...goals and shared visions. (Lee 2004a)

In January 2004, in a landmark speech outlining his political platform as Singapore's Prime Minister Designate, Lee Hsien Loong spoke at length about "civic society" and "active citizenry". He argued that it is the responsibility of all Singaporeans to promote active participation in Singapore's social and cultural life. Such involvement requires continued commitment to a set of national values and a sense of "common goals and shared visions". Lee's comments are consistent with statements made by previous leaders about the creation of a sphere of civil society that reflects "Asian values" such as consensus ahead of confrontation. According to Lee, Singapore's civic society will be made up of active citizens who contribute to the state's nation-building project by providing thoughtful feedback and participating in state-sanctioned grassroots activities. This vision remains bounded, however, by the parameters of the nation-state; civic society is a space occupied by citizens engaged in the national project.

And yet, the Singaporean nation is intrinsically linked to the global political economy and subject to transnational flows of capital, people, ideas, and disease. Although Singapore recovered relatively quickly from the Asian financial crises of the late 1990s, in recent years economic growth has been impacted by global terrorism and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). As unemployment rates rise and wages are cut, Singaporean workers are increasingly concerned about the presence of large numbers of migrant workers, "foreign talent", (1) and permanent residents, whose commitment to the nation is questioned. It is against this backdrop that in August 2004 a group calling itself "Transient Workers Count Too" (TWC2) was formed to advocate on behalf of migrant workers in Singapore. Using the TWC2 as a case study, this paper examines the efforts of Singapore's "active citizens" to address the forces of transnational labour migration. By juxtaposing Lee Hsien Loong's statements about civic society against the work of the TWC2, this study brings into relief the underlying tensions between the ruling party's vision of an active citizenry and attempts by local activists to advocate on behalf of non-citizens. In doing so, I highlight the ways that citizenship and gender intersect in shaping the work of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Singapore.

The first part of this paper provides an overview of the issues facing NGOs in Singapore as they attempt to forge a politically acceptable space for themselves within the parameters of the ruling party's civic society. This section provides the context for understanding civil society activism in Singapore. I argue that the constraints on activist engagement that are faced by Singaporean NGOs are compounded when issues of citizenship are central to activist concerns. Most accounts of NGOs and civil society actors in Singapore use the "local" as their site of analysis. (2) Even those studies which take as the focus of their analysis the potentially globalized phenomenon of Internet politics retain the Singapore state and the bounded territory of the nation as their object of attention (see, for example, Ho, Baber, and Khondker 2002; George 2003). This analysis moves away from the study of "local activism" to focus instead on "ethnoscapes of activism", a term used by Law (2003, p. 206) to contextualize NGO activism "within a broader frame of diasporic politics that account for the flow of ideas as well as people". Such an approach works to avoid the tendency to celebrate the emancipatory potential of transnational or global civil society by focusing on multiple and shifting scales of politics. (The multiple and shifting scales of politics are also explored in different contexts within this volume by Kersty Hobson ["Considering 'Green' Practices"] and Ooi Can Seng ["State-Civil Society Relations and Tourism"]).

In the second part of the paper I give a detailed account of the TWC2's activities, paying particular attention to issues of citizenship and gender relations. Throughout this paper, the concept of "citizenship" is used to refer to two interconnected issues--the making of citizens/ non-citizens (particularly the ways in which state and non-state actors participate in the discursive construction of citizenship categories), and citizenship rights (used in its broadest sense to refer to social, political, and cultural rights). My interest is in whether the TWC2 is able to challenge the rhetoric of active citizenry by including in its platform a space for non-citizens to play a role in Singapore's civic society. In other words, is the TWC2 able to problematize the PAP's definition of an "active citizenry" and by association the meanings of citizenship for the Singaporean nation-state? To address this issue, I examine the extent to which migrant workers are included the TWC2's work and how their needs and interests are represented by Singaporean activists. I also explore the degree to which the TWC2 is able to focus its attention on issues beyond the nation-state by engaging with groups beyond Singapore's borders and by incorporating an analysis of globalization into its work. This latter issue goes to the heart of international debates about the impact of globalization on the citizenship rights of transnational workers both at home and abroad. This analysis will show that while the TWC2 has been critical of the state's treatment of migrant workers, it has had limited success in fundamentally challenging the entrenched rules that constrain NGO activism in Singapore. (The reason for this limited success, as Terence Lee ("Gestural Politics", in this volume) would explain, is because civil society in Singapore continues to be influenced more by the state's rhetoric of opening up of civil space and less with the actual implementation of structures and institutions which guarantee this space.)

My study of the TWC2 is based on unstructured interviews and the analysis of newspapers and organizational documents. A series of interviews with TWC2 members and other migrant worker organizations (including the Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore Commission for Migrants and Itinerant People, hereafter CMI) were conducted in February and November 2004. Interviewees were asked to reflect on the TWC2's activities and the success of its various campaigns. As is common amongst NGO activists in Singapore, TWC2 members agreed to speak to me on condition of anonymity. I also undertook discourse analysis of reportage of the TWC2 in the Singaporean English language daily, the Straits Times, for the period November 2002 to April 2005. Much of the data used in my discussion is also drawn from the TWC2's official statements, policy documents, and website content. Unpublished documents were provided to me by TWC2 members (see the References).

Fostering Active Citizenship

Many scholars have remarked on the strict controls that Singapore's ruling party, the People's Action Party (PAP), places on NGOs and other civil society actors. Writing in the late 1980s, Michael Haas (1989) argued that despite a parliament modelled on Westminster-style democracy, the PAP has effectively restricted the growth of a participatory parliamentary system, and instead fostered a "mass society" characterized by a lack of political institutions between the state and the people; Singapore lacks an effective civil society. Since the mid-1990s, however, the PAP has sought to encourage the growth of a more active citizenry through the promotion of civic society. The term "civic society" is favoured because it emphasizes civic responsibility as opposed to the rights of citizenship implied by the concept of civil society (Chua 2000, p. 5). (3) Civic society is not a space in which individual rights are protected, but a space in which the state's vision of national values of "nation, family, community, consensus, and harmony" is expressed. The discourse of civic society also stresses the positive attributes of "civility, kindness, and public orderliness" exemplified in state-sponsored courtesy and graciousness campaigns (Lee 2002). In this way it is supportive of the state's encouragement of volunteering and charitable work as evidenced in its promotion of Volunteer Welfare Organizations (VWOs) in contrast to NGOs.

The PAP describes its support for the growth of civic society as an attempt to encourage Singaporean citizens to take on greater responsibility for shaping the character of the country's future, albeit within tightly controlled limits. Speaking in 1991, Singapore's then Minister for Information and the Arts, Brigadier General (BG) George Yeo, likened the all-pervasive power of the PAP to the banyan tree:

The problem now is that under the banyan tree, very little else can grow. When state institutions are too pervasive, civic institutions cannot thrive. Therefore, it is necessary to prune the banyan tree so that other plants can grow. (Cited in Worthington 2003, p. 7)

BG Yeo's statement apparently signalled a change in the way that the PAP would rule; the heavy-handed approach of the ruling party towards NGOs and civil society actors would be replaced with a more "hands-off" style in which Singaporeans would be encouraged to take a more active role in civic society.

More recently, the concept of an "active citizenry" has become part of this broader discourse of civic responsibility:

The hallmark of Singaporeans in the 21st century will be active participation in civic life. This will be built upon a foundation of mutual respect and trust between the public and people sectors, and enlightened by commitment to the values and principles that underpin Singapore. (S21 Facilitation Committee 2003)

This vision requires Singapore's "active citizens" to inform themselves of issues and challenges facing the country; offer feedback and suggestions in a thoughtful manner with the aim of making things better; and help to implement what they suggest (S21 Facilitation Committee 2003). Lee Hsien Loong spelt these attributes out more clearly in January 2004 when he signalled that under his leadership new guidelines for public consultations on new policies or regulations would be developed. These guidelines will be employed by the civil service to ensure that there is adequate "public consultation" on government policy. Singaporeans will be encouraged to debate policies "rigorously and robustly" through these public consultation exercises. Lee cautioned, however, that such debate "has to be issue-focused, based on facts and logic, and not just on assertions and emotions. The overriding objective is to reach correct conclusions on the best way forward for the country" (Lee 2004a). The media would play an important role in achieving this vision of civic engagement. Its role is to ensure that the news is reported "accurately and fairly" so as to educate the public on a national perspective on issues. Attention to these "guidelines" for civic engagement would produce an "open and inclusive Singapore" in which:

Our people should feel free to express diverse views, pursue unconventional ideas, or simply be different. We should have the confidence to engage in robust debate, so as to understand our problems, conceive fresh solutions, and open up new spaces. (Lee 2004b, p. 6)

In putting forward guidelines for public consultation, Lee was at pains to point out that this was not an articulation of the "out-of-bounds markers" (OB markers) that identify subjects that are "off-limits". These have been described as "issues that are too sensitive to be discussed in public for fear of destabilizing or jeopardizing public peace and order" (Ho 2000, p. 186). The ruling party is responsible for determining the limits of the OB markers, a task that it largely performs retrospectively with the result that what actually constitutes "unacceptable political engagement" is unclear. Rejecting claims that the growth of civil society has been impeded by the government's refusal to clearly spell out these boundaries, Lee Hsien Loong asserts:

Had we pre-defined all the parameters for discussion, civil society would have lost the spark and autonomy that allows fresh areas to be explored, limits to be redefined, and both Government and civic groups to develop a certain responsiveness to each other and move society forward by engaging each other. (Lee 2004a)

In a characteristic act of double-speak, the PAP claims that its failure to clearly spell out the OB markers in fact encourages the growth of civic society by improving the relationship between the government and NGOs.

Lee's statement points to the difference between civil activism and civic responsibility. By putting the onus on NGOs to regulate their own behaviour by second-guessing the state's responses, the PAP has not only forced civil society actors to model their actions on the government's cues but also to see themselves as partners rather than combatants. NGOs internalize and adopt the ruling party's ideology and are rewarded for their "consultative" approach. They engage in a process of self-regulation based on inherent conservatism shaped by a fear of being closed down (Lyons 2000a). This is the point that Garry Rodan (2003, p. 506) makes when he argues that repressive laws such as the Internal Security Act (ISA) (4) are of diminishing importance. In their place, administrative law (such as the Societies Act, see below) and extensive mechanisms of political co-option are...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



More articles from SOJOURN: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia
State-civil society relations and tourism: Singaporeanizing tourists, ..., October 01, 2005
Civil society in Singapore: popular discourses and concepts., October 01, 2005

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