Is Singapore a Model for the West?

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But what makes Singapore work would hardly succeed in the individualist West. There are hefty penalties, vigorously enforced, on human foibles: littering ($625), failing to flush a public toilet ($94) or eating on the subway ($312). The sale of chewing gum was banned last year, and 514 people were convicted of illegally smoking in public. A drumbeat of official publicity regularly enjoins Singapore Man to be more industrious, more courteous, thinner, healthier. Last year the government attacked his habit of arriving fashionably late at Chinese banquets as "a growing problem with wide implications for national productivity."

Sometimes dubbed Singapore, Inc., the nation had its credo set by visionary economic architect Goh Keng Swee: "Government policy must be directed to the pursuit of business excellence." The country is the world's busiest container port, the third largest oil-refining center, the major exporter of computer disk drives. Its manufacturing relies on multinational corporations, and it has attracted some 3,000 foreign companies with generous tax breaks, ultramodern telecommunications, an efficient airport and tame labor unions.

The industrial policy debate here was settled long ago: the government coldly ushers fading industries like textiles offstage, and targets promising new ones like biotechnology with investment, grants and retraining of workers. Oddly in such a capitalist nirvana, the government owns scores of firms, from the telephone, electricity and airline companies to banks, supermarkets and taxis, but they all run on a competitive, profitmaking basis. Says a Western analyst: "Fortune 500 executives love it here because the government runs the country the way AT&T would."

Providing, that is, that AT&T could ignore the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The country depicts itself as a British-style parliamentary democracy with regular elections, but in practice the ruling People's Action Party, which has held power since home rule in 1959, tolerates only token opposition, and the government owns the TV stations and indirectly controls the press.

The government has vast legal powers to stifle dissent: an Internal Security Act that allows detention without trial, sharp restrictions on any statements that might stir racial or religious tension, and tough libel and slander laws. These have cowed most political opposition. "There is an undercurrent of fear," says a young man who left to live overseas. But Information Minister George Yeo does not apologize for "a political process that forces people to speak responsibly."

Most citizens would agree with Goh, the small businessman: "We have plenty of freedom here, except political freedom." And for most, that is just fine. Singapore is a nation of immigrants from countries historically ravaged by chaos and poverty. The average Singaporean is conservative and family- oriented, and cares most about two things: money and security. He approves of hanging drug dealers and locking up gangsters without trial. He has struck a simple social contract, accepting limits on personal freedom in return for prosperity and stability. What holds the deal together is the country's lack of corruption. When officials say some policy, no matter how abrupt or painful, is for the public good, people usually believe them.