Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Blogger Arrested in Singapore for Insulting Judge.

In his blog profile,Gopalan Nair describes himself this way:
"Determined to find the Truth. Born Singapore, educated Winstedt School 2 (next to Monks Hill in Newton, Singapore) Raffles Institution, National Service, some travel in Europe, then law studies England, return to Singapore, practiced for 10 years, active Workers Party member, stood elections 1988 and 1991 in Singapore, was harassed and persecuted by Lee Kuan Yew for my political beliefs, left for USA, obtained asylum and admitted California State Bar, practice law ever since in Fremont California near San Francisco. Relinquished Singapore citizenship 2005 because I was not prepared to permit Lee Kuan Yew to unjustly retain my CPF funds if I remained Singapore Citizen. On principle, the only correct thing for me to do was to give it up, for my CPF funds. I am an American Citizen as of 2005."
Nair has made a point of using his blog -http://singaporedissident.blogspot.com/- to criticize former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and other officials in the Singapore government.
Nair is now a US citizen but he recently returned to Singapore where he was arrested for insulting Justice Belinda Ang Saw Ean by saying, she
"was throughout prostituting herself during the entire proceedings, by being nothing more than an employee of Mr Lee Kuan Yew and his son and carrying out their orders".
Nair made it easy enough for Singaporean authorities to find him by publishing his phone number and location in Singapore on his blog.;
"I am Gopalan Nair. Today is May 31, 2008 at 10.40am Singapore time. I am at present in Singapore at Broadway Hotel, Room 708, 195 Serangoon Road, Singapore, 218067. The hotel telephone number is is 62924661. My local SingTel telephone number is 83764236."
"I am now within your jurisdiction... What are you going to do about it?" Nair wrote.
Here's what they did.......
Nair is charged with insulting a public servant, which on conviction carries a maximum fine of 5,000 dollars (3,660 US) or one year in prison.
This reminds me of a joke Ronald Reagan used to tell.
An American and a Soviet citizen were talking about the differences between the two countries.The American said, " I can walk into the White House and say 'The President of the United States is an idiot ! ' Can you do that? "
The Russian said "We can do the same....I can walk into the Kremlin and say ' The President of the United States is an idiot ! ' "
Justice Belinda Ang Saw Ean

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