Vincent Cheng Kim Chuan

Vincent Cheng Kim Chuan (钟金全) is a Singaporean Catholic social worker who was detained under the Internal Security Act during the 1987 Operation Spectrum for three years.

Cheng was a full-time Catholic Church worker in the Justice and Peace Commission.

Detention

In 1987, Cheng was one of the 22 Singaporeans branded as a "Marxist conspirator" and arrested under Operation Spectrum.[1] He was allegedly to use the Catholic church in Singapore as a "ready cover" to organise the infiltration of disparate groups of influence including the Law Society, the opposition Workers' Party and various student bodies. These would allegedly become pressure groups that would eventually come into open confrontation with the government.[2]

With the exception of Cheng, all the detainees were released, on various dates, before the end of 1987. In 1989, Cheng's detention order was extended by one year. Cheng was conditionally released after three years in mid-June 1990. He had to abide by six restrictive conditions, one of which was not to engage or get involved in any activity that advocated a political cause.[3]

During Cheng's detention, of the detainees, four were re-arrested and were issued with one-year detention orders. As a result, they engaged two Queen's Counsels from the United Kingdom, to apply to the High Court for writs of habeas corpus, a legal action that requires a person under arrest to be brought before a judge to challenge detention lacking sufficient cause or evidence. They were unsuccessful.[4] They then appealed to the Court of Appeal. In a landmark ruling, the Court of Appeal ordered the four detainees to be released but they were immediately re-arrested under new detention orders. The detainees filed fresh applications for writs of habeas corpus, but – with the exception of Teo Soh Lung – later withdrew their applications and were released. Teo's application was dismissed by the High Court after the government amended the Constitution and the Internal Security Act to reverse the Court of Appeal's earlier decision. The amendments were expressed to operate retroactively. The legality of these amendments was unsuccessfully challenged by Teo in Teo Soh Lung v. Minister for Home Affairs (1989–1990) and Cheng in Cheng Vincent v. Minister for Home Affairs (1990).

On 1 January 1994, Amnesty International recognised him as a "prisoner of conscience."[5] The NGO Singaporeans For Democracy (SFD) wrote an official letter of inquiry[6] to the Internal Security Department over the issue.

Cheng and his fellow detainees related some of their experiences, including physical torture, in the book, That We May Dream Again, published in 2009.[7] Cheng has also recounted on his experiences in the blog Singaporerebel.[8]

Political career

On 19 February 2011, Cheng was introduced as a Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) member during the SDP anniversary dinner.[9]

In late August after the 2011 general election, the SDP held a Central Executive Committee election and Cheng was elected to vice-chairman respectively.[10]

Notes

  1. ^ "16 held in security swoop". The Straits Times. 22 May 1987. p. 1.
  2. ^ "How pressure groups would develop into open confrontation with Govt". The Straits Times. 10 June 1987. p. 14 – via NewspaperSG.
  3. ^ "Marxist conspiracy". Singapore Infopedia. National Library Board Singapore. Archived from the original on 19 December 2010.
  4. ^ "Judge dismisses applications to order ISD to justify re-arrests". The Straits Times. 9 May 1988. p. 12.
  5. ^ "Amnesty International Report 1994 - Singapore". Amnesty International. 1 January 1994.
  6. ^ "SFD queries ISD over Vincent Cheng affair". Archived from the original on 3 June 2010. Retrieved 30 June 2010.
  7. ^ Vincent Cheng: I still bear the scars
  8. ^ 23 years after Operation Spectrum : Ex-detainees recall mental and physical abuses
  9. ^ Wong, Tessa (20 February 2011). "Two ex-ISA detainees join SDP". The Straits Times. p. 2.
  10. ^ Tan, Jeanette (30 August 2011). "Singapore Democratic Party reshuffles CEC". Yahoo News. Retrieved 25 June 2025.
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