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17 yo kid slams Kishore on ST

makapaaa

Alfrescian (Inf)
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Coffeeshop Chit Chat - 17 yo kid slams Kishore on ST</TD><TD id=msgunetc noWrap align=right>
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Subscribe </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE class=msgtable cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="96%"><TBODY><TR><TD class=msg vAlign=top><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgbfr1 width="1%"> </TD><TD><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgF noWrap align=right width="1%">From: </TD><TD class=msgFname noWrap width="68%">unisol72002 <NOBR></NOBR> </TD><TD class=msgDate noWrap align=right width="30%">Dec-5 6:07 pm </TD></TR><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgT noWrap align=right width="1%" height=20>To: </TD><TD class=msgTname noWrap width="68%">ALL <NOBR></NOBR></TD><TD class=msgNum noWrap align=right> (1 of 29) </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgleft width="1%" rowSpan=4> </TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>3438.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgtxt>smart kid...but i guess NS will kill his brains, if he is a male sinkie or pr.
Home > ST Forum > Story
We don't need new national 'narrative'
I REFER to Wednesday's column by Professor Kishore Mahbubani, 'Get to know Singapore's stars'. Prof Mahbubani argues for 'a massive multi-billion-dollar global advertising campaign to sell Singapore as the great renaissance city'.
His case is based on two assertions. First, the minds of Singaporeans 'remain colonised' - our appraisal of our countrymen rests on 'external validations'. Second, these exogenous sources impose biased standards - hence the need for 'our own narrative'.
I disagree with both statements, along with Prof Mahbubani's conclusion.
On the first, the unsubstantiated suggestion that Singaporeans suffer from mental colonial subordination is dubious.
I am 17, and my admiration of remarkable leaders such as Mr Lee Kuan Yew and Dr Goh Keng Swee is in no way contingent on 'Western' opinions. I am positive that many of my peers will say the same.
Yet even Prof Mahbubani must admit that no Singaporean has approached the acclamation and international stature of Indian economist Amartya Sen or former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan (both of whom he lauds in his articles). In that light, we have no comparable global 'star'.
I suspect Prof Mahbubani will impute this situation to the ostensible anti-Asian bias of the West. This indictment of the West is a motif in his work, and it recurs in this column.
His claim of prejudice here is principally supported by his citing the case of Paul Krugman, who was recently awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics. He avers that 'politics trumped objective considerations' in this judgment. He states that Mr Krugman got Asia 'completely wrong'.
Mr Krugman has made significant contributions to international trade theory, economic geography and international finance. He was awarded the Nobel Prize on the basis of that work. His analysis of Asia's growth has some merit - the increased resource mobilisation in South-east Asia, without concomitant industrial widening and deepening, resulted in 'paper tigers' (except Singapore). These inefficient economies were duly exposed in the Asian financial crisis.
To ignore Mr Krugman's work in order to denigrate the West, as Prof Mahbubani does, is unfair and parochial.
Moreover, even if we accept Prof Mahbubani's claims of Western prejudice, his proposal, a thinly veiled plan of affirmative action, is inappropriate and unnecessary.
He wants a 'national narrative that brings out the stars'. His attempt to advance this strategy as an economic policy is debatable. He uses a single, anachronistic corporate decision to support his proposal of an expensive national strategy.
We do not need a new national 'narrative'. In the dark sky of obscurity, our national stars shine brightly by themselves and their achievements. Further embellishment or promotion is redundant.
Tan Ee Kuan
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