In other words, in Singapore, human rights are whatever the PAP say they are.
.
Human Rights, Singaporean Style
by Garry Rodan
Posted December 4, 2009
While there has been a lull in the debate over "Asian values" since the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, the concept never disappeared. The development of a regional human-rights commission constitutes a fresh battleground where competing views are playing out. As in the past, the main interlocutors on the side of cultural relativism are Singaporean leaders and officials, but this time, opposing voices within Southeast Asia have grown louder and more self-confident. ... [Full text of this interesting article at the soon to be defunct FEER]
A nice blast at Singapore in what I presume is their final issue. The fact that the Wall Street Journal (a Murdoch company) group removed Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER) from publication in Singapore after being sued for an article in which the leader of the opposition Singapore Democratic Party was interviewed and called the government "corrupt" may be the reason for its demise. The main English reading public for FEER would be in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Singapore, so loss of perhaps 1/4 of their sales over the last 2 years or so may have topped it over the line for Rupert's bean counters.
The result of the FEER libel case was all publications in Singapore must put up a bond of $200,000 and must have an employee resident in Singapore - someone they can sue.
Murdoch effectively said "fuck that" to LKY's cronys and pulled FEER out of Singapore.
~~~~~~~~~~
"Freedom" of speech -- if you register.
E@L
Posts
5 comments:
Sounds like such a reasonable old "chap", doesn't he?
What is really sad is the Singaporeans accept it. Keep em happy and distracted-and they can surrender there rights one at a time. George W. Bush loved these guys.
What a great concept, just register and perhaps be nice, send through a copy of your speech as well to save them the trouble of replaying the recording of your performance.
Everywhere should have a speakers/demonstrators (unofficial title of course) corner. A big step forward in the freedom of speech, can Beijing get one as well now?
Singapore seems to be following the middle way. Somewhere between Mao and Murdoch.
Post a Comment