Remember the uproar when POFMA was introduced in 2019? The government was assaulting the freedom of expression! The law would be used to silence its critics! How do ministers dare to decide what the truth is!
Fast forward 5 years and even the local opposition respects the law so much that its latest invocation led to the resignation (more an ouster, really) of PSPs Secretary-General and the party's most outspoken MP, Leong Mun Wai.
Granted, it certainly wasn't the only reason, as there have been rumours that many party members were unhappy with his style and the controversies he causes, which may hurt PSP, but nobody questioned the government's clarification issued under POFMA.
Nobody is saying it's an attempt to "fix" the opposition or get rid of political opponents.
Sure, there are some fringe characters who regularly spew conspiracy theories but nobody in respectable mainstream of Singapore's politics sees the law as a muzzle.
And the reason for that is that it places some responsibilities on the government as well.
It cannot simply censor anybody without a reason. In fact, it doesn't really censor anything, as both the allegations it dismisses and facts it presents to prove what the truth really is are public.
It simply draws public attention to the falsehood and clarification at the same time by forcing the offending party to publish the facts.
So far it is easily the best remedy to widespread misinformation deployed by anyone in the world.
Though I don't think it could work in most countries outside Singapore, since nowhere else is the government run by quite as trustworthy people as here.
