Open letter from a Singaporean Political Refugee, Ho Juan Th
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Open letter from a Singaporean Political Refugee, Ho Juan Thai
TEMASEK REVIEW
Dear Fellow Singapore Citizens and Friends,
My name is Ho Juan Thai. I am a born and bred Singapore Citizen, I completed my full time National Service several decades ago. For certain reasons I have been living in London as a Refugee from Singapore for the last 32 years, but it is not my choice.
If you believe that Singapore belongs to certain Minsters who have the divine right in deciding which Singaporean does and does not have the right to a Singaporean citizenship and which Singaporean can and cannot be entitled to a Singapore passport, I would advise you to stop reading this now as it would be more meaningful for you to continue indulging yourself in the elite clubs of some kind.If you believe Singapore belongs to you, Singapore belongs to me and Singapore belongs to any other Singapore citizen and we all have the equal right to our citizenship and passports under the constitution, I hope you could spare some time to read on and see what you can do.
A week or so after the December 1976 Singapore general election a group of plain clothes armed Inter Security Department (ISD) police officers came to my house in Jurong to arrest me. I managed to struggle away from their cordon of the house and escaped. During the chase one of the ISD officers took out his pistol, pointed it at me and shouted in Chinese Hokkien dialect “don’t run, you run I will open fire”. After I disappeared in to the lemon grove at the back of my house, the chasing officer together with other officers, went round the neighbors with his pistol in his hand looking for me. I was advised to seek refuge somewhere else for my own safety.
With the help of the late Mr. J B Jeyaretnam (JBJ), the then Workers Party Secretary General and his late wife Margrate, as well as others I managed to get to London in July 1977, after 6 months of hiding out in Singapore and Malaysia. Upon my arrival in London I asked for Political Asylum. The British Government, in accordance with International Law, interviewed me and carried out various investigations to establish my claim. Having completed a thorough investigation the British Government duly granted me political asylum the following year. I was issued with a Blue Travel Document in accordance with the United Nations 1951 Convention for Refugees.
Under the regulations of the United Nations and the British Government, whoever holds a Blue Travel Document issued under the UN 1951 Convention for Refugees is a Refugee. So I became an official Refugee from Singapore in November 1978.
Although I was out of the Singapore government’s sight as a refugee abroad that did not mean I was out of their minds. Their paranoia prompted them to embark on changing the Constitution of Singapore in 1985. The amended constitution empowers the government to deprive any citizen living abroad for more than 10 years without returning once, of their citizenship.
Soon after the Constitutional change I became one of only two Singapore citizens to be served with Citizenship Deprivation Notices. The government hoped to go through this process to eliminate any political challenge to them, including the innocuous and feeble one from me as a parliamentary candidate in the 1976 general election.
Together with Mr. JBJ we decided to launch an appeal against the Deprivation Notice as a first step in drawing the attention of the international community to how fundamental human rights were being violated in Singapore. In the course of our appeal Mr. JBJ was unreasonably stripped of his legal practice for some other reason. The appeal panel known as committee of Inquiry put the appeal on hold while a new legal representative was appointed. When Mr. JBJ won his appeal and reinstated his practice by the final court of appeal Mr. JBJ continued to represent me. For unknown reasons , after about 2 years of delays, the Home Affairs Department suddenly informed us that they had decided to withdraw their Deprivation Notice. As such I remain as a Singapore citizen and retain the title as a refugee from Singapore in London.
Since then from time to time I wrote to the authority inquiring if I could be issued with a Singapore passport. The answer has always been uniformly NO. The reason commonly given was that I was wanted by the Singapore police for questioning and therefore I could not be issued with a Singapore passport. What the police wish to question me about has never been clear to anyone. As Singapore forbids dual nationality the only way to keep myself as a loyal son of Singapore is to stay on as a refugee. I am always loyal to Singapore so I always end up remaining as a refugee.
When our Premier Lee tried to champion human rights and speed up the Human Rights Charter for Asean in 2007 the mainstream media in Singapore made continued and prominent reports about it. I thought that was a signal of a genuine change. I wrote to the High Commissioner to UK, Mr. Michael Teo, asking him if I could apply for a Singapore passport. To my total surprise my request was not turned down as before, instead I was sent an application form. I filled in the form and went to the High Commission for finger prints etc. Initially, the Singapore Immigration and Control Authority (ICA) was not happy with the documents I produced. After 2 years of working hard and with the help of my London local MP writing many letters we managed to satisfy the ICA with the documentary evidence it asked for.
When ICA was happy with my documentary evidence I thought that I could soon travel as an ordinary Singaporean with a Singapore passport and I began to think about getting married as an ordinary Singapore citizen. My excitement about the “new dawn” initiated by our premier Lee over the ASEAN Human Rights Charter in 2007 proved to be a false one. As ICA could not refuse my passport application on the grounds that I failed to satisfy them with the documents they asked for, they simply said they could only offer me the following “ you may be issued with a Document of Identity on application to the Singapore High Commission in London . “ .
I wrote to ICA asking why I could not be treated just as any Singaporean since I have committed no crime? Their one way ticket of Document of Identity offer amounts to discrimination. Under the constitution no one should be discriminated against. Any Singaporean worth his salt should not accept discrimination. As a proud Singapore citizen I will never accept any treatment that is discriminatory.
To avoid being seen as practicing discriminatory treatments, ICA now changed the tone in their reply. They now say that they suspected my original expired Singapore passport had been illegally tampered with at the time I left Singapore. Under such circumstances they may (not will ) issue me with a Document of Identity for me to return to Singapore for further investigation if I apply for it.
My further reply to ICA on their latest one way ticket offer made in 8th December 2009 was asking ICA to spell out under which provision of the Singapore constitution was it that a person like me could not be issued with a Singapore Passport. I also asked them to explain why they keep changing their goal posts? So far ICA has given no reply. The Singapore High Commission in London also confirmed that the correspondence I sent through them to ICA has not gone astray and they too have not had any reply. The Singapore High Commission promised to put a chase on it for me. It has now been more then 4 months without any reply from ICA .
The situation is now different. ICA, by giving me no reply and not issuing me with a Singapore passport , is doing more than simply keeping me outside Singapore as a refugee. I now have a son who was born in London in December 2009. Under the Singapore Constitution he has every right to be a Singapore citizen by descent. But according to the ICA rules they sent me, ICA will not process my son’s Singapore Citizenship application unless I can produce a Singapore Passport. Effectively the right of my son to be a Singapore citizenship is being unfairly denied. My London born Singapore boy, technically at this particular point in time, is stateless. Again the Singapore High Commission in London confirmed to me that they too have not received any reply for the further clarifications I sent to ICA about my son’s citizenship application about 3 months ago..
My wife has given me an ultimatum to sort out my son’s Singapore citizenship in the very near future otherwise it is her turn to sort it out with the Thai or British Authorities. My wife’s desperation is understandable as her wish to book air tickets to visit her homeland is being delayed without our son’s citizenship and a baby passport being sorted out. When looking at my London born Singapore boy and the desperation of my wife, never before have I ever felt such a pressure to seek a solution to my refugee status.
The available routes I could go down to have my son enlisted as a Singapore Citizen by descent and for me to gain a Singapore passport with the usual Singapore bureaucratic processes seem to be reaching an end. The only possible meaningful avenue left for me now is to appeal to you as fellow Singaporeans to see what you could come up with.
What I hope for:
1. To have a trial in an open court.
The fairest way to resolve my passport application is first of all to put me on trial on any alleged offense I may have committed in Singapore, except AWOL ( I will explain about my AWOL in more detail later). If I did commit any crime and under the law I do not deserve to have a Singapore passport, then I will be perfectly happy to close the chapter and go off with only myself to blame. If I did not commit any crime I do not see why a Singaporean can not be treated as any
other Singaporean and enjoy equal rights in having a Singapore passport.Some years ago some Singaporeans did kindly raise this request for me in the Strait Times but the issue went away quietly after a while. This time I hope more people could help to raise their voice for me using the new technologies. I do not believe the government can operate hypocritically for too long if more people come to know about it.
2. To Gather knowledge of Other Mistreatment
I do believe the mistreatment I have encountered is not an exception but rather the norm, though the mistreatment may not be in the same degree and always involve the ICA . If you or anyone you know of has encountered any mistreatment like mine, regarding passports or any other issues, I hope you could let me know. I hope the victims of mistreatment of various kinds can come together to make a stronger joint appeal. We can see change if we can come together . Please write to me at [email protected] (I do not have a blog or face book etc).
3 Write to Mr. K Shanmugam, The Minister of Law and second Minister for Home Affairs.
Mr. Shanmugam who is directly responsible for ICA. He is able to get away with completely ignoring my repeated letters urging him to review the ICA practice. He did not even have the decency to acknowledge any of my letters. But if many of you could write to him he might be obliged to come out to explain why ICA needs to keep moving its goal posts regarding my passport application and and who made the last minute intervention to stop issuing me with a Singapore passport etc. What is this new political rising star up to is a matter of public interest.
4 Write to Mr. Goh Chok Tong, The Senior Minister
Mr. Goh once famously said Singapore needs people that are “Pak See Bei Chao” (someone whose loyalty will never cease regardless of being confronted with a life threatening situation). I must say I fully agree with him on this point as I do share the thought that what sort of country we are and will be depends on the make up of our people.
Mr. Goh may know what sort of people Singapore should have to make up our country. I wonder does Mr. Goh really have the final say on matters of this kind?
Do you personally know Mr. Goh well? We are mulling over if we should appeal further to him and others? Is there any point in making further appeals? If you do know how the very top works please let us know.
5 To Appeal to SAF
I come from a family which believes in having a strong and effective force in Singapore to defend our freedom and prosperity. My elder brother joined the Armed Forces in Singapore even before SAF was formed. Joining the Armed Forces at that time under the British Colonial Government meant helping to stop the Communists from taking over Malaya (Singapore and West Malaysia). My whole family gave my elder brother its full blessing and moral support. When my third brother graduated he fell outside of the National Service enlistment age. He decided to support SAF through joining SAF as a professional soldier. He dedicated his whole career in SAF. Again our family took pride in what he has done. All my nephews whenever they were enlisted served the National Services with enthusiasm and pride. For me there was no exception. I served in both the Singapore National Service Police part-time when I was at the high school and subsequently full time full term in SAF before I joined Nanyang University. I served SAF with pride and full enthusiasm. Ironically, I now have a record of being AWOL in SAF.
My AWOL came about not because I ran away from SAF to avoid being sent to the front line. It came about soon after the government withdrew its Citizenship Deprivation Notice, about 13 years after I left Singapore. Suddenly Military Police were sent to my parents house asking my mum where I was and an official record was made that I had disappeared from the SAF reservist recall? Did SAF really need me 13 years after I had left Singapore? Why did the SAF military police need to visit my parent house after they withdrew their Citizenship Deprivation Notice?
Under Singapore law any citizen who is fined for $2000 or more, or imprisoned for more than 12 months, will automatically be forbidden from standing for parliamentary election for 5 years. Should I now go back to Singapore, and the government could not find anything substantial to fine me for or to imprison me for long enough, to disqualify me from standing for election they can always rely on the SAF AWOL record to achieve their aim. I believe this was why I got an AWOL record, but I hope I am wrong to think so.
I strongly believe Singapore should do two things to achieve peace and stability. One is to set Singapore up as a centre of peace, a centre for talking peace and a centre for promoting peace and humanity. Perhaps we need to do a bit more than the Swiss by just having the UN civilian physically set up, providing various conveniences for peace negotiations and having various peace making NGO. We need to open up our military bases and facilities to UN-led intervention forces,
either for peace keeping purposes or humanitarian support. UN needs an efficient neutral strategic location for speedily responding to various emergencies in Asia and the middle east region. If this idea can be pulled through and accepted in UN we will have multi-national force on our soil. Indirectly this force will give us protection.To help others to achieve peace and to improve our own security is definitely a worthwhile strategy to explore. However we cannot be under the illusion that becoming a peace promoter and having a permanent UN–led international police force if it could be successfully implemented in Singapore, would give us a guarantee of total security and stability, because the complications of
International politics is beyond immigration. The only thing that can ultimately give us a guarantee is our own invincible defence force – SAF.To have a strong and effective force SAF must maintain neutrality politically. SAF must never be made use of by any political party for their own selfish ends. Political parties may come and go, like it or not, it is just a matter of time. SAF must be permanently strong and well supported from Singaporeans within and without the country. Not all the ROD guys who left Singapore without an Exit Permit left without good reasons. Requiring the father of an offspring to have a valid Exit Permit in order to apply to be Singapore citizen by descent is a shot in its own foot. It will cut its potential recruits and supports and is unfair. SAF needs to review this policy as it has isolated some who are quite willing to see their sons serve national service when their sons grow up. I hope my son will grow up to help promote peace and humanity of some kind but I also want him to continue our family tradition in supporting Singapore in having strong and effective forces now and at any time in the future. Should an unwelcome situation be forced upon us from forces from abroad I will be very proud to see my son be one of those who can be counted on as a comrade in arms” in SAF.
I do hereby appeal to SAF to review its Exit Permit policy and stay neutral politically.
Conclusions
Thank you for reading my appeal up to this point. I am not sure what you make of the whole affair? As far as I am concerned the issue superficially looks like it is me and my entitlement to a Singapore passport, as well as my son’s constitutional right to be a Singapore citizen by descent, which has been unjustly prevented by someone at the top.
However, if you look at the series of events over the last 33 years you will realise that it is more about they and their desperate attempts to deny a past parliamentary candidate from ever again participating in open parliamentary politics in a cowardice way.
I am nobody and am just like anyone of you who cares and loves our Singapore. Do I deserve such treatment?
Being someone who has come from a stone broke family growing up in a Tao Payoh Kampung where there was no public transport, no electricity or gas supply at one time. Our family have been taking the changes in Singapore positively. Like many Singaporeans, I do appreciate the economic advances and the living improvements achieved under the older generation leadership. We are grateful for it. I am prepared to let my mistreatment “justified” under the so called “necessary evil”, as something of the past and let bygones be bygones in order to move on for the good of moving forward.
However, what concerns us all at this moment is that the older generation is leaving us, most of them have already gone. But the younger generation of leadership, especially the rising stars, ignoring the world out there has completely changed, are still trying to practice the old craft to justify them to continue their outdated way of ruling which is increasingly losing support and respect. Their complete lack of fresh ideas and courage to engage the aspirations of the younger generation is worrying. The young do rightly and correctly believe that national building and advancement is more than just a matter of economic growth alone. Their wish to have a culture of more openness, trust and accountable for the good of humanity, social justice, freedom and fairness, expressed in everyday alternative media has never been respected. Based on the inspiration led by our younger generation I hereby make my appeal for help and for change. I do share the popular saying that together we can.
Ho Juan Thai
[email protected]
19 Claremont Road
London NW2 1BP
United Kingdom
3rd June 2010 -
Most of the ministers these days, they still toe the old man's line. I really wonder what kind of politics it will be when he goes off or will they then be under LHL's thumb? When he steps down, he will surely make himself the SM and eventually the MM.
And there we go again, back to square 1 lol. Seems that this ho juan thai has a lot of grievances.
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5. To Appeal to SAF
Notably the Minister of Defence.
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Originally posted by Rock^Star:
Most of the ministers these days, they still toe the old man's line. I really wonder what kind of politics it will be when he goes off or will they then be under LHL's thumb? When he steps down, he will surely make himself the SM and eventually the MM.
And there we go again, back to square 1 lol. Seems that this ho juan thai has a lot of grievances.
His grievances are from his point of view.
We do not know the whole story.
But it seems he sorely wants a passport.
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He was deprived from being a normal Singaporean for 32 years. How cruel is that? The policeman pointed a gun right at him. BUT WHY? Did he commit anything wrong? Why did the ISD chase after him for no reason?
The PAP threaten that the army would be call in should a "freak election" happen.
They are going to chase everyone out of their houses to other countries with guns. Why abuse their position? He is most probably one of the "dummy" that PAP was going to use to threaten Singapore should a "freak election" occur.
Imagine, You deprived of a house for 32 years, from your home land, from your home town, from your own solely bought house. They chase you out of the house, repossess it without any warning. The next night, you sleep on the cold streets while cars zoom pass you. Deprived of a house for the next few years. Without any money, you can't buy a house, without a job, you can't make any money, without any money to buy classifieds, you can't find jobs. Why do they resort to this? Why? We, Singaporeans, deserve to have an answer.
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call in the army? haha already people are pissed having to waste 2 years of their life and he thinks we will kill fellow sgporeans for him in time of civil war?
I would rather be court martialled than safeguard this stupid party.
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Originally posted by mancha:
His grievances are from his point of view.
We do not know the whole story.
But it seems he sorely wants a passport.
It is nice to hear Ho's story. It reveals the unsaid side of our "economic prosperity."
Whether this is true or not is everyone's own take. But the story does not sound far fetch.
I hope Ho will sort out his life and be successful in gathering knowledge.
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Ho is not telling everything.
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Originally posted by Herzog_Zwei:
Ho is not telling everything.
If you are so capable, tell the whole story then.You always criticise angel7030 for spouting rubbish every day. You are in fact worse off.
A PAP mole out to protect the interests ofyour master.
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Originally posted by Straightstick:
If you are so capable, tell the whole story then.You always criticise angel7030 for spouting rubbish every day. You are in fact worse off.
A PAP mole out to protect the interests ofyour master.
huh, please hor, anything to do with ISD, or ISA, dun put my name there ya.I pity Uncle thai, but living in UK should be better than in singapore. More freedom and higher paid.
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Originally posted by angel7030:
huh, please hor, anything to do with ISD, or ISA, dun put my name there ya.I pity Uncle thai, but living in UK should be better than in singapore. More freedom and higher paid.
Higher paid yes. but their taxes oso sibeh high one hor..... UK's economy is oso flaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat. -
Originally posted by Fenixx:
Higher paid yes. but their taxes oso sibeh high one hor..... UK's economy is oso flaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat.
refugee got paid tax one meh...he dun even get welfare for being jobless or any pension, so to speak, he can works as contractor who take daily base wages, just by clearing rubbish from house to house, you get 2k pound per mth about 4k sing dollars. Even dishwasher or kitcher helper or foods delivery guys also can get about 1.8k pounds. Which he can also work as partimer at nite. -
Originally posted by Straightstick:
If you are so capable, tell the whole story then.You always criticise angel7030 for spouting rubbish every day. You are in fact worse off.
A PAP mole out to protect the interests ofyour master.
He wasn't suddenly a wanted man for no reason. Some background information can be found here, for those who aren't old enough to know. 'Ho was accused of inciting the Chinese-speaking population to violence by playing up "gut issues" on language in speeches made during the 1976 general elections rallies.'
Just sharing what I Googled, because I wasn't born yet either. Note that the sources are not local.
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Actually Ho's idea is not wrong also.Becos when Singapore just gain independance,which is in the 60's n 70's,many of the countrymen n women are not even well educated.Many of them didnt even graduate from primary school.My 3 uncles are a good example.They are either primary or didnt have the chance to study at all.
So,during that time,many Singaporeans not even have the chance to study in school,n Lee Kuan Yew suddenly put English as 1st language,i believe it did create chaos in our education system at that time.I mean,most of the Singaporeans cant even write Chinese,Indian n Malay language well in school.And LKY suddenly put English as 1st language?LOL!!!!
What LKY should do is to put English as 2nd language,but as a "Must-learn" language.Then as time goes by,and then put English as 1st language.This will be a more reasonable n progressive method.
So Ho's idea is not wrong also,i am surprised LKY will send ISD to arrest him just becoz of his speeches,haha...
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And also,now English is more important than ever due to globalisation.And LKY suddenly stress the importance of Chinese language n force ppl to learn it well.This LKY really....all the things he do is all about himself,he is a very very very self-centred n selfish person.Both self centre n selfish sound the same,n he is the combo of these 2 bad attitude.
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Hello everyone(: My first post here.
As Singapore is a multi-racial country - it will definitely cause a lot of social problems should Ho Juan Thai's speech incite the Chinese-speaking popularity to violence. By then .. there gonna be racial riots etc etc .. and many lives will be lost and Singapore might not even be that successful today if such racism still exist today.
The Government is really efficient in preventing any racial disputes which I really applaud the Government for.
Hardly do we see any country in the world where many different races/religions come together and live/work/play without any disputes/problems.
As for Ho Juan Thai - he should be proactive and take the courage to face up the challenge. He should have come to Singapore and solve any outstanding problems he have and if he is INNOCENT - he should not be afraid.
Singapore is not a communist-state where everything is controlled and restricted.
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Originally posted by Straightstick:
If you are so capable, tell the whole story then.You always criticise angel7030 for spouting rubbish every day. You are in fact worse off.
A PAP mole out to protect the interests ofyour master.
You always get it wrong, Hum7030 is the PAP mole, I am just the skeptic man in streets. -
hey herzog,
stop calling her a hum...she might be a beautiful scallop or lobster for all u know!!!yumm....me loves lobster thats not exactlky fully cooked!!!dreamzz of giant lobster....
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why is that ho juan thai dude calling up appealing saf etc???and what did he do??assasination???broke into lky house and made off with his pet dog?a communist??a nazi part member??
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i take it that ho juan thai hasnt had a job in years or decades in england....................
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while he may be doing job such as blowing or newspapers collectors or deliveries, which in england, you dun have to register...pay per hr or per services.
Most western countries have nearly 40% of income tax, so most prefer to remain jobless but work on contract partime jobs that dun need registeration so as the evade the taxation and yet they still can claim welfare funds...and that is why, most become very lazy.
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Door opens for return of political exile
South China Morning Post February 27, 1999
BARRY PORTER in Singapore
POLITICALl exile Ho Juan Thai has been told he is welcome to return after 22 years - if he is prepared to be interviewed over his allegedly racially inflammatory speeches during the 1976 general elections.However, Malaysian opposition politician Abdul Razak Ahmad is stillpersona non grata.
Mr Ho fled to Britain in 1977 after unsuccessfully standing as a candidate for the opposition Workers Party during the 1976 election, which now Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew's People's Action Party won hands down.
While campaigning, Mr Ho lambasted the government's promotion of the use of English over Chinese. He fled before police could detain him under the Internal Security Act as a national threat.
He allegedly doctored his passport to help him leave the country. Mr Ho has since repeatedly challenged the government to arrest him.
Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng told parliament yesterday: "Although no warrant of arrest has been issued against Mr Ho, the authorities would like to interview him over his racially inflammatory speeches."
If Mr Ho was obliging, the Singapore High Commission in London would issue him with a one-way document to return home.
Mr Wong was responding to a parliamentary question by Workers Party leader Joshua Jeyaretnam as to why the Singapore immigration authorities had been reluctant to issue Mr Ho a new passport.
The minister said Mr Ho had not been given a new passport because he had failed to respond to Immigration Department queries.
Mr Wong said: "Mr Ho had publicly declared that he amended the expiry date of his passport to enter the UK in July 1977. This may constitute an offence of forgery."
Mr Jeyaretnam also asked why Mr Abdul Razak, deputy president of Parti Rakyat Malaysia, a Malaysian pro-democracy party, was still barred after 33 years.
Mr Wong said it was because he had taken part in "subversive activities" while studying law at Singapore University. "It is the view of this government that Abdul Razak is an undesirable person", he said.
Published in the South China Morning Post. Feb 27, 1999
http://www.singapore-window.org/sw99/90227sc.htm
While campaigning, Mr Ho lambasted the government's promotion of the use of English over Chinese. He fled before police could detain him under the Internal Security Act as a national threat.
That fucking anglo dog Lee Kuan Yew, a dog of the british to the end.
Singapore 75% chinese, but must follow that bastard's policies to learn his fucking english.
He won't rest until all chinese turn to anglo dogs like himself.
More I study singapore history, Lee Kuan Yew's career, the more I realise this Lee Kuan Yew is a scumbag to the core.
Chinese in singapore suay to have this type of anglo dog like lee Kuan yew as dictator.
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.....................me thinks england dun wan lky as their dog even.times have changed.....
thinks u should say lky is a sucker for anything good ,english, european cars mercs ,gucci suits,japanese sashimi and anything thats nice and good.i really doubt lky would be seen using chopsticks on a table eating rice with steamed ginger basa fish,braised beef fried chinese style etc.......me thinks he would have a giant garoupa stuffed with lil fried crabs ,huge gigantic lobster cooked au natural etc.maybe he would have a after meal desert of sweet cold crabs .
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me thinks he is same as you, popping pills into his throat every now and then. As old as he is, lobster and fine dinner is not his kind of menu anymore, it would had killed him long ago...
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Our resident hitman who has been terminated a number of times like to hit out blindly.