Spring Break
Singapore Trades Freedoms For Happiness
Bryan Murphy
Issue date: 2/8/08 Section: Commentary
Ho-ho-holy crap. Most people tend to make decisive judgments without fully realizing their implications, from "Yeah, applying early decision is an amazing idea," to "You're right, we don't need to use a condom for this."
To that list one could add, "Sure, let's go to study in this small tropical island nation without fully realizing that it's essentially a one-man state whose track record on press freedoms ranks it below the civil-war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan and Djibouti."
Think of some form of political expression you might reasonably expect to employ in the United States and it would almost certainly get you incarcerated in Singapore. In the U.S., it's not really such a big deal if you're a famous political analyst who goes around calling a former presidential candidate a "faggot" and doing so certainly won't hurt your next big book deal - though it will serve to further convince everyone that you're a leathery old shrew.
Consider, by way of comparison, the plight of Dr. Chee Soon Juan, the leader of an opposition party here in Singapore. During the 2001 General Elections in Singapore, Dr. Chee made a stir about a $17 billion loan to former Indonesian President-slash-brutal-dictator Suharto. You might think an astronomical loan to a man whose administration was specifically condemned by the U.N. Human Rights Commission for its abominable conduct and repeated slaughters of unarmed protesters would be fair game for a bit of political rabble-rousing, but you'd be wrong. Dr. Chee was hit with libel suits totaling 500,000 Singaporean dollars ($352,933) by Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Chok Tong, at the time the senior minister and prime minister of Singapore, respectively. Dr. Chee lost.
An interesting thing about libel suits filed by high-ranking members of the Singaporean elite is that you are pretty much guaranteed to lose them - especially if you belong to an opposition party. Another interesting fact is that under Singapore's Constitution, those fined at least S$2,000 cannot run in Parliamentary elections for five years. As one could easily imagine, the libel suit is a favorite tool in the political arsenal of Singapore's ruling class. One must concede that there is a certain element of poeticism to this form of control. Rather than taking one's political opponents into a small room and shooting them, one sues them until they are reduced to hawking self-penned novels by the side of the street like a crazy old man - as happened to Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam, the first member of an opposition party elected as a member of the Singaporean Parliament.
To that list one could add, "Sure, let's go to study in this small tropical island nation without fully realizing that it's essentially a one-man state whose track record on press freedoms ranks it below the civil-war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan and Djibouti."
Think of some form of political expression you might reasonably expect to employ in the United States and it would almost certainly get you incarcerated in Singapore. In the U.S., it's not really such a big deal if you're a famous political analyst who goes around calling a former presidential candidate a "faggot" and doing so certainly won't hurt your next big book deal - though it will serve to further convince everyone that you're a leathery old shrew.
Consider, by way of comparison, the plight of Dr. Chee Soon Juan, the leader of an opposition party here in Singapore. During the 2001 General Elections in Singapore, Dr. Chee made a stir about a $17 billion loan to former Indonesian President-slash-brutal-dictator Suharto. You might think an astronomical loan to a man whose administration was specifically condemned by the U.N. Human Rights Commission for its abominable conduct and repeated slaughters of unarmed protesters would be fair game for a bit of political rabble-rousing, but you'd be wrong. Dr. Chee was hit with libel suits totaling 500,000 Singaporean dollars ($352,933) by Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Chok Tong, at the time the senior minister and prime minister of Singapore, respectively. Dr. Chee lost.
An interesting thing about libel suits filed by high-ranking members of the Singaporean elite is that you are pretty much guaranteed to lose them - especially if you belong to an opposition party. Another interesting fact is that under Singapore's Constitution, those fined at least S$2,000 cannot run in Parliamentary elections for five years. As one could easily imagine, the libel suit is a favorite tool in the political arsenal of Singapore's ruling class. One must concede that there is a certain element of poeticism to this form of control. Rather than taking one's political opponents into a small room and shooting them, one sues them until they are reduced to hawking self-penned novels by the side of the street like a crazy old man - as happened to Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam, the first member of an opposition party elected as a member of the Singaporean Parliament.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
GC Chwee
posted 2/08/08 @ 9:09 PM EST
Hello Bryan,
You got pretty much of your facts right. But your reasons for why Singaporeans are politically apathetic are far from accurate.
It is the ruling elites, the oligarchs, that want to emulate only the American economy and not the rights you enjoy and probably taken for granted. (Continued…)
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