www.chinaview.cn
2005-11-23 19:22:57

SINGAPORE, Nov. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- 17-year-old Gan Huai Shi, the third Singaporean charged with posting racist remarks online, was sentenced to 24 months of supervised probation on Wednesday.

According to Channel News Asia report, Gan will undergo psychological evaluation, attend counseling sessions to correct his misguided dislike of Malays and perform 180 hours of community service.

He was also requested to post a bond of 10,000 Singapore dollars (about 5,904 US dollars) to ensure good behavior.

The judge suggested that part of his community service be done in Malay welfare homes and a Malay probation officer be attached so as to let Gan know the Malay community better.

In early October this year, two other Singaporeans, Koh Seng Huat and Lim Yew in their 20s, were sentenced to jail for making racist remarks on their blogs, becoming the first people jailed under the Sedition Act since 1966.

Under the law, any act which promotes feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races of the population of Singapore is defined as having a seditious tendency.

23/11/2005

From The Bulletin.
By Eric Ellis

Singapore seems determined to hang Melbourne man Nguyen Tuong Van as an act of defiance in the face of international criticism. Eric Ellis reports.

Everyone loves Singapore, don’t they? It’s just so easy, so clean, so ... well, so not like Asia at all.

The superlatives flow easily as you fly into this real-life version of The Truman Show on one of the world’s best airlines, your every inflight whim met by impossibly gorgeous women; Asia’s beauty, promise and mysticism neatly compacted into a sarong kebaya.

Getting through the idiot-proof airport, naturally one of the world’s best, is an efficient breeze. Then it’s into a gleaming white limo – many taxis are Mercs of course – to stay in some of the world’s best hotels and sup on some of the planet’s best cuisine.

Easily understandable, then, why Big Business so readily reaches for its investment chequebook to keep costs down, profits up and Lee Kuan Yew’s “economic miracle” ticking along in Singapore Inc’s masterful selling of itself as “Asia Lite”. But as the typical global investor towels down after a post-flight shower, consider that the fluffy white gown they don while catching up on emails using some of the world’s fastest broadband may have been laundered by people like Prisoner C856, the 25-year-old Melburnian Nguyen Tuong Van, soon to be one of an average 70 to 80 people, as former Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong estimated in 2003, that the Singaporean state executes every year, with barely a whiff of the due process Australians would expect of a transparent legal system.

Changi prison, restored partly with Australian dollars and where part of the iconic Australian character was shaped in such grim conditions during World War II, is where, on December 2, Singapore will kill Nguyen for trafficking heroin through airport transit from Cambodia en route to Melbourne. He is the first Australian to be executed by a government anywhere for 12 years.

Changi boasts one of Asia’s biggest laundries, a much-favoured source of cheap labour for Singapore’s hotel sector. Changi officials happily explained this last week while hosting a prison open day, an event not so coincidentally convened on World Kindness Day as Singapore’s justice was being assaulted by – as the ruling Lee family sees them – interfering western liberals demanding that Nguyen’s sentence be commuted.

“The excursion proved to be a bonding session for residents,” gushed the state-controlled Straits Times, the paper having an uncanny knack of publishing sweetness-and-light articles about Singapore when the nation is under attack from abroad. “Three households from Jalan Pernama ... they didn’t know one another very well, but began chatting merrily at the reception, over refreshments prepared by inmates. Yesterday’s visitors felt comforted and relieved that life was not too bad for the inmates.”

Changi’s charnel house might be a fun day out for the good burghers of Jalan Pernama. But to Lex Lasry, QC, Nguyen’s Melbourne-based lawyer, “Singapore is Australia’s Texas”. Lasry is beyond wit’s end at what he regards as the sheer bastardry brought to his client’s case. “Indeed it’s worse than that ... it’s almost as if Singapore prides themselves on it, that they derive some perverse pleasure from it. They have to understand this type of thing is not acceptable in today’s society, anywhere. It’s not stopping with this case.”

Prime Minister John Howard would seem to agree, after his shabby treatment by a country Australia has long regarded as its diplomatic best friend in South-East Asia. Last week at the APEC summit in Busan, South Korea, as he was making yet another plea on Nguyen’s behalf to Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Lee’s prison apparatus was handing Nguyen’s family the letter advising they will kill him on Friday week. The Australian government is now reported to be considering an appeal to the International Court of Justice.

Lee, whose year-long pre-ordained leadership was flagged as ushering in a gentler Singapore, didn’t tell Howard of the letter during their meeting. Howard, learning later, was furious. Howard has pledged to carry that fury this week to Malta when he will again see Lee, at the CHOGM conference in Valetta. It will be Nguyen’s last chance to have his death sentence commuted, if what the Singaporeans have offered him could be described as a chance.

“The Singaporeans say it was all done in due process, in a clear and transparent way,” says Lasry. “But there was no trial before a jury. We argued his case with 70 pages that I doubt they even read, and they responded with one paragraph to deny it, and not even debate it. There was no legal analysis, no ­reasons given ... it has always been an ­executive process, an executive decision.

“We asked them to tell us why, what was the problem? We got nothing,” he says. “To call it due process is an insult to the term.”

Singapore sells itself as oh-so- efficient. But despite so much practice at judicial murder – Amnesty International ranks it alongside Iran and China as the world’s most enthusiastic executioner – Singapore’s system still needs tweaking, according to local human rights lawyer M. Ravi.

Singapore proudly say it has “humanised” the hanging process – weighing the condemned and carefully calibrating bodyweight with a “drop” system so as to deliver a swift, clean kill when the platform gives way.

Ravi says Malaysian drug addict Vigmes Murthi wasn’t so lucky. When he was hanged at Changi in September 2003, Ravi says, his head was nearly torn off by the force of the 500kg-plus drop, about seven times his bodyweight. “They got it horribly wrong,” Ravi says, “his mother was screaming, screaming ... there was so much blood in the coffin, it was overflowing.”

By 1pm, the family – delayed coming in from Malaysia – hadn’t yet collected the corpse so Singapore summoned the state cremator to dispose of it. The family got there by 2pm and Ravi was called from chambers to have a most unseemly brawl over Vigmes’ bloodied corpse with the contracted cremator, who was banking on a nice little earner. In the end, Ravi and Vigmes’ family prevailed, “but with no help from the government”.

By this year, Ravi says, the famous ­Singa­porean efficiency corrected itself; too much so. On May 13, Singapore’s only hangman, a corpulent 72-year-old locally born Indian called Darshan Singh, roused another Ravi client, Shanmugam Murugesu, convicted in 2003 of trafficking 1kg of cannabis, at 2am on the morning of his execution.

In a procedure that awaits Nguyen, he was served a light breakfast before being led to the gallows chamber where he waited and waited – “and one can only imagine his torment”, says Ravi – until dawn to die.

Two days earlier, Ravi says, after asking Shanmugam’s mother to send in her boy’s best clothes, the state had taken him from his cell and photographed him in 14 different poses, including one seated behind a desk. “He looked as if he was the general manager of a big company,” says Ravi.

The photo set was presented to Shanmugam’s mother by the state after it had killed him, Ravi says, suggesting she might wish to hang the picture of him in his suit in the family living room “as a memento of the potential of her boy”. In Singapore, it seems, death comes with interior design advice.

The mere fact of Ravi speaking out places his own career in peril. Like the many opponents who have challenged the government and been bankrupted by libel actions for it, Ravi is now getting a taste of what happens to Singaporeans who speak out.

In May, a profile of 36-year-old Ravi in the Straits Times portrayed him as a grandstanding publicity-seeker, describing an alcoholic father and a mother who had committed suicide. His misdeeds, as the paper saw it, were to hand out leaflets calling for the abolition of the death penalty and – shocking, this – to be quoted in the foreign media.

When United Nations special rapporteur Philip Alston spoke out against Nguyen’s sentence he, too, was pilloried, and told he had exceeded his brief.

Singapore has a typically home-grown dilemma over its steel-trap policy of ­mandatory death sentencing. But, unfortunately for the western liberals the ruling Lee family so viscerally hate, it’s not about such high-minded notions as human rights.

For the Lees, it’s a manpower issue, one in the same camp as the tiny country’s frequent labour crises. Singapore doesn’t have enough people to do the job. Darshan Singh has reportedly been doing it since the Brits gave up the island in 1965. At $S400 ($320) a kill, he gets coaxed out of retirement every week or so, according to press reports. And he apparently does his job with some gusto. Singh has – by some accounts – killed more than 800 people in his long career, toasting his 500th victim in 2000 with friends at Changi over a bottle of Chivas Regal.

Singapore’s problem is that Singh is long past retirement age and it can’t get anyone to replace him. No one in Singapore’s superstitious – and mostly Buddhist – majority Chinese community will do it, while Malays demur on religious grounds. Singapore could outsource it, as it does for much of the urban pleasantness foreign investors so love, to a guest worker from Sri Lanka or ­Bangladesh labouring on a fraction of the salary a ­Singaporean would be offered.

If Singapore can’t be internationally shamed by an Amnesty International, or pressured by Howard, into halting its official barbarism, Nguyen’s campaigners hope a blow to Singapore Inc might.

Singapore companies, in particular the government-owned Temasek Holdings – where Lee’s wife Ho Ching is CEO – are some of Australia’s biggest investors. Big brands facing boycotts include Optus, Singapore Airlines and the Qantas joint venture Jetstar Asia. Singapore’s Australian business network is huge and as anger rises over Nguyen’s treatment, the long-ruling autocracy might discover it is harder to squash dissent in democratic Australia than they have found in Singapore over the past 40 years.

But Nguyen Tuong Van – and too many others, including Australians – will likely die before that happens.

Chee Soon Juan, Singapore Democratic Party - 23/11/2005

Singaporean opposition politician, Dr Chee Soon Juan, says Singapore's drug stance is hypocritical because the country invests heavily in Burma's military regime which has links to the drug trade.
----------------------------------------
On Friday morning, December 2, convicted Australian drug trafficker, Van Nguyen, is set to become the first Australian to be hanged in Singapore. What do you think it will take now to save him?

I really think at this time there's very little that anybody can do. It's just going to be the Singapore government keeping up its facade of wanting to be tough and showing to the world how tough it can be, but it's a shame. Van Nguyen doesn't need to be hanged. It's a crying shame that somebody like him has to go to the gallows for a silly, silly mistake that he has made.

The drugs Van Nguyen was carrying most probably came from Burma's golden triangle. Has Singapore demonstrated its opposition to this trade with the Burmese government?
Not only have they not demonstrated any kind of opposition, they continue to be one of the biggest, if not the biggest investor in Burma, knowing full well that this Burmese military regime right now that's running the country has been doing business and supporting or being supported by some of the biggest drug lords, biggest producers in Burma.

One of them is Lo Sing Han. And the Singapore government itself has been known to invest huge, huge sums of money with this Lo Sing Han.

It's been an issue that we've continued to try to bring up, but it's just met with stony silence here. It's complete censorship here on this issue by the local media here in Singapore.

Is that relationship still current?

I understand also there's huge amounts of drug money that's being laundered through Singapore that some of these experts have documented that I've brought up. But again, because of the way that our political system is run, there is no democracy and no free press here, the opposition is hampered and there's no freedom of speech here.

We cannot begin to even bring up some of these issues and investigate it, and bring this government to account.

This is where this whole hypocrisy is. Whilst we do big business with some of these drug lords and money floating around with this dirty drug money, small-time drug peddlers like Van Nguyen, transiting through Singapore, are arrested and hanged.

This is something that must be addressed, not just in Singapore but by the international community.

And perhaps, maybe, the Australian government would want to look into this situation just a little bit more, because as sure as this situation is going to continue, there will come a time when another Australian is going to be caught with drugs in Singapore and they're going to be hanged.

And if any responsible government is going to do anything, it has got to be now, it has got to be on this issue.

Of the 400 or so people hanged in Singapore, there have seen murderers and small-time couriers, but we haven't seen any of the Mr Bigs. Why do you think that's the case?

Sometimes the way that this operation is run is some of these mules get sent through - and they're just not one, there are quite a few of them - but what happens is some of these drug syndicates will tip off the narco police over here just to give them tips on who to look out for and they will be focusing their attention.

When they actually zero in on these one or two individuals, the rest are then let through. This is how sometimes the game is being played.

It's that kind of situation that we are very concerned about, where the small fish fry, the big-time drug traffickers get away scot-free, and this is the injustice of this whole situation right now that we're trying to address.

The Singaporean media hasn't been following this case but quite a few people have shown support and there's been some sort of debate. Can you tell us about that?

On the internet, yes. And it's growing.

It's very nascent, but there are Singaporeans who are very concerned about this issue even though the political situation here in Singapore is not easy for us. We get victimised, and a lot of times, people are very afraid to speak up.

The local media here will just not give any publicity to this issue here, save for a few so-called columnists who come out and toe the official line.

Van Nguyen's family visited him in jail this morning. The convicted drug smuggler is set to be hanged on December 2.
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Victoria's Attorney-General Rob Hulls is tonight preparing to fly to Singapore to plead for the life of death row inmate Van Nguyen.
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The family of convicted Australian drug trafficker Van Nguyen has visited him in jail.
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Last minute clemency bid for Nguyen

Victoria's Attorney-General has secured a meeting with a senior Singaporean government minister on Thursday to present a last minute plea for condemned Melbourne man Van Nguyen.

A group of European Union parliamentarians has also appealed for clemency for Nguyen during a visit to Singapore.

Nguyen was convicted in Singapore of trying to smuggle 400 grams of heroin and is due to be executed on December 2.

Attorney General Rob Hulls has changed his arrangements for an overseas trip to make the unscheduled stopover in Singapore to plea for clemency for Nguyen.

The Attorney-General will deliver a letter containing the plea from the Premier Steve Bracks to the Government of Singapore to spare the 25-year-old's life.

to continue reading..

Michael McKenna
23nov05

WHILE Singapore has an unwavering policy of hanging drug mules such as Australia's Nguyen Tuong Van without mercy, it has for years been one of the strongest backers of Burma, the world's second-biggest producer of heroin.

Despite the pariah status of the military junta-controlled country as a flagrant breacher of human rights and the engine-room of the notorious opium golden triangle, Singapore has long been one of its key trading partners.

In the 10 months to October, Singapore - Burma's second-biggest source of imports - shipped more than $650 million of goods to the country. By comparison, Australia's exports to Burma last year were valued at $27 million or 0.01 per cent of total exports.

And for more than a decade, the Singapore government has shrugged off evidence that some of its business backing has gone directly to Burma's drug kingpins, specifically infamous heroin trafficker Lo Hsing Han.

A substantial portion of Burma's heroin finds its way directly to Australia. The Australian Institute of Criminology cites the country as the chief source of Australia's supply of the drug.

In 1997, former US Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Robert Gelbard, , said: "Since 1988 ... over half (of the $US1 billion investments from) Singapore have been tied to the family of narco-trafficker Lo Hsing Han."

Lo, 70, reportedly started out as an opium-trafficking insurgent against the Burmese government in the 1950s. He spent time on death row in Rangoon, Burma's capital, in the 1970s, for treason before he bought his liberty and expanded his business into what was described as the most heavily armed and biggest heroin operation in Southeast Asia. It is believed he now rules as "godfather" over a clan of traffickers in Burma.

In 1992, Lo founded one of Burma's largest conglomerates, the Asia World Company, which allegedly acts as an upmarket front and money-launderer for the drug operation.

Lo's American-educated son, Steven Law, who is married to a Singaporean woman, Cecilia Ng, is managing director of Asia World and runs three "overseas branches" of the conglomerate in Singapore. But while Law may live the high life during his regular trips to Singapore, he has been repeatedly declined a US visa due to his suspected links to the drug trade.

A spokesman for the Australian Immigration Department last night said it could not comment because of "privacy reasons" on whether Lo or Law had applied for an Australian visa. Australia has an embassy in Rangoon, where two Australian Federal Police officers are stationed to gather intelligence on drug trafficking activities.

Burma has received support in the past from the father of Singapore, former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, who defended the military as the "only instrument of government" in the country. Arguing that detained democracy campaigner and Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi should stay "behind the fence and be a symbol", Mr Lee said she might not be able to rule Burma without the power the military commanded.

Ms Suu Kyi could not be contacted last night. But the secretary of her party, the National League for Democracy, said the Singapore Government's decision to hang small-time drug peddlers such as Van was extreme. "Singapore is a democracy. We here are living under a strict, harsh government, but we don't hang people in Burma," U Lwin said.

The links between Singapore and the drug lords of Burma began to surface in the mid-1990s. In 1996, it emerged that the Singapore Government Investment Corporation had co-invested with Lo in the Traders and Shangri-La hotels in Rangoon through its 21.5 per cent stake in the $US39 million ($52 million) Myanmar Fund.

Many Singapore companies are involved in the Asia World group, and $900 million-plus a year pours into Burma in private investment from Singapore.

The contradiction of the Singapore Government executing those caught with more than 27g of heroin while doing business with the drug masters is not lost on some in the island state of 4 million people.

Chee Soon Juan, leader of the opposition Democratic Party, said the funding made a mockery of Singapore's hardline stance on drug trafficking.

"If the Singapore Government truly feels drug abuse is a scourge on society, it would not just want to catch and hang these small-time peddlers," he said.

"You would want to go for the big fish and go to what the source is. Press the Government on what it's doing in Burma to stop this production of opium and heroin."

This is from The Australian and is rather heated. So I hope you are sitting comfortably, get the air-conditioning on full power.

November 22, 2005

SINGAPORE is a serial killer. In recent years, hundreds of its citizens and quite a few foreigners have been executed. When it comes to state murder, on a per capita basis, the sterile, claustrophobic Singapore exceeds the dubious records of China, Russia and governor George W. Bush's Texas.

Recently China has started to rein in regional magistrates, bringing the decision-making on the death penalty back to Beijing. Those accounts of instant executions - of prisoners being dragged from the dock to be shot behind the ear and their families being charged for the bullets - have become too embarrassing.

The US is also losing enthusiasm for the death penalty. Too many cases have displayed the gross inequities of the system. Too often DNA evidence has belatedly proven the verdicts unsafe. How many victims have been proven innocent after the switch has been thrown, the pellets dropped, the needles shoved in the veins?

But despite the sales pitch that it's the Switzerland of Asia, Singapore keeps its hangman very busy. The incumbent holds the world record for executions; he is proud to have killed more than 500 of his fellow human beings. His portrait on the front page of this newspaper last month (see inset) was unforgettable: so gross, so boastful, so cheerful of grin and philosophy. "I send them to a better place."

He may be right about that. For all its glitz, Singapore is a harsh, authoritarian society. Yet of all our near neighbours, Singapore is the least criticised. Malaysia is recalcitrant, Indonesia corrupt. But we like Harry Lee's airline, the airport, the duty-free shopping. (Better than Dubai, say the frequent fliers.) Few Australians look behind the glamour of Singapore's airport at the grim realities of neighbouring Changi prison, to the fact that sophisticated, squeaky-clean Singapore is a parody of democracy. As in Mahathir Mohamad's Malaysia, it takes bravery to express dissent, while formal political opposition can lead to prison.

To a very crowded prison, for Singapore has among the highest levels of incarceration on earth. Yet my last column on this city-state, with its overworked hangman, provoked a flurry of letters to the editor defending the place, saying we must respect Singapore's system of laws.

No thanks, and to hell with Harry Lee's line on Asian values.

Singapore's death penalty is overwhelmingly applied to drug couriers and is clearly a total failure, as it is wherever the penalty is used as a strategy in that lost cause called the war on drugs. Nothing stops the trafficking. Singapore could hang thousands - it probably will in due course - and there will be just as many poor fools ready to risk their lives for big money or a pittance. Despite all the publicity about Indonesia's firing squads, you can still recruit Australian teenagers for $500 and a free holiday.

In this form of capitalism, capital punishment doesn't count. Thanks to free market forces, it just ups the ante and the price.

But let's be fair; Singapore is rethinking the death penalty. It's going to abandon the noose and trapdoor, replacing them with the needle and gurney. That's progress.

For just as it matters little how many drug couriers you kill, it hardly matters how much heroin you intercept. Seize 100 tonnes instead of 100g and there'd be little more than a hiccup in the distribution system. The street price would rise and the warlords we've returned to power in Afghanistan would simply increase the poppy crop to protect their 80per cent world market share. Drug seizures are like dipping buckets in the ocean.

Australian Federal Police chief Mick Keelty's appalling contribution to the death penalty debate has been to talk of thousands of young Australians who'd have died had the Bali nine smuggled all that heroin into Australia. This is specious. Keelty should admit that, were heroin legally available to addicts, there'd be a hope of controlling quantity and quality. That would save lives. And if he were really worried about young Australians dying of drugs, we'd hear him attack what's responsible for more than 90per cent of drug-related deaths: grog and tobacco. Far more Australian lives are destroyed by petrol sniffing than heroin.

I despise drugs and, jazz notwithstanding, have little enthusiasm for the drug culture so enthusiastically marketed by everyone from those nice Beatles to the thugs of hip-hop. (Half the pop songs in the past 30 years have been advertising jingles for the drug de jour, from LSD to crack cocaine.) But equally I despise the hypocrisy of this war on drugs. Add the moral horror of the death penalty or the monstrous nonsense of an Australian girl arrested in Denpasar for possessing two ecstasy tablets and we're living in a world gone mad.

Not so along ago, the French saved one of their citizens from the noose - that other version of the Singapore sling - by threatening to break off diplomatic relations. Yet Canberra doesn't dare to criticise Singapore. It's too important to our economy. Singapore's a big shareholder in companies such as Optus. And the PM wants our airlines to merge. And we love the shopping.

Reuters

SINGAPORE - European parliamentarians criticized Singapore's mandatory death penalty on Tuesday and urged the government to stop next week's scheduled execution of a 25-year-old Australian drug smuggler.

Nguyen Tuong Van, convicted by Singapore of trying to smuggle 400 grams (0.9 lb) of heroin from Cambodia, is to be hanged on December 2 despite repeated pleas from Australia to reconsider clemency for the former salesman.

"The death penalty is firmly rejected in the European Parliament, but it is applied here. Clearly, we have different positions," Hartmut Nassauer, chairman of the delegation for relations with Southeast Asia, told reporters at a briefing in Singapore.

"We believe in universal democracy, rights and human law."

Singapore, which has the highest execution rate in the world relative to population according to a 2004 report by Amnesty International, has a compulsory death penalty for murder and drug trafficking.

Nguyen's mother and twin brother arrived at Singapore's Changi airport late on Monday and were quickly whisked away by officials from the Australian embassy.

Frithjof Schmidt, a member of the European Green Party, urged Canberra to take the case to an international court, a day after lawyers for Nguyen asked the Australian government to have the United Nations International Court of Justice hear the case.

"There should be a debate in an international court, given the gravity of the punishment for someone just transporting drugs," Schmidt told Reuters.

Schmidt urged the Singapore government to grant Nguyen clemency.

"I would like to appeal to the government not to execute him and to go back to a trial that is in line with international standards," he said. The delegates met Nguyen's Singapore-based lawyer during their visit, he said.

Last week, a senior United Nations official, Philip Alston, criticized Singapore's decision to execute Nguyen, saying that it was violating international norms on use of the death penalty.

But Singapore said Alston was trying to "mislead the public" and maintained that there is no international consensus that capital punishment should be abolished.

The city-state added that it had the sovereign right to impose the death penalty as part of its criminal justice system.

Australia, which opposes capital punishment, says that Nguyen was carrying the drugs to help his brother pay off debts to loan sharks. It asked for clemency on the grounds that he had cooperated with authorities and could be a witness in future drug cases.

Found on the Pilot n' Jo site.


CNN's latest coverage of Van's case today. Mediacorp TV, as expected, didn't cover the story at all.

I most admit that when you go and read Mr. Miyagi's blog the following article doesn't make much sense. Then again it could be that Mr.Miyagi has received official clearance.

http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=34025
SINGAPORE: Censors gunning for blogging servicemen
Sunday Times reveal government now requires bloggers to gain clearance to post entries on military life

South Morning China Post
Monday, November 21, 2005

Singapore has barred servicemen from posting unauthorised accounts and pictures of military life on the internet in a further tightening of restrictions on the growing blogging community.

The new rules, made public by The Sunday Times, followed the conviction of two ethnic Chinese bloggers for posting anti-Muslim tirades deemed as threats to social harmony and political stability in the multiracial city state.

The newspaper said at least three national servicemen, including one of Singapore's most popular bloggers, were told by the Ministry of Defence and military officers to take down personal postings about army life overseas.

Such blogs now require official clearance before being posted.

Businessman Benjamin Lee -- better known locally as blogger "Mr. Miyagi" -- had posted 100 pictures featuring fellow soldiers queueing in a canteen, sleeping in a tent or resting in an armoured vehicle during a three-week exercise in the northern Australian state of Queensland.

Another, who uses the nickname "askgerard," posted about 25 pictures, while a third blogger sporting the nickname "stupidgenius" wrote about an incident in which a tank overturned, according to the newspaper.

Because of its compact land area, Singapore holds military exercises in Australia, the US and other countries. Two years of military training is mandatory for all able-bodied Singaporean men from the age of 18, with refresher exercises continuing until they are in their 30s.

Defence ministry spokesman Benedict Lim was quoted by the newspaper as saying that "we encourage our servicemen to share their experiences" in order to boost camaraderie, but "we have to be mindful of the need for information security."

Blogging, boosted by the popularity of digital cameras and camera-equipped phones, is one of the few avenues for free expression in Singapore, whose mainstream media usually stick to the government line.

But the authorities have made it clear internet postings are being closely monitored and subject to traditional laws.

In a landmark ruling last month, two men became the first bloggers in Singapore to be punished under the Sedition Act, which dates back to the British colonial era.

Florence Chong
November 22, 2005

AUSTRALIA'S campaign to save convicted drug trafficker Nguyen Tuong Van from the hangman's noose has created an increasingly dangerous undercurrent in an otherwise stable bilateral relationship. Despite representation from the highest political levels in Australia, Singapore will almost certainly proceed with the hanging on December 2.

While Prime Minister John Howard is disappointed at Singapore's decision to hang Nguyen, he maintains it will not affect relations between Canberra and Singapore. "It's not going to contaminate our relationship with Singapore," Howard maintained on Sunday. Others are not so sure.

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd says the Singapore Government led Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has treated Australia with contempt and predicts the bilateral relationship will be affected.

Some Singapore executives have expressed concern privately about possible trade sanctions. At least one senior Singapore executive has decided to postpone his trip to Australia until the Nguyen case cools.

"Everyone is getting emotional over this issue, but when it dies down, nothing would have changed because the relations between the two countries would remain as strong as ever," a Singapore source says.

Howard understands the groundswell of popular feeling in Australia about the mandatory death penalty soon to be carried out on a young first-time drug offender. "There is great feeling and great conviction in our country that, on this occasion, the death penalty should not be imposed," he says.

Every appeal for clemency by Canberra, ranging from Governor-General Michael Jeffery to a unanimous parliamentary resolution, has been studiously ignored by Singapore, much to the annoyance of Howard's cabinet.

Howard was also embarrassed and upset to learn in South Korea last week that Singapore had already notified the Nguyen family of the December 2 execution date when he was still making a personal appeal for clemency to Lee.

All that is left for Canberra to explore is a legal appeal through the UN's International Court of Justice, a slim prospect given that Singapore does not recognise the compulsory jurisdiction of the court.

If relations between the two countries are disrupted, both sides will suffer. Australia's ties with Singapore, which became an independent state in 1965, are deeper than with any other Asian country and extend into defence, trade, investment, education and tourism. Singapore's armed forces have a permanent training presence here and intelligence sharing has deepened since September11, 2001.

What's at stake is bilateral trade, which totalled more than $8 billion last year, and bilateral investment valued at more than $30billion. Singapore, a tiny city-state with just 4.2million people, is Australia's biggest trading partner in ASEAN. It is Australia's eighth largest trading partner. In 2003-04, Singapore imported more than $3 billion in Australian products. Singapore Airlines alone imports $1million worth of Australian produce a day or $365 million worth a year.

Australian businesspeople in Singapore say the local media has reported reactions in Australia to Nguyen's imminent execution fairly. But one of them is particularly concerned that the campaign could escalate into a boycott of Singapore investment. He recalls how the more sensitive relationship with Malaysia sank to a new low with the hanging of convicted Australian drug traffickers Kevin Barlow and Brian Chambers in 1986. "The problem Singapore faces is: it is being asked not just to make a concession to a friend but it is being asked to revise its government policy. The debate boils down to whether you agree or disagree with capital punishment," he says.

Singapore's overriding concern is becoming a transit point for drug trafficking. "I have heard it said before that transiting through Singapore provides a way to legitimise the journey," another business source says. "This case is extremely tragic. But for Singapore to reverse its decision is to change its policy on capital punishment."

A businessman who was in Singapore in 1994, when Washington exerted great pressure not to cane a US citizen found guilty of vandalising cars, says Singapore will not buckle. In 1994, Singapore provoked an outpouring of condemnation and criticism when it hanged a Filipina maid, Flor Contemplacion, for killing another Filipina. The Philippines made high-level representations to the Singapore government, but in vain. "One of the most regrettable things is the planned execution will encourage Australians to resort to the old negative stereotype impression of Singapore as an inflexible, stubborn state," says the businessman. "It is disturbing that this proposed execution will revive such accusations of the country."

According to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Singapore's investment in Australia totalled $19.1 billion at the end of last year. Although Singapore's investment throughout the 1980s and '90s has been concentrated in real estate, it diversified in the past few years.

Singapore companies have invested in aviation, telecommunications, energy, information technology and hi-tech companies, with much of this investment made by state-owned companies and led by Temasek, which owns and control Singapore's direct investment locally and overseas.

Among Singapore's largest investors in Australia is Singapore Telecom (Singtel), which acquired Optus in 2001 for $14 billion. Singapore Power paid $5.1 billion for the assets of the US utility company TXU Corporation in Victoria and South Australia last year.

Singapore GIC paid $813 million for Mayne Group's 53 private hospitals and it owns a large portfolio of real estate in Australia, including the luxury Shangri-la Hotel in Sydney; it is also a part-owner of Sydney's trophy office building, Chifley Tower.

According to DFAT, the most notable investment in recent times is Qantas's joint venture project to establish Singapore-based budget airline Jetstar Asia, which began operating in December last year. Until now, any discord in the bilateral trade relationship between the two countries was over the issue of open skies. Singapore Airlines feels frustrated in its repeated attempts to get Canberra to lift restrictions preventing it from flying between Australia and the US.

Australian companies have a more comprehensive presence in Singapore than in any other country in the region. John Dick, president of the Australian Chamber of Commerce in Singapore, says about 1200 Australian companies are registered in Singapore. They range from the big four banks to professional firms and small businesses offering lifestyle products and services. Dick says the University of NSW is planning to build a $150 million campus in Singapore.

A leading expert on Australia-Singapore relations says Singapore has become increasingly attractive to Australia as it strengthens its reputation in the arts and education, and by becoming an ideas hub in Southeast Asia.

Australia also chose to negotiate its first free trade agreement with Singapore, more than 20 years after it signed its Closer Economic Relations deal with New Zealand. Known as SAFTA, the agreement has further enhanced trade and investment links between the two countries. According to DFAT, in the 14 months since SAFTA was implemented, Austrade has assisted 546 Australian companies to win business in Singapore worth $458.6million in total export sales value. Of these, almost 250 were new exporters.

A senior government trade source in Canberra says: "When we look for markets for new Australian exporters, Singapore is the destination. We encourage Australian companies to start in Singapore because it is a transparent market, English is spoken and it is a wealthy market."

Dick, who is also the senior partner with leading Australia legal firm Freehills, agrees Singapore is a stepping stone for many Australian companies into other countries in the region. He points out the ANZ bank has a regional head office in Singapore that directs business expansion into other countries in the region. "Our relationship with Singapore has opened up tremendous opportunities for Australian companies to expand into the rest of the region," Dick says.

The Australian Chamber of Commerce in Singapore and its opposite number in Australia, the Australia Singapore Chamber of Commerce and Industry, are planning a joint trade mission to India. "We hope to be able to leverage off Singapore's relationship with Indian companies and to secure projects for our companies," Dick says.

Although trade and investment form the backbone of bilateral relations, strategically Singapore is also an important partner. It has long been one of Australia's strongest allies in the region, credited with helping to lobby for Australia's participation in the inaugural East Asia Summit to be held in Kuala Lumpur next month. "Certainly, Singapore helped to lobby and push for Australia to be a member of the East Asia Summit," says a well-placed Canberra source.

The source says Singapore is also close to Australia because "the truth is Singapore feels that it is on the outer edge of ASEAN. It is more developed and ambitious and has a predominantly Chinese population."

A long-term specialist on Australia-Asia relations says: "Australia's ties with Singapore are critical for its relationship in ASEAN. We have a strong and longstanding defence relationship, especially in the context of the Five-Power Defence Arrangement [Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand and Britain]."

Another source close to Singaporean political and business circles stresses: "Both sides are anxious not to contaminate relations. Singapore is Australia's strongest ally in the region and when there are bilateral tensions with Malaysia or Indonesia, Singapore provides a bridge." However, he adds that Singaporean investors would continue to be attracted to Australia for the same reasons that brought them here. "Australia offers a bigger economy, political stability and legal certainty. It is a window to the West. Those things will not change."

This is a transcript from PM. The program is broadcast around Australia at 5:10pm on Radio National and 6:10pm on ABC Local Radio.

Related Video
The mother and twin brother of convicted drug smuggler Van Nguyen are tonight flying to Singapore to say their final goodbyes. The video should start automatically in a pop up window if you have RealPlayer, and Broadband. If not you can view it below, by clicking on the relevant link.
[An unbearable fate: Khoa Nguyen and his mother Kim Nguyen, supported by a friend, were too upset to speak yesterday as they flew to Singapore to see Nguyen Tuong Van one last time.]
Photo: Jason South
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Transcript
PM - Monday, 21 November , 2005 18:10:00
Reporter: Daniel Hoare

MARK COLVIN: The twin brother of the convicted Australian drug trafficker, Van Nguyen, has flown to Singapore to bid his brother a last farewell.

Khoa Nguyen flew out of Melbourne this afternoon with his mother Kim.

Van Nguyen is to be hanged in a Singaporean jail in less than a fortnight.

Khoa Nguyen will be reunited with his brother for the first time since Van Nguyen was arrested carrying heroin for a Sydney syndicate to help pay Khoa's debts.

Although the Singapore Government has set December the 2nd as the date for Van Nguyen's execution, his lawyers are still considering a final international legal bid to spare his life.

The Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says the Government is still committed to offering any assistance it can, but he's rejected the use of economic sanctions against Singapore.

Daniel Hoare has this report.

DANIEL HOARE: The time is slipping away for convicted drug trafficker Van Nguyen, with only 11 days left until his scheduled execution in a Singaporean jail. But his legal team have refused to concede that his execution is a fait accompli.

Van Nguyen's lawyer Lex Lasry is stepping up the pressure on the Federal Government, calling for the Prime Minister John Howard to refer the case to the UN's International Court of Justice. And he wants the leaders of the Commonwealth countries to put pressure on Singapore at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Malta this week.

But as Van Nguyen's fight for clemency continues here in Australia, his family face the harrowing task of paying him what seems to be a final visit before his scheduled hanging next Friday.

Van's twin brother, Khoa, wracked with guilt over his brother's predicament, flew out of Melbourne this afternoon with his mother Kim.

It was Khoa's financial difficulties which saw Van Nguyen attempt to smuggle nearly 400 grams of heroin through Singapore in 2002.

The Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, says that Lex Lasry's plan to take the case to the International Court of Justice looks unlikely to eventuate.

But he remains open-minded about any new legal avenues. He says the Singaporean Government would have to be convinced of the merits of deferring to the jurisdiction of the International Court.

ALEXANDER DOWNER: My own preliminary view is that it'd be almost impossible to bring a case to the International Court of Justice, because you would have to have Singapore's agreement to do so and the chance of Singapore agreeing to a case being brought to the International Court of Justice are fairly obviously remote given the position they've taken on the execution of Van Nguyen.

But I, to be fair, I did say to Lex Lasry that I'd get my department's legal branch to go through some of the ideas that he put forward and we'll get back to him once we've done that and obviously time is of the essence here, so I hope I'll be able to get back to him in the next day or so.

DANIEL HOARE: Alexander Downer says that bringing the Van Nguyen case to the International Court would be, at best, a long shot.

ALEXANDER DOWNER: My advice is that, given Singapore doesn't accept the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice except in a very narrow range of areas which has got, which are not relevant to Van Nguyen's case, that you would have to get Singapore to agree to a case being brought before the International Court of Justice and that is remote in the extreme.

DANIEL HOARE: Opposition Foreign Affairs Spokesman, Kevin Rudd, says that regardless of the chances of success, the Federal Government is duty-bound to refer the case to the International Court of Justice.

KEVIN RUDD: I've spoken today with Mr Nguyen's lawyers. I've spoken also with international lawyers.

Obviously, there are legal complexities involved in this, but I believe Australia has a moral and legal responsibility to take this action in order to defend Mr Nguyen's interests and to seek to get the Singaporean Government to grant an act of clemency towards Mr Nguyen.

DANIEL HOARE: There's also been calls from some quarters that economic sanctions against Singapore would be the only effective way to convince its government to grant clemency to Van Nguyen.

But the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, has rejected that approach.

ALEXANDER DOWNER: Imposing economic sanctions would be a classic case of cutting off your nose to spite your face. It would damage Singapore, but it would damage Australia. It would damage our commercial interests and, in doing so, we would make no contribution whatsoever to helping save Van Nguyen, so it would be a lose-lose policy to pursue.

MARK COLVIN: The Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer.

I found this video on The Pilot n' Jo Show who found it

onWe Are the Media. Gabe and his friend Pavle got stopped by the police in Amsterdam, Holland and promptly video-blogged the unpleasant experience of being illegally stopped and frisked. Looks like something that would happen in Singapore.

I suspect this is why there are so few vloggers in Singapore. They'll probably think we're terrorists, shooting footage to send back to Afghanistan.

Read up on almost every article related to the demand that Nguyen Tuong Van receive clemency at Omeka Na Huria.

Then go and sign the petition...

The Petition

We, the undersigned, are appealing for clemency for Nguyen Tuong Van. We believe that as a mature society, Singapore is capable of showing compassion and consideration for the extenuating circumstances surrounding Nguyen's case. As Singaporeans, we urge President Nathan to grant Nguyen a last minute reprieve.

Stop Hanging

STORY Van's lawyers gloomy about ICJ prospect
STORY Van 'blown away' by Aussie PM's kind act
STORY Outpouring of public protest and grief in Australia
VIDEO Kelly Ng describes the motivation behind the Reach Out Campaign to save the life of her friend, Nguyen Tuong Van

A Night of Solidarity with Nguyen Tuong Van
THE LETTER: Death sentence
STORY: Grim message shatters stricken mother
STORY: Execution date furore
VIDEO: Reaching out to Van
GALLERY: Nguyen Tuong Van

His Excellency S R Nathan
President of the Republic of Singapore
Orchard Road Singapore 238823

November 3, 2005

Your Excellency,

Smuggling 396.2 grams of heroin is a terrible crime; but premeditated execution is heinous.

Capital punishment is a deplorable act; it is a cruel and unusual discipline shackled to history's barbarous past. A death sentence eliminates retribution; it severs the establishment of moral conscience and mercilessly smothers all ethical instincts. Execution is a crime that cannot be undone, and murder is an unjustly permanent measure when weighed against fleeting transgressions.

Hanging Van Tuong Nguyen demonstrates to the world that Singapore's judicial system has principles set no higher than those of criminals themselves. To sell a man's life for an evil that will be forgotten faster than death oft takes its toll is beyond comprehension. Worse still, it lifts the offender to the moral equality of societal norms.

Repaying stupidity, ignorance, and lack of forethought with termination can only be considered uncaring, unenlightened, and underdeveloped. Any government with the insolence to wield such a law shall be shrouded in those very traits. Disciplinary alternatives are available that meet the needs of society (which the State is supposed to represent), while being a fair reproach for the felony.

Where iron rules are forged, iron fists and iron curtains have both been known to rise. Leaders like Lenin, Mao, and Hitler lacked the mercy that separates humans from hellions. Abolish capital punishment in your country. Van Tuong Nguyen must certainly realise the seriousness of his mistake; make him pay, but not with his life. Grant him clemency; and in so doing, show the world Singapore's capacity for compassion.

By Phil Mercer
Sydney21 November 2005

Australia is considering taking Singapore to the International Court of Justice in the hopes of preventing the execution of a heroin trafficker. Opposition politicians are also urging the government to impose sanctions in a bid to save Van Nguyen, who is an Australian citizen.

Time is running out for 25-year-old Van Nguyen. Singapore has said the Vietnamese-born Australian will hang next week.

But the Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Monday he would talk to the condemned man's legal team about taking the case to the International Court of Justice, or ICJ, in The Hague.

Mr. Downer concedes the chances of success are slim, as Singapore would first need to recognize the court's jurisdiction and the case would have to be heard at very short notice.

But Van Nguyen's Australian lawyer, Lex Lasry, says every avenue is worth pursuing.

"Australia would have to bring the action. That means Australia has to be persuaded that the action is able to be brought and that Singapore can be brought before the court as well," he said. "It's not a matter of being optimistic. It's just a matter of trying everything we can in order to avoid his death."

Van Nguyen's legal advisers argue that the mandatory death penalty imposed by Singapore breaches international law.

They also hope to persuade leaders attending this week's Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Malta to press Singapore to stop the execution.

Van Nguyen was caught trafficking 400 grams of heroin from Cambodia to Australia via Singapore in 2002. He told police he was smuggling the consignment to help pay off debts owed by his twin brother, who was a drug addict.

Australia has repeatedly pleaded for clemency on the grounds that Van Nguyen has no previous criminal convictions. Canberra has also argued he could help investigations into drug syndicates if allowed to live.

The case has aroused great public sympathy in Australia and opposition politicians have pressed the government to impose economic sanctions on Singapore.

But the government has refused to consider such a move, saying it would damage Australia's broader interests.

The condemned man's mother and twin brother were flying to Singapore Monday to visit him.

Trick is to stop its citizens bringing drugs into our region and then protesting about tough punishment when they're caught.
By Seah Chiang Nee.
Nov 20, 2005

Unless the trend is reversed, Canberra could one day become a major supplier of drug traffickers for Southeast Asia that even its mandatory death sentence could not stop.

In the same way that Pakistan or Saudi Arabia are considered to be a source to produce Islamic militants to the world.

And heavens forbid if that should happen, Australian leaders would then have a busy time running around persuading the region's governments to go easy on criminals.

More important is the potential friction between Canberra, which bars capital punishment and countries like Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand etc, which have tough lasw against drugs, including mandatory death for trafficking.

Two facts make it a potentially explosive issue if the two sides were to handle it wrongly.

1. Many Australians have little faith in the courts and the administration of justice in Southeast Asia, and

2. They passionately believe that Australians should not be 'humiliated" or punished by developing countries who may be corrupt or inefficient. There is a widespread denial mood, arguing the accused are somehow the victims of circumstances.

Besides, the Canberra government and the people do not regard drug taking or trafficking as seriously as the their counterparts in Southeast Asia.

Explaining Australia's concerns, one Australian wrote:

"A factor contributing to concern about the death penalty in ASEAN is the failure of ASEAN governments to release information about judicial executions carried out in their countries. In several of the countries executions have been carried out in secret. The lack of official statistics means that the true number of executions remains unknown. There is also very little public information about prisoners currently on death row in the majority of the countries."

Ultimately, the problem lies in the rising number of Australians who deal in drugs or use them in the region. They are available and cheap. Some resort to traffic them in Australia or Europe.

One of them, naturalised Australian Nguyen Tuong Van, was caught in Singapore, admitted to the crime and was sentenced to be hanged on Dec 2.

Earlier a group known as the 'Bali Nine' was charged (with three facing death sentence) in Indonesia while two other Australian drug traffickers are on death row in Vietnam.

Other recent cases:

* A Bali court found Australian model Michelle Leslie guilty of using ecstasy and sentenced her to three months jail, a period of custody she has already served.

* Another Australian lady Schapelle Corby is serving a 20-year jail term for drug smuggling.

* Australian mine worker, John Michael Kelly, 45, arrested in East Kalimantan in September for allegedly using methamphetamine could spend the next five years in jail.

* Australian nurse has been arrested after allegedly trying to carry 3.2kg of heroin across the Swiss-Italian border.

* Former school teacher Graham Clifford Payne, 20, Adelaide, was arrested in Medan in August with a pouch full of methaphetamines and could be jailed for 20 years.

* A Sydney man, 30 arrived in Italy from Venezuela reported with 10 km of high-quality cocaine hidden in false bottoms of his luggage. He was arrested while preparing to board a flight to Turkey and faces 20 years in prison

At the moment 11 Australians are languishing in Bali jails on drug charges, yet as an Australian blogger says they are still doing it. He adds:-

"Any Australian who gets arrested in another country on drug related charges now, after the goings on in Indonesia in the past year, would have to be pretty damned stupid, and totally blind to the world happening around them, more specifically, the perils of being a drug-trafficker or user. It's ridiculous for anybody to think that Australian travellers aren't being scrutinised or singled-out by Customs in other countries.."

In a letter to Jakarta Post, Indonesian Y.Saputra said he hoped "the Australian government should do more to prevent its citizens from trafficking drugs to Indonesia".

Other, he added, Australians would continue to remain in jail or face the death sentence.

His Holiness The Dalai Lama

Wav file (approx. 1hour 30 minutes)
Download the WAV file and have Windows Media player to operate. The audio cuts out when the applause or noise level overloads it, but returns afterwards.


Saturday 19th November 2005
The Edinburgh Usher Hall - 10.00am

In Conversation on Ethics for the New Millenium: His Holiness the 14th Dalia Lama and Prof. Sheila MacLean

Chaired by Richard Holloway.

Dalai Lama returning to Scotland

Mon Nov 7,12:36 PM ET

LONDON (AFP) - The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama will be in Scotland at the end of next week, his second visit there in 18 months, a spokesman for the Tibet government in exile said.

He will be in the Scottish capital on November 18-19 where he will meet journalists, attend an educators' conference, hold a dialogue on ethics, and join a global conference of parliamentarians interested in Tibetan affairs.

He will then travel to Belfast on November 20 for a series of events in the Northern Ireland capital, the spokesman told AFP in London.

The Dalai Lama, 70, has lived in India since he fled from Chinese troops in 1959, basing his government-in-exile in the hill-top northern Indian town of Dharamsala.

He paid a four-day visit to Scotland in May 2003 after spending a day in London.

His upcoming visit will come on the heels of a state visit to Britain by Chinese President Hu Jintao from Tuesday which opponents of Chinese rule in Tibet intend to protest at every turn.

Call for action on hanging
20-11-2005
From: The Sunday Telegraph

Support ... Friends place hands from their reach out campaign in front of the State Library in Melbourne / David Crosling

AN international campaign to abolish Singapore's mandatory death penalty would gain momentum with the execution of Australian drug smuggler Nguyen Tuong Van, his lawyer, Lex Lasry, QC, said yesterday.

Speaking from Singapore, where he will be visiting Nguyen later today, Mr Lasry, a Melbourne barrister, said there was little hope his sentence would be repealed.
Mr Lasry said, however, the fight to save Nguyen would continue.

He said yesterday's visit was probably the most difficult of his career.

Nguyen's execution has been set for December 2.

His mother, Kim, and twin brother, Khoa, will fly to Singapore to visit him in Changi prison this week.

It will be the first time Nguyen has seen his brother since he was caught with 396 grams of heroin strapped to his body and in his hand luggage at Changi airport in 2002.

He told the court he was trafficking heroin to pay legal fees incurred by Khoa.

An international campaign to abolish Singapore's mandatory death penalty for possession or trafficking of more than 15 grams of heroin had just begun, Mr Lasry said.

"Even if our client is executed, as he probably will be, the campaign against Singapore's mandatory death sentence will continue," he said.

"I've been on this case for three years now, and I'm of the view that it's a fight we have to continue."

With reference to Britain but also relevant to the recent references by Goh being made to responsible media in Singapore. The following is taken from Identity Crisis

As more people define themselves by their spiritual beliefs, there are controversial plans to introduce legislation to curb incitement to religious hatred. Philip Pullman asks if the law will distinguish between a rational analysis of theology and a call for violence, while Monica Ali, Philip Hensher and Salman Rushdie consider the threat to free speech

The Home Officer Minister initially in charge of the religious hatred legislation currently proceeding through Parliament has said that "wordsmiths" must write and speak with "responsibility". Free speech must be used responsibly. Everyone must understand that. Who decides if speech is being used responsibly? Why, the authorities. Home Office ministers. The rule of law. The authorities in the United States will decide whether protest is a responsible use of free speech. So will the authorities in Iran, who have their own views on responsibility. The necrocracy of North Korea would find absolutely nothing to quarrel with in the notion that speech must be exercised responsibly. Nor would any Chinese regime of the past 50 years. Responsibility is in the eye of the government, the church, the Roi Soleil, the Spanish Inquisition and, no doubt, Ivan the Terrible.

Free speech, we generally accept, is subject to reasonable restriction. Criminal libel or racist abuse, for instance, are not generally permitted. The case for "responsible" exercise of free speech, however, is not talking about reasonable restriction; it is different from a parallel exercise taking place at the same time, to draw the lines of "reasonable restriction" more tightly. What talk of "responsibility" does is to insist on restrictions that are universally appropriate. A statement may be perfectly legal, and yet - from this point of view - deplorable because "irresponsible".

It is absolutely clear that, in most of these cases, the case for "responsible" free speech is not being made to those who use their power or authority to damage the speechless and the powerless. There might be a case for saying that a powerful newspaper, a government minister, ministers of the church, should not use their voices irresponsibly against those who have no power of response. For instance, it might justifiably be said that the British newspaper which published a story, on no evidence at all, that asylum seekers were killing and eating wild swans was abusing its authority.

Similarly, we might deplore, on the grounds of "responsibility", the lie spread, without any medical evidence, by the Roman Catholic church in Africa, that the use of condoms is useless against the transmission of HIV. Such bodies, perhaps, do have a duty to consider the weight of their voices, and exercise their right of free speech responsibly. But that is not what is meant here. In almost all cases, what is being addressed is the free and reckless criticism of governments, of religions, of authority of all kinds. The argument that individuals have, individually, a duty to exercise free speech "responsibly" is not, despite claims, a strengthening of the status of free speech. It is an attack on the idea itself.

The progress of free speech has been advanced over the centuries, not just by calm, rational argument, but by excess and irresponsibility. Those who, with increasing noise, are insisting that free speech can only be permitted when it is used "responsibly", are prescribing across the board a range of expression and a range of agreed opinions. That is not free speech at all. If we want to hang on to the free speech of individuals, we must personally insist on continuing the noble and long history of irresponsibility.
Philip Hensher

Extracts from essays in Free Expression is No Offence, published by English Pen and Penguin on December 1

Related Article:
Role of The Media in Singapore?

This is a transcript from The World Today. The program is broadcast around Australia at 12:10pm on ABC Local Radio.

You can also listen to the story in REAL AUDIO and WINDOWS MEDIA and MP3 formats.




Transcript
Van Nguyen supporters rally in Melbourne
The World Today - Friday, 18 November , 2005 12:18:00
Reporter: Daniel Hoare

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Supporters of the convicted Australian drug trafficker, Van Nguyen, have gathered outside the State Library in Melbourne to display thousands of messages of opposition to his death sentence.

Singapore officials have advised 25-year-old Nguyen's mother of plans to execute him in a Singapore jail in 14 days time.

Australians have rallied to support the 'Reach Out' campaign organised by Nguyen's Melbourne friends, who continue to receive messages calling for the Singapore Government to grant him clemency.

Nguyen's lawyer, Lex Lasry QC, will fly to Singapore tonight, where he'll continue to publicly lobby for clemency despite a date being set for the execution.

Callers to talkback radio in Melbourne this morning were overwhelmingly against the death penalty being applied in the case of Nguyen, who immediately admitted his guilt and has cooperated with authorities since being caught smuggling nearly 400 grams of heroin into Singapore.

In Melbourne, Daniel Hoare reports.

DANIEL HOARE: As friends and supporters of Van Nguyen gathered outside Melbourne's State Library to unveil the extraordinary response to the campaign against his death sentence, talkback callers raged against the Singaporean Government.

Many called for a boycott of Singaporean products.

TALKBACK CALLER: We, personally, have a reservation to go overseas on Singapore Airlines next year, early in the year, and we discussed cancelling it last night.

RADIO HOST: Are you going to cancel it though?

TALKBACK CALLER: Yes.

TALKBACK CALLER: There's a bigger company than Optus in Victoria that's owned by the Singapore Government, and that's our electricity company called TRU. The Singapore Government needs to know that we're so upset about it we'll boycott their industries.

TALKBACK CALLER: I was slightly stunned when Howard announced that they were contemplating merging Qantas and Singapore Airlines at the same time as he was asking for clemency.

I'm completely against the death penalty under any circumstances.

DANIEL HOARE: The Reach Out campaign, organised by Van Nguyen's close friends, has called for messages of support for the 25-year-old. And despite the fact that Van Nguyen is now almost certain to be executed in 14 days, the thousands of messages are united by a common theme: that it isn't too late for the Singaporean Government to reverse its decision.

Nguyen's close friend, Kelly Ng, says she's been overwhelmed by the support from the Australian public.

KELLY NG: The response has been phenomenal. We can't put a specified number, but we've received thousands and there still are hundreds, I believe, coming through the mail that have not been opened.

All the hands that we have received so far are from across Australia and even from overseas.

DANIEL HOARE: Just standing here looking down it looks like there's, there would have to be thousands of colourful hands spread across the lawn here.

How many do you estimate there'd be here?

KELLY NG: I really don't know. Just thousands and thousands.

DANIEL HOARE: And it also looks as though people have put a lot of effort into preparing them.

KELLY NG: Yes, they've decorated them, they've used different colours, they've bought different papers, yeah.

A lot of people have just put a lot of effort into them and it's just not about just tracing hands.

DANIEL HOARE: Does it feel good to have received some support? Despite the horrible circumstances of this, does it give you some faith in the Australian people?

KELLY NG: It gives us a lot of faith and hope in humanity. The compassion that Australians have shown is really, really heart-touching.

Despite all the horrible things that happen in this world, it's just good to know that, deep down everyone is compassionate, that we are all human, we all do have feelings, and that, when required, we will unite as one.

DANIEL HOARE: Nguyen's lawyer, Lex Lasry, who will fly to Singapore tonight, paid tribute to those who responded to the campaign by sending letters in the shape of hands.

LEX LASRY: They are a very powerful and potent reminder of the importance of this case and the injustice. And they come from everywhere.

I haven't seen them all, but they come from, some from families affected by drugs. They come from prisoners in custody and all sorts of other people who've been through all sorts of traumas in their own lives and who have identified with this.

It's the most touching thing, I must say, I've ever seen in 32 years in the law and I commend everyone for their participation.

DANIEL HOARE: The Victorian Attorney-General, Rob Hulls, was also at this morning's gathering outside the State Library.

He says the Singaporean Government has shown no compassion whatsoever in its treatment of Van Nguyen and his family.

ROB HULLS: What's happening is brutal, is inappropriate. I, and the Victorian Government, vehemently oppose the death penalty in any circumstances.

And can you imagine sitting at home, getting a letter and opening up that letter and being told that your son is to be executed on a particular date, two week's time, and also told that you have to make funeral arrangements for your son? I mean, it is just totally inappropriate.

This is a young kid who has assisted the police all the way, prepared to testify against those for whom he was carrying this contraband. In any other country, he would get a discount in relation to the penalty. But because there is a mandatory death penalty for drug offences in Singapore, this young man may well be executed. It is just grossly inappropriate.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Victoria's Attorney-General, Rob Hulls, with our reporter Daniel Hoare.

The federal government should keep trying to stop the Singapore government from executing Australian citizen Nguyen Tuong Van, Opposition Leader Kim Beazley says.

Singapore also needed to understand Australians were mostly opposed to the death penalty and executing Nguyen would impact on diplomatic relations between the two countries, Mr Beazley told journalists in Perth.

to continue reading...

Niraj Pilot posted a question for discussion on the Say-So website: Is freedom of speech a lost cause in Singapore? View responses here.

Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF, Reporters Without Borders) has put Singapore (as well as neighbour Malaysia) on the watchlist for countries whose attitude to freedom of expression on the Internet is "worrying". [en français]

The 15 enemies of the Internet and other countries to watch

Reporters Without Borders marks the World Summit on the Information Society by presenting 15 countries that are “enemies of the Internet” and pointing to a dozen others whose attitude to it is worrying.

The 15 “enemies” are the countries that crack down hardest on the Internet, censoring independent news sites and opposition publications, monitoring the Web to stifle dissident voices, and harassing, intimidating and sometimes imprisoning Internet users and bloggers who deviate from the regime’s official line.

The “countries to watch” do not have much in common with the "enemies of the Internet." The plight of a Chinese Internet user, who risks prison by mentioning human rights in an online forum, does not compare with the situation of a user in France or the United States. Yet many countries that have so far respected online freedom seem these days to want to control the Internet more. Their often laudable aims include fighting terrorism, paedophilia and Internet-based crime, but the measures sometimes threaten freedom of expression.

[E. D.: The lists are condensed from the article]

The 15 enemies of the Internet
(in alphabetical order)

- Belarus
- Burma
- China
- Cuba
- Iran
- Libya
- The Maldives
- Nepal
- North Korea
- Saudi Arabia
- Syria
- Tunisia
- Turkmenistan
- Uzbekistan
- Vietnam

Countries to watch
(in alphabetical order)

- Bahrain
- Egypt
- European Union
- Kazakhstan
- Malaysia
- Singapore
- South Korea
- Thailand
- United States
- Zimbabwe

[E. D.: The citation is reproduced below.]

- Singapore
The government does not filter the Internet much but is good at intimidating users and bloggers and website editors have very little room for manoeuvre. A blogger who criticised the country’s university system was forced to shut down his blog in May 2005 after official pressure.

This is a transcript from AM. The program is broadcast around Australia at 08:00 on ABC Local Radio.

You can also listen to the story in REAL AUDIO and WINDOWS MEDIA and MP3 formats.




TranscriptSaturday, 19 November , 2005 08:13:25
Reporter: Nick McKenzie

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Lawyers for Melbourne man Van Nguyen are in Singapore arranging to meet with their client for what's likely to be the last time, after learning that he'll be hanged on December the 2nd.

Lawyers Lex Lasry and Julian McMahon say they aren't giving up efforts to save their client's life, and they plan to meet with diplomatic officials in Singapore.

But while the grim story has generated intense media coverage and political reaction here in Australia, it continues to generate minimal coverage in Singapore.

Still, a Singaporean human rights lawyer has told AM resentment against the death penalty is slowly growing in his country.

Nick McKenzie reports.

NICK MCKENZIE: Van Nguyen's legal team have arrived in Singapore.

His family and friends will fly over shortly.

They're now preparing their final goodbye messages, although his lawyers insist that while Nguyen is alive, there's still a chance to save him.

A Singaporean lawyer who's felt their frustration is M Ravi.

He's had two clients executed for drug trafficking, including Shanmugam Murugesu, who was hanged in Changi prison in May.

M RAVI: From the experience that I have seen from Shanmugam's case, that going to the prison, everyone just simply just cry, and Shanmugam's mother was banging her head.

NICK MCKENZIE: M Ravi says the Singaporean media, which is heavily influenced by the state, has given Nguyen's case very little coverage, and to much of the public, his is just another story of a drug trafficker facing Singapore's gallows.

M RAVI: Absolutely biased and so unprofessionally covered, and which is why it is not surprising that Singapore has reached 147th in the press freedom index. You know, whatever campaign that we have done – my letter to United Nations, Phillip Ersten (phonetic), nothing has been published. It's only what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs got to say, what the Government has got to say, the kind of twisted arguments about western liberalism and eastern wisdom.

NICK MCKENZIE: M Ravi says with the issue generating minimal public interest, there's very little hope for Nguyen.

M RAVI: If the Government of Singapore don't even give a damn to Mr Howard, so what are they going to do in Singapore?

NICK MCKENZIE: But despite the Singaporean Government's refusal to budge and the minimal mainstream media coverage, lawyer M Ravi says local resentment, however marginal, is growing to the way the death penalty is handed out.

M RAVI: The Singapore Government is very afraid that this itself will become an election issue because there seems to be quite a number of discussions since Shanmugam's case.

Since May this year there has been unprecedented debates and two journalists have also spoken up during Shanmugam's case that mandatory death sentence is something that the Government should reconsider. And the fact that a High Court judge formerly, former High Court judge has written quite a number of articles on this issue.

NICK MCKENZIE: Lawyer M Ravi is urging the Australian Government to engage in a sustained campaign to fight the use of the death penalty in the region.

M RAVI: We have Australia as another democratic institution, close to Asia, which can give us the support and also be a spokesman on this issue. They don't have to upset Asian nations, we are Asians, we can handle this issues, but please, do your part.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Human rights lawyer M Ravi speaking to Nick McKenzie

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is a group of lawyers, technologists, volunteers and visionaries defending the digital rights of bloggers worldwide. The EFF is running a campaign to support bloggers’ rights and to encourage new members. Over the next few years, bloggers are likely to be hit with both lawsuits and regulations, as blogging becomes normalized as a form of speech and political activity.

What does that foundation believe and fight for?

You have the right to blog anonymously.
You have the right to keep sources confidential.
You have the right to make fair use of Intellectual Property.
You have the right to allow readers' comments without liability.
You have the right to protect your servers from government seizure.
You have the right to blog freely about elections.
You have the right to blog about your workplace.
You have the right to access public events as media.

Know your rights and prepare to defend them.

(Via Crooked Timber)

The section below is of yet another outstanding article from Yawning Bread...

Creationist crusade reaches Singapore

In the Online Forum of the Straits Times, 15 Nov 2005, can be found a letter from an Andrew Loke who took ChannelNewsAsia to task for screening a documentary about the evolution of humans. He claimed that it was a "highly debatable theory" being "presented as fact."

He wanted the TV station to screen his preferred account "to let the public know the truth about our origin."

What is his "truth"? While he didn't say the word, we can surmise it is Biblical Creationism, for his main reference is a site called Answers in Genesis. Genesis is a section of the Old Testament of the Bible. See also links provided by a Yawning Bread reader, in footnote [2]

In creationist lore, the world was created by a Christian God called Yahweh (all other Gods being false, in case you didn't know) and so on.

Andrew Loke is spreading religiously-biased disinformation, and it is inexcusable that the Straits Times felt his letter deserved to be published.

This is just after the Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong said in a speech 31 October 2005,

Editors and journalists must have high personal integrity and sound judgment - people who understand Singapore ’s uniqueness as a country, our multi-racial and multi-religious make-up, vulnerabilities and national goals.

This too is while other letter writers in the Straits Times Forum, writing in support of a (government-)controlled press, were saying things like,

We should never forget that a fair and responsible press in a multiracial country is key to maintaining harmony and ensuring economic development and prosperity.

An irresponsible free press can spark chaos, violence and conflicts, leading to untold miseries for the people.

(See The debate about press freedom in the Straits Times. The above quote is from Paul Chan's letter, 9 Nov 2005.)

And Goh also said, in the same speech, that

editors should take a balanced approach so as not to allow the commentary and opinion pages of their newspapers to reflect only biased or partisan views. More importantly, news should not be slanted to serve a hidden agenda.

Andrew Loke's letter sure seems like hidden agenda to me, when he avoids mentioning "God" or "Bible" despite these being the bases of his views.

This is a transcript from The World Today. The program is broadcast around Australia at 12:10pm on ABC Local Radio.

You can also listen to the story in REAL AUDIO and WINDOWS MEDIA and MP3 formats.




Transcript
Van Nguyen supporters rally in Melbourne
The World Today - Friday, 18 November , 2005 12:18:00
Reporter: Daniel Hoare

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Supporters of the convicted Australian drug trafficker, Van Nguyen, have gathered outside the State Library in Melbourne to display thousands of messages of opposition to his death sentence.

Singapore officials have advised 25-year-old Nguyen's mother of plans to execute him in a Singapore jail in 14 days time.

Australians have rallied to support the 'Reach Out' campaign organised by Nguyen's Melbourne friends, who continue to receive messages calling for the Singapore Government to grant him clemency.

Nguyen's lawyer, Lex Lasry QC, will fly to Singapore tonight, where he'll continue to publicly lobby for clemency despite a date being set for the execution.

Callers to talkback radio in Melbourne this morning were overwhelmingly against the death penalty being applied in the case of Nguyen, who immediately admitted his guilt and has cooperated with authorities since being caught smuggling nearly 400 grams of heroin into Singapore.

In Melbourne, Daniel Hoare reports.

DANIEL HOARE: As friends and supporters of Van Nguyen gathered outside Melbourne's State Library to unveil the extraordinary response to the campaign against his death sentence, talkback callers raged against the Singaporean Government.

Many called for a boycott of Singaporean products.

TALKBACK CALLER: We, personally, have a reservation to go overseas on Singapore Airlines next year, early in the year, and we discussed cancelling it last night.

RADIO HOST: Are you going to cancel it though?

TALKBACK CALLER: Yes.

TALKBACK CALLER: There's a bigger company than Optus in Victoria that's owned by the Singapore Government, and that's our electricity company called TRU. The Singapore Government needs to know that we're so upset about it we'll boycott their industries.

TALKBACK CALLER: I was slightly stunned when Howard announced that they were contemplating merging Qantas and Singapore Airlines at the same time as he was asking for clemency.

I'm completely against the death penalty under any circumstances.

DANIEL HOARE: The Reach Out campaign, organised by Van Nguyen's close friends, has called for messages of support for the 25-year-old. And despite the fact that Van Nguyen is now almost certain to be executed in 14 days, the thousands of messages are united by a common theme: that it isn't too late for the Singaporean Government to reverse its decision.

Nguyen's close friend, Kelly Ng, says she's been overwhelmed by the support from the Australian public.

KELLY NG: The response has been phenomenal. We can't put a specified number, but we've received thousands and there still are hundreds, I believe, coming through the mail that have not been opened.

All the hands that we have received so far are from across Australia and even from overseas.

DANIEL HOARE: Just standing here looking down it looks like there's, there would have to be thousands of colourful hands spread across the lawn here.

How many do you estimate there'd be here?

KELLY NG: I really don't know. Just thousands and thousands.

DANIEL HOARE: And it also looks as though people have put a lot of effort into preparing them.

KELLY NG: Yes, they've decorated them, they've used different colours, they've bought different papers, yeah.

A lot of people have just put a lot of effort into them and it's just not about just tracing hands.

DANIEL HOARE: Does it feel good to have received some support? Despite the horrible circumstances of this, does it give you some faith in the Australian people?

KELLY NG: It gives us a lot of faith and hope in humanity. The compassion that Australians have shown is really, really heart-touching.

Despite all the horrible things that happen in this world, it's just good to know that, deep down everyone is compassionate, that we are all human, we all do have feelings, and that, when required, we will unite as one.

DANIEL HOARE: Nguyen's lawyer, Lex Lasry, who will fly to Singapore tonight, paid tribute to those who responded to the campaign by sending letters in the shape of hands.

LEX LASRY: They are a very powerful and potent reminder of the importance of this case and the injustice. And they come from everywhere.

I haven't seen them all, but they come from, some from families affected by drugs. They come from prisoners in custody and all sorts of other people who've been through all sorts of traumas in their own lives and who have identified with this.

It's the most touching thing, I must say, I've ever seen in 32 years in the law and I commend everyone for their participation.

DANIEL HOARE: The Victorian Attorney-General, Rob Hulls, was also at this morning's gathering outside the State Library.

He says the Singaporean Government has shown no compassion whatsoever in its treatment of Van Nguyen and his family.

ROB HULLS: What's happening is brutal, is inappropriate. I, and the Victorian Government, vehemently oppose the death penalty in any circumstances.

And can you imagine sitting at home, getting a letter and opening up that letter and being told that your son is to be executed on a particular date, two week's time, and also told that you have to make funeral arrangements for your son? I mean, it is just totally inappropriate.

This is a young kid who has assisted the police all the way, prepared to testify against those for whom he was carrying this contraband. In any other country, he would get a discount in relation to the penalty. But because there is a mandatory death penalty for drug offences in Singapore, this young man may well be executed. It is just grossly inappropriate.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Victoria's Attorney-General, Rob Hulls, with our reporter Daniel Hoare.

The federal government should keep trying to stop the Singapore government from executing Australian citizen Nguyen Tuong Van, Opposition Leader Kim Beazley says.

Singapore also needed to understand Australians were mostly opposed to the death penalty and executing Nguyen would impact on diplomatic relations between the two countries, Mr Beazley told journalists in Perth.

to continue reading...

Spot the odd one out..."sado-masochism, bestiality, homosexuality, paedophilia and promiscuity."
18 Nov 2005 05:38:09 GMT

Source: Reuters

SINGAPORE, Nov 18 (Reuters) -

Singapore opened its first sex exhibition on Friday with police saying they will also attend to make sure organisers and exhibitors comply with the city-state's strict laws.

Police and the Singapore's media watchdog have reminded event organisers of rules restricting the display of adult toys such as vibrators and warned them not to promote homosexuality.

"Organisers must not promote objectionable sexual behaviours or lifestyle, such as sado-masochism, bestiality, homosexuality, paedophilia and promiscuity," police spokesman Victor Keong said.

Titled Sexpo 2005, the three-day event will feature erotic dance competitions, an array of sex toys and sex-friendly furniture, as well as a series of seminars on sexual health.

Keong said police will visit the exhibition site to ensure that the rules are not breached.

Under Singapore laws, it is an offence to "sell, distribute, exhibit, import or export an obscene object". Those violating the law can be punished with a jail term of up to six months, or a fine, or both. The law does not define obscene objects.

Although a few sex shops have sprung up in Singapore in recent years, Sexpo organisers said they would err on the side of caution and exhibitors have been given a set of guidelines on the exhibit of adult material.

Sexpo director Kenny Goh said the display of obscene items, such as oversized vibrators, an inflatable sex doll and penis rings, have been banned.

Goh said it took about two months to get police approval to stage the event. Access to Singapore's Expo centre will be strictly monitored and only those aged 21 or above will be allowed entry.

The wealthy Southeast Asian city-state, which has consistently ranked at the bottom in a global survey of sexually active nations, is struggling to reverse its falling birth rate, one of the world's lowest.

In an attempt to shake off its staid image and woo tourists, the authorities are also gradually relaxing censorship laws that ban "Playboy" magazine and clip racy scenes from movies.

By Saffron Howden, Sandra O'Malley and Shelley Markham
November 17, 2005

SINGAPORE Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has apologised to Prime Minister John Howard for not personally informing him of the date for an Australian man's execution in Singapore.

And the Singapore Government has revealed that the letter it sent to Tuong Van Nguyen's family, informing them of his December 2 execution date, had been delivered a day earlier than planned. An investigation will be held into how this happened.

Mr Howard met Mr Lee today in South Korea and made another unsuccessful appeal for clemency for 25-year-old Nguyen Tuong Van, who is due to face the gallows at Changi prison in Singapore on December 2.

However, he did not learn until after the meeting that the Singapore government had set a date for the hanging.

The news came instead from Nguyen's lawyer in Melbourne, Lex Lasry, who said Nguyen's mother had been advised by letter of when her son would die.

Mr Lee today apologised to Mr Howard, blaming an earlier-than-intended delivery of the letter to Nguyen's family. The letter was meant to be delivered on November 18.

"PM Lee Hsien Loong has apologised to PM John Howard for not informing him of Mr Nguyen Tuong Van's execution date during their meeting this morning," Mr Lee's spokesman Chen Hwai Liang said in a statement tonight.

'Singapore works' claims the pro-Peoples Action Party commentator. Singaporeans have no real need or desire to question the workings of the PAP because Singaporeans are more concerned with bread and butter issues, economic success as opposed to 'Western' notions of liberal democracy and human rights viewed through the prism of Western values.

The 'whats works' argument is closely equated with pragmatism, one form of pragmatism. But just what is pragmatism, what are its limitations, are there other interpretations, how has pragmatism evolved? Is it really devoid of conceptual or value based considerations? How important is evidence based decision making to the pragmatist's agenda?

If empirical evidence was able to invalidate a so-called current pragmatic social policy how important is that in shaping future social policy implications to the argument of the pragmatist?

Download the programme originally broadcast by BBC Radio 4.
In Our Time / Pragmatism (43 Minutes)


PRAGMATISM

"A pragmatist ... turns away from abstraction and insufficiency, from verbal solutions, from bad a priori reasons, from fixed principles, closed systems, and pretended absolutes and origins. He turns towards concreteness and adequacy, towards facts, towards action and towards power". A quote from William James' 1907 treatise Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking.

William James, along with John Dewey and Charles Sanders Peirce, was the founder of an American philosophical movement which flowered during the last thirty years of the nineteenth century and the first twenty years of the twentieth century. It purported that knowledge is only meaningful when coupled with action. Nothing is true or false - it either works or it doesn't. It was a philosophy which was deeply embedded in the reality of life, concerned firstly with the individual's direct experience of the world he inhabited. In essence, practical application was all.

But how did Pragmatism harness the huge scientific leap forward that had come with Charles Darwin's ideas on evolution? And how did this dynamic new philosophy challenge the doubts expressed by the Sceptics about the nature and extent of knowledge? Did Pragmatism influence the economic and political ascendancy of America in the early 20th century? And did it also pave the way for the contemporary preoccupation with post-modernism?

Contributors

A C Grayling, Professor of Applied Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London and a Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford

Julian Baggini, editor of The Philosophers' Magazine

Miranda Fricker, Lecturer in Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London

From smh.com.au
November 17, 2005 - 7:30PM

Kim Nguyen now knows exactly when her son will die.

On December 2, at dawn, Melbourne man Nguyen Tuong Van will be led from his cell on death row in Singapore's Changi prison to a nearby gallows, where a hangman will be waiting.

Minutes later he will be dead, executed despite repeated pleas for clemency from supporters, human rights organisations, the Australian government and two popes.

Prime Minister John Howard appealed directly to his Singapore counterpart again today on behalf of the convicted drug trafficker, but was again rebuffed.

Ms Nguyen was told of her 25-year-old son's execution date in a letter which arrived at her Melbourne home at 2pm (AEDT) today.

"By letter, by registered letter delivered to her house ... it's incredibly impersonal," said Nguyen's Melbourne-based lawyer Lex Lasry, QC.

Ms Nguyen will now prepare to leave for Singapore, where she will be permitted to visit her son in the three days before his execution.

It is not know whether Nguyen, sentenced to hang after being caught with 396 grams of heroin strapped to his body and in his hand luggage at Changi airport in 2002, has been told of his execution date.

Mr Howard, speaking after a meeting in South Korea with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, spoke sadly of seeing Ms Nguyen in his Sydney electorate office on Tuesday.

He described her plight as "too pitiful for words".

"Needless to say she is in a state of great anguish," Mr Howard said of Ms Nguyen, who fled Vietnam in 1980 and who gave birth to twin sons in a transit camp in Malaysia. "I feel desperately sorry for her."

Nguyen claimed he was trafficking heroin to help pay off legal fees incurred by his twin brother Khoa.

Mr Howard's plea to the Singapore PM fell on deaf ears, with Mr Lee saying after their meeting: "I explained (to Mr Howard) why we were unable to accede to his request even though we understood where he came from."

But Mr Howard was also clearly angry Mr Lee had not told him at their face to face meeting of the execution date, which he ultimately learned from Mr Lasry.

"I'm very disappointed I was not told, very disappointed," Mr Howard said later.

Mr Lasry said he was also angry and frustrated that Singapore had decided to go ahead with the execution.

"I must say my overwhelming emotion at the moment, apart from being distressed by this, I'm angry.

"I'm angry that they (Singapore government) do such a thing in such an impersonal way and I'm angry that they won't see the injustice."

Mr Lasry and fellow lawyer Julian McMahon will fly to Singapore tomorrow and hopes to see Nguyen on Saturday.

Victorian Attorney General Rob Hulls said he too was disappointed at the news, and said Nguyen had shown "significant remorse".

"He even agreed to testify against those on whose behalf he was transporting the contraband," Mr Hulls said.

Both Pope John Paul II and his successor Pope Benedict XVI had made direct but unsuccessful appeals to Singapore to spare Nguyen's life, Melbourne Catholic priest Father Peter Norden said today.

"For two Popes to intervene, it's making it very clear that many people in this world are opposed to taking a life," he told AAP.

"We're deeply disappointed by this, but it's not finished yet," he said.

In Singapore, news of the execution date was met with resignation by human rights activists.

"I am not surprised. I just feel sad," said anti-death penalty campaigner and lawyer, M Ravi.

Nguyen will be the first Australian executed in Singapore, and the first Australian sentenced to death by an Asian country on drug charges since Queenslander Michael McAuliffe was hanged in Malaysia in 1993.

AAP

Nov. 15 (Bloomberg) --

Phuket, which suffered a 70 percent drop in international tourism in the six months after the Indian Ocean tsunami, is targeting gay visitors as it seeks to recover from the devastation of December's killer waves.

Thailand's biggest resort island this month hosted Nation V, the fifth staging of a three-day, nine-party gay festival that was banned by former host Singapore. As many as 2,000 revelers filled the Intercontinental Hotel Group Pcl's Crowne Plaza Karon Beach Phuket and seven other resorts for the event.

Tourism officials hope marketing to the gay community will accelerate a recovery in the island, where just 60 percent of 35,000 available rooms are occupied as peak season begins. Phuket is trying to win back business after the tsunami killed at least 5,400 people and wrecked resorts across Thailand's southeastern coastal regions almost a year ago.

``We were 100 percent full,'' said Eric Smutny, marketing manager at the Crowne Plaza, which doubled as the venue for the event. ``The spending power of the gay sector is well known. There are a lot of high-end gay tourists, and I think Asia Pacific slowly but surely is discovering this.''

Nation V, the first official gay party hosted by Phuket, coincided with Bangkok's annual Pride Week, a seven-day celebration of homosexuality that culminated with a weekend march through the Thai capital yesterday.

Thailand's more liberal attitude to sexual relations is enabling the country to capture a market that its southern neighbor has shunned. The average participant at previous Nation parties spent S$2,700 ($1,586), according to Stuart Koe, chief executive of Fridae.com, the event's organizer.

Singapore Ban

Singapore hosted the first four Nation parties on Sentosa Island -- soon to be home to a new casino. After the first three passed relatively unnoticed, 8,000 revelers turned up for Nation IV last year and local television news broadcast footage of the party, touching nerves in a state where gay sex remains illegal. Police refused a license for Nation V, and Singapore's health ministry claimed the party was linked to a rise in HIV infections.

Phuket was more than willing to step in, said Suwalai Pinpradab, regional director of the tourism authority. Sulawai said she hopes Nation becomes an annual event on the island and anticipates bigger crowds if it gets the go-ahead next year, once deterrents such as the tsunami, Bali bombings and Pakistan earthquake no longer keep revelers away from Asia.

``It's a good start. I talked to some of the participants and they're happy,'' she said via telephone. ``They're very good spenders compared to ordinary tourists because they had nine parties while they were in Phuket -- day and night.''

Gay-Friendly

Singapore's fourth and final Nation generated an estimated S$10 million for the city state's economy, said Fridae.com's Koe. Attendees pay $220 each for unlimited-access tickets, on top of spending for accommodation, food, shopping and drinks.

That's a boost for Phuket, where credit card spending fell 26 percent this year as of Sept. 24, compared with growth of 27 percent in December, according to Visa International Inc., the world's largest card-payment network.

Tourism revenue in Phuket, Krabi and Phang Nga provinces slid by 43 billion baht ($1.05 billion) in the year through mid- October, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand. Nationwide, foreign tourist spending growth has slowed to 17 percent from 30 percent before the tsunami.

``We chose Thailand because it has a very long history of being gay-friendly and that was very evident,'' said Koe, who runs Asia's biggest gay Web site. Singapore's ``un-gay friendly'' message, by contrast, will cost the city state, he said.

``The steps that have been taken to curb the gay community have been a step backward, and that's a message that gets sent out to foreign multinationals who might be considering coming to Singapore,'' Koe said.

`Pink Dollars'

Thailand's economic growth slowed to 3.9 percent in the first half of 2005, from 6.1 percent last year, partly because of a post-tsunami drop in tourism, which made up 6.4 percent of the nation's $164 billion economy in 2004.

About 5,400 people were confirmed killed -- half of them tourists -- and nearly 3,000 remain missing in Thailand after a magnitude-9 earthquake off Indonesia's Sumatra island unleashed waves that left about 220,000 people dead or missing in 12 countries around the Indian Ocean.

Andrew Tan, 26, a Singaporean graphic designer who attended three Nation parties in the city state, said he prefers Phuket.

He and his partner, though living in Singapore, used to spend about S$1,000 on a weekend hotel room package that included tickets to Nation. He estimates many foreigners who attended Nation in Singapore ``spent more than a straight couple coming for vacation for a whole week,'' attracting sponsors and advertisers keen to tap the market.

``If Singapore doesn't know how to appreciate and treasure these pink dollars, we should spend in a place that needs more tourists,'' said Tan. ``Anybody who can go to Nation can afford a trip to Phuket, and it's more exotic anyway.''

Original article is not about Singapore, but discusses democracy in a wide enough context to be interesting to us.

By Gisela Stuart

A contract of trust between citizens and politicians on a defined national community – we can elect you, we can remove you – is fundamental to a democracy, says the German-born British Labour MP Gisela Stuart.

Anthony Barnett & Isabel Hilton say that democracy is under attack from without and from within – and that the best way to respond is to open up the debate and find new forms of direct participation. As they ask: “If the basis for democracy is deliberation, then we have to ask who hosts the conversation?”

The experience of different nation-states offers a variety of possible hosts. The constitution of the United Sates of America declares government to be by the people for the people; in the Federal Republic of Germany it is “the people and the component states, the Länder”; in Switzerland, there are local plebiscites on everything from whether women should have the vote to whether someone should be given Swiss nationality; the European Union can issue invitations to apply for membership, but only insofar as its own member-states have given it powers to do so; the United Nations is open to all those nations which have signed up to a set of universal principles.

A question of belonging

The assumption that the more participation the better for democracy can be questioned, for it is incomplete: we need to know who takes responsibility for decisions. Democratic representatives must be seen as accountable, and this goes wider than accepting an election result. The process of fighting general elections makes it clear that democracy is a battle of ideas and of competing priorities. There will be winners and losers. It is no coincidence that we talk of “fighting” elections.

This is not the case in our transnational institutions, which are based on the hope that it is possible to divine, by a process of talks and negotiations, benevolent universal world governance that establishes peace and tranquillity across the world. Democracy is the privilege of those living in a few areas of the world and it is not an accident that all are based in nation-states. Viable democracy requires a strong sense of community or demos. Britain has this as does the US and France – but it is not so for the European Union, still less the world and its institutions such as the United Nations......

[Read more....]

The body of democracy by Gisela Stuart - openDemocracy

 (Its been decided, The USA will govern the internet)

The debate about who governs the internet will dominate the World Summit on the Information Society meeting in Tunis this week – but the world’s web users have more important things on their mind, says Becky Hogge.

One of the biggest draws of the information technology scene is that, unlike nearly any other sector of civic life, it does not tend to attract argumentative people in the twilight of their careers debating aimlessly in closed rooms without having the first notion of what they're talking about, just because they've come to feel very lonely when not accompanied by the sound of their own voice. If technology has one central piece of lore, it is “find it, fix it”. But times they are a-changing. Take a ringside seat at WSIS round two, starting this week, and you can say you were there when the tides turned.

Instead of getting down to the real business of pondering why, if this info-juice is so wonderful and free and everything, whilst I'm timestamping my political satire .mp3 downloads on the bus, there's a whole village in east Africa sharing one mobile phone, at the UN's World Summit for the Information Society in Tunis on 16-18 November we'll be asking: who controls the net? That's right, it looks like after all this time – why, we nearly had Mr Murdoch in a sweat back there – the world wide web was something that could be controlled after all.

Also by Becky Hogge, managing editor of openDemocracy:“Patents for profit: dystopian visions of the new economy” (March 2005)“Democracy and dissent at the World Intellectual Property Organisation” (April 2005)“The great firewall of China” (May 2005)“Mozilla’s ‘magic pixie dust’” (with Hamza Khan-Cheema, September 2005)“Open source nation” (interview with Geoff Mulgan, September 2005)If you find this material valuable please consider supporting openDemocracy by sending us a donation so that we can continue our work for democratic dialogue The question being put to the floor is, should the US government cede its control of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) to the UN? To most of global civil society, the answer seems clear. Of course the internet, a global phenomenon, should be controlled by a global organisation, no matter what we might think of the UN right now. Why leave it up to the Americans? What have they done for world peace recently?

But to every point comes a counterpoint. “Will the internet become the Unternet? ” screeched Tech Central Station last month. The headline (which, however misguided, possesses a beauty to make your average sub weep) captures perfectly American fears that its homegrown, freedom-delivering invention will become bogged down in geopolitical grey goo the moment it cedes control to the UN.

The minute you scrutinse what “control” Icann currently exerts over the net, both these arguments start to look a little premature. Because the holy grail of internet governance about to be debated at WSIS is a little thing called the root zone file – the system which controls the distribution of top-level domains (like .com, .org and .net) that make up the majority of the World Wide Web. Icann maintains the root zone file by virtue of a very tight, exclusive contract with the United States department of commerce. And the reason the DoC exerts control over the root zone file is because it bought it from a geek called Jon seven years ago.

As the Internet Governance Project so rightly point out in their recent report The political oversight of ICANN (no pun intended), this knotty arrangement with Jon (now deceased, who's company, VeriSign, currently owns the largest domain-name registry business in the world) means that wresting control of the root zone file from the US commerce department would most likely involve a Congressional debate. US law and technology do not happy bedfellows make (the US Supreme Court recently outlawed the photocopier) and the prospect of a nationally-lobbied US Congress having ultimate say in the future of the root zone file is almost as haunting as that of a conglomerate of techophobe heads of state working out what to do with it.

A debate about the governance of Icann is long overdue. But what that debate is not about is freedom of speech, human rights, spam, or any other of the motley crew of concerns that have been brought to the negotiating table at WSIS. Icann may be an opaque and cumbersome organisation, but the root zone file is not the internet. George W Bush cannot delete it in a fit of neo-conservative pique.

True, religious lobbying of the DoC did result in severe delays in the assignment of a dedicated top-level domain name for pornographic material, .xxx. Further, accusations have been levelled at Icann that (rather unsurprisingly) it favours US business interests and has been slow to move on multilingual top-level domains.

Also in openDemocracy on democracy and cyberspace:Esther Dyson, “Defending ICANN – an interview” (August 2002)Solana Larsen, “The WSIS: whose freedom, whose information?” (December 2003)James Cowling, “The internet’s future in an aircraft hangar” (December 2003)Bill Thompson, “Dump the World wide Web!” (December 2004) But Icann is not watching you, nor is it scanning your correspondence for keywords like democracy. Icann is not partitioning off the bit of the web that tells you the meaning of life, or tomorrow's outcome at the horse races. Just as American liberals are wrong when they opine that ceding “control of the internet” to an international body would allow repressive regimes like Saudi Arabia and China to cripple the net overnight, so civil society is misguided when it looks to UN “control of the internet” to bridge the digital divide (and in this respect it might well like to look at the UN-sponsored International Telecommunication Union’s record on competitive internet service provision in the developing world)

Throughout its short history, Icann has tried to find ways to “control” the web beyond the assignment of top-level domains, and Icann has failed. Now it's the UN's turn to fail. “Strong feelings about protecting the internet are to be expected” wrote Kofi Annan in a tempered Washington Post editorial comment (“The U.N. isn’t a threat to the net”, 5 November 2005), his attempt at calming everyone down. But feelings, no matter how passionately felt and how eloquently debated in Tunis, will not change the internet.

Whether we rent our space in the virtual world from a US-controlled Icann or a UN-controlled Icann, in the end we, the users of the internet, are the ones in control. And the World Summit on the Information Society would better spend its time this week working out how to get the next 5 billion users onto the information superhighway, rather than wasting our time erecting the kind of top-down policy roadblocks that the “find it, fix it” web has categorically demonstrated it can easily route around.

Why the WSIS? Democracy and cyberspace Becky Hogge - openDemocracy

The problem seems to be one of the law in Singapore stating that the death penalty is mandatory to those caught trafficking in certain quantities of illegal drugs and that this law is somehow "entirely open, fair and transparent", according to due process of law, in Singapore. Question the mandatory nature of the law and the reply that comes back is - its the law.

The idea that Singapore is now advising the special rapporteur of the United Nations on how to do his job is the classic 'attack the man and completely ignore the ball' tactic of Singaporean debate. Unable to engage in debate, because its mandatory - discredit your opponent by telling him he is doing a bad job, for not recognising the 'fact' that it is mandatory.

However the title of the article alludes to a wider issue, Philip Alston monitors the death penalty for the United Nations not Australia.

Wednesday Nov 16 22:32 AEST

Singapore has spurned a United Nations bid to halt the execution of Australian drug trafficker Nguyen Tuong Van, accusing its special rapporteur of trying to mislead the public.

In a strongly worded statement, the city-state said Philip Alston, the Australian who monitors the death penalty for the world body, of diminishing the credibility of his office.

The blunt rejection appears to close off a final avenue of hope for Nguyen, 25, who is expected to be hanged this month after being arrested at Singapore's Changi Airport in 2002 with almost 400 grams of heroin.

Late on Tuesday, Mr Alston had in a surprise move appealed to Singapore to halt Ngyuen's execution, saying that it would violate international legal standards.

The statement followed a last-ditch appeal to the UN from M Ravi, a Singapore human rights lawyer who has attempted to stave off the Melbourne mans execution.

Nguyen was sentenced to death in March 2004 and all appeals for clemency from his legal team and the Australian government have so far been rebuffed.

"We regret that Mr Alston has attempted to mislead the public. In doing so, he diminishes the credibility of his office," the Singapore statement from the ministry of foreign affairs said.

In his appeal, Mr Alston had focused particular attention on Singapore's mandatory use of the death sentence.

"Such a black and white approach is entirely inappropriate where the life of the accused is at stake," Mr Alston said.

Singapore law dictates that anyone convicted of carrying more than 15 grams of heroin, 30 grams of cocaine, or 500 grams of marijuana is deemed a trafficker, and must be hanged.

The local courts have no discretion to consider extenuating circumstances in such cases.

But Singapore said that the case law cited by Mr Alston was inappropriate.

"Mr Alston grossly misrepresented the facts in claiming that the Singapore Court of Appeal considered a range of cases decided by the Privy Council (but) failed to examine the most relevant case of all ie Boyce and Joseph v The Queen," the Singapore statement said.

"That case was in fact cited by Nguyen's lawyers in their written arguments and the Court of Appeal dealt with it in its judgment".

The Singapore statement went on to claim Mr Alston had overstepped his UN authority in even considering Nguyen's case.

"Mr Nguyen was tried and convicted in an entirely open, fair and transparent manner, according to due process of law, as has been acknowledged by the Australian government," it said.

"Therefore this case does not fall within (Mr Alston's) mandate."

By Jake Lloyd-Smith in Singapore
November 16, 2005

SINGAPORE today had no immediate reaction to a UN official's call not to hang convicted Australian drug trafficker Nguyen Tuong Van.

However, it has been welcomed by a local anti-death penalty activist who took the case to the world body.

UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston – an Australian based in Geneva – has said that Nguyen's execution would violate international legal standards.

A spokesman for Singapore's ministry of foreign affairs confirmed that Alston's remarks were under review.

A Singapore statement on the high-profile case is expected later today.

M Ravi, a human rights lawyer, filed a last-ditch appeal to the UN on November 8.

"It is important that the Singapore Government now, in this case, at least starts complying with international norms as regards the issue of the mandatory death sentence," he said.

Nguyen, 25, was arrested at Singapore's Changi airport while in transit from Cambodia to Australia in December 2002.

He was sentenced to death in March 2004 for carrying almost 400 grams of heroin.

All appeals for clemency from his legal team and the Australian Government have so far been rebuffed, and he had been expected to be hanged this month.

Mr Alston's statement focused particular attention on Singapore's mandatory use of the death sentence.

Singapore law dictates that anyone convicted of carrying more than 15 grams of heroin, 30 grams of cocaine, or 500 grams of marijuana is deemed a trafficker, and must be hanged.

The local courts have no discretion to consider extenuating circumstances in such cases.

"Such a black and white approach is entirely inappropriate where the life of the accused is at stake," Mr Alston said

From the UN News Centre
15 November 2005 –

A United Nations human rights expert today called on the Government of Singapore not to execute a man sentenced to death for attempting to traffic heroin, declaring that the execution violate international legal standards.

“Making such a penalty mandatory – thereby eliminating the discretion of the court – makes it impossible to take into account mitigating or extenuating circumstances and eliminates any individual determination of an appropriate sentence in a particular case,” the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions of the UN Commission on Human Rights, Philip Alston, said.

“The adoption of such a black and white approach is entirely inappropriate where the life of the accused is at stake. Once the sentence has been carried out it is irreversible,” he added.

Nguyen Tuong Van was sentenced to death for attempting to traffic just under 400 grams of pure heroin through Changi Airport in December 2002.

Mr. Alston noted that the Singaporean Government had in the past stated that the death penalty is primarily a question for the sovereign jurisdiction of each country, but he said matters relating to the functioning of the criminal justice system are legitimate matters of international concern when questions of non-compliance with international standards are involved.

He added that the Singapore Court of Appeal had failed to examine the most relevant case of all in rejecting the condemned man’s appeal, one in which the United Kingdom’s Law Lords endorsed the statement that “No international human rights tribunal anywhere in the world has ever found a mandatory death penalty regime compatible with international human rights norms.”

Noting the longstanding commitment of the Singaporean courts to the rule of law, Mr. Alston called upon the Government to take all necessary steps to avoid an execution which is inconsistent with accepted standards of international human rights law.

The following is copied here for my own archives and I have no real desire to go over the same arguments that appeared when Warwick issued its decision. Only thing I will say is that I love the last line of the article, "After all, freedom can be interpreted differently depending where you are in the world." Yes its all relative said the postmodernist. Or is it Warwick University that has learnt the hard lesson?

So how do we judge, who should learn the hard lesson, maybe Jaya Prakash who lectures in journalism at Beacon School of Technology in Singapore can tell us?


Singapore learns hard lesson
By Jaya Prakash

SINGAPORE - Authorities have learned a hard lesson after Britain's prestigious Warwick University snubbed the city-state with its decision not to accept an invitation to establish a campus.
The decision was a blow to Singapore's strategy to attract more foreign students and academics. It perhaps also is a temporary setback to efforts to transform the island into a knowledge-based economy.

State planners have dreamed since the early 1990s of Singapore as a knowledge-based state where everything from arts to culture and science and technology would flourish. The government plans to double the number of international students to 150,000 by 2015 as part of a strategy to reduce its economic reliance on manufacturing.

Warwick and the Australian University of New South Wales were the only two foreign universities selected by Singapore's Economic Development Board (EDB)to set up full-scale campuses, which would be able to grant undergraduate degrees.

Other foreign universities, mostly American, have satellite campuses offering specialized, usually vocational, programs, or maintain affiliations with universities in Singapore but do not award degrees locally. The University of New South Wales, which will be the first foreign university opening in Singapore, will welcome 500 students in 2007.

Meanwhile, many people are asking what went wrong with Warwick? That may be best answered by how Warwick's supreme governing body - the senate - expressed its displeasure through its 48 members. It would appear the snub was all about the school's lifestyle and reputation - in essence the "Warwick way of life".

The bottom line was that Warwick's senate was concerned about academic freedom, Reuters news agency reported. "In the absence of a positive commitment from the academic community, [the council] resolves not to proceed with the plan for a second comprehensive campus of the University of Warwick, in Singapore," the university said in a statement.

Thio Li-ann, a Singapore law professor who drew up an advisory report for Warwick University, warned the school that "the government will intervene if academic reports cast a negative light on their policies", Reuters reported. Singapore requires foreign educational institutions to abstain from interfering in its domestic affairs.

Thus, it clearly came down to a clash of values.

Where freedom flows
According to reports carried in Britain's Financial Times, the university had sought guarantees from Singapore on the protection of its students in such areas such as freedom of assembly, speech and media, as well as in religious practices. (Currently, Jehovah Witness adherents are kept on a short leash in Singapore, because of their opposition to compulsory national service.)

That a university known for its research prowess had to seek such a guarantee as a first step meant it had fears that needed placating. Warwick was evidently not willing to risk setting up a campus without getting guarantees on academic freedom.

As opposed to some other universities, Warwick's expertise and reputation lie mainly in its social science programs, where a great deal of analysis and probing is required for its academics to present their papers. Endangering or taking that avenue away - ie curtailing aspects of the research process so as to cause its academics to fall into disfavor with authorities - may have been what worked against Singapore's bid to attract the university.

Warwick also would have drawn lessons from the experiences and disillusionment of noted Singapore novelist and academic, Catherine Lim, whose 1994 essay "The Great Affective Divide" in the Straits Times newspaper invited sharp rebukes from the authorities. In the essay, she writes of "an emotional estrangement between the government and the people". It was only this year that she was able to get one of her essays published in the paper.

Yet another academic, Cherian George, was also similarly rebuked for remarks that did not endear him to the authorities. And a disparaging article for the International Herald Tribune on the containment of political opposition in Singapore also landed American academic, Christopher Lingle, in trouble with the authorities.

Meeting Singapore's standards would have meant enormous trade-offs for Warwick, which probably led the university's decision-makers to conclude it was not worth the exercise. Using that as a gauge, Warwick's fears may not seem unreasonable. That was further reinforced by the refusal of many academics in Singapore to comment on the Warwick situation.

Warwick, ranked eighth among British universities in The Times Good University Guide, has a reputation for diversity - its students come from all parts of the political spectrum.

For example, the university did not shy away from controversy when it recently invited author Salman Rushdie, whose book - The Satanic Verses - so inflamed Muslim sensibilities in 1989 that he lives to this day under a pall of death arising out of the issuance of a fatwa (Islamic edict).

Because such gung-ho activism cannot be duplicated in Singapore, it led one observer, Rejini Raman, to say that the country is not "ready" for Warwick.

It is curious, though, why Singapore's EDB - one of the bodies responsible for charting the nation's growth - put out feelers to Warwick, knowing the university's unique social features.

And it will be interesting to see what the EDB does with lessons it learned from the Warwick incident, so as not to derail its goal of transforming the country to a knowledge-based economy.

The incident has the potential of hurting the republic's chances of becoming an educational hub, as other universities no doubt have been watching events unfold. Warwick would have been welcomed with open arms had it tried to establish a campus where students would not have had their freedoms curbed.

But Singapore is not Britain or the United States. Regardless of what is published in the academic media, it becomes politically charged when it appears in Singapore's mainstream media, said Benjamin Detenbeas, an American who teaches media psychology at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University.

That, in a nutshell, summarizes the tenuous link between where academic freedom flows and feeds in Singapore. But as with all other freedoms that are dependent on one another, some links just have to be expediently severed in Singapore.

For its part, Warwick would have been better off had it understood better how to deal with others holding drastically different views. After all, freedom can be interpreted differently depending where you are in the world.

Jaya Prakash lectures in journalism at Beacon School of Technology in Singapore. He can be reached at prakruby@pacific.net.sg

Stumbled upon The Reader’s Digest condensed version of The Road to Serfdom via scito te ipsum.

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Fisher, the Digest junkie, is already politically active and is also worried about the future for his country. The April 1945 edition lands on his desk as he is moving to London and, after reading the cover story, he notes on the front that the author is at the University of London. A phone call establishes that the LSE is back in place and, one lunchtime or late one afternoon, Fisher makes the short walk from his office to the LSE and knocks on Hayek’s door. Fisher also recalled the physical setting of Hayek’s office in minute and accurate detail including its proximity to that of the dreaded Harold Laski. Fisher claimed that after small talk (which neither excelled at) the conversation went like this:

Fisher - I share all your worries and concerns as expressed in The Road to Serfdom and I’m going to go into politics and put it all right.

Hayek - No you’re not! Society’s course will be changed only by a change in ideas. First you must reach the intellectuals, the teachers and writers, with reasoned argument. It will be their influence on society which will prevail, and the politicians will follow.

I have this quote framed above my desk alongside Keynes’s famous line: ‘The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.’

Spotted this on tomorrow.sg.

The Singapore police are recruiting students as young crime prevention ambassadors as part of efforts to reduce crime involving the youth.

"To reduce youth crime, particularly shop theft and rioting, the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) has been engaging students to act as Student Crime Prevention Ambassadors (CPAs)," Senior Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs Ho Peng Kee saidat the launch of the annual Festive Season Crime Prevention campaign on Sunday.

He said that the aim is to teach students crime prevention strategies and they in turn can become mentors for fellow students.

NCPC believes that peer influence exerts a strong influence on youths, guiding them to make sound choices in life, he added.

Starting next year, a new program will be rolled out at 32 schools, teaching National Police Cadet Corps (NPCC) trainees to stop crime.

"It consists of a 3-year program where NPCC Cadets would acquire crime prevention skills and knowledge and embark on school and community projects under the supervision of both the school officers and the police liaison officers from the NPCs," he said, adding that "this program serves to strengthen the link between the police and the schools, establishing NPCC as a platform for its youths to become efficient crime prevention police youth ambassadors."

Pointing out that over the first nine months of this year, there have been increases in incidents of housebreaking, robbery,snatch theft and handphone theft, he stressed that crime prevention is everybody's business.

12:33 2005-11-15

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Tuesday that he urged Singapore to reconsider the planned execution of an Australian heroin trafficker, but was told that the decision was irreversible. Downer said he met Singaporean Foreign Minister George Yeo late Monday on the sidelines of the APEC ministerial meetings in the South Korean port city of Busan to plead for the life of Vietnam-born Nguyen Tuong Van, 25, who is expected to go to the gallows within a month.

Downer said he was pessimistic about Nguyen's fate.

Yeo explained Singapore's decision and said his government considered Australia's plea, Downer told reporters.

"But in the end he said that the decision of the Singapore Cabinet has been made, the decision of the president has been made and those decisions are irreversible," Downer said.

"I will always do my best to try to save the life of this Australian," he said, but added that he did not want to raise false hopes. "It's not only wrong for me to do that, it's cruel to do that."

Nguyen was arrested at Singapore's Changi Airport in 2002 while flying from Cambodia to the southern Australian city of Melbourne with 396 grams (14 ounces) of heroin strapped to his back and in his luggage.

Australian officials have told Singapore that Nguyen could become a crucial witness in any prosecution of drug traffickers, but Singapore said his offense was serious and it would remain firm on its tough position against drug trafficking.

Singapore has said it would be hard to explain to its people why Nguyen should be exempted from that policy, Downer has said.
Australia's Labor Party leader Kim Beazley has urged Prime Minister John Howard to ask his Singaporean counterpart, Lee Hsien Loong, to reconsider the execution when they meet at the annual APEC summit this week. Downer said Howard might raise the issue, but declined to elaborate.

Downer refused to answer when asked if Yeo informed him of the execution date but said it would be in the "short term."

"I, at this stage, don't have any other angles that I can pursue but I'm happy to take advice and hear other ideas and I'll always continue to push the case until the last moment," he said. "But I'm quite pessimistic about it,” reports the AP.
I.L.

ian b to me
Nov 14 2005

Hi there Steven, i wish to be removed from the contributors list. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to write on your site. it was a real experienced for me..

cheers

Singapore's New Generation

He (or she) is well educated, computer and gadget savvy, travels more widely than his peers in other countries, but is naive about Internet predators or corruption or real poverty.

This MTV generation is also self-centred, materialistic, and probably knows the price of everything but the value of none, having grown up in an era of stability.

That means he will probably think nothing about spending S$4 on a latte, while his father, who supports him, spends only 70 cents on his teh tarik at the corner coffee shop.

The Singapore kid may know the name of the latest Japanese pop star but not his own Member of Parliament.

These instant-noodle children will likely change their mobile phone every two years or celebrate their high school graduation ceremony in a five-star hotel.

If the teenager here can be put in a stereotype box, these few paragraphs could best help do it.

In these youths, grandchildren of Singapore's baby-boomers, lie the country's future.

In the eyes of respected former civil servant Ngiam Tong Dow, the new generation has another flaw. "Many lack 'cultural DNA' due to educational neglect to teach history and literature," he said.

As a result, they're becoming too Westernised. "Without a sense of history, we will become a people lost in limbo."

Youths here are frequently placed under the social microscope in numerous studies to see what is wrong and how they can be improved.

Every society worries about whether its youths have the capabilities to build a better future. In the case of Singapore with no natural resources, the dependency on its youths is even greater.

The leaders and older citizens often fret that they may not have what it takes to achieve it.

After 40 years of independence, Singapore has raised youngsters who have powerful strengths and fundamental weaknesses.

In a New World in which countries compete on ideas as much as skills, Singaporean youths have a major shortcoming.

Some 40,000 youths were emerging annually from a school system that - until very recently - was based on grades, hard work and rote learning, rather than initiative and inventiveness.

The result is a workforce good in data knowledge but not very suitable for an economy that competes on entrepreneurship and ideas.

For years youths have shared a single objective: To acquire a degree that offers them the best job prospect, preferably a high-paying one in the government.

Singapore's brand of pragmatism doesn't always serve its people well. No want wants to venture out into the risky world of business when they can nestle securely in a secure job.

That puts them behind rivals like Hong Kong and Taiwan where becoming their own bosses is an ambition of many youths.

During the industrial era, Singapore prospered by producing obedient students and obedient workers.

Today, in the skills services that Singapore wants to develop, these qualities are far less crucial.

But the institutions are still producing risk-averse youths who shun taking the initiative.

Chief operating officers of foreign companies often complain that Singaporeans may have good grades but lack in enterprise and ideas. "They need hand-holding" is a frequent complaint, many content to wait for instructions rather than "make things happen".

A decade ago, the education system was intensively restructured from primary school to university in a rush to produce a new thinking and diverse workforce.

The schools have begun offering non-academic courses that range from music to the performing arts, from languages to sports. Many of them grade students for practical projects.

The polytechnics have also increased new studies to meet the changing economy, the latest being casino operations.

One weakness is harder to correct. Despite national service, the new generation is politically apathetic and has little interest in current affairs.

Critics attribute it to a top-down environment under an authoritarian government that controls many aspects of life. It's tough to get people to speak up or become creative.

A trait that doesn't augur well for a stronger future, youths today still prefer to leave things to the authorities for fear of invoking punishment if they make a mistake.
..........