what free speech for master chee?

gapore High Courts rejects Chee’s appeal for free speech

Posted: 20 Jan 2011 04:00 PM PST

High Court Judge Steven Chong had rejected Singapore Democratic Party’s Dr Chee Soon Juan’s appeal for free speech yesterday, slapping a $20,000 fine and a 20-weeks imprisonment in default.

On 20 June 2006, Chee was charged with eight counts of speaking in public without a licence between 13 November 2005 and 22 April 2006 on the basis that he allegedly violated the Public Entertainments and Meeting Act.

Four charges were left on appeal; the Attorney-General dropped three charges and Chee served a jail term for one.

The following is an excerpt from the Singapore Democrats website.



Source: news.sawf.org




Dr Chee Soon Juan’s appeals to the Judiciary to protect the freedom of speech of Singaporeans has again failed. High Court Judge Steven Chong this morning upheld Dr Chee’s convictions for speaking in public without a permit.

The SDP leader was sentenced to $20,000 fine and 20-weeks imprisonment in default. Dr Chee was given until 10 Feb 11 before beginning his jail term.

In his submissions, Dr Chee had argued that the system was abused by the PAP and laws were being used by the ruling party to deny the opposition and civil society from exercising their political rights.

With civil liberties, the opposition and the people are prevented from publicly discussing and bringing pressure to bear on the PAP to protect their economic rights.

Shorn of their rights, Singaporeans today find themselves in a helpless position even as they find their jobs threatened and their wages decline. They continue to remain at the mercy of a Government whose greatest priority to take care of the elite.

master chee was a very difficult customer to serve. if the magistrate were to let him go scots free, he would comprain and mocking that the court feared him. now they charged him and really charged him big time, of course master chee ranted and comprained even louder. complains and comprains and ranting.....that was what master chee seemed to be good at. or at least indirectly hinting to his foreign ang mo towkays that he was indeed doing much tedious works to make peesailand and their law looked bad. then what??

what had master chee trying to achieve all this while knowing that his nonsense was pure craps? yet he still did it. what a crappy clown!

note: uncle yap was also charged and fined but was left out in the SDP CLAN's manual. why? strange. how could they purposely leave out this crazy uncle who faithfully followed master chee blindly into the big longkang?

here's another report about this case:

http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore...ls-turned-down

SDP chief, supporter's appeals turned down
by Teo Xuanwei
05:55 AM Jan 21, 2011
SINGAPORE - Could Opposition supporter Yap Keng Ho be mounting a bid in the upcoming General Elections (GE)?

Yap, 49, who is often seen at the Singapore Democratic Party's (SDP) activities, dropped a hint yesterday when the High Court upheld his conviction and sentence for making public addresses without licences on four occasions in 2006.

He told Justice Steven Chong he intended to appeal to the President to reduce the $2,000 fine imposed on him for each of the four charges to $1,999 so that he would still be eligible to "take part" in the elections.

Anyone fined $2,000 and above in the five years before the polls are held will be disqualified from contesting.

Mr Yap had committed these offences with SDP chief Chee Soon Juan while they were promoting the party newsletter The New Democrat.

Dismissing the pair's appeals yesterday, Justice Chong said their assertion that the authorities had a discriminatory licensing policy aimed at opposition parties was "wholly misconceived".

Dr Chee, 48, and Mr Yap had alleged that the authorities had a "blanket policy" of not granting licences for public activities to opposition parties.

They had also argued that they should not have needed licences because they were only making sales pitches for the newsletter, like hawkers would their wares.

Disagreeing, Justice Chong said they were making addresses similar to political rallies and that they never had the intention to apply for the requisite licences.

He added that they should have applied for licences to substantiate their claims about discriminatory treatment by the authorities.

"Given that there was no application for the licence, there is no decision that the court can review," said Justice Chong.

"Without an application for a licence by the appellants, any alleged discriminatory licensing policy would have no effect on the appellants and would therefore be irrelevant to the appellants' offences."

Dr Chee, who was fined $5,000 for each of the four charges, said he would serve the default 20-week jail sentence.

Mr Yap has served the 30-day default sentence for three of his offences.

He has opted to serve the two-week default jail term for the remaining offence. They will begin their sentences on Feb 10. TEO XUANWEI

the poor uncle yap seemed to be isolated and avoided by SDP CLAN after all his unsung effort and involvement with master chee's public clowning. SDP CLAN's manual had left him out from any due credit. why like that one?? 没有功劳也有苦劳。