Chee Soon Juan spent much of Friday in court. Nothing unusual in that. An opposition leader in Singapore, Chee spends quite a few days in prison and, when he’s not in prison, quite a few more in court, as a defendant.
Singapore’s ruling party has been in charge for a half-century — since self-rule began in 1959 — and the opposition Singapore Democratic Party has never mustered more than three seats in Parliament.
This may be because everyone in Singapore is happy with life. It might also have something to do with the fact that few people would want to live the life of Chee Soon Juan, the SDP’s secretary general.
Chee returned to Singapore in 1990 after earning a PhD in neuropsychology at the University of Georgia. Two years later, he lost a bid for Parliament as a member of the SDP. No big deal, you might think, in a country that calls itself a democracy. But he was promptly fired from his university post, ostensibly for misappropriating postage stamps — and that was just the beginning.
Read full article here:
http://singaporeenquirer.sg/?p=418
Singapore’s ruling party has been in charge for a half-century — since self-rule began in 1959 — and the opposition Singapore Democratic Party has never mustered more than three seats in Parliament.
This may be because everyone in Singapore is happy with life. It might also have something to do with the fact that few people would want to live the life of Chee Soon Juan, the SDP’s secretary general.
Chee returned to Singapore in 1990 after earning a PhD in neuropsychology at the University of Georgia. Two years later, he lost a bid for Parliament as a member of the SDP. No big deal, you might think, in a country that calls itself a democracy. But he was promptly fired from his university post, ostensibly for misappropriating postage stamps — and that was just the beginning.
Read full article here:
http://singaporeenquirer.sg/?p=418
