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At What Price Peace
An Editorial by Robert Hoffman, Editor
The Bear Valley Voice
Big Bear Lake, CA USA
February 23, 1994
(c) 1994 - Posted with Permission
On Singapore TV last night, the Muppets sang a song urging
toleration among the various types of monsters, a lesson in
which kids here don't need much instruction. This tiny
island, floating in the South China Sea and blown by hot,
wet winds off the Straights of Jahore, is home to 2.5
million natives and another 3 million foreign workers.
There are Malays, Tamils, Chinese, Indians, Europeans and
a few other ethnic groups here who live in peace (mostly)
under the watchful eye of a paternalistic government.
Toleration --- of religious, cultural and linguistic
differences --- is not merely a consumation devoutly to
be wished. It is a necessity of life.
One is struck by this, and by the almost total lack of
violent crime. And one is tempted to wish that America
could be run this well. Until, of course, a deeper look
reveals the cost of peace and relative safety.
It is illegal in Singapore to chew gum, smoke indoors, spit
anywhere and to fail to flush the toilet. Infractions can
cost you a hefty fine, although we have yet to see any police
patrolling the men's rooms. The penalty for trafficking in
drugs is the ultimate one --- the gallows. Two years ago, a
couple of Australians found out the government was not
kidding about this.
Those unwise enough to commit crimes are subjected to another
punishment that most Americans would also find cruel and
unusual --- caning. A man who killed a prostitute, rather
inadvertently, got five years --- and 12 strokes.
If a newspaper publishes something the government takes
exception to, the authorities simply ban it from the stands.
And the system works. There is no gum on the sidewalk, no
foul smell of smoke in the restaurants, and so far all the
toilets appear to be duly flushed. There are not homeless
beggars squatting on the sidewalks, and if drug addiction
exists, it does so behind tightly closed doors. Newspapers
tow the line.
The price? An almost tangible lack of jay -- not content-
ment or security, but happiness. These folks are somber
and businesslike. They are dutiful, responsible, frugal,
obedient, compliant, polite --- and humorless. And even
in this sultry tropical setting, the people of Singapore are
as buttoned up and as frightfully modern as a businessman
from Phoenix or a computer nerd from Silicon Valley.
This may have come from Singapore's history as a Crown
colony --- 150 years under rule from London. The Japanese
arrived one morning on bicycles and rousted the British
garrison (which was, unaccountably, waiting for the invasion
on the wrong sde of the island), and the Singaporeans were
visited with one of the most brutal occupations in history.
In the early '60s, they became their own masters --- flirting
with communism, dallying with Malaysia and Indonesia, and
finally striking out on their own under the heavy-handed but
avuncular leadership of Oxford-educated former prime minister
Lee Kwan Yew.
The result is a country steeped in Western ways (English is
the dominant language and will be probably forever) with an
Asian soul. Individual freedom is not an Oriental virtue,
and the average Singaporean is amused that Americans are
aghast at the control the government has over the people's
lives. They point to their low crime rate and their clean
streets and wonder how we can put personal freedoms over such
blessings.
We don't bother to explain.
Dennis R. Hilton <drhilton@kaiwan.com>