[sjwright]

That was true in the 1990s, but not in the last 10 years where use of capital punishment has been consistently less than 10 persons per year, including foreign nationals (i.e. not "its population").

Conversely the USA has a much higher percentage of its population sitting in prison. I suspect many of those people would prefer a caning over the loss of many productive years of their life.

[l10nf15h]

It's not meant to be a comparison. I am simply asking why most of this thread is celebrating a man that created a police state that is the model for Asia.

[sjwright]

You made the comparison, you can't say it wasn't meant to be a comparison.

Strip away the jingoism, and I really don't see how the USA is any less of a police state than Singapore. From stop-and-frisk to civil forfeiture and the TSA, the United States is every bit a police state with just a thin outer layer of constitutional democracy.

I've lived in both countries for extended periods, and I know which I'd prefer to live in. (Though if we look at California in isolation, I might prefer that, but only for the nice weather and cheap cars.)

[unethical_ban]

At least in America, we can bitch about it and (mostly) not be jailed or murdered for it. Heck, sometimes, things even change for the better.

[sjwright]

You can bitch about police corruption in Singapore -- rare as it is. The media isn't afraid to report, and the government isn't afraid to act.

And sure, you can bitch about it in the USA -- common as it is. Except the media doesn't care (unless you have particularly compelling video footage) and the government is too scared to act.

[jpatokal]

Are you serious? Here's an actual case of corruption at a government-linked org in Singapore: in particular, look how three people making claims that later turned out to entirely factual were sued into apologizing, and the bubble only burst when the NKF made the mistake of suing somebody even better-connected to the establishment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Kidney_Foundation_Sin...

[skinnylatte]

So we are too corrupt or are we too authoritarian?

After all we just jailed a man over pineapple tart corruption.

NKF is not the government. That's kind of like saying that TSA molests people, and that the federal government is responsible for it.

[sjwright]

Exception that proves the rule.

[skinnylatte]

Here in Singapore, you can bitch about it and not be jailed or murdered for it. We bitch about (everything) most of the time. We also have a healthy assumption that we are never going to be murdered in our lifetimes in Singapore, and that things do get better most of the time, which is more than can be said for America.

[jfoster]

It's a country that has extremely low crime, and an amazing economy. Achieved with fewer resources and greater speed than any successful country in history.

Singapore has a different set of problems than the rest of the world. I think that's refreshing.