Disconnect over S'pore says as much about the West and the rest of the world

THE British newspaper, The Guardian, recently ran an article on Singapore in its "The story of cities" section. The article acknowledged the extraordinary growth of Singapore's gross national product per capita, the jump in its external trade, the increase in life expectancy and its success with public housing.

But then there is the obligatory indictment of Singapore for being a flawed democracy. "The degree of state power that has enabled such extensive and rapidly executed feats of urban planning has also led to policies that appear to the rest of the world as draconian," the article intoned.

Not really. Singapore's policies do not appear draconian to "the rest of the world". They might annoy or enrage liberal opinion in the West and its intellectual suburbs, but that is not "the rest of the world". The rest of the world does not have a uniform opinion of Singapore.