PM of Singapore Shares His C++ Sudoku Solver Source Code

I.e. democracy is a fairly terrible vehicle for progressive change, as by definition you're going to be fighting against inherent conservativism (both terms used with social rather than political definitions) in a majority of your population. I know nothing on the history of Singapore, but /hazardGuess.

(Whether or not you agree with that perspective is a valid question, ofc)

The argument put forward by Lee Kuan Yew (RIP) for exiling communists was that Maoist China was aggressively attempting to expand into the region. For example, see the Hong Kong bombing campaign of 1967 [1]. According to, amongst others, "The Singapore Story" [2], he was initially contacted by the Communists to represent them as a "moderate" leftist. His manoeuvering to win the 1959 election (scaring many businesses away to KL, thinking communism had won) and kick them out relatively bloodlessly thereafter has become legendary in Singapore, and is I think unparalleled anywhere else in the world. Part of winning included controlling the press and winning the PR battle. Whether it was justified depends on your stance on communism (and therefore if you consider the country to have been at war, suspending individual rights).

The second is that the island is racially very diverse, with a majority Chinese when both neighbours - who were also aggressive at the time - were of a different race and religion. Independence came a couple years too early due to Malaysian worries that LKY was not cooperating with their policies (Singapore was openly advocating racial equality amongst other things, against the pro-Malay discriminative policies from KL). Still in the 1960s, there was an explosion of anti-Chinese minority riots in neighbouring countries which involved some lynchings, and some Chinese had the idea of doing the same to Malays in Singapore (e.g. [3]). LKY's response was prompt: he pushed for the Chinese rioters to be made an example of. Restrictions on hate speech grew from a need to quell these tensions. There were no more race riots until the recent incident where a drunk construction worker was run over by a bus and the mob got angry.

It's important to view his actions not as if you lived in the prosperous United States, surrounded by a large ocean and coming out victorious from the largest war known to mankind but as the leader of a tiny island surrounded by enemies big and small, open and insidious. I ask his critics what they would have done differently; I personally agree with those who consider LKY one of the greatest politicians that ever lived, and I admire the Singaporeans for electing him year after year.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_1967_Leftist_riots: "Bomb disposal experts from the police and the British military defused as many as 8,000 home-made bombs. Statistics showed that one in every eight bombs was genuine."

[2] http://www.amazon.com/The-Singapore-Story-Memoirs-Kuan/dp/01... - a worthy read if you love history, but if you are short on time, read "From Third World to First" instead.

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_race_riots_in_Singapore

I'm not sure there is record of anyone being tortured, let alone it being routine?

One of my Singapore female friends pointed out you have a far lower chance of being raped or mugged if you walk around in Singapore than in most other countries and she considered that a more important than the ability to insult the government without them trying to sue you.

`Dictator`

a ruler with total power over a country, typically one who has obtained power by force.

Singapore isn't a single-party state. There are other political parties that take part in the elections. Singapore's government is made up of members from mostly one party because the people voted them in. Let me repeat the last part: the citizens of Singapore voted the party in on their own accord. That's not a dictatorship. No one pointed a gun at my head and told me to vote for the incumbent party.

And as for your point about political dissidents, while that is true and is an important part of the history, it doesn't really happen now. What normally happens is that someone says something stupid that borders on libel and defamation and he gets sued. Is is heavy handed? Probably. Were they breaking the law? Yes. Is this a sign of dictatorship? On it's own, no.

There is heavy censorship, there is the death penalty, I believe Singapore still sell land mines, homosexuality is against the law. There are many flaws about Singapore but to call the state a dictatorship is putting the wrong label on the country.

When you say `Dictatorship`, I think North Korea, Iran. There is no way in the world Singapore even comes close to being a North Korea or an Iran.

And I considered moving to Singapore a couple times, if I get ever invited for a job there, I would promptly accept.

I don't agree with lots of their laws, but I must recognize that it works. (Singapore is clean, safe, has good business freedom, the government does not tolerate racism and religious hate, and the city has a very interesting functional design).

> you dont have to live in such a place

True, and neither do they. Singapore's a first world country; its citizens can settle elsewhere with relative ease. And yet they don't. I wonder why?

And just to turn your rhetorical device against you, what I've heard "so many times" is these self-righteous rants by people who have never even visited the place they're criticising, but they're oh so sure they're right anyway. And for what it's worth, the USA is an experiment too, and from an outsider's perspective I'm not sure it's working out too well.

If you are in possession of at least 500g of marijuana, you are BY DEFINITION considered to be trafficking it, regardless of intent. This has a mandatory death sentence. And here's the best part: the definition of possession is:

    any person who is proved to have had in his possession or custody or under his control —
        (a) anything containing a controlled drug;
        (b) the keys of anything containing a controlled drug;
        (c) the keys of any place or premises or any part thereof in which a controlled drug is found; or
        (d) a document of title relating to a controlled drug or any other document intended for the delivery of a controlled drug,
    shall, until the contrary is proved, be presumed to have had that drug in his possession.

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_Singapore...)

For example Indonesia recently executed two brazillians, and although our president keeps complaining, cut relations with Indonesia, and whatnot, the population is HAPPY they executed those two scumbags, we just wish more scumbags would make the same mistake and get executed too.

You might wonder, why is that? It is because in Brazil we have a full blown civil war going because of drug traffickers, the drug traffickers here frequently have very heavy weapons (rocket launchers, grenade launchers, mortars, anti-material fixed machineguns and rifles, they even tried to buy some small missiles once in the international black market), and are perfectly willing to use it (so our government must hand our cops military gear, literally, to handle, war-style combat, with armoured vehicles, helicopters and infantary trading heavy fire is not uncommon, and in some cities we have more absolute deaths by gunfire than the whole Iraq summed per day).