Best Left Unseen, Unheard, Unread

peering into the darknesss....

... with photoshop magic

The first photographic image accompanies Heng Swee Kiat's Facebook post:
"Grateful to Mr Lee for making the time for his former PPSs and some staff to celebrate his 91st birthday with him tonight. Not many people see this side of Mr Lee, but I have always found him to be caring to his staff."

It must be a very dark night indeed, either that or nobody is allowed to see who/what has been cropped out of the picture. Grassroots devotees fallen out of favour? Former comrades uninvited from the occasion?  Maybe the Minister for Education has a lesson plan in mind.

According to textbook author Thanom Anarmwat, the Thai Ministry of Education had ordered that the name of Thaksin Shinawatra be expunged from new history books. The Education Ministry’s instruction is seen as part of a broader effort to instill patriotism in Thai youth, along with a new school curriculum that underlines the unifying themes of the monarchy and the glories of the ancient kingdoms of Siam, as Thailand was formerly known. Inglorious basterds have no place in such history.

In Asia, government deletions of undesirable facts and faces from official archives are not uncommon practice. In China, history textbooks do not mention the military crackdown in Tiananmen Square. One lass recruited from PRC simply excused herself from awareness of that nasty bit, because she was not born yet. She will be well taken care of in Singapore for 11 years, 1 year to learn English, 4 years in university, and 6 years to serve out the bond. She sure knows which side of her bread is buttered.

The grand daddy of guided education and censorship has to be Joseph Stalin. Russian books were rewritten, censored and introduced to teach everyone the ideas of Stalin in schools. He also had all the history of the old communists/exiles erased from education books and reprinted to sanitised versions that gave him more of an elevated role than he deserved. This ultimately gave Stalin control over the young generation of the Soviet Union, as they were led to believe in what was taught to them.

There are skeptics who believe the age of the internet is going to be different. “This is very much the usual practice of Thai elite,” said Charnvit Kasetsiri, former rector of the prestigious Thammasat University. “But it will be difficult because of social media and because it is not that easy to control the thinking of the masses, especially educated youth.”

... it's always hard to stem the enquiring minds