advance human
rights in this country.
Among them are the ASEAN Civil
Society Conference that would be held from 1-3 Nov 2007 that
would bring together ASEAN civil society groups to discuss human
rights vis-à-vis the ASEAN Charter to be signed in
mid-November.
Financial consultant, Mr Leong Sze Hian,
also informed those present about a similar conference to be
held from 27-28 Oct 2007. However, this event, understood to be
organised by the state-sponsored Singapore Institute for
International Affairs, may only be open to selected
individuals.
Dr Chee also informed the audience of the
upcoming conference of the International Bar Association and its
related events (click here)
and encouraged Singaporeans to be actively involved in these
activities.
"I have always advocated that the
Singaporean public must consulted and given every opportunity to
participate in events that affect their lives," he said.
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