Six Months After a Watershed Election: How Is The Dust Settling?

Catherine Lim | 6 Months After Watershed : How is the Dust Settling?

The policy related to the Internal Security Act (ISA) which allows the government to arrest and detain political dissidents; between the 1960s and 1980s, there were waves of arrest. When the Malaysian Prime Minister announced recently that he would scrap the country’s ISA and replace it with a terrorism-specific act, eyes were turned to the Singapore Government to see if it too, in the aftermath of the tumultuous GE 2011, would do the same. No way. The PAP leadership has since rejected the call by 16 former detainees for a commission of inquiry to investigate their detentions under the ISA. You know, if the PAP did the unthinkable, that is, actually allowed a Commission of Inquiry and thus risked having its past excesses exposed, it would be signalling a new commitment to transparency, openness, honesty, and above all, courage, humility and honour. And Singaporeans would r...

Full article: http://catherinelim.sg/2011/12/04/six-months-after-a-wate...