What you do not read in the Straight Times
Here's a sampling of what the foreign newswires and papers are saying about Singapore, complete with pictures that would never get released in the Straight Times. I spoke here about how the lack of media freedom has pushed many Chinese citizens to foreign news to find out what's happening in their own country. May that day never happen to Singapore.
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=17&art_id=18128&sid=7826659&con_type=1
Lee sorry for `fix' threat to opponents
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has offered an apology for offending anyone by saying he would need to "fix" the opposition if they won too many seats in Parliament at weekend elections.
Saturday, May 06, 2006
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has offered an apology for offending anyone by saying he would need to "fix" the opposition if they won too many seats in Parliament at weekend elections.
Opposition leaders demanded an explanation after Lee's remark at a campaign rally Wednesday, when Lee had been pondering on what could be in store for him if the opposition were to hold 10 to 20 seats in parliament.
"Instead of spending my time thinking of what is the right policy for Singapore," he said, "I have to spend all my time thinking what is the right way to fix them, what's the right way to buy my own supporters over."
At a campaign rally Thursday night, leaders of the opposition Workers' Party demanded an explanation from the prime minister.
Issuing the apology friday, Lee's press secretary said what the PM meant to say "was that if there were many more opposition MPs in Parliament, the government and opposition would spend all their time and energies countering each other, and Singapore would be worse off for it."
Singaporeans vote Saturday in an election to be dominated by Lee's ruling People's Action Party, which has governed for more than four decades.
Opposition parties hold two out of 84 elected seats in Parliament. Lee's People's Action Party has the rest. ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/singapore-sling-you-can-say-that-again/2006/05/05/1146335925226.html
Singapore sling? You can say that again
By Hamish McDonald
May 6, 2006
ANALYSIS
EARLIER this week, Singapore's 300,000 older and lower-income citizens were courted in a breath-taking example of electoral bribery.
They looked in their bank accounts and, in most cases, saw deposits of $S400 ($A330) to $S600 by the Government. They will get the same amount on May 1 next year.
The handouts are the nifty "workfare bonuses" revealed in the March budget speech by Singapore's Finance Minister, none other than Lee Hsien Loong himself.
Its aim was said to be maintaining workforce participation by helping with retraining and the like, but the scheme is widely seen as a blatant sweetener for voters aimed at a 12th successive election sweep by the ruling People's Action Party.
If that were all, we would be applauding the mix of self-interest and democracy in Singapore.
But, alas, today's election has been preceded by the usual rounds of litigation by senior PAP figures. The latest victim is Chee Soon Juan, of the Singapore Democratic Party, declared a bankrupt in February after failing to pay $S500,000 in defamation damages to the two previous prime ministers, Goh Chok Tong and Lee Kuan Yew, over remarks in the 2001 election. He is now barred from standing for elections until 2011.
Authorities have also tightened controls over the political content of the numerous websites and blogs flourishing in Singapore.
With about two-thirds of Singaporean homes hooked to the internet, these new media were penetrating the state's pervasive control of conventional newspaper, TV and radio media.
So the Government has banned the use of podcasts, or internet broadcast of audio messages, and videocasts for election campaigns.
Bloggers can discuss politics among themselves, but will have to register with the Government's Media Development Authority.
During the election period, such bloggers are barred from providing online material deemed to be election advertising.
"In a free-for-all internet environment, where there are no rules, political debate could easily degenerate into an unhealthy, unreliable and dangerous discourse, flush with rumours and distortions to mislead and confuse the public," Balaji Sadasivan, the Junior Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, told Parliament last month.
The huge irony is that Lee Hsien Loong came to the prime ministership on a promise of freeing up Singapore's creative side, but has fallen back on the techniques of reward and repression developed by his father, Lee Kuan Yew.
This election is nonetheless a milestone of sorts. For the first time in its history, the PAP has not won the election before the ballots are cast. This year, a majority of seats, 47 out of 84, are contested. Whereas in 2001 only 675,000 of the 2 million eligible voters needed to turn out, this year about 1.3 million will be required to do their duty.
The opposition parties may eat into the PAP's share of the overall vote, but will be struggling to hold, let alone increase, their number of seats, now two out of 84. The junior Lee is reasonably assured of a long span in office, health permitting.
The prospects of Singapore developing a livelier culture, with more new faces putting up new ideas for its growth, are not so strong.
Without real political contest, the Government functions more like a bureaucracy. With the PAP not renowned for vigorous internal debate, many of the big decisions could be taken around the Lee dinner table.
Hamish McDonald is a former Age correspondent in Jakarta, Tokyo and Beijing.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/05/05/news/sing.php
Singapore's young challengers beg to differ
By Seth Mydans International Herald Tribune
SATURDAY, MAY 6, 2006
SINGAPORE As his party headed for another crushing victory in another election, being held Saturday, the man who created Singapore in his own severe image, Lee Kuan Yew, had an unsettling glimpse into what could be the future of his country, and he did not like it.
In the newspapers, on the airwaves and in threats of lawsuits against opposition leaders, the tough operators of his People's Action Party were doing what they always do, grinding their challengers into broken, humiliated little bits and pieces.
In the last election, in 2001, only two of the 84 elected seats in the Singaporean Parliament were won by opposition candidates. If that number increases by even one or two this time, eyebrows will be raised.
But there they were on live television three weeks ago, 10 polite young Singaporeans, challenging Lee, who is 82, with a confidence and lack of deference that is rare among their elders here.
About 40 percent of eligible voters were born after Singapore became an independent nation in 1965. Like it or not, they are their country's future, and their vision now stands side by side with that of Lee.
"What we want is a choice," said Mabel Lee, 28, an editor and television presenter. "What we want is political vibrancy. What we want is a media that could reflect both the views of the opposition as well as of the ruling party fairly. What we want is to see that the opposition is being given a level playing field. What we want is fairness in the political sphere."
Lee argued back as if he had met, in this open-minded younger generation, his real opposition - interrupting, cross-examining and telling them that they needed to be put in their places like his own grandchildren.
"Let me tell you this," said Lee, who holds the title of minister mentor and whose 54-year-old son, Lee Hsien Loong, is prime minister of Singapore. "If what you say is a reflection of your generation, then I'm a bit sad."
People over 55, he said, people who had known the hardships his country had overcome to provide them with their affluence and stability, would never talk this way.
Even the political opposition acknowledges that Lee's vision of a tightly controlled, efficient meritocracy has produced one of the most stable, economically successful nations in the region.
Opposition parties are not calling for fundamental change in this city-state of four million people. Rather, one of the chief planks of the opposition Workers' Party platform is to make elevators stop on every floor in government housing complexes, rather than on every other floor.
But no matter how slight the challenge - whether from young people on television or politicians who want to improve elevator service - the ruling party's style has been one of overwhelming force.
One common form of attack by the ruling party, or PAP, is to bring libel suits against critics, putting them on the defensive and contributing to a culture of self-censorship.
The suits have drawn criticism from rights groups, from the United States, from members of the opposition and, on the television show last month, from one of Lee's young questioners, who said the tactic "gives the impression that the PAP is arrogant and even a bully."
Just a few days later, Lee and his son threatened to sue members of one of the three opposition parties, the Singapore Democratic Party, for statements in its newsletter that they said appeared to link them to corruption.
The prime minister explained why.
"If you don't have the law of defamation, you would be like America, where people say terrible things about the president and it can't be proved," the prime minister said. "Is it right? Is it wrong? Because even if it is wrong, the president cannot sue.
"Or it will be like the Philippines, where people say terrible things about the president. She can't sue. Or Thailand, where serious things are said about Thaksin and then he wanted to sue and eventually, for other reasons, couldn't proceed." Thaksin Shinawatra is a former prime minister of Thailand.
In Singapore, government ministers sue.
The two most outspoken members of the opposition, J.B. Jeyaretnam and Chee Soon Juan, have both been sued, convicted, bankrupted and barred from holding political office. They are not candidates in the election Saturday.
Although there is no question that the ruling party will win, this election is seen as something of a political test for the prime minister.
He is facing a general election for the first time since inheriting his job in 2004 from Goh Chok Tong, 64, who inherited it in turn from the elder Lee in 1990.
Since then, Singaporean leaders have been urging their nation to lighten up, to be more creative, to test accepted limits in order to stay competitive in the information age of the future.
But this does not necessarily extend to the kind of open, pluralistic government envisioned by the young journalists and university students who confronted Lee on television - "the heat and dust of a clash in the arena," as he put it.
There were no opposition members in Parliament for the first 16 years of Singaporean nationhood, he noted recently, a period when the nation experienced some of its most dramatic social and economic progress.
Some day, if they have proved themselves, Lee said, there would be room for a more active opposition here. But he said: "I want a world-class opposition, not this riff-raff."
Speaking to his young questioners on television, Lee was at pains to describe some of the challenges Singapore had overcome on this racially mixed, resource-poor island. But his examples, dating from before they were born, may not have resonated with them.
In the last chapter of a long and successful career of nation-building, Lee seems to have little patience with critics who, in his view, see only part of the picture.
"You are not going to intimidate me, ever," he told a questioner at a recent meeting with foreign reporters.
"We're not going to allow foreign correspondents or foreign journalists or anybody else to tell us what to do," he added. "There are very few things that I do not know about Singapore politics, and there are very few things that you can tell me or any foreign correspondent can tell me about Singapore."
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/asiapacific/article_1160580.php/Gomezgate_not_seen_as_major_issue_for_Singapore_voters
'Gomezgate' not seen as major issue for Singapore voters
By Ruth Youngblood May 3, 2006, 16:49 GMT
Singapore - The furore over an opposition candidate's electoral form is threatening to turn Singapore's general election into a 'Gomezgate,' but will not be a deciding factor for voters in Saturday's general election, political analysts say.
For all the sound and fury, worries about the cost of living, jobs and health care are paramount and will likely catapult the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) back into the power it has held since independence from Malaysia in 1965.
'When it comes to Singapore politics, the litmus test will be whether politicians can take care of their constituencies,' said Terence Chong, a fellow with the Institute of South-East Asian Studies. 'That's what the voters will be looking out for,' he added.
However, instead of keeping the focus on pertinent issues in the short nine-day campaigning period, the PAP has diverted attention to Worker's Party (WP) candidate James Gomez's claim on April 26 that he had submitted his minority race candidacy form to the Elections Department. After the department denied that he had, a security camera recording showed that Gomez put the document back in his briefcase while at the department.
Though still eligible to contest the seat in parliament without filing the form, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew called ethnic Indian Gomez a 'liar' and joined other PAP leaders in urging his withdrawal.
'By chipping away at Gomez, the PAP is hoping the Worker's Party as a whole will be put in a bad light,' said political analyst Chong.
Attacking the 'weakest link' is a classic ploy for the PAP, veteran observers said.
International human rights groups have long criticized the city-state for its spate of defamation suits against political opponents and curbs on freedom of expression.
While the current incident would be regarded as trivial in Western democracies, PAP leaders have indicated that it has no bearing in the city-state of 4.2 million people.
'The young journalists say we must have opposition, we must have this, we must have that,' founding father Lee told a political rally Tuesday night. 'We are not Americans. We are not British. We are not Australian. We are a very unique country.'
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, elevated to the post when his predecessor Goh Chok Tong stepped down in 2004, is aiming for a huge mandate from voters and the elimination of the only two opposition candidates in the 84-member parliament.
The opposition parties managed to prevent the PAP from catapulting into power on Nomination Day by contesting 47 seats, the highest number in 18 years.
Gomez, a 41-year-old researcher with a think-tank based in Sweden called Idea International, said he realized he had become 'the candidate under fire,' but was still focused on contesting the election.
He apologized for causing any distress at the department during a weekend rally and said the incident was a mistake, but refused to elaborate further to reporters.
Also under fire is WP secretary-general Low Thia Khiang, convinced of Gomez's honesty and seeking a fourth term in parliament from his constituency. His calls to 'move on' and stop distracting the voters 'from the real issues' have gone unheeded.
'How much more embarrassed do you want Gomez to be?' asked political observer Gillian Koh. 'How much blood can you squeeze from this stone?'
Analysts have raised the prospect of the PAP's tactics backfiring if young voters become sympathetic to Gomez's plight and Lee securing less than his hoped for landslide. Concerns have also arisen that Lee may not receive the 75 per cent popular mandate the PAP won in 2001 under then prime minister Goh.
The missing form episode is preventing the parties 'from engaging on the issues that matter,' said Eugene Tan, Singapore Management University assistant law professor. 'It is not that the issue doesn't matter. 'I think we need to rise above this.'
WP chairwoman Sylvia Lim said there would be no Gomez saga if elections were run by an independent commission. The Elections Department reports to the prime minister's office.
'As far as we are concerned, we are clean,' she said. 'Our consciences are clear.'
Singapore - The furore over an opposition candidate's electoral form is threatening to turn Singapore's general election into a 'Gomezgate,' but will not be a deciding factor for voters in Saturday's general election, political analysts say.
For all the sound and fury, worries about the cost of living, jobs and health care are paramount and will likely catapult the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) back into the power it has held since independence from Malaysia in 1965.
'When it comes to Singapore politics, the litmus test will be whether politicians can take care of their constituencies,' said Terence Chong, a fellow with the Institute of South-East Asian Studies. 'That's what the voters will be looking out for,' he added.
However, instead of keeping the focus on pertinent issues in the short nine-day campaigning period, the PAP has diverted attention to Worker's Party (WP) candidate James Gomez's claim on April 26 that he had submitted his minority race candidacy form to the Elections Department. After the department denied that he had, a security camera recording showed that Gomez put the document back in his briefcase while at the department.
Though still eligible to contest the seat in parliament without filing the form, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew called ethnic Indian Gomez a 'liar' and joined other PAP leaders in urging his withdrawal.
'By chipping away at Gomez, the PAP is hoping the Worker's Party as a whole will be put in a bad light,' said political analyst Chong.
Attacking the 'weakest link' is a classic ploy for the PAP, veteran observers said.
International human rights groups have long criticized the city-state for its spate of defamation suits against political opponents and curbs on freedom of expression.
While the current incident would be regarded as trivial in Western democracies, PAP leaders have indicated that it has no bearing in the city-state of 4.2 million people.
'The young journalists say we must have opposition, we must have this, we must have that,' founding father Lee told a political rally Tuesday night. 'We are not Americans. We are not British. We are not Australian. We are a very unique country.'
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, elevated to the post when his predecessor Goh Chok Tong stepped down in 2004, is aiming for a huge mandate from voters and the elimination of the only two opposition candidates in the 84-member parliament.
The opposition parties managed to prevent the PAP from catapulting into power on Nomination Day by contesting 47 seats, the highest number in 18 years.
Gomez, a 41-year-old researcher with a think-tank based in Sweden called Idea International, said he realized he had become 'the candidate under fire,' but was still focused on contesting the election.
He apologized for causing any distress at the department during a weekend rally and said the incident was a mistake, but refused to elaborate further to reporters.
Also under fire is WP secretary-general Low Thia Khiang, convinced of Gomez's honesty and seeking a fourth term in parliament from his constituency. His calls to 'move on' and stop distracting the voters 'from the real issues' have gone unheeded.
'How much more embarrassed do you want Gomez to be?' asked political observer Gillian Koh. 'How much blood can you squeeze from this stone?'
Analysts have raised the prospect of the PAP's tactics backfiring if young voters become sympathetic to Gomez's plight and Lee securing less than his hoped for landslide. Concerns have also arisen that Lee may not receive the 75 per cent popular mandate the PAP won in 2001 under then prime minister Goh.
The missing form episode is preventing the parties 'from engaging on the issues that matter,' said Eugene Tan, Singapore Management University assistant law professor. 'It is not that the issue doesn't matter. 'I think we need to rise above this.'
WP chairwoman Sylvia Lim said there would be no Gomez saga if elections were run by an independent commission. The Elections Department reports to the prime minister's office.
'As far as we are concerned, we are clean,' she said. 'Our consciences are clear.'
© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur