|
|
|
The
Propaganda Wing swings into action
09
Oct 07
We don't normally post reports by the Singapore
Press Holdings (SPH) but this one is so exceptionally bad that we
have made...well, an exception.
It's the report by The
New Paper of the proceedings at the Burmese embassy and the
Istana.
The headline, subtext and text all have one
purpose and one purpose only – and it's not to keep its
readers informed.
To be sure, there has never been any
love lost between the Singapore Democrats and the PAP media.
But the folks at SPH would even slant the report to make
the Burmese embassy officials look good in order to take its
swipe at the SDP.
Our relationship is really that bad.
Ms Liew Hanqing tried to present the Burmese ambassador
as some sort of respectable diplomat that the SDP leaders were
trying to meet.
She described that even the ambassador's
representative refused to “entertain” us. We must
have been doing something wrong to deserve such a snub. Shame on
us!
Ms Liew also covered up the fact that the official
repeatedly said that he did not want his picture taken and
refused to give his name and position when asked.
The SDP
has dealt with diplomats from all over the world and none of them
have objected to their photographs taken, much less try to hide
their identity. Ms Liew, by not reporting such facts, tries to
give a favourable impression of the official.
The report
also mentions that Dr Chee Soon Juan tried reading the letter to
the embassy official when in fact it was Mr Ambalam.
In
her eagerness to run-down the SDP secretary-general she got her
facts wrong. But so what? They're just facts, this is the SPH we
talking about.
The report is so over-the-top, even by PAP
standards, that we reproduce it here for readers to judge for
themselves.
SDP's
attempt to deliver peition to Myanmar embassy and Istana ends in
farce and arrest: What a Wash-Out
Liew
Hanqing
honqing@sph.com.sg
The
New Paper
9 Oct 2007, Tuesday
Dr Chee Soon Juan's
attempt tp ptotest against the Myanmar crackdown became a farce
yesterday when he ended reading his petition letter to a security
guard.
This was after he failed in his efforts to meet the
ambassador at the Myanmar embassy.
The day was to get
worse for the secretary-general of the Singapore Democratic Party
(SDP), who is no stranger to grandstanding antics.
He and
his group were arrested when they tried handing a letter
addressed to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the Istana.
Other
SDP representatives with Dr Chee were chairman Gandhi Ambalam,
assitant secretary-general John Tan and central executive
committee member Chee Siok Chin.
The SDP group - all
dressed in red - arrived at the Myanmar embassy around 10.40 am.
Dr Chee asked a security guard to invite the ambassador U Win
Myint out to receive the letter.
The ambassador didn't
appear. Instead, an embassy official came out to accept the
letter on his behalf.
When Dr Chee asked if he would
invite the ambassador out, the official said firmly: "Thank
you for coming, but the ambassador cannot meet you."
Instead
of handing the letter over immediately, Dr Chee began reading it
aloud. The official refused to entertain him and hurriedly went
back to the building.
Then the group asked a security
guard wnether they would be able to meet the ambassador.
The
security guard told the group again that the ambassador would not
meet them, but offered to receive the letter on his behalf.
Dr
Chee read the letter aloud to the guard. The guard then took it
back into the building.
The SDP group left in a car for
the Istana, where they had planned to stage a protest.
The
arrived at Plaza Singapura slightly past noon, in the middle of a
heavy downpour.
Dr Chee told reporters the group would
wait till the rain eased before walking to the Istana, so that
their documents and placards wouldn't get wet.
Asked if he
felt snubbed by the Myanmar ambassador's refusal to accept the
letter earlier, Dr Chee replied: "What can we do?"
He
added, however, that what happened was not unexpected.
Out
To Lunch
When
the rain began to ease up about 1 pm, SDP members proceeded to
the Istana gates.
The spoke to an Istana officer, and
requested to see the PM's private secretary to hand over a letter
addressed to the PM.
They were told the private secretary
was out for lunch and would only be back at about 2 pm.
Dr
Chee said the group would wait. they then unwrapped four placards
and held them up at the area beside the Istana gates.
A
police officer told them they were not allowed to stand there and
asked them to move elsewhere to wait for the private
secretary.
They left, holding their placards, for an area
across the road from the Istana where they stood in a line and
held their placards up.
Soon after, a plainclothes police
officer warned them that what they were doing was unlawful and
that they would be arrested if they refused to disperse.
When
the group remained there, police officers then proceeded to
arrest the four around 1.50 pm.
Other
antics
Five
SDP members march from Hong Lim Park to Queenstown Remand Prison
where Dr Chee was serving a three-week jail term in 2007.
Police
stop Dr Chee and six others from going on a protest march from
Hong Lim Park to Parliament House in 2006.
During the 2001
General Elections, Dr Chee heckles then-prime minister Goh Chok
Tong at Jurong East hawker centre. High Court rules he defamed Mr
Goh and Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew. Dr Chee ordered to pay
damages.
Dr Chee runs 42-km marathon wearing a T-shirt
with the words "Abolish ISA" on it in 2000.
Dr
Chee stages a week-long hunger strike in 1993 to protest his
dismissal from the National University of Singapore.
|
|
