Singapore
Singapore is a-one-inch-wide city-state on an island at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula.
As a financial hub and popular tourist destination, Singapore is a thriving modern economy, and maintains generally good relations with the rest of the world, despite its repressive regime and questionable human rights record.
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[edit] Government
Singapore is effectively a one-party Democracy, ruled by the People's Action Party (PAP), who have a fairly annoying tendency of disliking free speech and commies. But the PAP happily maintains a strictly disciplined party-affiliated youth league and Singapore maintains friendly diplomatic relations with North Korea.[1] (Irony.) The PAP also seem to dislike the Internet.[2] However, they have taken a dramatic step towards free speech by telling protesters that they can protest in some designated park that almost no one goes to, as long as they don't talk about ethnicity or religion.[3] There have been no major politicians in Singapore of non-Chinese ethnicity since the city-state became independent in 1965. They also like executing and censoring people, and hate drugs. Oh, and they also believe in family values "Asian Values."[4] They do ban certain Jack Chick publications, which is a plus.[5]
For decades after its independence, Singapore was governed by Lee Kuan Yew, though his son Lee Hsien Loong (who served in Singapore's armed forces while his daddy was in charge and miraculously became a general at thirty-two — purely on merit, of course) now runs the country. Goh Chok Tong ruled the city briefly in between, though Lee Kuan Yew is on record as stating that this was only so that claims of nepotism could be denied with a straight face when his son ascended to office.
The city operates an investment firm called Temasek Holdings, which manages a portfolio of over 200 billion dollars — larger than JP Morgan and approximately equal to the entire GDP of Singapore. By an astronomical coincidence, Temasek's CEO is Ho Ching, the wife of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Lee has stated publicly that his feelings are greatly hurt by the suggestion that nepotism was involved, and he and his father have both been notoriously litigious toward political critics over the years.[6]
With a salary of 1.7 million USD per year, reduced from an initial 2.9 million per year under mounting public outrage, Lee Hsien Loong is the highest-paid head of state in the world by a substantial margin.[7]
Homosexual activity remains criminalized under Section 377A of Singapore's penal code. The government claims that they have bowed to public pressure and will no longer enforce this prohibition but seem quite uninterested in bowing to public pressure by taking it off the books.
Lee Kuan Yew and his son are both teetotalers and nonsmokers, and so will likely be around to administer their notorious brand of government for quite some time to come.
[edit] Economy
Banking is a major part of the Singapore economy. Though on some level, Singapore may appear to have little corruption, the banking industry has historically been closely tied with laundering ill-gotten gains from neighboring counties in Southeast Asia.[8][9] This can appear particularly ironic to those in the know when Singapore annually suffers from very bad air pollution caused by forest fires in neighboring Indonesia, some of which are associated with illegal land clearing.
[edit] Laws and punishments
Thanks to the use of caning as a common punishment, Singapore has the crime problem beaten (it can be a real pain in the ass). Singapore also has among the highest execution rates in the world, measured against its population. The death penalty is mandatory for murder and drug- and gun-trafficking offences.
In Singapore's justice system, a single judge decides all questions of both law and fact at a trial. An appeal process exists, but is largely irrelevant, since criticizing the objectivity of the trial court, or any other Singaporean court, in any way will (by law, termed scandalizing the court) result in your appeal being dismissed without consideration and additional criminal charges filed against you.
Singapore is also known for its curious obsession with cleanliness. Mundane actions such as littering, spitting, jaywalking, chewing gum, and even forgetting to flush the toilet are illegal. Usually, the punishment for such actions is a heavy fine, which is why many locals call Singapore a "fine city." While many consider these laws to be harsh, at least the city is very environmentally clean, giving Singapore its reputation as the "world's cleanest city."
In common with Malaysia, some laws in Singapore are faith-specific. For example, Muslims, and only Muslims, can legally practice polygamy.
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ No visa is required for Singapore citizens traveling to North Korea and vice-versa!
- ↑ "PAP moves to counter criticism of party, Govt in cyberspace"
- ↑ http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_269629.html
- ↑ http://www.unu.edu/unupress/asian-values.html
- ↑ http://freethinker.co.uk/2009/06/15/loopy-evangelical-tracts-land-singapore-couple-in-jail/
- ↑ http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/09/24/singapore-feer-idUSSP35267420080924
- ↑ http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/06/uk-singapore-politics-idUSLNE81503N20120206
- ↑ Human Rights Watch World Report 2011
- ↑ Layout candid recorded videos to corruption in Sarawak Directorate Taib Imam