Singapore loosens reins with Speakers Corner

It may be only a little patch of green in a public park, but the proposal for a Speakers Corner here marks a deep departure from the tightly controlled environment that has dominated this small Southeast Asian country.

Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong's announcement last month that the government would designate a free-speech venue comes as a surprise just one year after opposition figure Chee Soon Juan was imprisoned for speaking without a permit in the crowded business district.

But Singaporeans today are becoming used to government programs aimed at teaching them how to think for themselves. Such programs include school curricula based less on rote learning, promotion of the arts, and government money set aside to help fledgling start-ups. All share a common goal: to inject ingenuity into a society robbed of its creativity after years of government micromanagement, observers say.

Located at the southern tip of Malaysia and straddling the Indonesian archipelago, Singapore is roughly half the size of Los Angeles and home to about 3.5 million people, 77 percent of whom are ethnic Chinese in a region dominated by ethnic-Malay Muslims. Known for its trademark toughness, the People's Action Party (PAP) has ruled Singapore since it was still under colonial control in 1959.

So why now is the old guard relaxing its paternalistic grip?

The PAP feels it must teach Singaporeans to take the initiative so it can compete in a global marketplace. "We need to get our people to be more willing to undertake risk," said the country's founding father Lee Kuan Yew at a recent conference. "It requires a completely different mindset. For us, the change means the abandonment of rules which have served us well for 30-plus years."

Mr. Chee and other critics, however, don't see the Speakers Corner plan in such rosy terms. Unlike their counterparts in London, a person here will need a permit to speak, and speech deemed offensive will continue to be curbed. Detractors slam suggestions that the site is anything but a cosmetic attempt by the PAP to co-opt the powerful symbol of free speech.

"There's a Chinese expression that if you give peanuts, you'll get monkeys. The Speakers Corner is peanuts," says James Gomez, a political activist who wrote and published the book "Self-Censorship: Singapore's Shame."

Gomez continues, "The people want more than a piece of space. They want a vibrant and real political opposition."

The limits imposed on the Speakers Corner mirror previous government attempts to inject creativity. In 1997, in a move to legalize street performances, artists were required to audition and donate any money collected to charity, while audience participation was banned.

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