Singapore’s human rights vs Hong Kong’s human rights
Singapore is often compared with Hong Kong and vice versa in many areas eg economy, shopping, transport, quality of life, jobs etc. They bear striking similarities in many respects.
But there is one area where Singapore trails far behind, and that’s in the area of political freedoms.
Hong Kong’s Basic Law or constitution, like Singapore’s, guarantees freedom of speech and assembly, but Singapore merely pays lip service to such freedoms. Like Singapore, a police permit is needed for a demonstration in Hong Kong but is usually granted unlike Singapore which is ALWAYS denied.
While both have a multi-party system, Singapore is to all intents and purposes a one-party state, thanks to its relentless efforts to stunt the growth of the opposition via a lop-sided playing field.
Hong Kong enjoys the freest media in East Asia while ours is state-controlled.
Of course, don’t believe what I’ve said. Check it out yourself, and see if it is the reality.
One of the hallmarks of a democracy is the ability to hold street demonstrations. If you are in Hong Kong, and happen to see a street demonstration see if it is that destabilizing and disruptive as the Singapore government often claims it is.
When you cry wolf too many times, there comes a time when people , out of exasperation, turn deaf.
9 Responses to “Singapore’s human rights vs Hong Kong’s human rights”
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SpotlightOnSingapore 
[…] on Singapore compares the human rights record of Singapore with Hong Kong and comments that Singapore is trailing in the […]
Singapore: Human rights record · Global Voices - March 1, 2011 at 12:05 am
[…] on Singapore compares the human rights record of Singapore with Hong Kong and comments that Singapore is trailing in the […]
Singapore: Human rights record @ Current Affairs - March 1, 2011 at 12:07 am
I think you had conveniently ignored the fact that because of all these demonstrations (organized mainly by the vocal minority fighting for their rights at the expense of the silent majority), the Hong Kong government was unable to implement lots of policies that will ensure their sustainability and increase their strategic competitiveness. They are losing to Singapore in many ways now, and they are now only able to depend on the concessions given out by China’s central government to remain viable (without which, Hong Kong would have long perished).
Check it out with economists in Hong Kong, and see what they said about these demonstrations and how it had affected Hong Kong’s business environment in the long term.
Just take the recent case of Hutchison Whampoa’s decision to list their port operations subsidiary’s stocks in Singapore, rather than their homebase HK, and you will slowly get the picture.
Miranda - March 1, 2011 at 4:56 am
@Miranda
There’s a nice article on Asia Sentinel that just tore apart your neoliberal babblings:
“Given the extent to which Hong Kong investors are regularly exploited by companies shuffling assets between public and private entities and by a Securities and Futures Commission which enjoys little support from the administration, the last thing Hong Kong needs is a new way for insiders to exploit outside investors as offered by Singapore-style business trusts”
http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2939&Itemid=424
ted - March 1, 2011 at 12:14 pm
Ted, Asia Sentinel is no economists’ platform, they are a bunch of albinos out to create havoc on any Asian country that do not follow their perceived superior “Western Values”…and their main aim is to tear down any Asian values, practices or views that differ from the so called Western values…and they do it with lies and misleading facts, and they have no credibility at all when it comes to independent and non-partisan views.
So, stop quoting those moronic articles from Asia Sentinel, will you?
* Readers, before you are being misled by so called articles from Asia Sentinel, please check them out…it is run by a team of albinos who think they have earned the right to criticise and comment on Asian values!
Simon - March 1, 2011 at 4:40 pm
I agree with Simon on Asia Sentinel. They certainly have an agenda against us…..
Lenox - March 4, 2011 at 2:16 pm
[…] Truth, Justice, and the Singapore Way – SpotlightOnSingapore: Singapore’s human rights vs Hong Kong’s human rights […]
Daily SG: 1 Mar 2011 « The Singapore Daily - March 1, 2011 at 11:32 am
That’s the stock defense of the authorities – you’re only a vocal minority. But they may be voicing the feelings of the silent majority.
Whatever the merit of each side’s case, it’s the ability to hold public protests peacefully that is the test of a true democracy.
Public grievances that are ignored or suppressed can lead to greater social upheavals, and in extreme cases, to outright rebellion as current events in the Middle East and North Africa have amply demonstrated.
The assumption that governments or big business are always right or have the public interest at heart is erroneous.
rogerpoh - March 1, 2011 at 12:01 pm
I’m an HKer living overseas, but I admire Singapore for its well-rounded and educated opinions compared to HKer’s narrow-mindedness. There are lots of strengths in Spore over HK, whose weaknesses were initially built in the post-war era on a low-quality base of face-obsessed Cantonese immigrants/refugees, which is why we get the lack of educated behavior, etiquette, English abilities/thought and depth relative to Sporeans.
Having said that, I agree with you that there is no better equal to Hong Kong than Singapore. I think that it’s an honor for HK to have a well-respected rival such as SG and I greatly admire Singapore and love how it’s also mutual from Spore’s side as well. I truly hope that HK could go off as an independent nation, and forge a federation with major political, economic, and social alliances and union with Spore, as an equal!
Having lived in HK in the 80s, SG is very nostalgic to me in that the kids on pingtoi’s (shared balconies) back in HK, had hairstyles, darker-toned skin color, clothing, and slippers, and their residential environments, look strikingly similar and nostalgic, but SG appears cleaner, organized, clean air (= brighter environment) They are like the nicer HKers of southeast Asia.
I have found that I draw greater similarities with Sporeans that I meet and learn about, which makes me apathetic with the Sporean’s point of view, often to the extent where I would agree with their point of view much more than the HKer’s.
IMO, Singaporeans are in some ways cooler than HK and Japan because Spore is an independent nation that is not linked up to China like HK is. Japan’s accelerating downhill. Sporeans are proud of who they are, which is absent in HKers.
Sometimes I think to myself, it would be so cool if I were Singaporean instead of HongKonger!
Kevin C. - October 27, 2011 at 12:41 am