Straits Times to be listed as political association

When does a journalist become a politician?

"THE Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has announced on Tuesday its intention to gazette news website The Straits Times (ST) as a political association.

"On why the decision to gazette ST, the PMO explained in the statement: 'As a website that provides coverage and analysis of political issues, ST has the potential to influence the opinions of their readership and shape political outcomes in Singapore. It has been gazetted to ensure that it is not funded by foreign elements or sources.'"

In Singapore the answer is when they write about political issues, but it seems the rule is only applied to those journalists who cover topics that the government sanctioned media would prefer to not touch. I think it is clear here that I am referring to the recent arbitrary decision taken by the PMO to gazette (gag?) The Online Citizen (TOC). The reasoning behind the decision is entirely spurious and without merit, and that can clearly be seen by taking the exact wording of the justification, replacing the name of The Online Cizitzen with The Straits Times and seeing how well the same reasoning applies to an organisation controlled by the government and which has been allowed to operate for many years without fear of being gazetted.

So we can infer from the above that there is more to the gazetting than merely the justification given by the PMO. I have written previously on how un free the press in Singapore are, and this decision is merely a very transparent extension of the governments desire to control the media into the realm of the internet. Make no mistake that this is not about preventing foreign funding for organisations that could influence political discourse in Singapore, rather this is an attempt by the government to intimidate and silence organisations that disagree with them, challenge their authority or dare to encourage greater awareness of political and social concerns held by the people of Singapore.

The true irony in all of this is that TOC has admitted to receiving no foreign funding (and surely will soon have to prove the same), whereas two of the Straits Times' three largest shareholders are foreign companies! Which one better falls into the category of "foreign funded organisations that [provide] coverage and analysis of political issues" is obvious, but that is at odds with which one got gazetted and which one didn't. It should be clear then that the real reason for this is about the government's desire to control the media, and the ideas and criticisms to which the population are exposed to.

Why Singapore needs a free press

From time to time, the PAP likes to describe Singapore either as a democracy, or as a "democracy with Asian characteristics", although quite what those Asian characteristics might be, and why democracy needs to have regional flavours is never fully explained, it's not a Laksa after all. In fact there are many flaws with the implementation of democracy on the little red dot, but one of the most glaring is the lack of a free press.

The fundamental point of democracy is to give the people the chance to choose who represents them based on a free discussion of ideas such that citizens can decide for themselves the advantages and disadvantages of the policies suggested by the ruling party and the opposition. Hand in hand with this is the idea that any failures or shortcomings of the ruling party can be discussed by the public at large, so that they can then decide whether or not the ruling party is deserving of another term in office.

It is well recognised that all of the mainstream media in Singapore answers to the government; although in reality it is important to note that this means the PAP as opposed to any independent oversight body. The effect of this undermines both the crucial aspects of democracy mentioned above, because the PAP does not approve of their political opponents having anything more than minor or negative coverage in the mainstream media. The result therefore is that many Singaporeans are unaware of any credible opposition even existing, such that voting for the opposition is akin to voting for an unknown party with unknown policies. The second crucial problem is about having an informed electorate who know the truth about the actions and policies of the ruling party, such that their performance can be objectively assessed in time for the next election. However, Singaporean journalists, as well as foreign journalists if their publication is to be sold in Singapore, are not at all free to objectively criticise the ruling PAP and any mistakes or misjudgements they may make, the result being that the electorate is not fully informed of what has happened in the preceding years when they go to the ballot box, and they are less likely to vote out the ruling party when they've not had a chance to be told the whole truth about their actions in power.

To truly understand the power of a free press you only need to see those modern first world countries where brave reporters have made public information that their governments would have preferred to keep private, such that it improved the lives of ordinary citizens. A recent example would be in the UK, where a continuous stream of leaked reports regarding Members of Parliament overcharging and abusing their expenses was reported by the press and resulted in many rule changes, money being paid back and some MPs losing their jobs.

Far be it from me to suppose that Singaporean MPs are as corrupt as those in the UK, the point here is that in Singapore, the press would never report such negative stories about the ruling party for fear of losing their jobs or being sued for defamation, and as such, any hypothetical misconduct or failures would go unreported and unpunished.

A Question for the PM

With the general election bound to be announced any time soon, now is a good time for all of Singapore to reflect on the achievements of the PAP over the last 4+ years. If I were lucky enough to meet the PM or his father Minister Mentor Lee the question I would ask is "What achievements can you point to over the last parliament that you are most proud of? What have you done to deserve to be re-elected by the Singaporean people?"

I'm afraid I'm hard pressed to imagine a good answer to that. We've seen the financial crisis hammer Singapore; a better late than never bounce back, the magnitude of which was only impressive in so far as it was a recovery from a huge drop in GDP; the three times over-budget YOG, to which most Singaporeans were either apathetic to or outright annoyed about; the huge security lapse in letting Singapore's most wanted criminal escape to Malaysia ... the list of failings goes on and on, while the achievements are hard to think of.

But unfortunately, with the Singapore press being wholly controlled by the PAP, it's pretty much impossible to imagine that we'll ever get a straight answer to this question, because all journalists know that asking difficult questions is a bad career move, and writing a negative article is pretty much asking to be sacked, or worse, sued for defamation and financially ruined.

How the world sees Singaopre

How does the world see Singapore? Is it important? Not everyone may be interested to know what the rest of the world thinks of them, but in a country such as Singapore where freedom of expression is not a universally respected right, it is hard for people inside to give an objective view of the state of the nation. It is because many people in the rest of the world have the freedom to speak as they like, rather than to limit their words to whatever is politically acceptable, that we can look to them to give an honest and objective opinion on the reality of the social and political situation in Singapore.

The first thing to understand about how the world sees Singapore, is to recognise that Singapore is a small country, a little red dot if you will, and that many people in the world are barely aware of it's existence. Ask an average Englishman in London or American in New York about Singapore, and chances are all they can tell you is that it is very clean, that it is a refuelling stop on the way to Australia, and that chewing gum is banned. Given that chewing gum has not actually been banned in Singapore for a good few years now, you can see that most people have very little knowledge of what Singapore is really like.

The other interesting point to mention is that Singaporeans, or more accurately just the ruling PAP, have ideas about how they would like to be seen, and that is that they would like to be seen as a modern first world nation. The PAP take it as one of their crowning achievements that they have turned Singapore into a modern first world country, and the concept of "Swiss standards of living" is something that politicians have long offered as being the fruits of their hard work and high salaries.

So, although many people know very little about Singapore, is it still possible to get some insight into whether Singapore is really seen as a first world nation, is it seen as a country that respects the freedoms that first world countries hold dear, are Singaporean politicians respected or otherwise in the world at large? Fortunately, there are a good few organisations which make it their business to assess the political, social & cultural environment in most countries around the world. Since these organisations take the time to measure key performance indicators for almost every country in the world, it is fair to say they are not likely to be biased against the little red dot, and similarly, since these organisations have seen so much of the world, their view of us can tell us a lot about how Singapore fits in and stands up in the world.

First of all, lets consider the press. It is widely accepted that a free press and free speech are fundamental rights considered essential in first world countries. Luckily, a respected French organisation "Reporters Without Borders" goes to the trouble to assess this on a global basis every year. In the most recent survey Singapore ranked a lowly 136 out of 178 countries. Below is a selection of Asian and "First World" countries for comparison.

=1. Switzerland
11. Japan
19. UK
34. Hong Kong
42. S. Korea
117. Indonesia
128. Cambodia
136. Singapore
141. Malaysia
153. Thailand

It's fair to say that the world sees Singapore in a pretty bad light on this KPI. Sandwiched among our SE Asian neighbours Singapore is hardly a place for the rest of the world to look up to. The Swiss standard of living is a distant dream, since they are up in first spot, and those modern Asian powerhouses, HK, S Korea and Japan are far ahead of Singapore, which can only really claim to be a second rate Asian nation by this metric.

Secondly, lets look at democratic freedoms. Singapore from time to time proclaims itself as a "Westminster Democracy", and most of those first world nations it aspires to be amongst are themselves democracies; in fact Switzerland has one of the longest histories of democratic freedom in the world. Again, we are thankful to the Economist Intelligence Unit, based in another first world country, the UK, for going to the trouble of rating 167 countries on their democratic freedom. Again, Singapore ranks a lowly 82, barely outdoing HK which is an administrative region of China.

1. Sweden
8. Switzerland.
17. Japan
28. Korea
54. Thailand
68. Malaysia
69. Indonesia
82. Singapore
84. Hong Kong

Again, Singapore is a long way from first world status, outdone by almost all of it's Asian neighbours, the modern Asian leaders of Japan and S Korea are far ahead of the little red dot, which trails even Malaysia and Indonesia. Again, true first world status is achieved by Switzerland and other European countries, but Singapore is a second rate player in Asia, let alone the world as a whole.

The third metric of interest is civil liberties, again this is something which first world nations aspire to uphold and we are grateful to an American organisation called "Freedom House" for compiling data on a similar number of countries as presented above. Unfortunately the data is presented alphabetically rather than sorted from "most free" to "least free" but we can still compare the score in Singapore with that of it's neighbours.

1.0 Switzerland
1.5 Japan
1.5 S Korea
2.5 Indonesia
3.5 Philippines
3.5 Hong Kong
4.0 Malaysia
4.5 Singapore
4.5 Thailand

Again, the same trend is emerging, Singapore is stuck amongst or often below most of it's immediate neighbours, lags behind those countries seen as modern Asian leaders, such as Japan, S Korea & HK, and is far away from first world status or enjoying a "Swiss standard of living". In this index Switzerland has the best score possible and Japan and S Korea are one rung below on the ladder. Singapore is down in the basement with Thailand, being looked down on by Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia.

The conclusion to draw from all this is that whilst most people don't pay much attention to Singapore, the reality is that in comparison to first world nations, on the metrics that first world nations care about, Singapore is a long way behind the world leaders. It's not a coincidence that all three of these surveys are carried out by organisations in first world nations (France, UK & US) because one of the things that makes first world nations such, is that they care about certain ideals and concepts enough to aspire to be seen as leaders in those fields. As long as Singapore has leaders who ignore such goals and ideals, Singapore will never be seen as a first world nation, and is very unlikely to move up in the rankings towards the Swiss style leadership positions that the rest of the world looks up to. In fact, as long as the current situation remains, it is highly likely that Singapore will remain as a second rate Asian nation for the foreseeable future.