Singapore’s 2013 press freedom ranking is at its lowest ever. Singapore is ranked at 149th place out of 179th countries in the world. Singapore is one place worse than Russia and a rank better than Iraq. Countries such as Tonga, Guyana, Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, Mozambique, Republic of Congo, Kuwait, Nicaragua, Bhutan, Gabon, Mongolia, Mali, Uganda, Kyrgyzstan, Bolivia, Ecuador, Cameroon, Chad, Tajikistan, South Sudan, Ukraine, Honduras, Colombia, Angola, Libya, Burundi, Zimbabwe, Morocco, Ethiopia, Tunisia, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Malaysia and many others are all ranked better than Singapore.
For a country that claims to be first world I say Singapore’s reputation as first world country is built upon the virtue of media blackout than anything else proper that should have defined first world countries. In a country where your fundamental rights aren’t respected and rule of law perverted to serve the ruling elite how can you still call such a country a first world country at all. If anything Singapore’s press freedom ranking tells the reality of Singapore that it is a developed third world country. That its governance is third world by any measure since the lack of press freedom implies the lack of transparency and accountability, hence the lack of rule of law.
And this is why Singapore is cracking down on bloggers and dissidents since Singapore’s government legitimacy to govern relies on fear. If this fear fails the government of Singapore will no longer able to maintain ‘order’ and continue to rule with impunity, without transparency and accountability. Fear is the mechanism that keeps Singapore going. Think twice before you decide to stay in this third world country. You should ask yourself this question that if Singapore government was really clean and respectable why would they insist on totalitarian control of the press in absence of state emergencies such as war? The truth is a fascist government is always at war and Singapore fascist government is waging war on its own citizens day in and out thus the totalitarian control of its press.
