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- Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
- Path: sparky!uunet!europa.asd.contel.com!paladin.american.edu!auvm!UIUC.EDU!SPECTRE
- Message-ID: <9212211914.AA27708@a.cs.uiuc.edu>
- Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
- Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 13:14:14 -0600
- Sender: Southeast Asia Discussion List <SEASIA-L@MSU.BITNET>
- From: Ian Chai <spectre@UIUC.EDU>
- Subject: Re: SG: By-election results (fwd)
- Lines: 29
-
- >PAP won by a majority vote of 72.9%.
- >The SDP got 24.5% of the votes.
- >The SJP and NSP both received less than 1.5% of the vote each.
- >
- >Biggest news is...Mr. Chiam See Tong claim that voters in Saturday's by-electio
- n
- >endorsed his Singapore Democratic Party as the second force in a two-partty
- >political system. Opposition leaders dismiss Chiams 'arrogant' claim.etc..etc..
-
- >
- >from Straits Times dtd December 21.
-
- Wow! I think this is a definitely democratizing trend in Singapore.
- Remember how "Lee Kwan Yu fell out of his tree because 2 opposition MPs
- got elected" only a few years ago? But now it's perfectly acceptable,
- etc.
-
- The question of course now is this: Can Singapore mantain its high
- standards in other areas, in the transition from a one-party oligarchy
- to a multi-party democracy? Singapore, IMO, is the prime example of
- autocracy done right. It has been very fortunate to get a totalitarian
- government that actually had both the good of the people in mind, as
- well as competence. This has done Singaporeans much more good than what
- I would expect a democracy could have, in its crucial formation stages
- as a developed country.
-
- (The above are musings.)
-
- Ian
-