OPINION ARTICLE / VIDEO: "Who is Seelan Palay?" By Martyn See, 2 October 2017.

Seelan (first on right) meeting up with friends after his release. — with Teo Soh Lung, Tan Tee Seng, Seelan Palay, and Parthiban Manoharan [names provided by Teo Soh Lung].

Who is Seelan Palay? By Martyn See.

Sept 2006 (IMF-World Bank Meetings): 21-year-old artist Seelan Palay is arrested by police over a plan to distribute flyers ahead of the IMF-World Bank meetings. Palay had earlier initiated an online campaign to capture photos of "400 Frowns" in protest against government policies.

Jan 2008: Artist Seelan Palay completes a solo five-day hunger strike outside the Malaysian High Commission in protest against the Malaysian Government's detention of five leaders of ethnic Indian group Hindraf. Wearing a placard around his neck that said, "Give them fair trial," Palay was briefly warned by police that he would be flouting the law. No arrest or charges were filed.

May 2008: Five Singaporeans, holding aloft a series of banners with messages such as "Censored News Is No News" and "Newspapers and Printing Presses Act = Repression", stand outside the Singapore Press Holdings building to mark World Press Freedom Day. There were no reported arrests.

Jan 2009: Wearing red t-shirts and holding a banner that read 'Stop ill-treatment of Burmese activists', two protesters stood for an hour outside the Ministry of Manpower before being handcuffed and escorted into police vehicles. The two were protesting against the non-renewal of visas to some Myanmar expatriates, whom the Government said are "not welcomed in Singapore". The two Singaporeans, Seelan Palay and Chong Kai Xiong, were investigated for the offence of criminal trespass.

Oct 2017: Artist and activist Seelan Palay marks his 32 years of age by holding a mirror in front of Parliament House to highlight the long-term detention of Dr Chia Thye Poh from 1966 to 1998. He was arrested and released 24 hours later.

http://singaporerebel.blogspot.sg/…/1994-2011-chronology-of…

Video:

"We are still colonised in Singapore, previously by white man, and now by men in white."

https://m.facebook.com/story.php…

Seelan Palay on police interrogations:

http://singaporerebel.blogspot.com/…/activists-speak-about-…

Arrest of Seelan Palay

OPINION: The Legacy of Lee Kuan Yew, by Chong Kai Xiong and Seelan Palay, March 2015

1. "I should be rich if I receive a dollar each time I hear that Lee Kuan Yew's rule was necessary for Singapore's economic development and survival, and that we should somehow be thankful for it. It's during times like these I feel so terribly lonely among friends and family.

"But I should be thankful that I never had to personally suffer Lee's cruelty and humiliation like the scores of brave, principled, nameless individuals he smeared, imprisoned, tortured and broke under the guise of nation building. Whose persons and all that they stood for this materialistic, self-absorbed society relegates to the trash heap of history. If I should mourn at this moment, I mourn for all of them. If Lee is an example, he is an example of what I shall never do or support.

"If our well-being and affluence today required Lee's sacrificial lambs, then fuck it. I'd rather be poor than to trample on others" [by Chong Kai Xiong, and shared on Facebook by Seelan Palay].

2. "Ultimately, Lee Kuan Yew's most unpardonable failure is the crass betrayal of the ideal which launched the People's Action Party into political orbit - that of an equal, multiracial, democratic society which would banish from its midst, for ever and a day, invidious notions of ethnic or religious majorities or minorities. In Singapore there would be no majorities and minorities. There would only be Singaporeans. This was the flaming aspiration on which Lee rode to power on the crest of revolutionary fervour. 

"Today he has defiled the social atmosphere of Singapore with the sordid evil of ethno-centrism, which he had vowed to eradicate, in my company and in that of countless other comrades in the common struggle against colonialism, communalism, and communism" [by Devan Nair].

3. "If some of you are interested in writing eulogies and praise for a racist, sexist, classist, Islamophobic, homophobic, bigoted dictator who has destroyed and humiliated the lives and families of well-meaning Singaporeans like JB Jeyaretnam, Vincent Cheng, Chee Soon Juan, Said Zahari, Chia Thye Poh and hundreds more ― Go ahead. I am not keen to betray my values, insult my intelligence, or especially spit on the grave of JBJ and all the sacrifices he has made for us, and has never seen justice for" [by Seelan Palay, 23/3/2015, used with his kind written permission].

4. "From a "condolence" letter sent by Lee Kuan Yew's son, PM Lee Hsien Loong to JB Jeyaretnam's sons after his passing.
"Dear Kenneth and Philip Jeyaretnam,

Dr Chee Soon Juan and Dr Kieran James

I was sad to learn that your father, Mr Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam, has passed away. Mr JB Jeyaretnam was a Member of Parliament for Anson constituency from 1981 till 1986, and a Non-Constituency Member of Parliament from 1997 till 2001. He used to engage in heated debates in the House. Perhaps it was because he and the PAP never saw eye to eye on any major political issue and he sought by all means to demolish the PAP and our system of government. Unfortunately, this helped neither to build up a constructive opposition nor our Parliamentary tradition" [posted on Facebook by Seelan Palay].