Human Rights Watch’s report on S’pore is partly based on interviews with civil society activists, journalists, lawyers, academics and opposition politicians, many of whom declined to be identified “due to fear of possible repercussions,” according to Human Rights Watch.
S’pore is called “a repressive place”:
“Beneath the slick surface of gleaming high-rises, however, it is a repressive place, where the Government severely restricts what can be said, published, performed, read, or watched,” the 133-page report said.
Yes,
the Government severely restricts what can be said, published, performed, read, or watched.
I personally don’t feel repressed because I have access to whatever I want to read, watch or listen. I can also say publicly what I want to say publicly.
(For the record, I’ve lived in London, Sydney, Melbourne and Manila for longish spells.)
And I don’t think many S’poreans feel repressed. The cybernuts from TRELand, TOC, Chris K’s FB wall etc are free to spew their venom and hatred of the PAP unmolested.
S’poreans are unhappy “yes” but repressed “no”.
What do u think?
well in those places, you have been, you can protest and you can make public gathering with little to no restrictions. In Singapore, you can’t so that is repression enough. Not to mention tendency to use disproportionate force. Here’s the thing though, if these things are not important to you or you don’t know you are being repressed, then you are not repressed……. at least not in the head LOL!
since only a small percentage feel repressed, the majority is being respected, so it is, in a sense, democratic
in the same way, many hongkees feel nostalgic about british rule; the colonials were hardly democratic, yet were not regarded as repressive; it is an art; anyone who gets too logical about this would just miss the point and hit a brick wall
again: sg govt-1; hrw-0