The question of foreigners and foreign money getting involved in domestic political affairs was thrown into sharp relief last week, as the Government denied registration to a firm in what is probably the first such publicised case in Singapore.

The application to set up OSEA Pte Ltd was lodged by two Singaporeans, historian Thum Ping Tjin and journalist Kirsten Han.The Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (Acra) rejected it, citing OSEA's proposed activities such as democracy classroom sessions - which it described as "clearly political" - and its links with American billionaire investor George Soros.