How the world sees Singaopre

How does the world see Singapore? Is it important? Not everyone may be interested to know what the rest of the world thinks of them, but in a country such as Singapore where freedom of expression is not a universally respected right, it is hard for people inside to give an objective view of the state of the nation. It is because many people in the rest of the world have the freedom to speak as they like, rather than to limit their words to whatever is politically acceptable, that we can look to them to give an honest and objective opinion on the reality of the social and political situation in Singapore.

The first thing to understand about how the world sees Singapore, is to recognise that Singapore is a small country, a little red dot if you will, and that many people in the world are barely aware of it's existence. Ask an average Englishman in London or American in New York about Singapore, and chances are all they can tell you is that it is very clean, that it is a refuelling stop on the way to Australia, and that chewing gum is banned. Given that chewing gum has not actually been banned in Singapore for a good few years now, you can see that most people have very little knowledge of what Singapore is really like.

The other interesting point to mention is that Singaporeans, or more accurately just the ruling PAP, have ideas about how they would like to be seen, and that is that they would like to be seen as a modern first world nation. The PAP take it as one of their crowning achievements that they have turned Singapore into a modern first world country, and the concept of "Swiss standards of living" is something that politicians have long offered as being the fruits of their hard work and high salaries.

So, although many people know very little about Singapore, is it still possible to get some insight into whether Singapore is really seen as a first world nation, is it seen as a country that respects the freedoms that first world countries hold dear, are Singaporean politicians respected or otherwise in the world at large? Fortunately, there are a good few organisations which make it their business to assess the political, social & cultural environment in most countries around the world. Since these organisations take the time to measure key performance indicators for almost every country in the world, it is fair to say they are not likely to be biased against the little red dot, and similarly, since these organisations have seen so much of the world, their view of us can tell us a lot about how Singapore fits in and stands up in the world.

First of all, lets consider the press. It is widely accepted that a free press and free speech are fundamental rights considered essential in first world countries. Luckily, a respected French organisation "Reporters Without Borders" goes to the trouble to assess this on a global basis every year. In the most recent survey Singapore ranked a lowly 136 out of 178 countries. Below is a selection of Asian and "First World" countries for comparison.

=1. Switzerland
11. Japan
19. UK
34. Hong Kong
42. S. Korea
117. Indonesia
128. Cambodia
136. Singapore
141. Malaysia
153. Thailand

It's fair to say that the world sees Singapore in a pretty bad light on this KPI. Sandwiched among our SE Asian neighbours Singapore is hardly a place for the rest of the world to look up to. The Swiss standard of living is a distant dream, since they are up in first spot, and those modern Asian powerhouses, HK, S Korea and Japan are far ahead of Singapore, which can only really claim to be a second rate Asian nation by this metric.

Secondly, lets look at democratic freedoms. Singapore from time to time proclaims itself as a "Westminster Democracy", and most of those first world nations it aspires to be amongst are themselves democracies; in fact Switzerland has one of the longest histories of democratic freedom in the world. Again, we are thankful to the Economist Intelligence Unit, based in another first world country, the UK, for going to the trouble of rating 167 countries on their democratic freedom. Again, Singapore ranks a lowly 82, barely outdoing HK which is an administrative region of China.

1. Sweden
8. Switzerland.
17. Japan
28. Korea
54. Thailand
68. Malaysia
69. Indonesia
82. Singapore
84. Hong Kong

Again, Singapore is a long way from first world status, outdone by almost all of it's Asian neighbours, the modern Asian leaders of Japan and S Korea are far ahead of the little red dot, which trails even Malaysia and Indonesia. Again, true first world status is achieved by Switzerland and other European countries, but Singapore is a second rate player in Asia, let alone the world as a whole.

The third metric of interest is civil liberties, again this is something which first world nations aspire to uphold and we are grateful to an American organisation called "Freedom House" for compiling data on a similar number of countries as presented above. Unfortunately the data is presented alphabetically rather than sorted from "most free" to "least free" but we can still compare the score in Singapore with that of it's neighbours.

1.0 Switzerland
1.5 Japan
1.5 S Korea
2.5 Indonesia
3.5 Philippines
3.5 Hong Kong
4.0 Malaysia
4.5 Singapore
4.5 Thailand

Again, the same trend is emerging, Singapore is stuck amongst or often below most of it's immediate neighbours, lags behind those countries seen as modern Asian leaders, such as Japan, S Korea & HK, and is far away from first world status or enjoying a "Swiss standard of living". In this index Switzerland has the best score possible and Japan and S Korea are one rung below on the ladder. Singapore is down in the basement with Thailand, being looked down on by Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia.

The conclusion to draw from all this is that whilst most people don't pay much attention to Singapore, the reality is that in comparison to first world nations, on the metrics that first world nations care about, Singapore is a long way behind the world leaders. It's not a coincidence that all three of these surveys are carried out by organisations in first world nations (France, UK & US) because one of the things that makes first world nations such, is that they care about certain ideals and concepts enough to aspire to be seen as leaders in those fields. As long as Singapore has leaders who ignore such goals and ideals, Singapore will never be seen as a first world nation, and is very unlikely to move up in the rankings towards the Swiss style leadership positions that the rest of the world looks up to. In fact, as long as the current situation remains, it is highly likely that Singapore will remain as a second rate Asian nation for the foreseeable future.