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As the story unfolds, you find yourself in the midst of a very personal battle between two stubborn men - the immensely powerful Prime Minister of Singapore, Mr. When I first picked up this book, I knew little to nothing about Singapore and didn't really think the subject would keep my interest. Jeyaretnam's career through an endless series of harrassment law suits designed to bankrupt and humiliate him. Lydgate's biographical sketch on the life of opposition party politician J.B.
In the end what you get is a powerful warning - this could be you, too, folks, if you allow the power of one single party or one single man within that party to grow too strong. Jeyaretnam quickly swept me in. His writing style is concise, clear and engaging, and the book concludes with a powerful warning for those who still harbor naive illusions about the nature of democracy. Chris Lydgate, a long-time journalist from Portland, Oregon, has written a harrowing and frustrating tale on the life of an opposition party politician in a country that permits no such dissent - Singapore. But the system has been so hopelessly locked up by the PAP (People's Action Party) for so long now that any real dissent against the group-think policies of the island are met with overwhelming and brutal force.In this era of "you're either with us or against us" and "this is not the time to cut and run", Mr. You learn quickly how easily the Prime Minister, with all the organs of the state at his disposal, can manipulate the judiciary, the police and the parliament into virtually destroying Mr.
Along the way, you pick up a great deal of the island's short history - it's been only 200 years since the island was settled - and you become deeply involved in Mr. Jeyaretnam's personal life, as he struggles to raise a family and stay true to his principles despite overwhelming economic and legal pressure.
Lydgate's excellent book serves as a powerful reminder of the essential role that tolerance, dissent and criticism play in a democracy. But Mr.
Singapore is, on the face of things, a democracy. Lee Kwan Yew, and his erstwhile political opponent, Mr.
Jeyaretnam. There are elections every few years and opposition party candidates are allowed to run.
For those interested in such affairs, I heartily recommend this enjoyable, easy-to-read and yet powerful book.
It isn't big enough to have sufficient other structures to dilute his power. Mr. However, in nearly all those cases the threat never ends and the police powers are the normal way of life. Lydgate brings us the story of one Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam.
Somehow that constituted an endorsement of what was in the report. Why. This subjected him to hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and court costs. For example, the suit that finally broke Mr. He is a person who has given everything to the fight for social justice and political plurality in Singapore. Why the need to keep power by any means.
This kind of brutality is beyond the comprehension of Americans. Small states in hostile areas often justify their need for police state measures because of their size and context in the nations around them. These naked power plays seem something out of America's Tammany Hall days. This terrific reporting done by Chris Lydgate reveals a lot to me that the strange episode of the kid getting caned for vandalism did not.I did not know of the one party rule in that city-state and the ruthless and extreme measures taken to keep that power in the hands of the PAP. Jeyaretnam happened because he mentioned that an associate had placed a report on the podium in front of him.
This kind of government corrupts the fabric of the society it claims to protect.Mr. Jeyaretnam is the hero of this book and yet in his old age he is reduced to selling books from a stand on the street and is still harassed by hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and court costs. The PAP used EVERY means to drive Jeyaretnam out of government including the courts. Like most Americans, I knew a few odd things about Singapore and nothing much about its history, politics, or the manner of life of its citizens. This kind of abuse of the legal system to break anyone who would speak out is obscene to Americans. As are the threats of the prime minister to not refurbish the government-subsidized buildings in districts that voted for the opposition. Singapore suffers from being a country that is really a huge city.
The Prime Minister is a mayor with too much power over the other aspects of government. Lovers of freedom and pluralism in the west should reach out and help the aged warrior. In Singapore dissent was crushed by torture and long imprisonments (decades) without ever being charged with anything. There must be some agency that could put together a fund to help him live the dignified life he deserves.Thanks to Mr. Jeyaretnam is a man of talents and strength who led the opposition party (the Workers Party) to the PAP. Singapore apparently has very strange laws about defamation and the PAP influence on the courts makes these strange laws subject to even stranger interpretations. While Singaporeans justly resent outside influence and recommendations for improvement, I think the advanced democracies need to work to make Singapore a more open and free society in terms of the rights of speech and freedom from government harassment for raising questions.Mr.
Lydgate for bringing our attention to this important story and this hero of Singapore.
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