What the West can learn from Singapore

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Singapore’s GDP per capita is more than 4 per cent higher than that in the United States: US$88,500 (S$120,000) compared with US$85,000.

Singapore has reduced inequality significantly – from 0.47 to 0.37 (as measured by the Gini coefficient, a measure by which 0 equals complete equality and 1 represents complete inequality)

the life expectancy in Singapore is longer (83 years) than that in the United States (76 years) and Britain (81 years).

Singaporeans have much less freedom to exercise their political rights. According to Human Rights Watch, Singapore’s “political environment remains overwhelmingly repressive”.

Do they care more about the freedom to speak their minds and support an opposition party, or what Singaporean businessman Calvin Cheng has described as the freedom to walk safely “in the wee hours in the morning, to be able to leave one’s door open and not fear being burgled” and “knowing our children can go to school without fear of drugs, or being mowed down by some insane person with a gun”?

Qn: Consider the view that efficient government is more important than democracy. (Cam. 2011)