Free speechSingapore-style
By Carol Divjak
20 June 2000
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By August 2000 Singapore is to have a speakers' corner! Is this a
chance for Singaporeans to experience free speech? It hardly seems
likely, given that the city-state has been ruled for the last 40
years by a single party using police state methods to quash
political opposition.
The project is intended to give the impression that democratic
rights are being granted, if ever so gradually, by a benign
government that has everyone's interests at heart.
The issue provoked a lively and light hearted debate in
Parliament according to the Straits Times of April 26. Home Affairs
Minister Wong Kan Seng told the Opposition: Actually we don't
think it's a good idea but if that's what is wanted and if we can
manage the risk, we will provide for it. We'll let you try it
out.
The venue will be Hong Lim Park, from 7am to 7pm daily. Speakers
must register at the Kreta Ayer Police Post, show ID and bring
their own soapbox. No licence will be required under the Public
Entertainment Act and, according to Wong Kan Seng, no subject will
be tabooapart from religion and topics that will incite racial
hatred. Orators will be bound, however, by the existing internal
security and libel laws.
The ruling Peoples Action Party regularly uses the defamation laws
to bankrupt those who dare to criticize the government. And the
Internal Security Act has been used to detain, without trial,
anyone seen as a threat to the government. In some cases offenders
have been jailed for years. This has created a climate of fear and
submission.
Joshua Jeyaretnam, one of only three opposition MPs, commented:
People get all sorts of false ideas about liberalisation in
Singapore. I'm sorryit's a mirage. Keeping speakers bound by the
existing limits would make the free speech venue a contradiction
in terms.
The very fact that speakers must register with the police will be
sufficient to deter any critical debate, and reinforce the claim
that Singaporeans have nothing to complain about.
When asked if speakers will be recorded or videotaped, the Home
Affairs Minister said people should not be surprised if curious
onlookers, research students or journalists turned up with
recorders. Given the history of Singapore most people would rightly
suspect that the internal security police will also be keen
recorders of the proceedings.
The government controls and manipulates political expression in
every sphere. There is no right to strike or protest. Films, TV and
pop music are heavily censored. Many books and magazines are
banned, and home satellite TV antennae are illegal. The tolerated
news media is totally subservient to the government, which issues
open threats of recriminations if the official line is not
followed.
The establishment of a speakers' corner is a cynical exercise for
letting off steam over the increasingly difficult lives of middle
class and working class people. Singapore has not gone unscathed in
the wake of the Asian economic breakdown. Mass retrenchments and
wage cuts have been coupled with an extremely high cost of living.
A fiercely competitive education system puts enormous pressures on
students and families.
Such a safety valve has been discussed in official circles for more
than a year following the arrest of Singapore Democratic Party
secretary general Chee Soon Juan, who was jailed twice last year
for speaking in public without a permit and then refusing to pay
the fine.
In front of crowds of up to 600, his speeches included reading
quotes from the Singapore Constitution guaranteeing free speech.
His colleague Wong Hong Toy faced fines or jail for assisting Chee
by adjusting a microphone and speaker. They were charged under the
Public Entertainment Act, which has now been relaxed for the
purposes of the Speakers' Corner.
Chee's fate provoked considerable unfavourable comment in the
Western media, as well as disquiet among business and professional
people in Singapore. Like others in the pro-democracy movement
throughout the Asian region, Chee is attempting to replace an
autocratic government with one less subject to cronyism and more
accountable to the demands of international capital.
The Singapore government, sensitive to developments such as the
fall of Suharto in neighbouring Indonesia, and aware of seething
resentment over the lack of democratic rights, is being forced to
make some cosmetic changeshence Speakers' Corner.
