I actually like that there's lots of little experiments going on, trying any number of positions on all the little dials of society. Time will tell which ones work.
Its also LEO abuse because their system allows unlimited detention without charge. Homosexual rights are non-existant: Prime Minster Lee Hsien Loong has spoken dismissively of the challenges to article 377A: “Why is that law on the books? Because it’s always been there and I just think we leave it. I think that’s the way Singapore will be for a long time.”
If that wasn't bad enough:
Singapore’s Media Development Authority issued a regulation effective on June 1 that banned major news websites available in Singapore from “advocating homosexuality or lesbianism.”
All Foreign domestic workers are excluded from the Employment Act, which provides employment protections.
Its easy to sit here on your expensive computer and fast internet connection in a Western country and pretend living under a regime like this is wonderful. You're not a gay man being jailed for loving your partner or a poor Philipino being beaten by his employer because he cant work 18 hour shifts everyday. Apparently, curtailing speech didn't fix these issues, so why are you advocating for it?
>I actually like that there's lots of little experiments going on,
We've gone down this path a million times. Its not surprising that it brings the same results as before.
It is easy to be an anarchist or communist when you dont have to live in such a place.
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).
In a country where you are not allowed to openly criticize the ruling power, how can you even measure what people of Singapore really like?
Also, problematic countries also frequently have some dissenters, and people that managed to flee and speak against it while outside it.
Singapore don't forbid you to leave, and all people I ever talked that went to Singapore, or lived in Singapore but where outside Singapore, mostly only had praise for the country.
[0] - http://thehearttruths.com/2013/02/21/singapore-has-the-highe...
> 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.
Just as an FYI, not "rethoric" from my side. I was born and raised in a country that went through a hell hole of super inflation and constant bombs going off from a "marxist" terrorist group known as the Shining Path. The "president" that "fixed" this situation was really a dictator that did not pay attention to human rights or democratic due process. The terrorist group got destroyed and "order" was brought into place at the expense of free speech and true democracy. Oh yeah, and he put a bomb in my dad's car because he disagreed with his political views. Those were the two first decades of my life.
So I kind of know what I am talking about.
If Australia was truly going through free-speech "problems" - I am sure you would not be so easy to refer to these "experiments"
I wish you'd step back from your personal trauma and look at the big picture. You say this "terrorist" group caused the rise of a dictator and the loss of free speech and democracy. Why didn't free speech and democracy stop such instability in the first place, if they're such a panacea like you seem to think? Because that's exactly what I'm talking about - the ingredients of a stable, wealthy, secure and fulfilling society.
Of course, the irony is that that would have never happened in Singapore.
Anyway, it appears that I'm now treading on people's toes so that's enough from me.
Enough for me, too.
And "better society" isn't the only reason to believe in "free speech". Another reason is the moral principle that one should not be imprisoned for a political opinion.
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).