Cherian George - Air-Conditioned Nation Revisited: Essays on Singapore Politics

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with.

If youre reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, please consider getting your own copy from ethosbooks.com.sg. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Cherian George is one of Singapores most astute political observers and social commentators. This collection of essays, drawing on events that traverse the last few decades, takes us through intriguing encounters and noteworthy moments in Singapores recent past. From political dissidents to governing elites, newspaper editors to bloggers, the presidential election to Hong Lim Park, Professor George reminds us of incidents and people too quickly forgotten or under-interpreted. Each matters because they clear up some puzzle as to how we got here. Even better, they invite us to reconsider: where is here? Infused with Cherians wit, humor, audacity, and above all with his steadfast idealism and generosity, this is that rare book on politics that encourages clear-headedness and yet holds cynicism at bay. Read it, share it, read it again: this book will spark feelings, stir thoughts, create conversations, engage our muscles for debate and disagreementall things we deserve as humans living in society.

Teo You Yenn, author of This Is What Inequality Looks Like

It is a testament to the enduring relevance of Cherians scholarship that we still see the politics of comfort and control play out in Singapore and can turn to these essays to make sense and meaning of it. What Cherian has done, far more than any other scholar, is to provide a language of power that is at once accessible and unique to local sensibilities. That these essays have been expanded and updated two decades later for a renewed reading of the political temperature of this air-conditioned nation is a delight for students of Singapore studies, be they everyday current affairs junkies, academics or journalists.

Simon Vincent, author of The Naysayers Book Club

A functioning democracy requires a multitude of sensible voices in the public sphere. Such voices are needed to raise critical questions, provide sober analyses and suggest viable solutions that can be tapped on for deliberations by policymakers, cultural workers and political leaders. Such is the role of a public intellectual: one that is most fitting to describe Cherian George and his intellectual forays. The incisive, robust and passionate essays in this book provide hope and renew our imagination for what is possible in a technocratic society like Singapore.

Mohamed Imran Mohamed Taib, co-editor of Budi Kritik

Air-Conditioned Nation Revisited: Essays on Singapore Politics

Cherian George, 2020

ISBN 978-981-14-4820-1 (paperback)

ISBN 978-981-14-4984-0 (ebook)

Published under the imprint Ethos Books

by Pagesetters Services Pte Ltd

#06-131 Midview City

28 Sin Ming Lane

Singapore 573972

www.ethosbooks.com.sg

www.facebook.com/ethosbooks

The publisher reserves all rights to this title.

Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Cover design by Currency

Layout and design by Pagesetters Services Pte Ltd

Printed by Markono Print Media Pte Ltd

1 2 3 4 5 6 24 23 22 21 20

First published under this imprint in 2020

Typefaces: Linux Libertine, Maison Neue Mono

Material: 70gsm Holmen Cream Bulk 1.6

National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Name(s): George, Cherian.

Title: Air-conditioned nation revisited : essays on Singapore politics / Cherian George.

Description: Singapore : Ethos Books, 2020.

Identifier(s): OCN 1141771881 | ISBN 978-981-14-4820-1 (paperback)

Subject(s): LCSH: Political culture--Singapore. | Civil society--Singapore. | Singapore--Politics and government--20th century. | Singapore--Politics and government21st century.

Classification: DDC 959.57--dc23

ABOUT ETHOS BOOKS

Giving voice to emerging and exciting writers from diverse backgrounds, we help foster an environment in which literature and the arts not only survive, but thrive.

Thats why our authors and their ideas come first. By taking a collaborative approach to publishing, we bring each authors voice and vision to fruition.

We are always open to new ideas: different ways of working and fresh ways of delivering the unparalleled satisfaction only a good book can bring.

Established in 1997, Ethos Books, an imprint of Pagesetters Services Pte Ltd, aims to create books that capture the spirit of a people and reflect the ethos of our changing times.

Visit us at www.ethosbooks.com.sg