Harpeet Singh reminded us that today marks 38 years since the first Operation Spectrum arrests happened.
It’s worth reading his post in full.
Tan See Leng, one of the 22 Singaporeans detained without trial himself posted:
We have presented over 2,000 pages of evidence – testimonies documents, personal reflections. The state has not responded once. No inquiry. No apology. Not even acknowledgement.
This silence is not just oversight – it is a stain on our national conscience. It is a message that truth can be buried and that power need not answer to justice.
Fellow detainee Teo Soh Lung posted a prayer on this dark day.
It happened. They were real people. We must remember this.
documenting is remembering
None of the above saw the light of day on Mainstream Media. Not Straits Times. Not CNA. Not Mothership.
the silence is deafening.
Documenting then, is an act of resistance. Remembering is an act of resistance. Justice will prevail, whether in this world or the next.
Today, 38 years after Operation Spectrum, NUS (an institution for knowledge and truth) was caught in the act trying to quietly shred more than 8,000 books from the Yale-NUS library closing – and actively preventing students from saving any. After silence in the face of the storm, they eventually apologised for an “operational lapse” and promised a review.
The lapse was probably getting caught.
(I searched NLB if any books about Operation Spectrum exist and found none. I wonder if they were part of the books to be shredded by NUS. We know The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye was, so chances are high.)
Today, 38 years after Operation Spectrum, Lawrence Wong unveiled the “strongest team” & his first-ever Cabinet to take Singapore forward. The strongest team looks almost exactly the same as the last team, although the strongest team doesn’t include the much-hated NCM at all, and Masagos Z is now gone from the Minister in charge of Muslim Affairs position.
A semblence of accountability for the clear rejection from the community?
Or simply another chapter in political calculations and “pragmatism”, PAP style?
It remains to be seen if the PAP’s silence will continue to year 39 since Operatiom Spectrum.
But we will see. And while we see, we cannot be silenced any longer. The country needs a soul, the country needs a moral compass.
If we can’t get it from our leaders, we shall demand it from ourselves.
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https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1309&dat=19880517&id=AZZUAAAAIBAJ&sjid=GpADAAAAIBAJ&pg=6589,279580&hl=en