Singapore's philosophy of governance is the same as the PRC's, just with velvet gloves on. People look the other way because they've been able to keep the standard of living up, but if there's ever a sustained economic downtown and loud discontent with the PAP, the fiction will be disposed of quickly and we'll find out how much of a democracy it really is.
SG makes me wonder about my personal convictions regarding liberal democracy. I still personally believe liberal democracy is best for those of us in the West. Then again, we are hypocrites ourselves from funding Saudi Arabia to electing Trump based on promises of draconian anti-liberalism, so I'm not sure how well we can make the argument ourselves.
[0] I really hope this need not be said, but I mean liberalism not as in left politics, but liberalism as in liberal democracy.
I neither voted for trump, nor do I support Saudi Arabia