Tag Archives: Tommy Koh

Our society influencers should think twice about painting damning and unfair narratives about all Singaporeans. If we had made such comments about foreigners living here we would be condemned as racist and xenophobic so why so harsh on our own people?

I told my wife that although New York and Washington DC were only a few hundred miles apart, the nature of my old and new postings was different. The UN posting was a multilateral posting and my mission was to represent Singapore in the Parliament of the world. My job was to befriend and earn the goodwill of as many delegations as possible.

The subject of universal human rights took a local turn at a university forum on Tuesday night, with two top lawyers disagreeing over whether an anti-gay sex law should be done away with. National University of Singapore (NUS) law don Walter Woon said he was in favour of repealing the law because of what he sees as a "constitutional problem". NUS Centre for International Law chairman Tommy Koh agreed that the provision should in principle be done without, but said abolishing it was "not so simple" given potential political pushback. A majority of Singaporeans were against a repeal going by opinion polls, Prof Koh said.

During the past 10 years, PM Lee has worked tirelessly to promote Singapore's national interests abroad. He has travelled millions of miles, in over 100 trips, to reinforce our old friendships, to make new friends and to harness new opportunities. In his foreign trips, he has sought to engage political leaders, intellectuals, business and the media. He has put across the views of Singapore, Asean and Asia, often reminding the audience of the importance of South-east Asia. Like those of his two predecessors, PM Lee has been a voice of reason in our sometimes irrational world.