[yaacov]

One of the most interesting parts of Lee Kuan Yew’s book for me was when he talked about all the critics he sued for libel. He justified it as “of course I sued them for libel, otherwise why would anyone believe me when I said they were lying?”

[jb1991]

I once saw a book written by a 90s politician in Singapore that, in part, tried to explain why there is no free press in Singapore. The reason was that since all press are corrupt, the government cannot allow them. I found that amazing in its arrogance.

[seanmcdirmid]

This probably has a lot to do with Singapore's fragile existence after founding...after being kicked out of a union with Malaysia due to racial reasons, and with communist insurgencies in vogue in the 1960s/70s. I'm not defending them, just that their history is a reason why Singapore is Singapore.

[jb1991]

Every country has its unusual and unique histories, but most countries make progress in key cultural areas through the democratic process. Singapore has basically had just one family in power for its entire existence, which makes such progress much more unlikely, or at best, very difficult.

[seanmcdirmid]

> but most countries make progress in key cultural areas through the democratic process.

I don't think that is true, especially for the SEA region they are in.

[tmule]

Libel laws exist in Europe too, including UK. Their existence, per se, isn’t problematic.

[xxpor]

From an American perspective they certainly are, but I realize we're the odd ones out here with extremely strong 1st amendment protections.

[jb1991]

Freedom of speech is just as prominent in many other places, such as the Netherlands.

[xxpor]

I could believe that, I know very little about NL law. Is there anything in the Netherlands comparable to the US Sullivan rule?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Times_Co._v._Sullivan

[MichaelZuo]

One this count, it does seem like the rest of the world is correct, even Canada has much stronger laws against libel and defamation and there’s no real pressure to make then weaker.

[digianarchist]

This is how the PAP keeps the opposition suppressed in Singapore.

[xxpor]

And when that doesn't work: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_Security_Act_(Singapo...

[ValentineC]

These days, it's POFMA [1] and FICA [2], two laws that put a lot of power into the hands of the cabinet, especially our Home Affairs Minister [3].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protection_from_Online_Falseho...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Interference_(Counterm...

[3] https://newnaratif.com/shanmugams-stealth-coup-in-singapore/

[refurb]

Indeed. The one that stuck out to me is when a constituency votes PAP out, PAP turns off the money. HDBs aren't "selected" for upgrades. Public works projects are delayed, etc. And LKY fully admitted this - "If you don't vote for PAP, why should you benefit from our spending?".