I lived in Singapore for nearly four years, and I can testify that Stephen Chapman’s commentary (Op-Ed, July 31) was just the kind of simplistic, skewed and misinformed political rant that makes East Asians question Americans’ basic knowledge of Asia. For one, the name of Singapore’s patriarch was misspelled; it is Lee Kuan Yew. (What would you think of the intelligence of someone who wrote about U.S. President Bill Klinton?)
In the substantive matters, too, Chapman has shown he didn’t go back to the books and check his facts before firing off another essay.
He says that authoritarian regimes are unstable, yet Singapore has had 35 years of peaceful rule by the same authoritarian party. In that same span of time, how many riots has America had? Singapore is about the same size as Chicago, and yet it only has a handful of murders a year compared to about 700 for “stable” Chicago. Which city are you freer to walk the streets of? Remember that crime is a form of repression, too–a form of repression that Americans promote through their so-called judicial system.
Japan may formally be a democracy, but the degree of informal social control is so strong that secret police and detentions without trial are not necessary. If Chapman thinks that Japan is a democracy like America, he knows nothing about the society.
India has been democratic for about 50 years, yet it remains one of the poorest countries of Asia. It is the poverty of India and the Philippines that causes leaders like Lee Kuan Yew to be suspicious of democracy.
Malaysia and Singapore did have fair elections in which their people chose their leaders because they like the prosperity and safety their governments are giving them.
Chapman thinks he knows what the people of Asia want. He is typical of the paternalistic Westerner of colonial days. But things have changed. Singapore is equivalent to America in per capita wealth. The citizens of Singapore have the freedom to walk the streets safely at any time. Meanwhile, Americans are oppressed by violent crime and high taxes. Chapman should focus on solving America’s cruel forms of repression before he tries to tell other countries why they should be like us.
