Unit 2: Vocabulary from Readings 4

Western countries value the individual above society; in Asia, he said, the good of society is deemed more important than individual liberties. This comfortable bit of sophistry helps governments from China to Indonesia rationalize abuses and marginalize courageous people who campaign for causes like due process and freedom from torture.

Western countries value the individual above society; in Asia, he said, the good of society is deemed more important than individual liberties. This comfortable bit of sophistry helps governments from China to Indonesia rationalize abuses and marginalize courageous people who campaign for causes like due process and freedom from torture.

Western countries value the individual above society; in Asia, he said, the good of society is deemed more important than individual liberties. This comfortable bit of sophistry helps governments from China to Indonesia rationalize abuses and marginalize courageous people who campaign for causes like due process and freedom from torture.

Americans concerned with the propagation of traditional values at home should be equally energetic in asserting constitutional principles in the international contest of ideas.

There are millions of acts of brutality that cannot be exposed and combated. A case like Michael Fay’s is important because it provides a chance to challenge an inhumane practice that ought not to exist anywhere.

The Vandalism Act of 1966 was originally conceived as a legal weapon to combat the spread of mainly political graffiti common during the heady days of Singapore’s struggle for independence.

It wasn’t long before Singapore patriarch Lee Kuan Yew weighed in.

While caning is mandatory in cases of vandalism, rape and weapons offenses, it is also prescribed for immigration violations such as overstaying visas and hiring of illegal workers.

“If there is a single fundamental difference between the Western and Asian worldview, it is the dichotomy between individual freedom and collective welfare,” said Singapore businessman and former journalist Ho Kwon Ping in an address to lawyers on May 5, the day Fay was caned.

We would rather convict even if it doesn’t accord with the purist's traditions of the presumption of innocence.

They’re so mesmerized by the rights of the individual that they forget that other people have rights too.

That “sense of shame,” Woon reckons, is more powerful than draconian laws. “Loosening up won’t mean there will be chaos,” he says.