reinterpreting Dr Chee Soon Juan
November 22nd, 2007
I woke up one morning in Nepal thinking about Dr Chee Soon Juan. Strange, I thought, but I listen to my morning “ruminations” and do give them some weight.
Now it is my opinion that J.B. Jayaratnam is a true Singapore patriot and an unsung hero. I admire his courage, resilience, perseverence and passion for the cause. But what about Dr Chee Soon Juan, the man who also bear similar characteristics? Lampooned and harpooned by authorities 
and media; inciting consternation and frustration at coffeeshop conversations, I think this political activist and outcast, needs to be reinterpreted in a softer, gentler light. I think there may even be method in his madness(If he is just another Harbans Singh, who singlehandedly spoiled the opposition brand, the authorities would have left him alone).
My take is that he chose a difficult and obnoxious path consciously, deliberately, and strategically and after calculating the cost, he was willing to pay the price to do it. In a prosperous, smug and satisfied, media-controlled country, whose population has been conditioned to accept the status quo of political stability in exchange for surrendering specific freedoms; whose Confusion Confucian values, imbibed with mother’s milk and ABCs, patrol and control our subconscious highways, how can a lone voice in the wilderness, declare to them that they are chained, handcuffed unlike citizens in U.S.A. or Philippines or Australia or Hong Kong(before 1995) and awaken them from their apathy and complacency. I think what Dr Chee chose to do was to deliberately do and say things that arrests the attention of the press (and therefore public) to the freedoms they lack. By doing some of the outrageous, law-defying and obnoxious things he had done, perhaps a Tan or a Samy or Ahmad might start raising questions in themselves: “Why should I need a permit to speak in public on issues concerning the welfare and future of the country of which I am a citizen? Why can’t I do what the British, our colonial masters can easily do without permits, in any park in their country”. We experienced Merdeka but merdeka from what and to what? Yes, it is always an unflattering photo angle or video footage or quote that we get to see or read. And yes some of his verbal gesticulating are later proven to be untrue…….. but is he plain stubborn and a poor reader of what the public wants; or is there method in his madness? Is he playing a constructive role in Singapore’s political development: as a “stirrer”, a challenger of the status quo, a political prophet to the aristocratic elite.
What do you think?
Or, have you stopped?
Entry Filed under: Society
Your comments reminds me of the film “V” - Are you becoming a political blog???
No lah, one of the aims of this blog is to narrow the gap between the pulpit and the pew, to break that one-dimensional view Christians may have of the pastor, as the anointed man of power for this hour, who only talks about “spiritual and theological and church matters”, and doesn’t have much of a life or an opinion about “secular” matters.
Dear Blogpastor,
ahhh…yes you never fail to live up to your bye line …Believe/Cross Frontiers.
No, I don’t think blogpastor’s post has anything to do with the movie V, The government authorities in the movie V were criminal. They attacked their own people cruelly and then used these attacks to justify their control over the people. If we had a government like the one in the movie, V, then it would be our responsibility to bring it down once the facts are known. The present Singapore government does not resemble the one in V.
Blogpastor’s post is a simple commentary on a politician who is testing the boundaries of public political dissent.
Finally its the people who decide. In Bolivia, the present president,Evo Morales was elected to power because the previous administrations did not meet the expectations of the people. CSJ’s tactics compared to Evo Morales’s methods are kindergarten stuff. And yet Bolivians gave Evo massive support at the polls.
Thats my take: it finally depends on what the people think and how they vote.
Only the Almighty will have the final word on CSJ and Evo.
Pray for them and our leaders.
Hi BBeat,
Actually all I wanted was to ascertain if Bpastor had viewed ithe film!
Sorry nothing intellectual or discerning from my comment.
Trying to figure how this outlier posting fits with historical BPastor - was this a tipping point or just a black swan event?
my view is that any person who has earned a doctorate is not stupid.
so he cannot be doing what he is doing because he is ignorant.
if he is not stupid, then the other possible explanation is that his conscience or common sense is missing.
and yet he was in a leadership role in a political party, a clearly obnoxious man with no social compass would probably never get to be in that kind of position in the first place.
so the only explanation is that he is doing a paris hilton, using the media and squeezing every drop of media attention to up his profile and cause.
it is a commonly used tactic, used by a man with nothing to lose (or he perceives that he has nothing to lose)
as a typical singaporean, i like to avoid difficult issues, thinking about the mystery of why dr chee is mad requires a lot of research, and i hate to speculate on individuals, especially if I don’t know them.
and since i dont fancy walking up to him anytime soon to ask him how his day is, i’m gonna just sidetrack this whole issue altogether.
the political cap will only be put on every GE. and even then it will be a pro-opposition cap, flashing brightly for the underdog.
i find certain MPs equally obnoxious, always using platforms for their own cause/gain. unfortunately not many people know about them because they dont receive any press at all, negative or otherwise
Dear Journeyman,
Did you like the movie V? I saw it. It was a very in-your-face-sort-of-a-movie.
Try reading some of the other political stuff that Blogpastor has put on his blog, especially his posts on the last general election. I recommend his open letters to political leaders.
BolivianBeat.
Thanks for the plug.
Relatives all flew off; time to do lunch, ya?
Hi BBeat,
Thanks for the pointer - I see what you mean - it is a black swan event not a male menopausal tipping thing.
V was great entertainment, visceral and ironic.
Thought the the story mechanics and final outcome created a very surreal experience like a contemporary Animal Farm and 1984 hybrid but with a strand of reality - guess the best entertainment is where real and virtual blurs creating new possibilities.