THURSDAY
WEATHER:
Today - Morning fog then
partly sunny. South wind
5 to 15 mph.
Tonight - Partly cloudy.
Low in the mid 30s.
November 16, 1995
Tanna Kinnaman/DN
Francis T. Seow relaxes inside the green room at the Lied Center before speaking at the E.N. Thompson Forum
Wednesday afternoon.
Seow unveils Singapore’s evils
By John Fulwider
Senior Reporter
Francis Seow said the best way to get a
feel for Singapore is to visit it.
Fly to the Southeast Asian country on its
national airline, voted the world’s best for
the last six years. Land at its international
airport, voted the world’s best for the last
seven years. Let a clean, air-conditioned taxi
whisk you away to one of its finest hotels.
There will be no traffic jams to slow you,
he said, no potholes to jar your travel, no
homeless people or beggars to disturb you.
No graffiti covers the buildings, and the
streets are safe to walk on alone at night.
“Singapore is a clean and green metropo
lis where everything works,” Seow said. He
spoke Wednesday at the Lied Center for Per
forming Arts as part of the E.N. Thompson
Forum on World Issues lecture series. He
titled his lecture “Singapore — The Good,
the Bad, and the Ugly.”
Beneath Singapore’s polished veneer, he
said, lies an authoritarian government headed
by Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew.
Lee is not Singapore’s official leader, he
said, but he may as well be because of his
far-reaching influence. He said the prime
minister, Goh Chok Dong, is unable to make
any government changes while Lee remains
alive.
Life in Singapore under Lee’s govern
ment, Seow said, is best illustrated by what
Lee says: “We decide what is right. Never
mind what the people think.”
Seow became a victim of Lee’s dictato
rial governing style when he was arrested in
1988. He spent 72 days in solitary confine
ment. No formal charges were ever filed
against him. Seow has not returned to his
homeland since his release.
Seow related many stories of Lee’s
stranglehold on Singapore.
In 1963, he said, more than 100 people
were arrested and imprisoned without trial,
accused of being pro-Communist. They were
actually Lee’s political opponents, who ob
jected to Singapore’s incorporation in the
Federation of Malaysia.
When Singapore was kicked out of the
federation, he said, those prisoners were not
released. It was more convenient for Lee to
keep them as prisoners, Seow said.
Lee even abolished the privy court,
Singapore’s appeals court, because it had
allowed an appeal for one of his political
opponents.
“The judiciary in Singapore is neither in
dependent nor free,” he said. “It is pliant. It
is corrupt.”
Lee used to spend much of his time falsely
accusing his opponents of being pro-Com
munist, Seow said. But now Lee has turned
around, becoming strongly in favor of rela
tions with Communist China.
In 1972, Lee accused a Singapore news
paper of glamorizing communism, Seow
said. The newspaper had covered the Peking,
China International Pingpong Champion
ship.
But Lee later ordered the names of all
Singaporean children changed to conform to
Communist Chinese-style spellings—with
out the consent of their parents.
Lee also gained control of Singapore’s
* See SEOW on 6
Gov. Nelson
comments on
budget, trade
By Ted Taylor
Staff Reporter
Half a world away, Gov. Ben Nelson called
the recent events in Washington a severe case
of presidential politics.
Speaking from New Dehli, India, Nelson told
the press Wednesday during his weekly telecon
ference that countries across the world must be
looking at the United States and asking, “What
kind of country is this?”
“Presidential politics has reared its ugly head
in a most unimaginable way,” he said.
Nelson’s voice heightened as he began as
sessing the situation back home.
“Every American wants the budget reduced,”
he said. “But it has to be a budget that people
can live with. There has to be some give and
take, and both parties have to come to realize
that.”
Nelson said the American people were not
the only ones perplexed by the situation. India
President Shankar Sayal Sharma questioned
Nelson about the shutdown during a reception
Tuesday night.
“President Sharma asked me what was go
ing on,” he said. “I told him I could not justify _
it, but I would try to explain it to him.”
Nelson said he could only imagine what the
shutdown’s impact would be if it lasted another
few weeks.
“When Social Security can’t accept new ap
plications and the Internal Revenue Service
can’t offer tax help, it will not be without pain.
At some point, we will not be able to absorb the
lack of services.”
Nelson and Nebraska business leaders are
wrapping up a trade mission that sent them to
four central Asian countries in the last 10 days.
Visits to Singapore, Malaysia and Indone
sia preceded the stop in India, where the Ne
braska delegation met with government officials
and industry leaders to help develop trade with
Nebraska.
Tony Raimondo, president and chief execu
tive officer of Behlen Manufacturing in Colum
bus and a member of the Nebraska delegation,
said he was encouraged by India’s positive out
look toward increasing trade and providing jobs
for its people.
“The government here is very sensitive to
people and their jobs,” he said. “The absolute
major focus is to bring trade to India and help
get people out of poverty.”
Nelson said Indian officials were interested
in working with Nebraska businesses such as
ConAgra, Union Pacific Railroad and Behlen
Manufacturing, an agriculture products com
pany.
The Nebraska delegation will return home
late today.
Kozak relaxes with chemistry
By Paula Lavigne
Senior Reporter
A university administrator who has
to sort through papers all day might
want to take a leisurely break from the
office everv now and then.
When John
Kozak, Iowa State
University pro
vost, takes that
break, he's still
sitting at a desk
with a pencil and
paper... ponder
ing theoretical
chemistry.
| The miid-man
nered Kozak is
one ofthree chancellor candidates for
.the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
He began his career in higher educa
tion as an assistant professor of chem
istry at the University of Notre Dame
in 1968. He later became associate
dean of the College of Sciences.
When Kozak went into administra
tion in 1970, he used his penchant for
chemistry as a stress reliever.
“Some people relax by playing the
piano or writing poetry,” he said. “I
like to sit for an hour working in my
area of research.
“My wife accuses me of it being a
hobby.”
Catherine Kozak, a biochemist, re
gards it as just that.
“She doesn’t regard a theoretical
chemist as being a ‘real’ chemist,”
Kozak said, laughing. “She thinks that
chemistry is mixing something that’s
great with something that’s blue and
it turns chartreuse.”
His wife believes chemistry is
watching things gurgle, he said, some
thing more tactile than theoretical
chemistry.
The more sterile activities of sitting
at a desk with paper and pencil are a
bit much for her, he said.
Edwin Lewis, associate provost at
ISU, said that behavior suited Kozak’s
quiet personality.
“I would say he’s very low-key,”
Lewis said. “He doesn’t display emo
tion a whole lot.
“He’s very polite.”
Kozak also is an approachable per
son, Lewis said.
“He’s not a real outgoing person,
but he deals kindly with people who
See KOZAK on 3
Finalists
finally here
• Dates listed in Wednesday’s Daily Nebraskan were for
chancellor candidates' press conferences, which will be at
1:15 pm. in Varner Hall. Receptions for the candidates
will be today for John Kozak, Monday for James Moeser
and Tuesday for Thomas George. All receptions will be
at 4:15 p.m. at the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery.
• Look for personal features and coverage of the candidates'
visits in coming issues of the Daily Nebraskan.