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Open
letter from SDP to WB and IMF chiefs
13
Sept 06
Mr Paul Wolfowitz
President
World Bank
Mr
Rodrigo de Rato y Figaredo
Managing Director
International
Monetary Fund
Dear Sirs,
On
behalf of the members of the Singapore Democratic Party, may I
extend a very warm welcome to you to Singapore.
Unfortunately,
I write to you under much less cheerful circumstances.
Apart
from the ban on outdoor protests during the WB-IMF Meetings, the
Singapore Government has also banned a rally and march for
Singaporeans scheduled on 16 September 2006.
The
"security" reasons given for the ban are but a
smokescreen. The Minister for Home Affairs said in 2003 that "The
government does not authorise protests and demonstrations of any
nature." In fact, I have been repeatedly prosecuted for
speaking in public without a permit since 1999. There is an
outstanding charge against two of my colleagues and I for
speaking in public without a licence during the election period
in April this year.
In August last year, four activists
conducting a silent protest to call for transparency and openness
in Singapore were met by the riot police. The judge then ruled
that the protesters' message was "incendiary" and that
Singaporeans cannot "picket public institutions"
because to do so would be to "question [their] integrity and
cast a slur on their reputation."
So is the
Singapore system as transparent and corrupt-free as it is made
out to be?
There are many reports of Singapore becoming
the center of money-laundering activities. A senior fund manager
in Asia commented that "Singapore has truly become the
global centre for parking ill-gotten gains." These funds are
believed to have even come from druglords operating in
Burma.
The Government of Singapore Investment Corporation
(GIC), of which Mr Lee Kuan Yew is the Chairman and his son,
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, is the deputy, handles about
S$100 billion of public funds. Yet, the GIC does not make public
its accounts. Singaporeans have no idea and no say in how the
Government manages this public money.
All this doesn't get
any attention because the Government owns and runs the entire
local media. Reporters Without Borders ranked Singapore 140th out
of 167 countries in its Global Press Freedom Index 2005, one spot
above Azerbaijan.
Making videos that carry political
content is prohibited. Podcasting was banned during the elections
in May 2006.
Even the foreign media in Singapore have
been sued and prosecuted into self-censorship. A senior
correspondent in Bangkok wrote: "The unfortunate result has
been…a foreign press corps that doesn't dare report
critically on the nepotism and cronyism that underpins
Singapore's development model."
And speaking of
lawsuits, my opposition colleagues and I have been sued
repeatedly for defamation by ruling party leaders and made
bankrupt when we cannot afford to pay the crippling damages that
are awarded to them by the judiciary. As bankrupts we are barred
from standing for elections. In my case, the Singapore Government
has even seized my passport and banned me from traveling
overseas.
As for the judiciary, its independence has
become the subject matter of an on-going legal wrangle involving
two business companies that will be heard in Canada's Supreme
Court in a few months. Does this inspire confidence in the rule
of law in Singapore that free trade so cherishes?
Our
elections are far from democratic. Freedom House wrote in its
annual report that "Singapore citizens cannot change their
government democratically." An international team that
studied the country's elections system concluded that "free
and fair elections do not exist in Singapore nor can we expect
the political system to open up in the future."
Prime
Minister Lee Hsien Loong gave us a glimpse of how his regime
works when he said during the 2006 elections: "Suppose you
had 10, 15, 20 opposition members in Parliament. Instead of
spending my time thinking what is the right policy for Singapore,
I'm going to spend all my time thinking what's the right way to
fix them, to buy my supporters' votes."
Without
freedom, free trade is untenable. Despotism plus globalization
equals exploitation. We need look no further than the Indonesia
under Suharto's rule. This is exactly the situation that we have
in Singapore and this is what our protest this Saturday is all
about.
Consider this: The incomes of the bottom 30 percent
of households in Singapore have fallen since 2000. According to
the latest UN Development Programme Report Singapore's income
inequality ranks at 105th in the world, between Papua New Guinea
and Argentina.
While the poor get poorer, Government
ministers continue to lavish themselves with salaries that are
highest in the world; Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong pays himself
three times more than President George W. Bush.
Through
all of this, Singaporeans have been thoroughly silenced. What you
are witnessing vis-à-vis the clampdown on WB-IMF activists
and protests is but the tip of the iceberg.
Workers have
no voice because the umbrella National Trades Union Congress is
headed by a cabinet minister and he has six deputies – all
of them ruling party members of parliament.
As if this
isn't bad enough, the wages of Singaporean workers are adjusted
by the National Wages Council which, by the way, has American,
German, and Japanese business representatives sitting in it. Is
there any other country that allows foreign nationals to help
determine the wages of its citizens? The exploitation is so bad
that domestic maids are not even allowed to have a day off from
work.
Sirs, we believe that for the free-market system to
serve the masses and not just the elite, there must be
transparency, openness and democracy. Economic progress and
political openness are two sides of the same coin.
This
Saturday a group of peace-loving but courageous Singaporeans are
defying despotism and going ahead with our peaceful assembly. We
do this because we love our country and we love democracy,
freedom and human rights.
The Singapore Government has
vowed to stop us. We want to alert you to this matter and would
even invite you to come and observe first-hand the repression.
The event is scheduled to commence at 11 am at the Speakers'
Corner, Hong Lim Park.
We would also like to ask for a
meeting with you to elaborate on some of our concerns that we are
unable to make in this letter.
My colleagues and I have
been sued, made bankrupt, fined and jailed. But we are not
complaining because we know that this is the price that we have
to pay for freedom, and we gladly pay it.
All we ask is
that you let the Singapore Government know that the continued
repression of our fellow citizens is unacceptable in this
globalised world.
As this letter would be of immense
interest to the Singaporean public as well as international
observers, I would like to make it available to them.
Once
again, I bid you a very warm welcome and wish you a successful
and enlightened Meeting in Singapore.
Sincerely,
Chee
Soon Juan
Secretary-General
Singapore Democratic Party
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