Here is an article I came across recently. The author takes the view that National Brainwashing in SG is to make us feel Singaporean rather than Chinese. While that might have been one of the objectives initially, I think there are other hidden purposes, which you can't blame a Hongkie who has never lived here for not understanding, such as to:
1) create the myth that Sinkapore was a fishing village before LKY "founded" it;
2) make Sinkies believe that PAP is Singapore and Singapore is PAP and the rest are all trouble makers;
3) make Sinkies believe that the sky will fall if PAP is voted out of power;
4) ......................
Please feel free to add to the list.
Why Singapore Alone Needs National Brainwashing
Politically Incorrect with Chip Tsao
The war over the controversial “National Education” curriculum culminated in an eye-to-eye confrontation between chief executive CY Leung and Joshua Wong, the young campaign leader who organized a 72-hour hunger strike outside the government headquarters last week. In a stunt that reminded Hongkongers of the last public appearance of late communist party boss Zhao Ziyang at Tiananmen Square delivering his swan-song farewell speech over a megaphone, Leung visited the hunger-striking students one morning. The 16-year-old snubbed Leung by refusing a shake his hand and bowed to him instead. This strange form of greeting caused an uproar from pro-Beijing critics, who called it downright rude.
The government argues that a form of “national education” is found in “every country” in the world. Yet it only takes the slightest touch of the keyboard and the internet will immediately tell you that there is no such thing in the United States, Europe, Britain and the rest of the English-speaking world.
Neither is it taught in Ethiopia or Bangladesh. The only comparable state that practices a full-on “national education” curriculum in schools is Singapore, where most paradoxically, the program is decidedly not designed to consolidate the cultural, anthropological and emotional linkages between Singaporean-Chinese and the People’s Republic of China. Rather, it is the opposite—to remind them that as citizens of a little independent island-state founded by Lee Kuan Yew and under the military protection of the US, they should always proudly exclaim that they are Singaporeans, not Chinese.
The Singaporeans need a national education curriculum because they frequently travel back to their home provinces of origin—mostly Guangdong and Fujian. Without a clear-and-loud national education curriculum stressing otherwise, young Singaporean-Chinese may end up getting their national identity confused after a few sentimental mooncake trips to Amoy or Chaozhou to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival with their great-grandparents. They may find themselves wondering whether the mainland is the more authentic motherland. Red lanterns, familiar home dialects, soft Chinese music, simplified Chinese characters (which are also used in Singapore)… It is feared that Beijing, as a master of psychological warfare, has the secret power to wield some kind of magical wand that could have even converted a visiting Ronald Reagan into believing that his ancestors had come from Shanghai instead of Ireland, brainwashing him into becoming a Manchurian candidate who could return to Washington and turn all of his nuclear warheads away from the Far East.
National education in Singapore is designed to lead students to develop a firm belief that they are only “ethnically Chinese”—not “Chinese”—so that the possibility of a fifth column could be eliminated at an early stage. Their textbooks are thus not as recommendable for import into Hong Kong as their delicious satay beef.
http://hk-magazine.com/city-living/column/why-singapore-alone-needs-national-brainwashing
Chip Tsao is a best-selling author, columnist and a former producer for the BBC. His columns have also appeared in Apple Daily, Next Magazine and CUP Magazine, among others.
1) create the myth that Sinkapore was a fishing village before LKY "founded" it;
2) make Sinkies believe that PAP is Singapore and Singapore is PAP and the rest are all trouble makers;
3) make Sinkies believe that the sky will fall if PAP is voted out of power;
4) ......................
Please feel free to add to the list.
Why Singapore Alone Needs National Brainwashing
Politically Incorrect with Chip Tsao
The war over the controversial “National Education” curriculum culminated in an eye-to-eye confrontation between chief executive CY Leung and Joshua Wong, the young campaign leader who organized a 72-hour hunger strike outside the government headquarters last week. In a stunt that reminded Hongkongers of the last public appearance of late communist party boss Zhao Ziyang at Tiananmen Square delivering his swan-song farewell speech over a megaphone, Leung visited the hunger-striking students one morning. The 16-year-old snubbed Leung by refusing a shake his hand and bowed to him instead. This strange form of greeting caused an uproar from pro-Beijing critics, who called it downright rude.
The government argues that a form of “national education” is found in “every country” in the world. Yet it only takes the slightest touch of the keyboard and the internet will immediately tell you that there is no such thing in the United States, Europe, Britain and the rest of the English-speaking world.
Neither is it taught in Ethiopia or Bangladesh. The only comparable state that practices a full-on “national education” curriculum in schools is Singapore, where most paradoxically, the program is decidedly not designed to consolidate the cultural, anthropological and emotional linkages between Singaporean-Chinese and the People’s Republic of China. Rather, it is the opposite—to remind them that as citizens of a little independent island-state founded by Lee Kuan Yew and under the military protection of the US, they should always proudly exclaim that they are Singaporeans, not Chinese.
The Singaporeans need a national education curriculum because they frequently travel back to their home provinces of origin—mostly Guangdong and Fujian. Without a clear-and-loud national education curriculum stressing otherwise, young Singaporean-Chinese may end up getting their national identity confused after a few sentimental mooncake trips to Amoy or Chaozhou to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival with their great-grandparents. They may find themselves wondering whether the mainland is the more authentic motherland. Red lanterns, familiar home dialects, soft Chinese music, simplified Chinese characters (which are also used in Singapore)… It is feared that Beijing, as a master of psychological warfare, has the secret power to wield some kind of magical wand that could have even converted a visiting Ronald Reagan into believing that his ancestors had come from Shanghai instead of Ireland, brainwashing him into becoming a Manchurian candidate who could return to Washington and turn all of his nuclear warheads away from the Far East.
National education in Singapore is designed to lead students to develop a firm belief that they are only “ethnically Chinese”—not “Chinese”—so that the possibility of a fifth column could be eliminated at an early stage. Their textbooks are thus not as recommendable for import into Hong Kong as their delicious satay beef.
http://hk-magazine.com/city-living/column/why-singapore-alone-needs-national-brainwashing
Chip Tsao is a best-selling author, columnist and a former producer for the BBC. His columns have also appeared in Apple Daily, Next Magazine and CUP Magazine, among others.
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