Uniqueness of perfection that sits to our north

Michael Backman

July 17, 2008

The International Bar Association has found that, when it comes to criticism, Singapore is in no need.

A REPORT released last week, Prosperity versus Individual Rights? Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law in Singapore, published by the International Bar Association, provides a fair and balanced account of how Singapore’s Government really operates.

It lists 18 recommendations for Singapore to strengthen its rule of law and to better promote a civil society. They are all reasonable, as is the analysis on which they are based.

But of course the Singapore Government doesn’t think so. Even though the IBA provided the Singapore Government with a draft of the report, allowed it to comment and then inserted the Government’s views in the final report, the Government still managed to diss the report by the end of last week, just as it disses everything remotely critical. Singapore’s Government is unique among governments around the world: it doesn’t need advice.

The report chronicles how human rights are constrained by the Singapore Government and how freedom of speech is in the hands of the police.

It lists the media restrictions that ensure the media does not monitor the Government but is more its mouthpiece.

It describes the restrictions on the right to assemble. One bizarre practice highlighted is the constitutional requirement for members of parliament to resign if expelled from their elective party, thereby ensuring that elected members do only what their party rather than their constituents or even their conscience tells them. Another aspect mentioned is the cowing of the Singapore Law Society so that even this channel for independent comment on laws and proposed laws has been neutered. Many questions about the independence of the judiciary are raised too.

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