Simple is the Reason of My Heart

On Inspiration, Leaders & Legacy from East and West

An article by Caroline Kennedy (daughter of the famous US President John F. Kennedy)  entitled "A President Like My Father" touched my heart today. Not surprising, the Kennedy family will be endorsing Barack Obama for President, given the Democratic Primaries are now treading in racial and gender lines due to the tactics adopted by the Clintons. Interesting, somewhere in southeast Asia, the former President of Indonesia, Suharto passed away. Of course, I have read debates over his legacy from those who hold high idealism and those who are pragmatic and willing to condone the evil deeds he has done for the greater good of Indonesia (which is debatable in my view). It reflects two very different political worlds, the one from the east and the one from the west. I like to reflect on three themes in politics which has emerged from these two events: inspiration, leaders, legacy.

Free Burma: 4 Oct 2007

For those (including myself) who are outraged and expressing revulsion to the recent barbaric actions of the military junta on the Burmese monks and civilians in Myanmar, there will be an International Bloggers' Day for Burma on the 4th of October. There is a tragedy now happening in Burma, where innocent lives are taken, internet activists are on the run and the entire city on curfew. If you pass by this blog by some chance, please help to spread the word to the rest of the world.  Meanwhile, my prayers are with the people who have been hurt and killed in this saffron revolution. (Picture from The Online Citizen) If you want to help, please donate via the Democratic Voice of Burma.

Is the Myanmar Bloodshed inevitable?

In Myanmar (see the picture on the left and it is from BBC), there are tens of thousands civilians, monks and nuns protesting on the streets, calling for democracy and power back to the opposition. This protest is slightly different from the past because it began from the peace loving monks and nuns. They could not tolerate the military junta who have ruled the country with an iron fist. Of course, they have asked for the freedom of the famous opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who is currently under house arrest. The whole event has been coordinated well with the help of technology and we are able to catch on first hand what is going on there.

In the past twenty years ever since Tiananmen (which I remembered vividly), every such type of protest in Asia (except for Philippines and Indonesia after the Asian financial crisis) usually have ended up in bloodshed. While the military junta has already moved to put their troops on the ground, a possible bloodshed may take place soon. If that happens, a lot of innocent lives will be sacrificed in the process. So, how is the world going to do about this? While the US has already started the sanctions, it is now very interesting to watch what China is going to do about this. My feeling is that ASEAN will take an non-interventionist approach aka do nothing and let it happen which is something that I am personally against.

Update: I made a correction for Indonesia on the issue of violence in the protest and thank J. Louis for the corrrection. Also read this news: ASEAN inter-parliamentary chief says protests augur well for Myanmar, ChannelNewsAsia.com, and I do wonder whether the ASEAN governments will support the Myanmar people instead of the Junta.

26 Sep 2007 3.30pm: Unfortunately, the riot police has retaliated against the protesters.

Social Political Blogging: Singapore vs US

Recently, I did an interview with Jude Yew, a Singaporean PhD researcher about the impact of new (or social) media in the past 2006 general elections in Singapore. During the interview, we started teasing out the differences in the social political blogosphere between Singapore and US. Coupled with the observation on the netroots activity in the US Presidential Elections 2008 and the evolution of the Singapore blogosphere after the 2006 elections, some interesting differences emerge from that comparison. 

Seperated By a Mental Bridge: Thoughts on the Iskander Development Region

Yesterday, the Malaysia-Singapore Joint Ministerial committee started their first meeting on the Iskander Development Region (IDR) in Johor Bahru. The conclusion of the first meeting leads to the committee forming four common task force groups to explore the areas (on environmental matters, boosting tourism, facilitating immigration clearance and enhancing transport links) identified by a previous meeting between Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (Malaysia) and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (Singapore) during their recent Langkawi retreat. The principle of the working groups is to achieve a win-win outcome for both countries and the committee will meet every quarter to discuss further cooperation and taking stock.

If Everyone Cared

In the midst of several happenings in Singapore, from the ministerial salaries to the departure of several bloggers in the Singapore blogosphere, another event has taken the world by shock. The massacre in Virginia Tech by a lone gunman chilled our hearts, with 33 deaths including the killer himself. For those who live in peaceful societies (including myself), we do not appreciate how fragile lives could be. To some people, deaths in these countries may be just numbers and statistics, but it demonstrate how much we do not really think about the bigger picture ahead of us. Here are just my personal reflection about blame, heroism and media in our world today. 

 

Flight of the Educated Class

An interesting book entitled "The Flight of the Creative Class" by Richard Florida which I read recently and an insightful podcast by Dr Subramanian Ranganan from INSEAD business school lecturer offered me some thoughts about the creative talents leaving Singapore. It also resolves a dilemma about why Americans are still holding the center of dominance despite having a poor primary, high school and college education. It is a known fact that the Asian countries have both rigorous and rigid (tied with lots of rote learning) education system. For example, it is a common finger pointing exercise to blame the Singapore education system for the lack of creativity and innovation in our research and development sector. So, here is an interesting perspective on why our government like to boast about our education system and yet at the same time, losing the talent to US and Europe which are still hailed as the centres of innovation.

One Child & Two Cultures

The "One Child Policy" is the birth control policy that was introduced in China after Deng Xiaoping, the former Chinese president was returned to power. The original motivation is to cope with the problem of overpopulation in order to grow the chinese economy. After twenty eight years, we are observing the effects of the one-child policy. Nobody has anticipated that the effect of such a policy possesses the potential of changing a cultural mindset.

In both societies, we are undergoing some profound shifts with policy changes which, at this point of time, have not blossomed. We examine how the balance can be tipped by such policy changes in China and Singapore and conceive the possible tipping points to our society.