Tom Friedman on Singaporean Seriousness
You may be wondering about my reaction to Tom Friedman’s opinion piece about Singapore in today’s New York Times ( http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/opinion/30friedman.html?src=me&ref=general )
It’s about educational and governmental seriousness in Singapore, and a plea for the U.S. to emulate it. His hook is the story of a primary school teacher conducting a DNA workshop with her fifth graders, on her own initiative. And I agree with him that the U.S. would do well to emulate the seriousness of Singapore governing and educational policy, but there are a few things he did not mention. So here’s my reaction.
Note that this exemplary teacher was teaching outside of the curriculum, which is semi-ossified. People’s life courses depend on the results of the high-stakes exams conducted throughout primary and secondary school, and you can’t change the exams without upsetting a lot of apple carts. Those fifth-graders won’t be tested on their knowledge of DNA and she won’t get a performance bonus for this. But good for her, anyway.
Yes, Singapore does take governing seriously. But it also controls national media, which is what I think you need to keep a civil and serious tone in politics. No way we can emulate that. Unless we can shut down Rush Limbaugh and ditzes on both right and left, there will be no progress on this front in the U.S. Name-calling, obscenity, violence and sports will continue to dominate our national media. (Which is why I have not owned a TV in the U.S. since 1992.)
Gay sex is illegal in Singapore. Drug dealing carries the death penalty. Of course the government has discretion in pursuing malefactors of different types. Fortunately it’s going after drug dealers more seriously than lovers.
I should also note that Singapore has a lot of informants everywhere – I won’t use the word spies – so that if a fundamentalist Christian preacher or an imam starts using hate speech or calling another sect or race godless infidels, he is quickly brought in to a ministry office and told to stop, or his church will be shut down. Consensus and ethnic harmony trump free speech, no question. And that’s why government works in Singapore.
Government here has a LOT of power, and we must just be grateful that the people with that power are on the whole serious and fair-minded.
It’s a bit unfair for Friedman to dangle the benefits of this type of government before our eyes as if we could suddenly transform the national mode of discussion….