“Not everyone would see a passive public as necessarily a bad thing. There are benefits to limiting political engagement to a minority of highly committed citizens, with the majority involving itself only in elections and other major events. This elitist… — Cherian George Copy Share Image
“In the classic liberal formulation, the press is seen as a pure expression of democracy. Thus, in the United States, the Constitution protects the press from the government, which, despite having been elected democratically, is assumed by American political culture… — Cherian George Copy Share Image
“But the habit of framing issues in terms of Asian and Western values did distort Singapore's view of its own challenges. Policy-makers looking through… — Cherian George Copy Share Image
“Since the mid-1980s, the government had sensed that one key reason why the opposition-for-opposition's-sake argument was so compelling to voters was that the did… — Cherian George Copy Share Image
“Certainly, the PAP applies far more stringent background checks on its candidates than the opposition does on its own. However, in some respects, a… — Cherian George Copy Share Image
“Singapore's tragedy is not the absence of idealism, but that it systematically rewards the individualistic majority and discourages the socially-conscious minority. This is at… — Cherian George Copy Share Image
“The Singapore School's quarrel with the West was partly over the sequence and pace of democratisation. It was acknowledge that certain norms originating in… — Cherian George Copy Share Image
“We are told that the main risk factors threatening Singapore's peace and prosperity are, first, our own unreliability as citizens (we may succumb to… — Cherian George Copy Share Image
“The answer lies in a system of press management combining watertight legal controls with a compelling political ideology that encourages not just obedience, but… — Cherian George Copy Share Image
“The Singapore School of Thought, as some began to call it, emphasised the lack of universality of many Western political norms...Singapore's own view emphasised… — Cherian George Copy Share Image
“The leaders' adherence to the principle of collective cabinet responsibility makes it difficult to ascertain the respective contributions of each, but enough is known… — Cherian George Copy Share Image
“Of all the attempts to propel Singapore faster along the path of political liberalisation, few have backfired as badly as the West's push for… — Cherian George Copy Share Image
“As the state spreads it tentacles into every corner of life in the name of regulation, rationalization or economic development, people who wanted their… — Cherian George Copy Share Image
“The main rationale for the "elimination of politics' is also its main tool: rapid and broad-based economic development, in PAP thinking, both justifies as… — Cherian George Copy Share Image
