Earlier this week I was shocked and appalled to learn that the prestigious institution Yale University had buckled under pressure from an authoritarian regime to ban any form of protest at its joint venture with the National University of Singapore (NUS).  It’s really quite unbelievable.  According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Yale-NUS will forbid any public demonstration of any kind, and will forbid its students from forming “partisan political societies.”

One would think that respect for these basic universal human rights to free expression and association would be the hallmark of an esteemed institution of higher learning like Yale, but it appears the university’s leadership are thoroughly unaware of the kind of brutal repression of democracy that they have agreed to sponsor.  How it is possible in this day and age for an American university to become an instrument of repression for a ruthlessly authoritarian state, I cannot understand.

As many of you are aware, I represent a leader of the pro-democracy opposition in Singapore, Dr. Chee Soon Juan.  In fact, when I last attempted to travel there to meet my client, the authorities refused me entry to the country without explanation.  Below is an open letter sent by Dr. Soon Juan to Professor Pericles Lewis, President of the Yale-NUS College.