Michael Fay essays

Michael Fay essays In late February 1994, an American teenager (Michael Fay) studying in Singapore, was charged with 53 counts of vandalism, including spray-painting cars and sentenced to six strokes from a cane made of bamboo-like strips. Interestingly, the fact that Singapore was punishing a young American involved in acts of anti-social behavior hardly appeared to have the makings of an international incident. However, over the next two months the case spiraled into one of the biggest regional media events of the year provoking terse exchanges from the leaders of both countries and triggering a vitriolic press war between American newspapers and Singaporean newspapers. Then president Bill Clinton wrote a letter to Singapore president Ong Teng Cheong and personally requested that Michael Fay be granted clemency. However, the Singapore government refused to acquit him, but reduced his sentence to three strokes of the cane instead out of respect for America. This change in events led to reports in the New York Times about the American government threatening to scuttle Singapores bid to host the first meeting of the new global trade order in retaliation for the whipping1. Singapore's pro-government newspaper, The Straits Times, retaliated and called the move "grossly indecent2". Ironically, that America might drag the momentous trade meeting into a seemingly inane dispute over the welfare of Michael Fays buttocks was rather appropriate. This is because the Michael Fay case was the epitome of a cultural conflict being fuelled by increasing trade ties and competition between the East and the West. This incident brought to light an array of political and cultural tensions between the two countries: to cane an alien who violated Singapores laws, or to bow down to a political and economical heavyweight America. A significant representation of each countrys sentiments can be observed from the coverage of this event by the ...