CEM 205
Module Outline

BA(Education) – Year 2

FP

Lecturers

:

A/P Ang Cheng Guan (Rm 3-03-147, email: angcg@nie.edu.sg)

A/P Ooi Giok Ling (Rm 3-03-129, email: glooi@nie.edu.sg)

Dr Wee Wan-ling (ELL, email: Wee Wan-ling CJ (ELL)

Dr Benjamin Wong (PLS, email: Wong Koon Siak Benjamin (PLS)

A/P Wong Tai Chee, email: tcwong@nie.edu.sg)

Mr Noel Tan (External)

Number of AUs

:

3

Duration

:

36 hours

This module examines issues of broad, contemporary relevance to Singapore’s survival, health and growth as a nation and a global city-state. It will also introduce the concepts essential for analysing related topics such as democracy, foreign relations, global economic challenges, and national identity and show how these concepts can be applied to our understanding of selected Singaporean issues and concerns.

National Identity

The process of nation-building is discussed in relation to the formation of national identity in Singapore. In the lecture and discussion online, the implications of the nation-building process are debated with the view to understanding the outcome for Singaporeans. Focus is on the nature of the national identity that is shared among Singaporeans and the dynamics involved in the shaping of such an identity.  In a globalising world, the question has been broached about the continuing relevance of the nation-state and national citizenship to social processes and changes.  Singapore has been ranked as among the most globalised economies in the world.  Yet major events like the outbreak of SARS appear to have highlighted the need for strong sense of citizenship, support of the national efforts and identification with others in Singapore regardless of its global impact. This lecture will consider implications of such and other developments for national identity.

Society

Singapore’s multi-ethnic society was once described by a geographer as a semi-society. This was during the final years of the colonial period when Singapore society comprised the migrant and indigenous people who would not probably see themselves as belonging to any particular society. Rather, the view was that most would see themselves as part of a smaller ethnic community with its own leadership structure and even, a particular location or territory in the city.

The effort made since the securing of self-rule and the making of a new nation-state, has been to create the bases for the development of a Singapore society.  This lecture discusses the composition of Singapore society and the   management of inter-ethnic relations as a means for understanding the outcome of social policies and social change.

Economy

Singapore’s economic history and developmental trajectory from the post-independence era is examined through to the present. The lectures will deal with two issues: the first pertains to the model of development that Singapore adopted from the outset, and which can also be said to have been adopted by the other ‘Asian Tigers’ (South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong), namely that of ‘export-oriented industrialization’. However, beyond the actual ‘economics’ of development, the lectures and discussions need to address arguably the more important question of the ‘politics of development’, more specifically the notion of the ‘developmental state’ in Singapore, where the political legitimacy of the state derived from its ability to deliver the economic goods, and where various policy instruments were marshalled in a coherent and deeply-integrated fashion towards the objective of economic development. The second aspect of the lecture then raises the question of the continued viability of such a developmental strategy. In a nutshell, what might have worked in an era of wage and price competitiveness, and at a relatively low level of the value chain, might no longer be effective in a ‘new economy’ environment where creativity, entrepreneurship and private actors matter more than (or at least as much) as the state’s developmental instruments. This lecture will also consider the challenges Singapore faces as it transitions to another economic paradigm.

Culture

 The focus is on cultural policy in Singapore. ‘Culture’ – meaning the arts proper (literature; music; visual arts; dance), intellectual life and institutions of the arts – was not a significant part of nation-building in Singapore. The former prime minister famously said, in 1968, that ‘Poetry is a luxury we cannot afford.’ Consequently, cultural policy in the 20 years or so of the city-state’s existence had more  to do with race and ethnic cultures, rather than what is called ‘high culture’. The concern was with how the different ethnic groups could have proper roles in national life, while never allowing the dangers of cultural ‘chauvinism’ and old-fashioned Asian traditions to disturb modern economic development. However, as the economy started to change, given the increased demands of a more globalised economy, the government started to feel that to be a Global City that could effectively draw in foreign investment and have a more dynamic social life that could maintain the best foreign talent, and participate in the so-called ‘New Economy’, Singapore needed to become a Global City of the Arts as well. By the late 1980s, ‘culture’ started to have a meaning closer to ‘high culture’ rather than ‘ethnic and traditional cultures’. The state also now had official cultural policy that fostered the arts development. This part of the module will investigate the changing orientation towards ‘culture’ and ‘cultural policy’ from the 1960s to the present.

Governance

Singapore has been described as the archetypal model of the developmental state.  The implications of such a description are that the state has played the major role in decision-making on policies and development.  Policy decision-making in Singapore has been highly centralised and until recently there has been relatively little participation by the public or civil society in major decisions affecting many important aspects of life among the citizens.  This lecture considers the outcome of the strong role of the state on different aspects of development in Singapore.

Foreign Policy & Defence

  The two lectures will focus on the principles which underpin Singapore’s foreign and defence policies since 1965 to the present.  The lectures will go beneath the nitty-gritty daily conduct of Singapore’s foreign and defence policies to understand the rationale behind the words and deeds. Some of the ideas that will be highlighted in the lectures will include: The culture of siege and insecurity, the security of small states and the Revolution in Military Affairs.

40% (written assignment/essay); 40% tutorial presentation; 20% tutorial participation.

National Identity

Ooi, G.L. and Shaw, B.J., (2004), Beyond the Port City – Development and Identity in 21^st Century Singapore, Singapore: Pearson/Prentice Hall, Chapters Two and Nine.

Yeoh, S.A. and Chang, T.C., (2003), `”The Rise of the Merlion”: Monument and Myth in the Making of the Singapore Story,’  in R. B. H. Goh and  B.S.A. Yeoh, (eds.), Theorising the Southeast Asian City as Text, Singapore: World Scientific Press, Chapter Two. 

Kong, L. and Yeoh, B.S.A., (2002), The Politics of Landscape in Singapore – Construction of the Nation, Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, Chapter Three.

Kwok, K.W. and Ali, M., (1998), `Cultivating Citizenship and National Identity,’ in A. Mahihznan and Lee, T. Y., (eds.), Singapore – Re-engineering Success, Singapore: Institute of Policy Studies and Oxford University Press, pp. 112-122.

Society

Ooi, G.L. and Shaw, B.J., (2004), Beyond the Port City – Development and Identity in 21^st Century Singapore, Singapore: Pearson/Prentice Hall, Chapters Three, Four and Eight.

Siddique, S., (1997), `Culture and Identity in the Public Housing Environment,’ in Ooi, G.L. and K. Kwok, (eds.), City and the State – Singapore’s Built Environment Revisited, Singapore: Institute of Policy Studies and Oxford University Press, pp. 132-144. 

Blake, M., (1997), `The Lack of Fit: Effects of the Public Housing Programme on the Poor and Elderly,’ in Ooi, G.L. and K. Kwok, (eds.), City and the State – Singapore’s Built Environment Revisited, Singapore: Institute of Policy Studies and Oxford University Press, pp. 145-161.

Economy

Haggard, Stephan, (1990), Pathways from the Periphery: The Politics of Growth in the Newly Industrializing Countries, Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, Chapter 5

Rodan, Garry (1989), The Political Economy of Singapore’s Industrialization: National State and International Capital, Macmillan, Chapter 5

Huff, W. G. (1999). ‘Singapore’s Economic Development: Four Lessons and Some Doubts’. Oxford Development Studies 27:1, 33-55.

Peebles, Gavin (2003). ‘Economy’. In Regional Surveys of the World: The Far East and Australasia 2003, 34^th Edition, pp. 1293-1303.

Culture

 C. J. W.-L. Wee, ‘Contending with primordialism: The “modern” construction of postcolonial Singapore’, in Suvendrini Perara (ed.), Asian and Pacific Inscriptions (Bundoora, Victoria: Meridian, 1995), pp139-159.

Chua Beng-Huat (with Eddie C. Y. Kuo), ‘The making of a new nation: Cultural construction and national identity’, in Chua Beng-Huat, Communitarian Ideology and Democracy in Singapore (London: Routledge, 1995), pp. 101-123 (chapter 5). (JQ745.S559 Chu)

C. J. W.-L. Wee ‘National identity, the arts and the Global City’, in Derek da Cunha (ed.), Singapore in the new millennium (Singapore: ISEAS, 2002), pp.221-242. (DS609.9 Dac)

Kwok Kian-Woon and Low Kee-Hong, ‘Cultural policy and the city-state: Singapore and the “New Asian Renaissance”’, in Diana Crane, Nobuko Kawashima and Ken’ichi Kawasaki (eds.), Global Culture: Media, arts, policy, and globalization (New York: Routledge, 2003), pp.149-168. (P94.6 Glo)

Governance

Ooi, G.L. and Shaw, B.J., (2004), Beyond the Port City – Development and Identity in 21^st Century Singapore, Singapore: Pearson/Prentice Hall, Chapters Five and Six.

Koh, G. and Ooi, G.L., (2002), `Singapore: A Home, a Nation?’,  Southeast Asian Affairs 2002, Singapore:  Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, pp. 255-281.

Low, L., (2002), `Re-thinking Singapore Inc. and GLCs,’  Southeast Asian Affairs 2002, Singapore:  Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, pp. 282-302.

Chua, B.H., (1995), Communitarian Ideology and Democracy in Singapore, London: Routledge, Chapter Three.

Foreign Policy & Defence

Michael Leifer, Singapore’s Foreign Policy: Coping With Vulnerability (London: Routledge, 2000), Chapter 1 and Conclusion.

Bilveer Singh, Singapore: Foreign Policy Imperatives of a Small State (Singapore: National University of Singapore, Centre for Advanced Studies, 1988).

Tim Huxley, Defending the Lion City: The Armed Forces of Singapore (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2000), Chapter 2 and Conclusion.

Lee Hsien Loong, “Security Options for Small States” in The Straits Times, 6 November 1984.

Hussin Mutalib, “The Socio-economic Dimension in Singapore’s Quest for Security and Stability” in Pacific Affairs, Volume 75, Number 1, Spring 2002.