Singapore - a society full of contradictions

(extraced from "A Short History of South-east Asia" by Peter Church)

FYI - I bought the 4th edition from Singapore so really, there should be no repercussions of my extraction of passages from the book.
(damn, write blog also must be very kiasu. BCC - BETTER COVER CA-CHING)

In the new millenium, Singapore is by far the most prosperous nation in SEA (aside from the abberation of the tiny oil-rich state of Brunei). It is a society full of contradictions. In many ways, it is a modern Confucian state - always intrusive, mostly paternalistic, sometimes authoritarian, with a strong ideology of the people's duties towards the state. It is ruled by a close-knit, meritocratic elite built around the People's Action Party (PAP). The state claims the right to be involved in all aspects of people's lives, asserting the right to define family size and the nature of personal relationships, as well as to determine the structure of the economy.

Government in Singapore is far more intrusive than that experienced in Western societies. The PAP has manipulated the political system to make it exremely difficult for an opposition party to challenge its power. It has used the Internal Security Act to arrest and imprison not only those who might be a threat to the state but many others who have challenged the power of the government. It has brought punitive defamation actions against dissenting opposition parliamentarians, which has had the effect of bankrupting them and thus, according to the law, excluding them from the political process.

It is a state which encourages aggressive economic activity, and rewards individual ability and achievement. Yet it is a puritan state, with a state-controlled local media, censorship of foreign media and a very public concern about moral pollution of the young from Western cultural influences.

But despite this, the Government in Singapore does have popular legitimacy because of its delivery of clean government and its impressive social and economic achievements over nearly four decades.

- While living in Vietnam, I have been challenged by international friends, asking if I feel that Singapore is indeed a democratic country as it claims to be.

The irony of "freedom of speech" is that while people actually believe they are speaking up for what they believe in, many do not realise that they are either not exposed to the full story, are naive about many things beyond their work and home life, are fed information top down and have already been assimilated and shaped into the model Singaporean. Many would not, dare not question the given and therefore are kept well from voicing opinions that are out of the ordinary.