Theme Ia Establishing Political Structures and Legitimacy

Theme Ia: Establishing Political Structures and Legitimacy 1 Over 100 years ago, this was a mud-flat, swamp. Today, this is a modern city. Ten years from now, this will be a metropolis. Never fear. Lee Kuan Yew, 12th September 1965, Speech at Sree Narayana Mission “If you can select a population and they’re educated and they’re properly brought up, then you don’t have to use too much of the stick because they would already have been trained. It’s like with dogs. You train it in a proper way from small. It will know that it’s got to leave, go outside to pee and to defecate. No, we are not that kind of society. We had to train adult dogs who even today deliberately urinate in the lifts.” Lee Kuan Yew 1 https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevehanke/2017/07/06/20th-anniversary-asian-financial-crisis-clinton-the-imf- and-wall-street-journal-toppled-suharto/

a. Factors for establishing different forms of government ai. Decolonisation Experience 1. Confrontational experiences resulted in a lack of political tutelage. This meant that the country could not fully adopt democracy or completely shut the doors to democracy due to constant fighting and animosity towards bearers of the ideology. a. Dutch Police Actions (1947-1949) and the Battle of Surabaya (1945) evidenced and cemented Indo nationalists’ resentment to Dutch authority and hence the impossibility of any Dutch tutelage. 5 Governments in 5 years + 63 parties in 1 sitting let to a deadlock dysfunctional government, paving the way for Sukarno’s authoritative “Guided Democracy” b. French high handedness led to Vietnamese disillusionment towards democracy. The First Indochina (1946-1954) culminated in the former’s defeat and withdrawal after Dien Bien Phu in 1954 reduced French chances of building a democratic Vietnam to zero was they were forced out of Vietnamese affairs 2. Collaborative experiences resulted in ample political tutelage as colonial powers were able to set up proper political mechanisms to adopt democracies and train local politicians to uphold democracy. a. Tydings-McDuffie Act (1934) granted Philippines full autonomy for internal affairs, forming the Philippine’s Commonwealth and a bicameral congress. This cemented democracy in Philippines as they embraced liberal democracy and had a government structure similar to that of the US. Probe: However, briefly from 1972-1986, Marcos established an authoritarian government and justified it on a NPA terror attack to remain in power as Benigno Aquino Junior threatened his tenure. Also, Marcos has reached his term limits. b. 1953-1959, under British supervision, elections occurred with the number of contested seats and eligible voters slowly expanded (9 to 51 seats), increasing political participation. Singapore has also embodied the spirit of inclusivity and diversity as it introduced NMPs, NCMP and GRC to allow people from all disciplines and backgrounds to be heard. Probe: Albeit boasting democratic