Law Minister Shanmugam to press ahead to spread PAP propaganda in Singapore schools
January 9th, 2010 | 
Author: Written by Our Correspondent
It appears that Singapore Law Minister K Shanmugam is going ahead to introduce “political education” in Singapore schools to promote the PAP’s “unique” brand of governance using taxpayers’ monies.
Worried at rising anti-PAP sentiments among young Singaporeans which may affect the party’s grip on power, Mr Shanmugam had earlier mooted the idea of “educating” Singaporeans on the different types of political system to help them make an “informed” decision.
Mr Shanmugam’s commentary in the PAP’s magazine Petir was given extensive publicity in today’s Straits Times, which was once described by Singapore’s late Chief Minister David Marshall as “running dogs and prostitutes” of the PAP.
The gist of the entire article is to advocate an one-party political system dominated by the PAP as the only model of government suitable for Singapore:
“There is a deep belief that Singapore’s very existence is always at risk. That Singapore needs to react very quickly to changing external environments, and has to keep its economy highly competitive.
Thus Singapore, more than most states, needs an excellent, strong leadership, and its political structures and systems must allow for effective and speedy decision-making.
Based on this, the party’s message has been: Singapore needs good governance and only the PAP can deliver it.”
Unfortunately, this deep belief is only shared by the PAP and its acolytes and not by the majority of Singaporeans.
Strong leadership does not equate a totalitarian state bordering on fascism where a political party controls all important institutions of the state from the media, police, grassroots organizations, NGOs and trade unions.
The PAP is able to make and implement decisions quickly due to the lack of an opposition in parliament to check on them with disastrous results for Singaporeans in failed policies such as the bilingual language and immigration policies.
It is obvious from the tone of Mr Shanmugam’s article that he intended the PAP’s message to be taught to Singapore children at a young age in schools so that they will not be “corrupted” by “western” democratic ideals when they grow up.
There is a thin line between “education” and “propaganda” and judging from the PAP’s track record in the past, it cannot be trusted to provide a fair, balanced and non-partisan view on this.
Mr Shanmugam boasted unashamedly that the “PAP has become one of the most successful political parties in history.” which is nothing surprising when it has been using the advantages of its incumbency to obliterate any opposition to its rule.
Recent declassified materials from the British National Archives suggested that the wave of arrests launched by the PAP in 1962 under “Operation Coldstore” was more to cripple the opposition than for national security reasons.
Then the breakaway faction of the PAP Barisan Sosialist led by the charismatic and capable Lim Chin Siong appeared well poised to win the next general election until the PAP launched the security dragnet to detain its key leaders, many of whom were held for several years without trial.
Lim Chin Siong was detained together with his comrades Michael Fernandez, Sydney Woodhull, S.T. Bani, James Puthucheary, Ho Piao, Dr Lim Hock Siew, Dr Poh Soo Kai and many others for varying periods of time.
The longest is Mr Chia Thye Poh who was detained 32 years without trial making him the longest held political prisoner of conscience in the world today.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) of China is also a “successful” party by Mr Shanmugam’s “standards”. The only difference is that China is a self-proclaimed one-party state while Singapore still manages to maintain the facade of being a “democracy” in name to the rest of the world.
Mr Shanmugam claimed that the PAP has a “regular change of leadership and induction of talent”, but the changes are only cosmetic while the real seat of power remains in the hands of a few senior leaders.
Singapore is the only country in the world with two former prime ministers in the present cabinet. It has one Minister Mentor, two Senior Ministers and two Deputy Prime Ministers in addition to the Prime Minister.
As Law Minister, Shanmugam should be more concerned about relevant matters within his purview such as the recent “escape” of Romanian diplomat Silviu Ionescu from the reach of Singapore’s much vaunted “rule of law” instead of interfering with education which is under the charge of his colleague Dr Ng Eng Hen.
Is Mr Shanmugam insinuating by his persistent interference that Dr Ng is not doing a good job on education?
PAP ministers seem to be adept at “multi-tasking” lately to justify their multi-million dollar salary package.
National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan waxed lyrical about killer little, estate maintenance and cleanliness while continuing to act blur about the sky-rocketing prices of HDB flats.
MM Lee Kuan Yew is poking his fingers everywhere when his only task is to “do forecasting” and to mentor his son the Prime Minister.
What political system best suits Singapore is for Singaporeans to decide and not the PAP which started out as an opposition party as well.
The internet has leveled the playing field and allowed a platform for free competition of ideas from all parties.
Mr Shanmugam should stop wasting precious public resources to promote the PAP’s partisan interests in the community and spend more time on important issues of national concern.
Posted in Editorial
Again in whatever we do, we always compare to other countries to justify it. In this case NK and PRC.
heh.
That’s nothing new in this report.
It’s already being done, the inculcation of a pro-incumbent campaign to school children.
The primary 3 social studies textbook include a little bit about the history of singapore and the teachers routinely give assignments to the children with the questions like “What qualities do you admire about Lee Kuan Yew”? There was also a comprehension passage exhalting same to very high levels and children were asked to answer a couple of questions based on the passage.
It’s like Cult-worship of leader, in similar style as the late Mao Zedong was worshipped. There is no doubt that they were great leaders, but let this discovery be done by each individual in his own space and time.
In the Primary 5 textbooks, the historical documentation of singapore’s past ignored quite a few prominent opposition leaders etc. I didn’t feel very comfortable about the these textbooks after reading it but for the sake of getting decent marks in class exercises it was necessary to sing the same tune when guiding the children.
zero
it is contradictory that pap has always used the excuse that ppl under 21 yrs old are politically immature enough to vote and now they want to start political education for students.
if it is indeed unbiased education,pinpointing the strength and weakness of each system including singapore, that’s okay.
But devil lies in the details, will MOE take an independent stand, what if the teacher is a PAP/opposition hardcore supporter or grassroots member?
With so many new PRs and new Citizens,
political system may be useful as the natives have already had a strong taste of the political system of singapore since they were born.
So, i am not surprised this guy finds the need to do so.
wahaha
I think that political education in Singapore schools will provide oppositions greater mileage in the sense that students nowadays are not like students in the previous (my generation) whereby we were just been told and fed on propaganda. Students will question for alternatives and do research and must be convinced that a one-party system is good for the country and the future. TR can help alot by providing factual stories of past happenings to inform the inquisitive minds.
You are right if you call it, “brain washing”. “propaganda” or
“indoctrination”. What a pathetic suggestion by Shame-mugam or Sham-mugam.
For real education of Singapore political system, just inform the students to read Temasek Review and other credible websites where all hidden agendas by the govt are exposed by the netizens. One example is increasing the number of new citizens in order to off-set a significant loss of votes by true Singapore citizens.
A drowning man (party) clings to the last straw.
I disagree!
It makes sense to be teaching political systems to teenagers before they reach the age of 21.
Everybody should be educated in politics because democracy fails(!) without that education — also including us listening to public debates on policies by our constituent representatives.
With the internet it would be fool-hardy to be putting blatant propaganda into textbooks.
I think the main target for Shanmugam could be the in-effectual ministers in PAP who are resting on the PAP brand-name laurels. I would love to hear citizens asking hard questions during the meet-the-people sessions… rather than ministers staging sing-a-long plus makan sessions to gain votes AND SKIPPING parliamentary debates!
The ideas of, politics affecting people most in their life; separation of powers; separate roles of the judiciary, head of state, political party; reasons for the constitution; basic human rights; social mobility; politics vs economics, are all hard to pass off as propaganda.
The PAP doesnt have the copyright to the present form of governance. Also, the opposition could very well be voted into power with the proper understanding/belief that the statutory boards should remain effective in helping to drive Singapore forward regardless of the political party.
Let me translate what Shanmugam has said,
He said “There is a deep belief that Singapore’s very existence is always at risk. That Singapore needs to react very quickly to changing external environments, and has to keep its economy highly competitive.”
He actually means that there is a deep belief that the PAP’s very existence is always at risk. The MIW needs to stay in power as long as possible because there are many skeletons in the cupboard and if another party gets into power, it will expose all the PAP’s failings and mistakes. Your ministers also need the money for as long as possible (preferably until the very day they die). Singapore needs to react very quickly because the forecasts by LKY are always wrong. We need to keep the economy highly competitive, through low wages by importing cheap labor from China and India. With low wages too, Singaporeans are too busy coping with inflation (which officially is at less than 1% per annum), paying off their housing loans (for market priced HDB apartments) to worry about wasteful things such as democracy, individual freedom and person choice.
He said “Thus Singapore, more than most states, needs an excellent, strong leadership, and its political structures and systems must allow for effective and speedy decision-making.”
Singapore needs strong leadership because the people are complacent, stupid, lazy and not driven. They need spurs in their hides. All institutions, both governmental and non governmental, must be powerless and under our absolute control. Singapore belongs to the PAP, the Lee family and all our cronies because we built this nation, country, city or what have you. We never make mistakes because we never admit to them. If we make small errors of judgment like losing $40 billion, we have no regrets and will make the same decisions again. That is the essence of effective and speedy decision making.
WTF!
Of course i assume to believe that he this proposal will be totally purely unbiased and non-partisan that nothing in favor of any party will be in the contents? I may be wrong. But this is my assumption.
Aiyoh! Are the Americans as well as those Europeans, or in-short occidental people, still sleeping and have not woken up yet?
The ruling party’s first and foremost main/sole political agenda is to remain in power for the foreseeable future till the day when the LEE dynasty has diminished? The DOM already repeatedly proclaimed loudly and vociferously that he does not believe in Democracy and the best is that Singapore does not have “G-erection”, so that the million-dollar miw can clinch on to power till eternity, so to speak!
Why the DOM love China so much even to the extent of investing billions of dollars of Singapore’s state funds to such ridiculous level of outrageousness without receiving sufficient return on investments yet, further engage the Chinese both in-terms of culture and economic not taking into considerations of those failed investments? The answer is simple, because both countries have similar political environment and situation that mimic and emulate each other. So, it is no surprise that the ruling party is assimilating the Chinese-Communist-Party in teaching “party’s politics” to all Singaporean’s off-springs to achieve its selfish and self-benefit political agendas!
To my total appalling awaken is that this type of emulation has been promulgated by a non-Chinese miw million-dollar nerd which, really fix in well to the famous Chinese adage that pronounce: A man will die for wealth/money; a bird will die for food!
My dear TP readers, from here, you can visualize how mercenary and despicable are these bunch of idiotic nerds who claim to be on high moral ground of integrity and dignity! In actual fact, a bunch of contemptible wrenches and nothing else!
Oh gosh! PAP is using in the name of education to brainwash more of our younger children.
What i suggest is a fair chance of speakers from opposition to educate our children.
My dear govt(PAP), do you think those of us grew up from the 80’s are ignorant of our political situation?
Thanks to the exposure from university FT friends, we got to know the different cultures and our own flaws in the political system.
Join us in the vote the PAP out group in facebook!
http://www.facebook.com/#/group.php?gid=153492722129&ref=ts
I agree with fairplay that attempts by the govt to “indoctrinate” the young may not work. Having taught in schools before, I have observed first-hand that students nowadays are much more outspoken than their earlier generations. They will not hesitate to question everything being taught and even insist on proposing alternatives. It is likely that this attempt may work in favour of the opposition instead.
Wouldn’t be surprised to see “Men in White” textbook soon…
Now that they have officially announced their intention to use the public school to brainwash our children, in addition to bringing in foreigners citizens to vote for them, the call to vote the PAP out is becoming more and more urgent by the day. They are able to do whatever they like because the opposition is weak. Pass the message urgently to vote for the opposition and empower them. That’s the only hope for Singapore. We do not have much time left. Singaporeans need to understand the significance and urgency for reform.
Vote for change!! Vote the PAP out!!
We, as parent can play our part to counter the pap propaganda by telling them the truth which I am doing regularly.We must make a concerted effort so that our future generation will not be under the bondage of the evil dictator!
He shouldn’t worry, the MSM is already doing them a big favour in the propaganda department.
“Bucking this trend is SDA chairman Chiam See Tong, who plans to vacate his Potong Pasir single seat to contest a GRC.
But it is believed that he has so far been unable to find enough suitable candidates.” – Loh Chee Kong
http://www.todayonline.com/Weekendvoices/POV/EDC100109-0000050/A-masterstroke?
Readers are told that Mr Chiam dediced to contest a GRC but without having any suitable candidates to contest with him. The opposition is in a mess.
Wonder if they are paid more for a propaganda article.
Introduce more philosophy lessons. It will teach you how to think better. It is so important yet so lacking in this country.
Its pathetic for the pap having to resort to such method to win back Singaporeans’ heart. If they really did a good job then I see absolutely no need for them to educate(brainwashing) people bout their policies. So for goodness sake please stop wasting taxpayers money and instead put them into better use such as provide more financial help to the more needy one, which they sux in this respect.
In fact it is good news because its that the pap already not accepted by many people especially the young voters.
The more pap propaganda, singaporeans only get more frustrated.
In my opinion Shanmugam is concern about his millions salary at stake and nothing else or he won’t be so anxious to step into ng eng hen education work…….he wayang wayang infront of pm to show he works and care for the party………..this chap is losing confident…….
Ooops, missing word there.
Hello, in this cyberspace age, our kids good sex education, NOT POLITICAL SEX of brainwashing.
should be read as
Hello, in this cyberspace age, our kids need good sex education, NOT POLITICAL SEX of brainwashing.
Before pap starts their stupid propaganda in school, myself as a parent already told them how pap is concern about our “money”.
Initial my child don’t quite understand but after a few real example, the child is able to see much about pap.
Just share with your children the followings :
1) two child policy by an idiot surname lee k y
2) Relentless influx of immigrations.
3) New citizens free from national service
4) High HDB flats
5) ERP everywhere
These are real life situation each and everyone facing and they are breathing down my throat !!!
A change is necessary or more will suffer……….
This is another SHAM by the SHAM MASTER, SHAMmugam again.
Schools has NO ROOM for politics and I certainly cannot believe that the PAPies would completely IGNORE the adverse effects of any decision they make just for the sole purpose of staying in power!
This is not only cheap, but low man. I wonder in my sleep how these so-called elites manage to sleep at night?
Singaporeans – Pls think carefully and vote wisely in the coming GE.
Otherwise, our grumbles and rumbles will count for nothing. The new cooling-off day is inconsequential because you have been sizing-up the ministerial/parliamentarian performance over the last few years, eh?
In the end, we can blame no one but fellow Singaporeans.
For many of us, we have never voted in our lives and we rely on other electoral wards to be our voice if we should be hit with another walkover in next GE.
Many fellow Singaporeans Count On You to Stand Up For Singapore (literally)! Otherwise, we get the government we deserve.
This is like those communist system where the people are brain-washed to think the government is the greatest so that people will stop questioning on their wrong policies and mistakes.
Desperate men resorting to Desperate measures !
Any self respecting and capable person need only let his/her performance do the talking.
It is obvious these MIW are obscenely overrated and we are seeing pathetic performance and rock bottom confidence.
Singapolung….
i would also recommend that you check the text book of your kids.
its easily slipped in via history text book. lol
Aiya, in the first place MOE shouldn’t introduce literature textbooks like Animal Farm, reading list like 1984 or Brave New World. After 1-2 generations feeding on these books now then they regret and want to brain wash with political education !?
Headache arh Headache arh
This is dumb. The younger generation are the ones that access the internet more. I think the more they do this brainwashing, the opposite will happen.
As a parent, I know if I push my kids on something, the chance of them not wanting it is higher. Its so important for you to be gentle and encourage them to want it for themselves including sometimes finding it for themselves.
Again more lame ideas from lame MIW
I agree with fair comment. This move will backfire very badly on them.
Unlike the older generation, the kids today are very different. The are always surfing the net. The also get to travel overseas more often.
You have to be a fool to think that you can brainwash children today. Brain washing will only work in a closed society like North Korea.
ANY gahment thats only interested in enriching themselves and resorting to all and any means to remain in power is as good as NO GAHMENT.
Election is coming Sinkaporeans, let your voices be heard and your vote counts!
It is time for Sinkaporeans to be HEARD and be SEEN, not to remain as some TRANSPARENT DIGITS in the eyes of the gahment.
One – Timing. Why introduce this political education in schools now? Why not years before, or year after when there is more time to prepare the curriculum? Why now when the PAP is about to lose votes?
Two – Target. Why the young are targeted, is it because their mind can be easily manipulated? There are a lot of misinformed people in our society especially those in YPAP Network. Shouldn’t the education reach out to them as well?
If he wants to start any “education” they should start in MSM, have political talk-shows on TV, more documentaries to reach out to the general public whom are more rightfully in need to be informed. Forcing propaganda onto little kids who cannot make decision on their own is a despicable act.
Three – Policy. Like many policies which started out to be good, this political education will be non-partisan to shut out the critics at first. Then PAP will slowly tweak the rules to suit their favour. Look at the examples of CPF aka compulsory Ponzi fraud, GRC, HOTA, mean testing, foreigner immigration policy etc.
Cultural revolution had started in Singapore.