terryjohal.com

ANU will be awarding Lee Kuan Yew with an Honorary Doctorate of Laws tomorrow. This has caused a fair amount of outrage. [link][link][link]

Stephen Dobbs of University of Western Australia writes

“The laws of Singapore under Lee and his successors (really no true successor while he lives on forever in the background) have been used as a very blunt instrument to bludgeon any and all political opposition, academic independence, freedom of the press and citizenry generally who are deemed to have stepped out of line.” [link]

As such, he says that perhaps Lee should have been given “a degree in government, development or perhaps even business but not any kind of degree with the word “law” attached to it”.

There is nothing I can add to this debate that has not been said and said very well, except this;

What is law? It is a system of rules that govern the conduct of a society. These rules are enforced by the various institutions that that society has created. These rules and institutions are created by those that represent the members of that society. Its a tad simplistic but in a nutshell that the legal system.

Where do prescriptive ideas and normative values like free speech and intellectual freedom fit into this? And thats the argument that one needs to engage with in Singapore to kickstart any dialouge. Ideas and values that seem to some to be obvious often are contrary to the positions of others. This debates needs to start there - at values and ideas.

But at least the trains run on time.