nick’s (n)-line life

Looks like a lot has been going on in Singapore this week:

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore’s government dissolved parliament on Thursday and called an election for May 6, a poll that will be the first real test of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s leadership. [ Via SingaBloodyPore ]

As a country approaches a general election one might expect an increase in political commentaries, right? Well, that’s not quite what’s happening in Singapore…

Image courtesy of the Economist.com (minor crop)

The current government, the People’s Action Party (PAP) has explicitly banned all websites, blogs, and podcasts from political discussion until the conclusion of the elections.

Asia Media [ via SingaBloodyPore ] - Common Questions:
Can individuals put up podcasts or videocasts of political rallies on their blog or website?
No

What about pictures of political rallies?
Not allowed either.

Can bloggers talk about political parties and their candidates?
Yes, but they must avoid consistently supporting or criticising political parties and their candidates. Dr Balaji said bloggers can give their own personal views about a candidate or political party. But if they use their blog to promote political ideals in a consistent fashion or show support for one political party, they are considered to be party political and must register.

Legally, Singaporean citizens breaching the ban face legal action. This is because Singapore operates a posotive list of permitted reporting activities during elections and the list has, conveniently, not been updated to allow for these “new technologies”, despite the Parliamentary Election Act being amended as recently as 2001 to allow advertising on the internet.

I really hadn’t realised until now that Singaporean Citizens wishing to discuss politics need to register their blogs with the government (although this still does not entitle them to comment during the election process). Apparently even at the best of times political blogging in Singapore can be .

Bloggers who disobey these rules will face prosecution under Singapore’s Election Advertising Regulations 2001. The Times Newspaper (UK) has described the Singaporean government’s xenophobic action as a result of a fear of the internet. Other commentators have gone further:

SingaBloodyPore - “Political parties and bloggers fear that government’s regulations against podcasting and blogs during elections will have a chilling effect on free speech” As far as I am concerned it had a chilling effect when it was first mentioned by now free speech in Singapore is frozen and rapidly approaching absolute zero.

Not content which these measures PAP earlier today (22nd April ‘06) has instigated legal proceedings against the opposition leaders! Other common-law systems prohibit defamation actions by government ministers exactly because of the stifling and intimidating effect on freedom of this press that this action has causes.

SingaBloodyPore has encouraged citizens to film government rallies and publish them on GoogleVideo and YouTube, although n-line thinks this is a fairly dangerous proposition while in Singapore. One video that probably meets the rules can be found here.

Fortunately, n-line doesn’t live in Singapore and thus is completely free to ignore these prohibitions. :) In fact, the announcement is an excellent motivation for finding out more about the current political situation in Singapore and publishing my 2 cents here, particularly as those in Singapore aren’t permitted to do so.

For my part I actually accept the concept of Asian Values which tie in nicely with my views on moral relativism, however these actions clearly breach these principles and the opposition party and their move for greater civil liberties has my complete support as do campaigners such as SingaporeRebel<. Prosecuting the opposition party during the election period is nothing short of taking the piss! As Ms Chee Siok Chin says “the citizens of Singapore have been rendered powerless”.