Singapore charges political cartoonist Leslie Chew for contempt of court

[makapaaa]

Re: Singapore seen getting tough on dissent as cartoonist

<cite class="fn">zero:</cite>

July
26, 2013 at 10:35 pm zero(Quote)


1000 steps backward into the stone age.
I don’t understand why our
government is so insecure. A professional cartoonist makes a living by satire,
c’mon, give the guy a break. Satire is a form of opinion. It is just an opinion
of the cartoonist. Why are people fined and possibly jailed for expressing an
opinion, which subsequently, does not result in social turmoil and upheaval==
there has not been an iota of evidence that his cartoons had changed society’s
view (it mght even have already coincided with his view even before the cartoons
came out!!)?

I just don’t understand it. The truth prevails. People will judge and decide
whether the opinion is fact or fiction.

The PAP reaction, is really ridiculous and childish, considering that
Singapore is supposed to have achieved 1st world status and people are more
sophisticated and make their own judgements.

In my opinion, Leslie is a genius, a true and rare Singapore Talent who
should be immortalised, cherished and honoured for his outstanding creativity.
Just read his cartoons and judge for yourself. Where else do you get such
quick wits and intelligent analytical mind. Here you have a real local talent
and yet, he is being thrown to the dungeons.

Actually I have combed through all leslie’s cartoons. They are all very good
clean fun. They are just normal political satire found in any mature political
system in the world. Most people just laugh it off and don’t give a damn. Life
goes on, we are all singpareons, we are not going to riot just by reading
leslie’s cartoons!!!!

The only, yes the ONLY cartoon I found rather off-limits, was the one he
implicated that LHL’s wife got power through MARRYTOCRACY. This is more like a
direct personal attack, not a political satire. It’s not a good cartoon because
it gets very personal, and can be seen as defamatory. But having said that, we
have to look at the rather limited reach and circulation of his cartoons, the
defamatory impact is rather small and I am sure leslie could apologise for that
specific cartoon, and he should be let off and continue to be allowed to earn a
living through his funny satires.

No one is hurt, how can the govt cause so much trouble to this cartoonist.
PLEASE RELEASE HIM LET HIM GO.

zero


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<cite class="fn">A-G-kee-see:</cite>

July
26, 2013 at 11:34 pm A-G-kee-see(Quote)


So quick to act against an essentially harmless satirical cartoonist and yet
take 4 damn farkin LONG years to charge a high ranking ANTI-CORRUPTION officer
?

WTF is this ?!


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<cite class="fn">just saying:</cite>

July
26, 2013 at 11:42 pm just
saying(Quote)


shanes todd’s parents made all kinds of defamatory statements about the
judiciary and the gahmen keeps quiet. only know how to bully its own people.
only know how to take money from its own people and get taken for a ride in
overseas investments.

this type of betrayal started in world war 2 when someone worked for the
japanese enemy.


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[makapaaa]

Re: Singapore seen getting tough on dissent as cartoonist

<cite class="fn">Aberdyn:</cite>

July
27, 2013 at 1:10 am Aberdyn(Quote)


The iron fist is growing their grips on its people harder and deeper these
days to ensure that they do not go do overboard to express their views and
opinion lavishly. Unlike those days when the main form of information was
absolutely government controls main- stream-media like the Strait Times
newspapers and TVs network were on the government propagandas spectrum, now we
have more channels for information for the people to choose and distinguish what
is relevant and what is not. Expression of opinion or views can be in the form
of many ways and one of them is satirical sketch. The messages send in the
satire sketch sometimes offended the interested party and would concerned very
much if it hurts them badly.

That’s where the ball to start to roll and it became big issue on the injured
party. The problem apparently the party concern could not dare rebuke in the
open for some reason maybe they are no clear answers to the issue raised or
there are certain protocol to comply.
An institution like the attorney
general chambers is a state institution whereby reputations are at stake to go
into communication engagement with the public, hence the action they would take
is through the legal process like what is happening now with our cartoonist.

People would watch and see what was the real issue to bring the cartoonist
Mr. Leslie Chew to task and charge in the court of law. True justice should
prevail, shown that this man is innocent and a true blue citizen of the country
that what he did is purely sincere and honest based on what he sees and heard of
the surrounding commotion in the society at large daily and than depicted it in
his satirical messages. As a citizen, in a democratic country, he is free to
express his views and opinion in any form as long as it does not cause
detriments to the state. We will see what would be the course of action by the
AGC over these constitutional matters over a citizen being for charge contempt
of court – for belittling court.

 

[makapaaa]

Re: Singapore seen getting tough on dissent as cartoonist

[h=2]You have missed the point, Prime Minister[/h]

July 26th, 2013 |

Author: Contributions

Dear Prime Minister,

Your people meet with dismay the news that Leslie Chew has been charged with
contempt of court for his political cartoons. At this moment, as the news
spreads across the island, we citizens are acutely aware that there is little we
could do to call you to a gentler response.

The people of our country, yours and mine, are worried for our future. As our
young families struggle to meet the costs of their homes and their children’s
education; as our best and brightest lose their jobs and their hope in our
country and flee abroad; as our middle-aged approach their retirement with
trepidation, and as more and more of our aged are reduced to begging or selling
tissue paper to survive, we call out to your government with the means at our
disposal. But you respond neither with compassion nor with respect but with the
manacles of the law.

Many years ago, your father began the process of pruning our civic space. He
took the televisions and newspapers under government control so that only the
best of the news might be published. He restrained the universities and
polytechnics so that awkward subjects might not be examined and students might
be quelled. He deployed the Internal Security Act and tortured his opponents.
And every so often he sued and bankrupted the politicians so as to remind us of
the danger of speaking in our own behalf and that of our neighbours and
friends.

Those methods, so decried in civilised societies, and thankfully, long
consigned to their history books, caused us to become frightened and silent. We
did not know how to tell you when things were going wrong and we did not know
how to make you listen to the appeals from the ground, from loyal citizens who
remained at least thankful that they had a home, schools, clinics, parks and
public transport. We learnt not to ask for too much. We learnt the dangers of
asking for too much. Human rights, we were reminded, were not the Asian way.
Trust, in honourable gentlemen, was our way.

But the internet is giving us a voice again. And as the problems of our
island have become more dire, as people lose their jobs and despair of the
future, as more than half of our young plan to leave the country should any
opportunity arise, so our calls to you become more urgent.

You must notice that we try many means to speak to you. We write, we share
insights and we discuss new and better ways to govern our country. And Leslie
Chew and others have employed cartoons and humour to call your attention to what
is unsettling to us. We use the internet not to revolt but to cry out to you
from the ground, to ask you to remember the people upon whom your power rests,
and to make their lives better.

But you have remained resolutely deaf to us. You have carried on with
business as usual. You, and your colleagues in government, have treated us, who
have asked only that you listen, as disruptive, as criminals and subversives. We
are not criminals and subversives. We are citizens and neighbours who have asked
you to look again at your policies, to visit the problems of your people on the
ground so that you can hear our calls for a better country.

Leslie Chew’s cartoons were not intended to scandalise the judiciary. They
were not intended to bring the administration of justice into contempt. He tried
to show you through cartoons, his particular skill, that your citizens are
beginning to lose their faith in your administration and with it, their
hope.

Your father chose the Internal Security Act and the defamation law to take
his opponents down. You, in these latter years, have resorted to your Attorney
General to silence your citizens. As Alex Au carried on his insightful blogging
on matters of deep political ramification, you threatened him with suit. When
Lynn Lee raised a matter of serious concern regarding the conduct of your
police, you threatened her. When Han Hui Hui brought an issue with important
implications, you threw the iron glove of the law at her. And today, you have
used your Attorney to yet again try to silence a citizen whose only crime has
been to ask your government to look again at the administration of justice
because our hope in it is diminishing.

But you have missed the point, Prime Minister. Your father once told us that
we cannot change the government at will and perhaps you have also come to
believe it. You have forgotten that, in the final analysis, you govern by our
consent, not in spite of it. You have missed the point. The criticisms that have
been directed at your government these last several years since the General
Elections have not been made by malcontents; troublemakers as your father liked
to call them. They have been made by honest, decent Singaporeans who have
nowhere else to go, and more to the point, do not wish to go anywhere.

You see, we love our country, Prime Minister. It is a country like no other
in the world. We revel in our history and our diverse cultures, we delight in
our safety and security, we enjoy our art and music. We want our country to
flourish. We want to ensure that when things go wrong, that we all speak out to
make them right again. You have missed the point.

As you settle into bed tonight, your family safe around you, I ask you to
reflect on what you have done today. A nation that warrants so much criticism is
no longer a nation that is as secure and as delightful as we would like it to
be. But more importantly, a nation whose citizens are silenced in the very act
of sharing its guardianship, is unsafe. You have missed the point, Prime
Minister. By sending your Attorney to grind Leslie Chew through the mill of our
legal system, you have today made us slightly more insecure that we would have
been had you, at the very least, acknowledged his concerns. By tightening the
screws on our already trammelled civic space, you have not strengthened our
nation’s affairs but you have weakened them. Tomorrow when you wake up, and all
your citizens begin a new day, we will do so in the knowledge that you have not
made our country stronger, more resilient, you have made it weaker. Because you
missed the point.

Leslie Chew did not speak up to challenge your right to govern or to question
the probity of the courts. He spoke up to enhance them. But you missed the
point. And in so doing, the popular mandate that you call upon to govern us has
been vitiated and your people’s confidence in you become a little more
fatigued.

It is a sad night for us, your people. I do not know whether it is a sad
night for you and your colleagues.

I write this open letter to you not as a member of a political party, and
therefore, your political adversary, but as a humble citizen. When my father was
a student at the University of Malaya, he supported your father’s party in the
1959 General Elections because he saw in him and his colleagues a great zeal to
take the destiny of our country into the hands of his people. Over the years, as
our family’s fortunes, and those of thousands across the island, improved, he
knew that his faith in your father was not misplaced. But tonight, as the
million households of your nation go to sleep, I am not certain, as I once was,
that that faith in our country continues.

Eventually, Leslie Chew will pay the penalty for his impudence. And you and
your colleagues may yet win this battle royale to tame and subdue the internet.
And if you do, you will buy time. But only time. Sadly, our children and
grandchildren will at last pay more dearly because a mute nation eventually
fails.

Yours sincerely,

Vincent Wijeysingha

 

[Leongsam]

Re: Singapore seen getting tough on dissent as cartoonist

.

The people of our country, yours and mine, are worried for our future. As our
young families struggle to meet the costs of their homes and their children’s
education;

Are you kidding me the only thing Singaporeans are worried about is missing out on the latest gimmick from McDonalds....

The country is full of fat cats without a genuine care in the world. The opposition's spin doesn't fool anyone least of all me.

 

[THE_CHANSTER]

Re: Singapore seen getting tough on dissent as cartoonist

According to the ST this afternoon, the Attorney General has dropped the sedition charges against Leslie Chew.

http://www.straitstimes.com/breakin...eged-offences-under-sedition-act-agc-20130729

 

[ray_of_hope]

Re: Singapore seen getting tough on dissent as cartoonist

Leslie Chew did not speak up to challenge your right to govern or to question
the probity of the courts. He spoke up to enhance them. But you missed the
point. And in so doing, the popular mandate that you call upon to govern us has
been vitiated and your people’s confidence in you become a little more
fatigued.


Vincent Wijeysingha

Do the ah ma and ah pek on the ground know what the meaning of "probity" and "vitiated"? :o

 

[Yingge]

Re: Singapore seen getting tough on dissent as cartoonist

According to the ST this afternoon, the Attorney General has dropped the sedition charges against Leslie Chew.

http://www.straitstimes.com/breakin...eged-offences-under-sedition-act-agc-20130729

So those people who donated money to him can refund??? Siao liao lar...

 

[jw5]

Re: Singapore seen getting tough on dissent as cartoonist

Do the ah ma and ah pek on the ground know what the meaning of "probity" and "vitiated"? :o

but he not talking to the ah ma and ah pek on the ground leh......................... :o

 

[Asterix]

Re: Singapore seen getting tough on dissent as cartoonist

So those people who donated money to him can refund??? Siao liao lar...

Ooi, you know how to read or not
The last paragraph of the article says:

"But legal proceedings against Chew for an alleged contempt of court "have been instituted and are now pending before a court of law". He is alleged to have committed contempt of court by scandalising the Judiciary of the Republic of Singapore and the case will be heard before the High Court on Aug 12."

 

[Yingge]

Re: Singapore seen getting tough on dissent as cartoonist

Ooi, you know how to read or not
The last paragraph of the article says:

"But legal proceedings against Chew for an alleged contempt of court "have been instituted and are now pending before a court of law". He is alleged to have committed contempt of court by scandalising the Judiciary of the Republic of Singapore and the case will be heard before the High Court on Aug 12."

This one won't spent too much??

 

[escher]

Re: Singapore seen getting tough on dissent as cartoonist

The blame is firmly on stupid sinkies, at least that 60% fucked up sinkies, that voted and voted for the PAP party that is known to tell lies after lies and with self serving greedy vicious scums of society who should be fucking behind bars in all decent countries
They stole our money and subvert law courts to be their fucking kangaroos to join them in gang rape of all decent people who speak out against their outrageous hoodlum and crook like behaviour


VOTE ALL THOSE PAP MAGGOTS COCKROACHES OUT OUT OUT IN 2016

 

[Asterix]

Re: Singapore seen getting tough on dissent as cartoonist

This one won't spent too much??

That depends on how the Sinkie AG wants to play the game. Even for a normal business dispute, legal costs can run up easily. Don't believe, just ask forummer Wendychan. Sinkie AG no need to worry, because he is taxpayer funded.

Anyway, this is from another thread:

Bound to lose his court case, this Leslie Chew is
For "scandalising" the courts when that institution
Is looked upon with contempt by the not daft public
String of "hard to explain" decisions is the cause
Respect is to be earned and not commanded
Old Fart says my knuckle duster is the true test

Losing a battle may be small step in winning a war
The Court of Public Opinion is what counts most
A community spirit is built and strengthened
From helping an ordinary Sinkie have his day in Court

Mandela went to prison, that too was a sure thing
His mitigation plea, that man turned into a political speech
The Rivonia Trial is now burnished in public memory
Not for the conviction but his plea for justice & equality

Those eloquent words led to no immediate change
But it marked an important point in a long struggle
Thirty years later, this Mandela became President
A journey of 1,000 miles begins with one small step

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rivonia_Trial

 

[laksaboy]

Re: Singapore seen getting tough on dissent as cartoonist

Another more pertinent question: did the Sinkie AG personally decide to press charges against the cartoonist? Or did someone order the Sinkie AG to do what he did?