From: clipper@mccarthy.csd.uwo.ca (Khun Yee Fung)
Subject: Re: Net etiquette (was Re: Joke about intolerance...)
Organization: Department of Computer Science, The University of Western
	Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 16:13:04 GMT

[I delete the followup to soc.culture.singapore because it really has
nothing to do with Singapore but rather misconceptions, wrong
perceptions, and ignorance about Singapore. And my main point is on
history, not on underdog@leland.Stanford.EDU personally.]

>>>>> On Thu, 28 Jan 93 02:46:36 GMT, underdog@leland.Stanford.EDU
>>>>> (Dwight Joe) said:

>> However, I can say that Mr. Lee is most certainly Chinese-cu.  He
>> does not like Mr. Asano's views and has attempted to censure Mr.
>> Asano and his views.  That's precisely the kind of crap that the
>> Chinese-cu dominated Singaporean gov't does.  They have an Internal
>> Security Law that seeks to squelch opposing ideas if they don't
>> confirm to the gov't line: i.e. if they don't confirm to the
>> Chinese-cu line.

A long time ago, in the '50s, the British sought to crush the
communist (with mainly Chinese educated members with support from the
Chinese Cummunist Party) insurrection by declaring emergency in Malaya
(in which Singapore was a part but ruled separately). The Internal
Security Act was enacted by the British for the same reason.
Therefore, the Internal Security Act is a legacy of British rule. In
fact, it was used a few times to counter Chinese chauvinism in the
'70s in Singapore. It is therefore laughable to say the above.

Count the number and length of terms of Chinese-educated ministers
from the independance of Singapore to now. And then compare it to the
number of English-educated ministers of the same period. Then say
whether it is dominated by Chinese-educated people or not. In fact,
count the number of non-Chinese ministers in the same period and the
number of Chinese-educated ministers and see what the proportion is.
Heck, if you want to, count the number of Chinese-educated judges,
high-level civil servants, anything to do with the `ruling class'. You
don't have to count the number of Chinese-educated prime ministers.
There is none. Marshall is a Jew. Lim Yew Hock through and through an
English-educated person. Lee Kuan Yew was educated in Cambridge. And
Goh is English-educated.

Of course, there are still many Chinese-educated people left.  But
dominating they aren't.

>> Japan should have been allowed to keep all Chinese-cu terroritories
>> that it had won during the war.  Under Japanese-cu guidance, those
>> areas--annexed as prefectures of Japan--would be far more
>> democratic and prosperous than they are today.  Mr. Lee is fine
>> example of what Chinese-cu rule has produced.

Know the history a little bit more. Malaya, Singapore, North Borneo
(Sabah), Sarawak, Brunei, Hong Kong and Burma were under British rule.
Indonesia was under the Dutch. The Philiphines was under the
Americans. Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos were under the French. Macau
was under Portugese rule. The Chinese Dongbei (Manchuria) was under
strong influence from Russia.  The other territories were either
American, or Australian territorries. Thailand was not officially
conquered by the Japanese, and Korea and Taiwan were Japanese colonies
for quite a while at that time.  Except the Chinese Dongbei, none of
the territories was ruled by Chinese. And the Chinese warlord ruling
Chinese Donbei at the time (assassinated by the Japanese because he
dared to oppose them) was not cultured as all.  He was iliterate. So
only Chinese territories were under ruled by Chinese before the War.

To be even more specific, among all the Japanese-conquered territories
(excluding Chinese Mainland), only Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore
had Chinese majority. But it is misleading to include Singapore as a
separate entity because it was not. It was part of Malaya and ruled as
a part of Malaya before the War (it was after the War that it was
separately ruled). And how big is Singapore? In fact smaller than Hong
Kong. Not really bigger than Greater Toronto (which is smaller than
Los Angeles). It is a City State. So only Taiwan and a few cities (if
we want to include cities as well) had Chinese majority. None of them
ruled by Chinese.

Khun Yee

[1] Plural instead of singular because there is more than one culture
associated with the Chinese. The Tradition and the little traditions.
The Tradition is accepted by the Han Chinese and it binds them
together.  The little traditions are the traditions of the subgroups.
For instance, the tradition of the Hakka people is very different from
the tradition of the Yue people, although they live in the same
province.  When a group sets sail and migrates to a foreign country
and is educated in a foreign language, the Tradition disappears and
only the little tradition remains.  If you condemn all Chinese
cultures, you have to prepare to condemn each and every one of them.
Generalization misses a lot of details. But it is clean, and simple.
An educated person only generalizes when he/she has overwhelming
evidence to do so. Otherwise, it is just a tool for ignoramus.
--
Khun Yee Fung    clipper@csd.uwo.ca
Department of Computer Science
Middlesex College
University of Western Ontario
London, Ontario
Canada N6A 5B7
Tel: (519) 661-6889
Fax: (519) 661-3515
Newsgroups: soc.culture.asian.american