While Singapore has laws to fine and imprison their film-makers for making 'political' films, North Korea adopts a more hard-nosed approach in reining in renegade film-makers...
They execute film-makers in this country
"Do you really believe that we are equal to North Korea ? Oh, come on. We are not that daft. We know what is in our interest and we intend to preserve our interests and what we have is working. You are not going to tell us how to run our country"
- MM Lee Kuan Yew speaking to foreign journalists on Singapore's low ranking press freedom
"We consider that the United Nations has no right to discuss the Korean question nor has it any right to meddle in the domestic affairs of our country. The Korean question should not be discussed by foreigners in New York of Washington, it should be discussed in Pyongyang or Seoul by the Koreans themselves."
- Kim Il Sung, father of current North Korea President Kim Jong Il
Social and political issues related to Singapore and the South East Asia region. A blog which attempts to do so in a non-trivial manner treating opposing views with the respect they deserve. Contributions are welcomed from all regardless of your political persuasion.
13 Nov 2005
They execute film-makers in this country
Found this rather interesting article at Singapore Rebel. Lets play spot the differences and similarities of attitudes...
yes, i do agree that it's best to keep an open mind. by accepting criticism, one in fact, may be able to cover loopholes in his own belief and strengthen it further. Without criticism, people may just come to believe an opinion as fact, without thinking twice about it. (paraphrased J.S Mill a little here...)
ReplyDeletephishy_
However, i feel this view does not really apply to the situation raised in this post - that MM Lee is in fact thinking similarly to a North Korean Dictator.
Firstly, Singaporeans (to some extent) have the freedom to discuss about freedom without being executed. Look at what we're doing now on this comment board. Students of political science in NUS are even invited to criticise policies. (whether that has any effect at all is another matter). the point is, we are allowed to discuss about it and there is no need to base our laws on that of another country cos, we can formulate our own.
North Korea on the other hand, as stated, executes film makers, dissenters, don't even have public access to internet, and i doubt anyone is allowed to criticise policies in the universities. how can they formulate their own laws in accordance to the public when they do not know what the public thinks?
I believe that no country has the right to command the way another country is ruled. if there really is absolute misery in that country, someday, a revolution would occur from the masses, it's just a matter of time. To judge another nation's state of well being according to our own values and system is just being ethnocentric (is that the word?).
i agree with the MM "You are not going to tell us how to run our country" To hell with the american way. Let's judge our own country to our own standards.
Sometimes I feel like McDermott wanted to set up a blog on human rights, and picked the easiest country to talk about.
ReplyDeleteYou could have chosen to "help" the countries in which people are actually dying and suffering, from an oppressive regime, but you didn't. And you make such fallacious conclusions.
LOL, what country will allow another to dictate its policies?
The day you actually find that we execute political film producers, you would be justified in saying that we resemble North Korea, but the need for a country to formulate specific policies to deal with its own issues is not specific to Singapore.
Why don't you dictate the way the French are dealing with their unrest? Expelling youths who have legitimate grouses and who have been marginalised tramplies upon human rights, yet no one is drawing parallels between France and some communist country.