[p2p-research] Fwd: online coverage of thai political crisis

[Andy Robinson]

Singapore have floggings and executions on the books, some for minor
offences, and has a lot of draconian prohibitions on the books (banning
chewing gum, gay sex, eating on public transport...) which reek of Victorian
Daily Mail nonsense.  That people can be effectively tortured as a legally
prescribed punishment for minor "offences" surely negates the advantage of
it not happening behind closed doors.  I'd also guess that the
attractiveness of the country to outsiders is largely due to its relative
wealth, which in turn allows the other benefits (such as welfare).  It's a
bit of an anomaly, being a city-state with no internal rural hinterland,
which in effect is an unfair advantage - neighbouring countries have to deal
with problems (rural migration to cities, maintaining a rural support-base,
effects of rural poverty) which are really world-systemic problems but which
are unevenly distributed among nation-states...  A lot of people want to
live in Britain or America or Australia too, it doesn't mean people in these
countries are happy or free, least of all migrants.  My big quarrel is with
the whole ideological position of communitarianism and the denial of any
value to "individuals" or to difference, the idea that order or the
wellbeing of the conformist selfsame is the ultimate ethical value which
trumps the things which really matter.  The complacent wellbeing of the
included is always bought with the blood of the excluded, directly or
indirectly.

What you call the "compact" in Singapore sounds pretty typical of
traditional authoritarianisms.  Is it by any chance an "Establishment" type
regime with a quite traditional ruling class?

bw
Andy
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