Thursday, December 11, 2014

Love Affair With Communism

Goya's Que viene el coco
"Here Comes the Bogey-Man"
Associate professor K Ramakrishna of the Rajaratnam School of International Studies is embarking on a rewrite of his version of Operation Coldstore and resurrecting the spectre of the communist bogeyman ("If Singapore was ruled by Barisan Socialis", TODAY, Wednesday 10 Dec). He claims that the Communist United Front (CUF) was "flushed into the open" in the institutional form of the Barisan Socialis.
Wonder what he will say about Toh Chin Chye's unabashed answer to one intriguing question about his party's affiliation.

Why did you have the reputation for being Communist?

"Well, we were Left-Wing, and the only type of Left-wing politics anyone had heard of was Communism. They had never heard of Fabian Socialism. That was one reason.
The other reason was the problem of recruiting members. Now, while we were recruiting members for the PAP, we made no headway with the English-educated, middle class types. No headway at all. No way! I tried! I started the University Association in the University of Singapore. It was like the Malayan Forum; I was the Secretary. Doing all the donkey work, just getting things moving. I compiled a register, tried to rope in people.
That had nothing even to do with politics! It was just getting together the graduates of Raffles College. There was an Indian lecturer in the Anatomy Department who tried to get his peers in. I knew Minnie Knight, the mother of Glen Knight, she was a Raffles College graduate. So between her and me, I tried to repeat what I had done in London. We concocted a bulletin called a Chee Chak. You know, the house lizard? It sounded like “Chit Chat.” Nothing serious. I made her the Editor. We never got off the ground. Nobody read it! It died a natural death.
So that was why we drifted towards the Chinese educated. That is why we stumbled into existence as a largely Chinese-based party. That was when dialects became important. Mandarin became important. You understand now the role of Lim Chin Siong, Fong Swee Suan and company? They were Chinese educated. They could make speeches in dialect and Mandarin. They had a big following from the Chinese speaking unions, and the unions were the only organized mass force in Singapore.
So we became a Chinese-based party! We also became a Left Wing party. We were Socialist to begin with, and the unions were very Left Wing if not Communist. We worked out a Manifesto, which was quite revolutionary."

The affair with the Commies continues. Singapore's NTU has ‘groomed’ more than 12,000 high-ranking government officials from almost all provinces in China under its current executive and postgraduate programmes, PLA army officers are feted openly here, and PRC kids are still courted at a tender age to study here on generous scholarships and then guaranteed jobs for 6 years after graduation. Anything goes, so long as they satisfy the party agenda. Education Minister Heng Swee Kiat said "Singaporeans and local academics can also learn a great deal from their interactions with the participants in the Mayors’ Class". From a Chinese general handing out Mercedes cars packed with gold bars maybe?

9 comments:

  1. The powers that be can easily recruit these cheap' talents' (who otherwise will be hard put to find a decent job) to work up these revisions in the run-up to the GE. This is a good reason to vote them out.

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  2. Borrowing the idea from the Nihon-jin?

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  3. What's with all this current witch hunt against the Communists? K. Ramakrishna, a propaganda expert (an "art form"), is a LKY and PAP apologist, trying to wash their old dirty linen clean by applying his expertise to remove their Communist taint. Election is coming mah. The irony is that the PAP is now in bed with the same Communists.

    According to him, deceit is a propaganda tool when properly applied. "If people are told the truth every day for seven years and then for operational reasons are told a lie on the first day of the eighth year, people will believe it." In other words, simpletons like us have to be wary of what the PAP says, because we cannot know what is true or what is false, due to the fact that lies can be embedded with the truths.

    http://www.straitstimes.com/the-big-story/case-you-missed-it/story/waging-propaganda-war-against-terrorists-20131216?page=97#sthash.0bJSHOWh.dpuf

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    Replies
    1. "Don't use the word propaganda as the Nazis gave the term a bad reputation during World War II. Nowadays it's called 'strategic communication'.''

      ".....a firm believer in the work of Richard H.S.Crossman" who "built his propaganda theories around three principles":
      "The first was to be subtle"
      "His next rule was on truth. If people are told the truth every day for seven years and then for operational reasons are told a lie on the first day of the eighth year, people will believe it"
      "And finally, be creative and use entertainment to sugar-coat anti- war messages"

      I suppose if you intend to demonise a party, keep on mentioning the violent misdeeds of the devil, and in the same breath talk about that party. Do it repeatedly, and your listener will believe that the party is itself a devil, however "nebulous" the connection. Like the case of the Barisan Socialis being tarred with the same brush as the CPM or CUP, thus the nefarious "Communist conspiracy" or bogeyman, causing 8000 deaths, leaving out the fact that these were mostly Malayans and not Singaporeans. That's subtle, or artful in the propaganda trade.

      We shall be entertained shortly, with the film "1965". And the broadcasts on merger,, and soon the celebration on 50 years of Independence, etc etc etc. That's entertainment, used as propaganda .... err ... strategic communication!

      http://m.todayonline.com/commentary/if-singapore-was-ruled-barisan-sosialis

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  4. I always joked that the PAP is as " Communistic " as the PRC and North Korea and Cuba... Except for N Korea, where its Leaders are just as fast-promoted as ours, the other two states are moving away from central planning .
    In a funny way, I prefer some "centralization " in Singapore like the good old days when we need not have so many Town Councils and Mayors . Don't you ?

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  5. The party is the Government
    The Government is the party

    Where then are the people?

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  6. and where is the country too?

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  7. When the communists now become so greedy and corrupt, what is there to fear about them ? The purging then had nothing to do with that communist thing. It was only a convenient lie to purge those on the wrong camp.

    Just like the present PRC, almost everyone at the top is greedy in power & corrupt in money. If one is on the wrong camp, they will even expose your grandfather or grandson.

    Ditto with PAP, greed comes in so may forms :
    PMship, Mentors, CEOs, directorships, professorship, AIM, mangoes & pineapple tarts.

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  8. They are everywhere now operating and disguising as professionals in SG…from shipping logistics, real estate, to construction, hospitality to academic to businesses of all shades and sorts. Those floating dead bodies that keep popping up in the river, you now know why after you watched the videos.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aj2YR2oLrk
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzjSzAYhxaA
    http://chinawatchcanada.blogspot.sg/p/chinese-spies-in-canada.html

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