But did they really chose to live that way or did the government institutions just kind of lag behind the economic progress?<p>Economic progress excuses many sins.  You see a similar thing in China.  Human rights abuses are frequently minimized as long as there is economic growth.<p>Many cultures used torture and hanging and all sorts of extreme and cruel punishments.  Even the paragons of peaceful resistance did: the Tibetans.<p>But many cultures chose to outgrow such practices.<p>I&#x27;d argue that:<p>1) The Singapore people never _chose_ to live this way, that it&#x27;s an accident of history, and that economic growth keeps most people from complaining about it.<p>2) given the control of the press and the draconian government they couldn&#x27;t easily chose to live differently now.<p>We should be wary of imitating them, because it would be very hard to dismantle a system like that once it has been installed.