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Singapore is a great place. Very meritocratic, high-tech, modern and forward-looking but it is a sort of benevolent dictatorship. This is Lee Hsien Loong, the
by danschuller 11y ago
Singapore is a great place. Very meritocratic, high-tech, modern and forward-looking but it is a sort of benevolent dictatorship.
This is Lee Hsien Loong, the son of Lee Kuan Yew who built up Singapore (obviously a brilliant leader but also, with little oversight, worryingly quick to jail his critics). The People's Action Party (PAP) has been in power since Singapore's formation and opposition party leaders have found themselves in jail or sued into bankruptcy. Benevolent dictators and dynasties work great until they don't.
It will be interesting to see how Singapore fares a few leaders down the line. Hopefully pretty well and more politically tolerant; as it's a nice place with great, talented people!
- hackerboos 11y agoI was in Singapore this year and it's a fantastic place, but it is very artificial. Citizens have a hard time communicating with each other through the 4 very different official languages. People are also on edge about immigration and the peaceful multicultural facade hides a darker side of racism in Singapore.
- clebio 11y agoThis is an interesting comment, thank you for the perspective. I think you mean 'facade' where you wrote 'fasard'? I don't want to assume, though -- it might be a word I don't recognize, or transliteration -- honestly asking.
- hackerboos 11y agoYou're right. Written in haste and not proof read.
- visakanv 11y agoCould you give me examples of places where things are natural (as opposed to artificial), and where people have an easy time communicating? Just curious about the spectrum.
- hackerboos 11y agoI don't know of any other country that has ethnic quotas and such tight control over the housing market as the HDB does in Singapore. As for communication, most other countries have a single dominating language. In Singapore, Mandarin should be the dominate language, but the government has intervened to give each language an equal footing. It just doesn't work.
- Gigablah 11y agoWell, that's why English is the common language here.
- yen223 11y agoSingapore used to be a major British colony, that's why English is big over there.
- shadowsun7 11y ago> It just doesn't work. It does, actually.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- visakanv 11y ago> As for communication, most other countries have a single dominating language. In Singapore, Mandarin should be the dominate language, but the government has intervened to give each language an equal footing. It just doesn't work. Are you suggesting that the Indians and the Malays in Singapore should've had to learn Mandarin instead of English?
- hackerboos 11y agoNice guys. Downvoting my opinion.
- 11y ago
- nubela 11y ago"Citizens have a hard time communicating with each other through the 4 very different official languages." - Then you obviously haven't heard Singlish.
- krysjez 11y agoYou are spot on about the xenophobia and racism, and way off about communication and artificiality. -- A Singaporean.
- lazylizard 11y agoyes we're multi racist! but the influx of foreigners have provided common ground for native/original/ethnic(???) singaporeans to build our identity. 'us' is now singaporean chinese, malay, indian etc. even the malaysians are becoming part of 'us'... 'them' is now south asians from south asia, chinese from china, and other people from other parts of south east asia..
- pervycreeper 11y ago>benevolent dictatorship Perhaps this is what's best in a high-tech society.
- pjscott 11y agoHow do you keep it benevolent, over the longer term? If it depends on luck then sooner or later the luck will turn bad, so we need a real mechanism here.
- KaoruAoiShiho 11y agoTerm limits and independent judiciary. Basically have a system where the legislative + executive are merged into 1 office so that it's extremely powerful. But safeguards are built into the judicial and constitutional system to prevent it from turning tyrannical.
- pervycreeper 11y agoWell, there's the rub. But if we take "benevolent" for granted, well....
- randomsearch 11y ago> but it is a sort of benevolent dictatorship. Indeed, and the problem with dictatorships is that sooner or later your country will be run by a person you really don't want in charge, and it will be impossible to remove them.
- mst 11y agoSo far, it looks like the first generational transfer of power is going according to plan. I'm fascinated to see how this plays out; getting a single generational transfer of dictatorship to work is quite an achievement.
- apta 11y agoLike Americans can "remove" people making the laws in congress? Fact of the matter is, corporations are in control, whether people like it or not.
- randomsearch 11y agoAs much as I agree with the sentiment of your post, living in a broken democracy like the USA is a lot better than living under a dictatorship.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- haversack 11y agoHi, respectfully I would have to disagree with you. People who say Singapore is a benevolent dictatorship seem to discount the fact that free and fair elections have been held since independence, and that people are free to kick out the government of the day at any point. The strongest criticism you can give is that some of the democratic institutions aren't as strong as they can be, but all nations have a journey of evolution.
- lazylizard 11y agoum. maybe they want to stop redrawing the constituency boundaries ever so often?
- y2kenny 11y agoNo, Singapore election is not free and fair: http://thediplomat.com/2015/02/soft-repression-the-struggle-for-democracy-in-singapore/ http://thediplomat.com/2015/02/soft-repression-the-struggle-...