Dictators in Burma have good friends in Singapore

December 17, 2003

(Photo: Speakers holding a press conference in place of the banned forum: (from left) Debbie Stothard, Altsean for Burma; Tian Chua, Keadilan Party; Chee Soon Juan, Open Singapore Centre; Sam Rainsy, Cambodian Opposition Leader; Tsai Ming Dan, Taiwan Democracy Foundation)

“The proposed event is likely to be contrary to the public interest,” the police told Dr Chee Soon Juan, Director of the Open Singapore Centre (OSC), when he applied for a permit to hold a public forum last weekend entitled Democracy in Burma – How Can Asians Help?

So what exactly is “contrary to the public interest”?

Could it be the fact that Dr Chee was going to ask questions about the statement made by the former US Assistant Secretary of State, Richard Gelbard, that: “…over half of [the investments from] Singapore have been tied to the family of narco-trafficker Lo Hsing Han”?

Or could it be about the question that Dr Chee was going to ask about drug money from Burma getting into Singapore. Bruce Hawke, an expert on drug trafficking in Burma, said: “The entry [of money from narco-trafficking] to the legitimate global system is not Burma but Singapore…”

It could also be Dr Chee asking uncomfortable questions about weapons being sold and/or transshipped to Rangoon, as documented by William Ashton in Jane's Intelligence Review, which the SPDC uses to inflict more brutality and misery on Aung San Suu Kyi and the Burmese people.

Not in the public interest? More like not in PAP's interest. And true to form, the local media in Singapore completed blacked out these issues that Dr Chee raised at the press conference which was held in place of the banned forum.

Even crazier, one of the speakers whom the OSC had invited was an elected Burmese MP. The Singapore Government refused him entry. And then when Cambodia’s opposition leader, Sam Rainsy (another speaker at the forum), was about to leave Singapore after the conference, he was held up by immigration officers and questioned.

As long as Burma has friends like the PAP in Singapore, one thing is sure: the SPDC will continue to remain in (illegal) power.

The banned forum had wanted to discuss the question of how Asians can help in making Burma a democracy. Perhaps, the more appropriate question is how the international community can help Burma by focusing its attention on the SPDC’s friends starting with the one in Singapore.

Mr Sam Rainsy drove home the point: "We have to be united because the dictators are united... they help each other."

National Justice Party’s (Malaysia) Vice-President, Mr Tian Chua, added: "Despite the promises that have been given by ASEAN governments... there have been no serious efforts that (are) committed to see through a speedy resolution to these issues."

The PAP cannot continue to deny Singaporeans freedom and democracy because in so doing, it brings succour to other authoritarians in the region, in particular, those in Burma. This outrageous collusion must stop.

Source : Singapore Democratic Party