by Dr Chee Soon Juan
I am not surprised anymore when it comes to the People’s Action Party (PAP)’s actions against its critics. This is not to say, however, that its decisions are any less disturbing to me.
I am, of course, referring to the latest POFMA action again Mr Yeoh Lam Keong and The Online Citizen for their comments regarding HDB and our reserves.
Without getting into the nitty-gritty about the argument, the fact that POFMA was deployed against an observation about the government’s handling of our housing and reserves by a former government economist no less, is deeply, deeply troubling.
This incident is but the latest in a series of state sanctions against what should be legitimate – and even desirable – debate in a healthy and thriving democracy.
The Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) was similarly “POFMA-ed” for calling into question issues like the confused direction we are headed as far as our population size is concerned and the employment trend of our PMETs.
If a nation cannot have a robust discussion on such weighty issues without the government declaring that its views are the truth and all else are falsehoods – and then force its critics to declare the same – we are treading on dangerous ground.
Sure, we can challenge that decision in a court of law but our experience has shown that this process is onerous in terms of financial and human resources, resources that the government has plenty of.
But what is even more disturbing is that it is occurring at this stage of our country’s development. These actions are taken by a group of younger ministers who have come through a system where laws have been put in place to facilitate their rise and grip on power.
Introduce the GRC system, change the constitution to further restrict presidential contestation, involve legislation to restrict online debate.
These are just some of the instruments that these young ministers with limited experience in political contestation have at their disposal.
Instead of encouraging an informed and intelligent electorate to emerge, the group of ministers will dumb down the country and destroy our potential of succeeding in a changed world with all the problems that our society faces.
It is, of course, superfluous for me to point out that is does not portend well for you and me and the generations to come.
But as always, I say that we, the people, are helpless only if we believe we are. Stand up, my proud fellow Singaporeans, we have been on our knees for too long.
The above post was first published on Dr Chee Soon Juan’s Facebook page. Dr Chee is a Singapore politician and Secretary General of the Singapore Democratic Party. He also runs a restaurant chain, Orange & Teal in Singapore.