“[I]t has a lot to do with the erosion of the moral underpinnings of a society and the diminution of personal responsibility. The liberal, intellectual tradition that developed after World War II claimed that human beings…would be better off if they were allowed to do their own thing and flourish. It has not worked out…Westerners have abandoned an ethical basis for society…”
Thus saith Lee Kuan Yew in an interview he gave to the Foreign Affairs magazine in 1994.
He surmised that democracy equals Western values and Western values equal individualism. Individualism, in turn, brings about moral decadence leading society to eventual ruin. Democratic values, by implication, must be rejected.
The ‘erosion of moral underpinnings’
Ethics and morality are terms Mr Lee chooses to frame the discussion of the success – or failure – of a society. Against this premise, let us examine the situation in Singapore and the kind of society he has forced on this country.
Our sex industry is thriving where high- and low-end sex workers flood the island. In 2007, 5,400 unlicensed prostitutes were arrested, an increase of 25 percent from the previous year. We have become the centre for the trafficking of sex workers.
And where prostitutes gather, so will pimps. With pimps come gangs and with gangs come crime – violent crime. Orchard Plaza, a venue permeated with adult stores and sex bars, came into the spotlight recently where a gang, wielding machetes, brutally murdered a man in the wee hours of the morning.
Another gang, also with parangs, went on a chopping spree in Kallang, killing one and severely wounding another including hacking off the victim’s fingers.
Retiree, Mr Lee Kaw, had gone to buy a newspaper in the evening. When he stepped into a lift, another man pulled out a knife and slashed him across the throat. Mr Lee stumbled out and with blood gushing from his neck, managed to get help from neighbours.
“First, you must have order in society,” Mr Lee lectured. “Guns, drugs and violent crime all go together, threatening social order.”
We may not have guns in Singapore but knives do just as well.
And drugs? A Reuters report stated: “Evidence tells of the emergence of an underground party drug scene mostly at night clubs frequented by the wealthy.” In 2007 heroin arrests exploded by 600 percent.
Our youths are violent too
On youths Mr Lee said: “Then the schools; when you have violence in schools, you are not going to have education, so you’ve got to put that right.” That’s the rhetoric.
Here’s the reality: In Singapore, students are killing students. Nineteen-year-old, Darren Ng, was cut to death in a youth-gang fight, a group of teenagers, in which the youngest member was 8, went on a rampage slashing passers-by at Bukit Panjang; two boys, aged 12 and 14, punched and robbed an elderly man in Ang Mo Kio; a gang of three, aged 13, 15 and 18, nearly severed the hand of a man in a violent confrontation. All this in a matter of weeks over November and December last year. (See here)
Then on Christmas eve, youths fought each other in three separate incidents: a couple was attacked at Downtown East (the place where Darren Ng was killed) and left the man with blood dripping from his eye; 10 youths attacked another at Orchard Road until he was unconscious and in critical condition; and a brawl took place at Clarke Quay leaving the victim with a broken nose. (See here)
Democratic values to blame?
The liberal, intellectual tradition has abandoned an ethical basis for society?
Let’s look at the facts. Singapore is not even a democratic society, let alone a liberal one, where individuals enjoy political rights. It is very much a state where the ruling party sits on top of all and sundry and directs society from its perch.
And yet, we are seeing drugs, crime, and youth violence hit this country like never before.
In truth, it is not that liberal democracy causes social breakdown as Mr Lee would have us believe, rather it is the wayward policies forced on the population by this regime.
Much of this is fueled by the PAP’s lust for all that glitters. Its relentless push to achieve GDP growth, no matter the havoc that it wreaks on society, is inflicting much injury on the social arrangement in this country.
The opening up of the casinos and the re-writing of our banking laws to turn Singapore into a tax haven has opened up our society to easy money for the Government. The result of such a policy cocktail is an explosion of crime and vice in this country.
The irony is that without democracy, dissenting – and moderating – voices are silenced. The PAP, with all its machinations of the electoral system and the control of the media, continues to tell us the lie that democracy is bad and dictatorship is good.
For our part, the Singapore Democrats will continue to speak up. More important, however, Singaporeans must wake up to the dangers that we face with an autocratic PAP.
In Part 2, we will take a further look at the erosion of social order in Singapore and examine its causes.
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