The EconomistJune 27th 2020 Asia 272
1the Protection from Online Falsehoods and
Manipulation Act. A tightening of the Pub-
lic Order Act requires organisers of public
protests to apply for a permit at least 28
days before the event or face a fine of
$14,400 or up to a year in prison, or both.
The overall effect—driven home by fre-
quent investigations and prosecutions of
opposition politicians for assaults on truth
and the good name of the authorities—is to
discourage criticism and participation in
parties other than the pap.
Nonetheless, the opposition has won
over some notable recruits. Lee Hsien
Yang, the prime minister’s brother, has
joined a new opposition outfit, the Pro-
gress Singapore Party (psp), which was
founded last year. Its leader, Tan Cheng
Bock, formerly served as an mpfor the pap
for 25 years but speaks now of a climate of
fear in Singapore. The party wants to boost
job creation, delay any rise in a nationwide
goods-and-services tax for five years, and
lower the voting age from 21 to 18.
The government’s main vulnerability
stems from its handling of covid-19 and the
economic damage the epidemic will bring.
At first Singapore was held up as a model in
the battle against the disease. Then tens of
thousands of cases began to emerge in dor-
mitories for migrant workers. In total the
country has seen more than 40,000 infec-
tions. In response, it imposed a “circuit
breaker” from early April until mid-June
during which most Singaporeans had to
stay at home. Partly as a result, the govern-
ment forecasts that the economy will
shrink by 4-7% this year.
The pap’s “4g” cadres—its rising fourth
generation of leaders—have been given
leading roles in managing the pandemic.
Their lacklustre champion, Heng Swee
Keat, the finance minister, who is expected
to take over from Mr Lee during the next
parliamentary term, has devised several
stimulus packages worth a total of $72bn,
almost 20% of gdp. More than half comes
from Singapore’s formidable reserves. “Our
reserves allow us to deal with this crisis
from a position of strength, and give us op-
tions in a period of uncertainty like this,”
he says.
It should all be enough to retain the sup-
port of anxious voters. In recent surveys,
some 80% of respondents told Blackbox, a
Singaporean pollster, that the country is
heading in the right direction. The real test
for the papwill come after the election. A
prolonged downturn will gnaw away at the
basic compact between the papand its vot-
ers, who disregard its domineering and
nannyish ways because of the economic
growth and social stability it has provided.
Meanwhile Mr Lee has said he will retire
before his 70th birthday, early in 2022. Al-
though Singaporeans seem likely to vote
against change, they are bound to get it,
sooner or later. 7“W
e don’treallygoinforthatany
more,” says a British spook with-
eringly of gadgets disguised as pens in
“Skyfall”, a James Bond film. In Fiji,
though, such devices have become a
national fascination. A man called Ferrel
Farizal Khan told the head of the Fiji
Broadcasting Corporation, Riyaz Sayed-
Khaiyum, that he was an undercover
agent of sorts, running “Fiji Exposed”, an
anonymous blog which features stories
about the extramarital affairs of promi-
nent politicians and businessmen. Mr
Khan also claimed that he was being paid
by the two main opposition parties topublishanti-governmentstories and to
hack into the national elections database
to seek evidence of government ballot-
rigging. So Mr Sayed-Khaiyum, who is
the brother of the omnipresent attorney-
general, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, equipped
him with a camera disguised as a pen to
record opposition figures misbehaving.
Mr Khan returned empty-handed,
saying that the spy-pen had failed to
work. By then, Mr Sayed-Khaiyum was
becoming suspicious of the supposed
double-agent, whom he reported to the
police. They are duly investigating Mr
Khan. But they also took his allegations
seriously enough to raid the offices of the
National Federation Party, one of the two
opposition outfits, hunting for evidence
of links to “Fiji Exposed”—to no avail.
Mr Khan, meanwhile, claims to have
recorded his conversations with Mr
Sayed-Khaiyum, not on a spy-pen but on
a mobile phone. “You prepare well,” he
advised his denouncer, “as I now have
nothing to lose.” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum, for
his part, has held a press conference to
“set the record straight”. He says he was
never convinced by Mr Khan and threat-
ened to sue the opposition parties for
mocking him. He clearly does not have
the political acumen of his brother, who
is sometimes known as a 2 zbecause he is
thought to oversee everything the gov-
ernment does. Whether that includes his
brother’s work is unclear.Penandstink
Espionage in FijiWELLINGTON
The curious case of the malfunctioning spy cameraMr Khan’s didn’t workT
he presidencyof Kyrgyzstan is not a
job for the fainthearted. In the past 15
years two incumbents have been toppled
by mass protests. Last year an ex-president,
Almazbek Atambayev, was arrested amid a
deadly clash between supporters and po-
lice. This week a court handed him an 11-
year prison sentence on corruption char-
ges that he says are politically driven.
The court ruled that Mr Atambayev had
helped wangle the early release from pri-
son of a mafia don, Aziz Batukayev, suppos-
edly on compassionate grounds, using a
fake diagnosis of leukaemia. Mr Batukayevwalked free and flew to Russia in 2013, but
prosecutors started probing Mr Atam-
bayev’s role only after he began feuding
with Sooronbay Jeyenbekov, a former pro-
tégé who had succeeded him as president
in 2017.
Mr Jeyenbekov may have learnt a thing
or two from his ex-mentor on neutralising
rivals. When Mr Atambayev was president,
his opponents had a habit of landing be-
hind bars on corruption charges—a fate
that has now befallen not only him, but
also several allies. Sapar Isakov, an Atam-
bayev-era prime minister, is serving 18
years in jail on graft charges.
Investigators have vigorously pursued
the corruption charges against Mr Atam-
bayev, but an equally momentous case,
which brought protesters onto the streets
when it hit the headlines last year, is mov-
ing glacially. It concerns a smuggling rack-
et which allegedly enjoyed official protec-
tion, cost the government millions of
dollars in forgone customs revenue andALMATY
The authorities appear inconsistent in
their concern about corruptionCrime and punishment in KyrgyzstanJail to the chief