Mitch+Hulse

Mitch Hulse

Inquiry Topic: I plan on investigating how effective the Singaporean government maintains success as the small island-nation is forced to deal with population growth, economic competition, and world-wide recognition in its national importance for the Asian region and beyond. I specifically want to look at the mentality the Singaporean government embraces and how it is structured.

Guiding Question: Why is the People’s Action Party - the dominant government party in Singaporean parliament - not willing to give way to other perspectives of political thought? Is their dominance connected to Singapore’s growth into the modern era? Why don’t more Singaporeans take action against uprooting the PAP regime and attempt to get differing political views within their political system?

Source 1) Civil Society Sector & Political Change: An Interview With Catherine Lim

 Lim, Catherine. Social Space Magazine Interview by Lien Center for Innovation. 16 09 2010. Magazine, 2010. 10. Web. 26 Oct 2010. .

 Catherine Lim is a best-selling author that has significantly contributed to social commentary in Singapore. In 1994, she published a social commentary entitled [|The PAP and the people - A Great Affective Divide] that is one of the few critical perspectives offered publicly in Singaporean press. She is a credible source because of her sheer experience and exposure to Singaporean politics and how the government behaves in the island-nation. While primarily a fiction author, she has sparked severe controversy into parliamentary leaders of the PAP such as Goh Chok Tong and Singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew. This interview provides a recent perspective of what Catherine Lim thinks of the PAP as Singapore faces the next decade in terms of economic growth and regional recognition in Asia.

 The interview details Dr. Lim's viewpoints on what the People's Action Party must recognize in coming years. She claims that the PAP has crafted a mentality among the Singaporean people of conformity and henceforth, the government has encouraged complacency and subservience in it's citizens. Dr. Lim holds to the fact that the People's Action Party has maintained an atmosphere of caution and fear among Singaporean citizens. She says this 'climate of fear' must be extinguished if the People's Action Party wants Singapore to be competitive with other Asian nations and businesses on a global scale. Later in the interview, Dr. Lim addresses the growing concern for emigration of Singaporean citizens. She claims that the PAP will be forced to take action if emigration statistics climb. In doing so, the PAP will have to work on changing the notion of a successful lifestyle among Singaporean citizens. The government will have to discourage the Darwinian 'everyone for themselves' culture that has sprung up in the recent decade as a result of a strong focus on materialism and quality of living that so many Singaporeans concern their lives with. Lim ends with questioning the genuineness of Singaporean social mentality and claims that this needs to be healed for Singapore to be better recognized and be able to face the challenges associated with the near future.

 Dr. Lim drives home some very good key points in her interview with the Lien Center. I agree with her challenge for the government to encourage the formation of alternate political perspectives through educational institutions and bringing in youth demographics as an influence to the People's Action Party. Dr. Lim also hones in on the lack of authenticity to Singaporean culture. She says that some of this is inherent to traditional Asian cultural values, but the government needs to find some way to encourage a 'less-fake' social mentality among Singaporean citizens. I believe if this is successfully done, Singaporeans will gain a new kind of confidence and be able to face it's challenges in a novel, non-traditional light that will reap them rewards in recognition and economic effectiveness.

 I am confused about Dr. Lim's answer to the question regarding whether or not the People's Action Party prefers a naive society over a potentially splintered society. I think what Dr. Lim is getting at is that the PAP wants to maintain control over what Singaporean citizens believe and the PAP does so by trying to anticipate change. The PAP seems to embrace a philosophy of prevention over resolution in dealing with political challenges.

Source 2) BOOK: //Crossroads: A Popular History of Malaysia and Singapore//

 Baker, Jim. Crossroads: A Popular History of Malaysia and Singapore. 2nd ed. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Corp, 2008. Print.

Jim Baker surmises that the PAP is integral to the growth of modern Singapore. He pinpoints Lee Kuan Yew as the primary influence in propelling Singapore forward into its modern-era. Baker does not portray the PAP in a negative manner and remains particularly unbiased when discussing the formation of the PAP in later chapters - specifically when talking about Operation Cold Store and its significance in securing power for the People's Action Party.

The credibility of this source should not be taken lightly. Jim Baker grew up in Singapore from and is a graduate of the Singapore American School. He has lived in Singapore for over thirty years and has strong connections in the American expat community and Singaporean education community. Though Jim Baker is not a scholar, his perspective on Singapore harbors an unparalleled wisdom and perspective on local communities and an external perspective on Singapore's growth and success in Asia.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">His book is very democratic and succeeds in not taking a specific side specifically with or against the PAP. While I do not get access to his opinion, his book opens up the objective perspective on the significance of the PAP on modern Singapore. In other words, it is one of the few sources that come from within the country that is not subject to portraying Singaporean government in an extremely positive light. //Crossroads// maintains an objective perspective and the author therefore enables an unbiased opinion to form in the eyes of the reader. I believe this book - coupled with the Discovery Channel documentary - will be integral in providing the basic framework for the informative portion of my inquiry essay.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Source 3) TELEVISION PROGRAM: Discovery Channel documentary "A History of Singapore"

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">"A History of Singapore." Discovery Channel: 21 11 2008. Television. 31 Oct 2010.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">The Discovery Channel presents a further unbiased perspective on the PAP. The program talks more about how the PAP came into power and the specific policies it put into place that secured Singapore's future in regional Asia. The most significant portion of the program inquiry project is towards the end, when key members of Singaporean political commentary are interviewed about what lies ahead for the future of Singapore. In this portion, Catherine Lim along with other political commentators offer their view on the significance of the PAP as Singapore moves forward. Indeed, these perspectives are mixed, but the common thread seems to be caution. These pundits suggest that the current leaders of parliament need to exercise caution in the specific policies they adapt for the future.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">This program is very credible. Throughout the program, Lee Kuan Yew - the founding father of Singapore - is interviewed many times, along with other key members of parliament including recent prime minister Goh Chok Tong, and Othman Wok - who was a young adult during the PAP's rise to power - offering a youthful perspective on what was happening during that time.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Using this source will require me to pinpoint specific areas of the program to what directly applies to what I am researching. There are key sections of the program that talk at length about the significance of the PAP. I can use these sections to find information about what historically happened and connect that to where the PAP stands today.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">In all fairness, I agree with the general view of caution that the pundits say the PAP should embrace. It would be fair to say that Singapore is very fragile and its well-being as a nation depends on the balance between economic success and racial equity in Singaporean society. The program highlights what methods the PAP used in the early stages of Singaporean independence and analyzes these methods and their effect on Singaporean society. These segments of the program shed light on the specifics behind these methods and how significant their were to Singapore and at what cost to the nation and surrounding countries, such as Malaysia.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Source 4) Social/Political Journal entry on Singapore's stability and ethnic management: "Sanitizing Ethnicity: The Creation of Singapore's Apolitical Culture"

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Lawson, Stephanie. "Sanitizing Ethnicity: The Creation of Singapore's Apolitical Culture." Nationalism & Ethnic Politics 7.1 (2001): 63. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 11 Oct. 2010.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">It is unclear whether or not this source can be considered scholarly. If anything this source is an article published in 2001 in the Nationalism & Ethnic Politics publication. Upon further research, I discovered that the author, Stephanie Lawson, is indeed a professor at the School of Economic and Social Studies, University of East Anglia and that Nationalism & Ethnic Politics is an annual journal with four publications per year. This source will present one of the many external perspectives on Singaporean governmental methods and the social climate in the nation.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Source 5) Political journal entry in International Political Science Review: "Meritocracy and Elitism in a Global City: Ideological Shifts in Singapore"

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Tan, Kenneth Paul. "Meritocracy and Elitism in a Global City: Ideological Shifts in Singapore." International Political Science Review 29.1 (2008): 7-27. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 11 Oct. 2010.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">This source can be considered a scholarly source since it is published in a political journal known as the International Political Science Review. The author, Kenneth Paul Tan is an Assistant Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and Assistant Dean at the National University of Singapore. He is the author of at least two books detailing the cultural climate of Singapore, including //Renaissance Singapore? Economy, Culture//, and //Politics and Cinema and Television in Singapore: Resistance in One Dimension//. This source presents an academic perspective on some of the more detailed portions of the socio-political climate in Singapore.