Heading: Asia
needs to free itself of blaming others
Photo caption: Tall order: Singapore
lacks the West's democratic freedoms.
SINGAPORE'S Lee Kuan Yew again expressed his anti -democratic views in
"We don't need America" (Herald Sun, October 13). Most Australians
would share the sentiment on Americanisation — we want to
retain
our identity. But on the issue that counts — freedom
—
there can be no compromise.
Freedom had to be fought for and it must be defended.
Western science gives us our modern life, yet the growth of science was
born in a fight for freedom of ideas. Can Asia therefore have the
fruits of material life, electricity, cars etc, without having freedom?
It is a universal human failing to blame others rather than to see
one's own faults. Some in Asia prefer to blame the West than to improve
themselves.
No one can deny that Lee Kuan Yew has done a lot for Singapore.
A free media can make wrong criticisms. The answer is not to deny
freedom but to improve public relations and persuasion.
Freedom of information legislation was initially resisted here, yet the
best defence against public criticism is for a government to make
quality decisions. Asia needs freedom.
