Raising the bar
Jul 17th 2008
From The Economist print edition
A rare slip-up in court by Singapore's elder statesman, Lee Kuan Yew
MEMBERS of Singapore's government are notorious sticklers for legal exactitude. So it has been interesting to watch the reaction after the country's elder statesman, Lee Kuan Yew - a British-trained lawyer before he became a politician - gave inaccurate testimony in the trial of two opposition leaders.
In May Mr Lee testified in a hearing to decide damages against Chee Soon Juan, the leader of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), and his sister, Chee Siok Chin, for defaming the former prime minister and his son, Lee Hsien Loong, who is now prime minister himself. Mr Lee senior claimed that after the London-based International Bar Association (IBA) held its annual conference in Singapore last October, its president sent a letter to the Law Society of Singapore praising the country's justice system. It has since emerged that there was no such laudatory letter.
Mr Chee (who along with his sister was briefly jailed for contempt for accusing the judge in his case of bias) tried unsuccessfully to have the hearing reconvened in the light of Mr Lee's incorrect testimony. Mr Lee's counsel, Davinder Singh, wrote to the court on July 9th admitting that his client was wrong about the letter but noting that the IBA's president, Fernando Pombo, had praised Singapore's "outstanding judiciary" in a speech at the start of the conference. Mr Singh argues that what matters is that the IBA did praise Singaporean justice, not whether it did so in a speech or a letter. Mr Chee says there is a difference: the speech was made before the conference, where criticisms of the justice system were aired. Mr Lee was claiming, in effect, that the IBA was still impressed after this.
By coincidence, on July 9th the IBA's Human Rights Institute issued a report criticising the use of defamation suits by the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) to silence the opposition and the press, and expressing concerns about the independence and impartiality of Singapore's judges. The law ministry has rejected the IBA's report, pointing out that Singapore's legal system has won excellent ratings in other international surveys. Indeed, in cases not involving the country's leaders, there is no dispute about its quality. As for the IBA's worries about cases involving PAP figures, the law ministry claims that the IBA failed to substantiate its "grave" allegations with evidence, though its report does discuss several worrying cases.
America's State Department, which is in rather less danger of being sued by the PAP than are the opposition or newspapers, has expressed concern about judicial independence in political cases in Singapore. In its latest human-rights report, in March, the department noted that the PAP's consistent success in defamation suits against critics "led to a perception that the judiciary reflected the views of the ruling party in politically sensitive cases."
According to the Straits Times newspaper, Mr Lee on July 11th accused human-rights organisations of "a conspiracy to do us in". He said that they saw that Russia and China had been studying Singapore's success, and hence regarded it as a threat. Mr Lee and the government argue that doing things their way has made Singapore prosperous, orderly and corruption-free, and has earned international respect. The threat of defamation proceedings may make opposition politicians weigh their words more carefully than they do elsewhere. But Singaporean voters continue to buy the PAP's argument that such constraints are a price worth paying so far.
Some people REALLY need to stop talking. A conspiracy? Between Russia and China? Really? Because somehow I suspect China is less than concerned about Singapore, particularly in any economic way.
So. "White Teeth" and "White Fang"? Totally not the same book. Read the former, people! It's great. I'm only sorry I had them confused for so long.
I am officially the only sibling who doesn't have a university degree.
..in other words, wish my sister a happy graduation!
1) I'm about to start Act II of the script; my mode of working seems to be: scribble on a notepad in a cafe, and transcribe when I get home. I can't seem to write directly on the computer; something about the white screen makes my writing muscle seize up completely.
...I just realized this doesn't happen (a lot) when I'm in the newsroom. Bizarre.
2) The whole online LGBT video idea has to be shelved. It's a pity, because I found a user-created Wordpress template that fits my needs perfectly. But what with the YouTube crackdown, a lot of the videos have been disappearing, and I don't want to create a website where the links are likely to die.
3) I'm quite happy with the amount of reading I've done, even if some of the books have titles like "Sophie Pitt-Turnbull Discovers America". I think my favourite new discovery is Scott Westerfeld; I've read three books by him now, and they've all been fun. He's a bit like John Scalzi (and the two are friends, which doesn't surprise me), and I highly recommend "So Yesterday", which is a standalone novel.
I've started watching Liao Zhai (Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio) on tudou.com. Why? Because I saw bits of an episode while having dinner and the male lead was like zomg cute.
Why yes, I can be that shallow.
On the bright side, I am (re)learning a fair bit of Mandarin. Now I just need to find a society that speaks Ancient Scholar Mandarin.
Edited to add: Oh, my god. I'M TURNING INTO MY MOTHER. I just watched the most crap-tastic movie because it stars the same guy from the Liao Zhai story. When I start buying DVDs because of the guy the transformation will be complete.
Picked up Milan Kundera's "Immortality" from the Seng Kang library, and this was in the blurb:
"This is one of those unclassifiable masterpieces that appear every twenty years or so."
It's the "every twenty years or so" part that completely trips me up. Where did this statistic come from? Is it an average? Is it not? Is there some clandestine publishers' agreement to put out an unclassifiable masterpiece every twenty years?
Questions, questions, questions...
Outline for script: check.
40 short films downloaded for eventual website: check.
Part I of getting my visa in order: check.
New bermudas: check.
Waaay too much shopping: check, check, check, check, check.
Now waiting to hear from NYU about who my mentees for the fall are, and working on a sooper sekret project.
If all goes according to plan, I should be back in New York by August 4th, NY time.