Suchergebnisse

In 2007, the People's Action Party government raised top officials' salaries, already among the highest in the world. Cultural liberalization has finally encouraged the gay community to invoke a seldom used parliamentary process to petition Parliament to repeal the Victorian law that criminalizes homosexuality. The government began to deal with some issues for an impending aging population.

In the 2006 general election, the People's Action Party won 82 out of 84 parliamentary seats. The purchase by the government investment company Temasek Holdings of the Shin Corporation contributed to the coup that sent Thai Prime Minister Thaksin into exile. Lee Kuan Yew's remark on the marginalization of ethnic Chinese in neighboring countries caused offense, particularly in Malaysia.

The PAP has been attempting, particularly since the early 1990s, to establish a 'political culturalism' that aims to produce individuals as 'cultural citizens', in contrast to 'liberal citizens' associated with the representative politics of liberal democracies. Cultural citizenship steers participation through ethnic or communitarian channels while at the same time restricting political contestation. Through this, the PAP has reinterpreted the meaning and responsibility of being elected and redefined the structures and meaning of political representation and participation. These redefined concepts are reflected in institutions such as the Group Representation Constituency (GRC) as well as race-based self-help organizations. At stake in the production of cultural citizens is the shaping of the boundaries and meaning of politics, with important implications for which sites of participation are tolerated, supported or obstructed. Cultural citizenship mobilizes political conflict along ethnic lines. Adapted from the source document.

The 2003 epidemic Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) tested the ability of several states in East Asia to keep it under control; this essay chronicles the steps taken by the Singapore government. Once the epidemic broke through confinement in hospitals into the community at large, efforts to keep it under control became discursively a "war against SARS"; epidemic is a "disease" that invades potentially all the bodies of the entire nation and the state is the only organization that is capable of defeating it. Strategically, the government placed exposed individuals under strict quarantine and introduced new regulations for personal hygiene for all. The public had to be mobilized to assist in tracing the exposed, help the quarantined, and to observe the personal hygiene procedures voluntarily. Success of the government's strategies was absolutely dependent on the voluntrism of the entire population. In this sense, during its course, the epidemic produced a "national" community that the long-ruling single-party state government had been skeptical to affirm. The end of the epidemic became a moment of affirmation of the nation as community.

Examines how the government of Singapore uses the concept of multiculturalism (which they call multiracialism) as an ideological tool for rationalizing policies & practices related to race, including language policies & rules governing public spaces. A comparative analysis of Singapore, Canada, & Australia focuses on specific issues created by the multiethnic/multiracial composition of their populations & differences in how each government has responded to them. Although Singaporeans tend to congratulate themselves for their multicultural/multiracial society, there is little understanding of the varied cultures & practices, which are merely tolerated at best. Government officials in Singapore have used the notion of "racial harmony" to rationalize decisions that have actually resulted in discrimination against different racial groups. In contrast, the liberal democratic political societies of Canada & Australia have prevented the term "multiculturalism" from occupying an ideological space, which allows it to be the source for continuing discussion & negotiation of both old & new issues. Prospects for change in Singapore are discussed. 19 References. J. Lindroth