We Don't Have to Live This Way

 Weekly column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here.

The report of Human Rights Watch on Singapore 2020 makes for dismal reading, because the litany of violations of human rights has not changed very much from previous years. In fact, as in the United States, the pandemic has exposed and deepened structural injustices against the poor in Singapore. As the report observes, "While Singapore had initial success in controlling Covid-19 infections in the country, a surge of cases among migrant workers in early April led the government to put all dormitories on lockdown, restricting the movements of almost 300,000 foreign workers. While some “essential” workers were moved, the bulk of the migrants were confined to hot, overcrowded rooms with little ventilation, leaving them at risk of infection. As of August 13, 52,516 dormitory residents had tested positive for the coronavirus, making up more than 90 percent of all reported cases in Singapore."

One bright spot in the report is the increase in Opposition representation in Parliament, from 6 seats to a record 10. Now, more than ever, Singapore needs diverse, courageous voices willing to scrutinize the system and propose changes to the way ahead. The Workers' Party, which achieved these recent electoral gains, has been vocal in Parliament about both the strengths and the problems in the status quo. In a debate on Singapore's justice system, Party Chairman and Member of Parliament Sylvia Lim called not only for executive improvements to the justice system, but also for a Constitutional Commission led by a Supreme Court judge to review the more complex issues around the justice system in Singapore.

Whereas the Law Minister, who is also the Minister for Home Affairs, underscored Singapore's high ranking in the 2020 Rule of Law Index compiled by the World Justice Project, Ms. Lim drew attention to Singapore's low scores in several factors in the same index. On the important factor of Constraints on Government Powers, Singapore’s scores have fallen every year from 2015 to 2020. Ms. Lim told Parliament, "Singapore was found below average in having effective checks by non-government entities such as the media and civil society and below average in having effective checks on government by Parliament."

She further pointed out that "Under the factor of Open Government, the Rule of Law Index ranks Singapore 28thout of 37 High Income countries on the question of whether there are effective Complaint Mechanisms for citizens. Singapore is also below the global average on Civic Participation, which includes the protection of the freedoms of opinion and expression, assembly and association."

Checks and balance, press freedom, free speech, complaint mechanisms, civic participation—these are the hallmarks of a fully functioning democracy. These are issues not just about the justice system but about the kind of government that we wish to elect and live under. Elections are an essential mechanism of democracy, but what goes on between elections forms, or deforms, democratic culture. Opposition voices in and outside of parliament are to be cherished and strengthened if democracy is to bear its sweetest fruits.

Jee Leong Koh
January 21, 2020

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reading Thumboo's "Ulysses by the Merlion"

I've just revised a poem written years ago, a poem that delineates the different responses of four readers, of different generations, to the seminal nationalistic poem by Edwin Thumboo . Thumboo is reckoned to be the first major Singaporean poet writing in English. First, Thumboo's poem, then followed by mine. ULYSSES BY THE MERLION (for Maurice Baker) I have sailed many waters, Skirted islands of fire, Contended with Circe Who loved the squeal of pigs; Passed Scylla and Charybdis To seven years with Calypso, Heaved in battle against the gods. Beneath it all I kept faith with Ithaca, travelled, Travelled and travelled, Suffering much, enjoying a little; Met strange people singing New myths; made myths myself. But this lion of the sea Salt-maned, scaly, wondrous of tail, Touched with power, insistent On this brief promontory... Puzzles. Nothing, nothing in my days Foreshadowed this Half-beast, half-fish, This powerful creature of land and sea. Peoples settled here, Brought to th
Read more

Steven Cantor's "What Remains: the Life and Work of Sally Mann"

Image
Sally Mann, The Perfect Tomato , 199 0 Since it is moving pictures, a film necessarily captures--produces--a process. It turns photographs into the making of photographs. It joins moments ("spots of time") into a Life. This I expected watching Cantor's documentary on Sally Mann's creation of the exhibit "What Remains." So photographs of a long-dead beloved greyhound "lead" to photographs of the Civil War battlefield of Antietam, to photographs of Mann's Virginian farm bloodied by the police killing of a runaway convict, to photographs of decomposing bodies in a forensic study site, as if each group of pictures forms an independent yet preparatory stage in the creative process. What I did not expect to see is the influence of the film-making on the photography itself. Mann begins to think of her exhibit as a "narrative," and wants the narrative of death to end on a more uplifting note. With such an idea in mind, she takes close-up pic
Read more

Goh Chok Tong's Visit to FCBC

Image
I am surprised by how much this incident is affecting me. I thought I have moved past my former religious life, left it behind in Singapore, but like tin cans tied to a dog it has followed me and is rattling me. I am posting the incident, and my response to it, here on this blog, because I want to remember that the past is not yet past. When Emeritus Senior Minister of Singapore Goh Chok Tong visited Faith Community Baptist Church on 13 January during a Sunday service, Senior Pastor Lawrence Khong took the opportunity to deliver a hateful anti-gay message . Among other things, he said: We affirm that the family unit comprises a man as Father, a woman as Mother, and Children. This is the basic building block of society, a value foundational for a secure future, a premise fundamental to nation-building. and warned ominously that We see a looming threat to this basic building block by homosexual activists seeking to repeal Section 377A of the Penal Code.   Examples from ar
Read more