Bloggere i Singapore - politik på kanten (Danish)

I believe a few of our contributors were approached to take part. As I currently have no access to a sound card, I cannot listen to the Danish programme so hopefully someone will come up with a transcript soon.

Published Sunday, June 04, 2006 by Singapore Election

03. juni 2006 kl. 20:55 på P1

This one is for our Danish Speakers. Features Dr. Randy Kluver and do check out his blog.

[Listen] 1 hour 27 minutes(in Danish)

Singapore er et af Asiens rigeste lande, og er, i hvert fald på papiret, et demokrati. For selvom der er frie valg, så har den siddende regering indført en så skrap medielovgivning, at det faktisk umuligt for kritikere og oppositionspolitkere at kommer til orde. Hvilket selvfølgelig også er meningen, og det er da også en af de væsenligste grunde til, at regeringen vandt det netop overstået valg stort, med ikke mindre end 82 ud 84 pladser i parlamentet.

Men for første gang debatterede almindelig mennesker faktisk valgkampen, for selvom regeringen havde forbudt politiske pod- og videocast, så glemte den at forbyde politiske blogs. Og det har ændret Singaporianernes indstilling til deres politikere.

In English:
"Singapore is one of the richest countries in Asia, and at least on paper, a democracy. Even though there are free elections, the government applies so strict media laws that it is actually impossible for critics and opposition politicians to voice their opinions, which of course is the idea, and that is obviously also one of the most important reasons that the government won the recent elections with a huge margin; no less than 82 out of 84 seats in parliament.

But for the first time ordinary people actually debated during the election campaign because even though the government had made political pod- and videocast illegal, they forgot making political blogs illegal. And that has changed the attitude towards the politicians."

Singapore