Singapore: an American perspective
Extracts from an article by DAVID LAMB.
Los Angeles Times
Related: More prosperity
but a little less democracy
SINGAPORE-- a dot at the tip of the Malay Peninsula, not much
bigger than Utah's Zion National Park -- is hardly immune from regional
pressures: Its currency has lost about 15 per cent of its value in the
recent economic troubles and its stock market about 35 per cent.
But the Singaporeans' passion for excellence and strategic planning has positioned the former British colony well not only to survive but, perhaps, even to benefit from the Asian economic crisis.
.....
Singapore also acted early to stem soaring property prices, ordering banks last year to cut back on real estate loans, reducing the amount of land available for development and putting a 100 per cent capital-gains tax on property sold within three years of purchase.
The moves caused a real estate slump in Singapore, but, unlike in other Asian cities, there is no crash scenario in sight here.
Another cushion: Corruption is negligible, and Singapore's banks simply do not engage in the "crony capitalism" -- lending money to influential friends and politicians -- that got Thailand and Indonesia into trouble.
.....
PERFECTION, however, has its price, and Singapore has plenty of critics. They think it is a prissy, antiseptic place, so full of rules and regulations, so controlled by governmental edict, that the human spirit loses its sparkle while creativity and spontaneity are drained from the bloodstream of life.
Even Senior Minister Lee has been saying recently that Singapore needs some "buzz" if it is to be recognised as a truly energised, world-class city. Hongkong has buzz. Bangkok has buzz. Singapore has a soft hum of efficient people doing efficient things in an efficient atmosphere.
Said Mr Simon Tay, a Harvard-educated writer and lawyer, and a Nominated Member of Parliament: "When you sit here in a sidewalk cafe like this and see all this modern stuff around and you have a Government that's setting the agenda for culture, everything tends to feel a little artificial. I think that's why the sterile label stuck on Singapore.
"But the old had to give way to the new for there to be a Singapore. What Singapore is about is being Asian and being modern. We know that if we don't buck up and keep ahead, if Malaysia catches up with us because they are bigger, then we will be swamped."