                          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>
