Singapore squeeze:

...Recent incidents of church-state conflict suggest this economically vibrant city-state, which has surpassed New York City as the world's second busiest port, is at a crossroads .Having attained the status of Asia's second most prosperous nation, Singapore now faces sensitive political questions that befit a financially stable and emerging nation...

...Lee's thirty-five-year-old son, Brigadier General Lee Hsien Loong, considered by many to be a less dynamic leader than his father...

...In other words, be a player, set the agenda, drive the public debate, sit in inquisition...

...The Singapore government froze the CCA's bank accounts and expelled its five expatriate members in January...

...STEPHEN B. SCHARPER Stephen B. Scharper, a former editor at Catholic New Times and Orbis Books, is associate acquisitions editor for Twenty-Third Publications, Mystic, Connecticut...

...S.B.S...

...Christian groups, however, are not the only ones feeling the heavy breath of the Singaporean government...

...The Asian Wall Street Journal, Time magazine, and Asiaweek have suffered similar sanctions...

...Its leaders released from prison cannot engage in political organizations without government permission, and are bound by job and travel restrictions...

...In December 1987 the government closed the offices of the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA), accusing the group of supporting "pro-Communist" movements and promoting "political causes in the region...

...While Prime Minister Lee presides over a virtual one-party system (the ruling People's Action Party holds all but one of the parliamentary seats), he has also, in a twenty-eight-year reign, dramatically improved Singapore's standard of living, provided housing for over 80 percent of the population, and seen the infant mortality rate drop below that of the United States...

...Yet along with his "benevolent despotism" are less than salutary side-effects...

...Addressing a recent meeting of the Singapore Press Club, Lee (considered to be his father's chosen successor) stated that the restricted publications have erred by taking sides on domestic issues...

...Like stifling tropical air, an atmosphere of caution has descended upon both Catholics and Protestants, who together comprise roughly 12 percent of Singapore's 2.5 million inhabitants...

...The government-monitored daily, The Straits Times, did not report the archbishop's statements in their entirety, thus suggesting that the archbishop unquestioningly supported the authenticity of the confession...

...One of these clerics, Rev...

...He is also disturbed by the active role of Christians in government protests in South Korea...

...Singapore, since its founding by British scholar and explorer Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819, has been a duty-free port, an unfettered crossroad of international trade...

...He is accused of spearheading a "Marxist conspiracy...

...Prime Minister Lee is suing the Far Eastern Economic Review for reporting the church-state imbroglio, and there is speculation that Archbishop Gregory Yong will be called to the witness stand when the case goes to trial in the next few months...

...S.B.S...

...The work of the Young Christian Workers Center-a group that helped factory workers in the Jurong industrial district organize for improved working conditions-has also been curtailed...

...While the government took a dim view of both the book's release and the Center's ministry, which included sanctuary for abused maids, it did not take action against Arotcarena or the Center until the spring of 1987...

...The prime minister, he claimed, threatened to impose additional measures against the church, including opening its mail, if it continued its involvement in Singapore's political life...

...Yet developments in Singapore bespeak a larger trend throughout Southeast Asia...

...Singapore's politicians and voters have yet to learn the skills of self-government in a multi-party state...

...The Gaylang Center remains closed...

...In the case of Singapore, that may well be Mr...

...It is evident that throughout the region, the church's struggle for a more humane society is giving "strong men" the jitters...

...such a press does not suit the Singaporean political landscape...

...They have sought "the right to play a role in Singapore equivalent to the role which American newspapers play in the U.S...

...Arotcarena was then pressured to resign, which he did along with three other priests appointed to the diocesan Justice and Peace Commission...

...A writer for the Catholic News of Singapore claims, ' 'Mr...

...Edgar D'Souza, raised the hackles of Singapore's government when he focused international attention on its closure of the Gaylang Center and arrest of its leader, Vincent Cheng, while visiting in his native Australia...

...CCA works in conjunction with the World Council of Churches on pastoral programs and publishes a newspaper, reporting abuses against the church throughout Asia...

...Twenty-one other Christian workers, arrested in the government sweep of last spring, have been released, owing in part to international protests...

...Established in 1957, the CCA encompasses ninety-five Protestant churches and fifteen national councils in seventeen nations...

...He does not want such Christian activism here...

...The provenance of church-state tension dates back to 1980-81, when, in response to the government-sponsored importation of over twenty thousand Filipino workers, mostly women, the Gaylang Catholic Center was formed under the aegis of Rev...

...Despite government manipulation, many Catholics feel that the archbishop has not been tenacious enough in his support of Cheng and others working through the Justice and Peace Commission, which now appears to be largely inactive...

...But with the exchange of products also comes the flow of ideas...

...He recently returned from a nine-day sojourn in Singapore...

...According to one priest, who, like most Singaporean church officials, asks not to be identified, Archbishop Yong was told by the prime minister that either ' 'you get your house in order or I will do it for you...

...a media person...

...After restraining the circulation of the Far Eastern Economic Review, the Asian Wall Street Journal, Asiaweek, and Time magazine, largely for their coverage of church-state friction, the Singapore government provided a rationale for censorship through its Trade and Industry Minister Lee Hsien Loong, son of sixty-four-year-old Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew...

...The prestigious Far Eastern Economic Review has been stung with a restricted circulation order after printing a statement by D'Souza, claiming that the government was forcing the archbishop to squelch justice and peace activities...

...The group, under the direction of Reverend Park Sang Jang, then moved its headquarters to Hong Kong...

...Guillaume Arotcarena to minister to the Filipino Catholics...

...That endeavor prompted the government to disclose publicly D'Souza's long-standing relationship with a woman, a move which led to D'Souza's resignation and his persona non grata status in Singapore...

...Vincent Cheng, former head of the diocesan Justice and Peace Commission, sits in a government detention center-his eleventh month without a trial...

...Such a model, Lee argued, " is an elegant theory but not verified by experience," leading to "mayhem and riots rather than enlightenment...

...Lee, an admirer of Ferdinand Marcos, was disturbed by the role of the Catholic church in the ascension to power of Corazon Aquino...

...Arotcarena wrote a book, The Maid Tangle, documenting the abuses of Filipino domestic workers in Singapore...

...Lee referred to a dusty poll suggesting that Walter Cronkite was the most trusted man in the United States and asked, "Can you imagine what Singapore would be like if one day, perhaps shall we say several years after the general elections, the prime minister of Singapore would command less respect and less trust than a media person...

...Confronted with Vincent Cheng's signed confession of leading a "Marxist conspiracy," the archbishop was led deceitfully into a government-sponsored press conference, where he stated that he had to take the confession at face value, but wished to explore whether or not the statement was signed "under duress...

...to meddle in the internal affairs of Singapore...

...The government of neighboring Malaysia, for example, has arrested church workers for fomenting political unrest, and is still holding a Christian Brother in connection with this alleged crime...

...the future success of the nation depends almost solely on the beneficence of Lee's successor...

...The notion of church involvement in issues of social justice is, it seems, a ripe idea, regardless of government repression...

...The government could come any-time and close us down.'' Such is the stark assessment of one em-ployee of the Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore, following governmental suppression of the archdiocese's justice and peace ministries...

...Invoking the Internal Securities Act, a legislative holdover from British colonial times, the government of Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew has charged that Christians have participated in "radical political activities . . . which had nothing to do with the Christian faith.'' A government press release stated that the present Singaporean administration "will not allow any foreign or regional organization...