Word: goh
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SINGAPORE IS ASIA'S DREAM COUNTRY. Almost anywhere else, Goh Pang Meng, the son of a poor immigrant street vendor from China, would still be struggling to survive in a thatched hut like the one in which he grew up with 11 brothers and sisters. But at 44, Goh owns a comfortable five-room apartment and lives, like 87% of his countrymen, in a government housing project. He has three children, the minimum politically correct number preferred for the well- educated by a eugenics-inspired government: he received a $12,500 tax credit for the third birth, and his wife...
Last year Goh won a $15,600 government grant to upgrade his factory equipment. He winced when he paid $38,000 for a small Datsun, but says the steep price was worthwhile because it helped the government prevent traffic jams by limiting car ownership. "Overall," he says, "life in Singapore is pretty good." Sultan Ahamed, an ethnic Indian Muslim spice trader with strong family links to his strife-torn homeland, speaks for many Singaporeans when he declares, "What shall I say? This is a paradise...
Sometimes dubbed Singapore, Inc., the nation had its credo set by visionary economic architect Goh Keng Swee: "Government policy must be directed to the pursuit of business excellence." The country is the world's busiest container port, the third largest oil-refining center, the major exporter of computer disk drives. Its manufacturing relies on multinational corporations, and it has attracted some 3,000 foreign companies with generous tax breaks, ultramodern telecommunications, an efficient airport and tame labor unions...
Most citizens would agree with Goh, the small businessman: "We have plenty of freedom here, except political freedom." And for most, that is just fine. Singapore is a nation of immigrants from countries historically ravaged by chaos and poverty. The average Singaporean is conservative and family- oriented, and cares most about two things: money and security. He approves of hanging drug dealers and locking up gangsters without trial. He has struck a simple social contract, accepting limits on personal freedom in return for prosperity and stability. What holds the deal together is the country's lack of corruption. When officials...
...While Goh promised to make some modification in his open style, he vowed no drastic changes. But he might reform his party and bring it back closer to the grass roots. Had Goh been less liberal, less open, some analysts contended last week, he might have done better at the polls...