between authoritarian Singapore under LKY and authoritarian Malaysia under Dr. M, which would you prefer?
Without going into specific details, I would prefer the former because overall, the citizens enjoy higher standards of living as a result of higher incomes, with the nation having more reserves. We may appear to have more freedom (as a result of poor enforcement?) but certain cases of persecution were much more severe than those of Singapore's general lack of freedom as a result of effective enforcement (think 'fine' city and law suits which tended to bankrupt political opponents). We had the famous 'black eye' despite the assurance from then PM that Anwar was 'safe and sound'.
Malaysia had the benefit of much more natural resources (including human, but effectively 'pushed' out by discrimination) yet could not show in terms of uplifting the living standards of the people, except an exclusive few, because of rampant and blatant corruption and leakages in public spending.
I am of the opinion that we should look after the wellbeing of the people first, instead of prestigious projects which bear no semblance to the real situation, where there are still a great number of people without basic necessities and amenities.
I was prompted by a posting in Malaysia Chronicles, 'Death of matriarch lifts veil on Singapore's first family' which attracted some comments (for and against) which turned personal between two commentators!
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