Singapore has existed and will continue to exist with or without the current government. Yes, there's been people there forever. There will be people there in

Singapore has existed and will continue to exist with or without the current government. Yes, there's been people there forever. There will be people there in the future. Would Singapore the modern nation exist without the current gov't and its immediate antecedent? That LKY is a tough act to follow is a given; but the clucking in the headline assumes a level of decay not in evidence. Singapore is ranked the 24th on the Gini index, right behind Saudi Arabia Six lumberjacks are drinking in a bar. Bill Gates walks in, orders a beer. One lumberjack says to another: "Hey...on average, we're billionaires!" Let's establish some facts. Indeed. Paternalistic Anglo-Confucian mercantile oligarchies aren't going to be run like Iceland, or a town meeting in Massachusetts. The people in charge absolutely do believe in the superiority of their system; and allowing more people to vote on more things (in a way that would please the NYT) isn't going to improve anything, in their thoughts. I'll bet that there's plenty of people that you'd prefer not vote on election day, and plenty of subjects that you'd like to place beyond debate.