7th Workshop, June 15, 2017: "The Contradictions of Nation-State and Global-City Singapore"

Organizer: Department of Philosophy (Zhuhai)，Sun Yat-sen University

Topic: The Contradictions of Nation-State and Global-City Singapore

Speaker: Kenneth Paul Tan (Vice Dean & Associate Professor, National University of Singapore)

Moderator: Jun-Hyeok Kwak (Professor, Sun Yat-sen University)

Discussant: Hugo EL Kholi (Research fellow, Sun Yat-sen University)

Time: June 15th, 16:00 pm

Venue: Room 106, No.13 Administrative Building of Department of Philosophy (Zhuhai), SYSU

Abstract:

Singapore’s dual nature as a multicultural nation state and a cosmopolitan global city produces a dynamic variety of contradictions and tensions. Keeping the Singapore state stable, strong, enlightened, successful, and durable over time has meant having to contain, rather than resolve, these contradictions in a pragmatic fashion. The project of maintaining state hegemony has required a systematic foregrounding of persuasive reasons and ideological justifications for widespread buy-in, reserving the exercise of brute force only for highly targeted occasions. Thus, the ideology of integrity, meritocracy, and pragmatism, as well as the national narrative have been essential resources for sustaining hegemony. But how long can this hegemonic Singapore state last? Where are the pressures for change coming from? Using Plato’s classic account of the decline of regimes as a lens, this paper re-imagines Singapore’s political liberalization as a future, possibly dystopian, scenario in which hegemony unravels and transforms into authoritarian populism.