Thursday, April 12, 2007

Dr Johor Sultan

It's rather surprising that there has been little public debate on the merits of Singapore's move in conferring an honorary doctorate to the controversial Sultan of Johor (left in pix from NUS).

The National University of Singapore conferred the Honorary Doctor of Laws on the Sultan of Johor, Sultan Iskandar Sultan Ismail, in Singapore tonight.

NUS said it was given in recognition of his "integral and unique role in nurturing the development and prosperity of the State of Johor, Singapore's closest neighbour and strategic partner; as well as his enduring contribution to the longstanding bilateral relations between Singapore and Malaysia and those of Singapore and Johor."

Sounds great, but many people will remember his rather mixed track record. Could there be other reasons in giving the Sultan the award? Whatever the other reasons are, Singapore didn't give away too much.

The Sultan's ancestor gave Singapore away for a song. Singapore gave the current Sultan an honorary title.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

sell spore water, shop at
its malls, land on its helipad, jump their...
provide air space, fight dr m...

Anonymous said...

No wonder NUS graduates are migrating to Australia, Canada,US and UK! But NUS is not the only university devaluing its name. ANU gave such a hon. doctorate to none other than Harry LKY the other day as it is a cheap way of buying favour.

Anonymous said...

johor give lee kuan yew a degree from kluang universiti too lah. then see whether the cambridge first class graduate will sacrifice his colonialist badge of dishonour

Anonymous said...

you should take create an excel spreadsheet, list the sultan's pros and cons on, assign weights and points to each one of them and tabulate a final score. this value determines whether he should be conferred the honorary doctorate. don't just judge by a man by his ancestor's action 200 years ago or with his mixed track record.

Anonymous said...

johore royalist, you are such a lost soul. why are you demanding an algorithm that will only confirms the obvious. i can not think of any plusses...

Sophie said...

johore royalist, wats the plus points of the Sultan of Swing? Please share with us.

Woof woof

Anonymous said...

muffin mclay, the obvious still needs concrete statistical evidence in order for the mass to be convinced.

aha, you guys are judging a person simply by weighing heavily only the Sultan's bad behavior in the past. perhaps if you know him personally, you might be able to his better side.

in general, we tend to throw our hatreds or dislike simply because we are disgusted by his few actions. you should only disapprove his actions, not on the person in entirety.

Anonymous said...

johore royalist aka lost soul. you have a muddled mind. a man's character is defined by his actions. a man's intent defines his moral fibre, a man's intent guide his actions, and we then judge him by his actions. we must be accountable for our actions and are not separate from them.