On Roy, JBJ, Fines and Defamation

Many of you will have seen Roy’s latest blog piece by now. You will also have seen a letter put together by some concerned supporters including me that was published in the Asian Sentinel and later by TOC. I was particularly struck by Roy’s reference in that blog to the S$2,000 fine that stops a Singaporean from standing for election for 5 years and his mention of the S$8,000,000 suit and being an ordinary Singaporean.

Being a couple of decades older than Roy and being related to one of our historical law suit defendants allows me to add some personal insight into those proceedings and their results. I will also explain my reasons for continuing to support Roy, why he should not lose faith and why you all, previously so numerous in your support, should not now be silent.

Right now Roy has become his own sideshow and a distraction from his own message. None of that is his fault of course. This is the way the PAP machine works and is typical of the way in which the PAP undermines its opponents and silences dissent. Truly it’s not healthy for any society to have no debate or dissenting counter view.

Let’s not get distracted from the key issues. The one big, basic question has still not been answered. Why is the CPF minimum sum being raised? The one big fear that is not being dispelled is the fear that the minimum sum has been raised because GIC and/or Temasek has lost money and the government needs to get the money from somewhere else.

In fact this use of a sledgehammer to crack a nut, as we see with Lee junior versus Roy, will only increase that fear. Or it should at least increase our suspicions. As I always say if there is nothing to hide then throw open the books for inspection! It comes down to trust between the people and the government which is at an all time low. Instead of taking steps to rebuild that trust our PM has sued a blogger. Don’t get distracted. See what is really happening here, what is really at stake?

The fact is that the issue of Temasek Holdings investing or managing CPF money has not been satisfactorily explained. Temasek say they don’t do it. This is simply sophistry. It is half a lie and wholly economical with the truth.   Money that the government receives from CPF savings goes to GIC and the profits that GIC earns investing those funds, swells government surpluses, enabling the government to  inject more capital into Temasek. Furthermore Temasek’s own internal rates of return – that it is supposed to earn on new investment will no doubt be related to CPF interest rates. Like everything else we have no disclosure on this but trust me, this is how it is done.

The irony is that Roy was not even, judging from his earlier writing and blogs, that strong an opponent of the government/PAP. (Well he wasn’t before all this) Let me explain. He was an opponent of the way CPF returns to the citizens had to fight with GIC’s and Temasek’s need to make profits. So if more money was paid out then GIC’s track record went down. If less was paid back to us then GIC made a bigger profit. He objected to the system that allowed this conflict, as he quite rightly saw it..

If you read his blogs, watch his videos, went to hear him speak, he was more often to be found talking in terms of campaigning for the government to reform the system, asking the government to be more fair, asking the government to put the people as a priority, not the profits of Temasek and GIC. In fact when you look at Roy’s speeches and writings it is very much about the government. For goodness sake the Facebook page attached to his blog is called I want the people and the government and people to work together for Singapore’s future. .. https://www.facebook.com/pages/I-want-the-government-and-people-to-work-together-for-Singapores-future/185331834935656

At the same time, clearly Roy is a supporter of our way of life and society here in Singapore and not a revolutionary. His biggest failure was in believing that asking for the government to reform and provide some transparency was a perfectly reasonable request.

This makes his approach very different to mine. I don’t believe that asking the PAP to change is the way to go. I want the PAP voted out and the structures put in place that will ensure strict rule of law, protections, oversight, accountability, transparency so that democracy AND prosperity can flourish and so that the people prevail no matter what colour shirt sits in the house.

A true opponent would be campaigning to change the government not ask it to reform or improve in response to citizen concerns so why did Roy become Public Enemy Number One? Roy just wanted you all to make a bit more noise about where your money went, how it was used, what GIC’s and Temasek’s profits were, MPs’ inclusion on boards and the PM as head of GIC and his wife as head of Temasek.

I do firmly believe that the PM has been incredibly foolish and ill-advised in making an example out of Roy. Whatever the outcome it will come back to bite him in the next GE. We owe it to ourselves now, not to Roy, but to ourselves, to not let ourselves be distracted by the defamation circus. We owe it to ourselves not to be scared off. If in fact Roy is sued out of existence, which I hope doesn’t happen, then we owe it to ourselves to pick up his voice and carry it on where he left off.

Roy mentions the fine over S$2,000 that would prevent a Singaporean from standing for election. The ban is not life long but for 5 years. Roy, we are all thinking, is still young. Actually it is to all practical purposes a 10 year ban. I feel that Roy can learn a lot from JBJ’s example. In particular my father never gave up and never left his beloved country. I remember an Economist article said of my father, “whereas others prefer to speak from the safety and comfort of exile, Jeyaretnam stands his ground, as solid and immoveable as his name.”

I was forced into a form of exile as a young graduate much against my will. I was always extremely unhappy to be away from home and from my mum, who died whilst I was serving NS and then from my Dad and my wider family. I was not even a real exile just persona non grata who couldn’t even get a job interview in Singapore let alone work there, as part of a process of punishing the eldest son of JBJ. I at least could fly back to Singapore whenever I wanted and my dad was, even as a bankrupt, always able to travel and visit me and join us on family holidays. We had some fantastic time together. More importantly I have seen the devastating effect that being a exile from the PAP’s Singapore has had on the Singaporeans around me when I lived in London. Each one not able to return home, especially now that their parents are elderly and suffering. Poor gentle Francis Khoo- finally only able to return to his homeland in an urn . No, being an exile is not an easy option.

My late father J B Jeyaretnam was fined an amount to keep him from standing for election and just as the 5 years elapsed the PAP called a snap election before he could become eligible. They then took a full 6 years to the next election so almost 11 years but he still didn’t give up. The cycle after that he stood and no doubt he would have been a full MP if not for the Polling Booth-Magic-Teleportation-Paradox ruling. Still he became an NCMP. Roy is a young man still, flexible enough to enter a different career path, educated, with family here who can support him. He should not give up on plans for standing. One of the first things I was told back in 2009 by the venerable Mr Chiam was to expect it to take three election cycles for an impact to be felt. Singaporeans appreciate consistency, dedication and perseverance.

Now let us turn to Roy’s mention of defamation as a tool for quashing dissent. Something I am also all too familiar with. His previous blog entry is a vlog interview - here- he talks about the ISA being used as a tool for rounding up dissenting voices but Roy’s view is that after international media attention after 1987 the government was too embarrassed to use it again. Whatever the reason, defamation suits are clearly the preferred weapon of repression, more insidious and difficult to criticise.

This is exactly what I said when I wrote to the WSJ decrying the use of defamation suits to silence opposition. At great expense to you my dear readers and tax payers, a civil servant was hired to rebut me with a letter that the WSJ was forced to print or lose their distribution rights. That civil servant besides being a moron who couldn’t get his spelling right, was wrong of course. He later sent in a secretly edited version to replace his first idiotic response. Still wrong. I put both his letters on my blog with my letter. Did I get sued? No. I told the truth.

However, as soon as that imbecile civil servant who owes his salary to us, wrote his letter to WSJ, the State Media machine went mad, printing that I was wrong quoting him, etc etc. Almost instantaneously every blog, new media outlet pulled my letter without asking my opinion or even giving anyone a chance to say: actually, hold on.. Kenneth is right you know. Self censorship is not a strong enough term to describe this phenomenon. This extreme caution borne of fear . It is every Singaporean running to hide under the table as soon as the PAP yells a little. FYI-The legal blogger Article 14 explains why I was right and is included in sources at the back.

So we have established that defamation suits have replaced the ISA as the new tool for quashing dissent. Each time the PAP twists the screw of repression and tightens up their control they get a bit smarter. That should mean that the new tool of defamation is more finely tuned, more effective and something that we Singaporeans should be more afraid of… right?

No. Be afraid but thanks to Roy, not that afraid.

First of all the Lee family, the government ministers, MPs to be and various worthies have overused this tool. In this joined up and wired world nations such as ours, relying on multiple free trade agreements with democracies, cannot continue to use such draconian methods without embarrassing themselves.

Secondly Roy is not an ordinary Singaporean. I don’t know why he says he is. Maybe he means he is non-partisan, not with a Party. Whatever the reason Roy is in fact an extraordinary Singaporean and I hope he was just being humble. He makes some claims for landmark cases but the true landmark in Singapore’s history will be that S$100,000 dollars that he raised, seemingly effortlessly. Defamation is civil. It is not similar to political donations in that Roy can raise money from anywhere in the world.

I remember, I watched in absolute amazement as that sum went up and up and up. Previously when deciding whether to appeal the IMF case against the government or not, I threw it to the public and said if I could raise enough for my fixed costs, I would take it as a sign and proceed. I raised S$10,000 and was pretty pleased with that and stopped it there. I took the losses on myself and the Government’s legal costs as I felt that was right but at least I raised enough from the public to pay my lawyer and the filing fees.

But even with that happy experience I was astonished by the money Roy raised. Yes I am banging on about it because it is very exciting to me. You see the PAP had to stop using the ISA and switched to defamation suits. But if those sued raise money so effortlessly then the whole bloody circus become neutralised. It reminds me of the way hippies put flowers down the barrels of rifles back in the 60’s. When MM Lee is not threatening his opponents with knuckle dusters he has always made it clear that he favours hitting people where it really hurts, in their pockets. Raising money online takes the pain away and is the virtual equivalent of ten new heroes rising up for every one that is cut down.

I am sure that Roy is very anxious right now. He talks about a suit of S$8,000,000 that was awarded against Tang Liang Hong. But let’s not be flexible with the truth here or re-write history. Tang left the country, didn’t appear in court and that punitive amount was awarded by summary judgement in his absence. Tang was my father’s running mate and so that whole JBJ vendetta thing also took a role. Also one of the key reasons for Tang leaving was that his wife, terrified by death threats, begged him to. I don’t think it will come to that. Yes the venue seems to suggest S$250,000 but that would be extraordinary. How can the PM prove that amount of damage to his reputation? Has his earning capacity suffered? Of course I remember George Carman Q.C. asking Goh Chok Tong on the witness stand, when he sued my father over the police reports, whether he had suffered any damage and Goh being forced to agree that he had not. The first judge, Rajendran, only awarded Goh $20,000 but Goh appealed and was able to find a more sympathetic judge who raised the damages to $100,000. But that is still a whole lot less than $250,000.