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Singapore, take a good look in the mirror By ERIC ELLIS June 23, 2000 Web posted at 10:30 a.m. Hong Kong time, 10:30 p.m. EDT It's amazing what you find trawling around the Internet, as distinct from trawling through a newspaper, particularly those of tightly wound places like Singapore. Take a look at a recent report, titled State-led Creative Destruction, compiled by the U.S. embassy in Singapore. I wonder, if it wasn't for an eagle-eyed wire reporter, whether this document would've seen the light of day in Singapore's media. In most other media environments, Washington's take would have been front page news.
But not so this report. It struggled into the middle pages of the quasi-official press, underplayed and, as often happens with controversial (read critical or questioning of the government) stories, was bylined by the wire agency, in this case Agence France Presse. By internationally accepted standards of news judgment, this should have been a hot local story, up there on the front page in a town where a modest adjustment in public transport costs does make page one. But are we to assume that the local media, which markets itself as the region's premier news source, didn't pick up on the view from its most important foreign embassy? The answer might well be in the detail of the report itself, to wit: "The effectiveness of the government has ironically reduced the propensity of the populace to anticipate new challenges and effect survival strategies on its own." The Americans continue: "Šin this respect, Singapore may be a 'victim' of its own success in that decades of economic prosperity under a paternalistic but committed and competent government has led to a comfort zone developing around the people." Lee Kuan Yew couldn't have put it better himself. But the U.S. embassy in Singapore is not in the habit of putting out press releases that might be embarrassing to their hosts. Authorities here would doubtless say that the site is not playboy.com‹it's open to anybody who wants to have a look around. But usembassysingapore.org.sg is not Yahoo. It doesn't exactly roll-off-the-typing fingers. How much to tell the people is an interesting dilemma for a control-obsessed nation rhetorically trying to wean itself away from government involvement in the economy, in order to ensure its economic survival. As the embassy site explains: "The Singapore government is caught in a 'catch 22' situation. Thus far, it has maintained a relatively conservative and prudent stance towards privatization, indicating that it would divest if 'the market conditions are favorable and the price is right.' It emphasized that as 'government shareholdings (in government-linked companies) are public assets, they should be divested only if doing so would add value for Singaporeans.' However, as various senior political leaders have pointed out, there are virtually no local private sector entrepreneurs with sufficient resources, interest and expertise to take over or make substantial investments in the major GLCs. And the more these GLCs expand -- and 'crowd out' the private sector -- the less likely the government can divest its growing assets in them." And how much it tells its people how it plans to do that. Ticked off at Asia Buzz? Turned on? Talk back to TIME Write to TIME at mail@web.timeasia.com Search for recent Asia Buzz
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