I spoke at Yale University in 2012 and expressed my misgivings about the Yale-NUS project. The closure of the university – and after hundreds of millions of our taxpayer’s funds wasted – has made what I said come true. Below are excerpts of my speech at New Haven:
"When it was first announced that Yale would be setting up a campus with NUS in Singapore, I had my reservations, but I kept my own counsel. My colleagues and I in the Singapore Democratic Party cautiously welcomed the set up.
I fear – and I sincerely hope that I will be proven wrong on this – that the Yale leadership does not, like American multinational corporations that have come before it, cynically look to make that quick and easy dollar from Singaporeans while completely disregard what such actions would do to our society.
My experience with foreign academic institutions leads me to be very skeptical of their claims to want to provide Singaporeans with the best that academia can muster.
I fear, despite all the assurances, and because of what I have seen of what corporate America together with the Singapore state has done to my country, that making money is the be-all and end-all of all that is collaborated. I hope you can see why the Yale-NUS venture leaves me suspicious of Yale's motives – whether you are there to educate or simply to line your own pockets. I have never yearned so much to be proven wrong...
Asian values under the guise of Confucianism, have been used by the Singapore government to steer the people away from democracy which, it argues, will hamper economic progress. I argue the opposite – and data bear me out – that openness and accountability, in other words democracy, is essential for the economic advancement of a people.
More at https://www.domainofexperts.com/2021/09/my-prediction-about-yale-nus-going-six.html
I fear – and I sincerely hope that I will be proven wrong on this – that the Yale leadership does not, like American multinational corporations that have come before it, cynically look to make that quick and easy dollar from Singaporeans while completely disregard what such actions would do to our society.
My experience with foreign academic institutions leads me to be very skeptical of their claims to want to provide Singaporeans with the best that academia can muster.
I fear, despite all the assurances, and because of what I have seen of what corporate America together with the Singapore state has done to my country, that making money is the be-all and end-all of all that is collaborated. I hope you can see why the Yale-NUS venture leaves me suspicious of Yale's motives – whether you are there to educate or simply to line your own pockets. I have never yearned so much to be proven wrong...
Asian values under the guise of Confucianism, have been used by the Singapore government to steer the people away from democracy which, it argues, will hamper economic progress. I argue the opposite – and data bear me out – that openness and accountability, in other words democracy, is essential for the economic advancement of a people.
More at https://www.domainofexperts.com/2021/09/my-prediction-about-yale-nus-going-six.html
