If I showed you a picture of this man [image of Nelson Mandela] you would instantly know who he is. But if I showed you a picture of this man, do you know who he is? I’m sure you’re having a hard time identifying him.
It is a pleasure to speak to you at this extraordinary Forum, even though I cannot be there in person. It’s less than a perfect way to introduce myself, but it will have to do for now.
You see, I was sued for defamation by two previous Prime Ministers, as well as a current one. The courts have ordered me to pay them a total of more than US $1 million in damages. Because I am unable to come up with the money, I was declared bankrupt in 2006. Because I’m bankrupt, I am barred from standing for elections, as well as traveling out of my country, Singapore. Hence, this video.
Not only have I been sued, I have also been arrested and imprisoned on numerous occasions for taking part in peaceful protests, speaking in public without a permit, distributing fliers critical of the government, for trying to attend conferences such as this, and for contempt of Singapore’s courts.
But don’t misunderstand. I’m not complaining. I didn’t do this to demonstrate how difficult this is. This isn’t about me.
It’s about justice and equality and human dignity. It’s about giving voice to the voiceless, and empowering my fellow citizens. It’s about freedom and democracy. When you speak truth to power, you must expect autocrats to do everything they can to silence you. And when they do, you must speak even louder.
Why then, in Singapore, the third richest country in the world, where everyone is happy, would we speak up? Per capita we have the greatest number of millionares. After all, Singapore’s authoritarian rulers have turned it into a gleaming financial metropolis.
But this is only the headlines. The paragraphs in the story tell a very different tale.
There is no minimum wage, and there are no independent trade unions. These people are left at the mercy of their employers. While those at the top continue to rake in the big bucks, lower income earners have seen their incomes shrink in the last decade. The number of homeless families continues to rise, and lines for free meals at temples and charities continue to grow longer.
All this, in a country where government ministers are paid the highest salarties in the world. Last year, the prime minister’s salary was six times that of US President Obama. Are you then surprised that among the rich economies of the world, Singapore has the worst income gap? The income gap as measured by the Gini coefficient, the measure of income inequality, is comparable to Ecuador, Nepal, and Rwanda.
Because of the socio-political situation, Singaporeans are emigrating in numbers that are alarming to the country’s rulers. Every month, about 1,000 people seek permanent residence elsewhere. That’s a huge number for a population of only 3 million.
37% of young Singaporeans say they feel no loyalty to this country. Life is so stressful and expensive that young couples are putting off marriage and children: with only 1.2 births per person, we have the lowest birthrate in the world. High immigration and low birthrate have caused our population to shrink to dangerously low levels.
So what does the government do?
It brings in 2 million foreigners, so that nearly 40% of residents on this tiny island are not Singaporeans. The systems are under so much strain that they break down on a regular basis.
But foreigners are also vulnerable when they come to Singapore, exploited for cheap labor. Foreigners, from Bangladesh, India, China, Burma and so on, come and find themseleves cheated and abused, in working conditions that are simply intolerable.
But despie all this, we’ve grown fabulously rich. Howe is this possible? We’ve turned ourselves into a tax haven, attracting funds from the rich from all over the world, much of it illicit, and laundered in Singapore.
Out of 73 countries surveyed in the Financial Secrecy Index, Singapore ranks the 6th most secret in the world. The danger in all this is that autocratic regimes like Russia, Burma and China are looking at us as a model.
I’ve often said that economics and politics cannot be seperaed. They are two sides of the same coin. When rulers monopolize political power, they get to decide who gets millions and who gets nothing.
Remember the picture of the gentleman I showed you in the beginning? His name is Chia Thye Poh. Like Nelson Mandela, he was jailed for decades.
There are differences, of course. Mandela was tried in court, however egregious the process was, and he was sentenced for 27 years. Chia Thye Poh was never accused of a crime, much less given a trial. He was simply detained for 32 years, longer than Mandela, because the former Prime Minister ordered it. Mandela belonged to the ANC, an illegal organization in South Africa at that time. Chia was an elected member of parliament. Mandela was eventually released, and went on to become president of his country. Chia lives in silence, forbidden from any form of political participation.
And how does Singapore get away with such outrageous abuses of the law? That’s the beauty of dictatorship in democratic clothing. Under the guise of capitalism, and by paying lipservice of the law, one can do almost anything to perpetuate one’s rule.
The world must not be deceived anymore.
More importantly, the Singaporean people are beginning to awaken and realize that the continuation of one party rule that we have had at this half century is going to be fatal to our country. They know that we need openness and accountability, we need democracy.
Democracy is not a Western concept. Or an Asian concept. It is a human concept. Oppression anywhere in the world is just that, oppression. But it cannot last. It is fighting something just as universal, but only much more powerful.
It is called the human spirit.
*Article first appeared on http://www.oslofreedomforum.com