Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan, the Southeast Asian coordinator for the group Nonviolence International, was turned away from Changi Airport and sent back to Thailand when he tried to enter Singapore on Friday.

Opposition politician and Singapore Democratic Party secretary general Chee Soon Juan told AFP Moser-Puangsuwan had been invited to Singapore to give a lecture at a weekend training workshop on non-violent political action.

The Home Affairs Ministry said in an e-mailed statement sent to AFP that Moser-Puangsuwan had been banned after it was discovered he had conducted a similar "political action workshop" in Singapore in January.

"This was aimed to teach Singaporeans how to wage a non-violent campaign of civil disobedience against the government so as to liberate and expand civil rights of Singaporeans who, he deludes himself to believe, are living under dire oppression and injustice," the statement said.

"To mount such a campaign, he specifically recommended targeting youth and women as the primary groups to co-opt and mobilize against the government."

The ministry emphasised that "Singapore's politics are reserved for Singaporeans".

"Foreigners like Yeshua with no stake in the future of Singapore and of Singaporeans will not be allowed to interfere in Singapore's domestic politics, much less to instigate, agitate and promote civil disobedience among targeted segments of society, against the laws of the country," the statement said.

"Foreigners who abuse the privileges accorded to visitors to our country and seek to meddle in Singapore's politics are not welcome here.

"The government has therefore decided to bar Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan from entering Singapore indefinitely."

The Nonviolence International website says Moser-Puangsuwan, a US citizen, is the organisation's "main facilitator of training programs in movement strategy and political struggle" in Southeast Asia.

Singapore has one of the world's most open economies, but international democracy and human rights groups regularly criticise the government for what they say are major constraints on the nation's political and media institutions.

The People's Action Party has ruled the country since independence in 1965 and holds all but two elected seats in parliament.

Chee said in a press statement posted on his website that non-violent action was the "act of non-compliance with oppressive laws put in place by authoritarian governments to stifle the growth of democracy".

"Refusal to cooperate with unjust laws, carried out in a systematic manner, can bring about change," said Chee, who is facing bankruptcy after former prime ministers Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Chok Tong successfully sued him for defamation.

Chee said the decision to ban Moser-Puangsuwan was "yet another attempt by (Prime Minister) Lee Hsien Loong to prevent the development of democracy in Singapore".

The government also banned Amnesty International's Southeast Asia specialist, Timothy Parritt, from speaking at a forum last month on the death penalty, although he was allowed into the country to attend the event.

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