Regional non-governmental organisations are not doing enough to address human rights issues in Singapore, said media and political activist James Gomez.

Gomez, who was an election candidate representing the opposition Workers Party, was speaking at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand on May 16.

"Regional NGOs need to respond in a coordinated, timely and competent manner. They need to show more interest," he said, referring to the recently concluded Singapore elections and his predicament.

Gomez was detained by the Singaporean authorities as he was about to leave the country after the elections. This followed a complaint by the Elections Department that he had intimated and threatened some of its staff.

This was due to an incident arising from an administrative foul-up in his dealings with the department.

A week later, the charges were dropped and Gomez was allowed to leave the country. He spent several days in Bangkok en-route to Sweden where he works as a researcher.

Although several NGOs had sent representatives to observe the polls, the lack of a strong response led Gomez to question the efficacy of regional organisations such as human rights and press freedom groups.

"What is the human rights focus of these groups and how much of a priority is Singapore for human rights issues in the region?" he asked.

He said there will be a "growing buzz of political party activity" because civil society organisations are weak or almost non-existent in Singapore

In view of this, he said regional NGOs should increase their monitoring of human rights violations committed in particular against individuals from Singapore's opposition parties.

More activists needed

Ruki Fernando from Forum-Asia said that Singapore needs more activists like Gomez to stir up public and regional interest.

Meanwhile, Roby Alampay from the Southeast Asia Press Alliance (Seapa) said his organisations is unable to work withe government dominated media in Singapore.

However, Seapa sees a potential working relationship with the new media, for example bloggers.

"We can work with bloggers, but they need to have the courage to come out on their own as well," said Alampay.

"Momentum has to come from Singaporean bloggers, and we also need to see trends and progress," he added.

Lance Woodruff from Thai news agency MCOT said most regional NGOs and civil society organisations do not do much concerning Singapore not because of a lack of interest or concern.

Instead, he said, it was concerned more with the authorities' reputation for restrictions. "'They won't allow you to do anything anyway, so why bother?"

Singapore has been ruled by the PAP since its independence in 1965.