IN CONFIDENCE
3.
Mr Lee has been seen personally to lead the attack on J B
Jeyaretnam ("JBJ"), most vociferous of the opposition MPs, who has
led the tiny Workers' Party since 1971. Jeyaretnam claims that
Judge Michael Khoo was transferred to the Attorney-General's chambers in 1984 as a result of his acquittal of Jeyaretnam on
charges relating to improper use of party funds. Jeyaretnam was
subsequently re-tried, jailed briefly in November 1986 and fined
S$5,000, the latter sentence automatically causing his expulsion
from Parliament. Lord Hooson, QC, who appeared for Jeyaretnam at the appeal hearing, believes no English court would have held
against him; the judgment has been criticised in the British press
by, for example, John Mortimer, QC. Jeyaretnam was subsequently fined S$26,000 by the Singapore Parliament's Committee of Privileges
under new legislation to deal with "errant MPs", which the
Singaporeans claim (wrongly) merely brings Singapore in line with British Parliamentary practice. On 20 May Jeyaretnam was fined a further S$12,000 for abuse of parliament privilege.
4. On 21 May 16 people, were arrested under the 1962 Internal
Security Act. For allegedly being part of a clandestine communist
network aiming at the overthrow of the Lee regime. These were the
first arrests under the act since 1982. Lee Kuan Yew has declared
that, his government is satisfied by the evidence against the 16 and
that they will not be brought to trial. The ISA provides for a 30
day detention period, at the end of which the authorities must
decide whether to release the 16 or make a further detention order.
The case has a potential bearing on our bilateral relations in that
it is alleged the plot has been masterminded by Tan Wah Piow, a
Singaporean student resident in the UK since 1976.
5. The Presidency, having been approached by a Belgian humanitarian
organisation, suggested on 2 June that members should consider joint action of some kind over the arrests during the current EC/ASEAN
meeting. It was agreed that the Heads of Mission of the Twelve in
Singapore should be consulted. They in turn agreed that a joint demarche would be inappropriate. However, the Presidency (M. Tindemans) should in the margins of the PMC convey to the Singaporean Foreign Minister (Dhanabalan) the concern of human
rights groups in Europe and ask to be kept informed of developments.
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