Your views on the state of politics in England, Germany and
France is insightful, and I will agree with you that their
respective population and political process have certainly evolved
into a level of maturity that is to be admired for its tolerance
towards alternative views, acceptance to the changes of political
fortunes with good grace, and with institutions that independently
protect the political process.
While Singapore has always prided itself as taking the Best from
the West and the East, its selection process was more self-serving
to the perpetuation of the political power of the Elected Political
Party forming the Government of the day.
What took the European political process a few centuries to evolve,
Singapore political process has reached to near similar standards
in Governance of the people, but not in the political
process.
The Singapore Citizens remained politically disenfranchised, and
its present status have been deliberately preserved for the sake of
the continued grip on political power by the present Ruling
Political Party that has entrenched itself since 1950s.
The early generations of Singapore, before the Japanese soldiers
liberated Singapore, were certainly not interested in the
politics of governance with the exception of a few educated
ones.
However, those Asians in Singapore who saw the Japanese Army
defeating and then belittling the proud Caucasians Colonials
Masters, also saw the awakening of their sense of controlling their
own Political Future; and this fire had sparked during the days
immediately after the end of WW2 in Europe and Asia.
With the declaration of independence in India, and followed by
Indonesia, the eyes of Asia were roused from deep slumber. The
generations from 1950s onward can hardly be said to be
disinterested in politics.
The apolitical attitude of Singaporean is largely advanced by the
Ruling Party, by all kind of subtle, or overt, or high profile
castigating actions against any prominent Singaporeans who dare to
meet them head-on.
While David Marshall had the ability to impress in public speeches,
he was not exactly a political animal, and is unsuited for a post
to galvanize a disparate lot of people into a nation. He was
unfortunate not to have capable people to support him.
The opposite was true for LKY and he had the support of his able
and like-minded friends Toh Chin Chye, Goh Keng Swee, Lim Kim
San, Jek Yuen Tong, Othman Wok, just to name a few.
Politics require idealism, vision, leadership, and a "gift of the
gap" to articulate clearly those ideals and visions.
However, this thread has to do with Singapore and the system that
has evolved to allow aberrations in supposedly above board
practices that form the core value of Singapore's reputation in
supposedly high standards of Government.
What has been written by the authors of this book, if it is to be
believed for the events printed, can only be described as
shockingly revealing of the politics in Singapore.