The city-state is still highly regulated and organised top-down, but if you glean the media coverage and the Internet, you’ll see a changed picture.

In 1990, when Goh Chok Tong became Prime Minister, the population was 2.7 million. Now it is 4.2 million (including 800,000 work permits) as Lee Hsien Loong takes over.

Bigger by 50% in 14 years – that would make it the world’s fastest population growth rate.

Statistics aside and despite its strait-laced façade, Singapore today resembles something specially designed for the sensational tabloids, with headlines more worrying than chewing gum and Playboy magazine.

I’m not sure, though, if this is the sort of excitement that “bored” Singaporeans had wanted.

Take Monday morning. Citizens picked up their newspapers and received a shock. On the front pages was the kind of story that was not supposed to happen in staid, regulated Singapore.

After hours of hard drinking (and possible drug abuse), a businessman caused a Hollywood-style havoc when he tried to drive his car out of a parking lot in red-light Geylang.

He slammed into nine vehicles as he darted uncontrollably forward and backward, tragically killing his close friend and a Chinese woman, running over her twice.

At the friend’s wake, he wept hysterically, and – in a generous act of forgiveness – the widow and her two teenage children forgave and consoled him. He has been charged.

Then came the incident of three men who tried to publicly strip a karaoke hostess. When a youth stopped them, they attempted to run him down with their car. He managed to jump out of the way.

On the east coast, the infamous Everitt Road agitator Chan Cheng Khoon, who had entertained Singaporeans off and on with “dancing” antics during a 10-year-long feud with his neighbours, struck again.

He was hauled to court and fined S$4,000 for being abusive and gesturing obscenely at two women. It was all captured on tape.

The quarrels had been attracting locals – and Johoreans – who gathered outside his house to wait for the action to start.

The quarrels had been going on for years. Chan had trained powerful lights at his neighbours' homes, shouted insults and video-filmed them. He claimed they had provoked him.

He was once featured on prime-time TV prancing around in his shorts and challenging his neighbours. Past mediation by various authorities had failed.

This time, the magistrate was less tolerant. He said Chan behaved like a hooligan and called him a liar who showed no remorse. Chan had called one woman a pervert and a bitch and told the other: “Butch, put the camera between your legs.”

Some online fans suggest cynically that he stand for election; another says his home should be turned into a tourist attraction.

Quite perky about the fine, Chan said “Sup sup shui” in Cantonese (“Too small to bother”). Everyone is waiting for the next episode.

And along came the news that more than 100 foreign workers were involved in a brawl at a construction site, sending a Chinese and an Indian national to hospital. Ten were arrested – five Chinese, three Bangladeshi and two Indian nationals.

What has caused this surge of insanity? Some people suggest the answer lies in drinks, sex, soft drugs and generally a freer nightlife. A large foreign influx hasn’t helped.

The underlying fault, some psychologists explain, is a changed generation, a less tolerant people who easily take offence, and a widening “class” divide between the haves and have-nots.

When Singaporeans want – and are given – more personal liberties with less control, they have to contend with its impact. Not everyone can cope with this freedom.

As adults change, youths – who are largely well behaved – are not spared the consequences.

Get Real, a TV documentary, reported a rising number of teenagers who cut themselves in the arm when they are depressed or under stress.

Another programme featured parents who give up on uncontrollable rebellious children, putting them under government charge.

But more worrying are the dysfunctional adults, especially licentious fathers. And the number of broken marriages is on the rise.

For months, the media has spotlighted mainland Chinese women blatantly soliciting customers in housing estates. Some live as mistresses.

Previously, Chinese businessmen had been keeping second wives in Johor but as the costs rose, the practice switched to cheaper Batam. One housing estate there has gained the reputation of being home to many weekend wives, each costing S$600- S$700 to maintain.

Last week, Indonesian authorities announced a crackdown that may cause this “love nest” to lose its lustre.

Under a new law, these “husbands” face a jail term of three months, a fine of about S$1,000 and – more threatening – a march to the marriage office to have it registered.

Promiscuous husbands are a growing threat to marriage and family because Singaporean women, unlike their mothers, are less tolerant of their gallivanting ways. It is a major problem.

Singapore is relatively free of serious crime, but violence caused by petty acts of intolerance is a rising concern, like fighting over queue-jumping, staring or driving incidents.

In one of his films, Jack Neo highlights a worried, declining gang in Singapore, which decided – like every business – to upgrade its skill. It employed a triad “consultant” from Hong Kong, the land of experts, to advise it.

One day, some gangsters turned up with bandaged heads and bruised egos, and to his horror explained they had been in a fight because someone had stared at one of them.

He gave them a tongue-lashing. In Hong Kong, he said, the “brothers” risked life and limb to fight over turf and to make money.

“Here in Singapore, you idiots bash each other up because someone stares at you? Isn’t that brainless?” he asked.

Future headlines may well be more sensational as the new Lee Hsien Loong government is pressured to grant more personal liberties.

Not everyone will enjoy it, though. Some will, in fact, find the effect quite unsavoury for family and safety.

o Seah Chiang Nee is a veteran journalist and editor of the information website littlespeck.com (e-mail: cnseah2000@ littlespeck.com )

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