Tuesday, 8 December 2009
News blackout on Dr. Chee’s acquittal by AGC of charges of speaking in public without a permit
A complete news blackout was imposed by the Singapore media on the acquittal of the Singapore Democratic Party’s Secretary-General Dr. Chee Soon Juan of three remaining charges of speaking in public without a permit by the Attorney-General Chambers.
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News blackout on Dr. Chee’s acquittal by AGC of charges of speaking in public without a permit
The Temasek Review
08 December 2009
A complete news blackout was imposed by the Singapore media on the acquittal of the Singapore Democratic Party’s Secretary-General Dr. Chee Soon Juan of three remaining charges of speaking in public without a permit by the Attorney-General Chambers.
Dr. Chee was charged with eight separate counts for speaking in the public and to the voters without a permit during the 2006 general elections.
He was already fined for the first charge which he refused to pay and chose to serve a 5-week sentence in jail. The other charges ended with convictions too.
The announcement to acquit Dr. Chee of the remaining charges was made by the deputy public prosecutor last week in court. No explanations were given for the unusual if not bizarre decision.
For some strange reasons, the state media which usually takes delight in portraying opposition politicians in a bad light did not report on the case.
The Straits Times which is soon becoming a Singapore “crime-watch” has been reporting on petty and frivolous crimes like a former acupuncturist being fined for putting up posters of Mas Selamat in a public place.
The public should be informed and educated on the charges leveled against Dr. Chee Soon Juan.
Why was he being charged for the offence when street hawkers are permitted to peddle their trades by speaking to passer-by in the public sometimes even with the use of loudspeakers?
Why are the eight charges heard separately one after another for more than three years instead of all of them at one single trial as is the usual case?
And are there any justifications for spending so much public resources to prosecute a single man?
The Attorney-General Chambers must be held accountable to the people of Singapore and the public should have the right to question its decisions.
As a public institution, it is only right that it subjects itself to intense public scrutiny.
Obviously in this instance, the state media felt that publishing news of Dr. Chee’s acquittal will run counter to the interests of its political masters as it seems to imply that the charges weren’t serious enough to warrant so much attention in the first place.
Perhaps it finally realizes its own folly of over-demonizing Dr. Chee such that it is
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