I am a product of MOE

Been marking and typing out 2-cents' worth of what I think of my students' essays. Having read a pretty interesting essay from an exchange student, I realize that I am truely a Singapore product. I would have probably given her an A- if I am an American, but I think my brain is 'wired' and 'programmed' to write in a particular way. Man, I am truely Singaporean.... and I can't stand it.

***

Dear xxx,

Thank you for your essay in which you gave a personal opinion on how Singapore’s authoritarian democracy differs from western strands of liberal democracy.

On the whole, the essay is fluid with sufficient contrast between ‘Asian’ and ‘Western’ liberalism, with a focus on the idea of freedom of expression.

However, a weakness in the essay is that you have not defined clearly the idea of ‘democracy’ and its associated values. There are certainly many strands of democracy (or for that matter, liberalism), such as classical democracy, republican democracies, corporate capitalism, deliberative democracies and even Marxist democracies. The lack of a clear definition makes it difficult for me to understand the conceptual basis by which you view Singapore through a Western lens. Consequently, the essay lacks a strong thesis statement and is meandering in structure. There is a surface perspective on Singapore politics, without a critical exploration on how and why it has evolved towards a democratic state that, as you say, ‘has strings attached’.

In terms of style, the essay lacks an academic tone, with insufficient evidences and credible bibliographic citations to back up the points that you are making. While the essay might make it to a newspaper commentary section, it might not do so well as an entry into an academic journal.

Nonetheless, the essay is engaging, certainly for a Singaporean reader. I hope your stay in Singapore has been great, despite the lack of freedom and cultural vibes.

Regards,
Jimmy Lim

Grade: B

snowball

Ha.. I like this mtv. It's called 'black cab' from Jens Lekman's album 'Oh you're so silent, Jens'. I think the snow ball describes my world! =s

Triplets of Belleville

It was a nice cartoon. The characters are a bit quirky, especially the triplets who eat grenade-d frogs for dinner, and tadpoles for dessert. Grandma is super resilient and resourceful to find her kidnapped tour-de-france grandson. And the dog was ever haunted by its own childhood train mishap. yeap yeap...

A sinner is not always a criminal

There has been much debate about repealing Section 377A. People are arguing that homosexual sex should be decrminalized. I've been giving this issue some thoughts and my christian/political position is an inconsistent, vague and contradictory one, in the sense that I think that it is unfair to criminalize someone for his behavior, but at the same time, I feel that the law should be retained as a symbolic gesture. Don't think I have the time to write it down today but well maybe shall just put them down in point form first

1) As a Christian: Love the sinner, hate the sin.

2) As a legal theorist: A sinner should not be a criminal when no harm is inflicted upon others (as counter examples: murder and stealing constitute harm to others, suggestion: read Exodus 34, John Locke and John Stuart Mill together).

3) As a pragmatist: You are not a criminal until you are caught (essentially what PM Lee is saying)

4) As a counter-pragmatist: Hence, do away with the law since it is a useless law and you are not sending moral police to catch people on their bed.

5) As a Christian again: But we shoud retain the law as a symbolic gesture

6) As an activist (to the Christian): It is not fair, and tantamount to double standards. For instance: Why not criminalize adultery, debauchery etc. as a symbolic gesture?

7) As a political theorist: If the issue is on fairness ONLY, then by the same measure of fairness, I must not only remove the law to ensure fairness for all to practice their lifestyle without the state interfering (negative freedom), but also institute laws so that they can practice their lifestyle with the same amount of support that the state provides for the heterosexual (positive freedom). Example will be equal rights for same-sex marriage.

8) As a pseudo philosopher: Equality, fairness and justice are three different concepts altogether. And point (7), according to my friend, is a logical fallacy, or a slippery slope arguement. (I'll talk about that if I have time)

9) As a Christian: While I am all out for negative freedom, I have my reservations for positive freedom for the homosexual in Singapore.

10) As a writer for Ailing's 'Season Of Life' team: I think pushing for negative freedom will - in PRINCIPAL - legitimize the space for positive freedom. And therefore - with sociological foresight and hindsight - affect the way future generations might interpret the idea of the family (well, I guess there is room to accuse me of having logical fallacy here). I think how we are trying to be Switzerland, Macau and Monaco (repectively black money, casino, and F1 [which perpetuate more black money]) all at once is already sending many wrong messages to children and families alike.

I guess at the end of the day, my main gripe is not about the fairness of it, but how society in general - christian, non-christians, homo and heteros - will interpret the criminalization or decriminalization of law, which either way cannot please everyone. My other main gripe is how the Church should respond, if we are in the business of saving some souls without being misinterpreted.

fuzzy thoughts

i was reading some articles from an extremely boring eu think tank and thought that maybe this region should be more forward thinking in their own foreign policy and start to come up with a doctrine for an asean army or something. will give george yeo's rhetoric of asean's 'moral authority' more credibility. that way maybe we can really chip in for peacekeeping duties in burma, east timor, southern thailand, and other hot spot borders in this region, rather than to stand by, do nothing, and talk only. oh well, i wrote a paper long ago on eu's defence policy and now looking back at the paper, i thought it sounds like such a year 1 textbook-type of answer without any consideration for the imperfect world that we live in, and how political leaders are always playing smoke screen and mirrors in front of their own audience anyway... yucks. singapore will probably rather opt out of asean than to share defence doctrines and resources with m'sia or indon. so anyway, maybe it will be another 100 more years before leaders in this region can think beyond their economic interests and pool their legal and moral resources together for some sort of sustaining humanitarian foreign policies.

ok, i better start marking essays now. after a short break of about 4 days, next 3 weeks will be intense before i can take a short break for my only exam on 3 dec.

Urban Ninja

Haha... I thought this skirt that unfolds into a vending machine is pretty cool. Designed by this fasion designer Aya Tsukioka. But does it work? 'Read more here!'

ITune Shop

Heh, I shall do a bit of publicity for ailing and james in my unfrequented blog. They have set up a new ecommerce venture call
'ITuneShop'. Reminded me of 'online shopping' during last night's msn before my mac died on me. So anyway, pls go to their website and support them! :)