Singaporeans cuffed, shackled and chained for distributing flyers while PRCs were allowed to create public nuisance freely
January 20, 2010 by admin
Filed under Headlines
Written by Our Correspondent
Two Singaporeans were in the courtroom yesterday clothed in orange overalls labelled “Cluster B”, cuffed, shackled and chained as they were brought back to court in the middle of their sentence to answer yet more charges for illegal assembly.
Dr Chee Soon Juan and Mr Gandhi Ambalam are serving a one-week prison sentence after they were convicted for illegal assembly without a permit for distributing flyers critical of the PAP in 2006.
In his verdict, District Judge Ch’ng Lye Beng said he agreed with the Prosecution that “distributing flyers in a group of 5 or more persons criticizing the PAP government’s policies is an offence.”
Dr Chee and his colleagues from the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) had “distributed flyers at the Raffles City Shopping Centre on 10 September 2006 questioning the ministers’ salaries as well as the denial of political rights to Singaporeans,” according to the SDP’s website.
Both defendants were still cuffed, shackled and chained when they entered the dock until District Judge Chia Wee Kiat order the cuffs to be removed though their ankles remained shackled and fastened to the bench like some hardcore criminals.
Dr Chee’s sister Ms Chee Siok Chin then requested the judge to order the shackles on their feet removed as “these men posed absolutely no security threat whatsoever” after which judge directed Mr. Gandhi and Dr. Chee to be placed in another dock that had bars all around it, and the restraints to be removed.
The humiliating treatment dished out to Dr Chee and Mr Ambalam is in stark contrast to that received by a PRC family who “hijacked” a SBS Transit bus two days ago by refusing to leave it.
They had boarded the bus without wheelchair accessibility at Mandai and was told by the bus captain that they were not allowed to bring the wheelchair up the bus due to safety reasons. However, they insisted on doing so and sat on the bus for 6 hours, making a din in it.
Though the police was called to the scene, they did not arrest them on the spot as they should have done so under the new Public Orders Act.
The police officers were later seen “escorting” them down the bus with one of them carrying their wheelchair to a Maxi-cab paid for by SBS to send them home.
It is irony that legitimate political activities are being criminalized in Singapore as “illegal assembly” while foreigners who were obviously causing public nuisance and disorder were let off the hook just like that.
