Singapore: The ideal polis of Plato?

Callipolis, as pointed out as Socrates in Plato’s Republic laid out the ‘perfect’ city, the ideal polis which will be ultimately governed by philosopher-kings.According to Socrates, philosopher-kings will make the best ruler for a city.The factors will be discussed in this paper in the light of Singaporean governance.Singapore as a democratic country had also been categorized as an authoritarian state, which suggests a clash between these two concepts. Singapore, a small country in South East Asia ruled by “Hybrid Regime” as pointed out by The Economist, Intelligence Unit.The goal of this study is to establish a substantial relation between Singapore and Socrates’ Callipolis by examining their similarities particularly on the governance of a philosopher-king.Thus, the works of prominent academicians and research works will be used.The results show that in order for Singapore to become a developed country in SEA region and become part of the first world, a highly controlled state was adopted that guaranteed continuous growth and stability in economics and politics of the country

National cultural policy: Challenges in nation building

This paper will discuss the importance of cultural issues in a pluralistic society in strengthening the unity of the country and the construction of a Malaysian race or Malaysian society.Cultural diversity in a country like Malaysia, a multi-ethnic society, is considered a uniqueness and a specialty.Similarities and differences of lifestyle should be taken into account in shaping the national culture to reflect the identity of Malaysia's plural society in terms of language, race, religion and culture.Culture is very important to inculcate the spirit of nationalism and nationhood that will guarantee the stability and harmony, as well as unity in Malaysia.The formation of the National Cultural Policy in 1971 was a right step.However, how far has this policy achieved its goal since its implementation 41 years ago? The focus of this paper is to examine the challenges that can jeopardize the goal of the National Cultural Policy, and the efforts that should be done to strengthen this policy.This paper is important in the effort to build a nation of excellence, glory and distinction

Online Social Support to University Students: Does Lecturer’s Popularity Matter?

Rapid growth and innovation of the technologies is having a very large and burgeoning impact on people’s lives – from the way they share as well as the way they learn. Launched in 2004, Facebook is one of the social networking sites (SNS) that has become a centre of social interaction that involves various dynamics inside its communities including higher education institutions. With its daily active user are reported to be 1.038 billion and available in more than 70 languages, these are the clear evidence that indicates Facebook popularity and among the predictors for Facebook user to use it as they find it cool and fun. University students are driven to Facebook not only to maintain existing social relationships but also for learning purposes. As most of the research has been carried out looking at the motives for Facebook usage, what are the factors that help them to determine to whom they should seek for social support are remain unclear. However, some researchers suggest that social support can gained from the closest and the most credible. Credibility has been revealed to closely related with individual social status and perceived to be one of the factors contributing to popularity. Does lecturer’s popularity making them a credible option for the students to seek for social support? Is number of friends and with whom the lecturers befriended with are among one of the criteria that the students would look for while seeking for social support? Using questionnaire survey distributed among students in University Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), we hope that this research will be useful to educational practitioners in understanding of what, who, when, where, why and how their students use of Facebook and effectively help them to adjust themselves in parallel with the need to increase the learning opportunities

Ethnic tolerance in urban Malaysia

This article is aimed at examining the level of ethnic tolerance in Malaysia, with specific reference to the Johor Bahru and Shah Alam parliamentary. It also aimed at identifying the significance difference of ethnic tolerance in research areas. Using quantitative approach with self-administered set of questionnaire, 434 respondents were involved in this study. The result showed that the people of Johor Bahru are more tolerant than Shah Alam. Both Johor Bahru and Shah Alam can be categorized as having a medium level of ethnic tolerance as attitude and perceptions are more important than the issues of party politics and ethnicity. It also concluded that urban voters of mixed majority constituencies are not bounds with ethnicity and racial issue as they used to previously. It is hoped that this particular study contributed to the current body of knowledge. It is significant where ethnic politics perceived as most important matter, and tolerance has become increasingly Malaysia national agenda in managing multi-diversity society. Implications of findings and recommendations are further discussed

The influence of feminization in public relation field towards public relation work practice and job satisfaction

Woman entering the public relations field has increased at a fast rate nowadays causing the phenomenon of feminization to occur in the industry.Studies in the field have shown that female public relations practitioners are facing challenges in the workplace especially sexual discriminations.Therefore it is important to identify the working trends in the current industry, roles, and the position of women in public relations field.The objective of the research is to find out how women’s roles are being distinguished from men and to examine whether feminization in the field does influence the job performance of women in the field.Thus, this research also aims to explore the perception of female public relations towards gender issues happening in the work place.This research is carried out through an online survey questionnaire to gain feedback from 450 targeted respondents.In the research, researches identified the reasons and effects with regards to this issue.According to the concept of velvet ghetto there is an argument on the status discrepancy between men and women in the industry.From the perspectives of theoretical contributions, this study offers an insight which indicates the relationship between gender discrimination climate happening in the organization and the effect to the job satisfaction which is interrelated to the work practice and advancement in an organization.Researchers also identify the elements that cause the phenomenon to occur, which have an impact on both employer and employee relationship. The findings demonstrate a good fit to the data, and thus, this study has identified the relative relationship between gender discrimination and job satisfaction

INTERNSHIPS EXPERIENCE OF PR STUDENTS: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY

As stressed by Tsetsura (2011), how people understand and imagine public relations (PR) depends on the ways professionals discuss and describe their jobs and explain what they do to themselves and to others. Therefore, interactions during internship provide students with opportunities to learn. Thus, this study examined student’s experience during their internship, and findings showed that most of the respondents stressed that there is so much difference from what they knew from books and classes and what they have learned during internship. They commented that knowledge that gained in class is insufficient for them to know about what happen in industry.  Keywords: internship, PR student, experience, cultur

A Comparative Study among Politicians Concerning 1malaysia

Abstract In the book "Government Transformation Programme Roadmap (GTP Roadmap)" forwarded by the Prime Minister of Malaysia himself, 1Malaysia means fairness to all, and that no particular group of people should be discriminated. This is regardless of race, skin colour, inborn traits or physical attributes, only that equal treatment and opportunities be given to all Malaysians based on merit and need. It hopes to build a Malaysian culture of inclusiveness and mutual respect among the diverse cultures, ethnic groups and religions of the nation. However, some people believes that 1Malaysia is no more then a slogan by the government to gain mere political support. Based on four cases, this paper will look on how the politician"s view of 1Malaysia society. The result is believed to be very insightful as to discover politician"s thoughts and will resulted to the Malaysian society"s end product

Validation and Measurement Invariance of the Body Appreciation Scale-2 between Genders in a Malaysian Sample

The 10-item Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2) is a measurement for individuals to self-report the extent to which they accept and respect their bodies. Although the BAS-2 has been translated into the Malay language and found to have promising qualities, the psychometric characteristics of the English version of BAS-2 remain unknown in the Malaysian context. The present study thus administered the English version BAS-2 and selfie-editing frequency scale to 797 individuals aged 18 to 56 years old in Malaysia. The dataset that was randomly divided into two halves were submitted to exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis respectively. Both of the factor analyses consistently support a one-factor model. The Cronbach’s alpha and McDonald omega coefficients were greater than 0.90, indicating that the BAS-2 has good internal consistency. The incremental validity is also evident. A hierarchical multiple regression showed that the BAS-2 score had a positive relationship with selfie-editing frequency after controlling for age and gender. Moreover, the measurement invariance test supported scalar invariance between genders, and an analysis of covariance did not find significant gender differences. Overall, the findings replicate past findings and regularly support the usability of the BAS-2 in the Malaysian context. The implications of the BAS-2 and future directions are also discussed