“Perhaps, like bureaucracies everywhere, government officials in Singapore are uncomfortable with groups who appeal successfully to the public's sense of idealism, and whose work cannot be easily quantified in economic terms. Officials can handle individuals and organisations who are in… — 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
