TR EMERITUS

OPINION When U.S. President Barack Obama visits Singapore next week for the APEC summit, he should not be deceived by the towering skyscrapers of the city state nor the deceptive affluence of its citizens walking down the streets of Orchard Road for what lies beneath the veneer is a draconian dictatorship bent on perpetuating its political hegemony forever at the expense of the people. In his inauguration speech as the 46th President of the United States of America, Mr Obama promised to help "unclench the fists" of dictatorial regimes worldwide. Singapore should top the list way above Iran, North Korea and Myanmar. A recent White Paper released by international law firm Amsterdam & Peroff calls upon foreign governments, NGOs, and the media to put pressure on the Government of Singapore to act on the demands of the political opposition as well as for APEC leaders attending the November 12-14 Summit in Singapore to meet with representatives of civil society in Singapore, including Dr. Chee, leader of the SDP; – ASEAN to establish a viable Human Rights Commission. Mr Obama should take some time off during his brief stay in Singapore to speak to the Singapore opposition as well as civil activists to understand its political system which runs contrary to the United States' much vaunted values of democracy, human rights and freedom of speech. Despite its small size, Singapore punches way above its weight in the international arena due to its affluence. It has the second highest GDP per capita in Asia after Japan. And Singapore is important because its model of governance is closely studied by the communists from the People's Republic of China, as proclaimed frequently by its octagenarian leader Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew. China's economy is expected to exceed the U.S.'s by 2030. The rapid rise of China has seen it exerting its economic clout in regions where U.S.'s influence is relatively weak, such as Africa. The repressive regimes of Sudan, Guinea and Congo are given a lifeline by an energy-hungry China, which continues to pour billions of dollars worth of investments into them in spite of their dismal human rights records. To bring China more aligned with U.S. interests and ideals, it is of paramount importance to accelerate the rate of political liberalization in China as its economy continue to grow and expand. The Chinese Communist Party is not a monolith entity like Singapore's PAP. It is split into various factions with a liberal faction which is not adverse to reforming its obsolete political system. Though China is still officially a one-party dictatorship, it has allowed democracy to flourished at the grassroots levels. Township and county officials are now elected directly by the voters. Even among higher echelons of the Chinese Communist Party, aspiring cadres must garner sufficient votes from their peers before they are allow to advance up in the party hierarchy. It is untrue that democracy is incompatible with China. In fact, China was the world's first democracy before the feudal system takes root. During the reign of the "five legendary emperors" before the Xia dynasty, the ancient kings of China such as the mythical Huang Di, Yao and Shun were all voted by the people to lead them. Though these figures were not proven to exist on historical records, their prominent places in Chinese history is ample evidence that the Chinese did have some rudimentary understanding of democratic system. A more democratic China will be more self-assured and less paranoid about its own survival. A more repressive Chinese state will not only be a threat to its own people, but to its neighbors such as India and Taiwan as well. The Singapore system of government enables one single party to dominate the political scene to perpetuate its rule for a prolonged period of time under the guise of a democracy which appeals to China. Besides the Chinese Communist Party, there are 8 or 9 other political parties in China whose delegates are given token seats on the National People's Congress which has no real power. Allowing "limited" and "controlled" elections in China like in Singapore's case will help to legitimatize the CCP's rule in China just like how the PAP used its "overwhelming mandate" in every general election to claim that it has the support of the people. Deng Xiaoping was fascinated with Singapore's unique political system during his visit here in 1978 which showed that it is possible for a country to be open economically and yet closed politically. However, the China in the next twenty years will be drastically different from the China now. As its economic growth creates a new middle class, there will be more pressure exerted on the CCP to open up politically. The CCP is split on its future direction. While the liberals and reformists within its ranks advocate a competitive system akin to Taiwan's free-wheeling democracy, the conservatives prefer Singapore's "managed" political system where elections are "engineered" to always generate a victory for the ruling party. Mr Obama should send a strong message to the entire world that such "soft" dictatorships like Singapore has no place in the free world. Through clever branding and propaganda, the Singapore government has managed to portray itself as a modern, thriving and prospering first world nation, but it still doesn't hide the fact that it has a third world "democracy" if it is the correct word to use. The Singapore system which is based largely on personalities without any checks and balances is doomed to fail with the demise of its strongman because there is no institutionalized system of power transfer and succession during its modern history. China will only be able to achieve temporary economic success and social stability using the Singapore system and will never be able to compete with the U.S. as an equal without harnessing the potential of its 1-billion people. As for the United States, it should not forget about its role as a harbinger of democracy and freedom to the world. When he arrived in Singapore, Mr Obama should take a walk around the old estates of Kreta Ayer, Telok Blangah, Toa Payoh and Geylang where he would not fail to notice many elderly Singaporeans picking used cardboards and cans for a living. Singapore is not a paradise as marketed by its spin doctors and propagandists. It is a repressive state where the people have no voice or control over their destiny and have to depend on the nanny state to eke out a living. With the amount of leverage and clout the U.S. has over the Singapore government, it is in a position to influence its leaders to liberalize the political landscape and to return to the people their legitimate political and civil rights.  Read More →

By Sarah Stewart from AFP In the 20 years since its launch, the Asia-Pacific's top economic grouping has witnessed a stunning realignment with China on the march and the United States mired in crisis. President Barack Obama heads to Singapore for this week's annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting with the US recovery painfully slow, the dollar on shaky ground, and US diplomatic standing in need of repair. Unlike the United States, China was not a founding member of APEC when the club was launched in November 1989, five months after the violent Tiananmen Square crackdown made the Asian country an international pariah. When it did join in 1991, China was still in transition from a centrally planned economy, but is now striking an increasingly confident pose on the world stage. Poised to become the world's second-largest economy, it is exerting its influence everywhere - financing America's debt, becoming a top buyer of natural resources, and making its voice heard on major diplomatic issues. But despite its reduced circumstances, the United States has a long history of leadership in the region and is still the major marketplace for goods produced by export-dependent Asia-Pacific nations. "We believe America plays an indispensable role in Asia in many fields - economic, political, strategic, security," APEC host Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said last week. "We've been talking about a multipolar world, but de facto the US is the most powerful nation in the world and will be so for some time to come," said Lee, who will welcome 20 other leaders for the November 14-15 APEC summit. Lee's comments came amid debate about the US role in various proposed free-trade zones and economic communities, including a Japanese-sponsored East Asian Community in which Washington's involvement is unclear. Charles Morrison, president of the East-West Center in Hawaii, said regional nations were content with the current balance in US-China relations. "Asian nations don't want to make choices and so they're very comfortable in the framework where the US and China get along together," he said. "But it's a very natural thing that, if you're a smaller power, you want to be able to play off to some extent the larger powers but don't want a conflict that forces you to take sides." Morrison said the United States also carries into this APEC summit the trump card of a "very articulate, popular young leader" in Obama, whose debut presidential tour of Asia will take him to China after Singapore. Huang Yiping, professor of economics at Peking University in Beijing and a former chief Asia economist with Citigroup, said China would face challenges as it begins to exert its influence more heavily. "Obviously the economy is growing significantly and its influence is rising very rapidly. "But the issue China will have to deal with is whether or not we are ready to play a leadership role in regional or global affairs and that's something I think we need to be a bit careful about," he said. - AFP "As a decision-maker you have to make choices. The strategy the Chinese government adopted 30 years ago was that we just want to focus on economic development and we don't want trouble. "Going forward there may be some difficult stages for China as well." Huang said that Asia-Pacific nations simply cannot afford to turn their back on the vast US economy and its diversified financial system. "The US takes more than 20 per cent of the finished exports from Asia and China takes about six per cent so I don't think it's an equal competition," he said. "The US will continue to play a very significant role in the region, even though its relative importance is declining and the importance of the other developing economies is rising." APEC comprises Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.  Read More →

From our Correspondent Singapore's ruling PAP suffered another damaging blow to its international image and prestige following the worldwide publication of a White Paper by law firm Amsterdam & Peroff about repression in Singapore. The paper was spear-headed by Mr Robert Amsterdam, a prominent international human rights lawyer and an expert in corporate disputes. The White Paper - "The Repression of political freedoms in Singapore: The Case of opposition leader Dr Chee Soon Juan" documents the repression of political freedoms in Singapore and outlines how the Government of Singapore, under the leadership of the People’s Action Party (PAP), has monopolized the state’s apparatus to its own benefit. The result has been the denial of basic democratic rights and freedoms. The press release by Amsterdam & Peroff was given extensive publicity by major news organisations like MSN, AOL, National Examiner and Reuters as well as global investment and trade organisations like Forbes, Breitbart, EuroInvestor and Bizjournals. Singapore's Law Minister Shanmugan had earlier pleaded with an audience of American lawyers from the New York State Bar Association attending a conference in Singapore to understand and accept Singapore's "unique" situation which warrants the need of certain laws to maintain public order and social stability. The Singapore state media featured his speech prominently which was largely ignored by the international media. The White Paper has managed to reach an international audience of a few hundred million people whose impression of the Singapore government is likely to be influenced by it. For all its clout and control over the local media, the Singapore government has very little leverage over the international media. In fact, it has managed to peeve off many prominent news agencies by launching a series of defamation lawsuits to silence them in the past. The Singapore government has opted to maintain a dignified silence on the White Paper so far. With world leaders attending the APEC meetings to be held in Singapore next week, all eyes will be on its use of repressive laws to curtail the civil rights of its citizens and defamatory lawsuits to cripple its political opponents and critics. The White Paper calls upon foreign governments, NGOs, and the media to put pressure on the Government of Singapore to act on the demands of the political opposition as well as for APEC leaders attending the November 12-14 Summit in Singapore to meet with representatives of civil society in Singapore, including Dr. Chee, leader of the SDP; – ASEAN to establish a viable Human Rights Commission. Singapore's pro-business ruling party has turned a deaf ear to criticisms from international NGOs on the lack of political freedoms in Singapore. Singapore's Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew dismissed them as a "conspiracy" to "do us in". International media watchdog Reporters Without Borders ranked the Singapore media 133th out of 175 countries on its world press freedom index in 2009 below Kenya, Guinea and Congo which drew flak from Mr Shanmugan. U.S. NGO Freedom House wrote in its latest annual report that Singapore is not an "electoral democracy" though elections are held on a regular basis every five years due to the lack of other key components of a functioning democracy such as a relatively free press and civil society. The International Bar Association Human Rights Institute gave a damning indictment on the use of defamation lawsuits by PAP leaders to cripple the opposition in a comprehensive report released in 2008. (Download the report here): “Another area in which the independence of the judiciary is of concern is the cases involving the courts hearing defamation claims initiated by PAP officials……the slim likelihood of the successful defence of an action, combined with the extraordinarily high damages awarded in defamation cases involving PAP officials sheds doubt on the independence of the judiciary in these cases. The courts in defamation cases have substantial discretion in awarding judgment and damages. Under Orders 14 (Summary Judgment) and 78 (Defamation Actions), the court has substantial discretion to resolve the case without a hearing in open court and to permit the quantum of damages to be determined by a Registrar in chambers.” The Attorney-General Chambers of Singapore which jailed three Singaporeans for wearing T-shirts with a "kangaroo" on them in front of the supreme court last year had not taken legal action against the IBA yet. Given the mounting international criticisms and negative publicity on the ruling party and the system put in place to perpetuate its political hegemony, it remains to be seen how long they can continue to put up the charade to deceive the world that Singapore is an "exceptional" democracy.  Read More →