SINGAPORE STRIPS OPPOSITION LEADER OF HIS TITLE FOR LYING

SHOULD SRI LANKA DO THE SAME?

- By Ranga Jayasuriya

The following anecdote should interest Sri Lankans who want to mimic Singapore but are unwilling to accept the trade-offs that come with it.

Last week, the Prime Minister of Singapore stripped the opposition leader, Pritam Singh, of his ceremonial title after the court found him lying to Parliament. Mr. Singh, who heads the Centre-Left Workers Party, was found guilty of lying under oath to a Parliamentary committee during a probe into former Parliamentarian Raeesah Khan. Ms Khan was found guilty of lying in Parliament after she claimed to have witnessed Police misbehave towards a rape victim when she accompanied the latter to the Police to complain about alleged abuse.

She later retracted the original claim and confessed that she had only heard the story from a fellow activist. She was fined, forced to resign from her elected office, and barred from running for office for one year.

Mr. Singh was accused of persisting that she stick to her story, even after he knew the circumstances.

The court found him guilty and imposed the maximum fine of S$7,000 per count.

This appears to be a straightforward case that might have warranted Mr Singh's resignation before he was stripped of the title, except that the government of Singapore has a history of weaponising the court to punish its political opponents. Strikingly, Mr. Singh was the first "opposition leader" in Singapore; the title itself was created only in 2020. The opposition holds 12 seats in the 108-member Parliament, dominated by the ruling People's Action Party (PAP), which has in the past been accused of gerrymandering constituencies. However, with its huge winning margins, it could have won anyway.

For Sri Lankans who wish to emulate Singapore, here are some trade-offs.

Firstly, Singapore's sanitised political discourse is rooted in its stringent libel laws and a string of other measures that ban unauthorised public assembly and control dissent.