I don't know if there is any copyright infringement to put up this
article here.. if there is let me know. Nevertheless, its a good read.

By: Teng Qian Xi

http://www.spug.net/showthread.php?t=27641

Why I am cynical about Singapore's political process

I live in a country where the state believes they have the right to decide
whether people should be digits, creative or entrepreneurial.

I live in a country where the ministers claim that the ruling party's
majority votes means "the people want to be led." (Dr Wang Kai Yuen, ST,
April 4 2002) I live in a country where before the general elections, the
ruling party redraws constituency boundaries to have more walkovers,
bankrupts opposition politicians and castrates the national press while its
ministers tell everyone to speak up, not to fear being "hit by a big stick"
(Raymond Lim, ST, April 4 2002). This is safe because the people who spoke
before MPs encouraged them to are either overseas, silenced or dead.
a breach of peace

I live in a country where no minister has campaigned publicly for the
abolition of the Internal Security Act even if they believed that it was a
violation of human rights. Even if they knew that the Communist threat is
demonised by the authorised history, and that most of the population heads
down to Orchard Road on Sundays.

I live in a country where the ministers who determine the political process
are paid private-sector salaries. There are few other reasons to join the
ruling party, so certified talents are worth their price.

I live in a country where the state announces that we must have a vibrant
arts scene. So they build the Esplanade which is too big for most local
performance groups. On National Day they say that promoting the arts is
another way to attract more tourists.

I live in a country where the front shelves of bookshops are crowded with
one man's words. Until recently, anything that disagrees these words could
only be found in Select Books (Tanglin Shopping Centre, call 67321515) or
overseas.

I live in a country where my parents have friends who were tortured by the
Internal Security Department. So for them and others, an 18-year-old girl
talking to the press about politics will never be seen as invulnerable. An
18-year-old girl who comments on a minister in a newspaper interview will be
told she could cause someone in MOE to lose their job. When she wants to use
the word "tortured", she will be advised to write instead "indirect pressure
was applied" in case she is charged with defamation.

I live in a country where the national paper will announce that a poem has
won a foreign prize, but they will not willingly add (until much later) that
it is written from a lesbian perspective. What the paper's employees think
of homosexuality and its criminalisation has nothing to do with this.

I live in a country where the state makes its arguments too simple.
Such as: the PAP = the country.
Such as: democracy = protests = violence = disorder = national disaster.
Such as: human rights = confusing Western concept that our people don't need to
learn very much about.
Such as: history = one man's story.
Such as: Chia Thye Poh = opposition = Marxist = dangerous = 32 years of
imprisonment = non-existence in the authorised history.

I live in a country with a population that is constantly hit by men in white
with invisible and visible sticks. I live in a country where it is hard to
expect people to value anything more than protecting themselves from these
big sticks, or getting their own stick and white uniform.

Teng Qian Xi

Teng Qian Xi is a writer and politics addict. She graduated from the Hwa Chong
Humanities Scheme in 2001 and is currently waiting to enter university. She was
one of 15 overall winners of the Simon Elvin Young Poet of the Year Awards
(organised by the Poetry Society in UK) in 2000 and 2001; she was the first
non-British winner of this award. Her poetry has been published in Singapore and
overseas. She has translated several of her poems for Chuang Xin Shi Kan, a
local Chinese-language poetry magazine, and is also a regular reviewer for BigO
magazine. Some of her photographs will be featured in May 2002 in the 2ndrule
(http://www.the2ndrule.com), a monthly e-zine with local writing and artwork.

Interview with Teng Qian Xi at Sintercom
http://www.geocities.com/newsintercom/sp/interviews/qianxi.htm