Singapore’s Missing Pillars Of Democracy (Part 1)

OPINION In the opening speech for the Third Amartya Sen Lecture on Sustainable Democracy, the former prime Minister of Thailand, Anand Panyarachun listed seven main pillars for the artchitecture of democracy: elections, political tolerance, rule of law, freedom of expression, accountability and transparency, decentralization and civil society. In order to study and understand the missing pillars of democracy in Singapore, we must first ask ourselves the quintessential question: why do we need democracy? Years of systematic de-politicization by the autocratic regime and relentless propaganda by the state media have diluted the sense of awareness among Singaporeans on the importance of democracy and promulgated two pervasive public misconceptions: 1. Democracy has nothing to do with bread-and-butter issues. 2. “Western-style”... [read full story]                    

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