Imitation is the Best Form of Flattery
Bloggers would have known by now that NMP Siew Kum Hong was under ferocious attack in the Internet because of his involvement in intra-Aware politics. His critics have continued the skirmishes even after the EGM early this month when the Aware Exco led by Josie Lau and masterminded by Thio Su Mien was shown the door. Lately, the NMP who was wrongly labelled as a gay issue-only MP, implied embarking on bringing his more ridiculously rambunctious critics to court for defaming him.
There is a need for slander and libel laws even in an utopia of freedom of speech. But when such legal batons are brandished in political and semi-political contexts, any local political watcher would immediately think of the PAP. A political figure is, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse, expected to be a lightning rod for rumours, scandals and criticisms by both the public and competitor political personalities. Whether to ignore the attacks or dignify them with a response is a difficult tightrope to walk. Nevertheless, it is a shaky tightrope that politicians have to walk in the big top and all eyes are watching to see if he would fall. On using defamation laws rather than wit, rhetoric or ironically silence to silence critics, imitating the PAP is the best form of flattery.
NMP Siew Kum Hong makes police report against netizens
18 May 2009
SINGAPORE: Nominated MP Siew Kum Hong has made a police report against netizens posting defamatory comments about him. He revealed this in his blog. He has also requested forums which hosted such remarks to take them down.
When contacted, Mr Siew refused further comment, saying the matter is now with the police.
The latest attacks have alleged or insinuated that he had asked for and is receiving foreign funding from a Swedish politician who allegedly funds the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) as well.
They have also alleged that he is involved or associated with the SDP and may be their representative or “mole” in Parliament.
Mr Siew has issued a strong rebuttal to these allegations on his blog. He said both of these allegations are untrue and false.
He considered them extremely defamatory and criminal in nature and goes beyond anything that a reasonable person could possibly perceive as being a valid or legitimate exercise of the right to free speech.
Mr Siew stressed that he did not at any time ask for and have not at any time been offered or accepted any sort of funding from any local or foreign entity.
He said the only sources of income or funding that he has are from his employer and the government in the form of his monthly NMP allowance.
He also said he is not involved or affiliated or associated, whether directly, indirectly or in any other way, with the SDP, and certainly not their representative or “mole” in Parliament.
The attacks on Mr Siew first started in the aftermath of the extraordinary general meeting of the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE). They have culminated in a campaign to sabotage his re-application for a second term of NMP.
A week ago, netizens flooded the REACH portal with comments about why he should not be given a second NMP term.
REACH chairman Amy Khor confirmed that the feedback unit has received Mr Siew’s request to take down defamatory comments about him.
As a general policy, while “always mindful that over-regulation could stifle participation and engagement of contributors”, Dr Khor said that like other online platforms, REACH would not hesitate to remove postings “deemed sensitive or offensive”.
As at 8pm on Monday, the discussion thread involving Mr Siew had almost 13,900 page views and more than 900 postings since it was initiated on May 1.
On one occasion last week, REACH administrators urged Netizens to refrain from personal attacks and offensive postings. After growing feedback from users and as the discussion “became heated”, said Dr Khor, REACH had removed some of these postings.
Meanwhile, the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) has referred to the Law Society the issue of Mr Siew’s role in the AWARE saga.
Earlier this month, corporate counsel Tongel Yeo had emailed the AGC and three other legal bodies, including the Law Society, to ask if Mr Siew had breached the Legal Profession Act by advising the AWARE “Old Guard”.
When contacted, a Law Society spokesperson said that under the Act, it “cannot comment on any complaint or disciplinary matter”.
Detention and Rehabilitation
Singapore’s rehabilitation programme for Jemaah Islamiah militants under scrutiny and favorably reported. Looking at prison systems ideally, the idea is to have a rehabilitative function, not a retributive one. In reality, the opposite is true in most criminal justice-imprisonment systems. Getting back to the main point, Saudi Arabia is one other state that has a comprehensive rehabilitation programme for Al Qaeda inspired militants. However, we can never tell if such people would re-offend with disastrous consequences.
The Best Guide for Gitmo? Look to Singapore.
By William J. Dobson
Sunday, May 17, 2009
What to do with the Guantanamo detainees? Uncertainty resurfaced last week, as the Obama administration backed away from earlier statements on U.S. anti-terrorism policies. The president reversed a decision to release photographs of alleged detainee abuse. Then he decided to keep the military commissions for trying terrorist suspects. The White House is now reportedly considering plans to detain some suspects on U.S. soil indefinitely, without trial.
As the administration struggles over the fate of the 241 remaining detainees in its charge, it may want to look to an old Asian ally for a hand.
Meet Ustaz Ibrahim Kassim, one of Singapore’s most respected Islamic scholars. His business card describes him as “Assistant Registrar of Muslim Marriages.” But Kassim is engaged in a more important enterprise. He is part of his country’s innovative program to fend off the threat of Islamic extremism. “We are not scared of [the terrorists],” says Kassim, an older gentleman with a face framed by a neatly trimmed white beard. “We know that history repeats itself, but these problems do not need to be passed on.”
Kassim, along with nearly 40 other Islamic scholars, is part of a select group of religious leaders called the Religious Rehabilitation Group (RRG), which is trying to rehabilitate — or, as its members say, “deprogram” — Singapore’s terrorist detainees. In 2001, Singapore’s authorities had no idea that they had a terrorist problem. But after the Sept. 11 attacks, the government was tipped off that a cell of Jemaah Islamiyah, the Southeast Asian militant group with links to al-Qaeda, was planning attacks across the city-state. In raids in late 2001 and 2002, more than 30 members of the terrorist outfit were arrested; more arrests followed. So, while the United States was filling its detention center at Guantanamo with foreign fighters, Singapore began to house its own population of Muslim extremists in its jails.
Singapore’s strict law-and-order government, which famously enforced a ban on chewing gum, may seem an unlikely candidate for believing terrorists could be reformed. But Singapore — often referred to as “the little red dot” in Southeast Asia’s Islamic sea — is in a precarious position, and its government felt compelled to take action that would not only disrupt the terrorist group’s operations, but also counter its ideological appeal. “We are what we are out of necessity,” says Singapore’s Foreign Minister George Yeo. “[Islamic extremism] is a long-term problem, and it’s not going to go away in our lifetime. The only way you can combat it is to have an immune system.”
Singaporean officials said they decided to use Islamic clerics because they were convinced that only religious leaders could “de-program” the detainees. “Once you have taken an oath of God, it will take another man of God to undo it,” a senior security official told me.
After meeting several detainees and studying Jemaah Islamiyah’s religious ideology, the Islamic scholars were disturbed to see how their faith had been distorted to recruit terrorist foot soldiers. During more than a thousand weekly hour-long sessions, the scholars worked to build personal relationships with the detainees. Some counselors said the process of de-radicalizing an extremist was similar to the one-on-one relationship that often exists between a terrorist recruiter and recruit.
The main battles were over the Koran. Islamic radicals, especially members of Jemaah Islamiyah, many of whom are born-again Muslims who adopted their extreme faith late in life, often quote from it to justify their actions. That was where a scholar’s grasp of Islam came in, and it wasn’t always a pleasant exchange. “They believe they have the right to kill. This is what they believe from years of indoctrination,” says Ustaz Feisal Hassan, one of the counselors.
As with the rehabilitation of any criminal, there’s always the possibility of backsliding. Two graduates of Saudi Arabia’s rehabilitation program have reportedly taken leadership positions within al-Qaeda in Yemen. For this reason, the RRG also counsels the detainee’s family to ensure that wrong lessons are not passed on to the next generation and to help wives, sons and daughters assimilate into the mainstream. Many families receive financial support from the government, and detainees have jobs waiting for them when they are released.
Sidney Jones, a longtime advocate for human rights in Southeast Asia now at the International Crisis Group, calls this aspect of the Singapore program a “stroke of genius.”
“In some places, like Poso [in Indonesia], I have heard it is the wives who urge their husbands not to work with the police and to keep their resolve,” says Jones. And unlike in many other countries with terrorist rehabilitation programs, such as Saudi Arabia and Yemen, the detainees in Singapore are required to continue their counseling after their release.
Today, 40 former terrorists, or roughly two-thirds of the detainees Singapore has arrested since 2001, have been rehabilitated and released. None appear to have returned to their violent past. For Singaporean authorities, the best dividend may be the trust they have gained from the city-state’s own Muslim citizens. “Singapore is the one place in the world I know where relations between the government and the Muslim community are better after 9/11,” says Alami Musa, the president of the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore.
Of course, the biggest question is how we can ever know if a radical is truly rehabilitated. A detainee in Singapore is not released until his case officer, a psychologist and the religious counselor signs off. Even then the decision goes to the prime minister’s cabinet to give its approval. Political accountability rests at the top.
Members of the RRG have traveled to Iraq to brief U.S. military officers on their methods. At a meeting in Singapore earlier this year, Maj. Gen. Douglas Stone Jr., who used to run the U.S. military’s detention system in Iraq, said that 15 percent of Iraqi militants would typically return to the fight once released. Since the U.S. military introduced its own rehabilitation program, inspired in part by Singapore’s example, that figure has dropped to 1 to 2 percent.
As the Obama administration contemplates what to do with the detainees who remain in Guantanamo, perhaps they should consider talking with Ustaz Ibrahim Kassim. I have his business card.
wdobson@carnegieendowment.org
William J. Dobson is a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
On the Way to Atonement
Mas Selamat, Singapore’s infamous fugitive, is in Malaysian hands since April 1st. The Malaysians will squeeze the terrorist for information on plots and cells for some time to come. Holding back criticisms for the time being and thinking of the big picture, I am glad and thankful that he is in custody.
A common initial myopic reaction was why the government made public the arrest only now. Some people didn’t guess that one main reason was probably that the arrest was hushed up as investigations and further arrests of his compatriots were ongoing. Publicising the arrest would jeopardise investigations as it would drive the terrorist cells underground.
There were also snide remarks about Singapore’s role in the capture of Mas Selamat. In the absence of details of what kind of information was shared with the Malaysians, the hasty cynicism was clearly without grounds. However, this public scorn was to be expected as the escape of Mas Selamat from ISD’s detention centre was an incredulous tale of complacency and there is no easy redemption for that agency regardless of how many terrorists it captures.
The annoucement of the arrest was made by Singapore, and not Malaysia, although Mas Selamat was arrested in Malaysia. The sentiment that Singapore was ungracious and could have let the Malaysians have that honour and credit is persuasive. Nevertheless, we would never know the context on whether there is any agreement between the two governments on who would break the news first. In the quid pro quo diplomatic world, Singapore must have indeed offered much to Malaysia for the privilege of making the announcement first. But then again inferring from the history of the cooperation between MSB and ISD since the communist days, tit for tat favours were probably routine. Singapore owes Malaysia big time.
But the road to atonement would not be so easily completed. Once Mas Selamat is backed in Singapore for questioning, more eyebrows would be raised on how exactly he escaped and the implications on whether more finger-pointing and culpability for the manhunt is necessary. Until more is made known, we just have to hold back our chagrin. The government won’t get off so easily, although it is on the road to atonement.
An Insidious Thiology
The dust is settling. As it turned out when the facts unfolded, my support swung. The old new AWARE exco was indeed mostly fixated about being anti-gay and the puppet master was Thio Su Mien, the mother of NMP Thio Li-Ann, a gay-basher at one point. The apple does not fall far from the tree.
Derek Hong pastor of Church of Our Savior already apologised for instigating his flock to support the April 2009 AWARE Exco. Putting rabid Christian-bashers to shame, Derek’s more sensible and sensitive brethren, to their credit, also chided his actions. He would probably be more careful and discreet the next time he fans anti-gay sentiment outside of the church. Thio Su Mien is fuming and silent, still smarting from the public scorn and anger at her unChristianly deceit. While AWARE, women, gays, and even discerning Christians and believers in other monotheistic faiths can be glad that secularism prevailed, this could only the end of the beginning.
The truth is rarely pure and never simple as gay Oscar Wilde would tease. There is a known hijack of a secular organisation in the AWARE saga. But there might also be the infiltration of religious and even political communities as well for all we know if we want to jump at shadows and see the Church of Our Saviour as a taste of things to come. At the way madam mentor of feminists went about seemingly mentoring and manipulating her acolytes, this is an open-ended question. She might be planning her next move already.
