Correcting Minister Shanmugam’s misperception that Singapore is a “stable democracy”
October 28th, 2009 | 
Author: OPINION
At the Opening of the seasonal meeting of the New York state bar association International Section, Singapore’s Law Minister Mr Shanmugam told the delegates that Singapore’s (political) stability can be seen by the billions of dollars invested in Singapore annually by international organizations.
“Our main selling point is that there will be good value added when they invest here, their investments will be protected, and that we are a stable democracy,” he added.
Mr Shanmugam cannot be more wrong. For those who are aware of Singapore’s political system, it is neither stable nor is it a democracy.
A diplomatic term to use will be a “sham democracy”. To put it bluntly – Singapore is a one-party state, a dictatorship or more realistically a “feudal dynasty”.
Mr Shanmugam may be able to pull a wool easily over the eyes of politically naive Singaporeans back home, but surely he has to work harder to convince the astute Americans that Singapore is anything remotely linked to a democracy.
According to former Thai Minister Anand Panyarachun, there are seven main pillars for the artchitecture of democracy: elections, political tolerance, rule of law, freedom of expression, accountability and transparency, decentralization and civil society.
Robert Alan Dahl, the Sterling Professor of Political Science from Yale University defines democracy as according to the following five criteria:
- Effective Participation – Citizens must have adequate and equal opportunities to form their preference and place questions on the public agenda and express reasons for one outcome over the other.
- Voting Equality at the Decisive Stage – Each citizen must be assured his or her judgements will be counted as equal in weights to the judgements of others.
- Enlightened Understanding – Citizens must enjoy ample and equal opportunities for discovering and affirming what choice would best serve their interests.
- Control of the Agenda – Demos or people must have the opportunity to decide what political matters actually are and what should be brought up for deliberation.
- Inclusiveness – Equality must extend to all citizens within the state. Everyone has legitimate stake within the political process.
It is obvious that save for periodic elections which are neither free or fair, Singapore does not satisfy both sets of criteria for democracy to exist and flourish.
Singapore only appears to be politically on the surface so long as the strongman is still around to hold the fort. Unlike established democracies with an institutionalized system of power transfer which allows for different political parties to assume power peacefully, Singapore has been ruled by a single party since independence.
In an ideal democracy, there will be competing centers of power who are able to replace the incumbent should it fall from power (and grace).
In Singapore, the entire political milieu is dominated by one single party which is in control of all critical state institutions such as the police, media and grassroots organizations.
There is no division of power between the executive and the legislative. Neither is there a credible and strong opposition to check on the ruling party in a system which lacks accountability and transparency. The people are politically weak, ignorant and apathetic. All these structural flaws are recipes for a disaster waiting to happen.
As former Thai Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun said during the Third Amartya Sen Lecture Series last year:
“An apathetic electorate is easy prey for any organized group to seize power by force or fraud, giving rise to totalitarianism.”
Singapore is able to exist as a near totalitarian state so far because its citizenry is largely ignorant of its implications. In a way, it is lucky that the present batch of leaders are relatively capable and decent, but what if a rogue leader will to assume power one day – he/she will have unlimited power and nobody can remove him/her from office.
The opposition is too weak to field enough credible candidates to challenge the ruling party partly because Singaporeans are either too afraid or disinterested to participate in politics.
The GRC system greatly enhances the chances of the ruling party as they are able to change the electoral boundaries as and when is needed to suit their own partisan interests. Heavy-weight ministers are put in each GRCs to “protect” the weak candidates who may otherwise lose in a straight one to one contest in a single ward.
The election campaigning is only 9 days long which gives little time for the opposition to highlight the important issues to the people. The mainstream media is entirely controlled by the ruling party and is blatantly biased towards it. Ruling party candidates are always portrayed in a positive light while opposition ones are smeared, demonized or in the words of Prime Minister Lee, “FIXED”.
Then, there is the use of the infamous defamatory lawsuits to cripple the opposition. Many credible candidates in the past such as J.B. Jeyaretnam, Tang Liang Hong and Dr Chee Soon Juan are kept out of parliament or barred from elections as a result of being made a bankrupt.
The greatest potential danger to Singapore’s future lies in the complete absence of a civil society to check and rein in on the excesses of the executive. Brainwashed by years of state propaganda, Singaporeans continue to retain a blind faith in the ruling elite. A rogue leader will have no problems controlling the populace because they are politically naive to begin with.
As we can see from above, Singapore’s political stability is only a mirage which can vanish anytime without its people realizing why for most are still blissfully unaware of the inherent structural weaknesses in its obsolete and archaic political system.
The Freedom House rankings for 2009 placed Singapore together with Iraq at 151 out of 195, below Haiti, Colombia, Kenya, Moldova, Guinea, Pakistan and others, he added.
Mr Shanmugam said the government approach to such rankings was “to ignore the criticisms which made no sense, and it continued to do what was better for the city-state, and Singaporeans also knew better.”
If the criticisms make no sense, then why is Mr Shanmugam speaking at the opening address of the New York Bar Association to defend his regime’s dismal record in human rights and political freedoms?
Only he knows if his party is doing what was better for Singapore or for its own political survival and hegemony.
Lastly, Mr Shanmugam cannot claim to speak for all Singaporeans. Though the majority of Singaporeans remain deluded, there are some who knew better what kind of government Singapore has – far from being a “stable democracy”, it is a perfect totalitarian state which would have made Stalin or Mao proud.
Related articles:
>> Shanmugan peeved at Singapore media’s world press freedom index
>> Chief Justice on independence of Singapore judiciary
>> Temasek Review writes to Reporters without Borders
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Posted in Opinion
Mr Shanmugam,
You can fool all the people some of the time, you can fool some people all the time but you cannot fool all the people, all the time.
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after LKY dies, it will be chaos everywhere in singapore … this place is no “stable democracy” but the rule of a certain personality
leave while you still can … most importantly, make sure you take all your money out of the country first
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It is a fine line between a “stable democracy” and authoritian rule. North Korea and China can also be considered a stable regimen.
If Shanmugam is convinced that S’poreans generally “support” PAP, why no abolish the concept of GRC at the next general election??? Is Shanmugam willing to stake his political career where his mouth is???
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No tian.
After LKY dies, everybody will bottle up with “Tiger Beer”.to cheer! Singapore will become more prosperous. A more democratic world emerge. Innovative & Creativity will advance, U can see South Korea. After the Pak regime, Korea is what is know today.
Singapore is born is such a Cross-Road location in this Globe.
The LKY regime is just a copycat of material development. other than moral value is critically fail. So don’t get Panic.
PAP now stand for “Panic And Perish”
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the day it arrives, the election dept must independently function out of the PM office.
the judiciary and the law society must be reinstated and held honourably by men and woman to remove all unjust laws to return its democratic rights for its citizens…
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Oh look, North Korea’s a ’stable democracy’ too! They even have elections! And they even have the right to vote! Shanmugam must be so proud of himself that he’s been able to tell a blatant xxx and not only get away with it, but to be PRAISED as well.
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Indeed Singapore is a stable democracy. However the method being used to make it a stable democracy is repression. The issue is we don’t like to be call a repressive state.
Analogy – A teacher proudly boasted to her colleagues that the class she is teaching is very quiet and stable not like others with children running all over the place making so much noise. It is true if you walk past the class along the corridor it is peaceful and quiet.
What people didn’t know is that to achieve the peace and stability of her class, the children are gagged and tied to their seat during lessons.
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Even the most apathetic Singaporean will not forgive the PAP once the truth about the full extent of the mismanagement and losses at Temasek and the GIC are revealed and the subsequent national rage may demonstrate that Singapore is not so stable after all.
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Shame on the New York State Bar Association for lending a forum to allow such misinformation and denial of oppression.
The New York State Bar Association is supposed to be a prestigious organisation of the top bar in the U.S., one which should serve to further the democratic institutions, rather than undermine them.
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@Neil Bishop – you got inside story, come election day you can release it through the opposition. Give them booze but not tiger. Enjoy.
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““Our main selling point is that there will be good value added when they invest here, their investments will be protected, and that we are a stable democracy,” he added.”
I think he was referring to Ho Ching’s promises of ‘NEGATIVE VALUE ADDED’?
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“““Our main selling point is that there will be good value added when they invest here, their investments will be protected, and that we are a stable democracy,””
Wow, so true !!! Just like scam of minibombs ! Not only protecting local GLC interest but also foreigner’s interest. Singaporeans can go eat shit now since that they are secondary to money-making business.
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PAP is still confused that many people coming here to do business means it is a democratic country.
Hello? Saudi Arabia and Brunei have many people flocking there to do business and are relatively prosperous but does not hide the fact that they are countries with a monarchy.
Similar, Singapore may be prosperous (for now), does not hide the fact that we are a dictatorship with elections that are heavily skewed to allow the incumbents to win majority seats all the time.
All these prosperity will evaporate like snow in a hot summer day if we do not have a proper democracy like a two or multi system of government once we have a crook as a dictator.
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