ABSTRACT
Creative and critical thinking skills are, therefore, important attributes for the symbolic analysts who design, implement and market profitable products and services in a globalized economy. As a consequence of the social democratic roots of its founding leaders, the Singapore state has for long been qualitatively more involved in developing Singapore's external economy. The state has also had a long history of political entrepreneurship, where it utilizes bilateral ties to open up overseas business opportunities for Singapore private capitalists. Before developing in detail the ideologies of meritocracy, illiberalism and neoliberalism, it is useful to give a sense of the historical development of the young city-state. By examining the state-proffered ideologies in Singapore, it develops a critical understanding of the exigencies that impinge on how official knowledge, specifically as it involves the Ministry of Education's (MOE) pronouncements on critical thinking that is delocated, relocated and refocused in the state mandated curriculum.
