Kelvin Teo
Young Reformer Justin Ong (left) and Young Democrat Jarrod Luo (right)
During the The Online Citizen’s Year In Review 2009, a member of the NUS Political Association (NUSPA) asked Young Democrat Jarrod Luo and Young Reformer Justin Ong respectively if the opposition has been engaging the students at NUS, specifically through NUSPA.
Her contention was that the ruling PAP has been more pro-active than the opposition in terms of engagement. Luo’s and Ong’s reply was that they tried to engage NUSPA under the auspices of their respective parties, but without success, further noting that the PAP on the other hand was far better off in terms of gaining access to the university to engage students.
Some of us may recall that in 2004, the University of Warwick had initially planned to set up a 10,000-student campus in Singapore. However, concerns about academic freedom, particularly with regards to the cost and freedom of speech for students led many students and faculty staff to oppose the plans. The plans to set up the campus were finally abandoned after the matter was taken up and discussed with the university senate.
Perhaps, the question we should be asking ourselves is what is academic freedom and what does it really entail? According to WordNet®, a large lexical database of English language currently housed in the Department of Computer Science in Princeton University, academic freedom is defined as the freedom of teachers and students to express their ideas in school without religious or political or institutional restrictions.
The University of Oxford has a more elaborate definition. It sees academic freedom as the “most fundamental virtue common to most universities” and defines it as “the freedom to conduct research, teach, speak and publish, subject to the norms and standards of scholarly inquiry, without interference or penalty, wherever the search for truth and understanding may lead.”
Thus, what does academic freedom entail? The first important step is that the proponent of a particular viewpoint SHOULD be given access to whatever medium to express his or her viewpoint. The second and subsequent step is that the listeners, which includes staffs, students and in certain cases, concerned members of the public, should be given access to hear the particular viewpoint.
Hence, how can academic freedom be violated? A violation can occur at the first step, where a move can be instigated by a university, staff or student body to deny the representative of a particular viewpoint the right of access to the medium to express his views. Thus, this violation can be as simple as the university administration or student body cutting off the access of an opposition member or a representative of an alternative viewpoint to an academic forum that aims to discuss the topic of interest.
Academic freedom can also be violated at the second step, in which members of the audience are restricted from listening to the particular viewpoint. Such restrictions can occur in subtle form, such as canceling the access to venues of participation in some extreme cases, or requiring participants to relocate to venues with lower seating capacity like ordering the participants to shift from a 1,000-seater conference hall to a 20-seater classroom, thereby limiting the scope of outreach.
Revisiting the NUSPA issue, a scan through the events section of its website leads to a sentiment of disappointment on my part. Understandably, the Kent Ridge Ministerial Forum engages the mainstream viewpoints because the invited guests were PAP ministers during the recent years. However, the policy studies section was the most disappointing.
The most recent event entitled “Moral and Ethical Dilemmas in Policymaking” was presented by Mr Teo Ser Luck, Chairman of the Young PAP. For the rest of the preceding years, the invited participants were from our ruling political establishment in the form of Mr Lim Swee Say (2001, 2005), Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Dr Mohd Maliki Bin Osman (both in 2004), Dr Ng Eng Hen (2003) and Mr Raymond Lim (2002), in addition to other academics.
One would believe the students and staff may have heard the mainstream views in such policy forums, but it is disappointing that no member of the opposition has been invited to present criticisms of current policies and alternative policies proposals that their parties have been advocating. There was only one event organized by the NUSPA that is connected to the opposition in the form of a special project entitled “Opposition Forum: Towards a More Democratic Singapore – The Future of opposition Parties” in which the invited guest was Miss Sylvia Lim of the Workers’ Party.
One really wonders if this one opposition-related event is a mere token within the “mainstream” sea. It is not the purpose of this article to advocate a sudden shift in giving all the voice to the opposition and shutting out that of the ruling political establishment’s, but rather it is about promoting a balance and diversity of mainstream and alternative views. It is like, okay, today we have heard from the PAP ministers their vision of Singapore, so let’s hear from the opposition their alternative vision tomorrow. It is about hearing both sides.
However, the saying goes that there is a silver lining behind every cloud. A student by the name of Hui Chit Xiang questioned lapses within our civil service which led to the loss of $9.8 million dollars in an article published on the NUSPA website, which the latter found to be unacceptable since the sum can be used to better the lives of many, and worse, the signals were sent out to the public suggesting that some of our government agencies do not act prudently when they were expected to.
Another student, Sally Yuan, further explores the issue of minimum wage implementation which our government has an aversion to. She engages the government’s line of reasoning that the implementation of the minimum wage policy will lead to Singapore losing its competitive edge, stating that “I found the argument barely valid” because “the minimum wage regulation seeks to protect only a very small portion of the working population, people who are already at the bottom of the social ladder.” She concludes with a statement that “minimum wage policy is a much more effective way of ensuring that the people who are willing to work are decently paid, and encourage those who are unemployed to work.”
It is heartening to note that the NUSPA is willing to publish such alternative views on its website. However, more can be done. In the name of academic freedom, students shouldn’t be restricted in their quest in the search for truth and understanding, and that includes engaging representatives harboring alternative viewpoints.
A good suggestion will be to have an alternative equivalent of the Kent Ridge Ministerial Forum, whereby members of the opposition and intellectuals harboring alternative viewpoints are invited to a forum to present their alternative vision for Singapore, and unlike the recent Ministerial Forum, it should conducted in an open-floor format to encourage students to express their views and put forth queries. All done in the name of academic freedom, yeah?
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Maybe NUSPA can network with students from other universities to set up an independent Student Political Association.
I have written to the NUSPA seeking clarification on the statement made by their representative that
i) opposition parties in Singapore have not been effectively engaging the student population in tertiary institutions; and
ii) opposition parties are inactive organisations which only show up at elections when they are called.
Although the representative of the NUSPA reinterated that there was no aversion to opposition parties participating at their events, a statement on their website conflicts this. I hope to clarify what the below-mentioned means.
http://www.nuspa.org/cms/?q=node/107
“The different needs of our members are met through a host of projects, events and activities which are non-partisan and non-ideology based.”
Apart from requesting the Association to invite representatives of the Reform Party to participate in their future activities, I have in return, invited them to our twice-weekly Open House.
I hope the NUSPA would be able to continue their work and further their commitment to “imbue greater political awareness among our youths”.
I remember how Dr. Loh Kah Seng mentioned during “Year End Review 2009″ that politics is also about the decisions we make, the actions we undertake in everyday life – its about social history. Kelvin, by expanding your definition and understanding of “politics” perhaps you may find that there are a lot more going-on in papers, seminars and modules that are political but beyond party politics?
The Universities here have a phobia of opposition parties visiting their campus:
http://yoursdp.org/index.php/news/singapore/397-sdp-vists-nus
http://yoursdp.org/index.php/news/singapore/1036-nus-officials-stop-democrats-from-distributing-flyers
http://yoursdp.org/index.php/news/singapore/1091-ntu-pulls-plug-on-report-on-sdp-visit
I was at the event, and I didn’t like the accusatory tone that the NUSPA representative had when she insisted about how the opposition parties failed to reach out to the student bodies AT ALL and that the PAP were doing better.
When Jarrod and Justin explained that just because their efforts were omitted by mainstream media coverage, it doesn’t mean that their respective parties have failed to reach out on their part, she further brushed them by further insinuating that their parties have been lazy and further blame them for not putting in enough effort.
The lady then copped out by saying that she is just a normal citizen when Jarrod innocuously consulted back to her on how the opposition can better reach out to people like her, since she is on the receiving end and should know better, which was disappointing.
A simple search on the internet would prove her wrong through and through though, at least on the SDP front, and in fact, their efforts have resulted in a milestone in student activism leading to the first student protest and demonstration in decades, albeit restricted to the boundaries of the Speakers’ Corner. Still a laudable feat though.
http://theonlinecitizen.com/2008/09/ntu-censors-campus-news-coverage-of-chee-soon-juan-visit/
http://theonlinecitizen.com/2008/10/ntu-students-protest-at-speakers-corner/
http://www.yoursdp.org/index.php/news/singapore/397-sdp-vists-nus
http://www.yoursdp.org/index.php/news/singapore/949-democrats-continue-engaging-youth-this-time-at-ntu
http://www.yoursdp.org/index.php/news/singapore/968-sdp-turns-attention-to-nie-
http://www.yoursdp.org/index.php/news/singapore/1036-nus-officials-stop-democrats-from-distributing-flyers
http://www.yoursdp.org/index.php/news/singapore/1110-democrats-write-to-stuident-body-at-ntu
http://www.yoursdp.org/index.php/news/singapore/1203-ntu-students-come-alive
No apologies for the skewed coverage towards the SDP though, since SDP has the strongest web presence amongst the various parties and these are the results that turned up in my search, although it is understandable that RP is a new party and therefore information on them is not that readily available yet. Hopefully that will change in time.
@Justin : I thought your response to the NUSPA member was clear, especially given the facts that you have now furnished everybody with .. that the NUSPA aims to meet their members needs via “.. a host of projects, events and activities which are NON-PARTISAN and non-ideology based.”
Hopefully the lady who asked the question was just a misinformed member of NUSPA ..
Looking forward to a response from NUSPA to your queries though Justin.
I do know for a fact that there was a former president of NUSPA during the late 1990s who was a member of the YPAP while he was holding the post.
Says a lot about their “Non-partisan and Non-ideology based” statements if you take this fact into context.
@ Former NUSPA on December 31st, 2009 9.58 am :
There are so many partisan players in positions of power (not just due to their partisan affliation but partisan behavior) in supposedly non-partisan organs of the state in Singapore it disgusts me!
Look at the MSM, the academic instiutions, the statutory boards, the unions etc.etc.
#8 ((There are so many partisan players in positions of power (not just due to their partisan affliation but partisan behavior) in supposedly non-partisan organs of the state in Singapore it disgusts me!))
That is the inevitable outcome in any dictatorship where those in power don’t depend on the mandate of the people. In Singapore, the entire state machinery is under the jackboot of a tyrant who constantly claims that he and his ministers are overwhelmingly elected by the people for their honesty and incorruptible integrity.
How about engaging the NUS Democratic Socialist Club instead?
As requested by the writer of this article, below is the reply from the official reply from NUSPA about the remark at the TOC forum.
______________________________________________________________
Hello Justin
As spoken on the phone, i would like to clarify few points.
1) It is unfortunate that the statement which the member made in her own capacity has made members of the opposition or audience at the event unhappy. Although the member has identified herself to be a member of NUSPA, the statement she made at the forum was of no means NUSPA official stand.
2) As NUSPA is non aligned and neutral, members will attend forums or events in their personal capacity. If the member has ill informed anybody, i would like to take this opportunity to apologize on her behalf.
3) Regarding engagement of parties with NUSPA, the member made the observation based on what she know since joining NUSPA on Aug 2009. From Aug 2009 till present, no other parties other than youth wing of the ruling party has approached NUSPA. I reiterate the stand which NUSPA takes, we are non aligned and non partisan.
4) As NUSPA targets undergraduates, Reformers who are undergraduates are free to participate in NUSPA events on the exception that they must participate in their personal capacity and adhere to rules or regulations set by the director of the event (eg: for events which audience need to sought for ticket, Reformers do not have ticket allocated to them automatically but sought for them as like other undergraduate).
I seek your kind understanding in the issue.
Regards
Eng Kiat
President
NUSPA
Many unseen political observers amongst students are aligned to the ruling and report activities regularly.
So I guess you have running dogs everywhere.
12) Justin Ong on January 1st, 2010 4.36 pm
Dear Justin/Young Reformers,
I wonder if you can share with us your workplan or activities/events for 2010.
I would also like to ask what are the differences between Young Reformers and Young Democrats. As they are both popular choices.