Coming from a westerner country, therefore with a westerner mindset and culture we end up taking for grant things like freedom of speech, thought, religion, expression, etc... But depending on where you are going to live the reality is something else. That was me five years ago when I arrived in Asia to an island country self proclaimed Republic of Singapore.
Apart of all adventures coming from the process of adapting myself to a new country, culture, environment, food etc there was something different in the air...
Singapore is a country with a long history of immigration. It has a diverse population of close to 5 million people made up of Chinese, Malays, Indians, Asians of various descents and Caucasians. 42% of the population are foreigners who work and study there. Foreign workers make up 50% of the service sector in Singapore.
One must go under the surface to understand Singapore. Its population is formed by 74% of Chinese, 14% Malays, 9% Indians and 3% of Eurasians, Arabs, etc. So, it is a Chinese driven country.
Singapore is a parliamentary republic with a Westminster system of unicameral parliamentary government representing different constituencies. The Constitution of Singapore establishes representative Democracy as the nation's political system... bla! bla! bla! Pure Bulshit...
All the power lays from start on a single family: The Lee family.
Lee Kuan Yew became Prime Minister in 1965 (when Singapore gained its sovereignty), was succeeded by another mafia member in 1990 and since 2004 Lee Hsien Loong the eldest son of Lee Kuan Yew is the boss... By the way Lee Kuan Yew is a Minister Mentor, a post created when his son, Lee Hsien Loong, became the nation's third prime minister.
Lee family is also behind Temasek Holdings a company which manages all Singapore Government's direct investments. Ho Chin the wife of the Prime Minister is the big boss there...
Do I need to say something else?
There is no political freedom nor freedom of press, thought and anything. Even to make a parade you need prior government approval. There is a long list of international news correspondents who were "invited" to live the country over the years and if you want to read a newspaper you have to get "The Straits time" patronized by the government. Denial of civil and political rights in Singapore are simply of Governmental policy.
Fines are a common way of suppressing speech and opposition in Singapore. Indeed one of the most popular methods of silencing opposition is politically motivated defamation action. Meaning: talk bad of the Government, they come to you, cancel your business license, fine and prosecute you. You will expend all the money you have in the vicious Singaporean courts!
Human rights violations in Singapore are rife: the country detains conscientious objectors to military service, has mandatory corporal and capital punishment for many offences, has some of the most draconian security legislation in the world (and uses it) and institutional discrimination against ethnic Malays results in their poverty and often imprisonment. A simple graffiti can lead you to be canned...
Ah, homosexuality is illegal and punished severally by law. I have never seen a country with so many gays within the closet!
You can have a very comfortable life over there. It is one of the lower Tax countries ever, but you have to give up all your sense of Justice, Democratic spirit and become a robot... also and ever worse you have to live among brain washed Singaporeans who think that's the best country in the world.
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