Singapore university events ‘must be in national interest’

Events at Singaporean universities should “respect…wider social norms and act in line with national interests”, its government has said.

Jamus Jerome Lim, a member of the opposition Workers’ Party who represents the Sengkang constituency, asked the minister for education, Chan Chun Sing, if he could confirm “that incidents of disinvitations of speakers and cancellations of events at the autonomous universities [were] not due to advisory or instructions transmitted by the ministry”. Alongside his parliamentary seat, Dr Lim is an associate professor of economics at ESSEC Business School.

“The autonomous universities [AUs] manage their own events, including deciding which speakers they wish to invite,” the ministry said in response. “As common spaces for learning, AUs are aware that they must respect Singapore’s wider social norms and act in line with national interests. Where necessary, the ministry will advise the AUs to uphold these principles.”

Sol Iglesias, an academic who alleged last year that she was disinvited from a panel at the National University of Singapore (NUS) because of her husband’s activism, interpreted the government’s reply as a tacit acknowledgement that they influenced university events.

“My reading of it is that the Ministry of Education has essentially admitted to a practice that is an open secret among those of us who have ever been a student or taught in Singapore, constraining academic freedom in its institutions of higher learning,” Dr Iglesias told Times Higher Education.

An assistant professor of political science at the University of the Philippines, Dr Iglesias was invited to speak on a panel called “Public Intellectuals, Populism and Power: Perspectives from Southeast Asia” at NUS. She was later dropped from the event and believes she was rejected because of her marriage to Thum Ping Tjin, also known as PJ Thum, a Singaporean historian and democracy activist.

Chong Ja Ian, an associate professor in the department of political science at NUS, told THE that the parliamentary question meant “the issue of academic freedom is of national-level importance”.

“I think the answer seemed rather standard, although the part on conformity with ‘wider social norms’ and acting ‘in line with national interests’ seems somewhat open to interpretation,” Dr Chong said. “Academic research and breakthroughs sometimes involve challenging prevailing norms.”

emily.dixon@timeshighereducation.com