[contingencies]

Asshole's dead. Good riddance. Stole power on a platform of communism, moved to totalitarianism / familial nepotism, set up his 'wealthy, modern' state by money laundering for Burmese junta, struck up a cheap friendship with US (easy sale: naval positioning for the straits, cable taps on comms, aggressively purchasing regional comms providers in places like .au), did a PR job on .sg's great 'democracy'. His biography - Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going - is a disgusting exercise in narcissism attempting to rewrite history. Dirty man, dirty state, dirty legacy.

[thisrod]

> set up his 'wealthy, modern' state by money laundering for Burmese junta

D'oh! I've been wondering how Singapore's low-taxing government accumulated all the capital that it invested, and that answer is so obvious: they took it from people somewhere else. Would you mind pointing me to a book that fills in the details?

[thisrod]

I found the real answer: the low taxes were all lies, and Mr Lee actually took half of everyone's salary for his family to invest.

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

[contingencies]

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=singapore+launder+money+burmese+ju...

[jpatokal]

Out of curiosity, how would you rank Singapore against its neighbors Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia?

[contingencies]

Far more totalitarian.

[skinnylatte]

Seriously? Have you been to any of these countries?

[contingencies]

Singapore: Yes, 5-10 times between 1989 and 2014. It's gotten a hell of a lot more generic and 1984-like in that time. The character once present been trampled in favor of dystopian public housing for immigrant laborers and a cleanliness. Frankly, last time I was there it gave me the creeps so much I was haunted by the smiley-faced actors in the propaganda-piece on permanent repeat in the airline departure lounge.

Thailand: Perhaps 30+ times from 1989 to two weeks ago. My wife (mainland Chinese Muslim) and I lived there for awhile, and our daughter was born there. We can read and write to some extent, speak the language, and have many friends - local and foreign - from all levels of society (journalism, finance, diplomacy, mafias, restaurant and bar operators, media, etc.) including those who have been 'kicked out'.

Malaysia: Perhaps 5-10 times from 1989 to a month ago, including smaller islands, though never to Borneo. It has a worrying governmental tendency to trend toward the Singaporean model, however away from KL this is lessened. Many successful Malaysians are either economic migrants to Singapore or operate businesses owned in some way by Singapore-resident straits Chinese.

Indonesia: Twice since 2012, but for months at a time spanning the most populous parts of the archipelago. Have had in-depth one-on-one discussions about the history of western relations with its diplomats. Have been invited to attend conferences in its national university. Owing to corruption, it has its issues, but it has preserved a certain admirable diversity that increases as you move east. Sure, they have their problems (eg. deforestation). However, the two faced Singaporean government blames the Singapore-owned palm oil plantations - burned regularly - on Indonesia ... but in fact I've had Singapore-resident Straits Chinese admit to me they own them.

What about you, just-arrived 7 point karma naysayer?

[skinnylatte]

I joined because I'm frankly a little amused by some of these comments.

More totalitarian: how do you quantify that?

I was born and brought up in Singapore and do business in all those countries (tech startup). That sentiment is alien (and not just because I'm Singaporean), it's because Malaysia for example is more totalitarian and is also on the way to becoming a failed state economically and socially. You seem to be reasonably well-versed in the cultural aspects of those countries, but how much of the political institutions do you know — to back up such a claim, anyway? Have you seen Thailand and the junta lately?

[jpatokal]

Dictionary definition: "Totalitarianism is a political system in which the state holds total authority over the society and seeks to control all aspects of public and private life wherever possible." Singapore is pretty much the poster boy for this.

Malaysia certainly has aspirations to be as totalitarian as Singapore; however, the government is too incompetent and consumed with in-fighting to actually accomplish it.

Thailand is just a garden-variety military dictatorship, the junta hold the levers of power but doesn't really appear to know what to do with them.

[contingencies]

What a surprise that you are Singaporean, lah.

[tragic_requiem]

Let me clap for you because you have 2715 karma, you who look to have wasted all these trips to our region (how can you travel so much, yet absorb so little). Our entire nation is in mourning, but please do feel free to take keep taking uneducated potshots at a dead man using recycled sound-bites from the 90s, and displaying exactly why freedom of speech is overrated. We will return to pit our unsubstantiated anecdotes against your unsubstantiated anecdotes when we've run out of better things to do (better break out that rubik's cube bob, it's going to take awhile).

[tragic_requiem]

"Asshole's dead. Good riddance. Stole power on a platform of communism, moved to totalitarianism / familial nepotism, set up his 'wealthy, modern' state by money laundering for Burmese junta, struck up a cheap friendship with US (easy sale: naval positioning for the straits, cable taps on comms, aggressively purchasing regional comms providers in places like .au), did a PR job on .sg's great 'democracy'. His biography - Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going - is a disgusting exercise in narcissism attempting to rewrite history. Dirty man, dirty state, dirty legacy." You bravely waded in, ad hominem, on a dead man. And now you're complaining about personal attacks? How does one even start with you bob?

[contingencies]

You make personal attacks instead of offering any form of logical refutation. Further, Singapore isn't a nation, it's a private holding company with brainwashed worker-drones, prostituting itself to foreign powers for the 'stability' of island-capitalism and a totalitarian reign. Otherwise, you are of course entitled to your opinion... but according even to your close ally's founding father, neither liberty nor safety are your due.

[nailer]

Singapore is authoritarian and corrupt but look at what happened to Anwar Ibrahim in Malaysia.

[contingencies]

Very true. For .sg's tactics, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2oL81Tum3I and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8rPofi-AUw

[skinnylatte]

"Corrupt".

Care to substantiate that?

Singaporean in opposition politics here — desperately wanting to know.