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.