History

To understand the current state of environmental civil society groups and their activities. It is impertinent to understand the history of how civil society groups in general developed in Singapore over the years.

Pre-Independent (Before 1965)

There are vigorous activism by different organizations

  • Trade Unions => To protect and ensure that the workers are paid
  • Student groups => To protect students’ rights and represent their stand on different issues
  • Immigrant and ethnic-based organizations => Presence of many different groups and each group wanted to fight for their rights
  • Mercantile associations => Maintenance of Singapore’s free port status

Each communities ensure that they had their interests represented during the British colonial rule. Even when the Japanese took over in 1942, there were still social movements, although these aims changed a little as they were targeted for a better overall living conditions because of the war that took so much resources.

Lee Kuan Yew (1965-1990)

“Whoever governs Singapore must have that iron in him. Or give it up. This is not a game of cards. This is your life and mind. I’ve spent a whole lifetime building this and as long as I’m in charge, nobody is going to knock it down.” – Lee Kuan Yew, 1980

After the British left, Lee Kuan Yew took over the lead of developing Singapore as the Prime Minister. He had a strong grip on the civil society groups. As a result, these groups in Singapore began to be subdued under his rule.

Civil societies were grouped into two main group – Those that were legal and those that were illegal

  • Illegal: Marginalized these groups. They locked the members up and/or shut the organization down
    • Eg: The Barisan Socialis-Controlled Singapore Trade Union Congress was shut down
  • Legal: Absorbed them into organizations where he could control them
    • Eg: The student union was absorbed under the Education Ministry’s control

Te the mid 1980s, these activities began again due to unhappiness from government’s policy

  • Gender: Government was encouraging higher birth rates and marriage for educated women only. Association of women for action and research (AWARE) was formed and went up politically against the government.
  • Ethnic: Association of Muslim Professionals (AMP) felt that Malay-Muslims’ interests were not being represented.

However, there was still a very strong clamp on civil society

  • Censure of Law Society (1986): The Law Society mentioned that the Ministry of Communication and Information (MCI) was restricting the circulation of foreign publication, which allowed it to gain a low of power. The ministry replied that a professional association should not comment on legislation and public policy. This led to them forming the Legal Professional Act, which states that organizations would not be allowed to interfere in running of government and policy formation unless invited by them to do so.
  • The Marxist Conspiracy (1987): The Catholic church had some political agenda against the state’s economic and foreign labour policy. Some individuals were deemed to be associated with various political dissidents to destabilize Singapore. The political dissents were detained under the Internal Security Act, which mentions that so long as individuals are deemed to be threatening the national security, detention of these individuals were allowed. The government was iterating that faith-inspired political activism was not welcomed and they wanted to draw a line between the church and the state.

Foreign entities were not allowed to interfere in policy formation. This was because foreign influences were likely to diversify the community in Singapore.

Singapore had a very protectionist stance. They showed that the state will not hesitate to use whatever means it has to control whatever civil society groups that deviate from the ideal they had. There were no qualms about using the full force of the law to detain those who wish to destabilize the state and society in their opinion. This meant that civil society groups could only carry on within what the state had defined as national interest.

The need for more liberal space started in 1984 General Elections where the People Action Party’s (PAP) vote share declined. they seek to have a more liberal, consultative and consensus seeking political style.

Goh Chok Tong (1990-2004)

“Greater freedom for Singaporeans to make their own choices” – Goh Chok Tong, 1990

In response to the decline in votes and with the appointment of Goh Chok Tong as the second Prime Minister, he announced that it would be an era with a greater freedom for Singaporeans to make their own choices. His administration was marked by routine use of public consultation to incorporate the various views across society. Although there indeed was more space for civil society groups to act, the boundaries of these activities are still determined by the government.

  • Catherine Lim Affair (1994): Catherine Lim was accused of overstepping boundaries when she talked about ministerial salaries. The government mentioned that she should only talk about politics if she seek interest and contest in elections

To support this type of political style, where they were trying to keep the civil society groups under control yet obtain feedback about their policies at the same time, they included a few other channels to do so.

  • Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP) (1990): A member of parliament who is not affiliated to any political party. This system was made to provide a formal channel for people in the different sectors to shape and debate on public policy.
  • Hong Lim Park Speaker’s Corner (2000): It was the only space in Singapore where one can legally stage public protests.

The arrival of internet also modified the way both the community and government deal with activism.

  • Singapore Internet Community, Sintercom (2001): Initially set up as a space for free discussion of politics and policy in Singapore with no partisan agenda. Although it was initially welcomed by the government, its founders decided to shut it down when asked to register under the Singapore Broadcasting Authority. Websites dealing with politics have to be under jurisdiction of this scheme and held responsible for their content, and required to refuse foreign funding for their activities. They decided to shut it down as they felt that the rules of the Broadcasting Authority was ambiguous as they refused to comment on what materials would be considered crossing the boundaries. It continued to operate in a limited way outside the country.

During Goh Chok Tong’s period as being the Prime Minister, Singapore seek to cultivate strong social ties such as volunteering to promote social good. Political rights to freedom of speech, expression, association and of media freedom was not preferred.

Lee Hsien Loong (2004-Current)

“An open and inclusive Singapore” – Lee Hsien Loong, 2004

Lee Hsien Loong suceeded Goh Chok Tong’s appointment and became the third Prime Minister of Singapore. He aimed for further openness in Singapore.

  • Modification of Speaker’s Corner (2008): The speaker’s corner was modified to become more liberalized.  Things such as demonstrations were now allowed, and events are allowed to be held at any time and amplification devices are also allowed.
  • Our Singapore Conversation (2012): A year-long nationwide engagement process to define what sort of country Singapore wants to be and how they can achieve it together. This was probably in response to the 2011 General Election vote dips for the PAP.

There were further growth of online discussion and activities. They introduced more legislation to bring news website into the Broadcasting Scheme if they were not under it.

Unlike the previous years, there are a lot more public engagement even during the planning process. They were starting to recognize the presence of civil society groups and engage them in conversation with regards to different policy movements related to them. However, not every statutory board are necessarily good at engaging the public and some are better than others as can be seen from the different saga or media wars.

Even though there is an effort from the top to have a mindset to engage in the public, many groups under the ministry are still not ready for this process.

Future

Civic activism has definitely grown to be more lively in Singapore. Or at least, the visibility in their activities is better. There is a wide variety of issues different civil society groups are tackling. These can range from movements that deals with the LGBTQ+ issues to those that deal with mental disability.

This of course, includes the environmental civil society groups. They have increased their depth and breadth of their topic of interest. They not only go into research, but also outreach activities. The sheer number of these different organizations tackling the different environmental issues in various ways can attest to this.

With the change in communication technology, the government also has to compete against more non-state actors while it exercise its powers.

Has civil society groups succeeded in changing policies? I would say yes, although the successes are rather limited and changes are really slow. Nevertheless, it is for a fact that the government has changed many policy in response to long-running campaigns by civic activist, albeit rather discreetly. In the “Nature conflict” tab, you can see a brief summary of some of the conflicts or battles the nature civil society groups had with the government over the years.

We should not take all these successes the civil society groups had for granted, thinking that change will happen eventually. If you do care for any of the causes, you should act now.