Singapore Rising

Written By: Hal G.P. Colebatch  |  Posted: Thursday, October 13th, 2011

            Unnoticed by the rest of the world, something significant happened in Singapore on Saturday: former Deputy Prime Minister Tony Tan has, not surprisingly, won victory in a field of five candidates to become the country's seventh president. But it was a narrow victory, with Mr. Tan getting about 35 percent of the 2.1 million votes cast.

            This somewhat untidy result, in contrast to the 99.8 percent victories typically recorded by third-world dictatorships, is further evidence of the fact that, if still in many ways harshly authoritarian, Singapore has quietly moved a long way toward genuine democracy. It is, by Asian standards, an open society.

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