Why no international recognition for S’pore’s fighters?
Thursday, 19 June 2008, 10:56 am | 108 views
A question sent to us from one of our readers:
Just wondering if you would post a topic on why from US President Johnson to Bush, from UN Sec. Gen U Thant to Ban Ki Moon, Singapore has not been internationally criticised for its semi-authoritarian rule and not subjected to any sanctions.
Or why people like Aung San Suu Kyi get Congressional Awards and Nobel Prizes while none of our home grown fighters get any sort of recognition for their efforts. It is not as if people don’t know what happened to Chin Peng, Francis Seow etc etc etc.
Please share your views.
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Picture from Leo Strauss Stiftung.
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If people recall the history of Cold War era, they will take note that the democratic free world of the west, USA in specific, had strong tie with countries with semi-authoritarian or full authoritarian rule in South-east Asia and Central America and did not subject them to much sanctions.
Some people also raised a good question on how USA handles PRC and Cuba in terms of economic and trade sanctions. Why imposed all sort of economic and trade sanctions against Cuba but not PRC? Does PRC has much better human rights records compared with Cube to justify it?
International community selectively uphold democratic and human rights standards against individual countries or turn a blind eye depending very much on which way playing the democracy or human rights cards serve their self-interest at the given time.
We don’t really know what kind of cooperation exists between Singapore and countries like USA. Such cooperation may very much justify their self-interest to go easy on Singapore.
At the civic level, few people openly go out to the street to protest against the government and support Dr Chee. This is a big contrast with the civil rights movement in other authoritarian countries. Without such publicity and outcry, foreign governments can comfortably ignore the matter.
Ayah, you are still dreaming too big. WHo are we? Every small little red dot. Please look at the world map and figure it out.
to the outside world singaporeans appear contented. Theres no reason not to believe so. After all our election results are pro pap. Plus to make it look balanced, theres some opposition parties thrown into the soup. What do you have? A nice concoction of ‘democracy’. If singaporeans are really that unhappy, they have to show and not bicker and take cover everytime. Also for every five unhappy singaporeans trying to voice out their frustrations there are 50 singaporeans asking them shut up.. Pro government or otherwise!
Aung San Suu Kyi won an election that should have made her leader of her country. Yet despite her position being usurped, she took a non-violent path to help the people in her country.
The Nobel prize is to acknowledge the highest contribution made to the respective fields. The congressional gold medal is awarded to an individual who performs an outstanding deed or act of service to the security, prosperity, and national interest of the United states.
What have Chin Peng (a communist), Francis Seow etc ever done to help Singaporeans, others or contribute to their respective societies/fields?
It not about oppression. Anyone can be oppressed. But what a person does under that oppression that counts.
One group who receives medals/awards are often the de-facto leaders supported by a majority of their people eg Dalai Lama (for tibetans), ASSK (for burmese), Gandhi (for Indians), Mandela (for black south africans).
The other group are those who have contributed significantly eg Mother Theresa, Elie Wiesel, Martin Luther King.
What has any Singaporeans done that can compare to these people? Maybe one day but it won’t happen anytime soon.
lim on June 20th, 2008 6.41 pm
“What has any Singaporeans done that can compare to these people? Maybe one day but it won’t happen anytime soon.”
Do not be too sure.
Just for fun. TOC, why not pick Chee as a candidate (for the Nobel Prize) to work on for a start. Form a local committee to slowly build up a case for Chee. I am not a mad fan of Chee but whoelse other than him has more visibility at this moment for such a consideration.
It will be a nice and fun challenge and who knows we may have our first Nobel Laureate after all in the near future.
Singapore has a lot of unique features to present (very developed, modern, high middle class, etc) to be clubbed together with Chee’s own unique personalities & history (former lecturer in our national institition (a very qualified one), jailed for quite a number of times, being made bankrupt, steadfast, etc).
Rope in the support of Gomez who has international connection with all right people in this area. I think there are other Singaporeans (e.g Alex Au) who are also respectable in their respective field in the international areana. Rope in their help.
from who does these kinds of recognition mostly come from? arab countries? asian countries? its the west…. why doesnt the western media, governments and politicians notice singaporean dissidents?
1) singapore govt does not antagonize western govts. in fact it is pro-west. instead it only picks on its neighbours.
2) singapore govt does not descriminate or treat whites unfairly or cruelly. a contrast to this is zimbawe.
3) singapore fervently adopts western pop culture. when you look at countries like singapore’s level of authoritarianism/dictatorship but which shuns western pop culture, you find western media, govts and politicians constantly picking on them. perhaps the west superficially thinks singapore fits in with them or that we are with them not against them. in the past i.e. 60s to 80s when singapore was still organic, the west used to pick on singapore a lot more. now that singapore is very MTVized and Mcdonaldized we are a darling to them.
as long as singapore continue to satisfy these three conditions, we will remain a darling to them.
Singapoor,
Perhaps it’s because ideas of realpolitik and strategic balance of power still rule the corridors of power of the Western governments..
We’re one key node in this loose network of likeminded nations, squared in a circle through the GWoT. It’s the only important thing to them.
Secondly, there’s a slow erosion of Constitutional liberties in the EU and the United States, one would not take much time to realise what 9/11 has done to American rule of law vis-a-vis the Constitution, or realise that the way which the Treaty of Lisbon is being taken to the EU populace, is almost similar to the spin that’s forced down our throat by a central government that says that they’re more knowledgeable.