More Lies

From Reporters Sans Frontiers: Singapore Annual Report 2007

The authorities tried to browbeat the foreign press into submission in 2006, in particular the Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER). After the paper carried an article about opposition leader Chee Soon Juan, which it called the “country’s martyr” because of the numerous legal suits which he has had to face, the prime minister unleashed a series of retaliatory measures against the Hong Kong-based FEER. Lee Hsien Loong and his father brought a “defamation” case at the end of August against editor Hugo Restall and the magazine’s publisher. They were also told to conform to section 23 of the law on newspapers and the written press which obliges foreign media to recruit a legal representative in the country and to pay a deposit of 200,000 Singapore dollars (100,000 euros). Four other English-language newspapers the International Herald Tribune, Time, the Financial Times and Newsweek, all received instructions to comply with the same rules when their licence expired.

For your convenience, the relevant parts of Section 23 of Newspaper and Printing Press Act (NPPA)

(1) No person shall sell or distribute, or import for or possess for sale or distribution any offshore newspaper in Singapore unless there is in force a permit granted by the Minister to the proprietor of the newspaper or his agent authorising the sale or distribution of that newspaper in Singapore.
[sic]
(2) The Minister may grant the permit subject to such conditions as he may impose or may refuse to grant or revoke the permit without assigning any reason.
[19/90]

(3) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (2), the Minister may in imposing conditions under that subsection —

(a) specify that the maximum number of copies for each issue of the newspaper which may be sold or distributed in Singapore shall be determined from time to time by the Minister;

(b) require the proprietor of the newspaper to appoint a person within Singapore authorised to accept service of any notice or legal process on his behalf and on behalf of the publisher and to furnish the Registrar with the name and address of the person so appointed; and

(c) require the proprietor of the newspaper to furnish to the Registrar a deposit or some other form of security of such amount as the Minister may determine for the purpose of meeting any liability or costs arising out of any legal proceedings in connection with the publication of the newspaper.
[19/90]

i.e. the Minister is not under compulsion by law to impose these regulations. Note the year in which this provision was instated

Quoting Reporters Sans Frontieres again: (who in turn quoted MICA)

"We are rectifying an anomaly for FEER which has been a declared foreign newspaper since December 1987,” the ministry said in a prepared release. ”It was an administrative oversight not to have subjected FEER to the conditions which are required for declared foreign newspapers to circulate in Singapore.”

The FEER was duly served a Writ of Summons. (The FEER chronicles the saga here:

(Scroll to around the end of Lee Hsien Loong vs Review and Lee Kuan Yew vs Review for a list of successful lawsuits of the past, testament to their infallibility. Look around the middle, where Chee Soon Juan is mentioned, for reasons behind the summons.)

Faced with a ban since September last year, FEER has "struck back", according to the words of Asian Sentinel.

But importantly, let's see FEER's recalcitrant response.

Singapore's Founding Myths vs Freedom.

The Charade of Meritocracy (on alleged discrimination against non-Chinese in Singapore).

Financial Center Pipedreams (on Singapore's weaknesses as a financial hub).

More Reporters Sans Frontieres (sans the diacritics, technical limitations, sorry) stuff:
Singapore Annual Report 2006.

Singapore Annual Report 2005.

Roots of Discrimination.

Overview Notes on Discrimination: Racism, Sexism, Ageism, Homophobia.

Sample GP Essay Questions on Discrimination:

Is a world without racial conflict an impossible dream?

"The world of the future will be a woman's world." What are your views?

To what extent are the young in Singapore favoured at the expense of the elderly?

"Marriage is the union of two people in love, and that is all that it should be." Do you agree?

"It is the young who are discriminated against, not the old." How far do you agree?

"Equality of the sexes is neither practical nor desirable." Is it?

"Racism and sexism are nothing more than choices based on statistics." How far do you agree?

Lies.

The politics of judicial institutions in Singapore.

(Disclaimer: My linking the above website here does not signify any support for or advocacy of the opinions contained therein whatsoever. The article is linked here for the express purpose of exposing it for the litany of blatant and slanderous untruths that it is.)

Family Values.

Some more perspectives on the family values issue we discussed in class.

Censorship in Singapore.

A short review compiled by Ng Yi-Sheng.

Arab-Israel Conflict Lecture.

Here are the notes for the lecture. Those attending the lecture please print them out for yourselves. The speaker will refer extensively to the notes.

Details of the talk:

Wednesday, 22 February, 2007
3.30pm - 5.00pm
LT5

National Education.

BISSAU, Guinea-Bissau - When the government of one of the world's poorest nations learned that Whoopi Goldberg had taken a DNA test showing her ancestors hail from here, the news reverberated through the halls of parliament.

It was, the country's leaders decided, a chance to change the image of this West African nation plagued by coups since wresting independence from Portugal in 1973. If the world could only grasp that a Hollywood celebrity traced her roots to this forsaken corner of the globe, it could bring goodwill from afar - even fame for Guinea-Bissau, they reasoned. Read more.

...

A letter writer [to the Straits Times] said he found it hard to understand why Singapore strived so hard to associate with anyone famous “who is remotely connected to Singapore” and blow it up as among one of its own.

“Remember Vanessa Mae, the (renowned) violinist and how our local newspapers never failed to mention as ‘Singapore born’ when she just happened to be born in Singapore and spent only three years here. I doubt she could have the faintest impression of Singapore at her age.” Read more.

Banning faces.

Advertisers ordered to drop models with non-Malay faces because they ‘downgrade’ local models.

...the [Malaysian] government is again under pressure from cultural and religious purists who want to promote "local faces" in the media.

Managing online information.

“He (Mr Brown) should come out from behind his pseudonym to defend his views openly.”
- Press Secretary to the Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, K BHAVANI in a letter to TODAY newspaper July 3, 2006

“The identity is not important. It is the message that is important,”
- PAP MP Baey Yam Keng, Straits Times, Feb 3, 2007

More on Political Theory.

Here's the links for the Wikipedia series of different articles on Conservatism and Liberalism (look at the sidebar on the right).

Singapore's Poor.

Article on Little Speck.

Some points of interest:

According to official statistics, at least 40% of Singapore's households saw their real incomes decrease from 2000-2005 - while the overall economy posted some of the world's highest growth rates, surging by 7.7% last year.

"The question is, who is all this growth for?"

Notice: because it is REAL income that has fallen, and not RELATIVE income, the usual arguments that "a rising tide floats all boats" (that is, economic growth benefits everyone) and "widening income gap does not mean lowered income for the low-income groups" do not stand. Indeed, where is all the growth going to?

"It is essential for us to tilt the balance in favour of lower-income Singaporeans, because globalization is going to strain our social compact," Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in a speech last fall.
...
The country's mixed population of Chinese, Malays and Indians has accepted decades of the PAP's often authoritarian rule in exchange for phenomenal economic growth that has transformed this former British trading outpost into one of the world's most prosperous states.

That is, the transaction or contract - I (citizen) give up some of my freedom, you (the PAP as ruling party) deliver jobs in return - is breaking down.

"But what we're trying to do is to make sure that the widening income gap doesn't necessarily translate into a widening social gap."

What the hell is he talking about? Some other minister once said, in response to grumbles about the transport price hikes, the people will get used to it, and the grumbles will stop. Is that what the poor are supposed to do? Get used to being poor?

...consumption taxes, such as the sales tax, "are generally regressive and likely to compound the underclass problem.

Because the demand for necessities is inelastic, while the demand for luxury items is. -- You'll have to explain "demand elasticity" in a GP essay, though.