

Freedom in the World 2011 - Singapore

Publisher Freedom House
Publication Date 12 August 2011
Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2011 - Singapore, 12 August 2011, available at: [accessed 2 March 2015]

Capital: Singapore
Population: 5,100,000

Political Rights Score: 5 *
Civil Liberties Score: 4 *
Status: Partly Free


The authorities continued to restrict freedom of speech in 2010. Among other prominent cases during the year, officials ordered the removal of a politically sensitive film from the internet, convicted a British author of defamation for his criticism of Singapore's justice system, and drove the International Herald Tribune to apologize and pay fines for an article associating the prime minister with a broader phenomenon of dynastic politics in Asia.

The British colony of Singapore obtained home rule in 1959, entered the Malaysian Federation in 1963, and gained full independence in 1965. During his three decades as prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew and his People's Action Party (PAP) transformed the port city into a regional financial center and exporter of high-technology goods but restricted individual freedoms and stunted political development.

Lee transferred the premiership to Goh Chok Tong in 1990 but stayed on as "senior minister," and the PAP retained its dominance. Lee's son, Lee Hsien Loong, became prime minister in 2004, and the elder Lee assumed the title of "minister mentor." In 2005, President Sellapan Ramanathan, also known as S. R. Nathan, began a second term as the largely ceremonial head of state.

Despite his expressed desire for a "more open society," Lee Hsien Loong did little to change the authoritarian political climate. He called elections in May 2006, a year early, to secure a mandate for his economic reform agenda. The polls resembled past elections in serving more as a referendum on the prime minister's popularity than as an actual contest for power. The PAP retained 82 of the 84 elected seats, although the opposition offered candidates for a greater number of seats and secured a larger percentage of the vote than in previous years. The opposition Workers' Party and Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA) each won a single seat despite receiving 16.3 percent and 13 percent of the vote, respectively.


Political Rights and Civil Liberties



Singapore has traditionally been lauded for its relative lack of corruption, and was ranked 3 out of 178 countries surveyed in Transparency International's 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index. However, since 2007, questions have arisen over the management of state funds and the revolving door between politics and state entities, particularly the state's investment agencies.

Singapore's media remain tightly constrained. All domestic newspapers, radio stations, and television channels are owned by companies linked to the government. Although editorials and news coverage generally support state policies, newspapers occasionally publish critical pieces. Self-censorship is common among journalists. The Sedition Act, in effect since the colonial period, outlaws seditious speech, the distribution of seditious materials, and acts with "seditious tendency." Popular videos, music, and books that reference sex, violence, or drugs are also subject to censorship.

Several high-profile cases in 2010 illustrated the reach of Singapore's defamation and censorship laws, and the government's broader efforts to restrict speech. Vincent Cheng, a social worker and Catholic activist who was arrested in 1987 for Marxist activity, was invited to participate in a history conference held at the National Library in June, but the state-affiliated National Library Board intervened, insisting that he be removed from the speakers list. In July, Martyn See's short film Ex-Political Prisoner Speaks Out in Singapore was banned by the Media Development Authority (MDA) for being "against public interest." The film, in which leftist dissident Lim Hock Siew discusses his arrest and 18-year detention under the Internal Security Act (ISA), was widely circulated online after See complied with the MDA's order to remove copies within his control from the internet. In November, British author Alan Shadrake was convicted of defamation for his book Once a Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice in the Dock, which questions the judicial system's impartiality in meting out capital punishment. The book, while not banned outright, is unavailable in Singapore's libraries or major bookstores, but is widely available online. Shadrake was sentenced to six weeks in prison, fined approximately US$16,000, and held accountable for the opposing council's fees of more than US$38,000. His appeal was pending at year's end.

Foreign broadcasters and periodicals can be restricted for engaging in domestic politics, and all foreign publications must appoint legal representatives and provide significant financial deposits. The leadership's practice of using defamation suits and license revocations to silence critical media is often applied to foreign-owned outlets.

The internet is widely accessible, but the authorities monitor online material and block some content through directives to licensed service providers. Recent cases have signaled the government's concern about the internet's potential as a forum for political dissent and other controversial speech. In 2010, pastor Rony Tan of the Lighthouse Evangelical Church made insulting statements against Buddhists and Taoists, and his remarks circulated on the web through the video-sharing site YouTube and other outlets. The Internal Security Department, citing a need to maintain racial and religious harmony, forced Tan to retract his statements and issue a public apology. Political activists are hopeful that youths' increased use of Facebook and Twitter, among other social-networking websites, will spark interest in social activism and opposition parties, such as the SDP and the Workers' Party.




Unions are granted fairly broad rights under the Trade Unions Act, though restrictions include a ban on government employees joining unions. A 2004 amendment to the law prohibits union members from voting on collective agreements negotiated by union representatives and employers. Strikes are legal for all except utility workers, but they must be approved by a majority of a union's members as opposed to the internationally accepted standard of at least 50 percent of the members who vote. In practice, many restrictions are not applied. All but five of the country's 64 unions are affiliated with the National Trade Union Congress, which is openly allied with the PAP. Singapore's 180,000 domestic workers are excluded from the Employment Act and regularly exploited. A 2006 standard contract for migrant domestic workers addresses food deprivation and entitles replaced workers to seek other employment in Singapore, but it fails to provide other basic protections, such as rest days.





Women enjoy the same legal rights as men on most issues, and many are well-educated professionals. Few women hold top positions in government and the private sector. Of the current Parliament's 84 elected seats, 17 are held by women, all of whom belong to the PAP. Lim Hwee Hua became the first woman to serve as a full cabinet minister in April 2010. Despite the presence of an open gay community, Parliament voted in 2007 to maintain provisions of the penal code that make acts of "gross indecency" between men punishable by up to two years in prison.



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