13 April 2019 [Updated 14 April] Academics Against Disinformation: Singapore’s proposed online falsehoods law may deter scholarship and set precedents harmful to global academia The Singapore government has tabled sweeping legislation against online disinformation. The proposed Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act 2019 (POFMA) is currently being scrutinised by legislators and concerned citizens, ahead […]
11 April 2019 Dear President (Name) and (University) Board of Trustees, On behalf of my fellow signatories, I am sharing with you the letter below that we have sent to Minister Ong Ye Kung, and NMPs Sun Sun Lim and Walter Theseira, expressing our concern about the impact that Singapore’s proposed Protection from Online Falsehoods […]
11 April 2019 Minister Ong Ye Kung Minister of Education, Singapore Dear Minister Ong, We are academics who have expertise, experience or interest in Singapore and Asia generally. We write to express our concern that the proposed Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act 2019 (POFMA) will have unintended detrimental consequences for scholars and research […]
CHRISTOPHER TREMEWAN (University of Auckland) reflects on the enduring ideas in the collection of 1980s essays, A Shift in the Wind. Tremewan suggests that current controversies may be signs that a system that protects ruling elites from robust checks and balances has run its course.
AcademiaSG editors CHONG JA IAN and LINDA LIM relate how their interview with a Hong Kong newspaper was distorted by a PRC news outlet. One year ago, in October 2021, the government passed FICA, the Foreign Interference Countermeasures Act (FICA), two years after passing POFMA, the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA), in […]
In a talk at Stanford, Linda Lim argued that inequality, race, and tensions over US and China relations are interlinked and embedded in Singapore’s input-intensive, state-driven, multinational-led economic model.
Putting aside the Summit’s controversial invitation list, how do experts characterize Singapore’s political system? AcademiaSG editor and political scientist Chong Ja Ian surveys more rigorous measures that are widely used. Singapore’s recent non-invite to the US-organized Summit for Democracy has created some discussion about the country’s regime type and status, including some debate over the […]
The Government has promised that FICA will not obstruct normal academic activity. Its statements do not allay such fears completely.
CHONG JA IAN argues that FICA does not do enough by way of restrictions and oversight on key officials, leaving Singapore open to elite capture by malign foreign actors.
ACADEMIASG EDITORIAL — The proposed law will complicate academic collaborations and deepen self-censorship while weakening universities’ resistance against malign interference.