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By Calvin Cheng
The Western press has been relentless in trotting out the opinion that Mr Lee
Kuan Yew had built Singapore's undeniable economic success while trading off
fundamental civil liberties.
Much as I understand that it is in the West's fundamental DNA to assert certain
inalienable freedoms, as a Singaporean, I strenuously object that there has
been any such trade-off.
Some of my Western friends who have never lived here for any period of time
have sometimes self-righteously proclaimed, no doubt after reading the cliches
in the media, that they could never live under the "stifling and draconian"
laws that we have.
My answer to them is simple: Are you the sort to urinate in public when a
toilet isn't available, the sort to vandalise public property, the sort that
would leave a mess in a public toilet that you share with others? Are you the
sort who would throw rubbish on the streets for others to pick up, the sort
that would stick gum on train doors or leave them on the floor to dry up into
one ugly black scar on the pavement? Are you perhaps a drug smuggler? Because
we execute those. Or maybe you molest women? Because we would whip you. Are you
the sort that would get drunk and then get into fights and maybe beat up a
stranger in the bar? Back home you may get away with it but if you are that
sort, then maybe this place isn't for you.
In short, are you a civilised person who wants to live in a civilised society?
Because the things you cannot do in Singapore are precisely the sort that
civilised people should not do anyway. If you are, you have nothing to fear.
Or maybe like the Western press has kept saying these few days in their
commentaries on Mr Lee, you fear that you could be locked up because we do not
have freedom of speech?
Do you want to come here and insult other people's race and religion? Maybe
these are fundamental freedoms in your country, but in ours, because we have
experienced deadly racial riots at the birth of our country, these are a no-no.
But then again, why would you want to purposely offend others?
Or maybe you want to tell lies about our public figures, accuse them of
corruption when you have no evidence to back them up, or accuse them of
stealing, cheating, or all manner of untruths? If so, then be prepared to be
sued for libel. Even if Western societies think that you can say these things
about your political figures, we don't and we are better for it.
And those political opponents of Mr Lee who have been bankrupted, allegedly
because they were such formidable foes? No such thing. Mr J.B. Jeyeratnam and
Dr Chee Soon Juan may be the martyrs much adored by the Western press, but have
you heard of Mr Chiam See Tong, the longest-serving opposition Member of
Parliament who won five consecutive elections against Mr Lee's People's Action
Party? Or Mr Low Thia Khiang, who not only won five consecutive general
elections, but in the last one in 2011, also led a team that unseated the
incumbent Minister for Foreign Affairs and our first female Cabinet minister?
Both these opposition MPs have never been sued, much less bankrupted. In fact,
Mr Chiam won several libel lawsuits against Mr Lee's ministers. You would never
have heard of them, or have chosen not to, because it doesn't fit the Western
narrative that legitimate opposition was stifled by Mr Lee through lawsuits. It
doesn't suit your narrative of trade-offs. The fact is that every single
opposition politician successfully sued for libel engaged in the type of
politics that we do not want, the kind founded on vicious lies being told in
the name of political campaigning.
What about detention without trial? Again and again ad nauseam, the Western
press has used the example of Operation Cold Store to bolster its narrative of
Mr Lee as an autocrat, where 111 left-wing politicians were arrested on
suspicion of being communist in 1964.
But what about Operation Demetrius, where in 1971, 342 persons suspected of
being involved with the IRA were detained without trial by the British Army? Or
closer to the present where thousands have been interred without trial by the
United States in Guantanamo Bay on suspicion of being terrorists? Firstly,
detention without trial is not something used only by the Singapore Government,
but countries need to make their own judgment about applying such laws when
they feel their security is threatened and the normal judicial process is
inadequate; in the 1960s and 70s, communists inciting armed revolution were
Singapore's greatest threat.
Whether those people were indeed communists will be a question no doubt debated
endlessly by historians, in the same way as whether the 342 in Northern Ireland
were indeed IRA members, or the thousands in Guantanamo Bay were indeed
terrorists.
So where is the trade-off? How are we unfree?
I tell you what freedom is.
Freedom is being able to walk on the streets unmolested in the wee hours in the
morning, to be able to leave one's door open and not fear that one would be
burgled. Freedom is the woman who can ride buses and trains alone; freedom is
not having to avoid certain subway stations after night falls. Freedom is
knowing our children can go to school without fear of drugs, or being mowed
down by some insane person with a gun. Freedom is knowing that we are not bound
by our class, our race, our religion, and we can excel for the individuals that
we are - the freedom to accomplish. Freedom is living in one of the least
corrupt societies in the world, knowing that our ability to get things done is
not going to be limited by our ability to pay someone. Freedom is fresh air and
clean streets, because nothing is more inimical to our liberty of movement than
being trapped at home because of suffocating smog.
These are the freedoms that Singaporeans have, freedoms that were built on the
vision and hard work of Mr Lee, our first Prime Minister. And we have all of
these, these liberties, while also being one of the richest countries in the
world.
There was no trade-off.
Not for us.
The writer is a media entrepreneur and former Nominated MP