Rejoinder to Statement from New Naratif

1. We refer to the Statement issued by the New Naratif website on 12 Apr 2018 in response to the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority’s (ACRA) rejection of “OSEA Pte Ltd’s” application to be registered as a private company limited by shares.  

2. The Statement claims that the concerns about New Naratif and the proposed company “being used by foreigners to pursue a political activity in Singapore” are unfounded.  

3. But we note the statement confirmed New Naratif received a grant from Open Society Foundation (OSF) or Foundation Open Society Institute (FOSI). Also the statement highlighted New Naratif has received funding from “over 420 members in 17 different countries”. In other words, its political activities in Singapore would appear to be funded by a number of foreigners – not only foreign entities like OSF but also citizens of foreign countries.

4. In addition to its online activities, New Naratif is known to have organised discussion fora, workshops, and other events in Singapore, such as “Democracy Classroom” sessions.  New Naratif clearly has a political agenda, and is not simply “a platform for journalism, research, art or community building”. Indeed, the application to register OSEA Pte Ltd specifically mentioned the organisation of fora, workshops and other events as its aim, aside from providing editorial services to New Naratif. 

5. The fact that FOSI or OSF – and possibly all of its foreign donors – may not be involved in the day-to-day running of the website, or New Naritif’s other activities in Singapore, even if true, does not detract from the fact that the registration of OSEA Pte Ltd would amount to allowing a foreign entity or foreigners to fund and influence political activities in Singapore. This is contrary to Singapore’s national interests. The applicants have 30 days to appeal against ACRA’s rejection.