Quora Answer: What Do Singaporeans Who Have been Overseas Think of Singapore’s Political System?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “What do Singaporeans, who have lived and studied overseas, think about the Singapore political system?”

It may not be perfect, but it is better than what I have seen elsewhere.  Unlike most people, I do not believe in democracy.  I do not believe that every person should have the right to vote.  I think people should qualify for that right to vote, like how the Ancient Athenians did.  Citizenship is a privilege, and those privileges should be taken seriously.

Rather, the average person, who is emotionally moved, vested with self-interest, unable to consider the longer term, and ignorant of the very issues being tabled is far more dangerous to the country than a foreign invader.  It is a subtle, insidious sort of threat. In most democracies, the majority oppress the minority to an extent.  If we consider, for example, the phenomenon of Brexit and Trump’s presidency, most democracies are forms of idiocracies.

Unfortunately, Singapore is a form of democracy.  Fortunately, as a socialist democratic state, there is a certain authoritarianism that functions as a check against short-termism.  The ideal function of democracy is to give the masses the illusion that they have a choice, whilst an educated elite actually guides the ship of state for a long-term strategic goal.  As long as there is an emphasis on prosperity, growth and the distribution of wealth, that democracy functions.  The moment it veers towards oppressive authoritarianism and elitism, there will be political violence.

When open democracies criticise Singapore for its perceived lack of freedoms, what they really criticise is the threat to their model of anarchism.  A democracy that emphasises, for example, unfettered freedom of speech over responsible speech, feeds racism, class warfare, religious discrimination and divisiveness.  This allows political parties to play groups against each other for their own benefit.  An open democracy is paradoxically less free, in that sense.  True freedom is found in security, religious and ethnic harmony and prosperity.  It is not mere words and writing.