After the recent school shooting in Parkland, Florida, my Facebook erupted with memes and commentary on the state of gun politics in the United States. Of the drama in American politics that would have implications for Singapore, this was decidedly not one of them. Gun rights are simply a non-issue in Singaporean politics.<\/p>\n
But judging by the outpouring of anger around the deaths of school children half a world away, you might have thought that similar debates are being held in Singaporean politics. Two of my Facebook friends, over the course of a few days, engaged each other in a lively Facebook type-off.<\/p>\n
Amongst the comments:<\/p>\n
\u201cSo no, we shouldn’t ask teenagers to interview anyone. Teenagers are stupid and ignorant. They may have good intentions, as I hope Gonzalez and her merry band of survivors do, but good intentions can lead down a dark path if they are not bolstered by critical thinking but poisoned by ideology.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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And in reply:<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you always have this much to say when I share something remotely related to guns?<\/p>\n
Firstly, “poisoned by ideology”? What ideology are these survivors “poisoned” by? How do you speak without ideology and first-order principles? Your arguments for guns are full of first-order principles that differ from what others might consider “common-sense”. We illustrated this in the previous FB post. I can easily accuse you of poor critical thinking “poisoned by ideology” because I don’t share the same first-order principles as you.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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Gun politics is present in Singapore and is usually centred on the obscure and relatively small Singaporean Rifle Association. Last year, many gun club members were angry that the police confiscated their guns temporary due to lapses in armskote security protocols. This was followed up by the government passing new gun control legislation which banned gun clubs members from owning \u201cmilitary-grade\u201d weapons. There were about 70 automatic weapons, semi-automatic rifles and air weapon which had to be destroyed or exported from Singapore\u2019s only gun club. The Rifle Association responded to the press that \u201cIt is unclear what the term military grade meant in earlier reports, but certainly none of our firearms has been flagged as military by the authorities.\u201d They also \u201cadded that any resemblance to military-grade weapons is purely cosmetic<\/em> and that there are “absolutely no automatic sub-machine guns<\/a>“. (emphasis mine)<\/p>\n
These were talking points copied verbatim from the National Rifle Association, an American guns-right lobby group. The \u201ccosmetic accessory\u201d argument was developed and rolled out during the contestation over the Assault Weapons Ban during the 1990s. It argued that the 1) \u201cmilitary-looking\u201d weapons is an entirely subjective term of art, and 2) the banning of pistol grips simply allow AR-15s to be re-configured to be legalised.<\/p>\n
This link to American gun politics was directly referenced by a member of the club who was also a member of American and Australian gun clubs: \u201cWe have among the strictest gun laws in the world. In New York, I could keep guns at home without a safe, although that was in the 1970s. In Sydney, I could keep it at home in a gun safe bolted to the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n
The other hot-button issue in America, that of \u201cFake News\u201d, has also been imported into Singapore unadulterated by the spectre of comparison. As Kristen Han wrote in the New York Times<\/a>:<\/p>\n
Singapore is now on the tip of Mr. Trump\u2019s tongue again \u2014 but this time, he\u2019s expressing admiration for its death penalty for drug trafficking. He has reportedly invited government representatives to brief the White House on their approach to drug trafficking, including their use of capital punishment. Mr. Trump seems to believe he can learn a thing or two from Singapore.<\/p>\n
This is convenient for the Singapore government, which has been using the global opioid crisis as an argument for the retention of capital punishment. While the American media reported Mr. Trump\u2019s praise for Singapore\u2019s \u201czero tolerance\u201d stance, the country hanged a 39-year-old Ghanaian named Billy Agbozo\u2026<\/p>\n
But the borrowing of ideas hasn\u2019t been a one-way street: the government here has taken a page out of Mr. Trump\u2019s book. The new Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods is holding public hearings to explore measures for tackling \u201cfake news.\u201d The committee is meant to examine a range of options, but there are strong hints that new restrictions on the media are on the way, not least because the law minister, who is also a member of the committee, has already said that legislation is a \u201cno-brainer.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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***<\/p>\n
Amongst US-watchers, not many ranks as highly as the former titan of Canadian Politics and Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Whenever he talked about developments in politics, after the election of an untested far-right celebrity-turned politician into the White House (i.e. Ronald Reagan), that \u201cWhen the U.S. sneezes, goes the adage, Canada catches a cold.\u201d<\/p>\n
Almost half a century later, the world is more interconnected than ever before. Beyond that, however, there isn\u2019t the Soviet Union that could challenge the soft power and hegemonic influence of America on the global zeitgeist. To be a cosmopolitan citizen of the world is to read the New York Times<\/em> and to watch Oscar nominees. The media of America are inexorably linked to the zeitgeist of the United States; it is pretty hard to watch Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri<\/em> without learning and developing emotions about race relations in Ebbing, Missouri. Even if Ebbing, Missouri is not a real place.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just the effect of art. GLAAD, an American LGBT advocate, had published yearly reports on LGBT representation in movies and TV shows and movies since 2006. The subsequent impact of increased representation of LGBT peoples in Western media \u2013 an unquestionable public and moral good \u2013 had the unintentional effect of off-shoring of Western cultural cleavages to the rest of the world. For every Adam Levine introduced to the Singaporean mind, so does a Billy Graham. The similarities of Singapore\u2019s and America\u2019s LGBT-rights discourse have been studied extensively. The results are conclusive: both countries\u2019 discourses are deeply similar both mimetically and stylistically. Pink Dot adopts the post-Ellen DeGeneres approach of emphasising normalcy, similarity, and non-confrontation.<\/p>\n
The Singaporean opposition to LGBT rights is led by church delegations professing the Southern Baptism denomination \u2013 most notably, pastor Lawrence Khong and the Faith Community Baptist Church of Singapore. During one of Khong\u2019s sermons on the infiltration of the \u201cgay agenda\u201d into Singaporean culture, he drew heavily on the talking points and heroes of American conservatism: behold, a slide with a single giant picture of Ronald Reagan<\/a> and the subtitle \u201cUS PRESIDENT\u201d. Also included are quotes of Edmund Burke (\u201cAll that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing\u201d), and oddly enough, a revisionist interpretation of African-American Civil Rights hero Martin Luther King is quoted at length:<\/p>\n
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Cowardice asks the question, is it safe?<\/p>\n
Expediency asks the question, is it politic?<\/p>\n
Vanity asks the question, is it popular?<\/p>\n
But conscience asks the question, is it right?<\/p>\n
And there comes a time when one must take a position that is safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.<\/p>\n