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Straits
Times won't publish Dr Chee's reply to M M Aung
05
Oct 07
The
media, which the Minister Mentor yesterday described as
"credible", will not even give Dr Chee Soon Juan his
right of reply to a forum letter written by Mr M M Aung (see the
letter below). Below is Dr Chee's letter which was faxed to the
Straits Times yesterday.
To: Forum, Straits
Times,
It seems strange that M M Aung feels that signing a
petition to the Singapore Government demanding whether it is
selling arms to the military junta and doing business with
Burmese druglords is exploitation of innocent people.
Analysts
and experts have documented this insidious relationship between
the two regimes. Even European parliamentarians have expressed
their concern over this matter. Such information is available on
the Internet but, of course, censored by the state media of
Singapore.
As a Burmese-Singaporean, one would think that
M M Aung would be especially alarmed at such information as these
weapons and funds are used by the generals to commit their
atrocities. And yet instead of demanding answers from the
Singapore Government, the writer chooses only to praise
it.
M M Aung also points out that the on-going signature
campaign outside the Burma embassy is unlawful. He forgets that
in Burma, it is also unlawful for the monks to protest in public.
Has he wondered why the only places in Asia that have not had
public protests against the killings in Burma are Vietnam, Laos,
and Singapore? The truth is that only dictatorships make it
illegal for their citizens to assemble in public because they
fear the people.
The reason why the SDP has chosen to
collect signatures at St Martin's Drive is because the embassy is
the military's representative office. What better place than for
people to express their outrage there? Notes have been posted on
the entrance of the embassy, candles lit and prayers said. The
ambassador could not have missed it.
It is curious that M
M Aung has suggested that Peninsula Plaza be the place for
another petition. He may like to know that the Singapore police
have visited the building, stopping Burmese nationals from
surfing the Internet and ordering them to remove their T-shirts
with pro-democracy slogans.
If protests need to be
conducted, let them be done openly and boldly, not furtively
holed up in some building. The former serves the people, the
latter serves the autocrats.
Chee Soon
Juan
Secretary-General
Singapore Democratic Party
4
October 2007
Myanmar people
should reject Dr Chee's cause
Forum, Straits Times
4
Oct 2007
I am a Singapore
citizen born in Myanmar. I am deeply saddened by the outbreak of
violence in Myanmar which had led to the death of innocent
people.
I assure Singaporeans that although the Myanmar
people working and living in Singapore are affected by the
situation back home, they would not do anything which could
result in a law-and-order problem here. Hence, I am upset that Dr
Chee Soon Juan, an opposition politician of the Singapore
Democratic Party, exploited the situation in Myanmar by
collecting signatures for a petition from innocent people who did
not know that the petition was also directed at the Singapore
Government.
Dr Chee's action is unlawful and the Myanmar
people in Singapore should not support his cause as the Prime
Minister of Singapore had been doing his share in helping to
resolve the problem in Myanmar.
I strongly urge the
Myanmar people to use legal means to express concern for their
countrymen by signing the petition book at Dandaryi, on the
fourth level of Peninsula Plaza.
M M Aung
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