PM Lee, if you are unwilling to write a sincere condolence message, why bother to write?

October 1, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Chief Editor, Current Affairs 

Written by Ng E-Jay
01 October 2008

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday wrote a condolence letter on the demise of JBJ, addressed to JBJ’s sons Kenneth and Philip Jeyaretnam.

However, I find PM Lee’s condolence letter insincere and unbefitting of his stature as head of Government and the ruling party.

PM Lee wrote that JBJ “used to engage in heated debates” in Parliament probably because “he and the PAP never saw eye to eye on any major political issue and he sought by all means to demolish the PAP and our system of government“.

PM Lee said that this “helped neither to build up a constructive opposition nor our Parliamentary tradition“.

I am deeply saddened that PM Lee has used the sorrowful passing of a great Opposition stalwart to make a personal attack on the late JBJ in an obvious attempt to press home a biased political message on behalf of the PAP.

The people will be the judge as to whether JBJ really sought to demolish the PAP and Singapore’s system of Government, or whether JBJ sought to provide a constructive and credible alternative to the PAP and reform our political system for the better.

At an election rally in 1988, JBJ challenged the PAP’s claim of being an open and transparent government, and asked whether any investigation had been conducted as to how the late Minister for National Development, Teh Cheang Wan, had obtained the tablets with which he had committed suicide, in the midst of being investigated for corruption.

For this, JBJ was sued by the then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and ordered to pay damages of SGD 260,000, together with interest on the amount and costs.

JBJ was sued twice for libel over an article he wrote in The Hammer, the Workers’ Party newspaper, in 1995, resulting in total damages of SGD 465,000 and SGD 250,000 in court costs.

Eleven defamation suits were also filed against JBJ over remarks he made at an election rally in 1997 concerning Mr Tang Liang Hong.

I wonder how PM Lee Hsien Loong can claim that JBJ had failed to work towards a constructive Opposition when in fact JBJ was financially crippled by numerous defamation suits brought against him by PAP leaders in an obvious attempt at keeping him out of Parliament and destroying his political career.

PM Lee also mentioned in his condolence letter than their differences were “not personal“.

Has PM Lee forgotten that after JBJ won the Anson seat in 1981, President Devan Nair recounted Lee Kuan Yew as telling him: “Jeyaretnam can’t win the infighting. I’ll tell you why. WE are in charge. Every government ministry and department is under our control. And in the infighting, he will go down for the count every time … … I will make him crawl on his bended knees, and beg for mercy.”

Does this sound personal or impersonal?

PM Lee also mentioned that Goh Chok Tong had previously helped JBJ’s son, Kenneth Jeyaretnam, find employment in Singapore by writing a letter explaining that the Government did not hold anything against him.

I am saddened that PM Lee has used his condolence message to glorify his own colleague, Goh Chok Tong. Worse still, Goh Chok Tong’s actions of writing a letter urging employers to evaluate Kenneth Jeyaretnam on his own merits only goes to illustrate the pervasive climate of fear generated by the dictatorial PAP.

PM Lee should not have used this sad event to drive home such a lop-sided political message. If PM Lee is unwilling to write a sincere condolence message for JBJ and keep party politics out of the equation, perhaps he should not have bothered to write.

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Comments

11 Comments on PM Lee, if you are unwilling to write a sincere condolence message, why bother to write?

  1. PM Lee, if you are unwilling to write a sincere condolence message, why bother to write? « The Wayang Party Club of Singapore on Wed, 1st Oct 2008 8:33 am

    2. [...] Read rest of article here [...]

  2. Eric Tan on Wed, 1st Oct 2008 12:44 pm

    3. Exactly, why bother ?

    I can’t help feeling that our PM is such a hypocrite!

  3. david on Wed, 1st Oct 2008 1:47 pm

    4. “I can’t help feeling that our PM is such a hypocrite!”
    What do you expect from a clown ?

  4. Saint Splattergut on Wed, 1st Oct 2008 2:28 pm

    5. Digusting…

  5. What ’system of government’ is PM Lee talking about ? « The Wayang Party Club of Singapore on Wed, 1st Oct 2008 4:52 pm

    6. [...] Read an excellent rebuttal to the same letter by Ng E Jay here [...]

  6. DavidSeeLeongKit on Wed, 1st Oct 2008 5:47 pm

    7. Aiyah, Aiyoh, Alamak
    World’s Highest-Paid PM don’t even seem to know the meaning of “Political Bovine Excreta” (polite term for “political bullshit”) !!!
    One man JBJ demolishing the PAP or The Almighty PAP using public-funded resources to demolish JBJ who dare to stand up to its arrogance ???

    PAP = People’s Action Party (original version)
    PAP = Pay And Pay (polite version)
    PAP = Pathetic And Pathetic (rude version)
    PAP = Pissed And Pissed (angry version)

  7. Dex on Wed, 1st Oct 2008 8:00 pm

    8. Well, whatever happened between LKY and JBJ cannot be counted as a personal issue for the PM, Lee Hsien Loong. After all, he wasn’t even in Politics when that happened! Whether he thought he was a disruptive force etc…well, it’s down to his decision after all. And i certainly do not think that Goh Chok Tong is in any way, glorified here, rather, the mention of his letter to JBJ’s son was more of a example illustrating that they were not, in any way, engaged in a fued with the Jeyeretnam Family.

    The tone of the letter is certainly not flattering, nor would it be apologetic to the wrongs caused, but it does acknowledge how JBJ has been quite the thorn in the Government’s side. And that’s good isn’t it? That’s what we want to remember JBJ as, the fighter, not the politician with one knee bended.

  8. talkcocking on Wed, 1st Oct 2008 8:22 pm

    9. Why the pettiness upon the demise of his old man’s nenemis? All is lost when you need to point out his own “magmanimous”.

  9. Joanna on Wed, 1st Oct 2008 8:57 pm

    10. D Nair did write that JBJ had no grapse of economics. JBJ was still attacking but had no policies for replacement.

  10. talkcocking on Wed, 1st Oct 2008 11:27 pm

    11. To Joana,

    You think LKY has good grapse of economics as a lawyer by training? The important job for JBJ was fighting for the fundamental rights of citizens in a supposed democratic country. It’s the government’s job to pay top dollars to international consultants (FT) for its economic strategies and the PAP has been big on that paying part…

  11. Tan Ah Kow on Thu, 2nd Oct 2008 4:34 pm

    12. Coming from LHL it is unsurprising.

    If he acknowledges JBJ actions as being worthy, he undercuts his “responsible” opposition message.

    If he acknowledges JBJ’s actions as being worthy and JBJ’s sacrifice for a worthy cause, it undercuts his policy of paying high salary for minister and especially his portrayal of his ministers’ “sacrifice” in lieu of better pay elsewhere.

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