the following is a media release of the Ministry of Home Affairs:
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Sixteen ex-ISA detainees issued a joint statement on 19 Sep 2011 taking issue with the length of detention under the Internal Security Act (ISA) and also the ISA Advisory Board process (see HERE).
2 These sixteen ex-detainees were not detained for their political beliefs, but because they had involved themselves in subversive activities which posed a threat to national security. Nine were actively involved in Communist United Front (CUF) activities in support of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM), which was committed to the violent overthrow of the constitutionally-elected governments in Singapore and Malaysia. They infiltrated legally-established organisations like trade unions and student associations, and instigated illegal strikes and demonstrations to cause mayhem and civil strife, to complement the CPM’s armed revolution. In 1974, one of them provided medical assistance to a CPM saboteur who was hiding in Malaysia. The saboteur had been conveying a bomb for an attack in Singapore, and was travelling along Still Road (Katong) when it detonated prematurely, injuring him and killing his two accomplices. Such was the volatile and dangerous security situation then prevailing in Singapore. Following the CPM’s call in 1968 to its underground networks to return to armed struggle, new CPM organisations were formed in the 1970s which included killer squads to carry out sabotage, assassinations and other acts of violence.
3 In the 1980s, seven of the sixteen ex-detainees were involved in a Marxist plot to subvert and destabilise Singapore. The plot was part of the CPM’s renewed efforts to rebuild the united front by penetrating and manipulating legally-established organisations. Three of them infiltrated and manipulated several religious organisations and, exploiting the religious cover, pursued activities towards subversive ends. They worked with others, including leftist elements from the CPM era, to build a covert network to promote a Marxist agenda, using united front tactics to control and influence organisations engaged in religious and social activism. Five of these ex-detainees swore Statutory Declarations concerning their past activities.
4 On the issue of length of detention under the ISA, whether a person’s detention is extended depends on whether he still poses a security threat. For example, detainees who refused to renounce violence were detained for longer periods until they were assessed to no longer pose a security threat to society, whereas others who renounced violence and no longer posed a security threat were released much sooner.
5 The allegation that “the protection accorded by the Advisory Board is spurious, if not a farce” is baseless and unwarranted. The Advisory Board is chaired by a Supreme Court judge, and scrutinises every detention case to satisfy itself that there are valid security grounds which warrant detention. Members of the Board are appointed by the President and the Board enjoys the immunities and powers of a court of law. It examines representations from detainees and their legal counsel, studies the evidence including classified intelligence, and examines witnesses including senior ISD officers when it deems necessary. These safeguards were further enhanced when in 1991, the elected President was given the power to veto the Government’s decision to detain a person against the recommendation of the Advisory Board. Indeed, the Board has on several occasions made independent recommendations for the early release of detainees, including three of the sixteen ex-detainees.
6 The external security environment and the threats to our national security have evolved with changing times and circumstances. In the CPM era, armed communist insurgencies, transnationally motivated and supported, infected countries throughout our region. The communist threat was not just violent insurgency but also the systematic subversion of the political arena to foment civil strife and de-stabilise the country. We also encountered cases of espionage, and cases where a foreign power or agency tried to subvert Singa¬pore’s domestic politics. From time to time racial and religious extremists, sometimes externally supported and instigated, sought to provoke racial conflict and subvert our ethnic harmony. Today, we face the threat of jihadist terrorism, not only from Al-Qaeda-linked clandestine groups like the Jemaah Islamiyah but also from self-radicalised individuals.
7 A small country, open to external influences and located in a turbulent region, will always face security threats. Their nature will evolve over time. The ISA and its use have likewise evolved as Singa¬pore’s circumstances, vulnerability and risk tolerance change. While the Government certainly monitors developments in the laws and systems of other countries, on a matter as important as security it ultimately has to decide based on what is prudent and necessary in Singa¬pore’s context and is in Singa¬pore’s best interests. As an instrument of last resort, the ISA has enabled us to counter serious security threats, protect our people, and preserve our racial harmony and social cohesion. It remains relevant and necessary in today’s evolving security environment, for keeping Singa¬pore safe and secure.
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@ Michael Lim Peng Liang
Quite a few have quoted sources to cast doubts on the arrests you mentioned.
Perhaps, you can enlighten us with facts and proof to supprt your views that :
1) In the 60s, Lim Chin Siong was a threat to stability. He instigated the Chinese-educated to cause riots & uprisings. He had obtained funding from the CCP in China. That is how dangerous the man was, and hence, rightly detained.
2) In the 80s, the Marxist conspirators were using church work to cover up their covert activities. Under Marxism, they were pushing for a classless society. They were trying to cause a revolution to topple our government.
Unless you can provide solid proof and evidence to the above how can you says that “Those peopel were rightly detained, and should never have been released.” ??
Enlighten us please……or are you really Steven Kho aka Alvin Chua?
Why then have we import a million commie Ah Tiongs?
Singaporean, thank you of all your advises and encouragement, I am just angry that they are trying to find all sort of excuses to justify their action against me. I want to let the whole singapore know that instead of protecting innocent peoplpe, they are endanging my life, they claim that they got witness that I am violent, and now they tell me that I suffer a fell before the police arrival. they claim that SCDF paramedics attended to me and I want to know why they did not send me to hospital for medical check up, instead lock me up until about 2130hrs. Only after more than 2 months now they advise me to go for medical check up.I want you all to help me spread this news around, so as to let singaporean know about it. This stupid case has been draging around for more than 2 months with no ends to it.
Innocent 24 September 2011
no one had the benefit of observing from start to end of your predicament to piece a complete picture while you passed out. but each player while adhering to procedures / protocols may have resulted in you being locked up longer than necessary.
no one knew the seriousness (tumor) of your case and may have treated as a normal incident of someone falling down and losing temporary consciousness.
the problem from people is that sometime the “rightness” of adhering to procedures may be done at the expense of someone’s suffering and again politics (procedural expedience) may dictate that they not apologize but keep on insisting on how right they were (while remaining faceless).
likewise, the above article says MHA (very faceless) with no specific person(s) signing off when some real people who feel so grieved are only seeking for proper closure for something they feel they have been wronged.
Singapore has no contemporary history of riots and protests, but Singapore has ISA and the Sedition act (for subversion).
UK has the occasional riots and peaceful/violent protests, but UK does not have ISA or have abolished the Sedition Act. Public order and security in UK citizens are not harmed.
What other frivilous excuses are there for ISA again?
Watch this video and look out for the man accused of “subversion” by the authorities.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCShd8FJVQo
Let there be a clearer definition of what is and what is not subversion. Even if one is accused of subversion, one should have a right to justice and access to a free and fair trial.
These men are scared, paranoid, hence the wish to silence the ‘threat’:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSYoWeduxzk&feature=related
To Michael Lim Peng Liang
Nice story. I can also spin one:
In the 50s, LXY was a threat to stability. He instigated the educated & uneducated to gather and cause disturbances and rising up. He had obtained funding from unknown foreign sources. That is how dangerous the man was, and hence, rightly should have been detained.
In the 80s, other conspirators of LXY were using union work to cover up their covert activities. Under the guise of pragmatism ideology, they were pushing for an extreme capitalist society. They were trying to protect extreme capitalist interests to their entrench power. Look at history. All these power struggles involved dubious use of power and in some cases bloodshed. Try to understand the severity of the situation. Those people of LXY could rightly be detained, and should never have been released.
Fair?
Or should they get a fair trial if accused with this kind of spin??
Read Michael Lim Peng Liang’s spin to appreciate the counter spin.
Country that is in place is…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Btg4LXm3wk
The case of Dawit Isaak.
In politics, the winner becomes the king & all others are labeled bandits!
To: Neutal
Agreed. And the public in certain countries are awashed with spin and innuendo designed at character assassination spewed from the the mouthpiece media.
No doubt the narrative gets more graphic by countries more sophisticated than those in last place like Eritrea which detained ‘subversive’ D. Isaak without trial.
Why call someone a bandit (which may entail proving taking up arms) when you can label him/her “subversive”?
Didnt the world’s “respectable” leaders n their intelligent agencies spin about Sadam Hussien’s WMD to justified attacking Iraq? Subsequent events proved not true. So, unless we are presented with clear evidence, the onus is with the ISA to come clean about their past over reactions. But knowing our gahment it is impossible for them to do so because the one who made the decision is still alive.
@Really?
Exactly, and Tony Blair had was fired mainly because of that, even though it is known fact that Saddam deserve to be got rid off. There are laws and if you don’t abide by the law, you are as bad as them, doesn’t matter how good your intention is. If you don’t abide by the law, it makes you no better than the ones you pass judgement on.
If you, the people, condone super powers to cheat their way through, don’t cry baby when it comes to you being screwed (already happening). They can ask you to pay anything or do anything they want (re immigrants), as unreasonably as they want, if you make too much noise, they can always use the very weapon (ISA) that you so support, to silence you.
Supporting ISA is like giving the Govt a gun to shoot you, the people, at their free will and is not against the law. So it very much depends on your luck that the Govt behaves.
Dear netizens
Please ignore my son Michael Lim Peng Liang. He is only out to stir s#@*
LKY needs to periodically raise the bogey of communism in order to retain support from the US. The detention of the social workers from the Catholic Church was one such act. Later he realised that it was more profitable to sue them and bandrupt them. Not only will he became rich, he will make his critics suffer a living death.
@let sin know
Heard old timers said Francis Seow embarassed LKY in open court on Tv during a commission of enquiry hearing long ago. It was said that even the Chief Justice Wee Chong Gin trembled in front of LKY who was in the witness box. Normally it is the witness who tremble before the
judge. It would be good anyone has any recording of the proceeding. But I doubt as in those days technology not like now.
Oh, I lament the stupidity of the majority who mindlessly continue to support their oppressors even after they see their children suffer under unjust laws endorsed by their past & present masters…
The opposition must bring all these issueS up and also propose a freedom of information act to protect all SINGAPOREANS and show the world that the government is transparent.
@Innocent
Write to TOC. Presend your proof. Ask them to publish it.
But take note of one fact.
The government HAS NEVER admit of any wrong doing before. And therefore, you must be prepare for the worst thing that can happen to you.
@ innocent
i understand!!! Just count yourself suay. In-btw, bet you can’t produce evident that you have been lockup for nothing with organize system.
Like everything the PAP does it proliferates and the ISD has proliferated into other work not connected with terrorism or national safety or public good. To say that it is used to demolish the opposition is not the end of its creative activity. Ominously it is commandeered by blue eyed Law firm close to the PAP to humble and soften their clients’ enemies in preparation for Court Hearings. The ISD will when ordered by such Law firms, harangue citizenry who are litigating against the said Law firms’ clients, threatening them with dire consequences as if they are also judges, set the ICA to stop them for pointless checking at immigration checkpoints, spout the Shari’ah as if they are also Imams of the Muslim religion, in short become a one stop police shop for every conceivable societal issue. If you think of it, isn’t it hilarious? Kafirs running around intoning the Shari’ah? You think I am lying? Get the ISD to read this and see whether they can dispute my claim that some non- Muslim ISD officers are now going around intimidating Muslims by quoting the Shari’ah of Divorce. What will the ISD do next?
I can tell you my fellow Singapore citizens that the Government is lying to your face when it says in the Straits Times today 24 Sep 2011, that the ISA is not used for political enemies. I say that the ISD is used for everything, even against ordinary citizens for even non criminal non political cases. I and my family were hounded by the ISD with threats at interviews, harassment at the immigration checkpoints for a period of about two years because of a divorce case in our family. The other side engaged one of the elite Law firms with close links to the PAP. All hell broke loose as soon as this Law firm was hired against us.The ISD was set upon us by threats and humiliation until the Court Hearings were over. When the hearings were over, the ISD, like magic, stopped appearing in our lives, no more interviews, no more legal interpretations of the divorce laws, no more stopping us at checkpoints. I surmise that the intent was for the ISD to intimidate us so that we would crumple in Court and give up our rights. So that that Law firm employed by the other side would achieve a successful outcome, as indeed they have the final victory.
I and my family have first hand experience of what the ISD would be involved in, even a divorce case. As a result I claim that the ISD is a hired gun ( or free service) to certain elites like Law firms to call upon to do their errands. I do not doubt that the ISD also has an eye on terrorists and the protection of the State, but not totally. It has a commercial arm to assist their special Law firms. Not knowing the facts and having no means to verify the given facts by the Govt or the detainees, I do not know whether the people mentioned in the ST today as having been detained by the ISD without hearing are dangerous or not. I am only sure that this Government having created an apparatus ostensibly to protect the Nation, is now freely using it for all purposes and seasons. In short commandeering it against the citizenry for any reason worth the money, like using this State Resource for a corporate purpose, The Govt is getting taxpayers to fund their projects of intimidating the citizenry over domestic litigation handled by their blue eyed lawyers. You can calculate how much man hours of work is involved, interviewing us several times, stopping us at checkpoints about 20 times over two years- all to assist this elite Law firm. What is the result of all those interviews and chacking, absolutely nothing. I have written to the competent authorities whether they found out anything criminal about us after two years of work. As you would expect, 50 emails to all relevant govt departments resulted in dead silence.
In view of the above, I dare say that there is a high probability that the ISD is indeed used to destroy political opposition. If the ISD can be set against non criminal litigants, I don’t expect the Government to restrain the ISD from dealing with the PAP’s political opponents too.
If I and my family can be given protection ( I don’t see how this can be done, given that the Judiciary is by and large compliant to its pay masters) I will set out every detail for the citizenry to make its own judgment as to what the ISD is about.
In the meantime, I hope more of the citizenry come out with their personal encounters with the ISD. I do not believe that I doppelganger & family have such bad luck as to have suffered an exceptional ISD abuse. Ours may be the tip of an iceberg of rampant abuse by the ISD over ordinary citizens, inserting itself in all departments of life.
I think the ISA should be abolished and replaced by a Law which will not allow the PAP and its elites to wield their power over everybody and for all seasons.
MERE STATEMENTS BY MHA DOES NOT SUFFICE.
EXPLAIN HOW THESE 16 WERE SUBVERSIVE AND DESTABLISED SINGAPORE.
THE YOUNGER GENERATION HAS A RIGHT TO KNOW HOW AND WHY IT HAPPENNED SO THAT SUCH ATROSITY IN THE NAME OF SAVING THE NATION DO NOT ARISE.
LKY AND HIS CRONIES INCLUDING HIS ERSTWHILE NATHAN OWES THEIR EXPLAINATION THIS GENERATION.
THEIR MEMOIRS ARE WROUGHT WITH STERILITY AND HIDES THEIR VENOM.
The time has come to bring the acts of the ISA since its inception to an international tribunal able to hear the case of our detainees, some of whom have been detained without declared specificity for close to 30 years. The prime movers of the ISD , like LKY,GST,Nathan etc are all old men, some very old. We have to make haste to get justice done. Well, if it turns out as a decision and finding of the tribunal that everyone detained is rightfully detained, then we shall have to accept that too and apologise to these our benefactors LKY & company for their strong arm in protecting us all these 50 years.
Fifty years of despotism by LKY and his cohorts is enough time in the history of a country. This country has gained worldwide recognition as a centre of trade, thanks to the despotism. But the despots have amassed such wealth that flies against their wildest dreams. Whether it is fair exchange or no, we are unable to judge, only the people of a later time can give a verdict of what the PAP has done for us and to us. But this business of the ISA is patently an atrocity committed by the PAP that is easily identified within the whorls of suppression and control sewn by the Ruling Party in the Spring of their reign. The time has now come to deal with the ISA or it will be another 50 years of savage servitude by the Hatchet’s lineage in the flesh or in the spirit.
@doppelganger
If you have done nothing wrong, why are you afraid? What’s wrong with being questioned a few times and being stopped at checkpoints? The ISD is just doing its job. Your story sounds like another fantasy.
@Michael Lim Peng Liang aka Steven Kho aka Alvin Chua..
Read his comment carefully, it is not about being questioned a few times, it is harrassment. And they are NOT doing their job, they are being hired hands like mafia.
It seems like we are living in a place infested with mafia with the ISD around.
Oh of couse, gangsters like you will not mind that.
If you want to try to convince people that you are really commenting because of interest in national security, nobody will believe you.
Because in many of your past comments, you have proven yourself to be either a pervert or a jerk. No one will take you comment seriously because people like you have absolutely zero in terms of moral high ground. Which crook like you will really be interested in national security???
Of course once again if you are actually steven kho in diguise trying to turn people off from PAP and in this case the ISD, i must say you have once again done a damn good job!!
I, like many layman here, is not convinced by MHA Marxist Conspirators story. The PAP regime, all throughout their reigning era, had applied all kinds of unfair, unjustified and un-level policies, to contain the oppositions. The ISA tool, had been their main weapon, and often used to ‘Nip in the bud’. This nipping in the bud do not need clarifications, nor the need to provide proofs. Any capable opponents will be nipped before they can blossom. Please don’t try to tell stories, and provide us the evidence.
LKY is a cunning fox n ISA is his machine gun with Nathan the hatchet ..Francis Seow did rebuttal LKY well n the judge Wee was stone silence when LKY was out of line in replying
@Michael Lim Peng Liang
Nobody in the right mind believe anything you post because showed that you can’t think straight….
Please do enlighten us with solid proof and evidence when you says that “Those peopel were rightly detained, and should never have been released.” ??
Enlighten us please……or are you really Steven Kho aka Alvin Chua?
@Michael Lim Peng Liang You talk like as if you are a spokesman for PAP. We know you may have a stake in PAP, and we also know that your Knowledge of ISA is shallow. We also concluded that your efforts in trying every means to turn some black spots into white. It clearly showed you had failed miserably. In fact, your efforts had increased more people, even previous PAP supporters like us, opposing the PAP policies of this kind.
you should all BLAME the british
maybe then the action and pressure will come from obama and british pm.
it just CONFIRMED, that the miw wants all you slaves and slave’s money,
LOCK UP !!!!!!!!
locals are daft,
borders on “stupid’
pls vote for lightning next erection
and die a slow death…….
why would these people support communist of malaya when the communists of that party are preparing to disarm?
This is a joke.
I thought we have adopted communism in Singapore. So what’s wrong?
We are redder than even communist china.
Politics are the dirtest game in the world. So it depends on how high handed the winner is going to be and how they want to enriched themselves.
胜者为王败者为寇
@Josh
Thanks for sharing Youtube clips. I shudder to think Singapore is also heading towards that direction! Things will never improve with the presence of ISA.
They simply accused them as communists but gave no evidence of any dangerous weapons seized from them. In fact most of them were respected professionals like doctors, lawyers, etc and they want us to believe they were dangerous communists.
Yet what is evident as the common denominator in all these detentions is that they were either political opponents or critics of the govt at that time which posed a threat to tyrant’s political regime.
Why can’t he just confess and apologise to them for the harm & sufferings caused to them ? I’m sure this will continue haunt him for the rest of his life if he doesn’t seek their forgiveness and then he will be seen by many people as a leader of no substance. Is that what he wants to be remembered for ?