Aug 7

Our Burmese friend, John Moe wrote to our Foreign Minister – Mr George Yeo asking him to make clarifications on his recent comment  “John Moe was not expelled from Singapore because of his views but for breaking the law in Singapore.”

As John includes me in his response to Mr Yeo, I was privilage to be able to read all the exchanges between them and some of the activists.  What caught my attention and spur me to post a reply was when Mr Yeo ended all his response with a “Happy National Day”.

In this National Day, tell me, is there anything we should be happy about when billions of our hard earned money are lost, Singaporean are finding hard to make ends meets as not only the cost of living is rising up, we are competing with foreigners for job while our ministers are still getting their millions salaries, Singaporeans are losing their rights to speak up and yet our government are spending so much money in this tough time glorifying themselves.

Below are some of the exchanges between us…

Jaslyn Go
August 6 at 6:00pm
Thank you for including me in this exchange…

I would expect that as a Minster and one who has a voice in parliament, Mr Yeo can do more than just find a country who can accept John Moe. He should find a solution to the root of the problem, which in this case, is the authoritarian law.

Mr Yeo claimed he do mix around with the Myanmar community..well..I do not know many of them, but I do know my Burmese friend prefers to call their homeland Burma instead of Myanmar….

As a Singaporean I should be proud and happy of my nation Independence Day, but how can I be when I feel that I do not belong to and have no voice in my own country. I was charged and currently standing trial for speaking up for my fellow Singaporeans about the rising cost of living here in a peaceful assembly last year.

While Mr Yeo is still drawing millions of salary a year, many Singaporeans are struggling to make ends meet. Mr Yeo, as our Minister, are you aware of the plight of your fellow Singaporeans?


George Yeo
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August 6 at 10:44pm
Reply
This policy of not allowing Singapore to be used as a base against foreign governments has served us well although some may disagree. Tinkering with it has wider ramifications which I rather not discuss here.

John, thanks for surfacing the past correspondence and refreshing my memory. I remember Joshua appealing on your behalf which I was happy to take up.

Choon Hiong, the Home Ministry/AG has a certain discretion in deciding how to respond to breaches of the law. For WP holders, one way is to withdraw the permit or let it lapse. Sometimes a warning may be sufficient. Sometimes it is necessary to charge offenders in court. Our laws on public assembly and demos are well-known. Jaslyn is clearly opposed to them. I am sure there are others who share her views.

Happy National Day!


Jaslyn Go
Today at 11:22am
Mr. Yeo,

I can’t help but feel that you are evading my question in your response. I had asked if you are aware of the plight of your fellow Singaporeans whilst you draw millions of dollars in salary, in fact, several times more than Mr. Obama. You did not respond. And instead unfeelingly end your posting with Happy National Day.

I’m sure there are many others who agree that in a genuinely democratic society, peaceful public gatherings and freedom of speech are basic rights granted to the people. Oh, I forget, this is Singapore we are talking about where democracy has a very different meaning from that which the universally accepted.

It is also interesting to note that you say the “Home Ministry/AG has a certain discretion in deciding how to respond to breaches of the law.” Is it the same kind of discretion you talk about when about 20 of us were charged for the gathering on World Consumers Day and the thousands of people from CASE who gathered the very next day were allowed to gather, process, march and speak.

Mr. Yeo, I believe this is not called discretion. The correct term here is “oppression”.


George Yeo
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Today at 12:03pm
Reply

Jaslyn, this spate of exchanges is about Myanmar. I’m not really keen to open a new debate in my FB account about salaries, public assembly etc. Sorry if you thought I was not addressing your concerns. But I wanted to stay focussed on the Myanmar issue.

Kai Xiong raised LTTE which is another subject I don’t really want to go into now. When Prabakharan was killed, I did a blog posting about it.

Andrew, there is always prosecutorial discretion depending on circumstances. This is everyday life. As MPs, we are contantly appealing on behalf of constituents although never to the AG. This doesn’t mean that the law is not applied equally.

Well..at least finally, he got my message and did not end his reply with “Happy National Day”.
I remember reading somewhere our Ministers commented that the people are their employer, however, it is interesting to note that for once, it is not the employer who determine employees salaries but its a case of employees dictating their own salaries.
I make my point and I leave it at that…