Janadas Devan

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Janadas Devan

Born 1954
Singapore
Occupation Review Editor at the Straits Times

Janadas Devan (born 1954) is a Singaporean journalist working for the Straits Times. He is the son of C.V. Devan Nair, the third president of Singapore.[1] He studied at the National University of Singapore and Cornell University in New York. He has residences in both Austin, Texas and Singapore.[2]

Contents

[edit] Career

Before becoming a journalist, Devan has taught in universities in both Singapore and the United States. Subsequently, Devan started to work for the Straits Times and Radio Singapore International. His work at RSI is mainly focussed on international politics with a special emphasis on US politics. His weekly show is called "Call from America" and the topics have varied from Barack Obama's presidential bid to the Iraq war.[3] Devan is one of the few journalists who have dared to speak out against the excesses of the Singapore government. At one point, his contract with the Straits Times was terminated without any official explanation. He stated that, "For reasons that remain unexplained, but which were clearly not journalistic, the column was halted." [4] However it seems that the contract was later renewed and as of 2008, he is a regular contributor to the Straits Times. Devan is a liberal columnist and has supported gay rights although he himself is not a homosexual.

[edit] 377A debate and the rewriting of pluralism

See also: Section 377A of the Penal Code (Singapore)

On October 27 2007, Devan wrote an article in the Straits Times titled "377A debate and the rewriting of pluralism".[5] In that article, Devan rebutted the parliamentary speech of Singapore MP Thio Li-ann. MP Thio had argued that Singapore is a conservative society and therefore cannot tolerate homosexuals. She also stated that a secular society needs to listen to the religious authorities. A controversial statement she made was that the minorities in a plural society must listen to the views of the majority. Devan wrote a highly critical article in the Straits Times on MP Thio's address that was widely reproduced in Singaporean blogs. The language and tone of Devan's article was highly unusual for an article published in the Straits Times. He used sentences such as

Consider how she tore to shreds so many of our cherished beliefs. The idiots that we are, we had believed ‘pluralism’ meant, among other things, ‘autonomy and retention of identity for individual bodies’, a ’society in which the members of minority groups maintain their independent cultural traditions’, ‘a system that recognises more than one ultimate principle or kind of being’, as the Oxford English Dictionary puts it."[6]

and

Oh, I cried when I read that. Imagine that: The moral conservative majority makes better vulgar jokes than the immoral liberal minority - and in Parliament too. If the immoral minority cannot beat the moral majority even in this department, we are really and truly kaput.[7]

The article did not try to show MP Thio in a positive light at all. The only positive thing he said about the government was that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong did not "thump his seat" at the end of Prof Thio's speech.

[edit] Impact of the article in the Singaporean blogosphere

Following his article, dozens of blogs proceeded with a point-by-point rebuttal of MP Thio's address. Ms Yvonne Lee Ching Ling, an Assistant Professor in Law at NUS, wrote a letter[8] to the Straits Times to rebut Devan's article. Although the original article was highly critital of a member of the PAP, Devan himself has previously maintained that he is neither the first nor the only journalist to do so, stating: "Critical analyses surface with difficulty in Singapore, but the fact is they frequently do surface."[9] Singapore is currently ranked 141th by Reporters without borders out of 169 countries concerning the freedom of the press. It is sandwiched by Sudan (ranked 140th) and Afghanistan (ranked 142nd).

[edit] Can mum, mum and kids make a family?

On July 7 2007, Janadas Devan wrote an aritcle in the Straits Times titled "Can mum, mum and kids make a family?"[10] where he advocated the formation of same-sex marriages in Singapore. This was again a sensitive topic in conservative Singapore. He gave an example of a personal friend in the United States who had married another woman. Their marriage was not legal per-se but they had two healthy children and lived an otherwise normal life. He tackled the religious bias against homosexuality head on with paragraphs like:

"What will those who hold that homosexuality is against the laws of God say when it is definitively established that homosexuality has a genetic basis? That God deliberately made a mistake with the DNA of gays - and wishes us to persecute them for his mistake?"[11]

[edit] Impact of the article in the Singaporean blogosphere

The article once again gained wide exposure in the Singaporean blogosphere and was widely reproduced online. It also generated a lot of responses to the Straits Times both for and against same-sex marriages[12].

[edit] References

  1. ^ Janadas Devan. "Speech by Mr. Janadas Devan at the Memorial Service for the late C.V. Devan Nair" Singapore Conference Hall (2006-01-07). Retrieved on 2008-05-12
  2. ^ About Us: Janadas Devan. Radio Singapore International.
  3. ^ Call from America.
  4. ^ Janadas Devan (1996-06-06). 'The Singapore Way'. The New York Review of Books.
  5. ^ Janadas Devan. "377A debate and the rewriting of pluralism", The Straits Times, 2007-10-27. 
  6. ^ The Straits Times Interactive
  7. ^ The Straits Times Interactive
  8. ^ ST Forum
  9. ^ 'The Singapore Way' - The New York Review of Books
  10. ^ Janadas Devan. "Can mum, mum and kids make a family?", The Straits Times, 2007-07-07. 
  11. ^ imp-332 Can mum, mum and kids make a family?
  12. ^ imp-334 Letters to the press re 'Can mum. mum and kids'
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