Michael D. Barr

Michael Barr

Carl A. Trocki

This title will remind older Singaporeans of ages from their past while providing a younger generation with a novel perspective of their country's past struggles. It reveals a complex situation which gives weight to the middle years of the 20th century as a period that offered real altenatives.

Political Pluralism in Post-war Singapore

Paths Not Taken

Explores the complex and covert networks of power at work in the city-state of Singapore. The author argues that the contemporary networks of power are a deliberate project initiated and managed by Lee Kuan Yew - former prime minister and Singapore's 'founding father' - designed to empower himself and his family.

Networks of Power and Influence

The Ruling Elite of Singapore

Michael Barr's study of Lee Kuan Yew begins with Lee's childhood and schooldays where his political thought developed. In doing this the author attempts to unravel the many contradictions and mysteries that bedevil Lee's career.

The Beliefs Behind the Man

Lee Kuan Yew

Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's first Prime Minister, is a figure whose international stature far exceeds that of the tiny island over which he ruled for thirty years. Lee is the principal architect of Singapore's political stability and its economic success and is often credited with being the leader of economic development throughout Asia. Yet the continuing interest in the man several years after his retirement from the prime ministership derives mainly from his contributions on the greater world stage. Lee was a leading figure in the recent revival Confucianism throughout the Chinese world and was the principle architect of the 'Asian values' campaign of the 1990s. In this role he has been at the forefront of both practical and theoretical efforts to reconcile undemocratic, illiberal elitism with the requirements of a prosperous capitalist economy operating in the global economy. Lee presents an ostensibly 'Asian' argument, but his essential message is global.

In so doing, he seeks to unravel many of the apparent contradictions and enigmas that bedevil Lee's career, and examines how Lee has been influenced by British and Chinese racism, Western progressivism, English and Chinese elitism, and even the cultural evolutionism of Arnold Toynbee."--BOOK JACKET.

Singapore gained independence in 1965, a city-state in a world of nation-states. Yet its long and complex history reaches much farther back. Blending modernity and tradition, ideologies and ethnicities, a peculiar set of factors make Singapore what it is today. In this thematic study of the island nation, Michael D. Barr proposes a new approach to understand this development. From the pre-colonial period through to the modern day, he traces the idea, the politics and the geography of Singapore over five centuries of rich history. In doing so he rejects the official narrative of the so-called 'Singapore Story'. Drawing on in-depth archival work and oral histories, Singapore: A Modern History is a work both for students of the country's history and politics, but also for any reader seeking to engage with this enigmatic and vastly successful nation.

A Modern History

Singapore

Zlatko Skrbiš

Singapore has few natural resources but, in a relatively short history, its economic and social development and transformation are nothing short of remarkable. Today Singapore is by far the most successful exemplar of material development in Southeast Asia and it often finds itself the envy of development in Southeast Asia and it often finds itself the envy of developed countries. Furthermore over the last three and a half decades the ruling party has presided over the formation of a thriving community of Singaporeans who love and are proud of their country.

Elitism, Ethnicity and the Nation-building Project

Constructing Singapore

Cultural Politics and Asian Values looks at the political, cultural and religious background of East and Southeast Asian societies and those of 'the West', with a view to seeing how they are affecting contemporary national and international politics: democratization, the international human rights discourse, NGOs and globalization. The book surveys the political history and pre-history of the 'Asian values' debate, taking it up to the era of Megawati Sukarnoputri, Chen Shui-bian and Kim Dae-jung. In chapters on Confucianism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity and liberalism, Barr explores the histories and conceptual essences of the world religions involved in or affected by the debate.

Cultural Pol & Asian Values

Lily Zubaidah Rahim

This book delves into the limitations of Singapore’s authoritarian governance model. In doing so, the relevance of the Singapore governance model for other industrialising economies is systematically examined. Research in this book examines the challenges for an integrated governance model that has proven durable over four to five decades. The editors argue that established socio-political and economic formulae are now facing unprecedented challenges. Structural pressures associated with Singapore’s particular locus within globalised capitalism have fostered heightened social and material inequalities, compounded by the ruling party’s ideological resistance to substantive redistribution. As ‘growth with equity’ becomes more elusive, the rationale for power by a ruling party dominated by technocratic elite and state institutions crafted and controlled by the ruling party and its bureaucratic allies is open to more critical scrutiny.

Michael D. Barr

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