SINGAPORE: In a recent interview with the BBC, renowned historian Michael Barr indicated that the recent affair scandal involving two People’s Action Party (PAP) Members of Parliament (MPs) and the corruption probe implicating another PAP Minister had raised serious questions about the government’s ability to maintain public trust.
His concerns stem from his belief that there is a lack of robust mechanisms for holding powerful individuals accountable in Singapore. Telling the BBC that Singaporeans had long been expected to place their trust in the ruling government without stringent checks and balances in place, Dr Barr said:
“You just have to trust them. That is why this is such a dangerous and novel set of developments for the government. They are trashing their repositories of public trust.”
In its report, entitled ‘Singapore: City-state rocked by rare political scandals,’ the BBC noted that Singapore has consistently ranked high in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index and that the government justifies its high ministerial salaries to deter corruption and ensure competent governance.
Dr Barr argued that such rankings and justifications may not be sufficient without “extraordinary levels of public trust.”
He said: “Without extraordinary levels of public trust, the government must rely on one of two things to win elections: either repression and other measures that subvert democracy, or a high level of performance-based legitimacy. Their record in recent years is such that we can forget about performance legitimacy.”
Dr Barr, an Associate Professor teaching International Relations at Adelaide’s Flinders University, is widely considered an authority on Singapore’s political landscape, given his significant contributions to the academic discourse surrounding the city-state’s history and governance.
The academic has written and commented extensively on Singapore’s politics and history and has published several books on Singapore’s ruling elite. Dr Barr has been a vocal critic of the PAP Government. His latest BBC interview is not the first time he has raised the need for greater transparency, accountability and democratic reforms within the Singapore government.
Dr Barr has also raised concerns about the potential consequences of any erosion of public trust in the Government and has questioned whether the ruling party will be able to maintain the dominance it has enjoyed in Parliament since independence, given that voters did not pass the PAP’s fourth-generation leaders with flying colours at the last election.
The historian’s latest remarks come when Singapore grapples with the political fallout of the affair scandal and the ongoing anti-graft probe.
Six seats in Parliament remain vacant, with four of the seats belonging to the ruling PAP, but Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has said that he has no plans to call for an immediate general election to fill the vacant seats.
The timing of when he plans to hand over the government to his designated successor, Finance Minister Lawrence Wong, also remains unclear.
“PAP govt is in denial” — Historian Michael Barr reflects on GE2020