Why is all this oppression necessary in a peaceful and
prosperous country like Singapore where citizens otherwise enjoy so
many freedoms? Mr. Chee has his own theory that the answer lies
with strongman Lee Kuan Yew himself: ¡ùWhy is he still so afraid? I
honestly think that through the years he has accumulated enough
skeletons in his closet that he knows that when he is gone, his son
and the generations after him will have a price to pay. If we had
parliamentary debates where the opposition could pry and ask
questions, I think he is actually afraid of something like
that.¡ì
That raises the question of whether Singapore deserves its
reputation for squeaky-clean government. A scandal involving the
country£ªs biggest charity, the National Kidney Foundation, erupted
in 2004 when it turned out that its Chief Executive T.T. Durai was
not only drawing a $357,000 annual salary, but the charity was
paying for his first-class flights, maintenance on his Mercedes,
and gold-plated fixtures in his private office bathroom.
The scandal was a gift for the opposition, which naturally raised
questions about why the government didn£ªt do a better job of
supervising the highly secretive NKF, whose patron was the wife of
former Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong (she called Mr. Durai£ªs salary
¡ùpeanuts¡ì). But it had wider implications too. The government
controls huge pools of public money in the Central Provident Fund
and the Government of Singapore Investment Corp., both of which are
highly nontransparent. It also controls spending on the public
housing most Singaporeans live in, and openly uses the funds for
refurbishing apartment blocks as a bribe for districts that vote
for the ruling party. Singaporeans have no way of knowing whether
officials are abusing their trust as Mr. Durai did.
It gets worse. Mr. Durai£ªs abuses only came to light because he
sued the Straits Times newspaper for libel over an article
detailing some of his perks. Why was Mr. Durai so confident he
could win a libel suit when the allegations against him were true?
Because he had done it before. The NKF won a libel case in 1998
against defendants who alleged it had paid for first-class flights
for Mr. Durai. This time, however, he was up against a major
bulwark of the regime, Singapore Press Holdings; its lawyers
uncovered the truth.
Singaporean officials have a remarkable record of success in
winning libel suits against their critics. The question then is,
how many other libel suits have Singapore£ªs great and good wrongly
won, resulting in the cover-up of real misdeeds? And are libel
suits deliberately used as a tool to suppress questioning
voices?
The bottling up of dissent conceals pressures and prevents
conflicts from being resolved. For instance, extreme sensitivity
over the issue of race relations means that the persistence of
discrimination is a taboo topic. Yet according to Mr. Chee it is a
problem that should be debated so that it can be better resolved.
¡ùThe harder they press now, the stronger will be the reaction when
he£ªs no longer around,¡ì he says of Lee Kuan Yew.
The paternalism of the PAP also rankles, especially since
foreigners get more consideration than locals. The World Bank and
International Monetary Fund will hold their annual meeting in
Singapore this fall, and have been trying to convince the
authorities to allow the usual demonstrations to take place. The
likely result is that international NGO groups will be given a
designated area to scream and shout. ¡ùSo we have a situation here
where locals don£ªt have the right to protest in their own country,
while foreigners are able to do that,¡ì Mr. Chee marvels. Likewise,
Singaporeans can£ªt organize freely into unions to negotiate wages;
instead a National Wages Council sets salaries with input from the
corporate sector, including foreign chambers of commerce.
All these tensions will erupt when strongman Lee Kuan Yew dies. Mr.
Chee notes that the ruling party is so insecure that Singapore£ªs
founder has been unable to step back from front-line politics. The
PAP still needs the fear he inspires in order to keep the
population in line. Power may have officially passed to his son,
Lee Hsien Loong, but even supporters privately admit that the new
prime minister doesn£ªt inspire confidence.
During the election, Prime Minister Lee made what should have been
a routine attack on multiparty democracy: ¡ùSuppose you had 10, 15,
20 opposition members in parliament. Instead of spending my time
thinking what is the right policy for Singapore, I£ªm going to
spend all my time thinking what£ªs the right way to fix them, to
buy my supporters£ª votes, how can I solve this week£ªs problem and
forget about next year£ªs challenges?¡ì But of course the ominous
phrases ¡ùbuy votes¡ì and ¡ùfix them¡ì stuck out. That is the kind
of mistake, Mr. Chee suggests, Lee Sr. would not make.
¡ùHe£ªs got a kind of intelligence that would serve you very well
when you put a problem in front of him,¡ì he says of the prime
minister. ¡ùBut when it comes to administration or political
leadership, when you really need to be media savvy and motivate
people, I think he is very lacking in that area. And his father
senses it as well.¡ì
However, the elder Mr. Lee£ªs death¡ªhe is now 82¡ªis a necessary
but not sufficient condition for change. Another big factor is how
civil society is able to use new technologies to bypass PAP control
over information and free speech. The government has tried to
stifle political filmmaking, blogging and podcasting. Singapore
Rebel, a 2004 film about Mr. Chee by independent artist Martyn See,
was banned but is widely available on the Internet.
Meanwhile, pressure for Singapore to remain competitive in the
region has sparked debate about the government£ªs dominant role in
the economy. Can a top-down approach promote creativity and
independent thinking? The need for transparency and accountability
also means that Singapore will have to change. That is the source
of Mr. Chee£ªs optimism in the face of all his setbacks: ¡ùI
realize that Singapore is not at that level yet. But we£ªve got to
start somewhere. And I£ªm prepared to see this out, in the sense
that in the next five, 10, 15 years, time is on our side. We need
to continue to organize and educate and encourage. And it will
come.¡ì
He doesn£ªt dwell on his personal tribulations, but mentions in
passing selling his self-published books on the street. That is his
primary source of income to feed his family, along with the
occasional grant. As to the charge of wanting to be a martyr, once
he started dissenting, he found it impossible to stop in good
conscience. ¡ùThe more you got involved, the more you found out
what they£ªre capable of, it steels you, so you say, £¦No, I will
not back down.£ª It makes you more determined.¡ì
Perhaps it£ªs in his genes. One of Mr. Chee£ªs daughters is old
enough that she had to be told that her father was going to prison.
She stood up before her class and announced, ¡ùMy papa is in jail,
but he didn£ªt do anything wrong. People have just been unfair to
him.¡ì
Mr. Restall is editor of the REVIEW.
