Take the case of Seow Hock Hin, 36, when he parked his car outside his own house, a normal everyday affair of people everywhere. Motorists park where it is not disallowed.

In Singapore there is a little known law that forbids parking outside a designated lot (for a fee, of course) if it is gazetted as a parking place, whether or not there are signboards or white or yellow lines.

The case has come as a shock to Seow and many Singaporeans, battle hardened as they are by their country's web of rules and regulations.

Quite a few of the traffic laws – it is suspected – are designed to raise revenue.

The general understanding is that the space in front of someone's gate is a normal home for a car unless it is marked an offence or is blocking traffic.

The case may be a small matter in the eyes of the law, but for people who treasure their personal freedom, it represents another unnecessary legal crimp on their lives.

For a generation, Singaporeans have been used to being tightly regulated, and frankly this has its benefits. Theirs has become a clean and orderly city where crime and corruption remain low.

As a result, people are especially careful. Not flushing a public toilet after use is an offence and the sale of chewing gum is still controlled.

They have plenty of training since young. In schools, hair cannot be too long or skirts too short and coloured bras for girls are banned.

For boys who reach 18, the army takes over the disciplining during two years of national service.

Once I was a guest speaker at a premium school and watched in admiration as 700 students, aged 15-16 marched with silent, military precision into the auditorium and sat in neat rows.

You could hear a pin drop. That's a typical well-behaved Singapore school.

But the perception of an overly regulated city doesn't go well with its ambition to become flourishing global city that is comparable to London, New York or Tokyo.

Since Lee Kuan Yew's departure as Prime Minister in 1990, his successors have been trying to shed the city's image of being a tightly controlled society.

Seow's ordeal began last year when he received a S$50 (RM115) fine for parking in front of his Katong home, something he and his neighbours had been doing for years.

"There were no double yellow lines outside anywhere," he explained.

Thinking it was a mistake, he wrote to the authorities asking for a waiver.

"My car was obstructing only the entrance to my house. It was obstructing only me," he said.

It was turned down.

Meanwhile, he received a second summons for the same offence. He went to court and lost, incurring a fine of S$1400 (RM3,220) and S$8000 (RM18,400) in legal fees.

The reason surprised him and other motorists who have little knowledge about legal gazettes concerning roads.

At the hearing he was told that his stretch of road had been designated as a parking place although there were no signboards informing the public of this rule. This meant, "that no parking is allowed outside of a parking lot."

"The authorities would have done better to issue him with a warning and then start a programme to publicise this little known rule," suggested a businessman.

In the past decade, however, there has been a general loosening up of some social controls.

A host of rules has quietly disappeared, such as banning kids to play football, loud music, cycling in the void decks of public housing blocks.

One by one they were removed – unannounced. Jukeboxes (once banned) returned; so did video game shops.

Censorship has been relaxed. Last week, the government announced it would legalise oral and anal sex in private between consenting adults.

In movies, nude scenes are allowed under an X-rated classification for adults over 21.

Conservative citizens generally agree that a set of laws strictly enforced will always be needed to protect order and stability.

Singaporeans live in one of the densest cities in the world, so strict laws are needed to prevent friction arising from the over-crowdedness.

In the Old Economy, Singapore had prospered under a legal-based system based on compliant workers and obedient students. Today, this could be disastrous; the need is for a thinking, creative population.

A local business leader said Singaporeans need to rid themselves of the mindset that before doing something, they have to seek the approval of a higher authority.

In the United States, for example, where U-Turn is not allowed, the authorities would put up a sign on the road saying so, said Creative CEO and chairman Sim Wong Hoo.

"In Singapore, it is the reverse. When there is no sign on the road, you are not allowed to make U-turns.

"When the authority allows you to make U-turns, then they will put up signs to give you that right," Sim said.

The social repercussion of the difference is significant.

"When there is no rule, we cannot do anything. We become paralysed," he added.

The republic has produced managers who were told to toe the line.

"(But) the world is changing faster and faster. Yesterday's rules are no longer valid and new ones need to be set.

"Things are no more black or white, things are in shades of grey. How do we deal with them?" Sim added.

o Seah Chiang Nee is a veteran journalist and editor of the information website littlespeck.com

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