I came across something on Young PAP, an article called “To The Devotees of Western Democracy and Human Rights.” Since I believe that idiocy has to be dealt with using a large hammer, so here goes…
First, the author has tried to justify the “superiority” of Asian values over Western values. Well, in every culture, ethnocentrism is present--the dominant values are always seen as superior over other values--it is one of the things which contribute to identity. But one has to ask the question if it is right, or even if it does make sense to use such a blanket-term like “Asian Values”.
Second, the author accuses the West of cultural imperialism. As quoted "And these were also the nations [European powers] that, at the height of their imperialism, imposed, by sheer brute force, the ‘right’ of extra-territoriality upon the countries they had subjected. And now, they are crusading for Freedom and Human Rights in their former colonies as well as the other countries of Asia." Of course the West can be cultural imperialists, since they have the might and the money.But in using the word ‘crusading’ is a bit extreme. The author has displayed his ignorance of political language and should have avoided using such a word as the very concept of Jihad by Muslim fundamentalists go back to the Crusades. For “Asian Values” overseas – what, Singapore is trying to strike back? With what force?
In fact, in my opinion, Western values are so important for Singapore that you can’t do without them. If we don’t want Western values, then we should chase foreigners out, especially the educated Westerners in our universities, and we should, of course, send our scholars not to Europe anymore! So what is being said is that for our author, he is grossly short-sighted: this smacks of a way to stay in power, by using a vague term to make one system sound better than the other. Without any agreed definitions, this is just RHETORICS.
The "Anglophile" may be despised, but maybe our author should be too, since he is doing nothing much more than building castles in the air, i.e. calling others to take up arms against the Western cultural crusade (seriously, were you with the Taliban?) based on a term which is so general that it is empty, and using the rhetoric of certain senior citizens who deem fit to travel the world and impose their own brand of imperialism under the motto of “leave us alone, you have no idea what it is like to rule an Asian country,” yadda, yadda. Yes, what were you thinking?
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The PAP keep claiming that Westerners are attempting to impose their ideas of liberal democracy (and now human rights) on Singaporeans, yet PAP is the one that denies us of our right to determine for ourselves. It is the PAP that is imposing its values on us, insisting the party knows what's best for everyone. Isn't this propaganda?! For this comment, i shall remain anonymous.
ReplyDeleteI am disturbed by this article... because it is actually spreading hate.
ReplyDeleteIt's actually a myth that Asian resources were plundered to fund the industrialization of the West. I thought it's the other way round. I would go so far as to say that this Young PAP member's piece borders on anti-white racism. America is less white than Singapore is Chinese. More multicultural than Singapore. How dare the writer cast America as a white country full of white imperialists. They don't even know or care about Singapore. The writer is full of himself if he thinks that Americans give one hoot what happens in Singapore.
ReplyDeleteThe article in question suggests the inherent bias that is to be expected from an officially sanctioned mouthpiece of the youth wing of a political party. However, even if we set aside our differences and seek to adopt an objective perspective, the article shows the lack of depth and intellectualism of the writer. Seriously, is this really the best that the up-and-coming political elite can come up with, or am I expecting too much? I wonder.
ReplyDeleteIn the article, the writer mentioned "May I refer you to Noam Chomsky’s “Manufacturing Consent”, a book that exposes American Democracy as a sham?"
ReplyDeleteI would like to attack the writer's point. After Googling about Noam Chomsky, my understanding of Chomsky’s argument against the existing state of democratic practices in the United States is that the political agenda in Washington tends to revolve around backroom politics and private-sector lobbying, rather than the actual needs and desires of the people.
However, it should be noted that Chomsky is also one who has great hope in America’s continual ability to uphold it’s reputation as the Land of the Free, where civil liberties are upheld and freedom of the individual is observed and ensured by the State.
Therefore, the writer has misquoted someone here.
As a Singapore PR, I feel that the PAPpies keep claiming that Westerners are attempting to impose their ideas of liberal democracy (and now human rights) on Singaporeans, yet PAP is the one that denies us of our right to determine for ourselves. It is the PAP that is imposing its values on us, insisting the party knows what's best for everyone.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting point to note is the PAP isn't mentioned here. I think this piece is just used as a very interesting piece of propaganda to boost the image of old PAP ideology, i.e rejection of "western values" for an asian values system which definition is so vague.
ReplyDeleteThere's no point dwelling on his article. It's written with a clearly shocking bias against white people, almost to the point where it reeks of nationalistic rhetoric. At the end of the day we'll just ignore and forget this poor piece.
ReplyDeleteWow, I went to look at the actual article and found that many have actually supported the side of the author's story when it is so logically biased! I guess Singapore is Westernized but it still has it's collectivistic, Confucian values in place. It's not like the West has invaded Singapore and Singapore has to fight back...
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree with you that Western values are so important in Singapore, perhaps it is more important to focus on the part of how Eastern and Western values integrate to form a uniquely Singapore culture, after all we are a multicultural society and if Western values aid in our growth and strengthen our country's economy etc. I don't see a problem with the cultural imperialism of other countries, say America's values in Singapore.
ReplyDeleteThis just shows how government act as gatekeepers to the amount of information it's citizens receive. The government influences the media and the media influences how and what we think about issues, especially political ones.
ReplyDeleteYea, totally agree with limegreenhill, this is a propaganda piece and if we do not respond and voice out our opinion on such atrocity, we will be politically apathetic.
ReplyDeleteBeing overly biased and not based on logical reasoning, the article is offensive and the author's idea will not be communicated effectively to audience.
ReplyDeletePerhaps, the author of the article should do more research on what he is stating in his article as previously mentioned by the above commenters, the author is overly biased and illogical. Moreover, the author should be aware of the audience of this piece of work. As a young adult, I will not consider myself as politically active, but after reading this article posted on the youngpap website, it just makes me wonder what type of calibre our future leaders would be.
ReplyDeleteThe use of equivocal language makes the author's point vague. He may not have meant for the article to reek of nationalistic rhetorics but his word choice has created a piece that overtly spells propaganda.
ReplyDelete