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Besides from Singapore’s unique political and economic configuration the city is an interesting place to visit. The cheer surprise of encountering scores of Chinese people who speak good English  is almost worth the whole trip.

Last year I finally had the pleasure of visiting the worlds only city state – Singapore. Placed on the most southern tip of the Malaysian Peninsula this unique is cities in the world which is the most comparable to micro Denmark. With a population of only 4.9 million Singapore is one of the smallest asian countries and the 3rd most densely populated country in the world.

One of the most interesting fact is however that just 65 years the country was nothing but a pile of ruins in a swamp. Today Singapore is richest country in Asia, surpassing even Japan in GDP per capita.

Partly due to the these reasons the Singapore story is a fascinating and intriguing one. However, most people have never heard of the Singapore story and know the city as the “fine” city of Singapore. This refers the draconic fines for littering that are imposed in Singapore.

Needless to say i was looking forward to inspect the city state with my own eyes.

One of the first things that stuck me when i first arrived is that although Singapore is one of the most densely populated cities in

the world, it does not feel that cramped. The reason is that almost all the people are stacked on top of one another in skyscrapers. Singapore is a city of skyscrapers, some of them newly build with reflective shiny glass facades giving certain neighbourhoods a very futuristic look.

Considering that Singapore is quite near equator i thought it would be swelling hot and unbearable. But it wasn’t as bad as I thought. The temperature is 32 C almost all year around. There is a two month rainy season but besides from that Singapore does not really have seasons. Another factor which makes the life in Singapore more tolerable is the fresh breeze from the surrounding ocean.

Singaporean Chinese New year

Since the majority of Singaporeans are Chinese the city has an overall Chinese wibe to it. There are numerous opportunities to eat chinese cuisine, as well as a few dishes unique to Singapore. I was fortunate enough to be treated to numerous dishes by my friends.

Even luckier was that I was able to attend Singaporeans Chinese newyear  at one my friends places. Chinese newyear is equal to our christmas and the family and friends all gather together. In Singapore there is a special new year ritual apparently not found in China: Everyone gathers around a huge plate with different colored vegetables, fish and some noodles. At a given signal everyone rushes in and starts raising the vegetables and noodles into the with chopsticks while shouting “gongxi facai”.

The custom is called “lao yu”. Lao means to dredge or to fish out, “yu” means fish but also sounds like surplus which is considered a good omen.

After the dinner all the young people immediately gather around and starting playing cards – for money. For me it was a bit quaint to see such “rampart gambling” at a family arrangement. What made it even funnier was that a new casino was opening in Singapore at the same time. It had sparked huge public debate and some controversy. Yet at new year, their equivalent to Christmas, the Singaporeans all get together and gamble?

The “fine” city

As the tales go Singapore is overall extremely clean. One thing that did surprise me is that there are also city places in Singapore. One of them was Little India, the indian neighbourhood. So the draconic fine laws are not equally enforced everywhere it seemed.

However, the laws in Singapore are overall just very strict. In the late 1960ties Singapore was a city ripe with crime. Organized crime, gangs and widespread drug abuse was destroying the Singaporian society. The government reacted with a zero tolerance policy; Extensive raids and long jail sentences for even pretty criminal and drug addicts. The trial was not was the most fair one and as the President of Singapore said some 20 years later: “Many of them are probably still in jail.”

In the 1980ties Singapore received massive criticism from human rights groups for the execution of drug smugglers. Death penalties with no option for parole was given for even comparatively small amounts narcotics. For better or for worse the policies seems to have had an effect: In Singapore narcotics are very rare and more important the average Singaporeans attitude towars drugs is very different from the west. At a dinner party with my Singaporeans friends I said that I thought cannabis should be legalized (a not uncommon political viewpoint in Denmark). However it caused a quiet outrage amongst my friends who were truly shocked by such a statement.

On a final note I tried to talk to my former Singaporean teacher about the littering fines and civil liberties. He made a very amusing rebuttal that i still recall clearly this day today:  ”So… you want to go protest for your right to throw garbage?”

The Multicultural Utopia (?)

Singapore is a truly multi religious and multi ethnic society. While the majority is ethnic Chinese there is a large Indian and Malay minority as well as a small minority of Caucasians and Arabs. Religion is even more fragmented with the largest group being Buddhist (42%) Islam, Christians and Atheists compose roughly 15% each with the rest being Hindus, Taoists and other. Considering the wealth of the country one should think that Singapore is the prime argument for multi culturalism but after I learnt more I had second thoughts. In the early days of the Nation of Singapore it was a place where ethnic and religious tensions was a serious problem. There were several violent clashes between ethnic groups and riots were common. Today Singapore is a calm and tranquil place, but at a price. To maintain “ethnic harmony” the Singaporeans government has quotas of how many of each race are allowed to live in each neighbourhood to avoid the formation of ethnic ghettos. So the harmonious multicultural is maintained at the price of limiting individual freedom.

Capitalist Paradise or Fascist state?

To have the government tell you where you can live might bring some people to think of the good old Soviet Union and label Singapore as a totalitarian socialist or fascist state. I have heard the term “fascist state” applied to Singapore many times over – but Singapore is hard to classify politically. My own view very severely challenged as I found out more about the details of Singapore. Because Singapore has extremely low taxes I always used to think that Singapore was a liberal utopia where personal personal and economic freedom was the main paradigm. But it is not so at all. To start with economic freedom, Singapore is near the top of the rankings. For comparisons sake I should mention that welfare-Denmark is usally ranked around 9 in the world. Capitalist USA around 8. I spite of the low taxes and high economic freedom the government owns or controls almost 60% of the country’s GDP though state investment funds. Singapore is sometimes classified as a “State Capitalist Market Economy”, combining free markets and central economic planning. However, all this is just numbers. In other areas the Singaporean government (attempts) to interfere with lives of ordinary citizens in ways that even a former member of the Danish Socialist party would never have thought of. To stimulate child births the Singaporean government used to run its own state dating programme. When you graduated from university you were automatically enrolled into the programme and offered to particiate in activies with other members. The programme was under the acronym of SDU (the Social Dating Unit), but amongst ordinary citizens it became known as “Single Desperate and Ugly”. Nowadays the government has outsourced the dating to private companies but still retains the right to rubber stamp and recommend certain dating agencies. Having the government trying to fix your up seems absurd to me; and definitely much worse than if your mother tries to fix you up with someone. Absurd or not I still have to commend the government’s will to seriously do something about the birth rate problem. The Singaporean birthrate is a petty 1.22 and far below reproduction rate.

Singapore is not a democracy. But to label it a totalitarian dictatorship in the same league as China is too far in the other trench. In most international ranking of democracy and freedom Singapore usually comes in somewhere between semi-democracy/semi-free and undemocratic/unfree. Singapore does have elections, but they are not up to western standards. Also opposition parties face numerous obstructions from the government, mainly in form of lawsuits. Still, the government might still be able to keep power even in the absence of this form of civilized oppression. One thing which really stuck me as odd was the great reverence for the government in my Singaporean friends. Singapore was pretty much made by the Peoples Action Party and its charismatic leader Lee Kuan Yew. I was surprised at the general confidence in the skills of the government, as opposed to Denmark where everyone expects the government to be incompetent. Over beers and spend many hours listen to the stories of how the government manged to secure strategic water supplies, attract foreign investment, remove crime, raise taxes on alcohol and lower the tax on honest labor and many other wise moves. However, I also sensed an undertone of anxiety. Singapore is okay because the government has been so competent so far. That is to say if the government is suddenly not competent anymore Singapore will decline.

One feature that sets Singapore apart from many other dictatorship is the general absence of corruption, two things that normally go hand in hand in other places. The most befitting label I can think of for Singapore is a “competent dictatorship”.

So what is the future of Singapore? The little city has managed to navigate the financial crises and made an impressive comeback with double digit GDP growth in the last year. The growth probably will not continue in the same pace, but it is clearly preferable to the negative growth which prevails in many European countries. There is probably a lesson to be learned from this small Asian country. for this very reason the danish prime minister went to Singapore on an official in February 2010.