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I talked today to a local writer who had lived and worked in Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Mainland. Obviously, Hong Kong is the freest place of the three. But when I asked which was the least free, he surprised me: “Singapore.” Perhaps, he mused, that’s because it’s just easier to keep track of 4.5 million people on an island state than over a billion across a vast semi-continent. But still he insisted, it was so.
sinz54 // Apr 13, 2010 at 9:30 am
Well, your local writer is wrong.
Any state with one-party rule (like China) is unfree.
Freedom House agrees with me on that. China is rated “Not Free,” and Singapore is rated “Partly Free.”
Singapore has a multiparty parliamentary system. But there are plenty of restrictions on what the political opposition can do. Still, it is possible to belong to a political party that is critical of the Government’s policies without being thrown in jail. China won’t even allow that.
Independent // Apr 13, 2010 at 9:56 am
DavidF, I can appreciate you might be a little thin on coming up with relevant and insightful posts from the Mainland… but this line “I talked today to a local writer” sounds like “I talked to this latte maker at the Starbucks in my hotel and he told me that he thought Sarah Palin was the worst ever… and he like, he goes, he doesn’t like Dick Cheney the torturer either.” “So I goes, dude, I don’t like her or him either. Wanna do a knuckle-tap, dude?”
Like Jeb Golinkin, you need to take some time before writing, DavidF, and reflect. I’m sure you can even do better with questioning the maid making up the bed tomorrow about what she thinks of Britney or the IPad. It would be as relevant.
Gheesh.
msmilack // Apr 13, 2010 at 10:53 am
I’d love some examples from all three places if you have time (or when you get back). Free in what sense or to do what? Have you noticed any unusual restrictions as a tourist or visitor?
Sunny // Apr 13, 2010 at 9:10 pm
Reminds me of something I read somewhere, about someone saying that Russia was, in its way, more free than the US. It isn’t so much a matter of which government is the most officially free, but had more to do with the number of minor rules and regulations directly impacting daily life.
“People who live in the post-totalitarian system know only too well that the question of whether one or several political parties are in power, and how these parties define and label themselves, is of far less importance than the question of whether or not it is possible to live like a human being.” (Vaclav Havel)
Leigh52 // Apr 18, 2010 at 9:36 pm
I live in China now, and have spent time in Singapore. That answer doesn’t surprise me at all. In China, everyone seems to know where the line is, and they tiptoe up to it and sometimes cross it – some laws, for example, are just not enforced (see pirated DVD shops, traffic laws). In Singapore, individual action feels much more restricted.