Singapore

Given its size and colonial history, Singapore lacks an aristocracy – landed or otherwise – which has been important for Singaporean politics. It has an urbanization rate of 100 percent, and the ethnic composition of its population is approximately 75 percent Chinese, 15 percent Malay, and 8 percent from the Indian subcontinent. Prior to independence, Singapore also lacked large capitalists or business interests and, since independence, the largest capitalists involved in Singapore are foreigners, who are seemingly promoted by the PAP at the expense of indigenous business interests. Founded by English-educated professionals and middle-class people, the PAP recruits its politicians from the professions and the civil service, not through party members. Indeed, the party exists mostly as an electoral machine; otherwise, it works through the government rather than through some independent grassroots organization. Lee Kuan Yew said in 1984, “I make no apologies that the PAP is the Government and the Government is the PAP” (quoted in Milne and Mauzy 1990, p. 85). Overall, we see that Singapore moved to democracy and independence as its citizens protested against British colonial rule, but the PAP rapidly established one-party rule after 1963. Since then, the economy has boomed, inequality has been low, and the PAP has maintained power through relatively benign means, fostering popularity through extensive social welfare programs as well as engaging in threats and coercion. Although there has been imprisonment and harassment, there have been no “disappearances” and there is apparently little opposition to PAP rule and little pressure for political change.
- Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson, Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy (2006)
Singapore has become a stratified society. Years of unevenly distributed growth in a neoliberal growth regime has led to emergence of a class of working and non-working poor who face insurmountable challenges in uplifting themselves from a cycle of poverty.
- Irene Y. H. Ng, (August 2015)"Being Poor in a Rich “Nanny State”: Developments in Singapore Social Welfare". The Singapore Economic Review 60 (03): 1550038. DOI:10.1142/S0217590815500381. Republished in Lim, Linda Y. C., ed. Singapore's Economic Development: Retrospection And Reflections. World Scientific. p. 279. ISBN 978-981-4723-48-0.

Our maritime cluster today is vibrant, comprising more than 130 international ship groups and more than 5000 maritime companies across the full range of industry. We are well positioned to serve as a gateway to Asia, and provide a platform for businesses to benefit from the shifting of centre of gravity to this region
- Ms Josephine Teo, Senior Minister of State for Finance and Transport, quoted on Today Online.com, "Government committed to supporting Singapore’s maritime hub status", March 19, 2014.

Against this macroeconomic backdrop, the outlook for the Singapore economy remains cautiously positive.
- The Ministry of Singapore, quoted on BBC News, "Singapore growth exceeds estimates in fourth quarter", February 21, 2013.

The slash-and-burn technique being used is the cheapest land-clearing method and it is not only used by local farmers, but also employees of palm oil investors including Singaporean and Malaysian companies. We hope the governments of Malaysia and Singapore will tell their investors to adopt proper measures so we can solve this problem together
- Hadi Daryanto, an official at Indonesia's Forestry Ministry on Singapore 'slash and burn', quoted on BBC News, "Singapore hit by highest haze levels in 16 years", June 18, 2013.

Singapura means lion-city; prehistoric, myopic, Sanskrit-speaking visitors having spotted a mangy tiger or two in the mangroves. Sly Malays sometimes call it Singa pura-pura, which means ‘pretending to be a lion’….It is a profoundly provincial town pretending to be a metropolis.
- The Right to an Answer by Anthony Burgess (1960)
Singapore. You look at their airports and their highways and their roads, and their everything, their infrastructure, and then you come back at home and you land at LaGuardia, you land at JFK, you land at LAX or Newark, and it's third world airports. It's so sad what has happened to our country.
- Donald Trump, Interview with Maria Bartiromo and Charlie Gasparino, Fox Business News, American Presidency Project, (20 August 2015)

But democracies also took root because they generally outperformed autocracies in raising living standards. Markets do not always require democracy in order to function: South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and China all developed successful economies under less than democratic conditions. The Cold War experience showed, though, that it is not easy to keep markets open and ideas constrained at the same time. And since markets proved more efficient than command economies in allocating resources and enhancing productivity, the resulting improvement in people s lives, in turn, strengthened democracies.
- John Lewis Gaddis, The Cold War: A New History, pp. 265 (2006)

We got used to dividing the world into industrialized countries and developing countries – rich and poor. However, four East Asian tigers would soon disrupt our worldview. The British colony of Hong Kong and the city-state of Singapore did the opposite of all other countries, and opened their economies wide, without trade barriers. The experts claimed that free trade would knock out the small manufacturing sectors they had, but, on the contrary, they industrialized at a record pace and shocked the outside world by becoming even richer than the old colonial master, Britain. Taiwan and South Korea learned from this and began to liberalize their economies with amazing results. Their rapid growth took them from being some of the poorest countries in the world to some of the richest in a few generations. It was a global wake-up call because it was so easy to compare what the Chinese in Taiwan achieved compared to the Chinese in Mao’s China, and what the Koreans in the capitalist south created compared to the Koreans in the communist north. In the mid-1950s, Taiwan was only marginally richer than China. In 1980, it was four times richer. In 1955, North Korea was richer than South Korea. (The north was, after all, where mineral resources and power generation were located when the country was partitioned.) Today, South Korea is twenty times richer than North Korea.
- Johan Norberg, The Capitalist Manifesto: Why the Global Free Market Will Save the World (2023)

Singapore is not a normal place. Roughly five million people are crammed into a single city. ... The Singaporean government understands the central position Singapore holds in global finance, manufactures, and energy trade. Part of that understanding is an acknowledgment that every major power spies on Singapore incessantly. As such, the government maintains a track-and-trace program for foreigners as a matter of course.
- Peter Zeihan, "The State of the Pandemic: East Asia" (8 June 2020), Zeihan on Geopolitics

It is a great honor for me to be in this beautiful country, which with its small territory, but enormous abilities has become a focus of general admiration. Singapore stands out with its unique model of economic development, welfare and social progress, as well as for its cultural characteristics. We, the Armenians entertain special feelings for Singapore. The Armenians boast deeply-rooted historical ties with Singapore. It is no coincidence that the oldest Christian church in Singapore is the 184 years old Armenian church. And today, of course, we are proud that the small but vibrant Armenian community has left a worthy mark in one of the most beautiful parts of the world, which the whole world admires. We are pleased that the material and spiritual Armenian heritage of Singapore is cared for and preserved with due thoughtfulness.
- Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, "Speech during official visit to Singapore" (2019)

Singapore’s success was in part attributable to its ability to build on valuable aspects of colonial heritage.
- The case for colonialism, Bruce Gilley, Department of Political Science, Portland State University, Portland, OR, USA, Page 1 South African opposition politician 'Helen Zille' in 2017.

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