Opinion Analysis by Johhny Achkar, Staff Writer

July 28th, 2021

There are few “rags-to-riches” stories as amazing as the one that has unfolded in Singapore during the last half-century. The country, which was once among the world's poorest and least developed, has turned itself into an ultra-wealthy global trade powerhouse. By most accounts, Singapore is a lovely place to live. The country also happens to be one of the few, if not the only successful dictatorship in the world. 

Lee Kuan Yew, the country's founding father, was a friendly authoritarian who served as Prime Minister for 31 years and retained a prominent role in the cabinet for another two decades. Lee turned Singapore into the affluent city-state it is today, with an extremely pragmatic population under the grip of a distinctive kind of "soft" authoritarianism. His son, Lee Hsien Loong, now rules the nation. Families dividing a nation amongst their members? Strange, that is reminiscent of a small nation in the Middle East.

Unlike the dynastic Kim dictatorship in North Korea, the Lee family actually knows how to manage an economy. Singapore is landlocked and lacks any natural resources. The former British colony was turned into a significant manufacturing and financial hub after gaining independence in 1965. Singapore is viewed by many as a free-market success tale. It is one of the most cosmopolitan places on the planet, thanks to low taxes, minimal capital limitations, and permissive immigration rules.

Former Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong previously said that the success of Singapore's political system and economic prosperity was due to less debate and discussion on sensitive subjects. Mr. Tong emphasized this further, adding: "Ours is not the same system as in the West," he said. "It's modified for our needs." Singapore is far from being a liberal democracy. It is not even a pluralist democracy in the sense that Japan and South Korea are. This might be seen in the perspective of Freedom House's Freedom in the World rankings, which assesses the quality of political rights and civil liberties in every country on the planet, two crucial democratic indicators. Singapore received a "Partly Free" rating. 

Lee Kuan Yew formed the People's Action Party, which is now one of Singapore's major political parties. The party is effectively in charge of Southeast Asia's sole Chinese-majority state. The PAP has dominated Singapore for more than 62 years, gaining between 60% and 70% of the national vote. The way elections are conducted in the country is one of the most persuasive arguments. The status of electoral events in Singapore is a highly biased procedure. True, the PAP has maintained a level of support across the country's rich state that would almost certainly assure its win even in a perfectly free election. This fact, however, provides little credibility to the country's elections because it is clear that the incumbent party retains significant control over the electoral process.

The Singapore Elections Department, for example, is a body within the Prime Minister's Office rather than an independent institution, and it frequently functions without transparency. For instance, the 2015 election was held after a nine-day campaign, which was the legal minimum. That leaves any opposition parties with a mere nine days in order to explain their message and deliver it to the populace. While the PAP has a 62-year head start when it comes to reaching out to the population. Ordinary citizens have no choice but to pick stability and familiarity as a result. 

Singapore's media landscape is thought to be tightly regulated by the government. When it comes to shaping public opinion, the PAP now has a powerful weapon. The administration can launch a "smear and scare" campaign against opposition parties with the support of cooperative media. In the event that the PAP won a smaller majority, voters could be cautioned that poor administration would be the result, jeopardizing Singapore's economic achievements. 

Singapore's administration is set up in such a way that critical voices are suppressed. Not only is the government in control of the vast majority of media outlets, but the country's Sedition Act makes any publication or even statement that aims to "incite hatred, contempt, or disaffection against the government" illegal. The arrest of a teenager who rants against Lee Kuan Yew and celebrates his death on YouTube is one dramatic illustration of this legislation in operation. The existing condition of Singapore's electoral institutions and civil society suggests that the PAP's 62-year monopoly on power is unlikely to be broken anytime soon.

What happens, however, if the people are not adequately fed? Or when the younger generation loses faith in the founding fathers' success recipe? House prices have risen considerably in the last decade, income inequality has remained high, and severe rivalry with foreigners has been a recurring cause of frustration.

Despite the PAP's ongoing parliamentary dominance, the 2015 election was the first time that every single seat in Singapore was contested. Furthermore, while the government's relationship with critics remains tense, there has been some cooperation between civil society organizations and government institutions, and civil society as a whole continues to grow slowly but steadily. If current trends continue, Singapore may soon find itself resembling South Korea on both a political and an economic level.