NY Times, November 8, 1995, Editorial Cyberspace in Singapore. The Internet Threat to Official Censorship "The Internet is like fire," Mr. Yeo said. "If you don't learn how to control it, it will burn you." In Singapore, a little democracy can be a dangerous thing. Singapore. From his 37th-floor office overlooking Singapore Strait, George Yeo can survey the oil refineries and bustling dockyards that helped make Singapore the trade and financial center of Southeast Asia. But the view that interests the Minister of Information and the Arts these days is not the vista beyond his window. It is the image on the computer terminal at his desk. Mr. Yeo, like the rest of Singapore's top politicians, wants his country to be a leader in the manufacture and use of computer technology without relinquishing the Government's chokehold on the dissemination of information in Singapore. Singapore's effort to find a balance point will be closely watched by other Asian countries that mix capitalist economics with authoritarian politics. The difficulty was underlined last week. Even as Mr. Yeo worried about the perils of the Internet, the Government announced it was relocating 500 industrial enterprises to make room for the development of advanced electronics manufacturing plants. Contradictions like that abound in Singapore, a country that eludes simple classification. With its gleaming skyscrapers and shopping arcades, it can seem like Dallas transplanted to the South China Sea. Conversely, the dominance of one political party and the presence of a paternalistic Government can make it feel like a remnant of the Soviet bloc. Salman Rushdie's "Satanic Verses" and Cosmopolitan magazine are banned, yet the city's largest bookstore stocks a selection of contemporary literature and the works of Chee Soon Juan, Singapore's opposition leader. Singapore's gaudy prosperity challenges the American faith that individual liberty is essential for a vital marketplace. George Yeo is the personification of that challenge. Born in Singapore in 1954, educated at Cambridge University and Harvard Business School, he is disdainful of the cacophony and untidiness of American democracy. Like Lee Kuan Yew, the architect and ruler of modern Singapore, he believes the vulnerabilities of his ethnically divcrse city-state can be best handled by a strong government that encourages a sense of community and limits individual rights. But controlling semiconductors is not the same as controlling newspapers, television networks or political opponents. With the aggressive use of libel and slander statutes Singapore's leaders have intimidated the newspapers that publish here, including The International Herald Tribune. To control television broadcasting, the Government has banned household use of satellite dishes. Some political pluralism is permitted, but no one doubts the primacy of Mr. Lee's People's Action Party. Recognizing the risk of bottling up public demand for foreign television broadcasts, Singapore's leaders are wiring the country for cable television. That way viewers will receive many more channels, including MTV, while the Government will still be able to screen out programming it finds objectionable. It is the quintessential Singapore solution. Singapore's approach to controlling cyberspace is equally ingenious, but harder to enforce. Mr. Yeo, essentially, hopes to control the Internet by embracing it. He is encouraging use of the Internet by equipping schools with computers, and establishing systems that allow Singaporeans to link up with the computer network by dialing a local phone number. The catch is that the Government will be able to monitor use of the Internet that goes through local servers, and is already intervening to block material it considers pornographic. The Government has blunted an uncensored Internet forum on Singapore political life by assembling a group of users who make sure the Government's views are represented. Mr. Yeo concedes that more sophisticated and affluent users can outflank many of his defenses by dialing into the Internet through foreign phone systems. His purpose, he says, is to lay down markers for citizens, expecting that most will abide by them. "The Internet is like fire," he said. "If you don't learn how to control it, it will burn you." In Singapore, a little democracy can be a dangerous thing. Philip Taubman -----