Al-Jazeera Video: Soaring prices hit Singapore's poor

I-S magazine article on Chee Soon Juan

The following section Doctored Image about Chee Soon Juan is part of an article in the latest edition of I-S magazine which features two other personalities, Steven Lim & Victor Khoo. You can read the full article The Unusual Suspects here.

Doctored Image

He’s been called a liar, a psychopath and everything in between. But honestly, how much do we know of the real Dr. Chee Soon Juan? As leader of the opposition Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), the image of the 46-year-old neuropsychologist has suffered no end at the hands of a one-eyed media. In fact, the father of three has been caricatured to such an extent that as we walked up to his office in a terraced shop house off Upper Thomson Road, we thought we’d be in for some ride with a (hitherto portrayed) dour, schizoid personality—one who’d be easily prone to ranting against the establishment and the ruling party.

But what you see (on TV, in the political pages of the national press) is certainly not what you’ll get with Dr. Chee, who in our hour-long interview came across as erudite, urbane, articulate, smart, focused,eloquent and yes, very normal—debunking his media-projected persona as a stone-cold megalomaniac.“Would anyone like a drink?” he asks with all the grace of an exemplary host before sitting down to speak with us. As a youth without prior political leanings, Dr. Chee first became politicized in the late 1970s when the graduate mother’s scheme (where women who held degrees were encouraged to bear more children, whereas lower educated ones were told to stop at two) was first introduced.

“I became very concerned that such a distasteful policy was being openly encouraged, but I soon left to study in the US (in the early 1980s) and I thought this ‘way of thinking’ would soon pass,” he says. “But there was no discernable change (in policies and attitudes) when I returned, and I soon joined the opposition.

“My main aim then was (and still is) to fight unjust laws in the country and be an advocate for free speech. It is unconstitutional to be denied the opportunity to speak in public.”

Dr. Chee continues to fight charges of speaking in public without a permit, an offence that has already seen him incarcerated on several occasions (he’s been in the slammer a total of seven times), as well as an earlier incident in 1993 which which saw Dr. Chee getting sacked from the National University of Singapore, where he was lecturing, for allegedly misappropriating funds—consequences which probably solidified his rebellious persona even more.

“The media were a lot more balanced when I first entered politics in the early 1990s; they were reasonably fair in their reporting of what I had to say,” Dr Chee says. “But now, well, now they’ve gone too far; not only have they become way too personal in their attacks, they consistently misrepresent what I stand for.

“Which is that I’m out to do Singapore in; that I do not have the country’s best interest at heart. That is the biggest myth that’s constantly being perpetuated about me. Period. When all I stand for is for a more open, tolerant society; to respect one another’s differences and to move (the country) with the times.”

In addition, he has also been lampooned as an eccentric oddball. He laments, “Such is the nature of the beast. All these caustic attacks don’t even bother me anymore; you just have to steel yourself and roll with the punches.

“You know, it’s very easy to do the ‘accepted’ and popular things, but for real change to come about, one has to take a firm stand on one’s beliefs and see it all the way through.

“I can take heart that more are coming forward to speak up and speak out, but I stress that we advocate change in a non-violent way—with a capital ‘N’.”

When asked whether he had any regrets he says, “Definitely not. This is the life I have chosen for myself and I actually spend many a fruitful day writing books and papers, selling our party newsletter on the street and engaging with all sorts of people via the SDP portal (www.yoursdp.org).”

One doesn’t have to agree or disagree with his politics to come away with the conclusion that he certainly isn’t the firebrand that the media has regularly made him out to be. The impression we left with was that of an articulate, caring family man who dotes on his three well-adjusted young children, and one who has made untold sacrifices in the line of his work.

The SDP chief hopes to return to his beloved world of academia one day, but not before the “job is done,” he says.

Propaganda movie in the making??

A government owned, run and/or heavily influenced Singapore media company making a feature film titled 1965.

According to the TODAY report below,"It is a film that talks about the people who founded Singapore, about our Minister Mentor and the political people who helped make Singapore what it is today".

Right...now let me put 2 and 2 together...A government owned, run and/or heavily influenced Singapore media company making a feature film titled 1965 "about the people who founded Singapore, about our Minister Mentor and the political people who helped make Singapore what it is today."

Hahahahahahaha....man that's a good one! I didn't realise it was to be a slapstick!

Independence day: The Singapore edition

Wednesday • July 23, 2008

MEDIACORP Raintree Pictures is setting its sights on local politics — at least on film. The company behind comedies I Not Stupid and the upcoming Money No Enough 2 is currently working on a film called 1965.

This was revealed by Raintree Pictures managing director Daniel Yun during an interview on Channel NewsAsia.

“We’ve been nurturing a film called 1965. It is a film that talks about the people who founded Singapore, about our Minister Mentor and the political people who helped make Singapore what it is today,” Yun said during the interview.

Yun added: “I think many people will be wondering why we are making a film like that, if we will be tripping over OB markers, if we are going somewhere that’s more sensitive, we’ll tread carefully. But the more important thing is to get it right.

“Doing the right thing means you need to start doing things that are not so easy, like making a political film or a film with political content. I think the Singapore environment and system is mature enough to want something like that.”

Today understands that the movie is still in its initial stages. Yun said they already have a “script” but have yet to finalise the cast and director. The planned 1965 movie will be a feature film as, he added, “Raintree doesn’t make documentaries”.

Video: Tak Boleh Tahan press statement by Chia Ti Lik

Go to Singapore Democrats for more reports & updates

Video about local media coverage of Chees vs Lees

Read my post about this case and the local media.

Amnesty's 2008 state of the world's human rights report

This Amnesty International Report 2008 mini-documentary shows a snapshot of the state of the world's human rights in 2007. Read here about what the report says about Singapore.

Video of tak boleh tahan event on 25 May at Toa Payoh Lorong 1

SDP was back in Toa Payoh for another tak boleh tahan (can't take it, unbearable) campaign event. A follow-up to the one they had on labour day.

Singapore Matrix: A collection of videos

This is a playlist of videos i put together. Here are a few things for the benefit of those who are not familiar with the workings of how a playlist works: Click on the button next to the play/pause button to bring up or hide the list of videos in the playlist; clicking the arrows < > in this list brings you to the next set; you can choose the video you want to watch by just clicking on it. You can also bring up the list and navigation tools by just moving the cursor over the video while you're watching.

Finally, i would like to thank all those who shot, edited & uploaded these videos. Without you guys i wouldn't have this playlist in the first place!! But more importantly, without your efforts, Singaporeans and the world at large, will just be stuck with the local print & broadcast media's hunky-dory propaganda.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights animation

To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights in 1988, award-winning director Stephen Johnson brought together 41 of the most talented international animators, musicians and producers to produce this unique work. The 20-minute video brings to life the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in brilliant colour. Even after 20 years, the UDHR animated video continues to be a highly effective basic tool for the defence and advocacy of the UDHR and for general work on the indivisibility and universality of human rights and human rights education ==> Amnesty International 60 Years of UDHR

One Nation Under Lee: The film Singapore government officials tried to disrupt and stop

Read & watch how government officials attempted to disrupt & stop the screening and eventually seized the DVD at a private screening.

Video of Singapore government officials' attempts to disrupt & stop screening of film on LKY

I was invited for this event, which was billed as a private event, but i couldn't make it. But i was getting updates during the screening as to what was happening. :-)

Its a good thing there's technology and the internet. If not, we would have had to depend on our local press, which is so famously biased. Watching these actions by Singapore's government officials, trying to disrupt & stop the screening, you'll be forgiven for thinking that a terrorist training video was being shown by a sleeper cell!

SDP has written an account of how government officials disrupted the private screening of a flim on Lee Kuan Yew; Martyn See's account of censorship enforcement in Singapore sinking to a new low; and theonlinecitizens' film on Lee Kuan Yew seized by MDA.

And we also have these videos from tysploevil,




may 19, 12.30pm update: my latest post features the film

PM, MM vs SDP, Court 4B, 10am, 12-14 May, Supreme Court

Here's the weekly law notice from the supreme court website.

See page 11 for more details on the hearings to assess the amount of damages in another one of those infamous defamation suits. All of us know how that's going to turn out. Visit SDP for more about this case.

And on page 13, ANOTHER one of those infamous defamation suits. And this time asking for summary judgment against the far eastern economic review. The hearing is in Chamber 6D, 10am, 15-16 May. Again, we all know how this will also end up. This youtube video shows a cnn report,

James Gomez gives TOC exclusive update in video interview

And dun forget to watch his other interview at toa payoh's tak boleh tahan event

Tak boleh tahan outreach video

30 day campaign for Burma

Visit Burma:it can't wait for more

James Gomez video message from tak boleh tahan event

Coming May Day should be interesting

Read all about SDP's May Day activity here

Kishore Mahbubani gets grilled on HARDtalk

Kishore Mahbubani was Singapore's ambassador to the UN and is currently the Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

A few days ago, i watched an interview he had with the BBC's Hardtalk.

When Hardtalk's Stephen Sackur grilled him about Singapore and democracy, Mahbubani got all flustered, upset, didn't directly address the issues about Singapore's politics but instead chose to deflect.

Watch the rest of the interview here, here.