The Strait Times / Burma

[khin_s_w@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

>From Singapore ST
December 30, 1998

Chee gives talk without permit
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Promoting his new book at Raffles Place, the SDP chief addresses a
lunchtime crowd for an hour without having first applied for a permit

IGNORING police warnings not to hold a public talk without a permit,
Singapore Democratic Party chief Chee Soon Juan addressed a lunchtime
crowd at Raffles Place yesterday.

The police said that he would be called up for questioning, as he had
not applied for a permit.

Under the Public Entertainment Act, anyone who gives a talk in a public
place without a permit can be fined up to $5,000.

The police said in a statement last night that before the talk, he had
refused to accept a letter advising him not to go ahead with the talk.


They also said that after the talk, he had also refused to accept
official notification to present himself at the Central Police Division
Headquarters for an interview related to the investigation into the
incident.

The statement added: "The police have commenced investigations into the
incident. If an offence is disclosed, police will consult the
Attorney-General's Chambers and charge the offender in court."

Dr Chee was at Raffles Place to sell his new book,  " To Be Free."

At about 12.35 pm, he got ready to speak, shortly after Superintendent
Low Hui Hui of the Central Police Station approached and said quietly:
"I am advising you not to proceed with the talk as it is an offence."

Dr Chee: "And if I do?"

Supt Low: "The case will be investigated."

Dr Chee: "You do your job, and I'll do mine."

Supt Low repeated his advice.

But Dr Chee fixed a small microphone on himself and spoke for the next
hour. He said:: "The reason the Government does not permit politicians
to stand up and talk is that there is a lot of information that they
don't want you to know."

He slammed the local media and Singapore's investments in Myanmar and
Suzhou as well as its financial aid to Indonesia.

Referring to some clippings, he quoted a Trade Development Board
official as saying that now was a good time to invest in Myanmar, when
other countries were ignoring it, "because you get a better deal".


He said: "You get a better deal when women are raped, you get a better
deal when people get sent to prison,
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tortured and killed, you get a better deal when children are forced into
labour.
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"How low must we as a nation sink to get a better deal?"

When The Straits Times asked him afterwards what he had referred to when
quoting the TDB, he turned to the dispersing crowd and said: "You have a
situation where we have our own officials making statements and
our own journalists don't even know about it."

In his talk, he referred to the unemployment rate here rising to 7 to 9
per cent. The official figure is around 4.5 per cent.

Asked about the source of his figures, he would only say: "Buy my book."

He said he planned to speak again next week at the same time and place,
and also in HDB estates.


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