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Taiwan's
infatuation with Singapore
Singapore
Democrats
25 Jan 08
Taiwan's top
political leaders are enamoured with Singapore. Or so it
seems.
Presidential and Vice presidential candidates Mr.
Ma Ying-jeou, Mr. Frank Hsieh and Mr. Vincent Siew visited the
tiny island last year apparently at the invitation of the
Singapore Government.
During his visit in June, Mr. Ma
had said, "(Singapore) is professional, corruption-free and
efficient, which is worth our learning". This and other
comments he had made lauding the system here prompted me to
write a letter to the KMT's presidential candidate.
In
August when Mr. Hsieh visited Singapore, he was reported to have
said that Taiwan should learn from Singapore's achievements in
expanding diplomatic relations with the Middle East and Arab
countries and in financial globalization.
In the recent
Legislative Yuan elections, KMT's vice presidential candidate
Mr. Vincent Siew attempted to allay fears of a one-party state
after his party won an overwhelming number of seats in
parliament. In a report by chinatimes.com on 15 Juanuary, Mr.
Siew said that Singapore is being ruled by one party but the
government is really doing a good job for the people, that it is
very progressive and that the tiny islands GDP is almost double
that of Taiwan's.
To be fair, Taiwan is not the only
country that thinks that Singapore's economic system is worthy
of emulation. Vietnam's Communist Party leader Mr. Nong Duc Manh
had said the same. Ousted prime minister Mr. Thaksin Shinawatra
tried to make model Thailand after Singapore Inc. Even Russia's
Mr. Putin is considering a role for himself, not unlike
Singapore's Minister Mentor, after his presidential term comes
to an end this spring.
The only reason why more and more
countries are looking towards Singapore as a role model is
because the government here has a very sophisticated and
efficient public relations machinery. That, coupled with the
fact that other state leaders choose not to look beyond the
superficial glitter and glitz constantly propagated by
Singapore's state-controlled media.
I have no doubt that
the leaders in Taiwan are aware that Singapore is not at all a
democracy. It is ruled by an oppressive government that has no
qualms in quashing civil and political liberties for the sake of
economic growth.
Mr. Siew points to Singapore to justify
the merits of a single party rule in a country. I would like to
take the liberty of pointing out how a one-party rule has been
detrimental to Singaporeans.
It is precisely because
Singapore has been ruled by one party that explains why the
government's draconian laws and its abuses of human rights
remain ineffectively challenged. It is because of a one-party
government here that democracy advocates and dissenting voices
are thrown in prison, have their livelihood taken away from them
or live in exile. It is because of the one-party rule that
Singaporeans are forced to work beyond retirement as we are not
allowed to draw on our saving when we retire. Here are other
equally damaging effects of a single party rule in
Singapore:
(1) Singapore has a savings scheme that
produces the highest savings rate in the world but its returns
are so poor that Singaporeans are left with little or nothing to
retire on.
(2) In the United Nations' 2006 report,
Singapore is ranked 105th in the world in terms of income
disparity. This means that the rich in Singapore are getting
richer and the poor, much poorer.
(3) The lowest 30
percent of households saw their incomes diminish whereas the
incomes of the top 10 percent of households increased by 14.8
percent.
(4) Morgan Stanley's former chief economist Andy
Xie revealed that Singapore's success came from being a
money-laundering centre for corrupt Indonesian officials and
businessmen. He added that to sustain its economy, Singapore is
building casinos to attract corrupt money from China.
One
can understand why politicians such as Mr. Nong, Mr. Thaksin and
Mr. Putin are eager to learn from Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew. But
Taiwan?
Singapore's present civil and political space are
not dissimilar to Taiwan's pre-1987 era when the country was
under martial law. Freedom of expression and assembly are almost
non-existent, all forms of mass media are controlled by the
state, the rule of law is abused by the ruling party, public
institutions are answerable to the government (not to the
public), those deemed as threats to the national security are
detained without trial, politicians are jailed for exercising
their constitutional rights. And then, there is the father to
son political legacy - Chiang Kai-shek to Chiang Ching-guo. Lee
Kuan Yew to Lee Hsien Loong.
So is this the
progressiveness that Mr. Siew speaks about?
Mr. Vincent
Siew's only indicator for progress seems to be growth of the
country's GDP. So what if Singapore's GDP is twice that of
Taiwan's? The question is: Are the citizens of the country
benefiting from this growth? In Singapore's case, obviously
not!
Whilst the ministers raise their already bloated
salaries (Singapore's prime minister is paid six times that of
the president of the United Sates), taxes, medical costs,
housing, transportation, food have also increased, making it
more difficult, especially for lower-income Singaporeans, to
make ends meet.
Mr. Lee Kuan Yew and his government have
been effective in convincing Singaporeans that human freedoms
and rights are secondary to economic stability and security.
This belief has become so extensive that a majority of the
citizens don't sense danger when the Singapore Government does
not account to the people, when the country's reserves are
managed in a non-transparent manner, when there are no checks
and balances to power and when the entire country is in the
hands Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, his son, the prime minister and his
daughter-in-law who is in charge of investing the country's
reserves.
All this makes me wonder why Taiwan's leaders
would think that Singapore is progressive and an economic model.
Could it be a case of words of courtesy as they were visitors to
the country?
I humbly urge Taiwan's leaders to seriously
think about the ramifications of their remarks about
role-modeling after Singapore. Whether or not these leaders mean
what they say, these statements are not only detrimental to
Asia's democratization process as Singapore is a threat to
democracy in this region and beyond, but the work of democracy
and human rights advocates in the city-state is also stymied.
A government ruled by a single party is treacherous. It
breeds dictatorship. Taiwanese fought hard and made numerous
sacrifices to bring democracy and human freedoms to the island.
To laud the one-party system in Singapore and extol its
progressiveness is a roll back in democracy for Taiwan.
Chee
Siok Chin (Ms)
Central Executive Member
Singapore
Democratic Party
This letter was posted to Taipei
Times.
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