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

[Michel Bauwens]

Hi Andy,
I know too little about the genesis of Singapore when it was created as a
separation from Malaysia. I'm guessing that the city was dominated by some
Chinese families, which consolidated their power, but made the necessary
compromises to be acceptable.

Still, give me ten LKW for any Mugabe at any time ...

Michel

On Wed, Apr 15, 2009 at 7:10 PM, Andy Robinson <ldxar1 at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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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