TR EMERITUS

Written by Our Correspondent Former Romanian diplomat Dr Silviu Ionescu continues to embarrass the Singapore government in his latest interview with Romanian newspaper Libertatea in which he claimed that he might be assassinated if he returns to Singapore to stand trial. Dr Silviu was implicated in a double hit-and-run road traffic accident in December last year which robbed the life of a 31 year old man. Singapore's Attorney-General Chambers has since pressed 13 charges against him. He was allowed by the Singapore authorities to leave Singapore for Romania three days after the accident. "I knew I was in danger in Singapore, but it never crossed my mind that local authorities would go that far. Romania's Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Prosecutors' General Office told me about the international arrest warrant against me," Ionescu was quoted as saying. Dr Silviu added that he had forwarded to the Romania government several "secret" documents regarding the situation in Singapore during his stint there. He explained that he is not hiding behind the veil of diplomatic immunity and accused the Singapore government of breaching the Vienna Convention regarding diplomatic relations and threatened to demand "moral claims." While the Romanian media has given extensive publicity to Dr Silviu and appears to be sympathetic to him, the Singapore media has adopted a more belligerent stance of late against him and the Romanian government to save "face" for the embattled PAP. For a government which prides itself on law and order, Dr Silviu's grand "escapade" has made it a laughing stock in the eyes of Singaporeans who are flabbergasted at its incompetence. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not bother about the case until Dr Silviu started his "crusade" against Singapore in February this year. Only then did it release press statements to rebuke Dr Silviu's accusations that he has been "set up" by the Singapore government. Singapore is fighting a losing war of public perception. The Romanian media has a far bigger audience than Singapore's and is able to reach out to the European Union. The accusations made by Dr Silviu against the Singapore government will surely have a negative impact on its international image which is not helped by a series of less than favorable publicity by the foreign media in recent months. Judging from the aggressive stance taken by Dr Silviu, it is probable that he may have obtained a tacit understanding with the Romanian authorities that he will not be handed over to Singapore. There is no way Singapore can bring Dr Silviu back to stand trial now. In the first place, there is no extradition treaty between Singapore and Romania which renders its report to Interpol pretty useless and redundant. Perhaps it is no more but a "wayang" now to convince disgruntled Singaporeans that the Singapore government is not a pushover and is making efforts to bring Dr Silviu to justice to cover up for its mistakes.   EDITORS’ NOTE: Please join our Facebook page here and invite your friends to do so to create awareness of the current affairs affecting Singaporeans.   Related articles: >> MFA: Dr Silviu does not enjoy diplomatic immunity >> Romanian Justice Ministry rejects request by Interpol to arrest Dr Silviu Ionescu >> Singapore issued arrest for Dr Silviu Ionescu >> Dr Silviu Ionescu: I was “set up” >> Dr Silviu on guilty verdict: “This is bull****” >> Dr Silviu Ionescu doesn’t think much of verdict >> Subhas Anandan wants $100K compensation for widow of deceased accident victim >> Quiet or ”wayang” diplomacy in the escape of Dr Silviu Ionescu >> Confirmed: Dr Silviu Ionescu is the driver >> Email interview with Yenny Young, wife of Mr Tong Kok Wai >> Dr Silviu Ionescu: fact remains that I was not in the car at the time of the accident >> Investigating or procrastinating: Dr Silviu Ionescu still holidaying in Romania >> George Yeo on Romanian embassy car crash: What happened is “very bad” >> Online petition calls on Romanian govt to make ex gratias payment >> Dr Silviu Ionescu: I took cab to notify car theft >> Eye witness saw driver quarreling with a young girl in the car >> Dr Silviu Ionescu: I have no connection with the case >> Dr Silviu Ionescu flagged taxi at Sungei Kadut >> From Romania with love: The Great Singapore escape of Dr Silviu Ionescu >> Singapore police has not ruled out Dr Silviu Ionescu as a suspect in its investigations >> Romanian diplomat suspected to be driver of Audi in hit and run accident at Bukit Panjang  Read More →

Charlie Rose Show, 15 April 2010 CHARLIE ROSE:  Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is here.  He is in the United States this week for the nuclear security summit and for meetings with American officials, including the secretary of state.         He’s been prime minister since 2004.  He is only the city state’s third prime minister.  He is the son of Lee Kwan Yue, Singapore’s founding father.  I am pleased to have him back on this broadcast with me while he’s making this visit to Washington.  Welcome.  LEE HSIEN LOONG:  Hello.  CHARLIE ROSE:  Tell me what you think was accomplished at this summit of 46 nations.  LEE HSIEN LOONG:  I think President Obama did the world a service.  This is an issue, nuclear security and nuclear terrorism, which is important but not urgent.  It’s not something which we have to solve overnight, but it’s a problem which is a real problem, and if we don’t do something about it, some time, some place something disastrous will happen.         And he managed to get many leaders together, focus their minds, put on the table what they are able to do, what they are planning to do further to secure the nuclear materials and transit and trade and smuggling of these materials, and commit to take further steps together to make the world a safer place.  CHARLIE ROSE:  So over the next four years, the goal is to make sure that they know where all the nuclear weapons are, they can make sure that they’re safe and not likely to fall in the hands of terrorism?  LEE HSIEN LOONG:  Well, the nuclear weapons, the loose nukes, are the first problem, because that’s -- if I were a terrorist, that’s the first thing I’d look for.  CHARLIE ROSE:  Look for the loose nukes.  LEE HSIEN LOONG:  Yes.  But even short of the loose nukes, if you can find highly enriched uranium, you might find people smart enough to put that together into a bomb.  There’s enough information on the Internet to make a good stab at it.  Read rest of transcript here.  Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was forced to defend his administration's frequent use of defamatory lawsuits against the foreign media during an interview on the Charlie Rose Show, a TV talkshow in the United States where he is currently on official visit at the Nuclear Summit. Last month, the Singapore High Court fined International Herald Tribune (IHT) an astonishing $160,000 for defaming three Singapore leaders – Lee Hsien Loong, Goh Chok Tong and Lee Kuan Yew in an article published a month ago. The libellous article contained only one sentence about Singapore stating the fact that PM Lee is the son of MM Lee: “The list of Asian countries with governments headed by the offspring or spouses of former leaders is striking: Pakistan has Prime Minister Asif Ali Zardari, widower of Benazir Bhutto, herself the daughter of the executed former leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Bangladesh has Sheikh Hasina, daughter of the murdered first prime minister, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman . In Malaysia, Prime Minister Najib Razak is the son of the second prime minister, Abdul Razak. Singapore’s Lee Hsien Loong is Lee Kuan Yew’s son. In Kim Il-sung’s son Kim Jong-il commands party, army and country and waiting in the wings is his son Kim Jong-un.” [Source: Are political dynasties good or bad?] Most tellingly, no other Asian leaders mentioned in the above paragraph has found it necessary to sue IHT including North Korea dictator Kim Jong IL. The lawsuit prompted Mr Jean-François Julliard, the Secretary-General of international media watchdog Reporters without Borders to write an open letter to PM Lee in protest: “A foreign news organisation has yet again been forced to apologise to you and your father and pay you a large sum of money for publishing an article you did not like. This time it is the New York Times Co. that is a victim of this double punishment because of a compliant judicial system that always rules in favour of you and your family in all the lawsuits you bring against foreign news media.” As expected, PM Lee did not reply and choose to defend his actions on the Charlie Rose Show which his father, PAP strongman Lee Kuan Yew had appeared on several occasions in the past as well. When Charlie Rose commented that PM Lee "seem to be sensitive to the issue of what's called nepotism", he replied: "The whole of our system is founded on a basic concept of meritocracy. You are where you are because you are the best man for the job, and not because of your connections or your parents or your relatives. And if anybody doubts that I as Prime Minister am here not because I'm the best man for the job but because my father fixed it, or that my wife runs Temasek because I put her there and not because she's the best woman for the job, then my entire credibility and moral authority is destroyed because I'm not fit to be where I am." PM Lee is the eldest son of Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's first Prime Minister from 1959 to 1990. His wife Ho Ching heads Temasek Holdings while his father is the Chairman of GIC. The two Singapore sovereign wealth funds manage billions of dollars of national reserves and have come under intense scrutiny of late after reportedly losing a significant proportion of it in failed overseas investments last year. The extent of the loss is still not revealed to this very day. PM Lee added that it is a basic "Confucian" precept that a leader must have the "moral right" before the right decisions can be made: "Only when you have the moral right then can you govern and make the country right. In Singapore, people expect that. And if there's any doubt that this is so, and people believe that I'm there because my father fixed it, or the whole system is just make-believe, then the system would come down." Since coming to power in 1959, the PAP has used its position of incumbency to subvert and control all institutions of the state such as the media, bureaucracy and civil society. Repressive laws are put in place to curtail the political and civil liberties of Singaporeans as guaranteed under the Constitution. The opposition is silenced by a series of punitive defamatory lawsuits to bankrupt them in order to prevent them from contesting the polls. The electoral system is engineered to perpetuate the political hegemony of the PAP. As such, it controls 82 out of 84 seats in Parliament. There is a secret police (ISD) to monitor the opposition and political dissenters. Even the police has become a tool of the PAP and is used to investigate and criminalize legitimate political activities to instill fear in the citizenry. Such is the "moral right" of the PAP to govern Singapore that respected NGO Human Rights Watch condemned it as a "textbook example of a politically repressive state" in its annual report this year. Though Singapore is a democracy in name, it resembles and functions more like a one-party totalitarian state similar to Kim Jong Il's North Korea. During a speech made during an election rally in 2006, PM Lee threatened to "fix" the opposition if more of them were to get elected into Parliament. PM Lee has forgotten the old adage that "respect must be earned" and is never won by using defamatory lawsuits to silent the detractors.   EDITORS’ NOTE: Please join our Facebook page here and invite your friends to do so to create awareness of the current affairs affecting Singaporeans.     Related articles: >> Reporters without Borders writes in to PM Lee >> Singapore leaders make international headlines again for defamation lawsuit against IHT  Read More →