23
Apr
Speech by Lee Hsien Loong
My boyfriend told me about this today. Although I’m only Singaporean by nationality, I am so proud to have such a shrewd prime minister.
“With satellite TV and the internet, events are also magnified across a global listening board. The world is now their stage. We see this in the protests that have erupted during the Olympic torch relay. The Olympics is China’s coming out party, to celebrate its progress and opening up to the world. They sent the Olympic torch overseas in what is described as a “journey of harmony”. But not surprisingly, China’s opponents see this as a golden opportunity to make their point. So as the torch travels the world, it has faced challenges at virtually every stop so far. Vivid TV images of demonstrators waving banners, scuffling with police, and making concerted assaults to snuff out the flame are beamed live around the world, achieving an asymmetrical prominence, and so influencing public opinion against China and the Games.”
Cool
I’ve been to Singapore multiple times, and currently my dad works there. It’s a really great country and I’m looking forward to visit there in the near future.
What can I say. I’ve only lived there for 3 years of my life, not even under his rule, but heck I love the man. I really do look forward to see what he can bring to the country.
What he says doesn’t seem to shrewd to me though. It’s my point exact. (You’ve read my protected post, you should know. Hehe.) It’s just that I don’t have that kinda power to say it on national television without getting my butt kicked by some ignorant bandwagoners coz my name doesn’t start with a PM. T___T
Although I live in Singapore, I am pretty apathetic to the politics that go on here, so I am not aware of the recent speech he made. But I am wowed by the quote you shared. *saves PDF file so she can read it later, perhaps by this weekend* =)
I agree, instead of bringing the “journey of harmony” it’s now plagued by that “Free Tibet” thing. As much as we say politics should stay out of the games, we know it won’t.
I’m not sure whether I am “for” or “against” the protests re. Tibet and China headlining throughout the Torch relay, but it has definitely been an opportunistic and effective way to highlight and issue. I’m still confounded by the amount of people who don’t understand what the free tibet people are protesting about.
I never knew so much was going on in Asia until I took my Art History of Asia course. I honestly believe I was living my life in America with my eyes and ears closed. Of course, there is no way I could know what is going on everywhere, but I should start opening my eyes and ears. I was more than happy to hear that China was hosting the Olympics, but when so many people began to protest I became scared to even fly there.
I keep thinking someone is going to do something terrible just because I would love to see an Olympic Tennis game in China. I guess the protests have only made me afraid. I still support the games in China. I support the games anywhere because their purpose is to unite the countries of the world not tear them apart with angry banners and terrible slurs. Oh and please ignore the corniness of my last sentence.
It’s just puzzling to me why people mix the Olympics with politics - more or less they’re quite antagonistic to me. The Games aims to unite people around the world regardless of gender, races, religion and ethnicity, but politics to me is a big bugbear to peaceful coexistence. Politics separates people, inflames bilateral relationships
that makes me shy away from politics and its related discussions and news.
Oh and an exciting update to the Olympic holy torch is that a separate version of it (while the other is still in Seoul) is going to give Mt Everest a try! How exciting
It’s unfortunate that the media has much influence on how people (in The West) view China now - with the whole Free Tibet thing and the Olympic Games. It’s sad that it has to happen now, because when China was chosen as the host country of the games ‘they’ should’ve thought about it waaaay earlier. Still I’m a strong believer in Human Rights - so if there is seriously something going on in Tibet it should be cleared up. I have too little background knowledge and my vision is way too blurred by all the media outcries to make a good judgement about Tibet and China. But I do hope the Games will be a glorious event
I should keep up with world events more.. heck, I should keep up with US events. lol.
When the torch was in Australia, a lot of protestors tried to tackle the torch carriers. Makes no sense to me, the one world event when the world comes together and others just have to ruin it.
I think shrewd is such a funny word.
I am ashamed to admit I am not as informed about world news as I should be.
I’m sorry, I couldn’t get through it all… it was just to long and as Angela said I’m really not informed on world news either!
I’m not much for politics… But I’ve heard a lot of good things about Singapore.
China has been getting a lot of ‘bad publicity’ because of the Olympics. I’m interested to see how it’s all going to turn out.
It’s about hegemony really. And imperialism. People who are threatened by the growing power of the Chinese will use whatever they can to discredit it. Including exxageration and use of completely false information to besmirch the Chinese name. Autonomous state movements are one thing…saying that the Chinese have a bad human rights record is another. It’s really just like the West to portray a growing power as ‘oppressive’ to safeguard their own insecurity.
(Sorry…this entire thing pisses me off. I have no problems with the Tibetans wanting to be free…there are scores and scores of Tibetan refugees in my country, some who are even my friends, but the way the media portrays China, using false information, and publishing doctored images, is just…wrong)
I guess that’s why I’m still
glad I’m a singaporean XD
Ooh, I didn’t even know about that speech (and the issue, really)! Thanks for sharing!
Really, with so many things happening here in our country I forgot the world events. 
I should try to keep up…
I’ve heard a few things about the games back in April but I didn’t pay too much of attention to the news.