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TONY JONES: Will SingTel honour conditions designed to prevent the company from tapping into Australian defence and business intelligence? In the past, the company has said that its interest in Cable and Wireless Optus is purely commercial. But there are those in Singapore who don't believe companies linked to the Singaporean Government are capable of operating on a purely commercial basis. They are the embattled members of Singapore's opposition parties, which the ruling People's Action Party has openly declared it wants to destroy. Their experience of being spied on, sued, and even bankrupted out of politics has given them a very dark view of the powers at work.

Compere: Tony Jones Reporter: Geoff Thompson

GEOFF THOMPSON: Singapore, the region's most competitive economy, and the hub of south-east Asia's high-tech hype in the information age.

Here, money flows like water, and the Singaporean government would have you believe that information does too.

PUBLIC SPEAKER: To take on the challenges of the 21st century. We need a clear mind and a level head for a clear mind and a level head --

GEOFF THOMPSON: This is free speech, Singapore style. A government-approved corner of a quiet city park where Singaporeans, deprived of a free press, can speak their minds, as long as they register with the police next door.

PUBLIC SPEAKER: Speakers Corner is not dead, it is alive and this is the 85th occasion.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Almost a year after it opened, most Singaporeans ignore speakers corner and some of these few who do attend are still scared of being identified.

PUBLIC SPEAKER: I stand at this corner and I speak only to three person. I'm OK. It's alright. I will talk to the grass and speak to the grass. So Speakers Corner will lead.

MAN: It's a single voice. What happened to that single voice, he got his head chopped off.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Across town selling his books to make a living is a man who knows all too well the perils of being a single voice in Singapore. Jeyaretnam was the first man to break the monopoly on power of the People's Action Party.

Very recently bankrupted by a defamation suit, he has been forced to give up his seat.

JEYARETNAM, WORKER'S PARTY: Singapore works efficiently.

It's in a way like Nazi Germany or somebody will say it works very efficiently.

Whatever information is collected will be, you know, sent to the government.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Chee Soon Juan also sells books for a living.

He's already sold his house and car to pay off a defamation suit against him after questioning why he was sacked from his university job.

He also has a warning for the Australian government, and its dealings with SingTel.

CHEE SOON JUAN, SINGAPORE DEMOCRATIC PARTY: These are politicians first and foremost and they are at the same time dealing in business. It'd be stupid for any government not to take into consideration what their political interests are.

GEOFF THOMPSON: And in Singapore's information management strategy, those political interests are very much alive, according to Chee Soon Juan.

CHEE SOON JUAN: On the one hand, they know that free flow of information is crucial to this economy.

But on the other hand they don't know what to do when something like the Internet flourishes and they cannot handle dissenting views, opposing view points. They are not about to give this control up.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Just ask Melvin Tan, from home and Internet cafes he runs the website of the independent Think Centre.

A new law passed just last week has banned political discussions on non-party sites, killing off the Think Centre's online speakers corner.

MELVIN TAN, THINK CENTRE, SINGAPORE: We are going to be covered by the law. In protest we removed this Internet forum.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Even in recession, Singaporeans enjoy one of the highest standards of living in the world.

But do they, as some people have suggested, live in a golden cage with the terms of their freedom and their access to information are dictated by one ruling party.

It's a question to put to the Singaporean government. But, like most things here, access to government ministers is strictly controlled.