‘Back Regions’ and ‘Dark Secrets’ in Singapore: The Politics of Censorship and Liberalisation

The political transition from Lee Kuan Yew to Goh Chok Tong to Lee Hsien Loong has generally been interpreted as a trajectory of gradual liberalisation in Singapore. This discourse of liberalisation is encouraged by a variety of factors such as policy changes over censorship regulations, a younger and more cosmopolitan polity, the government's global city ambition and desire to turn the city-state into a creative hub. Such factors, however, often obscure the contemporary policing dynamics of the People's Action Party (PAP) state. Using Erving Goffman's concepts of the ‘back’ and ‘front’ regions, this paper will demonstrate how the PAP state operates in different social spaces and how it engages in the different politics of these spaces. Using specific cases from the theatre community, this paper argues that the discourse of liberalisation has grown because the PAP state has, in recent times, exercised its censorship powers in the ‘back regions’ of theatre, away from the media and public. Finally, it will examine recent amendments to the Films Act and the Public Order Act which clamps down on acts of civil disobedience, and show that this is consistent with what Goffman calls ‘dark secrets’—that is, facts that are incompatible with an individual's or institution's public image.     

Online Opposition in Singapore: Communications Outreach Without Electoral Gain

While “new media” have substantially altered the landscape for information dissemination and social mobilisation, these media are neither all alike in their ideological leanings or intentions, nor independently capable of identity transformation and mobilisation. The paper explores these new media in the context of Malaysia since the late 1990s. It differentiates among news sites and organisational websites, which transmit (often previously proscribed) information to domestic and foreign audiences, with potentially significant effects on “civicness” and mobilisation; blogs, which tend to be primarily personalised, monological and often unfiltered; and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, which have eroded the anonymity of online interaction but represent the apex of self-selected communities. “Old media” still populate this landscape as well, from newspapers and other media sources, to public lectures, to leaflets and other ad hoc publications. Even apart from common caveats as to who has access, criteria for evaluation of these new and old media as tools for political change must vary, including differing degrees of information-provision and edification, interest articulation and aggregation, and transformation of collective identities so as to enable new patterns of mobilisation for collective action.     

Filling the Moral Void: The Christian Right in Singapore

In March 2009 a group of Anglican Pentecostal women took over the Association of Women for Action and Research, a secular women's rights group in Singapore. This sparked an intense month-long public debate over a variety of issues which included the increasing aggression of the “Christian Right,” the secular nature of public space in Singapore, sex education and tolerance for gay communities, culminating in state intervention. While conventional sociological studies have suggested a variety of explanations for the growing presence of Pentecostal Christians in the public sphere, such as religious stratification or their links to party politics, few have examined it within the framework of nation-building. This paper seeks to understand the recent emergence of the “Christian Right” and its exposition on various moral issues within a historical context – a context from which the People's Action Party government successfully arose, in part, due to its self-construction as a moral state, and argues that the post-industrial challenges of globalisation have forced the government to be less morally conservative, resulting in a perceived moral vacuum which certain segments of Pentecostal Christians have felt compelled to fill.     

Toward a More Pragmatic Multiculturalism? How the U.K. Policy Community Sees the Future of Ethnic Diversity Policies

The United Kingdom is often considered a leader in multiculturalism. However, recent statements by British politicians, community leaders, and academics question the multiculturalist direction in policymaking. This article reports interviews about multiculturalism, national identity, social cohesion, and future policy directions with leading figures in the debate, including Home Affairs Select Committee members, authors of major reports, experts, researchers, and academics. The attitudes expressed when discussing overall policy directions in most cases indicate disquiet at the assumed segregative effects of current policies. However, when specific issues (sharia law, faith schooling, dress codes including veiling, dietary practices, political representation) are considered, most interviewees express a concern to accommodate differences in cultural and traditional standpoints through dialogue. We conclude that multiculturalism in Britain is not “dead,” as some have argued. Instead it is developing in a more pragmatic direction that emphasizes the importance of interaction and accommodation rather than top‐down interventions.     

Genetic variability of RyR2 and CASQ2 genes in an Asian population

We analyzed the coding regions of the cardiac calcium-handling genes, ryanodine receptor 2 (RyR2) and calsequestrin 2 (CASQ2) for genetic variants in a healthy Chinese population (n = 95) and in a cohort of 28 sudden unexplained death victims. Mutations in RyR2 and CASQ2 have been shown to alter calcium homeostasis during excitation–contraction coupling and predispose individuals to fatal cardiac arrhythmias. The genetic screening was accomplished by denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography and DNA sequencing methods. Genetic analysis revealed the following non-synonymous genetic variations: two reported RyR2 polymorphisms; 5654G>A (G1885E) and 5656G>A (G1886S), two reported CASQ2 polymorphisms; 196A>G (T66A) and 226G>A (V76M) and one novel CASQ2 mutation; 529G>C (E177Q). The functional significance of the novel CASQ2 mutation has not been evaluated and characterized. This study shows that multiple genetic variations of the RyR2 and CASQ2 genes exist in the two study populations. The inter-individual genetic variability may underlie the different susceptibility of individuals to developing ventricular tachycardia. The research results will be valuable for which future work involving clinical and forensic samples can be based upon to distinguish potential disease-associated mutations from common polymorphisms.     

European Community Law and the Redistribution of Regulatory Power in the United Kingdom

Abstract: This paper draws on a series of case studies of implementation of specific Community law instruments, in the fields of food safety, toy safety, beverage labelling, television broadcasting, and free movement of persons. The objective is to explore the question of how, and to what extent, the need to implement Community law and policy functions to reinforce or to retard shifts in regulatory power in the United Kingdom: from local to central regulatory power; from official regulation to self-regulation; and from bureaucratic and political controls to privately-initiated control through the courts.     

Book review

Anthony Arnold, Afghanistan: The Soviet Invasion in Perspective. Stanford, California: Hoover Institution Press, 1981. 126 pp. $9.95.

Michael Radu (ed.), Eastern Europe and the Third World. Eastbourne: Holt‐Saunders Ltd., 1981. 358 pp. £21.75.

E. J. Feuchtwanger and Peter Nailor (eds.), The Soviet Union and The Third World. London: Macmillan Press, 1981. 229 pp. £20.00

Wladyslaw Bienkowski, Theory and reality: the development of social systems. London & New York: Allison & Busby, 1981. 303 pp. £5.95.

Allen S. Whiting, Siberian Development and East Asia: Threat or Promise? Stanford: University Press, 1981. xv + 276 pp. $22.50.

Christopher D. Jones, Soviet Influence in Eastern Europe: Political Autonomy and the Warsaw Pact. Praeger, 1981. 322 pp. $29.95 cloth, $10.95 paperback.

Stephen Kaplan, Diplomacy of Power. Washington: Brookings Institution, 1981. 733 pp. $9.50 paper, $19.95 cloth.

Derek Leebaert (ed.), Soviet Military Thinking. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1981. xii + 300 pp. £14.50 hardback, £6.95 paperback.

J. Brine, M. Perry and Andrew Sutton (eds.), Home, School and Leisure in the Soviet Union. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1980. xiv + 279 pp. £15.00.

Manfred Melzer, Anlagevermögen, Produktion und Beschäftigung der Industrie im Gebiet der DDR von 1936 bis 1978, sowie Schätzung des künftigen Ange‐botspotentials. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1980. 250 pp.

Ilmari Susiluoto, The origins and development of systems thinking in the Soviet Union. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1982. 210 pp.

Michael Waller, Democratic Centralism, an Historical Commentary. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1981. 155 pp. £14.50.