&gt; I have never heard a single Singaporean show strong confidence or trust in their government<p>In the last general election the ruling People&#x27;s Action Party was voted in with a 70% popular vote.<p>&gt; and the lack of free speech is not insignificant to many<p>It is not insignificant to many, but it&#x27;s also not a major issue to most, again not at least if you look at the elections. I should mention at this point that I don&#x27;t look upon the ruling party favorably. But these are the facts.<p>&gt; but most can&#x27;t say too much about it publicly because of the punishment imposed.<p>[citation needed]. The government doesn&#x27;t take too kindly to certain types of speech, but critiques of its policies are generally not suppressed, and certainly not to the degree which you make it out to be (people fearing punishment for expression opinion out loud? Really?)<p>I&#x27;m going to say that I don&#x27;t have too much doubts about the government&#x27;s motives, but rather its competency - the government, like most governments doesn&#x27;t have the best track records in terms of its IT infrastructure, and a breech into a system that collects that much data will be incredibly damaging.