In a blog post published yesterday (20 Aug) prominent socio-political commentator Alex Au has compared the Administration of Justice (Protection) Bill to the law in Kelantan according to which a pharmacy in that Malaysian state was fined for flouting “conditions stipulated on their business and premise permits”. The pharmacy was fined 150 Malaysian Ringgit for the offence. Mr Au opined that with the new Bill, Singapore is headed in the direction of Kelantan, to be a backwater.
Mr Au said that the objectives of Singapore’s new Bill (like the Kelantanese ordinance) are to intimidate, to show people who’s boss and to shut down any unwanted conversation.
He further made observations about the Trump phenomenon in the run-up to the American presidential election, and drew attention to the naked Trump statues erected in New York.
Mr Au said: “If a similar statue of Singapore prime minister Lee Hsien Loong were ever erected, we however will not get profound change. We will only get more of the same. You can bet your last dollar that a new bill will be rushed through parliament making it an offence to ridicule any cabinet minister. Maybe it will be called the Administration of Singapore (Protection) Bill.”
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Read Alex Au’s blog post here: https://yawningbread.wordpress.com/2016/08/20/when-the-powerful-plead-fragility-were-done-for.