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Singapore is effectively a single party police-state. The only difference between SG and China, is that the PAP is in many ways, much more benevolent than the C

Singapore is effectively a single party police-state. The only difference between SG and China, is that the PAP is in many ways, much more benevolent than the CCP (and economically, SG has a weird form of economic libertarianism). The ‘fact’ in this instance is mostly reasonable, but still open to a fair amount of interpretation. Before you celebrate a government seizing power, ask yourself if you’d like your political opponents to be wielding it, because they inevitably will be.

thablackbull 7y ago
Have you ever been to Singapore? It's hard to change views, but I'd like to leave this article with you [1]: > For example, a friend (a German national currently working in Washington) referred off-handedly to Singapore as a “police state” in a recent personal email. (She has never been here.) [...] That’s not all that perplexes Americans and some other Westerners. Singapore is a “police state”? If so, well, where are the police? One hardly ever sees one, and one never sees a uniformed policeman on a beat on the street. There is no visible acute poverty here, no beggars on the street, no evidence of homelessness, no gun violence, no graffiti, and women can walk alone at all hours of the day and night anywhere on the island without having to worry about being accosted. They say if you want to see a policeman, go to the malls and find one of the cardboard cutouts. [1] https://www.the-american-interest.com/2019/11/21/the-puzzle-of-singapore/ https://www.the-american-interest.com/2019/11/21/the-puzzle-...
barry-cotter 7y ago
Singapore is pretty authoritarian but to call it a police state goes way too far. The comparison with the CCP is also honestly ridiculous. A more accurate parallel would be with Japan, with the almost unbroken run of LDP governments since the US occupation in terms of one party rule, but with a real and effective opposition. You could also look at other cities, albeit ones that are parts of, rather than constitutive of states, like San Francisco, which has been ruled by Democrats for longer than Singapore has been independent.

thablackbull 7y ago

Have you ever been to Singapore? It's hard to change views, but I'd like to leave this article with you [1]: > For example, a friend (a German national currently working in Washington) referred off-handedly to Singapore as a “police state” in a recent personal email. (She has never been here.) [...] That’s not all that perplexes Americans and some other Westerners. Singapore is a “police state”? If so, well, where are the police? One hardly ever sees one, and one never sees a uniformed policeman on a beat on the street. There is no visible acute poverty here, no beggars on the street, no evidence of homelessness, no gun violence, no graffiti, and women can walk alone at all hours of the day and night anywhere on the island without having to worry about being accosted. They say if you want to see a policeman, go to the malls and find one of the cardboard cutouts. [1] https://www.the-american-interest.com/2019/11/21/the-puzzle-of-singapore/ https://www.the-american-interest.com/2019/11/21/the-puzzle-...

barry-cotter 7y ago

Singapore is pretty authoritarian but to call it a police state goes way too far. The comparison with the CCP is also honestly ridiculous. A more accurate parallel would be with Japan, with the almost unbroken run of LDP governments since the US occupation in terms of one party rule, but with a real and effective opposition. You could also look at other cities, albeit ones that are parts of, rather than constitutive of states, like San Francisco, which has been ruled by Democrats for longer than Singapore has been independent.