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