Singapore - offending the sensibilities of government

Again, sometimes Singapore goes too far and attracts global derision. Such was the case in 1994 when 18-year-old American Michael Peter Fay was sentenced to caning for theft and vandalism. While caning may be a routine punishment in Singapore, this was the first caning involving an American citizen. The number of strokes was reduced from six to four after US officials requested leniency.

More seriously, in 1991 a Filipino domestic worker named Delia Maga was found strangled to death in Singapore. A four-year-old in her care, Nicholas Huang, was discovered drowned. Police suspicion centred on a Filipina maid, Flor Contemplacion, and they interrogated her until she confessed to both murders.

She was sentenced to death by hanging, but just before her execution, two Filipino witnesses claimed that Huang's father had framed her. They said he killed Maga in a rage after finding his son to have accidentally drowned. The son was an epileptic and said to have an attack while in the bath. The Singaporean court considered and rejected the testimony. Contemplacion was hanged even though Philippines’ President Fidel Ramos made a personal plea for her life. Contemplacion became a rallying cry against the inhumane, abusive, and exploitive working conditions of many Filipino domestic workers and labourers abroad.

Events like these are used to justify the need for tight censorship in a Multi-racial/multi-religious society. It is said the unimpeded flow of ideas instead of leading to enlightenment can sometimes have negative effects.

This, of course, extends to the internet. Back in 1996, ASEAN member nations, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam agreed to collaborate on restrictions on internet communication.

Human rights, free expression and electronic privacy organisations protested to the ASEAN secretariat about the deal, organised by the Singapore Broadcasting Authority.

Content-based restrictions on online communication violate internationally guaranteed rights of free expression, said the free speech groups from Europe and North America.

A number of ASEAN delegates reportedly expressed support for Singapore's Internet Code of Practice. Human Rights Watch/Asia has written to the Singaporean government to oppose these regulations, which impose sweeping controls on content, including political discussion. The regulations have already resulted in arbitrary censorship of at least one newsgroup message.

So Singapore is a handy model for repressive regimes, such as in Vietnam.

As the protest note said, the most effective means of responding to offensive content is by disseminating more content. Censoring offensive material will not remove it from the internet; it will simply cause it to be reproduced on additional internet sites.

Removing journalists such as Bland simply means that they move elsewhere in Asia and still report, perhaps even more freely, on what the Lee family regime is up to. But certainly, the time is well overdue when Australia took more than a moneymaking interest in Singapore.