History education and ‘Asian’ values for an ‘Asian’ democracy: the case of Singapore

Abstract

Where some of the papers in this volume deal with nation building in the democratizing former East European states in the wider ideological context of liberal democratic thought, this paper aims to present a view of democracy and democratization from an alternative, ‘Asian’ perspective. South East Asian nations, such as Singapore, have attempted to articulate and practise forms of ‘Asian’ democracy as a response to, and in rejection of, Western liberal democratic models. In these countries, there is not so much a programme of reform and liberalization, as an attempt to evolve a form of democracy suited to an ‘Asian’ society. To this end, efforts have been made by political leaders to articulate what ‘Asian’ values are, and Singapore will be used as an example of how a government has promoted a set of values regarded to be congruent with their form of ‘Asian’ democracy. By examining the history texts in Singapore, and comparing the different contexts in which European and ‘Asian’ values are embedded and used, the paper will elucidate the ways in which the nature of ‘Asian’ values and democracy differ from that of those advocated in Europe, and the implications of this for citizenship education.