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| Activists, Joo Chiat Road. Dan De Costa, Kieran James, Prabu Ramachandran, Jeanne Ten, Anonymous, 20 May 2019. |
My new interview
with Prabu Ramachandran (Singaporean Civil Activist)
Date: Monday, 20 May
2019.
Location: Al Falah
Barakah Restaurant, 363 Joo Chiat Road, Singapore.
Interview Time: 90
Minutes.
Jeanne Ten:
How did a policeman become a social activist?
Prabu
Ramachandran: I served two years’ mandatory National Service in the police-force,
didn’t want to be a career bureaucrat.
 |
| Dan De Costa, Khush Chopra, Jeanne Ten, Kieran James. |
JT: What
made you change to the other side?
PR: Because
politics in this country is a one-way street; I wanted to make it a two-way
street, there should be more than one view or argument, the world moves in 360
degrees. There needs to be discussion, dialogue, debate; people need to be free
to speak about anything without fear hanging over their heads. Many issues are
not being discussed. The ruling elite are doing things with very little
consultation.
JT: They
always said they know better and have your best interests at heart…
PR: How do
they know the experiences of ordinary people? Most of them have never done a
real job in their lives. They assume that average people have similar
experiences to themselves. But they are totally disengaged.
JT: What do
you feel that you can bring to the table?
PR: Direct
democracy; voting on issues regardless of who is the leader or ruling-party.
The BREXIT referendum really inspired me. People should have the right to vote
on issues not just people.
 |
| Kieran James and Prabu Ramachandran. |
PR: Most of
their trade is outside the EU. They have more friends out there in the big
wider world. Only 15% of their trade is with the EU.
JT: For
Singapore, what can we learn from BREXIT?
PR:
Democracy for starters; justice and equality. Everyone, rich or poor, gets the
right to vote on the issue.
JT: Who is
your model in Singapore? Who is a good politician that you admire?
PR:
Nowadays there is no-one I look up to but in the past David Marshall. He showed
that we [ethnic minorities] don’t need a GRC system to get elected. He is a
minority within a minority.
JT: Thanks
for confirming that there is no credible opposition.
PR: I
didn’t say that. We should have a referendum on GST – should we keep it, should
we increase it? And CPF withdrawal age and ministers’ salary. It’s ridiculous
that in a country of five million, ministers get a higher salary than Donald
Trump or the U.K. PM. We should vote on issues that affect people –
cross-border tariffs, water, and electricity. We had one referendum in 1963 –
to join Malaysia. But we never had a Leave referendum. We did respect the will
of the people to join but the choice should have been given to leave or remain.
Since 1963 there has not been a single referendum.
PR: The
Anti-Fake News law has been passed. It has been said that the majority of
people want that law but it has not been proven. If there was a referendum, I
would campaign against that law.
Anonymous:
What do you think about the issues of foreigners working in Singapore,
education, and housing?
PR: The
cost of building public housing has to be broken down to the public to give the
cost of each individual unit. We don’t know what profit is being made by HDB.
We don’t have any numbers or breakdown.
The education system has to create a system of readers. We don’t have
thinkers. They, academics, give textbook answers and not real solutions to practical
problems. They are just reading it out of textbooks rather than giving their
solutions to real issues.
We need to make sure that our population is over-employed (full-time job
plus part--time job). Only then should you open up to non-Singaporeans,
non-PRs, and immigrants. Many graduates now can’t find jobs in their specialty
area.
We are ranked 153rd in the world in press freedom, it is
shameful. Israel ranks higher than us in press freedom and the democracy index.
My aim is to get Singapore Number 1 in the press freedom index and Number 1 in
the democracy index. We should open up and give more licences to organizations
to open more newspapers. It will create more media jobs and improve our press
freedom index. We need less regulation from the government.
Anonymous:
Do you have reason to believe that the judges side with the ruling-party?
PR: We must
ask who the judges are accountable to. We need mechanisms to make judges
appointed and removed easily by the public.
 |
| Kieran James and Dan De Costa. |
PR: You
answered the question yourself. In any other country the police leader or Minister
for Home Affairs would have been fired or resigned. We need an accountability
check please.
Anonymous:
Can you comment on transport fees going up but more breakdowns?
PR: I think
it should be privatized and there should be more small private bus companies up
in the market. They should challenge for the lion’s market-share. One of the
foundations of democracy is private ownership of income-generating assets. I
would like privately-owned taxis and buses owned by individuals and not by big
business. I believe that assets such as hawker stalls should be privately owned
rather than owned by big business or REITs.
JT: How
will you get this to happen?
PR: Heavily
tax big business and ultra-rich; progressive taxes rather than regressive taxes
such as the GST. It should be abolished and we should move to a more
progressive tax system. Taxes should rise for big property owners and
high-income earners. Most taxes should be aimed at millionaires with assets of
S$100 million and above.
JT:
Singapore is now a tax-haven for the rich. But it is known as clean and
incorrupt. What is happening?
PR: We can
afford to charge the rich under the current system because the heavy tax is on
everyone else. The rich gets tax discounts and tax breaks. We are doing
reasonably well in the corruption index but we are not Number 1, New Zealand is
Number 1. There is no accountability and more deniability. These statements are
made famous by Ms Jeanne Ten.
JT: I like
that statement.
PR: Look at
NUS as a public institution today. It took a victim to come out and run a
social justice campaign. We need a proactive police-force and Establishment.
Anonymous:
What can we learn from Malaysian election?
PR: You
vote for who you like. If people are not working in your favour you vote them
out; that’s the beauty of democracy. You should be able to vote out people who
are not doing well in [their] positions.
Kieran
James: Your comment about Workers’ Party’s performance?
PR: They
could start speaking about issues such as the unelected grassroots people you
can’t get rid of. Hougang and Aljunied MPs should be able to use grassroots
facilities such as Citizens’ Consultative Committees. Only the ruling-party can
use taxpayer-funded assets. Elected MPs should be the grassroots leaders not the
ruling-party candidates. WP should be speaking on issues such as this.
Anonymous:
Why do you think Singaporeans do not want to vote for opposition?
PR: Look
online. A poll was conducted by Wake up Singapore; 63% of people are afraid to
speak up about their political views; that says a lot anyway. In a proper
democracy you praise them for their good acts and criticize them for doing the
wrong things. This is why I disagreed with Nicole Seah when she said that we
should not criticize PAP.
Anonymous:
What will you do with your minister’s salary? Give us a breakdown.
PR: There
is no answer to that.
Dan De
Costa: The scariest thing right now is that none of us in opposition can read
the ground anymore.
PR: They
are scared of my idea of giving the people a referendum.
JT:
Singaporeans don’t understand that concept. They think that ministers should
decide.
DDC: The
people want Tharman as their PM; it is the PAP that is racist.
PR: If we
were ready in the 1950s for non-Chinese leaders (e.g. David Marshall, Othman
bin Wok, E.W. Barker), why not now? The argument is on both sides. Michael
Palmer and Murali Pillai got elected against majority candidates.
DDC: One
Chinese woman said that 80% of Jurong voters voted for Tharman so the racists
must come from somewhere else. I thought that was very cool.
[Note: The conversation continued for
a while longer but became more and more scattered and informal so I stopped
taking notes at this point.]
*****THE END*****
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