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Hello Mai Hum don't be chicken okay
If you sue Roy for defamation
Then must drag world renowned mag
Before Kangaroo courts too
They sting you, you fix them mah
Tho' Economist is Papa's favourite read
The Singapore Sting
The lesson drawn from all this by authoritarian ruling elites facing pressure for reform is how important it is to have the courts on your side. Not only does it avoid awkward stand-offs; it helps foster the impression that you are moving towards “the rule of law”. So, in Sri Lanka, the government of Mahinda Rajapaksa early last year impeached and sacked a troublesome chief justice. And in Cambodia laws now being considered would have the effect of emasculating judicial independence.
Cambodia’s strongman, Hun Sen, is known to cast an envious eye at an unlikely role model: Singapore. There, the ruling People’s Action Party has been in power even longer than his own Cambodian People’s Party (CPP). And it has managed this without resorting to the thuggery and coups that have ensured the CPP’s grip. Part of the PAP’s secret is its use of the law. Strict defamation and contempt-of-court laws inherited from the British were invoked against foreign critics and domestic opponents, forcing some into bankruptcy. Lee Kuan Yew, the founding prime minister, whose son now holds that job, justified this as necessary to protect Singapore’s leaders’ reputations, rather than as a way of hounding the opposition. But it had the same effect.
However, those in Cambodia and elsewhere make two mistakes when they see Singapore as a model of efficient authoritarianism applied in large measure through the legal system. One is that Singapore is an international city seen as under the rule of law. Its courts are respected, if not always the use the government has made of them. The other is that many Singaporeans are turning against the PAP, which is even trying to change its image.
http://www.economist.com/news/asia/...re-having-too-much-say-politics-long-arms-law
If you sue Roy for defamation
Then must drag world renowned mag
Before Kangaroo courts too
They sting you, you fix them mah
Tho' Economist is Papa's favourite read
The Singapore Sting
The lesson drawn from all this by authoritarian ruling elites facing pressure for reform is how important it is to have the courts on your side. Not only does it avoid awkward stand-offs; it helps foster the impression that you are moving towards “the rule of law”. So, in Sri Lanka, the government of Mahinda Rajapaksa early last year impeached and sacked a troublesome chief justice. And in Cambodia laws now being considered would have the effect of emasculating judicial independence.
Cambodia’s strongman, Hun Sen, is known to cast an envious eye at an unlikely role model: Singapore. There, the ruling People’s Action Party has been in power even longer than his own Cambodian People’s Party (CPP). And it has managed this without resorting to the thuggery and coups that have ensured the CPP’s grip. Part of the PAP’s secret is its use of the law. Strict defamation and contempt-of-court laws inherited from the British were invoked against foreign critics and domestic opponents, forcing some into bankruptcy. Lee Kuan Yew, the founding prime minister, whose son now holds that job, justified this as necessary to protect Singapore’s leaders’ reputations, rather than as a way of hounding the opposition. But it had the same effect.
However, those in Cambodia and elsewhere make two mistakes when they see Singapore as a model of efficient authoritarianism applied in large measure through the legal system. One is that Singapore is an international city seen as under the rule of law. Its courts are respected, if not always the use the government has made of them. The other is that many Singaporeans are turning against the PAP, which is even trying to change its image.
http://www.economist.com/news/asia/...re-having-too-much-say-politics-long-arms-law
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