Singapore academic freedom vs political control

Alfian Sa’at (ST)

By Ivan Lim
Contributor to AsiaN

Singapore: A liberal arts course on Dissent and Resistance for new undergraduates proved to be more than an academic exercise in Singapore’s jealously contested political space.

A Yale-National University of Singapore College (YNC) project was pulled from the Learning Across Boundaries programme because it was deemed to be politically oriented for students’ benefit.

Giving it a new title, Dialogue and Dissent, did not assuage the authorities’ anxieties that the studies would be exposed to political activism concepts espoused by speakers who are known government dissenters.

Poet and playwright Alfian Sa’at, who was invited to design and run the module, was criticised by Education Minister Ong Ye Kung for espousing “political conscientisation”.

“It is agitation aimed at making people conscious of the oppression in their lives, so that they will take action against these oppressive elements. And I think this is how Mr Alfian saw his project,” said the minister during a Parliamentary debate on the furore over the course cancellation.

He added that his ministry was concerned that the 16 students in the Sept 29-Oct 5 course would be exposed to the views of political activists and critics during panel discussions.

They included civil rights activist Jolovan Wham and artist/activist Seelan Palay –both of whom had run foul of illegal procession law – as well as journalist/activist Kirsten Han and historian Thum Ping Tjin who had contested the official narratives on Singapore politics.

Fueling further concern was the workshop on making protest placards and a field trip to the Speakers’ Corner, the only free-speech site where rallies are allowed for Singaporeans to voice their grievances against the government.

Perhaps what alerted, if not alarmed, the authorities was a planned screening of films, including Teenager versus Superpower, lionising young Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong.

Against the backdrop of on-going anti-government protests in Hong Kong, It has even conjured up images of foreign-backed “colour revolutions” in the mind of former ruling- People’s Action Party Member of Parliament Goh Choon Kang.

In setting limits to political advocacy and academic freedom, Education Minister Ong said: “Academic freedom cannot be carte blanche for anyone to misuse an academic institution for political advocacy, for this would undermine the institution’s academic standards and public standing.”

However, his questioning of Alfian Saat’s bona fides, based on his poem, Singapore, You are Not My Country, drew flak. Veteran diplomat Prof Tommy Koh said he regards the poet as a “loving critic.”

He added: “[Yes], some of his writings are critical of Singapore. But freedom of speech means the right to agree with the government as well as the right to disagree.”