Goh to visit U.S. alma mater

Goh to visit U.S. alma mater

SINGAPORE (AFP): Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong's controversial face-off with critics at his alma mater in the United States sparked an abiding interest in Asia and Asian studies on the campus, the college president said.

Harry Payne, president of Williams College, said in remarks published by The Sunday Times that Goh's trip to receive an honorary doctorate had kicked off a spirit of learning he had not seen for some time at the institution.

"It is not that, at the end, everyone agreed. There is still a fundamental difference in style and attitude about the role of certain civil liberties," Payne was quoted as saying.

But he said the trip, which he described as an educational controversy, had created a "permanent legacy of interest" in the Asia on the campus in Williamstown, Massachusetts.