Thousands in Hong Kong gathered to commemorate the June 4 anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
Pan-Asian Civics, a monthly roundup from Ketagalan Media, summarizes key developments in Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore concerning public participation, citizenship, and democratic development. This feature is compiled and edited by Kevin Hsu, Judith Huang, and Lydia Siu.
MALAYSIA
Restarting local democracy: Local government elections may soon be revived, potentially starting with major cities such as Kuala Lumpur, Petaling Jaya and Penang. Elections at the local level were suspended in 1964, during the Konfrontasi (a conflict between Indonesia and Malaysia), and then permanently eliminated under the 1976 Local Government Act. Local offices that were historically elected, but appointed by state government for the last fifty years, include “Councillors or Commissioners of Municipal Councils; Councillors of Town Councils, District Councils or Rural District Councils; and Members of Town Boards or Local Councils.” NGOs are pushing for contests in 2019, rather than the three-year timeframe suggested by officials in the Ministry of Housing and Local Government.
Freedom of speech to be guaranteed at universities: The new Education Minister Dr. Maszlee Malik announced that there should no longer be restrictions on any “debate, forum, or discourse” at public universities. Higher education must be “an open intellectual field and in the era of new Malaysia, there should no longer be any restriction on educational programs.” Under the previous Barisan Nasional government, events would frequently be canceled if leaders disagreed with the content under discussion.
Council to advise new government: A Malaysian Council of Eminent Persons will advise the national government on key issues. The group’s five members have a combined age of 376 years and include former government ministers, business magnates, and an economics professor. Lauded as a wise “Jedi Council,” the group had its first meeting at the end of May. It also oversees an Institutional Reforms Committee and a body investigating the 1MDB scandal.
1MDB corruption investigation: Rosmah Mansor, wife of former Prime Minister Najib Razak, was questioned for five hours by the Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission, regarding the 1MDB corruption scandal. Investigators are looking into claims that $4.5 billion were siphoned out of the state fund set up by Najib. Despite evidence from investigations in six other countries, the old attorney general (appointed by Najib) cleared the prime minister of wrongdoing. After the election victory by the opposition, the newly-appointed Attorney General Tommy Thomas said, “We will institute criminal and civil proceedings in our courts against the alleged wrongdoers…All are equal before the law and no one is spared. There will be no cover up.”
HONG KONG
In memoriam: On June 4, Hong Kong residents commemorated the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre in Beijing. Organizers claimed that 115,000 people attended the ceremonies in Victoria Park, which were held in Cantonese and Mandarin, accompanied by subtitles and sign language. The annual nighttime event hosted by the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China (香港市民支援愛國民主運動聯合會) is the only commemoration taking place on Chinese soil.
The program included songs, speeches, tributes to human rights lawyers jailed in China, and a moment of silence to remember the late Nobel Prize winner and democracy advocate Liu Xiaobo. Crowd estimates showed a slight uptick from last year’s commemoration. (Video highlights are available here, full video here.) Turnout has been down since 2015, when the Hong Kong Federation of Students, representing four university student unions, took a more localist turn and decided to boycott the event. Local HK boyband Boyz Reborn performed “The Song of Freedom” (自由之歌) to rave reviews (music video, live performance video).
Land and development for housing: Liber Research Community released a new study about land availability in Hong Kong, one of the world’s most heated real estate markets. Despite government claims, Liber’s analysis shows that future housing could be wholly developed in places such as brownfield sites, idle government land and parking lots, rather than intruding into lands set aside for environment conservation (called “country parks”), disrupting valuable agricultural areas, or embarking on more expensive and ecologically harmful reclamation projects. Liber is a non-profit research collective backed by crowd-funded donations.
Court reversal on LGBT rights: In a “huge step backward” for LGBT rights, the Hong Kong Court of Appeal ruled that the husband of a male civil servant is not entitled to spousal benefits, overturning a previous landmark decision by a lower court in favor of equality. The ruling said that granting equal benefits to civil servants with same-sex partners would “offend, challenge, question, confuse, or subtly change society’s established understanding and concept of marriage, which…is rooted in its traditional, historical, social, moral or religious background and values.” The case can still be appealed to Hong Kong’s highest court.
Worries that co-location bill damages rule of law: The Legislative Council passed a controversial “co-location” bill permitting PRC immigration officers to be stationed inside Hong Kong’s borders and imposing PRC criminal law on portions of the high-speed train terminal. Despite being within Hong Kong’s territory, anything within the Mainland section of the terminal would be governed by PRC laws (全面實施內地法律), not simply border rules or customs regulations. Citizen groups are concerned this would strip away autonomy and rule of law, once thought to be protected under the Basic Law, and could lead to more of Beijing’s laws being enforced on Hong Kong soil.
Activists sentenced to years in prison for rioting: Edward Leung Tin-kei, an independence activist in Hong Kong, has been jailed for six years for his actions during the February 2016 “Fishball Revolution” demonstrations in Mong Kok. Activist Lo Kin-man was sentenced to seven years for rioting—making him the “most severely punished offender” since the act of “rioting” was codified by the British colonial authorities in the Public Order Ordinance of 1970 (read the law here)—while Wong Ka-kui was sentenced to 3.5 years. In Hong Kong, when “3 or more persons” assemble together and “conduct themselves in a disorderly, intimidating, insulting or provocative manner” this is considered “unlawful assembly.” Then, if any person then “commits a breach of the peace, the assembly is a riot.” The use of this act to intimidate political activists has been criticized as extreme by local activists and by former British authorities in Hong Kong.
Performances, speeches and memorial actions at the June 4 commemoration of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
SINGAPORE
With democratic change in Malaysia, questions for Singapore? Kirsten Han assesses the exciting political developments in Malaysia and asks if this could inspire change in Singapore. The democratic opposition, now seated in government, is reviewing the old regime’s restrictive laws on speech, press, and assembly, calling them “unsuitable.” In her analysis, Han cites a Singaporean activist who says Malaysians are more active in civil society activities, and also suggests that if the new Malaysian government fulfills its reformist promises, it could cause discomfiture among Singaporean elites who claim that political change is not feasible.
Public order for Trump-Kim summit: Singapore prepared for the US-North Korea summit with a meticulous effort to maintain security and public order. The meeting was hosted on Sentosa Island, renamed in 1972 to move past its violent history as a British military base and WWII Japanese prisoner-of-war camp. Aside from politics, the event has cast the spotlight on the lavish hotels where Kim (St. Regis) and Trump (Shangri-la) stayed, and the Capella Hotel where the negotiations took place. Foreign media also highlighted Singapore’s cuisine.
LGBT film wins top honors: “Benjamin’s Last Day At Katong Swimming Complex” won the Grand Prix award at the 2018 Tokyo “Short Shorts Film Festival.” In the short film, director Chai Yee Wei explores loss of heritage amid rapid development, and also touches on LGBT themes, which the filmmaker said was “in honor” of the queer community. The festival (hosted as “Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia 2018″) Grand Prix winner is eligible to be nominated for one of the Academy Awards for short films. Because of the film’s “homoerotic undercurrents,” Chai is concerned some scenes may be cut by Singaporean censors but hopes the international award will change their minds.
Heritage and conservation in Singapore: Continuing the theme of heritage and memory, the National Heritage Board (NHB) unveiled an exhibit of eight different monuments made out of LEGO bricks to celebrate Singapore’s built heritage. However, in debates over the preservation of other less iconic buildings that may represent historical value, the opinions of academic experts, government authorities, and the public do not always align.
The exhibition “OnBorrowedLand” marks one year since the July 2017 closure of Sungei Road market. In operation since the 1930s, the market had been the “go-to place for vintage goods, including cameras, jewelry and stamps.” Fifteen artists presented art installations and mixed media. In describing his documentary about Sungei to The New Paper, Ong Kah Jin said, “young people can get to know the market’s rich history, and recognize the inevitable tensions between development and heritage, in small countries like Singapore.”
Literature, politics and imagination: Three Singaporean authors speak about queer identity and share there “reading habits, journeys, and the power of language” in an interview with PopSpoken.
The Substation, an independent contemporary arts center, is hosting a contest for written and filmed works exploring local heritage and what it means to the creators. Submissions must be made by social media (Facebook for prose and Instagram for video), with winners receiving prizes of $1,000-3000.
Judith Huang, one of the the Pan-Asian Civics correspondents, will release a novel called “Sophia and the Utopia Machine,” a finalist for the 2017 Epigram Books Fiction Prize. Catch a preview of the novel here:
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