JB Jeyaretnam -- the rise out of Singapore's ashes of a fighter for reform

JB Jeyretnam, the man from Anson, is back at 82 to fight another day in Singapore. The bete noire of senior mentor minister Lee Kwong Yew and the People's Action Party which runs Singapore as though it is and literally it is, it's private fief, has risen from the ashes of debt to challenge, some might say tilt at PAP windmills. The New York Times has seen fit to devote its Saturday [10 May 2008] profile to this indefatigable fighter for Singaporeans' civil liberties which are tightly under wrap in the land of the PAP.
JB stares the PAP devil in the eye and won't blink. Anyday of the week at the exit of the MRT station at City Hall, you may find him hawking his book of speeches which have caused no amount of anguish and let flow the PAP's bile and court suits against him. Seth Mydans who wrote the New York Times profile let slip how a single man with good lawyerly skills forced the then prime minister Lew Kwang Yew to descend into parliament's well to debate him, and ultimately through some tightly written law bring him to justice for deformation which drove him out of office and into bankruptcy. But let's return to that by election in Anson where JB won handily. [It is no longer a circumscription for Anson was for those who know Singapore a stronghold of opposition to the PAP, but one now incorporated into a larger voting block which has overwhelmed that opposition by those with little stomach to challenge the ubiquitous PAP.] A single MP with guts made the pillars of the Leninist like PAP quiver like a bowl of jelly. Which goes to show how existentially shaky the pillars of the PAP temple. JB is no Samson but he is a lion in his own right, and one with grit and determination who will fight for reform and for his fellow citizens right to think, say, and do what they like in a free, democratic arena, even though they accept the heavy hand of the PAP government which fair to say has brought them housing, prosperity, and life in a gilded cage. So good cheer and long opposition to JB who has emerged from bankruptacy to fight another day. He knows that his nemesis the PAP will try to silence him and try to impoverish him again with court fees and a long trial for defamation, but like the mighty warrior he is, he shall fight on!