Terence Lee

THE POLITICS OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN SINGAPORE

We are bound together by the Singapore idea but it is not easy to define what exactly constitutes it. It involves both the heart and the mind, and probably includes aspects like good governance, civic responsibility, honesty, strong families, hard work, a spirit of voluntarism, the use of many languages and a deep respect for racil and religious diversity. George Yeo, as Singapores Minister of Information and the Arts (Yeo 2000, 25).

Creative shifts and directions: Cultural policy in Singapore

The availability and “readiness” of culture as a mode of governmental control makes cultural policy a matter of great importance in any contemporary society. This is true not only in liberal democracies with established arts councils or cultural policies, it is also proactively pursued by a technologically advanced yet illiberal regime like Singapore, eager to position itself as the global “Renaissance City” of the twenty‐first century. What this “renaissance” model entails remains highly cryptic, not least because cultural terms and political markers are often elusive, but also because the very concept of “cultural policy” shifts along with the political and economic tides in Singapore. Drawing on a rarely cited essay by Raymond Williams, this article offers an historical look at cultural policy in Singapore – from its first articulation in 1978 to its present standing under the rubric of “creative industries” (2002). It considers some of the problems encountered and the societal changes made to accommodate Singapore’s new creative direction, all for the sake of ensuring Singapore’s continued economic dynamism. This article contends that cultural policy in Singapore now involves extracting creative energies – and economies – out of each loosely termed “creative worker” by heralding the economic potential of the arts, media, culture and the creative sectors, but concomitantly marking boundaries of political exchange. In this regard, culture in Singapore has become more than ever a site for governmentality and control.

The media, cultural control and government in Singapore

This book explores this inherent contradiction present in most facets of Singaporean media, cultural and political discourses, and identifies the key regulatory strategies and technologies that the ruling People Action Party (PAP) employs to regulate Singapore media and culture, and thus govern the thoughts and conduct of Singaporeans. It establishes the conceptual links between government and the practice of cultural policy, arguing that contemporary cultural policy in Singapore has been designed to shape citizens into accepting and participating in the rationales of government. Outlining the historical development of cultural policy, including the recent expansion of cultural regulatory and administrative practices into the ‘creative industries’, Terence Lee analyzes the attempts by the Singaporean authorities to engage with civil society, the ways in which the media is used to market the PAP’s policies and leadership and the implications of the internet for the practice of governmental control. Overall, The Media, Cultural Control and Government in Singapore offers an original approach towards the rethinking of the relationship between media, culture and politics in Singapore, demonstrating that the many contradictory discourses around Singapore only make sense once the politics and government of the media and culture are understood.

The ‘New’ Singapore: mediating culture and creativity

In July 2003, the Singapore government released its ‘Remaking Singapore’ Report entitled Changing Mindsets, Deepening Relationships in the wake of the nations worst economic downturn since gaining...

Blogospheric pressures in Singapore: Internet discourses and the 2006 general election

Singapores technological prowess as one of the most networked cities, societies and nations is reflected in most statistical data. In its latest Intelligent Nation 2015 (iN2015) master plan, Singapore plans to integrate all aspects of info-communications into a single ultra-fast broadband platform that will be capable of delivering ultra-fast Internet. This paper provides a brief update on the extent of technological and Internet deployment. More importantly, it looks at how the Internet has further developed by analysing the events surrounding the 2006 general elections in Singapore. Each election in Singapore is arguably a key regulatory milestone for the Internet because new rules are either invoked via new or revised legislation or new warnings are issued to keep a lid on the effectiveness of new technologies. While Singapore has been unique in its regulatory approaches with censorship of racial, religious, pornographic and terrorist-related websites, it has also enabled its citizens in acquiring and developing credible technological competencies. This paper examines the impact of the regulatory landscape on the explosion of the Singapore blogosphere scene and considers whether the regulatory landscape has been altered following pressures brought about by blogs and other alternative websites. It argues that the implementation of both overt and subtle controls of alternative political websites as well as heavy-handed actions by the authorities to rein in errant Internet users and bloggers, along with the occasional talking-down of the significance of the Singaporean blogosphere, have accentuated the ambivalence that the Internet in Singapore has (re)presented.

Development and transmission of antimicrobial resistance among Gram-negative bacteria in animals and their public health impact

Gram-negative bacteria are known to cause severe infections in both humans and animals. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Gram-negative bacteria is a major challenge in the treatment of clinical infections globally due to the propensity of these organisms to rapidly develop resistance against antimicrobials in use. In addition, Gram-negative bacteria possess highly efficient mechanisms through which the AMR can be disseminated between pathogenic and commensal bacteria of the same or different species. These unique traits of Gram-negative bacteria have resulted in evolution of Gram-negative bacterial strains demonstrating resistance to multiple classes of antimicrobials. The evergrowing resistance issue has not only resulted in limitation of treatment options but also led to increased treatment costs and mortality rates in humans and animals. With few or no new antimicrobials in production to combat severe life-threatening infections, AMR has been described as the one of the most severe, long-term threats to human health. Aside from overuse and misuse of antimicrobials in humans, another factor that has exacerbated the emergence of AMR in Gram-negative bacteria is the veterinary use of antimicrobials that belong to the same classes considered to be critically important for treating serious life-threatening infections in humans. Despite the fact that development of AMR dates back to before the introduction of antimicrobials, the recent surge in the resistance towards all available critically important antimicrobials has emerged as a major public health issue. This review thus focuses on discussing the development, transmission and public health impact of AMR in Gram-negative bacteria in animals.

Forging an 'Asian' media fusion: Singapore as a 21st century media hub

The city-state of Singapore commemorated its 50th year of independence in 2015. In that 50-year period, Singapore defied the odds by forging itself into an important media and communication hub, one that services the Asian region by linking it to other global media centres. This article examines Singapore’s efforts to develop its media sector over the years from a historical (and) policy perspective. The article begins by explaining how early policy discourses were bifurcated along internal versus external lines, where the development of a national media system to mould a fledgling society was the internal mission, while externally, the vision was to promote Singapore to the rest of the world as a reliable port (where media and cultural goods can be safely and reliable transported to/through) and teleport (where messages and satellite signals can be exchanged via reliable telecommunications infrastructure and uplink–downlink facilities). It was not until the early 2000s, with the launch of Media 21 and the Creative Industries Development Strategy (both in 2002), that the external mission began to dominate. In 2009, the Singapore Media Fusion Plan (SMFP) declared that Singapore would become a ‘Trusted Global Capital for New Asia Media’. While articulating that a strong media sector engenders a better understanding of Singapore culture, the latest policy does little to promote local culture. Instead, the cultural footprint of Singapore has expanded to include not just Asia, but ‘new Asia’, defined very problematically in the report as ‘newly confident Asian countries’ (p. 26). This article unpacks the ‘Asian media fusion’ discourse and contends that the positioning of Singapore as a 21st century media hub is arguably the most overtly economic media and cultural policy that Singapore has yet produced. It is clear that the media sector is a little more than a cluster of economic activity, where the goal of the government and the agencies involved is to boost Singapore’s status as the best business city. The media hub policy rationales have thus been, for better or worse, coherent with the Singapore government’s broader economic ideologies over the past 50 years and look set to continue into the foreseeable future.

‘Inculcating’ creativity: culture as public pedagogy in Singapore

The Singapore government has long relied on the inherent public pedagogical qualities of culture in the forms of official cultural and media policies and in the unscripted signifiers of cultural conduct, such as in the publics attitude towards the arts. The prime objective is to instrumentalise citizens on how they should become both economically productive and creative whilst adhering to prescribed sociopolitical norms. The paper begins with a discussion of a 2012 debate surrounding a Singapore street artist, dubbed the ‘Sticker Lady’, who was arrested for vandalising public property with political incorrect stickers and provocative phrases. The saga sparked questions of whether Singapore is ready to embrace the increasingly open, technologically advanced and creativity-led twenty-first century. This paper argues that while the authorities are cognisant of the need to open-up society, it is finding it difficult to cede some aspects of control. Instead of making the case for a fundamental change, it argues that public pedagogical imperatives need to be better applied to realign the direction of cultural policy in Singapore. In essence, the perception of what creativity is and how it might engender sociopolitical openness is needed to ‘inculate’ a culture of creativity in Singapore.

Media governmentality in Singapore

The art of government can take all sorts of stances towards freedom. It can try to shape it or treat it as an artefact of certain governmental arrangements. It can seek to educe it among some and presuppose it among others. It can treat the governed as free persons or citizens, and rely on their capabilities to govern themselves rather than try to govern them. It can use freedom [or unfreedom or control] as a technical means for achieving its ends. (Dean 2002: 37)

Guest Editor’s Column: Global Challenges in Media and Communication: Public Pedagogy and Other Discourses

Our exploration of emergent social structures across domains of human activity and experience leads to an over-arching conclusion: as an historical trend, dominant functions and processes in the Information Age are increasingly organized around networks. Networks constitute the new social morphology of our societies, and the diffusion of networking logic substantially modifies the operation and outcomes in processes of production, experience, power, and culture. While the networking form of social organization has existed in other times and spaces, the new information technology paradigm provides the material basis for its pervasive expansion throughout the entire social structure (Castells, 2000, p. 500).