Is there any way we can find out whether the majority of Singaporean citizens is “very disturbed” by the ANU giving an honorary degree to LKY, or rather by the reactions on this planned act? Just wonder.
“Weapons and gun control might be the real issue. … Maybe someone needs to lock the arsenal.” Well, it seems that nobody–at least since the attack on the army camp in Narathiwat in 2004–has discovered this real issue. Now that we know it, things will soon return to normal.
Weapons and gun control might be the real issue. Different cultures have different situations, like Mindanao where they have quite open gun craftsmen shops fashioning and selling weapons, and I remember witnessing a soldier fight with his wife while his pistol and grenade were sitting on the table, potential danger lurking, to South Korea, with near 100% gun control, licensed “gas guns” for women to protect themselves, is about all you see. Maybe someone needs to lock the arsenal.
Someone should hold an alternative awards ceremony to recognize his innovation of the defamation suit in electoral democracy. Other neighbouring democracies have stopped following his lead, thank goodness. Recognition of his ability to maintain the goodwill of super-power United States while at the same time serving as life-support system for non-democracy Burma that the US is highly critical of, what slight of hand! Doctor of magic, I’d say is more appropriate.
It is indeed “expanding the boundaries of human understanding” how as prestigious an institution as the ANU can award an honorary doctorate of law to a man who throughout his political career has shown no respect for the integrity of the law, and who has continually used it as a political weapon to destroy his enemies. Is this what the ANU expects of its own graduates in law?
Let us hope that there is a large group of hecklers both inside and outside the ceremony who will stand up for the academic integrity of the ANU even if the Vice Chancellor and the administration will not.
So, someone with a political agenda hired some people from the South to blow up Bangkok on New Year’s Eve? Meaning that it WAS Southern insurgents, albeit acting on behalf of … wait a minute… how does any of this make sense?
For those of us who remember Lee’s Singapore in an era which was less docile than today, you only have to think of how Lee’s secret police would kidnap suspected enemies of the state in the earliy hours of the morning, detain them in an undisclosed location, strip them naked, and force them to stand in front of an air-conditioner on cold for hours until they signed a confession. And for achievements like this the ANU awards Lee an honorary doctorate in law. Well, noone can claim now that the ANU is not trying to come down from the ivory tower.
‘However, he [Gen Watanachai Chaimuanwong] cautioned that authorities were now linking the insurgents – but not their cause – to deadly bombings in Bangkok on New Year’s Eve which killed three people and wounded more than 40.
He insisted the attacks were not linked to the southern unrest, saying someone connected to the political turmoil in Bangkok had hired the militants to stage the attacks to further their own interests.
“The explosive devices were the kind commonly used in the south, and the people who made the bombs were militants who worked in the south, but they were hired to mount the attacks for another purpose,” Watanachai said.’
Apparently this isn’t as important as Andrew suspected, seeing as Sonthi has told folks not to pay attention to those silly police analysts until he gets a chance to vet their conclusions. Is there really any reason to ever believe anything they say on the topic of who set off the bombs? Will anyone ever believe them, or is that the point?
In the real world, academia can’t really stay as an ivory bastion of high-minded learning. After all, the professors and staffs need to eat, and be housed and clothed, utility bill needs to be paid, yada yada yada. Most of these are handled by the admin people and are thus shielded from average students and faculties, allowing them to bask in the scholastic glory most of the time.
Most schools just need to keep running just to stay where they are, though some schools will have it easier than others. And part of that is to be associated with the luminaries, head of state, etc., even though the conscience of many students and faculty members say otherwise. ANU is not unique. Everybody has its price. Some higher than another. Dubya, for example, got himself into Harvard Business School, despite a string of business failures. More recently, some people here may be aware of the case of a certain princess from the orient and her ivy league law school education.
Lee himself probably couldn’t care less about yet another degree. I don’t think he’s that insecure. So, I wonder why ANU feel the urge to associate themselves with Singapore’s ruling clique. Are they planning some expansion or branches or something like that? I don’t know.
Personally, I’m never a big fan of the practice of giving honorary degree. I mean, if someone has achieved something worthy of a degree, well, that achievement should have spoken for itself. They don’t need to be blessed by any academic pomp.
This brings to mind the honorary degree that Kasetsart gave to Tiger Woods awhile back. Or rather, I should the degree that KU foisted upon poor Tiger. He didn’t really want to get the degree, so the university big shots have to carry the diplomas to his hotel room… or something embarrassing like that.
In Laos itself (as far as I know, at least) there are only a few exemplars of that paper to be found and I was really looking for it. The MInistry of Education/State Printing House has a ‘library’ and a quite complete and old collection of “Pathet Lao”. Also some other papers like Vientiane Mai but only very few older and now unreadable Xad Lao.
Does anyone know a library in Europe or Laos that has Xad Lao or other media documentation of that era related to politics, culture and everyday life? Some more sources for a social history of Laos during the pre-revolutionary/cold war era would be a great thing to work with.
Furthermore, Lee Kuan Yew should have adopted Sufficiency Economy principles when he was formulating Singapore. If anybody should be awarded an honorary doctorate it should be HMK Mister Bhumibol. Dr. Lee Kuan Yew just read 1984… and even cast a NUS Psychology Professor (legitimate) as Goldstein! Now we have pseudo ingsoc in Singapore where the soc is really corp.
Regardless of all this, fuel is expensive for the Batmobile… Maybe an honorary degree for whoever invented the engine for the Prius next?
Listening to you speak of HM the King’s finishing at university or not, I was recently pointed to Ivan Illich, and to his views on “an Education”, among others. He was a fairly well educated man himself.
I know that you all like to use the efficiency economy as a stand-in for the junta when it’s time to crack the whip, but HM the King’s views are consonant with Illich’s in this respect as well.
Regardless who is using what idea for what reason, ideas do stand or fall on their own. I quite admire HM the King’s formulation and certainly Illich has offered a very rigorous analysis along the same lines.
You fellows trying to tar the sufficiency economy with the same brush used to tar the junta remind me of the bigots in the USA who denounced Walt and Mearsheim’s thesis on the grounds that David Duke loudly praised it.
Somehow I’d expected more from fellows who’d spent someone’s big bucks on such glamorous “educational packages”.
Can we articulate a liittle bit more about what a farce that this is- a tyrant receiving an honorary LAW doctorate who is someone who has stopped any political freedom or opposition by subverting the law. The judiciary is totaly compliant to this man who uses defamation laws to silence any critic. Mugabe uses violence but LKY uses 1984 Orwellian methods to control the human spirit. Srithanonchai, please read up a little more before posting platitudes about this man.
[…] degree to Lee Kuan Yew. A search of the ANU web-site uncovers nothing on the matter except my previous New Mandala post. On the ANU web’s billboard we are advised of such gems as the prohibition […]
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“Frankly very disturbing”
Is there any way we can find out whether the majority of Singaporean citizens is “very disturbed” by the ANU giving an honorary degree to LKY, or rather by the reactions on this planned act? Just wonder.
Southern insurgents now prime suspects
“Weapons and gun control might be the real issue. … Maybe someone needs to lock the arsenal.” Well, it seems that nobody–at least since the attack on the army camp in Narathiwat in 2004–has discovered this real issue. Now that we know it, things will soon return to normal.
Intelligence?
The Human Rights Watch report mentioned by nganadeeleg (No. 6) can be downloaded at http://hrw.org/doc/?t=asia&c=thaila
Southern insurgents now prime suspects
Weapons and gun control might be the real issue. Different cultures have different situations, like Mindanao where they have quite open gun craftsmen shops fashioning and selling weapons, and I remember witnessing a soldier fight with his wife while his pistol and grenade were sitting on the table, potential danger lurking, to South Korea, with near 100% gun control, licensed “gas guns” for women to protect themselves, is about all you see. Maybe someone needs to lock the arsenal.
Lee Kuan who?
Someone should hold an alternative awards ceremony to recognize his innovation of the defamation suit in electoral democracy. Other neighbouring democracies have stopped following his lead, thank goodness. Recognition of his ability to maintain the goodwill of super-power United States while at the same time serving as life-support system for non-democracy Burma that the US is highly critical of, what slight of hand! Doctor of magic, I’d say is more appropriate.
“Frankly very disturbing”
It is indeed “expanding the boundaries of human understanding” how as prestigious an institution as the ANU can award an honorary doctorate of law to a man who throughout his political career has shown no respect for the integrity of the law, and who has continually used it as a political weapon to destroy his enemies. Is this what the ANU expects of its own graduates in law?
Let us hope that there is a large group of hecklers both inside and outside the ceremony who will stand up for the academic integrity of the ANU even if the Vice Chancellor and the administration will not.
Southern insurgents now prime suspects
The era of confusionism is upon us.
So, someone with a political agenda hired some people from the South to blow up Bangkok on New Year’s Eve? Meaning that it WAS Southern insurgents, albeit acting on behalf of … wait a minute… how does any of this make sense?
Lee Kuan who?
For those of us who remember Lee’s Singapore in an era which was less docile than today, you only have to think of how Lee’s secret police would kidnap suspected enemies of the state in the earliy hours of the morning, detain them in an undisclosed location, strip them naked, and force them to stand in front of an air-conditioner on cold for hours until they signed a confession. And for achievements like this the ANU awards Lee an honorary doctorate in law. Well, noone can claim now that the ANU is not trying to come down from the ivory tower.
ANU honours Lee Kuan Yew. Why?
[…] Some more comment here and here. […]
Southern insurgents now prime suspects
Whoops. Spoke too soon. Here is the latest attempt to thread the needle (from an AFP report at http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=117589):
‘However, he [Gen Watanachai Chaimuanwong] cautioned that authorities were now linking the insurgents – but not their cause – to deadly bombings in Bangkok on New Year’s Eve which killed three people and wounded more than 40.
He insisted the attacks were not linked to the southern unrest, saying someone connected to the political turmoil in Bangkok had hired the militants to stage the attacks to further their own interests.
“The explosive devices were the kind commonly used in the south, and the people who made the bombs were militants who worked in the south, but they were hired to mount the attacks for another purpose,” Watanachai said.’
Lee Kuan who?
Nobody has asked, will you be attending Andrew? Haha
Also, why is he being granted a second Doctorate of Laws? Is it competition with Uni of Melb…?
Southern insurgents now prime suspects
Apparently this isn’t as important as Andrew suspected, seeing as Sonthi has told folks not to pay attention to those silly police analysts until he gets a chance to vet their conclusions. Is there really any reason to ever believe anything they say on the topic of who set off the bombs? Will anyone ever believe them, or is that the point?
Lee Kuan who?
In the real world, academia can’t really stay as an ivory bastion of high-minded learning. After all, the professors and staffs need to eat, and be housed and clothed, utility bill needs to be paid, yada yada yada. Most of these are handled by the admin people and are thus shielded from average students and faculties, allowing them to bask in the scholastic glory most of the time.
Most schools just need to keep running just to stay where they are, though some schools will have it easier than others. And part of that is to be associated with the luminaries, head of state, etc., even though the conscience of many students and faculty members say otherwise. ANU is not unique. Everybody has its price. Some higher than another. Dubya, for example, got himself into Harvard Business School, despite a string of business failures. More recently, some people here may be aware of the case of a certain princess from the orient and her ivy league law school education.
Lee Kuan who?
Lee himself probably couldn’t care less about yet another degree. I don’t think he’s that insecure. So, I wonder why ANU feel the urge to associate themselves with Singapore’s ruling clique. Are they planning some expansion or branches or something like that? I don’t know.
Personally, I’m never a big fan of the practice of giving honorary degree. I mean, if someone has achieved something worthy of a degree, well, that achievement should have spoken for itself. They don’t need to be blessed by any academic pomp.
This brings to mind the honorary degree that Kasetsart gave to Tiger Woods awhile back. Or rather, I should the degree that KU foisted upon poor Tiger. He didn’t really want to get the degree, so the university big shots have to carry the diplomas to his hotel room… or something embarrassing like that.
Xat Lao
Thanks for the excellent Xat Lao hint, Saowapha 🙂
In Laos itself (as far as I know, at least) there are only a few exemplars of that paper to be found and I was really looking for it. The MInistry of Education/State Printing House has a ‘library’ and a quite complete and old collection of “Pathet Lao”. Also some other papers like Vientiane Mai but only very few older and now unreadable Xad Lao.
Does anyone know a library in Europe or Laos that has Xad Lao or other media documentation of that era related to politics, culture and everyday life? Some more sources for a social history of Laos during the pre-revolutionary/cold war era would be a great thing to work with.
ANU honours Lee Kuan Yew. Why?
I agree with Batman.
Furthermore, Lee Kuan Yew should have adopted Sufficiency Economy principles when he was formulating Singapore. If anybody should be awarded an honorary doctorate it should be HMK Mister Bhumibol. Dr. Lee Kuan Yew just read 1984… and even cast a NUS Psychology Professor (legitimate) as Goldstein! Now we have pseudo ingsoc in Singapore where the soc is really corp.
Regardless of all this, fuel is expensive for the Batmobile… Maybe an honorary degree for whoever invented the engine for the Prius next?
ANU honours Lee Kuan Yew. Why?
Listening to you speak of HM the King’s finishing at university or not, I was recently pointed to Ivan Illich, and to his views on “an Education”, among others. He was a fairly well educated man himself.
I know that you all like to use the efficiency economy as a stand-in for the junta when it’s time to crack the whip, but HM the King’s views are consonant with Illich’s in this respect as well.
Regardless who is using what idea for what reason, ideas do stand or fall on their own. I quite admire HM the King’s formulation and certainly Illich has offered a very rigorous analysis along the same lines.
You fellows trying to tar the sufficiency economy with the same brush used to tar the junta remind me of the bigots in the USA who denounced Walt and Mearsheim’s thesis on the grounds that David Duke loudly praised it.
Somehow I’d expected more from fellows who’d spent someone’s big bucks on such glamorous “educational packages”.
ANU honours Lee Kuan Yew. Why?
Can we articulate a liittle bit more about what a farce that this is- a tyrant receiving an honorary LAW doctorate who is someone who has stopped any political freedom or opposition by subverting the law. The judiciary is totaly compliant to this man who uses defamation laws to silence any critic. Mugabe uses violence but LKY uses 1984 Orwellian methods to control the human spirit. Srithanonchai, please read up a little more before posting platitudes about this man.
Lee Kuan who?
Note that the Uni of Melbourne also awarded him an honorary doctorate, in 1994, apparently. See here:
http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/international/downloads/FYWNS106/booklet_all.pdf
ANU honours Lee Kuan Yew. Why?
[…] degree to Lee Kuan Yew. A search of the ANU web-site uncovers nothing on the matter except my previous New Mandala post. On the ANU web’s billboard we are advised of such gems as the prohibition […]