We noticed in the past few weeks that Singapore and China governments have been talking about security and law issues. So is it a mere coincidence that last week a Singaporean Judge has decided to make an example of a Falun Gong practitioner aged 71 whose only crime it appears is to have meditated next to a placard showing support for the Falun Gong in a Singapore underpass for the past 10 years…
The Epoch Times has the full story and a depressing read it makes too
Here’s the intro – the full piece can be found at http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/46056/
Capricious Singaporean Laws Used to Target Meditator
Falun Gong practitioner faces fines and caning for sitting beside a placard in the park
A 70-year-old Singaporean man Chua Eng Chwee was arrested last week under a new law created in Singapore in anticipation of the upcoming APEC meetings. (Sun Mingguo/The Epoch Times)
Mr. Chua Eng Chwee, 71 years old, has been meditating at the Esplanade underpass in downtown Singapore every day for 10 years?ever since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began persecuting practitioners of the Falun Gong belief.
?We go to the Esplanade regardless of the wind or rain, and we go to the streets and speak to Singaporean citizens, Chinese tourists, and tourists from other countries, about the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, and how it has lasted for 10 years,? said Mr. Chua in a statement read out at his trial in a Singapore Subordinate Court last week.
In what appears to be a gross misapplication of the law, a Singapore judge has pronounced Mr. Chua guilty of four instances of vandalism and one charge of failing to leave the Esplanade when ordered by the police.
In the prosecutor?s closing argument, he asked the court for a fine of 2,000 Singapore dollars (US$1,532) and caning for each of the vandalism charges, and a fine of 20,000 Singapore dollars for the charge of failing to move on. Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 24.
Protesting Persecution
Lean and muscular, and with smooth skin, a well-groomed Mr. Chua goes to the Esplanade each day wearing a yellow Falun Gong T-shirt. He said to the court that what he does is not for himself, but for the good of the world?s people, and for the good of Singapore.
The six small placards he uses contain information about torture and injustices suffered by Falun Gong adherents in China. He clips the boards together so they are more sturdy, and leans them up against a wall each day to make his display. Then he sits on the ground, on a yellow cloth, to meditate beside them. Sometimes he talks to the passersby.
Falun Gong is a self-improvement practice that teaches truthfulness, compassion and forbearance as a way of life.
The practice, which includes gentle, slow-moving exercises and meditation, spread quickly in China. Adherents say this was due to Falun Gong?s compelling health benefits and being deeply rooted in traditional Chinese culture.
According to Chinese officials speaking in early 1999, between 70 million and 100 million adherents were practicing Falun Gong at that time. The Chinese regime banned the practice in July 1999 and since then the regime?s policy has been to ?eradicate? it.
An Amnesty International 2010 report states: “The severe and systematic 10-year campaign against Falun Gong continued. … Former reform through labor prisoners reported that Falun Gong constituted one of the largest groups of prisoners. … The government campaign against Falun Gong intensified, with sweeping detentions, unfair trials leading to long sentences, enforced disappearances, and deaths in detention following torture and ill-treatment.”