Missing trees, Myanmar, & drug rehab
Shh, I know, my titles need work.
Interesting current affairs news just didn’t stop coming this week. I won’t be focusing on one topic this week, so enjoy this chaotic snapshot into my scatter-brained mind.
No one needed that forest, right?
Apparently, Singapore environmentalists were all worried about the wrong forests, because we accidentally started deforesting a different one already, oops.
Even more shockingly, it seems that this mistake was discovered one month ago by JTC and only revealed now (source). Furthermore, they’re still investigating somehow. It has been ONE ENTIRE MONTH! How slowly can you possibly be proceeding with this investigation?
It must also be noted that JTC says the clearing started in December, while satellite imagery seems to indicate that clearing began much earlier. Even the Straits Times indicate that ‘photos on Google Street View also showed a sign […] at the deforested land next to Kranji Road last September.’ So their month-long investigation has apparently turned up less than a… cursory Google search?
Splendid work so far by Jurong Town Corporation, which I must also mention, is a statutory board of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, making it effectively an extension of the government.
I think we can all agree that the contractor, Huationg Global Ltd., definitely deserves responsibility for proceeding with the deforestation without the necessary regulatory pre-approval. However, how is it that this somehow falls under the purview of MTI, JTC, and NParks, and yet none of them have the regulatory teeth to do anything more than issue a “stern warning”? None of them had the oversight to realize this unauthorized clearing was happening and stop it before (presumably) months of clearing work had proceeded?
Also, keep in mind that this entire series was forced because aerial photography was taken of the clearing and posted to social media, forcing JTC to respond. So none of the pertinent parties desired transparency and accountability enough that they would inform the Singaporean public in due time, seemingly instead hoping no one would notice, and they could politely carry on in secret?
How very disappointing.
Here’s the thing. The land was likely to be slated for deforestation to make room for the Agri-Food Innovation Park in a few months anyway. I can only assume that less environmentally-conscious arguments will begin predicated on this mitigating factor, and they will be right; in the long-run, this hardly mattered anyway. But this indication of complete regulatory failure here should serve as a warning that environmental protections in Singapore continue to be overly lax. In anticipation of future events worse than this one, I pre-emptively hang my head in dismay.
This entire debacle unfolded just about a week after the unveiling of the Singapore Green Plan 2030 - so not a very promising inaugural event. Here’s to hoping this plan turns out better than the East Coast Plan.
Vivian Balakrishnan and Myanmar
I very often find myself mocking Singapore parliamentarians in my head, but now and then I try and humanize them a bit. After all, they are not inherently evil beings bent on maximizing global suffering; at least, I hope not. It is on one occasion such as this one where I found myself thinking about Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan, who was once an exceptionally successful medical doctor and must have had an enviable life. But someday he received the fateful phone call that decided he was going into politics in 2001 (this is how I imagine it all happened pls don’t POFMA me), and I can only imagine his life has only been getting harder since.
My speculative (and borderline unprovable) suspicion is that after he expertly handled the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics budget debacle, he became the government-designated scapegoat for every single thing that could possibly go wrong. Let’s let Vivian fight Jamus Lim at the GE2020 debates. Let’s make Vivian take charge of the Smart Nation Initiative and end up having to eat his words on TraceTogether. Let’s make him do all this while also being Minister for Foreign Affairs, which is certainly one of the most complex portfolios of the entire Cabinet.
Despite being the Minister of taking-all-the-blame, he still has very good electoral performance too. I’m just saying, that just makes me think he’s Prime Minister material. He’s the same age as Heng Swee Keat and speaks a lot better…
But anyway, the MFA is being criticised (and probably rightly) about their approach to the military coup in Myanmar, so… sorry, Dr. Balakrishnan, but this one is, like, actually your main job. I can’t help you escape from this one.
So as Singapore’s extensive business ties to Myanmar’s military coup-throwing junta grows in the public eye (really good article here!), MFA has pretty much only said that… the authorities should draw the line at shooting protesters (source)? And Singapore can’t do anything about it because ASEAN isn’t supposed to interfere with the internal matters of other ASEAN states (source)?
I mean, obviously I’m cherry-picking a whole lot here, but this feels like offering thoughts and prayers, and maybe like a #ClapForMyanmar or something. It’s another “stern warning” bereft of teeth.
So what’s going to happen? I’m no foreign policy buff, but I suspect that Singapore’s MFA will refuse to do anything unilaterally on this issue because it would set an unhealthy precedent for ASEAN member states or something. Supporting a democratically-elected leader and taking action against a military coup ousting them from power is apparently not cool with ASEAN, despite the democratic aspirations of the ASEAN Charter. ASEAN is complicated.
So, with ASEAN maybe meeting soon on a way forward with regards to Myanmar (source), this will hopefully clear the way for concerted ASEAN intervention. Until this meeting happens, if it happens at all, I anticipate that a lot of nothing will be done. Even once the meeting is over, the path ahead remains uncertain and hazy.
So, while Singapore’s MFA does deserve some criticism for its weak stance on Myanmar, it does have to be noted that it’s keeping relatively close to the general ASEAN perspective here. I certainly hope ASEAN manages to rally together to do more, but I doubt it’s as simple as it seems.
Stay strong, Myanmar. We’re all rooting for you.
Malaysian progress on drug law reform
Marginally lighter news out of Malaysia this week: a new set of Malaysian drug laws coming into force later this year will feature a stronger focus on rehabilitation and treatment rather than retributive punishment (alternative source).
This is fantastic news that I think will be a significant step forward for dealing with the problem of drug abuse, and I applaud their forward-thinking Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin, for it. Well, forward-thinking in this one aspect, anyway. But let’s not get into it.
I’m not going to get into the weeds of the new Malaysian law, because:
I am not Malaysian,
I can’t actually find the text of it out anywhere (probably because the bill hasn’t actually been tabled yet), but also,
I don’t really feel like it.
But, as a high-level approach, I think it makes sense.
Of course, all this being said, there is significant progress still remains to be made. The Prime Minister of Malaysia has just as recently also said that they will not be legalising cannabis (source), seemingly even for medical reasons. I guess treating drugs users like patients, yes; but using drugs as treatment for patients, no? No amount of mental gymnastics will make this make sense to me, but maybe that’s why I’m not a lawmaker.
Anyway, so the whole idea is that the approach will focus on rehabilitation and treatment programmes to reduce the societal stigma associated with drug abuse and addiction. The Home Minister says this will “facilitate their reintegration into the community and [give] them a second chance.” (quote source) Wonderful news, I hope the new law works out for the people of Malaysia.
So, not to make this all about me, but… when will Singapore get the memo that drug abusers need rehabilitation, treatment, and support, rather than the stigma, abuse, and harsh punitive measures (with the looming possibility of the death penalty) they face in modern Singapore?
The last report I could find of Singapore drug abuse arrests was from 2019, where apparently the number of arrests was at a 6-year high (source). So clearly, whatever we were trying to do wasn’t working out very well, was it?
And not just Singapore, but when will other governments around the world also wake up and realize that helping your citizens recover from drug abuse requires treating them like patients and not as criminals?
Since the Ministry of Home Affairs loves to talk about how they’re focused on evidence-based rehabilitation, let’s look at some positive demonstrations of how to deal with drug abuse. The most well-known example is probably Portugal, which decriminalized personal possession of all drugs in 2001 (I mean what!!!) and began expanding drug rehabilitation and harm reduction programmes across the nation. Such an approach would be certainly dismissed out of hand by Singaporean lawmakers, considering how proud we are about how our tough laws are certain to stop drug abuse.
Here’s the thing, Portugal’s drug policies actually work (source). Ours don’t, as evidenced by the growing number of drug-related arrests each year, and the growing number of new drug offenders each year.
What will it take for Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs to realize that our entire approach of how to deal with drug abuse in Singapore is misguided and not as evidence-based as they claim it to be?
How many positive examples do we need to see from other countries who look at the data and say “Hey, maybe we should try to be more rehabilitative,” before we figure out that we should do the same?
This topic also begins to touch on the broader picture of prison reform. How many positive examples like the prison systems of Scandinavia do we need to look at before our evidence-based mindsets kick in and say that “hey, it turns out rehabilitating our prison population helps reduce recidivism rates more than harshly punishing them.” But this is yet another topic for yet another time.
So, to summarize, I welcome this news from Malaysia, and I hope that the government makes it work. And who knows, maybe if Malaysia figures it out, Singapore will follow suit. But it seems that we are the political laggards on this front, so Malaysia wins this round.
(but hey at least the exchange rate is still 3 to 1 lol)
That’s about it for this week! Did you like this week’s format of shorter snippets on a variety of topics? Let me know.
~Kai