ABSTRACT
A preoccupation with the ‘global’ has become one of the emblematic—almost obsessive—characteristics of our time. National political leaders, in particular, are increasingly adopting a global rhetoric to justify the economic (and often social) policy stance of their governments. Such rhetoric depicts globalisation as an unstoppable, unidirectional force that will inevitably transform economies and societies. Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong lucidly expressed this widespread sentiment in a speech to policy makers and analysts in Washington DC in May 1998:
Globalisation, fostered by free flow of information and rapid progress in technology, is a driving force that no country can turn back. It does impose market discipline on the participants, which can be harsh, but is the mechanism that drives progress and prosperity.
( Straits Times, 8 May 1998:67)