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     <[email protected]>