Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Today, 30 days after the minimal 20th ratification, it marks birth of the first Human Rights Convention of the 21st century. This convention will come into force on 31 May 2008. What is this Convention about in a nutshell?
“The Convention marks a “paradigm shift” in attitudes and approaches to persons with disabilities. It takes to a new height the movement from viewing persons with disabilities as “objects” of charity, medical treatment and social protection towards viewing persons with disabilities as “subjects” with rights, who are capable of claiming those rights and making decisions for their lives based on their free and informed consent as well as being active members of society.”
True to its spirit of avoiding binding commitment to international agreements spun off from the Declaration of Human Rights, Singapore has not ratified this convention yet. In fact, our government has only 2 ratifications (or more accurately accessions) in the list of 16 agreements in the International Convenant of Civil and Political Rights. These two are the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. The mindset of our government is that it is better to avoid any legal obligations in signing such international agreements, rather than to sign them and then break the commitments.
I am no UN realpolitik expert, but I’m sure there is a way out of this yes or no approach – what about the use of Reservations when ratifying a Convention? Is that a feasible get-out-of-fix card?
Seditious Spamming
Spamming someone of another religion with one’s own religious pamphlets like The Little Bride is now a punishable crime.
The Singapore government is again out to assure the Muslim minority that their needs are also important. These symbolic gestures are vital especially when the authorities are out detaining alleged Jemaah Islamiyah members who use Islam as the justification for violence. The government tries hard to give the view that it is balanced and that it protects the interests of all Singaporeans.
Religion is a sensitive issue. Fitna this year and the Prophet cartoons last year sparked right wing politicians using freedom of speech as the pretext, and radical clerics using Islamophobia as the pretext, to go head to head with each other. The angry reactions in Singapore look comparatively muted and that is a good thing. But this tip-toeing around each other at the risk of being over-sensitive, only makes everyone thin-skinned and edgy, and perpetually immature.
The court case will be heard at the end of the month and I am curious to see how Christian radicals would react.
SINGAPORE (AFP) — A court has charged a Singaporean couple with sedition for distributing an evangelical Christian publication that cast Mohammed, the prophet of Islam, in a negative light, a newspaper reported Wednesday.
Ong Kian Cheong, 49, and Dorothy Chan Hien Leng, 44, had two charges lodged against them in court on Tuesday — one under the Sedition Act and the other under the Undesirable Publications Act, The Straits Times reported.
Police declined to comment and court officials could not be reached.
The report did not provide details about the couple’s alleged publication but said the couple had distributed it to two people, one in March last year and another in October.
Singapore, a multi-racial island nation, clamps down hard on anyone seen to be inciting communal tensions.
In 2005, two ethnic Chinese men were jailed for anti-Muslim blogs.
The following year, a Singaporean blogger received a stern warning after posting cartoons mocking Jesus Christ on his online journal, police said at the time.
Ethnic Chinese make up a majority of Singapore’s resident population but there are significant numbers of Malay Muslims, ethnic Indians and other groups.
Who’s Left to Blame, Who’s Right to Blame?
A collective finger-pointing is going on. The finger pointing is so intense that presumably people are starting to have sprained locked fingers.
Everyone blamed the Gurkhas and ISD at first, and then Wong Kan Seng, the Home Affairs Minister for his mismanagement. Then the PM for being invisible. Then the old patriarch entered the arena and reiterated the blame on the custodians, and also with a new variable, complacency of the guards. Recently, MM Lee resumed the torch carrying and used the word “negligence” for the first time, and blamed Singaporeans for going soft and turning complacent in th thrust of his message. Singaporeans then blamed the MIW and the government lock, stock and barrel, forgetting that 66.6% chose to vote in this government for another term.
The blame formula is simple. Blame the custodians for the escape. If they had done their job competently, negligence would not have set in. Blame the security forces for the unsuccessful manhunt. If police and SAF had deployed resources more effectively in the hunt, Mas Selamat might have been caught by now. Blame the MIW for not taking responsibility. This is a sidetrack to the escape and manhunt but it reflects what kind of shirking politicians we might have. Blame Singaporeans for voting such people in.
McCain, Obama and Clinton
Forgotten McCain is not the youngest, but he is the most experienced. But he is tainted with the guilty by association Republican-Bush administration badge. So the American public just wants change by looking at the Democrats’ black guy and white girl. If only there was an Hispanic gay Democrat, that would really spice up the show.
Political sideshows of age, race and gender, if we choose to be flippantly politically incorrect about it all. McCain, Obama and Clinton all represent change but Obama is identified supposedly by Singaporeans as the most iconic of change. Even the non-local media has picked up on this pigeon-holing of the seemingly “politically-aware” Singaporean. The infectious Obama is cool stand shows a lot about what Singaporeans know of politics, and most of us just see what we want to see. A common complaint is that Singapore politics is boring. Singapore politics is boring also because the voter is boring. The choice was always simple, just vote in an exciting candidate and not just talk about voting in an exciting candidate, when it is GE time.
Wed, April 02 2008
They are rooting for 46-year-old Barack Obama in the race against Hillary Clinton to be the Democratic Party’s nominee competing against 71-year-old Republican John McCain for the U.S. presidency, The Sunday Times said.
Obama is “attractive because he flies in the face of norms like experience and age that Singaporeans are used to,” says the blog from Aaron Ng, a 28-year-old with a master’s degree at the National University of Singapore.
The city-state has been ruled by the People’s Action Party since its founding more than four decades ago. There have been only three prime ministers.
“Politics here is not as thrilling as in the U.S.,” said Ashraf Mohamed, the 32-year-old owner of three candy stores. “Obama preaches hope, tolerance, change and dialogue, which is appealing to me.”
Others were quoted as saying they are turned off by Clinton and McCain. Obama is “inspirational” said Shanthan Selvakumar, 28, an energy analyst.
Singaporeans pay great attention to U.S. politics because of its supposed contrast to the more predictable politics here, said associate professor Bilveer Singh from the National University of Singapore’s political science department.
Some Singaporeans have even expressed an interest in donating money to the Obama campaign, but U.S. law allows only Americans to do so.
