Repression curbs Singapore's potential

Taken from mailing list, Singapore Review

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Repression curbs Singapore's potential
Arthur Waldron. The Providence Journal. Providence, R.I.: Mar 26,
2006. pg. C.06

PHILADELPHIA - THE GOVERNMENT of Singapore, it appears, is intent on
burning the bridges that should lead to their country's future. What
other conclusion can one draw from the trial of Dr. Chee Soon Juan, a
leader of the island's determined but absolutely peaceful and law-
abiding democratic movement?

Singapore is one of my favorite countries, and as an American, I do
not take sides about its internal affairs. But I did happen to hear
Dr. Chee speak last year, at a democracy conference in Taiwan, and to
meet him. The talent scout in me was deeply impressed.

Hearing him, I could not help thinking that this man would be the
first prime minister of a politically mature Singapore to be chosen
in a fully democratic election.

Dr. Chee speaks brilliantly, with great clarity and simplicity, and
formidable intellectual and moral power. He is certainly up to the
high standard set by the great founding fathers of today's Singapore,
including David Marshall and Lee Kwan-yew, whom ordinary people
packed the parliamentary galleries to hear, back when debate was more
common in that country.

No doubt exists in my mind that in an open televised discussion Dr.
Chee would verbally dice and mince any member of the current
Singapore government. They were once razor sharp and quick on their
feet, but decades of power and privilege have dulled them.

Now Dr. Chee is caught in the coils of the sadly familiar Singaporean
political repression by means of the courts. Found guilty of various
technical violations and saddled with fines he cannot pay, he is now
bankrupt -- and thus, conveniently, ineligible to run for office.
This time he may be imprisoned.

But at age 42, he can afford some time. Dr. Chee is as fully prepared
for imprisonment as was Jawaharlal Nehru in British India 70 years
ago. He will make good use of the time.

At some point he will be released and, sooner or later, Singapore
will begin to change. Ideas will be needed about how to make those
changes.

A generation ago, the People's Action Party led change and dealt with
setbacks brilliantly, making a territory that had seemed doomed --
poor, ethnically divided, without employment, and viewed with
hostility by its neighbors -- into one of the most prosperous and
well-administered of countries.

Sadly, that momentum now seems to have been lost. The man who did so
much to rescue the territory and transform it, Lee Kwan-yew, is now
in his 80s, but still dominating the island's politics and showing no
sign of genuine retirement. Once a powerful advocate of democracy, he
has more recently tended to take the side of authoritarian rule.

Thirty years ago, Lee looked set for real greatness. And he could
have achieved it if he had used his time in the power he had earned
to create an institutional system for Singapore that would survive
him. This he never did. Today his vision for the future seems to be
limited to turning over politics to his son and management of the
island's vast government assets to his daughter-in-law.

The task of creating a Singapore run by laws and institutions, rather
than by a family and its associates, Mr. Lee has bequeathed to his
successors.

That is why Dr. Chee is so important. Lee Kwan-yew's generation is
exhausted; having realized one vision, it is not capable of producing
another.

Dr. Chee's trial testifies to this. If those leaders still had the
vigor and intellect of their early years, they would be debating Dr.
Chee in public or parliament -- trading argument for argument
fearlessly in front of their fellow citizens, confident that their
ideas would prevail. Instead, these once formidable parliamentarians
are seeking to disqualify and silence Dr. Chee without ever facing
what he has to say.

This will not work. Singapore has transformed itself economically,
socially and intellectually since the days when the People's Action
Party pulled it back from the brink of the abyss of wretched poverty
and ethnic conflict. The challenge now is almost the opposite: to
create political institutions and politics appropriate to one of the
wealthiest, best-educated and most sophisticated populations in the
world.

Doing this will mean involving the population directly in ruling
itself, far more than is the case today. The state media monopolies
will have to be dismantled, the gerrymandered electoral system
rectified, political speech encouraged, and parliamentary debate
revived from its decades-long slumber.

The People's Action Party of Mr. Lee may surprise us all by rising to
these challenges, as it did to face comparably complex difficulties
early in its career. But even should it do so, one doubts that a
future of unbroken domination by that party would be either feasible
or good for Singapore.

Changes have to be made, and will be. The only question is when and
by whom? Debating with Dr. Chee Soon Juan, instead of dragging him
through the courts, would be a good, not to mention a wise, initial
change.

Arthur Waldron is the Lauder Professor of International Relations at
the University of Pennsylvania and a regular visitor to Singapore.