An interesting presentation by Dr. Thum that suggests strongly the PAP makes use of detention without trial to further its political ambitions as those detained are not communists but rather to the leftists advocating the rights of the local populace. Indeed, Dr Thum had issued a similar challenge to Mr Gafoor in his Facebook post. “The government can and should clear this entire controversy up by declassifying its own documents. It has no need to cite British documents when it has its own. As a historian, I would be happy to modify my arguments based upon the government archives. Its unwillingness to do so weakens its own case. Please declassify the archives and let us know the truth once and for all. I would be delighted by this even if it proved me wrong. The truth is what matters.” Let the documents be seen by all to clear all doubts. In addition, have the charges of all former detainees heard in court, so that the government can legitimately call them “terrorists” and end all “speculation” by “revisionists”. If Mr Gafoor can say that Dr Poh, Dr Thum and other “revisionists” alternative portrayal of Singapore’s political history “is disrespectful to the many Singaporeans who chose a non-communist path at great risk to themselves, and contributed to the success of modern Singapore”, and yet is unable to substantiate this, then it can also be said that Mr Gafoor and the many other government officials who have supported the use of the ISA on Barisan Sosialis members and other detainees are no less disrespectful to those who have contributed to our nation, and stayed steadfast in their beliefs despite undergoing detention without trial for decades. What happened is already fixed in history, and Singapore has progressed much in the past 50 years. But to truly appreciate what we have achieved so far, let us remove any doubt that the public might have about how our current government might have attempted to “fix” their political opponents. Whitewashing this part of our history does not make it any less a part of Singapore’s history. theonlinecitizen/2014/12/reluctance-to-open-official-records-discredits-governments-rebuttal-on-isa-detainees/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+theonlinecitizen+%28theonlinecitizen%29 https://youtube/watch?v=NXcN4LLHhUQ#t=115
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 16:52:23 +0000
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