<![CDATA[Fears over Singapore Yale-NUS College's course on dissent 'not unfounded': minister]>

Singaporean universities should not be "misused" for partisan politics, education minister Ong Ye Kung on Monday said as the government addressed the controversy over a course on dissent and disobedience at the city state's Yale-NUS College that was axed at the eleventh hour.

Speaking in parliament, Ong took aim at several vocal critics of his ruling People's Action Party (PAP) who were meant to have featured as speakers in the course, including the module's convening instructor, well-known playwright Alfian Sa'at.

Yale-NUS, a collaboration between Yale University and the National University of Singapore, last week said its internal investigations had concluded that the course " to have run from September 27 to October 4 " was axed because it lacked "academic rigour".

On social media, Alfian has disputed the liberal arts college's account of events leading up to the module's cancellation. Some online commentators have suggested the episode was yet another instance of dissent being curtailed in the Lion City.

The module's cancellation has also raised questions about whether elite United States Ivy League institution Yale made the wrong decision in 2013 by choosing Singapore, often criticised by rights groups for the PAP's ironhanded rule, as the site of its Asian satellite campus.

In his comments to lawmakers, Ong reiterated Yale-NUS College's stance that no external parties had influenced its final decision, but added that his ministry had been concerned by the itinerary of the course set out by Alfian.

Among the programme's activities was a visit to the free-speech park Speaker's Corner; talks by local civil activists; a presentation on censorship in Singapore; and a screening of a documentary on the Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong Chi-Fung.

"The worry that our institutions of higher learning may be used to conduct partisan political activities to sow dissent against the government is not unfounded," Ong said.

The education minister " a key member of the PAP's cabal of next-generation, or "4G", leaders " highlighted the inclusion of dialogues with Singaporean activists Seelan Palay, Jolovan Wham, Kirsten Han and P.J. Thum as a main reason for his ministry's concern over the module.

Singapore's education minister Ong Ye Kung. Photo: Handout alt=Singapore's education minister Ong Ye Kung. Photo: Handout

Ong pointed out that Seelan and Wham had "previously been convicted of public-order related offences". Han and Thum lead the news portal New Naratif, which Ong noted had "received significant foreign funding".

Han, the portal's chief editor, and Thum, its managing director, have been the target of criticism from government officials for New Naratif's acceptance of funds from Open Society Foundations, the pro-democracy group linked to American billionaire financier George Soros.

On Alfian, the minister read out an excerpt of the playwright's 1998 poem entitled Singapore You Are Not My Country. Ong said notwithstanding "some artistic licence", Alfian "continues this attitude consistently in his activism".

He referred to episodes such as when the playwright cheered last year's watershed Malaysian election that toppled scandal-haunted prime minister Najib Razak, "juxtaposed it favourably against Singapore, and dismissed the fear of 'chaos in the streets, clashes with riot police, traffic at a standstill'".

"These individuals responsible for the programme are entitled to their views and feelings about Singapore. They can write about them, even vent them on social media," Ong said. "But we have to decide whether we allow such forms of political resistance free rein in our educational institutions, and even taught as compulsory, credit-bearing programmes."

Alfian told This Week in Asia he was "not exactly sure" what Ong meant when he spoke about his activism. "First of all, I'm not an activist. I consider myself primarily a writer and a playwright," he said by text message.

"And secondly, the activists I know are motivated by love. Not hatred. And that love " for social justice, for the marginalised, for the poor, for the weak " is what has often led them to do things often at great personal cost. Whether it be less time spent with their family, or sacrificing a career in a better-paying job, or even the risk of being blacklisted by authorities."

The playwright also said the minister's excerpt of his poem lacked context as he "did not quote a line in the poem in full".

Also responding to a request for comment on Ong's remarks, Han, the New Naratif editor, questioned "how the minister defined what is or isn't 'partisan', and who in Singapore has the power to decide that".

Ong in his comments pushed back against assertions that the withdrawal of the course undermined academic freedom, pointing out that Yale's "own independent assessment also came to this conclusion". He said "political dissent is certainly a legitimate topic of academic inquiry".

New Naratif editor in chief Kirsten Han. Photo: Facebook alt=New Naratif editor in chief Kirsten Han. Photo: Facebook

While students examine "critical present day issues" such as the protests in Hong Kong and the protests against climate change, they "can and should discuss the implications of such political developments for a small country like Singapore", Ong said.

His bottom line, however, was that Singaporean universities should not be used to advance partisan political interests.

"In Singapore's democracy, there are many avenues for political parties and activists to champion their causes, and for people to make their choices and exercise their political rights," he said. "Educational institutions, and especially the formal curriculum, are not the platforms to do this."

Walter Theseira, an associate professor at the Singapore University of Social Sciences, said there remained questions over whether the module was cancelled because of the people who were involved in it.

Theseira was among the MPs who queried Ong on the saga. The economics researcher is among nine nominated MPs picked to add diversity to a legislature in which the PAP has held a supermajority for decades.

"There are people who happen to be objectionable ... no matter what they promise to do or how they structure the course, we would not want them engaging our students," Theseira told This Week in Asia after Ong's remarks.

He said the minister's statement suggested there was a "blacklist" of individuals that universities should not engage, and that Ong did not "directly deny that".

Ong had said the government has "to leave a lot of room" for educational institutions to decide whether instructors are suitable.

"The criteria [Ong] gave such as criminal history, subversion, foreign influence ... To me that is very much a character of a blacklist, which is to say that individuals of this type should not be engaged in educational activities in universities," Theseira said.

He added that universities would be expected to "internalise" these criteria now when looking for external speakers for educational activities, but since the criteria were illustrative and not exhaustive, universities would likely play it safe.

"Universities need to calibrate this appropriately. The greatest concern that many academics would have is not knowing what the boundaries are, and people overreacting to that, and perhaps cutting our students off from people who would enrich their academic lives."

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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