Saturday Evening Opinion

“The Battle of Singapore?” (AsiaMedia) “The moral imperative for the world’s rich to do all it can reasonably do for the world’s poor is axiomatic. Any argument to the contrary triggers eyebrow-raising questions about what it means to be a caring human being and what constitutes the core requirements for being a responsible member of the human race.”

“Hard-line stance against civil society voices does Singapore no good” (Singapore Patriot) “The IMF/World Bank Annual Meetings (“S2006″ in local lingo) were supposed to be Singapore’s opportunity to showcase its progressiveness and efficiency to the financial leaders of the world. Unfortunately the current dispute over the participation of accredited civil society organisations (CSOs) threatens to diminish much of the hard work that the government and people of Singapore have put in to make this mega event a success.”

“Legally Speaking” (Kitana) “Acording to the SPF media release, in which it clarified that the three men including Seelan Pillay, had not been arrested, but had voluntarily agreed to be interviewed by the police, the alleged charge is said to be under s 151A of the Penal Code, which reads…”

“Censorship 101” (Snapshots of Life) “In this posting, I will attempt to paraphrase, to the best of my lousy English abilities, what Dr Balaji Sadasivan said in his speech during the forum and the questions and responses in the Q&A thereafter.”

“Impact of International Students in NUS/NTU/SMU” (Hui Chieh @ SA) “In what ways and to what extent–if at all–has the local student been adversely affected by the influx of international students in the local universities over the past decade? It’s a topic I blogged about before on the old site. But a recent post at KTM’s pushed me to take another look at the statistics, look up information that I now have access to (think NUS library), and to update my attempted analysis in the hope that discussions could be fruitfully furthered by tying it to known public domain data.”

IMF/WB vs S’pore Govt: More News from Around the World

PODCAST: “Singapore stance shocks IMF, World Bank” (ABC) – Paul Wolfowitz, Alex Au, and Chee Soon Juan quoted, reporting by Karen Percy

News

“Singapore, rebuked, lifts ban on globalization foes” (IHT) “After a rebuke Friday from the World Bank president, the Singapore government reversed itself and agreed to allow more than 20 anti-globalization advocates into the country to attend the coming meetings of the bank and International Monetary Fund.”

“Singapore’s climbdown on activists too late: NGOs” (AFP) “Singapore acted too late in finally agreeing to admit 22 activists whose accreditation for World Bank and IMF meetings it had opposed, non-governmental organizations say.”

“Singapore police bar World Bank poverty protestors” (Independent) “The World Bank, Singapore and the International Monetary Fund need to apologise. We need Singapore to come its senses and open their arms to people who are trying to serve the poorest people in the world.”

“Singapore relents over ban on activists” (Financial Times) “Singapore bowed to international pressure on Friday and agreed to allow 22 of 27 banned activists to attend the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund/World Bank, after Paul Wolfowitz, World Bank president, said the bar on their entry was “unacceptable”.”

“Singapore’s reversal ‘too little too late'”(Bangkok Post) “The Singapore government’s willingness to admit 22 to 27 blacklisted activists to the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank was criticized as “too little too late” by civil society organizations (CSOs) Saturday.”

“NGOs reject Singapore offer to join IMF-WB dialogue” (Nation)

“Bank slams Singapore crackdown” (The Age)

“Singapore Rebuked for Actions at Meeting” (Washington Post)

More than 300 articles via Google

Newscomment

“Spotlight: Preparing Singapore for a globalized world” (IHT) “Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore can take comfort from the book on the dashboard of a local taxi: “Strategic Management, Concepts & Cases.” There is at least one taxi driver in the city-state who subscribes to his government’s mantra of reinvention, to train all Singaporeans to be able to compete better in a globalized world.”

Gov Backs Down, and more

Comment

• “Change of Mind” (Mr Wang) “Those who understand Asian culture and the Singapore government mindset will also be able to guess why five activists continue to be banned. At least part of the reason is called “saving face”.”
• “Excitable Silences” (Molly Meek) “Place Silence and Singapore together or one in the other and silence becomes intriguing. Why, one has to ask, is it that the history of protests in independent Singapore a history of various silences?”
• “Wolf o’ wits” (Twilight) “How Paul Wolfowitz is getting the famously stubborn Singapore government to do his bidding”
• “The Chees Cause Trouble Again!!!” (Lucky Tan)
• “TVD’s Picks” – More reading at The Void Deck