Projectile

Many of you know that I'm currently doing some research in educational reform in Southeast Asia. The focus is on Singapore, that peculiar poster-boy for Republican-style democracy and Democrat-style socialism. It is interesting to see what kind of educational system evolved here, what kind of reforms to the system have been attempted, the scope and effectiveness of those reforms, and the outcomes for the system as a whole.

The main problem of course is that information is not particularly free here. The authorities from the ruling party take great pains to make certain kinds of information free, so that they can say the climate is on the whole not totalitarian or authoritarian, but denies information to its critics with great panache. For examples of this, take a look at Nominated MP (now there's a term to conjure with) Siew Kum Hong's blog.

The contrast between a free society and one trying to look free (or 'yearning to be free') is not particularly stark here (no matter what people tell you), but it is a pretty tangled web and worth looking at very carefully. The muddledness of the situation was driven home to me when an officer of the system sent me an email telling me not to pursue a certain line of research. On consulting the lawyers, my supervisor and several other people with useful input, I was effectively told two things: 1) I had no legal, moral or ethical duty to comply with the request; and 2) it was a very interesting attempt – both in the way it was presented and the fact that it was presented at all.

Well, I have decided to backup my research materials in multiple locations and continue working, with my usual care for ethics and responsible research. I sense that what I have to say at the end of this may be a lot more interesting than I thought five years ago.