Friday, April 29, 2011

The role of the intellectuals in civil society: Going against the grain.

by Koh Tai Ann

The traditional concept of a civil society was to provide a democratic checks and balances against the potential issue of the state. In this sense, the intellectual plays an important part. He or she is needed to participate in 'a particular conception of the world, has a conscious line of moral conduct, and therefore contributes to sustain a conception of the world or to modify it, that is to bring into being new modes of thought".

The intellectual can encompass any educated person, not necessarily a university graduate.

The roles of the intellectuals can be broadly categorized into four main groups.
1. Intellectual-politicians through political contest if they are prepared to ally themselves with the ruling leaders and prove their capabilities.
2. They could become like the mandarins of the established order in the civil service.
3. Legitimizers of the established order by providing the symbols and justification of policies.
4. Independent intellectuals who value autonomy, free enquiry and openness to alternative ideas. Being so would allow public awareness of important issues to be raised, to be critics of power, act as a conscience of society, represent those without a voice in the system and provide alternative ideas, preventing intellectual in-breeding at the top.

Nevertheless, many of Singapore's intellectuals have allied themselves with the state. It is because these intellectuals belong to an educated class that shared similar backgrounds and could identify with government leaders AND partly because of a lack of a viable civil society. This would result in the absence of effective autonomous intellectuals that could give these intellectuals full play and satisfaction in serving the nation.

More...after I return from marketing.

Just reached home...

Ok, now, where was I?

Having a civil society would provide a dilemma for the state. Namely, the state has to contend with promoting the 'liveliness' of a group of people who will criticise it and on the other hand, draw and protect the boundaries that those criticism might result in its instability and its inability to carry out its policies.

An example quoted would be the Michael Fay incident where caning was meted out for his act of vandalism. No public debate was carried out as to whether caning could reform individual behavior and deter negative repeat behavior on that occasion.

Debate on crime and punishment had been carried out before. Prof Tommy Koh argued that the rehabilitation of criminals might be more fruitful and thus should be given priority over severe punishment such as caning.

Caning was introduced for illegal immigrants. Apart from questioning the brutality of such punishment for essentially non-violent crimes and the issues also involves the perception of Singapore's ASEAN neighbours where most of the illegal immigrants come from, the legislation was passed simply because a leading member of the party said "what's a few strokes of the cane?"

There are gaps between the official rhetoric about encouraging 'local initiatives' giving people 'free play' and the realities and the risks involved. The first concern was that people were not empowered and given agency. The second involve taking risk with the people and not just asking the people to take risks.

Its mentioned that while there has been a change in the team that makes up the government, there does not seem to be any basic change in the PAP government's attitude towards intellectuals who speak up and disagree with the state's policies.

However, the differentiating line between those who participates in civil activities and political criticism was unclear. These boundary markers will not be made clearer as since "in the nature of things, such boundary markers cannot be defined in advance of the unknown number of varied issues that can be raised by the citizenry, whether intentionally in criticism of the the government or not.

My take:

In the west, a civilised society is one where an intellectual discussed the advantages and the disadvantages of doing things in a certain way. This may be in criticism of the government or otherwise. However, in Asian society, such confrontational attitudes may not be as welcome. Nevertheless, the PAP government has encourage more 'free play' by intellectuals in Singapore. However, this encouragement comes with Terms and Conditions and this Terms and Conditions, although spelled correctly does not identify as to when one infringes upon it. As such, an individual, although encourage to speak up, would most probably be prosecuted if he or she criticise the government policies, even though that is his role in society.

Slim

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Kung Pow Chicken


I cooked this.

Kung Pow! (say it for effect) chicken.

1 red onion, sliced
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
half a thumb of ginger, sliced
a fistful of dried chilies, cut into short pieces
2 stalks of lemongrass, crunch the base with something hard, dispose of the top half.
A palmful of cashew nuts.

O.k this is how you go about it.
Heat a wok.
Pour some oil.
Put in the onion, garlic, ginger and dried chillies.
Wait for 2-3 minutes, put in the chicken.
Wait for the chicken to cook, look out for the meat to turn white, instead of pink.
Pour about 200ml of oyster sauce, an about two glasses of water.
Stir.
When the sauce has reduced, put in the cashew nuts.
Voila. Should be less than 10 minutes. Don't forget to clean up.

Slim.

Pix taken with KM7D and one of them is using the 18-55mm kits lens and the other is 35-70 f4.0. Both taken at f5.6.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Adam

I really cannot help but to upload this picture of Adam. He just got back from school, that explained the sweat, and I had my KM7d and my 18-55mm kit lens on. I shot it at f5.6.

Its beautiful, this lens. Its cheap, and its good. Loving it.

Slim

Troiki, Sans Davin

O.k serious stuff. I have reread this article twice. It is so anti-Singapore state. I mean I might be jumping to conclusion but it does leave a bitter aftertaste.

This article reminded me of the time that Dr Chee Soon Juan of the SDP got himself into trouble. He, like this article seems to be very confrontational. I mean, I am all for expressing your opinions, but this article do seemed one sided.

O.K, notes. This article, Troiki (who is this person anyways) actually hit the issues that he raised on the head, I think. He states that the state has its hands in every fiefdom of every members of the state based on the pretext of multiculturalism or multiracism. He commented that evidence can be found in the state's housing and education policies where the state's doing and undoing of certain policies, such as the RK requirements is tantamount to controlling or managing aspects of an individual's life that is deemed as the private sphere.

Eugenics is another example where the state meddles or managed the private sphere of its population. Eugenics is the encouraging of graduate mothers to have more babies while not promoting non graduate mothers to do the same. Rationale here is that since human resource is Singapore's own resource, then might as well make the best resource one can have, and the state's idea if for the new population to be borne out or from a female with university certification.

He used the straits chinese ethnic group or the Baba's as an example where the policies of multicuralism resulted in the Baba culture to be curtailed.

Perhaps the assumption that multiculturalism works for the 4 main ethnic groups but not for the really minorities such as the Straits Chinese. The CIMO options pigeon hole the population as there are certain assumptions which are tagged along an individual who belong to a minority group.

Troiki does mention that the system and policies carried out by the state did realise ecnomic gains and a peaceful environment but at what expense.

Thats all for now.

Slim

Davin, sans Troiki

I know I should be blogging about Troiki right now but I cannot help but to post some pictures of my neighbour's son. His name is Davin and he is a year younger than my son. As his parents work during the day, he is sent to another neighbour's house to be babysit. As it is, he can't be let out of the house, so that is explaining the white bars you see in the pictures. Thats the gate.

He is really an adorable boy. He reminds me Adam, whenever he opens up his mouth. Adam, though is not particularly fond of him as Davin did mess up his room once. And we know how Adam hates it whenever anybody comes and messed up his room. I hope I get to see him grow up. These sets of pictures would be the first few sets I have taken of him. I do wish that Adam and he would strike a good friendship, as being an only child, Adam do misses out in that aspect of his life.

Slim. Ok back to Troiki...

Trocki


Re reading Trocki. I did not know what I was reading except that it has something to do with the middle class. It turned out to be quite a cili padi article criticing the state. So I will reread it again and then note down what I have read.

Slim

P.S pic taken using my nex 5.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

165 words


I have started on my assignment. Only to realise that I have to read another article! Oh well, reading is good for you and me! The heavy rain has slowed to a drizzle and I am not feeling the effects of the heavy lunch. Adam will be back soon. He is having his Malay oral examinations today.

Slim

Its raining


And I want to take a break. Will be back after I read the second half of the article.

Vivienne Wee


Reading Vivienne Wee right now. The title is Secular state, multi-religious society: The patterning of religion in Singapore.

This article refers to the Singapore constitution Article 15(1) where it states that every person has the right to profess and practise his religion and to propagate it and the fact that the law shall not descriminate against any religion.

In other words, the law, as administered by the state, is above religion and thus enable the state to take on a secular role.

As the law is held above religion, the relationship between the state and the society would thus be a superordinate -subordinate relationship. It is the "government who actively maintains such a relationship through explicit articulation and deliberate policies".

The article compares Singapore with Malaysia where a dominant ethnic group and religion is dominant unlike Singapore where the state maintains its secularization. This is because of the dominant religion in Malaysia. It also compares Singapore with Indonesia where the Indonesian state is more secularized than in Malaysia. However, the state in Indonesia leans heavily to being ethnic biased such that the Javanese is the most dominant group.

Carthesian Scientific Rationalism
A method which guides the Singapore states in its policy making. It can be summarise as the scientific rationality which leans towards the materialistic world or a non-religious mode of rationality.

Government stand on religion.
Religion is an impediment to progress.
The government stand on religion is that 'religion is an impediment to progress' and that the correct interpretation of religion 'must be one that fits in with the prevailing secular values. The government encourages religious authorities to reform outmoded practises and beliefs.

Religion as "political subversion"
A double edge sword like situation develops. For example, if one is "outworldly" then one is considered outmoded and needed to be reformed. However, if one were to take a more "inworldly" view, one may be potentially viewed to be able to provide a political alternatives which the government view as being subversives.

I find this interesting
The government of Singapore has defined the proper "bounds" of religious activities as "educational, social and charitable work". The government regards religions as a spiritual anchor against communism.

Religious knowledge was introduced but was later taken out.
The government felt that religions were useful as a moral and civic anchor but was later taken out. This is because the introduction of the rk in schools blur the lines between the role of the secular state.

Land space.
Due to limited land space, the state, even though it provides the space for the various religios groups to practise, does not provide a 1 for 1 exchange for all the places of worship it demolished. As such many followers had to resort to using their own homes in practising their religions. However, the increasing secular society complained about these informal place of worship and the HDB has tighten the rules somewhat.

O.K I got pause now. Its raining and I want to take a break,

I need to read.


Seriously, I have this very bad habit of procrastination. I need to re read my articles so that I could complete my TMA. Its due on the 21st and I need to get started now. Sheesh. Anyway I did not go to the park today as I was very tired. This is because of the fact that I lost the bet with Adam. The bed was a little crowded yesterday with all 3 of us on it.

So, I target myself to read finish reading this article within 20 minutes and to post the notes up.

Slim

I made a bet and I lost.


Adam and I made a bet. And it was about fungi. Well, the question was, can fungi move by themselves? I said yes, because all living things can move. But he said no. So we made a bet. If he wins, he get to sleep with me and Su, if he lose, he has to sleep in his own room. He won. So now I know, fungi can't move by themselves. They can grow but they don't move like plants do.

Slim.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

the light

i love the light. This is what makes the walk worth it. Although i did not walk that far, i did walk a couple of hundreds metres more than what i originally intended...more coming tomorrow, akan datang!!

slim.

pix from my samsung galaxy s.

walk

i am punggol riverside park now. The picture shows the place where i am resting my bum this very moment.

i don't think i have walked that far, maybe a couple of hundred metres? But i am not stopping...

The back of my left knee feels a bit pulled but i still think i can manage.

slim

Monday, April 18, 2011

moon

Its the full moon today. Too bad i cannot take a better picture. But its so huge and i could see the craters.

slim

zoo


Went to the famous zoo yesterday. Actually, I just waited at the car park while Su, Adam and Puji went in. But we did went for a beautiful dinner at Al-Amin restaurant and had many many naan bread. After which we went to night safari. We paid for the family package which allows us multiple entry into the zoo and night safari. Each adult ticket costs $32.00! That's insane!

Did not get any pictures though but Adam took some and these are his.

Slim

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Nice Pic

I really like this picture. This was taken after Adam had a fall on his Kang Scooter.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Punggol Riverside Park

Went to Riverside Park today. I can't remember how many times I have been there but I know that today I started off grumpily.

My left knee was not being cooperatives in letting me walk and I was, well, in pain. But I drag myself to the park with Su and Adam (pix) and limped from the carpark to the park. There were many people there and I would think that more than a few were being sympathetic to me. But I was not there to be sympathize on, I was there to be with my family.

Adam brought his Kang Scooter Su brought along a Kick Scooter. I think there were at the park a good ten minutes before I could reach them.

Nevertheless, I could feel my knee complying to my wishes and although I was walking quite slowly, it was not painfully slow. I could climb down the steps and climb back up again. I was doing great. The only setback then was the camera and the 28-135mm set up. Boy! They were heavy!

Spent a good half and hour or more walking and spending time together. Adam felt good! I felt good and everybody else too. In fact Su felt so good that she is sound asleep and giving the West Brom-Chelsea game a missed. I am too.

We ended up at A & A restaurant in Bedok North Street 3 and we had Grouper cooked in sweet and sour, sambal kangkong, seafood soup and drinks. Came up to be about $50.00. Felt much better after we have eaten and I felt wonderful when I wanted to stand up! The pain in my knee was gone! Voila!

Its a beautiful day, and I think it will be a beautiful night.

Slim

Command And Conquer

This is a pix of Adam and Irsyad. Adam is 9 and Irsyad is 11. They grow up so fast!

They were playing CnC at my place. That's Adam showing the tricks to Irsyad on Adam's new Samsung. I have come to realise that there are two many computers in the house, although I must admit, I do feel the loss if one of them were unavailable.

Let me see, what do I have with me now.

A 15 inch mac book pro, running on a 2.2 ghz intel core 2 duo, a samsung running on an i5 dual core with 6gb memmory, a Toshiba running on a intel duo core with a 15.4 inch screen, a 13 inch macbook pro, another 13 inch mbp that belongs to Su.

But all those does not matter to what I want to have, all of which I am holding back in getting them. I want a 13 inch mac book air, a gaming desktop pc, and a couple more ipads. But I don't think I will be successful in getting them, simply because, I don't need them.

The Toshiba was given to my dad, but now that he has a desktop, its back with me. The 13 inch mac book pro is supposed to be given to Risa, but it has yet to cross the border. Anyway, I think I have passed the denial stage. Its not that I love having the new gadgets, its that I love the feeling of wanting to buy the new gadgets. Twice I have came close in buying a new camera body. Thrice, I have stopped myself in spending the 3k that I would if I did buy them.

And this is the best part, I will always console myself by saying that I have saved the family 3k for not buying heh heh. After which, we would go and have a hearty dinner, not those expensive ones but the nicer ones.

Now, for a game of command and conquer, as soon as Adam leave the house that is.

How do you align these?

These are pictures of a bbq session that involved many many people. They include members of my family, my extended family, my in-laws, my (su's) cousins etc etc.

I really don't know how this post going to turn out as the pictures do not seem to want to align themselves. And I am sure what I will see in my preview window will be different from the end result. So be it then. I'll post them all and let you sort them out.

There should be two pictures of my dad. He is one of those get go kind of guy. Or maybe a go get and goodbye kind of a guy. He likes to be there early, do his business and go back, however, for this BBQ he did came on time. did his business but he stayed. Well not for the whole night, but he stayed for quite some time. It was fun with him around, sort of added another dimension to merry making.

My two sisters turned up too, with the youngest bringing her husband. Not a bad crowd. Food was late, at least most of the food was late. But, me, being the ever pessimistic one, got that covered. Moi brought food even though moi was not supposed to. Moi got the fire started and bbq started way before the rest of the food came.

I remembered that this was in East Coast Park and we set up tents to stay over the night. Although I did go back home for the night.When? I can't remember. Sometime back. Either 2011 or 2010.

Slim



Friday, April 08, 2011

Notes from a reading

What I remember about this article..

Religious switching and knowledge among adolescent in Singapore by Phyllis Ghim-Lian Chew
1. This article was written in 2004, so its quite recent.

2. It stated that adolescents' knowledge about religion is very poor. Not only do they not know about their own religions, they know even less of the other religions. Main reason is the misinformation or the lack of information as a result of a lack knowledge being passed down from parents to child. Mostly valid for Taoist and Buddhism. Most parents who are Taoist and Buddhist are not too sure of their own religion themselves and their lack of academic prowess does not encourage them to explain to their children as to the various practises accorded to their own religions.

3. Adolescent learnt about religion from Textbooks and during CME classes in school.

4. There is a false sense of tolerance among adolescent (adults?) in that adolescent equate tolerance with fear and not whole hearted respect. Fear is illustrated by not talking about religion among friends.

5. A majority of switchers switched from Buddhism, Free Thinkers to Christianity. Main reason as stated by them is the 'feel good' feeling. In other words, the switched happened because of the emotions occur and not of the intellect. Switchers switched mostly because of peers, and family members. Half of the switchers are met by dissaproval by parents but the parents relented. Half were not by dissaproval by parents but this does not mean that their parents approved of them being Christians. Some kept it a secret for fear of reprisal. Some may switched because of situational stress such as exams and their friends who introduce prayers and chants to them.

Is that all?

Slim

Tuesday, April 05, 2011

Its a thursday

No its not. Its a Tuesday. My dad came yesterday and drop off a couple of shirts for me. He bought it at Giant Plentong. Good fit. Wearing one of it right now.

Its 14 minutes after 9 in the am and I intended to have a late am nap. But Puji, my new maid was cleaning the bathroom and well, I don't feel good sleeping while somebody else is working within earshot.
So I did my banking and in another hour, I'l be doing my marketing. Will be bringing Puji along I guess.
Nothing much has happened. Adam bought a skateboard and is learning how to skate. He is also into softball and we bought a couple of gloves and balls to train up. A few round of catch is a good form of exercise for me.
Su is going to Solo, Indonesia soon. Wished I could go with her.
Our new chapter will be happening in a couple of months. Pray it will be successful.
Slim.