TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Singapore’s parliament passed a foreign interference law on Monday (Oct. 4), citing the controversial Chinese donation scandal that ruined the career of Australian senator Sam Dastyari in 2017.
Singapore’s People’s Action Party, which enjoys an overwhelming majority, passed the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act (“Fica”) after a 10-hour airing in parliament, according to a Straits Times report. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s administration has pushed for Fica to curb foreign interference, claiming it poses “a serious threat to our political sovereignty and national security.“
The new laws grant authorities the power to force internet and social media providers to disclose user information, block content and remove apps. The multi-ethnic city-state’s government says its racial and religious mix makes it vulnerable to manipulation by external actors.
Fica has had its critics though, especially media companies, human rights campaigners and opposition politicians who argue its scope is too wide-ranging. Singapore’s Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam told parliament the internet had become “a particularly attractive theater for our adversaries who would seek to do us harm.”
Shanmugam says Singaporeans remain mostly oblivious to this risk, according to reports. Shanmugam cited the so-called “Gerasimov Doctrine” — a Russian military doctrine for the internet age whereby aggressors identify issues of "protest potential" in a target country. They then deploy disinformation to polarize and destabliize the society and achieve strategic outcomes, per reports.
In comparing Fica to its Australian and U.S. counterparts, Shanmugam said Singapore’s law would not go as far in terms of who it covered. Yet, Professor Eugene Tan of Singapore Management University says it goes much further than Australia’s law, according to a Sydney Morning Herald report.
He warned of the law’s “potential to curb legitimate civil society activity and healthy public discourse if it is abused by a rogue government.”
