Singapore is very much a model that's cited as something Oppositions throw at their Governments in this region, and that governments actively compete against as both bogeyman and model. But the Singapore model cannot be implemented in the rest of ASEAN at this point (I would argue that it never could, from the beginnings of Independence), nor, really would many of us want it to.
I've resisted every offer or circumstance which would lead me to working in Singapore. I actually really like visiting Singapore, but for me and for many people in the region, the issue is rarely not so much the government and the the structure of the society, but rather the culture of the people of Singapore themselves. Admittedly, this arises directly from the circumstances and society that LKY & Family have created and how that has shaped the Singaporean mindset.
I suspect you'd get in trouble in Singapore a lot less often than you think and than various media would like you to think (especially with so many young people these days starting to look for work in Singapore rather than the US or Europe, if the Singapore government is to be believed). I can barely tell the difference between the climate in the US and here anymore. I can't find it anymore, but some 10 years ago, when Bush started openly detaining people without trial, Mahathir said something to the effect of "See? They've finally realized we had it right all along." [referring to the Internal Security Act that allows the Malaysian Government to detain people without trial indefinitely] I always hoped he was wrong. I don't think it's too late for him to be wrong.
On Wed, Oct 3, 2012 at 10:05 PM, Ismail Lagardien <ilagardien at yahoo.com>wrote:
> Doug
>
> My take on Singapore is pretty much summed up in the Gibson piece. My
> conclusions, however, are that Singapore makes one uncomfortable and
> conflicted; at least it made me feel that way.
>
> Most everyone, I thought, would want to live in a place that is clean,
> safe, stable and prosperous, where (almost) everyone obeys the laws, but
> the cost (forget material costs) of creating and maintaining such a place
> would be more than I could live with. Sure I enjoy all of the former, but a
> very large part of me could not live with injustice, repression and the
> means by which such a society is established. I could live in Singapore,
> but I would get into a lot of trouble, very often.
>
> Hell, I got into trouble, within a couple of months, of teaching at a
> prestigious university in North Carolina. Within two or three months of my
> contract, I was sent a reprimand and note, at the top of which it was
> written that I had to conform to the professional and christian values of
> the institution. That place was as tidy, clean, and full of laughter and
> forgetting (as long as you ignored the intellectual marasmus concealed
> behind the reproduction of mainstream rationalist orthodoxy, at least in
> the social sciences).
>
> Ismail
>
>
>
> Ismail Lagardien
>
> Nihil humani a me alienum puto
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>