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Letters to the editor, January 21, 2016

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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe seeks the re-militarisation of Japan. Photo: AFP

Anarchistic action the wrong tack

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The romantic virtues that Mr Paul Serfaty attaches to “independent thinking” via anarchistic action does not give him the licence to be shoddy about facts that can easily be verified via the internet (“Encourage youth’s love of freedom”, January 17).

Ms Leslie M. Tam is actually a female American university administrator based in the Lion City, not a male Singaporean whose instincts have been dulled by a restrictive intellectual climate, according to his letter. She had worked at the University of Hong Kong, and ought to be well versed with the “freedom of expression” practised there as well as in her home country.

To quote her letter’s parting shot, “hopefully, we will see some sense from other students at HKU who can show the university and the world that Hong Kong students are not just about protesting, yelling at people, and being rude, but actually about initiating and implementing real change” (“HKU students not helping their university”, January 4). Does this sound like a “stick-in-the-mud” who is uncomfortable with change?

Perhaps “devil-may-care” change agents like Mr Serfaty should spend some time reviewing their blanket formula for “independent” thought. Must rabble-rousing and filibustering anarchism be its sacred cow? Surely life cannot be that simple?

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Otherwise, a Singapore that purportedly discourages independent thinking and stifles creative free expression, according to staunch liberals, because it bans street protests and so forth, would not have progressed as a society and an economy, as well as punched way above its weight in international affairs, including in the development of academic curricula for maths and science.

So many baby boomers would not have sold out their anti-establishment youthful ideals to make a living and loads of money as part of an Establishment with a tendency to resist change and protect its vested interests.

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