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Jan. 5, 2008 When a group of countries are named as being oppressive in the liberal media; be it on their record for commitment to Kyoto, the abolition of the death penalty, or on human rights in general, Singapore, more often than not, is named as a repressive country along with Burma, Cuba, Iran, China, Israel, and in a lot of cases, depending upon the scenario ( i.e. the abolition of the death penalty), the US.I have heard a lot of ordinary people criticize the country in this way, even those who have visited the country for only a few weeks.Why even one of the writers featured on this site has so criticized the country, although, as far as I can tell, only there for a few weeks. I have lived in Singapore as a child, then as a teen- ager, and then visited briefly as an adult. On the first two occasions the country was in the middle of an emergency as communist terrorists were attempting to over throw the government and emergency regulations were in effect. I don't seem to remember any difference in the day to day life there than in the United Kingdom. In fact there was nothing I could do in England which I couldn't do in Singapore. May be it would have been harder to sell guns or drugs, and for sure I would have been in trouble for supplying food or weapons to the terrorists, but that was about it. Oh yes we all had to carry government issued ID cards and had to show them upon request. In the five years I was there I was asked only once to show ID. I suppose that today things are different, now one can get whipped for vandalism, as did the two US punks a few years ago; but, in retrospect, it seems like a good idea; after all they did set out to deliberately vandalize dozens of cars. But what is really bugging liberals concerning Singapore? Is it the demands not to spit or throw trash on the sidewalk? No of course not: it is the fact that the country has the death penalty for those caught trafficking in drugs. This is what sticks in the liberal craw as a lot of them seem to be friendly to the users of this substance. Most of Hollywood seems to be floating around half of the time, and even Bill Clinton is on record as saying that if he were elected president pot use would go up 110%. Sure it is harsh to execute anyone for any thing but you must remember the position in which Singapore finds itself. Following world war two it had for twenty years or so been subject to a brutal communist insurgency, then came along the world wide social revolution and its attendant problems. Drug dealers have long resented the fact that they are excluded from this duty free port as from here they can more easily connect with Australia and the west coast of the US; forcing the small island state to take draconian measures in order to protect itself.
As far as I can make out Singapore is a functioning
democracy with a human rights record better than most
of the surrounding countries. Although its record is
far superior to that of China and Cuba liberals come
down hard on it. Maybe by coming down on Singapore so
hard they inadvertently show their true colors. They
are not so much humanitarians, more a bunch of spoiled
brats determined to get their own way no matter what,
in much the same way as the two punks who got the lash.
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