On 1 May 2011, The New Paper ran an article entitled ‘Is he [Dr Chee Soon Juan] SDP’s loose cannon?’ After reading it I was prompted to blog my response here.
My testimony, together with those of other attendees of that particular SDP rally, fueled an intense online reaction. I had written my blog post only to share my experience, which completely contradicts what was reported, and was taken by surprise by the number of hits the post received. So far it has garnered 19,412 hits.
The article below was published in today’s TNP, as a follow-up and a response:
SDP rally permit holder on Friday’s Jurong East Stadium incident: Police told me to stop Dr Chee, says SDP man
Report by Melvyn Singh
Did the police intervene when Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) Secretary-General Chee Soon Juan started walking with supporters at a rally?
Yes, said Mr Chris Ang, the SDP’s permit holder for the rally at Jurong East stadium. Mr Ang also told TNP that he alerted the candidates soon after the incident last Friday.
Political parties must apply for a rally permit and the permit holder must ensure that the event stays within the law.
Dr Chee arrived near the end of the rally before 10 pm. After greeting the people there, he walked with his party members, and was later followed by a group of supporters.
The police then intervened. A senior officer, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), told Mr Ang that he had to stop Dr Chee.
“He said that what Dr Chee may consitute a procession,” Mr Ang told The New Paper.
Did Mr Ang tell other party members about the incident?
He said, “Yeah, at the debrief.”
He declined further comment adding, “I think I talked too much already, It’s our party matter.”
In an earlier report, The New Paper on Sunday quoted three unnamed SDP members who confirmed the meeting over the incident.
So what happened at the debriefing?
On Tuesday, Ms Michelle Lee, who was one of the three, told The New Paper, “I said at the meeting that we need to make sure we do not involve ourselves in acts of civil disobedience. And during that meeting, Christ came to us and said that the police spoke to him.”
How did Mr Ang relate that meeting with the police? Ms Lee, who’s in the SDP Holland-Bukit Timah GRC team, said, “I’m not sure what they spoke about, but he had a look on his face. Not a distressed look, just a look (she winced). Chris said the police had a slight concern, but I’m not sure when the police spoke to Chris. It was probably some reaction to the appearance of Dr Chee.”
The report on Sunday focused on what transpired in that meeting, which discussed Dr Chee’s appearance at the rally and the concerns expressed by the candidates.
When TNP contacted Ms Lee the day after the incident, she said, “I felt what he was doing was not helpful.”
Online furore
The report sparked an online furore after the SDP insisted there was ”no protest march” that night and that the report was a fabrication.
The TNP report, which did not describe the events as a “protest” also quoted Mr Tan Jee Say, who is in the SDP Holland-Bukit Timah team, as saying that he would not categorise Dr Chee’s walk with supporters as a “march”.
He said, “One of Dr Chee’s supporters wanted to give him a garland, that’s all. After the rally, his supporters were just following behind him.” The report also quoted Mr Tan as saying that Dr Chee did not try to get on the stage at any point.
As an undischarged bankrupt, Dr Chee is not allowed to be part of the party’s campaigning, which includes being on stage to deliver a speech.
When contacted yesterday, Ms Teo Soh Lung (SDP candidate for Yuhua SMC in Jurong) dismissed the incident: “Nothing happened. It there was bottle-throwing or some rough thing happened then, of course it becomes an offence. But no one was injured, no one threw a broken bottle… everything was very peaceful.”
Peaceful or not, Dr Chee, who was accompanied by supporters carrying flags, caused enough concern for police to approach the permit holder to tell him to stop Dr Chee.
A police spokesman said, “It is not uncommon for police officers on the rally grounds to remind permit holders to adhere to the permit conditions of rallies.”
The conditions include – no procession to, from or at the rally site, according to the police website.
The police reminder was enough to worry Ms Lee. The day after the incident, she told TNP, “He (Dr Chee) may be prepared to lose everything but I am not. I have young children and lives I am concerned with.” Ms Lee said she may consider leaving SDP if there were unlawful incidents.
Explaining her reason in an interview with TNP on Tuesday, Ms Lee said: “If there was a second incident involving civil disobedience, I would bring it up to the party and I think the party would be open to feedback. We’re very consultative. I would state that were we not following rules, and if discussion with the party were ineffective, and if the party persisted in going against the law, then I would consider taking myself out of it. I’m happy to speak up at rallies in a way that is legal. There is no need to do anything illegal, since rallies give us a chance to speak and I’m happy to make use of such a platform. I think it’s important to stay within the law. We have to be aware that we’re role models.”
Despite SDP members confirming that police had intervened at the rally, an SDP spokesman said: “There is no basis for that statement because there was no incident.”
Is this substantiation?
In the first article, the main points seem to be these:
1. An “urgent meeting” was held after the SDP rally on Friday night at Jurong East stadium. This meeting was alleged to have been called to discuss an incident involving Dr Chee, which TNP also described as “antics”.
2. TNP claimed that Dr Chee had been about to lead a group in a march, before he was stopped.
3. TNP suggested that there might be a rift in the SDP, with some members or candidates concerned by Dr Chee’s behaviour.
Now let us see what the follow-up article has said with regards to these points.
#1: The “urgent meeting”
Did Mr Ang tell other party members about the incident?
He said, “Yeah, at the debrief.”
So it now comes to light that the “urgent meeting” was not actually an “urgent meeting” called to discuss Dr Chee, but at a debriefing. Rachel Zeng, a SDP volunteer at the rallies, told me that a debriefing session was a routine activity held at the end of every rally for the SDP team.
Framing it as an “urgent meeting” that had been called made the whole episode seem a lot more ominous – a serious issue that required the members to call some sort of emergency meeting, where everyone “huddled behind the rally stage and reminded Dr Chee that the permit to hold the rally was at stake”.
But as it turns out, it was only a debriefing, with the “incident” mentioned by a member.
#2: Dr Chee, trying to lead a march?
Dr Chee arrived near the end of the rally before 10 pm.
After greeting the people there, he walked with his party members, and was later followed by a group of supporters.
The police then intervened.
A senior officer, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), told Mr Ang that he had to stop Dr Chee.
“He said that what Dr Chee may constitute a procession,” Mr Ang told The New Paper.
This point, perhaps, is the crux of the entire issue, and the main spark for the “online furore”. The first article said that “[a] group surged forward and it appeared that he was about to lead the group in a march before other party members intervened to stop it.”
This makes it sound as if Dr Chee himself had been actively trying to encourage or start a march. However, in the follow-up article we see that Dr Chee was walking with is party members, and a group of supporters followed him. The police then went to Mr Ang, a SDP member, and asked him to intervene, because it “may constitute a procession”.
These are two very different things, not to be easily mixed up in reporting, because of the wildly different conclusions they lead people to draw.
If Dr Chee was walking with his party members, greeting people, he can hardly be held responsible for a group of supporters following him, can he? After all, it’s a rally. Lots of people. He can hardly walk around glaring down the public and shouting, “DON’T WALK NEAR ME OR BEHIND ME!” Can he?
The police, being conscientious, then asked a party member to intervene, in case what was happening constituted a procession.
This is very different from saying that Dr Chee was “about to lead the group in a march”, which suggests that he was actively trying to start something. I am surprised that full-time journalists Bryna Sim and Melvin Singh could make a mistake that even rookies should know not to make.
#3: Members and candidates concerned by Dr Chee’s behaviour
TNP, who did not name the SDP candidate in the first article (although this was at the request of the person, so fair enough), has now revealed that candidate to be Michelle Lee. They quoted Ms Lee extensively in the article.
Temasek Review, a socio-political website leading the charge against TNP’s gutter journalism (*ahem*), left a message on Ms Lee’s Facebook page. She replied:
With the candidate herself unhappy with the way she had been quoted and represented in the article, and expressing the lack of credibility of TNP, I have nothing more to say to TNP except this: still buay pai seh ah?
