Barry Porter's article, headlined 'Where free speech is expensive' (Sunday Morning Post, January 10), quotes facts out of context and distorts events in Singapore.
Under Singapore Law, inherited from the British colonial government, making speeches in public places requires a permit. Dr Chee Soon Juan never made this an election issue. If Dr Chee is against this law, he should get elected and change it through parliamentary means.
In fact his party had on December 2, 1998 applied for a permit for a meeting on December 27. This was approved on December 22, but the party cancelled the meeting. Dr Chee then decided to defy the law by speaking without a permit on December 29. The courts will hear the charges against Dr Chee. He claims that the law violates his fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution. His lawyers will have full opportunity to argue this in court.
Dr Chee Soon Juan was not sacked from the National University of Singapore in 1993 because he sent in 'two pretty innocuous letters to a Singapore paper'. He had misused university research funds to send his wife's PhD. thesis to America and then lied about this to his dean and his department head, Dr Vasoo. Dr Chee went on 'hunger strike' to protest his sacking, but was revealed by the press to be drinking glucose. Dr Chee accused Dr Vasoo of falsifying minutes and fabricating evidence against him. Dr Vasoo sued him for defamation. Dr Chee abandoned his defence and paid damages. He avoided entering the witness box to be cross-examined on whether he had lied.
In 1996, Dr Chee fabricated data and falsified documents to mislead a Parliamentary Select Committee on Health Care Subsidy. He wilfully gave false answers when questioned by the Select Committee and committed perjury to try to conceal his deception. He was charged before a Parliamentary Committee of Privileges, which found him guilty of contempt of Parliament.
In the January 1997 general elections, Dr Chee and all his party candidates were soundly defeated. Dr Chee thereupon disappeared to Australia. Reading about the region from afar, he must have confused the protests in Indonesia and Malaysia with Singapore. As Dr Vasoo wrote in The Straits Times, 'No crowds will shout 'reformasi' and charge forward with him. Dr Chee Soon Juan is no Anwar Ibrahim.' CHAN HENG WING Consul-General of Singapore