My interview on PM's National Day Rally for Radio Australia

Link: PM calls on Singaporeans to draft the nation's future | Asia Pacific | ABC Radio Australia

Speakers: Lee Hsien Loong, Singapore's prime minister; Ravi Philemon, community worker and activist; Assoc Professor Eugene Tan, Singapore Management University

Increase in high-ranking public officers committing graft?

The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau in its Annual Report said that, "in 2011, CPIB received a total of 757 complaints, the lowest in the last 5 years since 2007". It also said that the "percentage of cases involving employees from the public sector remains low" and in contrast the "private sector cases formed the main bulk of the cases".

What the report does not say is, even if the percentage of cases involving employees from public sector remains low, has there been an increase of cases involving high-ranking officials from the public sector?

The general public in Singapore has benefited from Singapore's tough, no-nonsense anti-corruption programme, and so has supported the drive to be corruption free, by imbibing ethical values against corruption in their children from a very young age. So, it's no surprise if there is a drop in the number of graft cases year-after-year.

Even if the public is generally supportive of the drive against corruption, Law Minister K Shanmugam deemed it important to remind the public recently that there "will be people who, whatever rules you put in, they will look to find a way around the rules and they will fall for temptation. There is no society in the world, in the past or the present, where every person is totally clean".

Yes, there will always be people who will find ways around the rules and fall for temptation; but the recent cases of alleged corruption by the likes of former-SCDF chief Peter Lim, ex-CNB chief Ng Boon Gay and the NParks officer in-charge of the Brompton bicycle purchase, seem to suggest that it is the people in top positions, whose better judgment seem superseded by their sense of entitlement and privilege (as suggested by Sudhir Thomas Vadaketh in his letter to ST's Forum).

Of course we've had corruption scandals involving public officials like Glenn Knight and Choy Hon Tim in the past; but they were few and far in-between.

Is this the recent spate of scandals involving top civil servants the reason why Singapore is at its lowest ranking since 2006, in Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index? I agree with mrbrown that the CPIB seem to be the hardest working agency this year. But they can certainly do better in statistics presentation.

MFA's rebuttal of US Country Report is red herring

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in rebutting US Department of State’s Country Report on Singapore's Human Rights Practices for 2011, said that they "are disturbed by the double standards applied to the US’ criticism of our Internal Security Act (ISA)" and  "fail to understand how the US reconciles its criticism of the ISA with the continued existence of its own detention facilities at Guantanamo without applying a double standard" (link: http://sg.sg/MAgTN8)

This line of argument by the MFA is a complete red herring.

Although the United States of America's holding of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay camp indefinitely without charge is deplorable, almost all detainees at that American detention facilities are non US citizens.

The list of Individuals detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, which is available to the public (link: http://1.usa.gov/NLi4pm) states that during the period of January 2002 to 15 May 2006, there was only one US citizen, Yasser Himdi (aka Yaser Esam Hamdi), detained at that facility.

Yaser a Saudi national, who was citizen by birth of the USA, was raised almost entirely outside of the USA. When Yaser was captured in Afghanistan during the 'war on terror' in November 2001, he was reportedly not identifiable as an American citizen; which was why he was sent to the detention facility in Guantanamo in January 2002. When his American citizenship was established, he was sent to another detention facility, Brig, in Virginia, in April 2002. Yaser has since been released from detention, returned to Saudi Arabia, and has renounced his American citizenship.

In contrast, almost all detainees detained under the Internal Security Act of Singapore are Singaporeans.

In the USA, even if the Government has the power to detain citizens it has classified as 'enemy combatants', the citizens have a right to challenge the 'enemy combatant' status before an impartial judge.

In Singapore, even if there is a legal framework and prescribed rules for citizens of Singapore detained under the Internal Security Act, they do not have this right to appear before an impartial judge to challenge that they are not 'Euro Communists', or 'Marxist Conspirators', or 'Jemaah Islamiyah members'.

The Internal Security Act is an archaic law inherited by us from our former colonial masters; created especially to oppress and intimidate us into subservience.

It appears that MFA has repeated inaccuracies about the ISA year after year to the international community, and seem to have paid scant attention to the developments in the global scene on terrorism-related preventive detentions; the most recent being Malaysia repealing its own Internal Security Act to replace it with terrorism-specific laws.

Citizens of Singapore who have been detained in the past, have come out in recent years to dispute the Government's version for their detentions (link: http://bit.ly/Q64xrS). The Government of Singapore has not responded in an appropriate enough manner to them, nor will it convene a Commission of Inquiry to review the allegations against these detainees and the supporting documents.

It certainly seems that the Government of Singapore is not interested in facts, and does not want facts to come in the way of the conclusions it wishes to reach, pursuant to its own ideology.

This ideology has also undermined objectivity of MFA's rebuttal of US Department of State’s Country Report on Singapore's Human Rights Practices for 2011.

The Government of Singapore should stop justifying inefficient systems that are not on par with international norms, as being unique to Singapore.

Democratic elections and the rule of law are surely not the only means by which the Government is accountable to the people. If those were the only means, there was no necessity for the Government to convene a Commission of Inquiry on the last December's MRT breakdowns. They could have just waited for the next election to account to the public about public transportation.

While the Government adapts its policies supposedly in the interests of its people and as the balance of rights and obligations evolve in our society, it should not deprive its citizens of their right to judicial review of government discretion for preventive detention.

Since the 1960s, more than 2500 citizens have already paid a heavy price because they were denied this right. Some citizens have spent close to three decades in preventive detention, being denied even simple joys, like seeing their children grow up.

National Day and the dilution of our collective story

I could count no more than 20 flags displayed outside their flats in the block opposite mine. This and the recent debate that has risen from Feng Tianwei winning the bronze medal in the 2012 London Olympics, made me think what it means to be a Singaporean.

Why has it been difficult for some Singaporeans to accept Singapore Table Tennis Association's women team's victories as Singapore's? Could it be because 10 of 23 athletes (including Feng Tianwei) competing in nine sports at the London Olympics were part of the Foreign Sports Talent (FST) scheme, and so reflect the present Singapore society, where 4 in 10 are foreigners?

I lived as a stranger in a foreign land for some years, and so know first-hand how that feels. Where there were very little Asians (much less Singaporeans), my family and I had no choice but to try and assimilate as fast as we could, and eventually, we became good friends (like family almost) with some in the community.

These friends taught us where to shop, where the good deals were, where the good restaurants were, why people behaved a certain way, what the local customs were, how to drive in the snow, who to go to when you had to get something done, how you adapt when the seasons changed, and so much more.

As there were no enclaves of Asians with whom to click, we learnt the cultures, customs and values of our good friends - we appropriated them as our own so that we could assimilate. Although we lived in the foreign land only for a few short years, very soon our friends in this foreign land, came to view us not as foreigners, but as one of their own.

Perhaps that's what irks Singaporeans the most - that people who come here from foreign lands do not need to know the Singapore stories, because they are strong in numbers to stick with the stories they have grown up hearing. And without knowing our stories they are perhaps never going to be like us.

Maybe Singapore Government's lax immigration policy's greatest disservice is, the dilution of the collective story of an entire generation.

I remember an incident from my childhood. My father who was born in India and eventually became a naturalised citizen in the early 60s, asking a Chinese stranger who was carrying his child in the lift, 'pompan (perempuan) ke jantan (lelaki)'? And I remember the Chinese neighbour answering my father in Malay with a smile.

I did not understand the language or the question then, but thinking back now, I am amazed at the effort he took in learning the lingua-franca then. I am still amazed by the ease with which my mother, a third-generation Singaporean, strikes up a conversation with total strangers in English, Malay or Hokkien (her forefathers were Sri Lankan Tamils) in bus-stops and markets. They were both eager to know stories, stories that would give them a sense of connectedness with the community.

Even I grew up hearing stories. Stories that I heard as I interacted with the fishmonger in the pasar, stories my friends and their parents would tell when I visited them for Hari Raya or Chinese New Year, stories my friends told me in school or when I was serving my national service. And over time, you put all these short stories together and you have created in your mind, a narrative of customs, cultures and values.

Today, our Prime Minister in his National Day message asked Singaporeans to remain open with accepting foreigners, and foreigners to acquire our social values and adopt our social norms.

But it will remain a challenge for Singaporeans to accept people who are so different in their values and social norms. And in a tiny city-state where there is a large enough number of foreigners to form enclaves, there is simply very little incentives for the foreigner to know the Singapore story.

When that happens, people don't want to do their National Service, they find migration greatly attractive, they don't want to hang their flags, the sense of being a nation is weakened. 

The perceived inequality between the foreigners and the locals too, does very little to assuage Singaporeans fears.  

A former national boxing champion for example, tells how his invitation to the Commonwealth Games some years back, came without any perks; that he had to take his own leave to participate, and when he wanted to resign to concentrate on winning a trophy for the country, he was told that he'd be given $400 only if he won.

'If it's not for the money offered she (Feng Tianwei) will not be here representing us', the former sportsman comments on his Facebook.

So, at the end of the day, what does it mean to be a Singaporean? Is there something that we all can identify with as being Singaporean?

Some would say it is the food that binds us - I'd say that although the food's good, if that's the only thing that binds us, then that is very superficial.

I'd argue that the thing that makes us Singaporean is our belief in a common narrative - a narrative of equality, peace, progress, justice and democracy. And for this narrative to be passed down the generations, we need enough story-tellers.  Without enough of them, what you'll get is only a very diluted narrative.

Why, even our National Pledge tells a story: 

"We the citizens of Singapore

Pledge ourselves as one united people

Regardless of race, language or religion

To build a democratic society

Based on justice and equality

So as to achieve happiness, prosperity and progress

For our nation."

And this is not merely an aspiration. 

Happy National Day Singaporeans!