3 October 2008



Dear Kenneth and Philip,

An Open Letter to the family of J B Jeyaretnam

Amnesty International wishes to express its sympathy and condolences at the death of your father, J B Jeyaretnam, whom the organizations regarded as an unflinching campaigner for the rule of law and for the whole spectrum of human rights - regardless of the personal costs he paid. It was often the organization’s privilege to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with him in the struggle for a Singapore that would move to promote and protect fundamental rights.

As you know, Amnesty International monitored and was active on developments following his election to Parliament in 1981, including the ruinous civil defamation suits launched against him by the ruling party’s leadership, his expulsion from Parliament, imprisonment and bankruptcy. But he refused to be deterred by legal moves designed to intimidate Singaporeans and silence those holding dissenting views. To the end, he was fighting for his right to re-enter Parliament as a representative of his recently formed Reform Party. Amnesty International shared with him the recognition that the campaign for human rights must continue - even against obstacles such as those he faced - and that restrictions on freedom of expression guaranteed under international standards cannot be justified.

Amnesty International respected J B Jeyaretnam in his lifetime as a human rights defender. We believe his memory is best honoured by continuing to campaign against repression and for fundamental human rights for the citizens of the country he loved.




Veteran Singapore opposition politician J.B. Jayaretnam dies

JBJ was first politician to break ruling party's parliament monopoly

Reuters
Page 7
2008-10-01 01:36 AM


Singapore's veteran opposition politician J.B. Jeyaretnam is seen arriving at the high court in Singapore in this March 14, 2006 file photo.
Reuters
Singapore veteran opposition politician J.B. Jeyaretnam died early yesterday after a heart failure, removing one of the most colorful and dogged characters from the country's often staid politics.
In 1981, Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam, popularly known as JBJ, was the first opposition politician to break Singapore's ruling party's monopoly in parliament.

He died at a local hospital, aged 82, his son Kenneth Jeyaretnam said.

Jeyaretnam, an acerbic critic of the ruling People's Action Party (PAP), was repeatedly sued by senior PAP members over his 37-year career for making comments the PAP said were libelous.

He was sporadically bankrupted, a status that barred him from standing for parliament.

In June this year, he won approval to set up the Reform Party after paying off 265,000 Singaporean dollars (US$184,900) in defamation damages.

Jeyaretnam said he was "over the moon" with the new party, which would "reform the system of government, all sectors of society."

"He believed what was right and wrong for Singapore and he wanted to bring change. He never gave up," said Ng Peck Siong, chairman of the Reform Party, who has known JBJ for over a decade.

The PAP has ruled Singapore since independence in 1965.

Over the years, Jeyaretnam paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in defamation damages to PAP leaders. Critics say PAP politicians use legal action to crush opposition, but party leaders say libel suits are necessary to protect their reputations.

Jeyaretnam jousted with the PAP's founder and Singapore's most powerful politician Lee Kuan Yew in parliament in the 1980s.

"Aren't you a bit annoyed because I don't crawl to you?" he asked Lee during a parliamentary committee meeting in 1985.

Lee in turn in his memoirs called Jeyaretnam a "sparring partner" who was "all sound and fury."

Born in Sri Lanka and trained as a lawyer in London, Jeyaretnam championed more freedom for ordinary Singaporeans, and wanted the Southeast Asian country to have a Western-style democracy.

His repeated run-ins with the government alienated him from many Singaporeans, but he still pursued his cause and in recent years was regularly seen at the entrances of shopping malls selling his books to raise funds.

"The PAP would like to let it be known that Jeyaretnam wants to destroy everything we've got here," he told the Straits Times newspaper in January.

"All I want to do is to give the people a chance to live their own lives ... and not have everything dictated to them."

@_@ JBJ has proven that not all Singaporeans are chickens.
He has also proven that most Singaporeans are chickens.
I had seen him standing alone with nobody daring to talk to him or be seen in his company for fear of a reprisal
from the Authority.
)_( Sad for Singapore.