'One-sided account': Singapore envoy rebuts claims about political system made on Australia radio programme

An Australian radio programme which discussed Singapore politics contained "several baseless claims" of the Republic's political system, said Singapore's High Commissioner to Australia Anil Kumar Nayar on Tuesday (March 17).

In a written article on the website of the Singapore High Commission in Canberra, he said that the March 7 episode of the Rear Vision programme titled "Singapore and the long shadow of Lee Kuan Yew" had told a "one-sided account".

Rear Vision was aired on national broadcaster ABC Radio, and it featured four guests: Dr Stephan Ortmann, Dr Michael Barr, Dr Gillian Koh and Joshua Kurlantzick.

Dr Ortmann is Assistant Professor of Politics and Public Administration, Hong Kong Metropolitan University; Dr Barr, Associate Professor of International relations, Flinders University; Dr Koh, senior research fellow of NUS' Institute of Policy Studies, and Kurlantzick, a senior fellow for SE Asia and South Asia, Council on Foreign Relations.

Nayar said presenter Antony Funnell and several commentators had made remarks about Singapore, including calling her an "autocracy", and "verging now on a flawed democracy".

Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs) were portrayed on the show as a "tactic" meant to obstruct the opposition in Singapore.

"From listening to your programme, your audience would not have known that Singapore, alone among Southeast Asian nations, has never declared a state of emergency or suffered martial rule, and never once failed to hold regular elections, throughout its history as an independent nation," rebutted Nayar.

He pointed out that General Election 2025 had the largest number of candidates from multiple parties and independents, and that nearly every constituency was contested.

"The Workers' Party (WP) was returned as the sole opposition party in Parliament, with increased representation," he said, noting that WP had "fared better" in its contested divisions.

"Hardly evidence that GRCs are insurmountable 'roadblocks'."

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The radio programme also touched on how WP chief Pritam Singh was removed as Leader of the Opposition by the ruling party, with Funnell saying that this "says much about the peculiar nature of what Singapore calls its democracy".

Nayar stated that Funnell had not mentioned a "key fact" — that Singh had been convicted of lying to a Parliamentary committee, which led to the removal from his role.

"Members of Parliament in other Westminster-based parliamentary democracies, including Australia, have been forced to resign if they have been found to have misled Parliament," he added.

The envoy also took issues with a commentator who "cast doubt on the impartiality of Singapore's judiciary in political cases", stressing that Singapore's courts are widely respected internationally.

"The claim that these same courts are impartial in non-political matters but compromised in political cases beggars belief."

Nayar said that some commentators chosen for the episode have criticised Singapore's political system for some time.

"What is surprising is that the ABC, a reputable national broadcaster, aired a programme that presented such a one-sided account and fell short of the standards of journalistic rigour that your listeners would expect," he concluded.

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lim.kewei@asiaone.com