The night did not go according to plan when what was intended as a fun fact for the day turned into a heated discussion. She just could not and would not understand.
"How is it you can accept such a system, this lack of political freedom? How can you be ok with it?", she drilled me, outraged at what she perceived was my cowardice and compliance to a political system that bordered on dictatorship.
"Well, we Singaporeans don't really care about political freedom. Some slight fear aside, we trust our government who has done a great job in providing us with security, jobs, housing etc", was my defense.
But she would not let go of the topic, which irritated me and brought me on the brink of pointing out how her own country with all its political freedom was perpetually bankrupt and living on EU loans, not forgetting the jobless masses. However, sense prevailed and a friend brought an end to the night.
To the West, in particular to those who have never been outside, it is surprising how people in countries with little political freedom, like China and Singapore, actually live. "Must be tough when you can't say what you want?", is what they ask, but truth be told, most of us do not really care. We do not care because there does not seem to be a strong reason to do so. Perhaps being brought up within a family system where one is always obeisant to one's parents, the government almost feels like that family patriarch you do not question, that family patriarch who will take care of you as long as you do your part. It is almost like, why question where the food comes from, as long as it is on the shelf and there is enough of it? The patriarch promises and delivered stability and security, so it never really made any sense to interfere in his work. When Western democracies floundered under the Corona epidemic with too many voices, opinions all wanting to be heard, my Chinese friend was more than happy to point out how much better China had done.
"So much for democracy", she laughed.
The irony was that such a line was being said in a city whose history gave the starkest reminder on why a true democracy was important. It is something that I am more than happy to highlight to my friends who visit from Singapore, after they have taken a tour of the museum which exhibits the horrors of the the Third Reich.
"The Holocaust proves why you shouldn't listen and blindly follow anything your government tell you to", I point out to my friends who keep the awkward silence. Truth is they do not care.
But they should. For a strong all controlling government that works to the benefit of the people may be better than a chaotic democracy, but the moment such a government is being led
by the wrong people, the consequences for the country as a whole are worse than that awaits a democracy. History has proven how this almost always happen, how power ultimately corrupts, how political families unwilling to relinquish power and wealth start putting their own undeserving family members in positions of power, how at that point there are no institutions to check them because these institutions were build by them in the first place. History has also shown how such dictatorships can openly favor a certain group while marginalizing and even persecuting others who have no say. Most of my Chinese friend who have no qualms about the Chinese system are typically the majority Han who have been at the receiving end of the Chinese miracle, but ask the Tibetans or the Uighurs, and their story would be different.
This is why the proposition of an all controlling, all hearing, all powerful government is truly scary, because things may go well now, but all it needs is one crazy maniac who comes to power, and we are all so truly fucked.
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