2nd Commentary - Answering Qn1

This is the commentary for the article entitled "Let leaders come off the pedestal."

The first question asks: Do you think Singapore's society resembles Asian societies or Western societies when it comes to relating to authority/ leaders? Justify your answer.

I feel that Singapore's society still greatly resembles the Asian type of society, but we are starting to become more westernised as a society. Most of the time Singaporeans still seldom question the actions of those of higher ranking. This is because many of us are taught from young that what your elders do is usually right. Thus we do not question the leadership. If the leaders say what they do is right, we do not question it.

However, as our society has become under greater influence of Western culture, we have started to follow some of the things that are more common in Western society than in Asian societies. Nowadays, if someone suspects a leader of wrongdoing, it would be brought up, and sometimes challenged. Problems within a company would come to light more often as compared to the past.

An example of this could be the NKF saga. When all the details of Mr Durai's salary and other problems came to light, we started questioning about everything that occured, and wanted the government to take action against them. It must be noted that if Mr Durai had not revealed his salary during the court case he brought up against the Straits Times reporter, no one would have known that anything was wrong with the NKF management. The fact that no one questioned the actions of the NKF leaders shows the resemblance to Asian society, but the flurry of questions that came after shows some impact of Western influence.

Thus, although Singapore society is still relatively Asian, Western influences is starting to have an impact on us.