 Over the years , the Government has been accused of slowing down the progress of democracy by using the Internal Security Act to detain political opponents and suppress political criticism and dissent by organizations such as the Asian Legal Resource Centre and Human Rights Watch . A similar allegation was made by presidential election candidate Tan Jee Say in 2011 . Conversely , the Government has repeatedly asserted that " [ n ] o person has ever been detained only for their political beliefs " . 
