Testing the Boundaries of Singaporean Governance through Civil Disobedience

Hong Kong.
The first speaker in the post-lunch session this second day of The Internet Turning 40 is Cherian George, who begins with the story of a Singaporean dissident, the former lawyer Gopalan Nair, who has been a staunch (even rabid, Cherian says) critic of Lee Kuan Yew and his - or now, his son's - government. In a blog post, Nair has openly acknowledged the fact that he has defamed Lee, gave his full address and contact details, and dared the police to arrest him - which they did. He was quite literally asking for trouble.

Cherian describes this not as the act of an insane man, but instead notes that traditionally, the Internet has been used as a means to hide from or evade the authorities - it has been used for tactical, guerilla-style activities. Clearly, this was not the case here; instead, the Net was used as a stage for very public civil disobedience. He notes that state power can be depreciated by the use of violence (especially excessive use) - power can only be maintained by consent, by maintaining the loyalty of the supporters of the regime.

Hegemony cloaks coercion with apparent consent - authoritarian regimes consolidate themselves by calibrating their coercion very carefully; they never overextend their hand, never step beyond the boundaries. Traditional media in Singapore are regulated that way - the state's system of discretionary media licencing leads to the establishment of a stable regime of self-censorship. Further, consent is constructed by systematically coopting potential sources of consent into extensions of the establishment - as well as through generally good and (for the most part) successful governance. (The Singaporean government does enjoy the genuine support of the majority of its people.)

However, this system certainly makes it hard for opponents to communicate their views - unveiling the regime's true colours is difficult because the state's narrative has been so strongly established. A small group of dissidents have started to use civil disobedience to do so: as a tiny minority, they exploit the asymmetry of power and attempt to make censorship backfire on the government. To these opponents of the government, the Net is valuable because there is no political Internet censorship in Singapore; it is a strategic resource for reconfiguring access which is used to maximise the impact of civil disobedience campaigns. (Arrests of the protesters in a four-person anti-government demonstration clearly give the impression of heavy-handed police work, for example, and opposition groups are recording such police actions and sharing them on YouTube.)

Social movement dynamics are like a dance, with alternating steps of reaction and counter-reaction. The state can choose not to react at all, and in Singapore has tended to react very gently so far - avoiding taking the bait -, while the opposition is taking a 'come and get me' approach which utilises the Internet as a public space and is likely emboldened by the relative freedom which this softly, softly approach from the government entails.

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