Photo courtesy of whi1e
Our Internal Security Department (ISD) has really pervaded into the mainstream public consciousness for good or bad reasons, depending on which perspective you are coming from.
Even though Operations Spectrum and Coldstore occurred decades ago, they still instill a certain proportion of fear within our populace, even among those whom are not born within the era when those two operations were in effect.
How can the fear of ISD be invoked? Most of the time, it has to do with political opposition. And how can such a fear be manifested? A member of the opposition once related to me how a friend of his didn’t contact him for a long time when he joined an opposition party. The other case was even more extreme. A peer of mine kept looking over his shoulder out of paranoia when he met a friend of his who met Dr Chee in person. Apparently, he was afraid of being tailed.
It isn’t surprising that the opposition experiences the cold shoulder in places like academic institutions or other establishments. Guess there are those in such institutions and establishments who ‘look over their shoulders’ the moment they entertain the opposition. To save themselves the trouble, they simply shun the opposition by slamming the doors shut on the latter.
Little wonder they say it takes nerves of steel and some say balls of brass to take the leap into the opposition camp.
Your peer who thinks that the ISD would spend resources on him, my comment to would be: “Don’t flatter yourself, you’re not that great.”
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I was thinking if the SDP’s tactic of getting themselves arrested and jailed by challenging what they believe are unjust laws helps to perpetuate this fear. People might mistaken that this is a ‘rite of passage’ in the SDP and they avoid joining them because the price would be too steep. So SDP get all the braver, hardcore types. ..but these people are few and far between.
The WP may look softer on the civil liberties issues but their ‘safer’ approach will mean people are less fearful of joining them.
it’s normal for most ppl to fear for their own interests.
they will only overcome their fear when their interests are being attacked.
with the surge of immigrants, i sense that more ppl have woken up to the fact that their interests are being attacked. this has led to less fear.
but the road is still long.
The fear is there, yes, but it is very quickly fading away, especially for those below 60. Since joining WP a year ago, I have had no such experiences as your friend. In fact, I’ve received many words of encouragement from friends whom I thought were pro-govt or apolitical. Of course I’ve met many more who have been lifelong opposition supporters.
I definitely do not have nerves of steel. But I know my rights. So it doesn’t take a hero to be in the opposition. Any Singaporean who genuinely wants to make things right for their fellow Singaporeans should step up to the plate and take a swing at it by joining the opposition.
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