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From “Asian Values” to Singapore Exceptionalism

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Human Rights in Asia

Abstract

Whenever a given state defies human rights principles, it tends to create discourses to rationalize the paucity of those rights. During the 1980s and 1990s, officials in Malaysia, China, and Singapore had relied on the “Asian values” argument to forestall political reforms aiming for democratic governance. Singapore figured prominently in the international arena because its leaders fielded a ready supply of intellectual elites such as Tommy Koh, Kishore Mahbubani, and Bilahari Kausikan for drumming up an Asian alternative to the universalist notion of human rights (Rodan 2001). So loudly vocal were these proponents that their ideas collectively came to be known as the “Singapore school” (Brems 2001). Singapore authorities were “always quickest on the Asian values trigger” to defend their policies in the face of international criticisms (Jayasuriya 2001: 345).

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Authors
  1. Laurence Wai-Teng Leong
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Asia-Pacific Studies of the Renvall Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland

    Leena Avonius (Senior Researcher) (Senior Researcher)

  2. School of International and Political Studies, Deakin University, Australia

    Damien Kingsbury (Associate Professor and Associate Head) (Associate Professor and Associate Head)

Copyright information

© 2008 Leena Avonius and Damien Kingsbury

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Leong, L.WT. (2008). From “Asian Values” to Singapore Exceptionalism. In: Avonius, L., Kingsbury, D. (eds) Human Rights in Asia. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230615496_7

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