James Gomez

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James Gomez (born January 1965 in Singapore) was the Second Assistant Secretary-General and Chairman of the Policies and Communications Committee in the Workers' Party of Singapore (WP) between 2001-2006. From 1997-2006 he was Regional Research and Communications Manager, Friedrich Naumann Foundation and from 2006 to 2008 he was Programme Officer of the Political Parties Programme at the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) in Stockholm, Sweden. In 2008, he joined Keio University as a Visiting Scholar.

Contents 1 Academic life 2 Professional life 3 Civil Society 4 General elections 2006 4.1 Fielded as Workers' Party Candidate in Aljunied GRC 4.2 Allegations by the ruling party 4.3 Public sentiments 4.4 Developments on the eve of polling day 4.5 Election results 4.6 Police investigation 5 Publications 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Academic life

Gomez graduated with an Honours Degree in Political Science from the National University of Singapore in 1992, and subsequently completed his M.A. in political science from the University of Essex, England in 1994. Upon arriving in Singapore he occasionally contributed book reviews that appeared in the Straits Times and other local publications. He also wrote opinion pieces on culture and identity that appeared in various local magazines.

He was a Visiting Associate at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore in 1995-6, and spent time as a visiting researcher at the National Institute of Education Center for Research (Singapore) in 1997-1998. He co-taught a course on Southeast Asian Politics at the Southeast Asian Studies programme (NUS) in 1997. He also lectured on an MA in Asia-Pacific Studies for the University of Leeds distance learning course in Singapore.

When he began working with the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung in 1997, James continued his interest in academia through several research organizations and tertiary institutions. He was a visiting fellow at Media and Communication Department, Baptist University of Hong Kong in 2002. He also presented guest seminars at the Human Rights Talk at the Law Faculty, Hong Kong University. On several occasions he as participated and made presentations at media related meetings organized by the Journalism and Media Studies Center, Hong Kong University.

Between 2002-2004 he coordinated and guest lectured on a course on International Ethics and Human Rights for the Master in International Relations programme at Thammasat University, Bangkok. He was also adjunct lecturer for the Human Rights Programme at Mahidol University, Thailand and sits on its editorial board.

He joined Monash Asia Institute, Monash University, Australia as a PhD Candidate on 1st March 2004. There, he co-ordinated a publication project entitled the Singapore Studies Workshop Series that resulted in three special issue journals, 2 in print and 1 online,. They include: SOJOURN: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia Vol. 20/2 (October 2005) as a Special Focus issue entitled "Democracy and Civil Society: NGO Politics in Singapore"; Asia Rights (online journal) Issue Five (December 2005) “Human Rights Spotlight: Singapore.”; and Copenhagen Journal of Asia Studies Vol 23 (July 2006) “Stability, Risks and Opposition in Singapore.

James is on the editorial board of Asia Rights, an online journal of human rights edited out The Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, the Australian National University.

[edit] Professional life

Gomez joined the Friedrich Naumann Foundation's regional office in Thailand as Regional Research and Communications Manager in August 1998. He left the foundation in February 2004. He has been PhD candidate at the Monash Asia Institute of Monash University, Australia.^[1] He was appointed as Programme Officer of the Political Parties Programme at the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) in Stockholm, Sweden in 2006.

[edit] Civil Society

James Gomez founded the Think Centre in 1999.

[edit] General elections 2006

[edit] Fielded as Workers' Party Candidate in Aljunied GRC

Mr James Gomez was originally portrayed to have been running as a WP candidate for the Ang Mo Kio GRC, but eventually fielded as a WP candidate for the Aljunied GRC for Singapore's 2006 General Elections. On April 24, Mr Gomez, accompanied by Worker's Party Chairman Sylvia Lim and filmed by media cameras, filled up the minority certificate to run in the Constituency. After being left alone by the cameras and his Chairman, however, he was shown (through CCTV footage) to have kept the forms in an envelope in his bag and left the building without submitting it. April 26, 2006, James Gomez called the elections department to enquire about the status of the form, but was indignant that the board had not received the form. He subsequently reminded the ELD officer of the "consequences" of misplacing his form, pointing to the CCTV nearby. April 27, 2006, the elections department confirmed through CCTV that Mr James Gomez did not submit a "minority-race candidate application form", despite claiming on the eve of Nomination Day that he had done so.^[2]

In the 2001 general election, Mr James Gomez's team had been disqualified from the Aljunied constituency because the team accidentally omitted the name of the GRC in the form.^[3]

[edit] Allegations by the ruling party

Mr James Gomez claims that he was going to submit his application to be classified as a minority-race candidate, but amidst many other forms and distracted by the media, he put the form in his bag after filling it up. The media reported heavily upon the issue due to People's Action Party (PAP) continuing to comment on the issue and calling Mr James Gomez a liar after the Electorial board released concrete video and audio evidence. Mr Gomez accused the People's Action Party (PAP) of putting on a show concerning the misplaced form.^[4] Many in the opposition also insist that the issue was raised by the ruling PAP to distract the voters from other issues and to let the Workers' Party appear in a bad light. However, further speculation by the PAP imply that Gomez intentionally created the incident, in order to discredit the elections department and to mislead the public.

PAP candidate Inderjit Singh said that James Gomez had told him that his submission of the Minority Certificate was merely a "wayang", a show put up to confuse the PAP. James Gomez and his WP colleagues have not refuted that the conversation took place.

[edit] Public sentiments

Senior PAP leaders continued to press the WP on the matter during the elections campaigning period. Some people said that it would have swayed the voters on the grounds of credibility and integrity of Mr James Gomez. Others believe that he was trying to discredit the Elections Department. Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew has also called Mr Gomez a "liar" and dared the WP to sue the government. Foreign Minister George Yeo had also asked the WP to sack Mr Gomez and field a four-member group for the five-member GRC. The local media had featured comments by the senior PAP leaders' comments as well as the WP's defense widely in the press, radio, television and internet, with The Straits Times even giving the issue a two-page spread on May 2, 2006.^[5]

Despite the fact that James Gomez was the one who fired the first salvo, many Singaporeans think that the PAP has taken advantage of James Gomez's mistake (or dishonesty) to question the credibility of his character. A series of satirical podcasts by local bloggers have been made of this issue. Mr Low Thia Khiang, WP's Secretary-General, said that the PAP was exaggerating the issue because 'the incident was merely an unintentional omission, a mistake made while busy', even though James Gomez had no reason to be at the Electoral board other than to submit the form.^[6]

[edit] Developments on the eve of polling day

On the eve of polling day, Mr Low Thia Kiang announced in a rally that he had intended that all his minority candidates, including Mr Gomez, apply for minority certificates so that the WP could have the flexibility to deploy them to any GRC which the WP wanted to contest. Responding to this in a statement, Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng said this was a new argument and surprising explanation - one that Mr Low had not given throughout the whole week when the issue over Mr Gomez's missing minority certificate was reported. However, Mr Low's statement would bolster PAP candidate Inderjit Singh's claim that James Gomez's submission of the minority form was merely a ploy to confuse the PAP.^[7]

[edit] Election results

Mr Gomez's Aljunied GRC team achieved 44% of the total valid votes, against the PAP's 56%. The PAP team won by 12%.^[8]

[edit] Police investigation

On May 8, 2006, one day after the elections, Mr Gomez's passport and boarding pass were seized and he was refused to leave the country for Sweden, on the grounds that the police were investigating a complaint of "criminal intimidation" against him. Mr Gomez was planning to fly to Sweden to return to work at IDEAS. He was due to start work in Sweden on Tuesday, so the police issued a letter stating that he was helping with investigations for him to forward to his employer. His air ticket was not refundable and he faced a loss of income.

He and other members of the Workers' Party, including Ms Sylvia Lim and Mr Low Thia Kiang, were questioned extensively on the issue.^[9] Mr Gomez was detained for eight hours that day till past midnight at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) at Cantonment Complex.

On May 9, 2006. Gomez was questioned for a second time for five hours,^[10] and for a third time on May 10, 2006 for three hours.^[11] Meanwhile, Mr Low assured police that there would be full co-operation with the police on the matter.^[12]

The police dropped the case on May 12, 2006 after giving a "stern warning" to Mr Gomez for his behaviour at the Elections Department. The police did not reveal any new details in the case but still maintained that there were "several serious inconsistencies". However the Public Prosecutor claimed that the willingness of Mr Gomez to cooperate with the police and the lack of a previous criminal record led to the decision.^[13]

[edit] Publications

• Gomez, James (2000). Self-censorship: Singapore's shame. Think Centre. ISBN 978-981-04-1739-0. 
• Gomez, James (2002). Internet politics: Surveillance and intimidation in Singapore. Think Centre. ISBN 978-981-04-5563-7. 

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• James Gomez' Blog
• James Gomez's News Website