Prospects for future Australian‐United States defence cooperation

Singapore’s governing elite is less bureaucratic and less separated from private interests than commonly thought. The bureaucracy has little independent strength and the political leadership is entwined with leading members of the business community, particularly the financial sector, to the point that the line between public and private is frequently indistinct. Given that democratic or interest-group constraints are minimal, transparency low and the rule of law in doubt, why Singapore’s activist economic policies have not decayed into a search for private rewards is rather puzzling. This article argues that Singapore’s record of sound government rests on informal governing institutions as well as attributes of the formal government sector. The informal institutions encompass nominally public and private actors in a systematized way, structuring the incorporation of private actors to embed the values of performance-based merit and working with, not against, government. The system of government is, however, fragile and may be showing signs of decay.     

Singapore's National Day Rally speech: A site of ideological negotiation

This article analyses the inaugural National Day Rally speeches of three Singapore prime ministers. It locates these speeches in the continuous ideological work that the People's Action Party (PAP) government has to do in order to maintain consensus and forge new alliances among classes and social forces that are being transformed by globalisation. Increasingly, these speeches have had to deal with the contradictions between nation-building and the tensions between the liberal and reactionary tendencies of the global city. It is argued that such a situation has made it futile for the government to attempt a straightforward ideological mobilisation of the people into a relatively homogeneous national community. The PAP government's ideological struggle to forge consensus has been balanced by a strategy of divide-and-rule. Ironically, the rally speeches have been as much about dividing as they have been about uniting.     

Singapore’s Phantom Workers

In 2009, the Singapore state prosecuted a string of businesses for listing fictitious local workers on their books in order to stretch their foreign worker entitlement. These “phantom” worker scams, prevalent since the 1980s, appear out of place in Singapore – a country with a strong international reputation for its government’s efficiency and strict legal enforcement. This paper examines the state’s prosecutions of the phantom worker scams in the context of the exceptional economic and political stresses in 2009, when Singapore was most severely affected by the global economic crisis, in order to address the employment regime in Singapore. It argues that the belated efforts to tackle the phantom worker scams reflected the pro-business state’s reluctance to tackle illegalities crucial to facilitating employers’ otherwise unlawful access to wealth and resources in Singapore.     

Production Politics and Migrant Labour Advocacy in Singapore

Since 2005, NGO activism, calling for greater legal protection for contract migrant workers has been the most concerted challenge to Singapore’s migrant labour regime. Despite a severely restricted civil society space, migrant labour advocacy has delivered small but significant reforms to laws covering migrant labour. The existing literature on migrant labour advocacy focuses on the importance of civil society space in determining the outcomes of organised contention. In the Singapore context, the limitations of advocacy are emphasised and explained in terms of the illiberal nature of the People’s Action Party-state and the strategies deployed by non-governmental organisations. Such an approach is limited in its explanatory potential as it only states what political spaces are not available without examining how spaces for contention are created. In contrast, this article identifies the production politics between migrant workers and their employers as crucial in influencing the extent to which spaces for non-governmental organisation contention can be carved out. Accordingly, this article argues that forms of production politics leading to worker desertion from the workplace, rather than tactical accommodation, have provided non-governmental organisations with the impetus to push forward reform agendas within an authoritarian political environment.     

反腐倡廉与政府采购:新加坡的经验及启示

新加坡政府采购制度以其廉洁高效的管理体制在全球供应商当中赢得了良好的声誉,为世界各国的政府采购工作提供了一个典范。新加坡经验对我国构建完备的政府采购法律体系、强化政府采购监督机制、建立透明的信息公开制度有借鉴作用。     

芳林公园的进一步开放与新加坡民主政治发展趋势

2008年8月初,李显龙在国庆群众大会上表示,新加坡政府有意开放政治言论空间,以让新加坡人及年轻网民有更大的参与感,宣布开放芳林公园为自由进行户外示威的场所,以让国人多一个表达意见的空间.芳林公园的进一步开放对新加坡的民主进程应该是一种良好的发展.任何有政治意识的新加坡人可以针对国家和民生的各种问题提出建设性意见和看法,这样可以鼓励更多的新加坡人出来参与政治.当然,此次开放也是有限度的,在芳林公园演说角以外的地方举行示威活动仍然不被允许.新加坡政府宣布设立户外示威场所的做法,多少体现出新加坡回应来自国内外挑战的主动适应性.人民行动党政府的这一举措已经达到了活跃民主政治、进一步改善新加坡开放与国际大都会的形象、加强民意的疏通与反馈、展现政府的自信与亲民形象的目的.     

新加坡学生报刊与华文教育的双赢模式

新加坡华文报业集团将手握学生报,一起＂iChinese＂（爱华文）,视为华文报业与华文教育发展的双赢模式。以贴近年轻人的内容和各种创意活动;搭建多媒体言论平台;有声报纸;发挥双份报纸的阅读成效等方式来建构双赢局面。     

新加坡网络内容管理的经验及启示

新加坡作为世界网络互联程度最高的国家之一,在网络内容管理方面采取“三管齐下”的方针,一是实施轻触式管理制度,二是鼓励行业自律,三是加强公众教育,提高网络安全意识。近年来,随着网络应用的日益广泛,新加坡出台了《分类许可证制度》、《互联网操作规则》和《垃圾邮件控制法案》等政策法规以完善其网络管理。新加坡网络内容管理既实行严格的法律制度,也实行价值观宣传等柔性管理政策。新加坡相关政策的制定不仅符合其本国历史文化及发展实践,还随着网络的广泛应用以及政府的重视而日益完善,其成功经验值得学习和借鉴。     

外国判决在新加坡的承认与执行

外国判决可以通过两种程序在新加坡得到承认与执行.第一种是登记程序,其依据是<英联邦判决相互执行法>或者<外国判决相互执行法>.前者规定了在英联邦国家获得的判决在新加坡的相互执行;后者适用于给与新加坡判决在该外国的承认与执行以互惠待遇的非英联邦成员的国家.登记外国判决的程序规定在<高等法院规则第67号令>中.第二种是重新审理程序,即根据普通法,以外国判决为依据在新加坡法院提起诉讼.     

Ordinary Singapore: The Decline of Singapore Exceptionalism

For decades Singapore’s ruling elite has sought to legitimate its rule by claiming to be a talented and competent elite that has made Singapore an exception among its neighbours – an exemplar of success and progress in a sea of mediocrity. In this article it is contended that this basis of legitimation has been irreversibly damaged. In essence, it is suggested that the governing People’s Action Party has lost control of the national narrative, and its achievements are increasingly regarded as being “ordinary” by the electorate. The mystique of exceptionalism, which was the basis on which the government was widely presumed to be above the need for close scrutiny and accountability, has collapsed. This collapse has substantially levelled the political playing field, at least in terms of expectations and assumptions. The government can and probably will continue to win elections and rule through its control of the instruments of institutional power, but the genie of scepticism and accountability has been released from its bottle, and it is hard to see how it can be put back in. This fundamentally changes the condition of Singapore politics: the narrative of exceptionalism is dead and the Singapore elite finds itself struggling to cope in a new and critical political environment.