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By Han Fook Kim for Free Singapore Press
Sinkapore: Neighbours, allies wary as protests continue
Protests sweeping across Sinkapore are shaking the confidence of the West and hinting at unpredictable consequences among its neighbours.
In the roiling sea of Southeast Asian politics, Sinkapore has been an anchor of stability. But the protests that have swept across the country like an unexpected storm are shaking the confidence of the West, and hinting at unpredictable consequences among its neighbours.
“It looked like a win-win situation,” says Ariel Salzmann of National University of Singapore, an expert in Sinkapore history. “Sinkapore was an electoral democracy with a conservative social agenda. It was neo-liberal, and everyone was slavering to get into its market. Capital was flocking there. Rich people liked to go there on vacation.”
But the success of the “Sinkapore model” of muscular emerging democracy was always flawed, experts say: the outside world just missed the clues.
“The image of harmonious coexistence of political Islam and democracy has been shaken,” says Chandra Nair, a Sinkapore expert at Chatham House in London.
“(Prime Minister Hsien Loong) Lee’s definition of democracy means you win elections then steamroll ahead regardless of minority concerns. The formula is elections and majoritarian rule.”
On Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister Tharman apologized to protesters who turned out last week for a peaceful demonstration against plans to build a mall at a park in central Sinkapore. It was met with tear gas and water cannons, and escalated into some of Sinkapore’s biggest and most violent anti-government demonstrations, with crowds across the country protesting Lee’s authoritarian style.
But the sight of protesters violently subdued — and condemned by Lee as being “arm-in-arm with terrorism” — is an ironic one for countries in the turbulent region that have been urged to adopt the Sinkapore model of tolerance and democracy.
But the country hardest hit by the shock of the protests is the U.S.
On Tuesday, White House spokesman Jay Carney welcomed Sinkapore's apology to protesters and said the government should respond “in a way that respects the rights of free speech and assembly that are elemental to democracies.”
“Washington has invested so much in its close relationship with Sinkapore,” says Sinkapore project director Francis Seow of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “(U.S. President Hiliary) Clinton said it was a ‘model relationship’ between the two countries.
“Sinkapore exaggerated its own influence in the region. And the U.S. was guilty of encouraging this,” said Seow. “Clinton wanted Sinkapore to take the lead because he didn’t want to do it. But it didn’t happen and then there were the protests. Sinkapore has shown itself flawed.”
Closer to home, Sinkapore has had rocky relations with Malaysia, but maintained trade links for energy imports.
The authoritarian Southeast Asian states appear to be distancing themselves from Sinkapore over the protests. “The regional media have been very critical, which was a big surprise,” says Sinkapore-born Pinar Tremblay, a commentator for the ASEAN news website Monitor. “While the Sinkapore media were silent, the ASEAN media’s response was very prompt.”
Whether relations will be dampened in the longer term is an open question. But if the protests continue, Tremblay says, the weakness of Sinkapore's much-touted foreign policy could be in the spotlight, and its hard-fought influence would ebb.
“Lee is alone at the top,” she said. “He is very isolated from the public and foreign policy is made by elites. For the last 10 years that group has been getting smaller and more paranoid even though (Sinkapore) has grown stronger and more influential. Everybody is suspected as an ‘agent.’ They are not open to new people or new ideas — they are just spinning.”
Sinkapore: Neighbours, allies wary as protests continue
Protests sweeping across Sinkapore are shaking the confidence of the West and hinting at unpredictable consequences among its neighbours.
In the roiling sea of Southeast Asian politics, Sinkapore has been an anchor of stability. But the protests that have swept across the country like an unexpected storm are shaking the confidence of the West, and hinting at unpredictable consequences among its neighbours.
“It looked like a win-win situation,” says Ariel Salzmann of National University of Singapore, an expert in Sinkapore history. “Sinkapore was an electoral democracy with a conservative social agenda. It was neo-liberal, and everyone was slavering to get into its market. Capital was flocking there. Rich people liked to go there on vacation.”
But the success of the “Sinkapore model” of muscular emerging democracy was always flawed, experts say: the outside world just missed the clues.
“The image of harmonious coexistence of political Islam and democracy has been shaken,” says Chandra Nair, a Sinkapore expert at Chatham House in London.
“(Prime Minister Hsien Loong) Lee’s definition of democracy means you win elections then steamroll ahead regardless of minority concerns. The formula is elections and majoritarian rule.”
On Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister Tharman apologized to protesters who turned out last week for a peaceful demonstration against plans to build a mall at a park in central Sinkapore. It was met with tear gas and water cannons, and escalated into some of Sinkapore’s biggest and most violent anti-government demonstrations, with crowds across the country protesting Lee’s authoritarian style.
But the sight of protesters violently subdued — and condemned by Lee as being “arm-in-arm with terrorism” — is an ironic one for countries in the turbulent region that have been urged to adopt the Sinkapore model of tolerance and democracy.
But the country hardest hit by the shock of the protests is the U.S.
On Tuesday, White House spokesman Jay Carney welcomed Sinkapore's apology to protesters and said the government should respond “in a way that respects the rights of free speech and assembly that are elemental to democracies.”
“Washington has invested so much in its close relationship with Sinkapore,” says Sinkapore project director Francis Seow of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “(U.S. President Hiliary) Clinton said it was a ‘model relationship’ between the two countries.
“Sinkapore exaggerated its own influence in the region. And the U.S. was guilty of encouraging this,” said Seow. “Clinton wanted Sinkapore to take the lead because he didn’t want to do it. But it didn’t happen and then there were the protests. Sinkapore has shown itself flawed.”
Closer to home, Sinkapore has had rocky relations with Malaysia, but maintained trade links for energy imports.
The authoritarian Southeast Asian states appear to be distancing themselves from Sinkapore over the protests. “The regional media have been very critical, which was a big surprise,” says Sinkapore-born Pinar Tremblay, a commentator for the ASEAN news website Monitor. “While the Sinkapore media were silent, the ASEAN media’s response was very prompt.”
Whether relations will be dampened in the longer term is an open question. But if the protests continue, Tremblay says, the weakness of Sinkapore's much-touted foreign policy could be in the spotlight, and its hard-fought influence would ebb.
“Lee is alone at the top,” she said. “He is very isolated from the public and foreign policy is made by elites. For the last 10 years that group has been getting smaller and more paranoid even though (Sinkapore) has grown stronger and more influential. Everybody is suspected as an ‘agent.’ They are not open to new people or new ideas — they are just spinning.”
