Democracy in Singapore...

Its insulting to think that Singapore even tries to say its law is based on the British common law.. The judiciary (obviously controlled by the government) ignores signings to international treaties and ignores fundamental rights such as Habeas Corpus..

In the case of that Vietnamese-Australian boy who was hung here's an extract I found that pretty much sums up that moral cesspit of a nation..

"the verdict that Nguyen was trafficking into Singapore is a nonsense. He was arrested in the airport transit lounge while preparing to board a plane for the second leg of a journey from Cambodia to Australia. He had not passed through Singapore immigration and he had no intention of entering Singapore. Even neighbouring Malaysia — which has hanged three Australians for drug trafficking since the 1980s — acknowledges a legal distinction between people who formally enter a country and those who are merely in transit (those found with drugs in transit face a relatively modest jail sentence).

Nguyen's lawyers did not pursue this obvious defence because the Singapore courts — which adopt the airs and trappings of their British colonial ancestry but are in practice a deeply politicised law unto themselves — have flatly refused such arguments in the past."

As for the locals, most never complain because the government acts like the paternal giver. By exploiting foreigners in Asia they use cheap labour to create vast wealth, some of which some is of course distributed to the people. Yet, huge amounts are siphoned off into the pockets of the ministers who created the laws allowing the use of such labour and of course justify their enormous pay cheques by the use of the euphemism "bonuses".

Of course they use many examples to justify their exploitation of these foreign workers and pretend that these "poor foreigners" are really benifiting hugely from their below minimum wage since they've been given a job in a fast-paced, modernised country. I agree, singapore is exceptionally modern but again it was not built on the backs of locals, but from the foreign labour they continually exploit.

As for civil and political rights.. where and when were those ever given?!?!? As far as I know its pretty much a criminal offence to criticise the singapore government. Even if you did, they would sue you for libel, and of course the singapore courts ALWAYS rule in favour of the government so case closed.. you lose and you're bankrupted and any career you wish to pursue is gone.. They even target overseas academics who dare to criticise the Singapore government.

A notable example was an Australian professor who was pretty much bankrupted by the government while living in Australia! The government kept sending high powered lawyers to litigate against him and of course he ran out of resources before the case could be resolved. Logically, how can an individual stand up to the resources of a nation anyway? The Singapore government is vindictive and petty and because it has no coalition and there is almost no opposition to the PAP party this will probably never change. They also practice nepotism insofar as high ranking government officials promote members of their families. Most notably Lee Kuan Yew's son Lee Hsien Loong taking over as Prime Minister.

On a side note he is perhaps one of the most horrible people I know of. He has a supercilious air about him, his arrogance borders on narcissism and his inability to show empathy was so very clearly displayed when he went to see survivors of the 2004 Tsunami. Stepping out of a helicopter grinning broadly is the last thing survivors of that disaster wished to see. He also prances around self importantly in a Brigadier Generals uniform (holding the title obviously) which was given to him as an honorary title usually bestowed on monarchs in a constitutional monarchy. The arrogance in holding such a title is very clear.

lol I wouldn't expect many people to read this but if you do think about it and consider the implications of allowing such an immoral government and above all immoral rulers to remain in power.