A prosperous, in many ways Western-style nation, Singapore is barely mentioned at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. Singapore is no better than its neighbours – in many ways, it’s worse. It is the Cuba of Asia (but without the crushing poverty or damaging economic sanctions)…denials of civil and political rights in Singapore are simply of governmental policy.
– Voice of the Asia-Pacific Human Rights Network, May 30, 2002
THE CUBA OF ASIA
Singapore is the world’s most successful socialist state. While Singapore has the trappings of a democracy, the ruling People’s Action Party is living proof that the one-party state survives outside the dustbin of history … Singapore’s economic philosophy more closely mirrors that of another tropical island with a signature rum cocktail: Cuba.