Underscoring this reputation in recent days was the silencing of the city-state's most strident opposition voice, Joshua Jeyaretnam, and the government's plan to control political comment on the Internet.

"It is coincidence that they happened at the same time, but the government is afraid," said Jacob George, a spokesman for the civil rights group Think Centre. "One way to look at it is they always want to be in total control. They seem to have been insecure for a long time."

"They" are the People's Action Party (PAP), the only ruler Singapore has known since independence in 1965, with an electoral dominance that makes the party the envy of democracies around the world. The PAP, accused by rights groups of using defamation suits to silence opponents, wins elections without a vote being cast as the opposition cannot muster enough candidates.

In the 83-seat parliament, the opposition benches were reduced from three to two with the expulsion of Mr Jeyaretnam after he was declared bankrupt - weighed down by mounting debts after losing repeated defamation suits brought by PAP members and supporters.

Mr Jeyaretnam - who championed causes such as the promotion of human rights and democracy and the abolition of the Internal Security Act, which allows detention without trial - has been subjected to lawsuits, fines and jail throughout his political career.

To Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's first prime minister and the architect of its rapid growth, Mr Jeyaretnam was a "destructive force".

Building Singapore the Lee way has brought economic success, and he admits to being in favour of also building a political opposition - his way. In the biography Lee Kuan Yew, the Man and His Ideas, he raises the theory of forming a two-party state by splitting the PAP into conservative and liberal wings so "the voter can switch sides without prejudicing the system".

Chiam See Tong, one of two remaining opposition MPs, has other ideas about a two-party state - uniting four parties under a Singapore Democratic Alliance umbrella ahead of the next election, due by August next year.

"The dominance of the one-party rule in Singapore must be checked, for without a strong opposition in Singapore, the dominant party can freely do whatever it likes," he said at the launch of the alliance on July 28.

According to political scientist James Gomez, the government is doing what it likes by governing political content on the Internet without any apparent public consultation. Mr Lee's son, Lee Hsien Loong, deputy prime minister and expected to be the next premier, argues that controls are necessary because of the potential to use the Internet to spread false information.

But Mr Gomez, who recently left the political sidelines to join the Workers' Party, believes governing political comment will backfire on the PAP.

"It's the ruling party's fear of criticism. But by establishing control, it effectively instils fear and the whole element of citizen maturity is not allowed to grow," he said.

Steve Chia, leader of the National Solidarity Party, warned that attempts to restrict the free flow of information "will be seen as an attempt towards suppressing democratisation".

Kevin Liew, president of the Young Democrats, described the move as "another sorry attempt by the PAP" to prevent the opposition from reaching out to voters.

"The PAP's efforts to control the dissemination of political information on the Internet indicates not only its insecurity in open debate but its lack of faith in the people's ability to make up their own minds," he said.

But Deputy Prime Minister Lee says: "The way we have conducted politics, we have tried to channel the debate in a serious direction . . . because, really, politics is a serious business."