Opposition leader Chee says Singapore "runs on fear"

Opposition party official Chee Soon Juan condemned the Internal Security Act, which allows Singaporean police to arrest citizens without giving them a reason, and what he called the government's jailing of political dissidents.

Chee, speaking at a conference in Hong Kong to commemorate pro-democratic movements in China, berated what he called Singapore's absence of a free media, under which he said a whole generation grew up on one television station and one newspaper.

He said the tightly-ruled country "runs on fear" and warned against perceiving it as an "island paradise."

Nonetheless, Chee remained optimistic about the future of democracy in Singapore.

"... the worldwide trend, especially in Asia as well, is towards greater democracy. I am very hopeful, in fact, I am convinced that it's just a matter of time before political change, democratic change, comes to Singapore," he said.

Chee, 36, secretary-general of the Singapore Democratic Party, was jailed twice in February and disqualified from contesting general elections for five years after refusing to pay fines for holding public rallies without a permit.

Chee called for greater democracy in Asia generally, saying this would also be good for business.

"It would certainly be myopic of these governments not to see the urgent need to push for the accelerated development of democracy and the respect for human rights in this part of the world -- not only because it's morally the right thing to do but also because it makes good economic sense," he said in a paper submitted to the conference.

Citing Asian pro-democracy leaders ranging from Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi to South Korea's Kim Dae-Jung, Chee refuted the idea that Asian values limit human rights.

"You have this trend where people, Asians, are beginning to wake up to the fact that democracy is important to us and important to our society," he said.