Political Philosophy Workshop （VII）：The Contradictions of Nation-State and Global-City Singapore
Political Philosophy Workshop （VII）：The Contradictions of Nation-State and Global-City Singapore
On Thursday 15 June, 2017, the Political Philosophy Workshop of the Department of Philosophy (Zhuhai) hosted Kenneth Paul Tan, Vice Dean and Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
After a brief introduction by Professor Jun-Hyeok Kwak, who served as a moderator, Prof. Tan presented a paper entitled “The Contradictions of Nation-State and Global-City Singapore”. In his presentation, Prof. Tan relied on Antonio Gramsci’s concept of hegemony to argue that what has kept the Singapore state stable, strong, enlightened, successful, and durable over time has been the capacity of the ruling class to assume a role of intellectual and moral leadership. The ideology of integrity, meritocracy, and pragmatism, as well as the national narrative have been essential resources for sustaining this hegemony. But how long can a hegemonic Singapore state last? Where are the pressures for change coming from? In his paper, Prof. Tan argued that time may have come to rework the public narrative supporting hegemonic rule to make sure that it answers the most pressing concerns that have recently emerged.
In his response, Dr. Hugo El Kholi focused on what he identified as two structural concerns in Prof. Tan’s analysis. He first questioned Prof. Tan’s use of the Gramscian notion of hegemony before commenting on the apparent lack of internal coherence between an analysis of Singaporean politics in terms of hegemonic rule and an account of political legitimation which, on a close reading, proves to be purely utilitarian in nature.
Prof. Tan replied to Dr. El Kholi’s comments by saying that he mainly resorted to the notion of hegemony to facilitate his analysis of the constant ideological work necessary to maintain intellectual and moral leadership. Prof. Kwak then suggested that resorting to the notions of “counter-hegemony” and “ruptures of ideological hegemony” may help Prof. Tan to further his analysis of hegemonic struggles.
The ensuing Q&A session gave the audience an opportunity to question Prof. Tan on a variety of subjects, including the relevance of the Marxist notion of “false consciousness” to the Singaporean case, the pertinence of using Plato’s account of the decline of regimes as a conceptual framework to imagine the future of Singapore, the proper way to interpret the 2012 “Our Singapore Conversation” (OSC) initiative and the meaning of the recent accusations formulated against PM Lee by his siblings.
Prof. Tan replied to all these questions with great patience and consistency. The department of philosophy would like to thank him for this enlightening discussion and for his kind participation in the last workshop of the academic year. The Political Philosophy Workshop will resume after the summer holiday with the reception, on September 21, of Giovanni Giorgini, Professor of Political Science & Classics at the University of Bologna (Italy).
Written by: Dr. Hugo El Kholi
