James Gomez and political intimidation in Singapore

It is quite disconcerting to open a paper and see that someone you know has been arrested for a political offence. This has happened to me twice, both in Singapore.

Two Sundays ago I was in transit in Singapore and was astonished picked up a paper with a worried looking photo of my old friend James Gomez on the cover. “PM: come clean. Gomez: I’m sorry” thundered the headline. The “facts” of this amazingly trivial incident are these. As a candidate in Singapore’s general election, James Gomez was supposed to have submitted a “minority race candidate form” (delicious name). He thought he had submitted the form to the elections department, but it turns out he was mistaken. And er … that’s it.

To give you an idea of what a full blooded democracy Singapore is, this “James Gomez affair” threatened to dominate the campaign, so much so that the prime minister had to ask a press conference to turn its attention to other issues “The big issues for the elections are even bigger than James Gomez.” He then added, rather ominously: “After the election, there will be time and opportunity for a proper public resolution.”.

This “proper public resolution” is now underway. The day after the election (in which James’s Workers’ Party performed creditably), he went to the airport to board a flight to Sweden, where he has a new job as a researcher. He was stopped at the airport, his passport was confiscated, and he was taken for six hours of “questioning” (for an insight in questioning techniques in Singapore, see next post).

He was released, but then taken in for a second round of questioning yesterday (Tuesday). His passport has not been returned to him and he has, at the very least, lost his non-refundable airline ticket to Stockholm. James must be very worried and of course his notoriety will have affected any chance of his working again in his country (“why take the risk of giving him a job lah?”). He’s a decent guy who wants the best for Singapore and I don’t think he deserves to be terrorized in this way.

I knew James when we were both postgraduate students in London in the mid-1990s. He’s a likeable and friendly sort of guy, who hardly fitted the stereotype of an exiled agitator. But then, as we know, it doesn’t take much to be a radical in the island republic.

I remember one story James told me that sums up his homeland quite well. He was president of the student union at the National University of Singapore (which is, by the way, quite one of the scariest tertiary institutions in the world – with hordes of fresh students all dressed exactly like little adults, wearing white shirts and black pants). James felt that such a huge university (it currently has over 30,000 students) should have at least one bar and set about persuading the university administration to let him establish one. After many lengthy meetings, the union finally wrung a concession out of the administrators: the cafeteria would serve beer for three hours on Fridays. The committee members of the student union traipsed down on the first Friday to witness the refreshment of their thirsty fellow students, as they were to do for the remaining Fridays that term. And do you know many of NUS’s tens of thousands of students took advantage of this new facility? Nada, wala, zilch. Fewer than 10 students dared to be seen associating with such a radical move. A better example of the famous Singapore “policeman in the head” it would be hard to find.

The greatest irony is that the “crime” James Gomez is accused of perpetrating is “criminal intimidation” of the election department. For the bullying Singapore government to accuse a single opposition candidate of “intimidation” – that’s just hilarious.

_____________

Postscript I have just found out that James has a blog, which is being kept up despite his lengthy interrogations. There is also an online petition, calling for James's release. The latest entry on James's blog is as follows:

James Gomez is currently at the Police Cantonment Complex waiting to be questioned again by the police today, May 10.

This will be the third time. On May 7, he was detained at the airport, brought to the Police Cantonment Complex and questioned for 8 hours. On May 9, he was again questioned at the same location for another 5 hours. On both these occassions he was questioned by ASP Christopher Jacob of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

Comments

[gonzo]

The scariest bit was your description of the National University: "..hordes of fresh students all dressed like exactly like little adults with white shirts and black pants..." Very very creepy.

Manila is a mess: nothing works, poverty everywhere, corruption, underdevelopment, stagnation, Third World. And Singapore is modern, clean, green, prosperous, everything works, efficient, First World. Yet i would be hard-pressed to say which country is better off.

Singapore may have solved the basic human problems of food, clothing, shelter, jobs, but it remains barbaric and "un-human" in several ways-- the death penalty, the state policy of political repression and intimidation, the pathetic indoctrinated subservience of its automaton citizens...

For someone who is sick and tired of complaining about the Philippines, i can appreciate the successes of Singapore, but then the Lion City's horribly oppressive Big Brother system grates against every single democratic bone in my body.

Maybe we're not as 'malas' here as i thought.

[Jon Limjap]

Errr... I don't get it. How did who intimdate who? You are intimdating because you are popular? Hah?

Gonzo,

There is a balance to be sought when it comes to freedoms. Singapore is in the prosperous but oppressive quadrant of that balance, the Philippines is in the free but poor quadrant.

I dream of the day we see ourselves in the "free and prosperous" quadrant. Sadly though sometimes I think we're heading towards the "oppressive and poor" quadrant akin to many African countries.

[asdf]

As a Filipino I'd be happy to get Singapore style quasi-dictatorship to get their level of economic success. We're in a quasi-dictatorial society anyway, with the killings of journalists and indigenous groups, and leftists left and right so why not go full on with dictatorship?

[Joe90]

To asdf who said, "As a Filipino I'd be happy to get Singapore style quasi-dictatorship to get their level of economic success." Please read my comment on the "Marxist Conspiracy" and then ask yourself whether you, your family and your fellow countrymen are willing to pay the price of giving up your civil freedoms (which many take for granted) in exchange for a prosperous nation in which the majority of citizens are self-centred, self-interested, self-satisfied sheep who don't really give a damn about human rights or the welfare of their neighbours as long as the fucking government keeps bribing them with Progress Packages and Workfare Bonuses. Think about that first, put yourself in our shoes first before proclaiming that you'd be happy to exchange one form of tyranny for another, just because the other one seems to be more economically successful than the other. For me, there can be no compromise or exchange. It's either liberty or death.

[Collis Chang]

I think I'd rather be in a poor society and work hard to become rich and maybe enter politics - than live in a rich, oppressed society where your handphone lines are tapped illegally by the second son of Harry Lee Kuan Yew, where the MPs in parliament are little better than eunuchs of the imperial Lee Dynasty - castrated and incapable of standing up to the Dictator. Now that all our CPF funds have mysteriously gone missing, Harry and Ho Ching [that useless bitch] are pretending that nothing is wrong. Something is wrong, mind you. They have squandered a large sum of our CPF money in the debacle of the Suchow Industrial Park. They are unable to give us back our money at 55. I think all Singaporeans of all races shd vote them out of office in 2011 and a grand inquisition shd be made to see just how much money we have in our foreign reserves. What if like Marcos the Lee family suddenly runs away to Switzerland with the billions of our national reserves? Do we let them do that? No way - stand up for Liberty, my friends. Demand on an online petition, that they return our money. Maybe the Filipinos can tell us a bit abt how to organise a people's party revolution, eh?

[asdf]

"Please read my comment on the "Marxist Conspiracy" and then ask yourself whether you, your family and your fellow countrymen are willing to pay the price of giving up your civil freedoms (which many take for granted) in exchange for a prosperous nation"

"Now that all our CPF funds have mysteriously gone missing, Harry and Ho Ching [that useless bitch] are pretending that nothing is wrong."

Think of it this way. Filipino farmers do back breaking work and don't EVEN get a CPF. Their employers don't contribute, they don't contribue. When they retire they have no nest egg!

As for your lower-middle to middle class Pinoy, their nest egg is just enough to buy groceries and pay rent for the week! Not much of a retirement if you ask me.

"They are unable to give us back our money at 55."

Is this true? Fuck I fell sorry for yous. Anyway take comfort in the fact that retiring Aussies are being "encouraged" by Johnny Howard to keep working til they die, because there ain't gonna be that much young people to pay for the old generations pensions. But this has more to do with dwindling birthrates.

Singapore MAYBE just had a run of bad luck with recent investments by LEE and his family. I heard that BIOTECH investments ain't paying back that much. But that's the risk you take from gambling in future development. Who know what's gonna happen in the future?

Just hope the Peeps you choose to replace Lee will take you the extra mile. Despite this dude's recent "bad hands", he's had a string of flushes, and royals, and straights, and full houses the last 30 years or so. Just hope you pick a good gambler in your next election.

P.S. Be kind to my Filipina compatriots down there in SIN-gapore. Respect and good luck to yous.

[Basil Pereia]

I think the road to freedom is a long one. America was largely a white supremist society, and democracy was only for the angmohs, so was religion. Only in 1955 or so when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a blue eyed fat angmoh, did the civil rights movt take steam - this after nearly 350 yrs. Ditto England - from their absolute monarchs for abt a thousand yrs, a corrupt king led Oliver Cromwell and gang to depend for more rights. It was abt 4oo yrs ago. Democracy was transplanted, forced upon them [the Brits] - it didn't evolve in a journey of a thousand yrs. Whatever you say abt Harry Lee and his boys, I do believe we shd give them credit for not bringing us down the road that many African nations are in ... With good planning and excellent leadership, largely incorruptible, Singapore is the second richest country in Asia. I believe the PAP realise Singaporeans are clamouring in their own way, through the internet and stuff, for more 'leeway' from Harry Lee and his boys - more liberty, more acceptance of satire done in an elegant way. They are learning - and so must we. Please read colonial history, and the history of the black slaves of America - the british were no angels. They treated Singaporeans as second class citizens, they were largely racist. Hopefully in another 20 yrs, we will have a more gentle environment - with a wee bit more liberty. Learn to forgive the PAP - they do their best. It's not easy ruling over 3 million hot headed Singaporeans all demanding liberty - as if it were a spoon of salt or sugar!

[coo1J4m]

I must agree that singapore muz be democratic in order to progress. Alike for business to have competition in order to improve. i am a singaporean, proud to be one. i love telling people that i am from singapore whenever i travel overseas. However there was once in HK, by chance i happen to be sitting beside a newspaper exceutive from "Apple daily" on a ferry to Macau. He knew i was from SG. He critise SG democracy and Lee Kuan Yew ways of dictator-ship. I was so embaress by the way he talk abt SG yet agree with every of his words. I myself respect Lee kuan yew and other ministers for their wonderful contribution fro making SG into a developed country. i also disagree with the way they control almost all major industries in singapore. Telcos, transportation..etc and still get a huge pay check every month. Another issue i would want to bring up is the Foriegn students intake by singapore institute. Y muz the govt could afford to spend so much $$ on foreign student education and what the foreign student need to do in return is to work in SG for a few year. So simple!! By doing so, it will make more Singaporean graduates harder to find jobs, allowing the employers to quote a lower than average salary. Minus CPF, there is barely nuts to survive. There is actually lotsa local talents within SG yet SG govt do nothing to nuture them. For This, i am very disappointed. There is still more to be said but i would rather not countinue. I let my actions(voting) do the talking this GE. Everywhere i go in SG, Its sad to see my fellow Singaporean complaining abt our govt but when it come to voting people still vote for them. Something i really can't understand. This GE is no surprise too, Singaporean are still too scare to choose. Hopefully things will be better in the next GE.

[kacybogwyppy]

The weight of them, whenthe artificially