Situating global ideas in local discourses: A comparative study of the transferability of values, norms, and cultures of liberal democratic governance in contemporary Malaysia and Singapore

In this dissertation, I examine the issues involved in the localization of global ideas associated with liberal democratic governance as seen through the cases of Malaysia and Singapore. This study addresses aspects of contemporary political developments in both these countries during the approximately ten-year period between 1990 and 2001, as they relate to liberal democratic governance. This period corresponds not only with the end of the Cold War but it also marks the beginning of a renewed era in the global spread of ideas associated with Western liberal democratic values, norms, and institutions. The focus of this study is on the extent to which the normative elements of liberal democratic governance, particularly the importance given to the values of individual civil liberties and political rights and freedoms are being transplanted into the societies of Malaysia and Singapore. What are the issues involved when these ideas are introduced, and how does this inform our understanding of the spread of global ideas into local political and cultural settings.; The mode of analysis by which this study is conducted is through an examination of the role of political narratives and discourses in the broader issue of transferability of the values, norms, and culture of liberal democratic governance. I argue in this dissertation that these narratives and discourses become the conduits not only through which ideas are communicated to the people, but also through which opposition or responses to global ideas are mobilized within both these societies. By studying what forms these narratives have assumed over the period of this past decade, we can gain a better understanding of the dynamics involved in the transferability of global ideas to local settings. This mode of analysis also allows us to examine perceptions among the peoples in both these societies (as expressed through local narratives) of the legitimacy of these global ideas as seen through their respective political histories, cultural settings, and common understandings.