Where protests are preapproved
Protesters in Hong Kong have shown that demonstrations about government policies can erupt anywhere, from outlying suburbs and shopping malls to government offices and one of the busiest airport terminals in the world.
In Singapore, protests are restricted to a park the size of a softball field called Speakers’ Corner. On most days, the park’s most vocal contingent are the chirping birds perched in the pink poui trees that ring the space alongside police cameras. On the rare days people demonstrate, it’s only after their topics have been scrutinized and granted government approval.
Order is paramount in Singapore, which is viewing with a mixture of awe and apprehension the turmoil in Hong Kong. Unrest of that magnitude is unthinkable in this city-state of meticulous laws run by the world’s most enduring ruling political party outside China and North Korea.
Singapore’s stability has fuelled speculation it would be the first to benefit if problems persist in Hong Kong, a city with which it shares a rivalry and kinship as a former British colony and bustling financial centre with attractively low taxes. But the government in Singapore, which became a sovereign nation in 1965, has shown no desire to play along.
“We benefit from stability across the region, including Hong Kong,” said Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam this month, according to a government transcript. “If China does well, Hong Kong does well, the region does well, we do well.”
The cautious approach reflects Singapore’s delicate position. The country is walking a tightrope maintaining favourable relations with the United States and China, two powers that appear to be embarking on a new Cold War.
It’s unclear what the majority of Singapore’s 5.6 million population thinks about Hong Kong’s protest movement. A survey of 1,000 citizens in June found over two-thirds of respondents supported the protests against the extradition bill that sparked the demonstrations. The survey was conducted before some of the more polarizing actions by protesters such as the trashing of Hong Kong’s legislature.
Singapore is by no means free of tension. The government is acutely sensitive to the racial dynamics between its majority ethnic Chinese and minority Indian and Malay populations. Race and religion are off limits for protesters in Speakers’ Corner.
Singapore is often compared to Hong Kong because of its size (5.6 million Singaporeans versus 7.4 million Hong Kongers) and shared culture (about a fifth of Singapore’s Chinese population is Cantonese).
But Singapore’s sovereignty allows it to shape policy the way it sees fit, unlike Hong Kong, which answered to London and now Beijing. Singapore’s government imposes limits on freedom of assembly and press, but it delivers on public education and economic upward mobility. As a result, the country isn’t beset by the wealth gap that underpins much of the discontent roiling Hong Kong.