OPPOSITION politics has reached a low ebb in Singapore, with leaders of the main minority party engaged in a public row and young Singaporeans apparently frightened to play a nonconformist political role.
At a recent National Youth Seminar, participants were sceptical about a government call for more active youth involvement in politics, pointing to a ban on civil servants, unionists and student groups taking part in political activities and the harsh response suffered by anyone who spoke out against the Government.
A student said the call was aimed at getting people to join the ruling People's Action Party (PAP), not opposition parties.
In an address to the seminar, a Straits Times journalist, Cherian George, said the Government needed to grapple with the fact that one reason Singaporeans did not want to get involved in public affairs was fear.
He said the Government had a reputation for a ''kind of intellectual intolerance and thuggery''.
''In Singapore today, critics risk having their arguments over-simplified, being labelled as belonging to some dangerous intellectual tradition, having their motives questioned and their qualifications ridiculed publicly,'' he said.
Following the seminar, a Singaporean said in a letter to the Straits Times that there was a persistent perception of the PAP as being both self-righteous and high-handed, with a penchant for insisting that it was always right.