Professor Terence T. Lee

This chapter critically reflects on the authors’ involvement in an advocacy group based in Western Australia that comprises people from an asylum-seeking background as well as those who are Australian citizens. The chapter explores how those with lived experience of seeking asylum and those who act in solidarity can work together to respond to structural injustice. Advocacy from the group has resulted in some policy shifts at the local (state government) level, and is now contributing to a broader movement to give expression to local advocacy at the national level as well as grounding that broader movement in local work. We explore what we have learned and gained from our involvement in this group through drawing on Iris Marion Young’s concept of political responsibility for structural injustice as an act of solidarity between people seeking asylum and those who reside in their country of asylum.

This chapter offers a contemporary analysis of communication governance—or the way in which communication is managed or controlled—and electoral outcomes in Singapore. The chapter begins with a brief introduction to Singapore’s media environment and its media economics, and considers how the much-vaunted ideology of pragmatism has been used to shape the way Singaporeans understand the role of the media and their communicative engagement with the government. The chapter applies the linguistic discourse of ‘pragmatic competence’, understood quite simply as the mastery of social language skills we use to cut thought or make sense in our daily interactions and conversations with others, to explain how the People’s Action Party (PAP) was able to experience voters’ backlash at the general election in 2011 (and at the 2012 and 2013 by-elections in Hougang SMC and Punggol East SMC) and claw back strong popular support less than five years later in 2015. As much as elections are typically won (or lost) on policy rationales and responsiveness, the 2011 and 2015 general elections also demonstrated the growing significance of assiduous communication governance and the ability of the PAP government leaders to communicate competently, despite the authoritarian construct of Singapore’s national media system. The chapter then considers the ways in which the regaining of political power can lead to a gradual loss of pragmatic competence, particularly in an authoritarian context like Singapore. Indeed, it looks at how the government has again moved to tighten its media and communitive space by seeking to rein in alternative viewpoints and to regulate ‘fake news’. In this regard, it considers the impact of a well-publicised family dispute between Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his siblings, Lee Wei Ling and Lee Hsien Yang, over the last will of their father, Lee Kuan Yew, in relation to the demolition of the late Lee’s family home that lasted for several weeks from June to July 2017. The exchanges between the siblings—and with a number of senior ministers in the Cabinet—which took place initially on the social media platform of Facebook before the mainstream media reported on it are highly instructive to our understanding of communication governance, not least because the siblings expressly referred to the national press in Singapore as timid and cowed. The media, communication and political landscapes in Singapore point to the ever-growing role of pragmatic competence in communication governance. In fact, it is an aspect of politics that can no longer be ignored as Singapore will continue to face up to urgent social, technological and economic challenges as well as generational leadership changes over the future electoral cycles. The truly competent solution would be to liberalise media and communication spaces and to allow genuine political discourse to be conducted, but the ideological impetus of the PAP is to continue on its trajectory of control—this is considered as the pragmatic thing to do, at least for now.

On 9 August 2015, Singapore celebrated its 50th year of national independence, a milestone for the nation as it has overcome major economic, social, cultural and political challenges in a short period of time. While this was a celebratory event to acknowledge the role of the government of the People’s Action Party (PAP), it was also marked by national mourning, as founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew died in March 2015. This book critically reflects on Singapore’s 50 years of independence. Contributors interrogate a selected range of topics on Singapore’s history, culture and society – including the constitution, education, religion and race – and thereby facilitate a better understanding of Singapore’s shared national past. Central to this book is an examination of how Singaporeans have learnt to adapt and change in the face of policies introduced by the PAP government since independence in 1965. All chapters begin their histories from that point in time, and each contribution either focuses on an area that has been neglected in Singapore’s modern history or offers new perspectives on the past. Using a multi-disciplinary approach, this book presents an independent and critical take on Singapore’s post-1965 history. A valuable assessment for students and researchers alike, Singapore is of interest to specialists in Southeast Asian history and politics.

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)

Government communication is a curiously neglected area of discursive analysis. No considered examination of the subject exists which provides either an account of the contemporary governmental landscape or an explanation of the common and divergent themes on both a domestic and international basis. This volume would aim to fill that gap, providing a concise and illuminating case study based review of government communication. It will be divided into three sections to reflect differences in both geography and political allegiances, scrutinising continental Europe, Anglo-American traditions and newly emerging democracies. Offering a global and thematic account, it will be an indispensable resource for all students of political communication.

Australia-Singapore relations throughout the 1990s and 2000s have matured-be it politically, strategically, commercially, educationally, culturally, or socially. Security, diplomatic and commercial exchanges have both broadened and deepened. Equally important, the social, cultural and educational exchanges-from Australian theatre groups touring Singapore to extensive school exchange programs-continue to gain even greater strength. This book examines these key aspects of the relationship.