Singapore Defended

Your editorial “Onerous Price for Tidiness” (April 5) attacked Singapore as “a repressive place whose disgraceful standards of political participation, press freedom and criminal justice are unattractive by any modern gauge.”

If Singapore really is a repressive place, why do 6 million tourists visit every year? They move about freely without fear of being raped, mugged or murdered. It this possible in major U.S. cities?

You alleged that Singapore “has the trappings of parliamentary democracy, but little of the reality,” and that “the People’s Action Party has exercised one-party control since independence in 1965.” We have held seven general elections since 1965. The process is free and open. Many political parties contest. The electorate consistently voted for the People’s Action Party, and gave it the mandate to apply those very laws that have made Singapore “devoid of crime, litter, gangs, graffiti and poverty.” Is this wrong?

Dr. Chee Soon Juan did not lose his job because he challenged the prime minister in the 1992 by-election, or involved himself in politics. He misused university research funds to post copies of his wife’s Ph.D. thesis to the U.S., for the purpose of her Ph.D. examination, and then lied about what he had done. The university dismissed him for dishonest conduct.

The foreign media are welcome in Singapore; 185 foreign correspondents are based here; 4,500 foreign publications circulate here. The handful whose circulations were restricted had engaged in Singapore’s domestic politics. They have since accepted that they circulate in Singapore subject to conditions imposed by the government. In particular, they must not interfere in domestic politics, and must give the government the right to reply to inaccurate reporting in Singapore.

Our laws protect the majority of law-abiding citizens. Criminals cannot escape justice on the excuse of “victimhood.” You may think that the price of keeping Singapore clean, safe, and crime-free is too high. Most Singaporeans and the 6 million tourists, Americans included, disagree.

S. R. NATHAN

Singapore Ambassador to the U.S.

Washington