Bali Expat Forum - Bali Travel Forum

I agree the credit falls to the British for the concept and the kick off - but the Singaporean government has embraced what they were left with by the British and progressed it incredibly since gaining independence.

The Dutch did actually develop quite a lot of infrastructure in Indonesia throughout their time here - granted they did pillage from Indonesia - but whatever they left has decayed beyond usable condition. Take Surabaya for example, it was set up as one of the major trading ports of S.E. Asia - and supposedly the largest in all of the Dutch colonies. Anyone been to Surabaya? Sorry to say, it's a filthy, under-developed hole - there's nothing prosperous or pleasant about the city other than the people and seeing it out the window of an aeroplane as you depart..

ct

responsible governance involves maintaining control and making difficult decisions that represent the interests of all, as opposed to allowing those decisions to be made in the interests of a few because of ignorance amongst voters..

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/ ... 50/1/.html

Mr Goh also touched on liberal democracy. He said as Singapore develops, he believes Singaporeans will want the country's politics to be more liberal.

But Mr Goh said Singapore cannot follow the model of liberal democracy practised in some big countries which allows for unregulated public protests.

He said Singapore is a small country and the whole place will come to a halt if there is a big demonstration in the city.

For a large nation, the rest of the country continues producing, even if there is a demonstration in the capital.

Mr Goh raised the possibility of Singapore having designated areas for people to demonstrate in what he called a managed kind of freedom.

ct