Singapore's business regulatory entity, the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA), has rejected a request from Singapore historian Thum Ping Tjin and local activist Kirsten Han to start a company here.

ACRA says allowing its registration is "contrary to national interests", while stressing that the purposes of their company "are clearly political in nature".

Company planned to hold "democracy classroom" sessions

In a statement shared with Mothership on Wednesday, April 11, ACRA named the company Thum and Han planned to set up as OSEA Pte Ltd.

Thum was designated as its Director, while Han would be its Editor-in-Chief.

Some of the activities it would be engaging in include organising discussion forum events, workshops and other things like "democracy classroom" sessions.

The company, ACRA said, would also provide editorial services to New Naratif, a website also run by Thum (as Managing Director) and Han (as Editor-in-Chief).

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Wholly-owned by UK company, which also owns New Naratif

The foreign element can be traced to a United Kindom-registered company.

OSEA Pte Ltd (OSEA stands for Observatory Southeast Asia) was declared as an entirely-owned subsidiary of OSEA UK, a UK-registered company, which in turn also owns and manages New Naratif.

According to ACRA, OSEA UK's objectives are to “promote the universal values of democracy, freedom of the media, and freedom of inquiry, information and expression”.

It was also revealed that OSEA UK received a US$75,000 (about S$98,100) grant from Foundation Open Societies Institute (FOSI), Switzerland.

And FOSI is linked to organisation founded by George Soros

George Soros is a renowned billionaire, philanthropist, political activist, author and business magnate.

He donated US$18 billion of his wealth to start a foundation called Open Society Foundations.

OSF is, according to ACRA, "closely associated" with FOSI, which gave a grant to OSEA UK, which owns and runs New Naratif, and also was slated to own OSEA Pte Ltd.

ACRA said:

"What happens in other jurisdictions is not the concern of the Singapore Government. OSF and FOSI, and other foreign philanthropies and groups, can fund whatever causes they like elsewhere. In Singapore, however, our position is that none of them can be allowed to fund Singaporean organisations or individuals participating in our domestic politics.

The registration of OSEA Pte Ltd would therefore be contrary to Singapore’s national interests. Singapore’s politics should be for Singaporeans alone to determine. We should not allow foreigners to interfere in how we should govern our country. Nor should we allow any group of Singaporeans to lend themselves to being used by foreigners to pursue a political activity in Singapore."

Top collage made from screenshots via Gov.sg YouTube videos