Though this might be late, i think it is still applicable:
Singapore's farcical election undermines its achievements
By Michael Backman
May 3, 2006
ASIA ONLINE
ELECTIONS will be held in Singapore on Saturday. There's no doubt
that the ruling People's Action Party will win. It always does. So
do the elections matter to business, or indeed to anyone?
These elections are different. They are attracting more adverse
international media attention than usual.
And in an age when business can no longer proceed in a vacuum but
must consider the full context of its operating environment, the
degree to which the Singapore elections are free and fair does
matter.
The elections were announced on April 23. Nominations for seats
closed only last Thursday. That means candidates will have had just
nine days to explain their policies and to campaign. It's little
wonder the opposition holds only two seats in the 84-seat
parliament.
Short election campaigns favour the incumbents as they are already
known to voters. They also limit the time frame for damaging
headlines in the international media.
Election rule changes and petty administrative requirements that
have had the effect of constraining almost any legitimate
opposition to the PAP are too numerous to catalogue.
But one announced earlier this month deserves mention, if only for
its abject pettiness. Podcasting, or making audio files available
on the internet, was made illegal for the duration of the campaign,
if the files contain political messages.
Podcasting was one of the few means by which the opposition could
get its message out in a country where all media outlets are
ultimately owned by the Government.
A 2005 survey by Reporters Without Borders ranked Singapore at 140
out of 167 countries in terms of press freedom worse than Russia
or Afghanistan.
Past measures have not been so petty. Opposition figure Chia Thye
Poh was detained between 1966 and 1989. Lee Kuan Yew said he was a
communist. Maybe he was. But importantly he was never tried or
charged. So we don't know.
But what we do know is that he became the world's longest-serving
political prisoner after Nelson Mandela.
Detaining people without trial has been replaced by a more
sophisticated measure: the use of defamation suits. They have
become the means to financially bankrupt those who wish to offer an
alternative viewpoint to Singapore's existing leaders. And the
great virtue of that is that under Singapore law, bankrupts cannot
stand for Parliament.
The process started in 1979 when Lee Kuan Yew sued the opposition
politician Joshua Jeyaretnam and won $S130,000. In 1988, he sued
Seow Khee Leng and won $S250,000. In 1989, he sued Jeyaretnam again
and won $S230,000. In 1996, he and his son sued Tang Liang Hong and
won $S1.05 million. The following year, Lee sued Tang again. So did
10 other ministers. Collectively, they won $S3.63 million. That
same year, new prime minister Goh Chok Tong sued Jeyaretnam and won
$S100,000. And last year, Lee and Goh sued Chee Soon Juan, winning
$S500,000.
Actions have also been against columnists, journalists and
newspapers. Lee, his son and Goh sued the International Herald
Tribune in Singapore in 1990 and won $S650,000.
Lee sued the newspaper again in 1994 and won another $S400,000.
There have been numerous out-of-court settlements. The Economist
magazine (repeatedly) and the wire service Bloomberg have paid up
because they don't want their circulation or access restricted in
Singapore. Elsewhere, that would be called extortion.
And how did Lee Kuan Yew and his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien
Loong, kick off last week's campaign? With writs for defamation, of
course eight of them, all directed at the executive of the
opposition Singapore Democratic Party.
"I want a world-class opposition, not this riff-raff," Lee Kuan Yew
told a dinner on Friday night.
He could hardly have been more disingenuous.
Visitors to Singapore shouldn't just visit the Night Safari, Little
India and Chinatown. Another attraction is Joshua Jeyaretnam, who
sells copies of his self-published books at the entrance to Raffles
City MRT (underground train) station, close to Raffles City
Shopping Centre. The centre is across the road from Raffles Hotel
so, unlike the Night Safari, it's easy to get to. The books provide
an account of the defamation actions against him.
Jeyaretnam once employed servants and owned a house in a good
Singapore suburb. He had a good job as a district judge and was on
track to rise to the High Court. But then he got involved in
opposition politics. Now he is a bankrupt.
Lee, his father and other PAP leaders' repeated use of a
sledgehammer to crush an ant has tattered their reputations.
They are their own worst enemies, spoiling what could have been
their exemplary places in history, leaving them unable to stand
shoulder-to-shoulder with other leaders on the international
stage.
Their victories lack legitimacy because of the means by which they
are secured. That is a tragedy, because the PAP does deserve to
win, given its excellent record on managing Singapore and its
economy. But it is important to realise that the sound business
environment has been achieved at a cost.
Joshua Jeyaretnam can tell you that. He has devoted his life to
politics but is barred from standing and campaigning. But go and
see him. Buy one of his books. Practically every other souvenir
you'll buy in Singapore has been made in China. But this souvenir
is entirely of Singapore's making.
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www.michaelbackman.com