Kenneth Paul Tan's talk on the decadence of the People's Action Party Government, during a webinar held on 11 September 2020, was cited in Farah Stockman's New York Times article on 12 April 2023 titled "He made his country rich, but something has gone wrong with the system".
"Lee Hsien Yang, Lee Kuan Yew’s youngest son, says he has been fighting to honor his father’s wish not to have a cult of personality built around the house. But he says his elder brother, the prime minister, wants to preserve the house as a national monument to bolster his own political legitimacy. Lee Hsien Yang spoke out publicly against his brother, only to get hit with an investigation. Eventually, he fled the country, like his son. It seems to be an example of what Kenneth Paul Tan, a Singaporean professor of cultural studies, calls the “politics of evermore sophisticated bullying.” At its core, the fight isn’t about a house or a will. It’s about the future of Singapore."
A video recording of the talk is available here:
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