Teo Soh Lung:Beyond The Blue Gate
...We were never a clandestine communist or marxist network and many of us did not even know or know of one another before the arrests.
We were rather community and Church workers, legal reformers, amateur dramatists, helpers of the Workers' Party, professionals and ordinary citizens exercising our constitutional rights to freedom of expression and association in Singapore.
We have never propagated, in words or in action, a communist state for Singapore. Rather, we had, through open and legitimate organisations and legitimate means, advocated more democracy, less elitism, protection of individual freedoms and civil rights, greater concern for the poor and the less privileged, and less interference in the private lives of citizens.
We hold completely the beliefs expressed by fellow ex-detainee Chew Kheng Chuan in his representation to the ISA Advisory Board, where he stated and we paraphrase: "...(we are believers) in an open and democractic polity and in the virtures of an open and accountable government. (We) strongly believe that for a society to be meaningfully called democractic, interest and action in politics cannot be the sole prerogative of the professional politician. A citizen of a democracy, to be worthy of that society, has not just the right, but indeed the duty to participate in the political life of his or her society. It is a grave danger to democracy to suggest that for one to comment on political and social issues or to hold differing political opinions, one should go and form a political party to take on the government! Has the citizen no voice, other than a vote once in every four years, that cannot be articulated freely and responsibly, but only through the medium of a professional politician? Such is a situation even worse than that of the common man's crippling dependency on "experts" - whether plumber or temple medium. It will lead to a society where only the authorised, registered, professional-affiliated expert can comment on the subject under his or her purview"...
Excerpt from Teo Soh Lung's book "Beyond The Blue Gate"
...We were never a clandestine communist or marxist network and many of us did not even know or know of one another before the arrests.
We were rather community and Church workers, legal reformers, amateur dramatists, helpers of the Workers' Party, professionals and ordinary citizens exercising our constitutional rights to freedom of expression and association in Singapore.
We have never propagated, in words or in action, a communist state for Singapore. Rather, we had, through open and legitimate organisations and legitimate means, advocated more democracy, less elitism, protection of individual freedoms and civil rights, greater concern for the poor and the less privileged, and less interference in the private lives of citizens.
We hold completely the beliefs expressed by fellow ex-detainee Chew Kheng Chuan in his representation to the ISA Advisory Board, where he stated and we paraphrase: "...(we are believers) in an open and democractic polity and in the virtures of an open and accountable government. (We) strongly believe that for a society to be meaningfully called democractic, interest and action in politics cannot be the sole prerogative of the professional politician. A citizen of a democracy, to be worthy of that society, has not just the right, but indeed the duty to participate in the political life of his or her society. It is a grave danger to democracy to suggest that for one to comment on political and social issues or to hold differing political opinions, one should go and form a political party to take on the government! Has the citizen no voice, other than a vote once in every four years, that cannot be articulated freely and responsibly, but only through the medium of a professional politician? Such is a situation even worse than that of the common man's crippling dependency on "experts" - whether plumber or temple medium. It will lead to a society where only the authorised, registered, professional-affiliated expert can comment on the subject under his or her purview"...
Excerpt from Teo Soh Lung's book "Beyond The Blue Gate"
