US fleet, which was offered facilities in Singapore
after the Americans lost their Philippine bases.
In 1990, unlike other south-east Asian leaders,
Lee Kuan Yew did not leave under a cloud but
was deeply respected and was given the title of
senior minister. His influence behind the scenes
remained considerable, his legacy of a well-
ordered state, derided by some as a ‘nanny state’,
endured. Singapore is the cleanest city in the
world, there is no grafitti or chewing gum, hooli-
gans receive strokes of the cane. Society is orderly
and well behaved, the atmosphere restrictive,
but the 4 million people enjoy the highest living
standards in Asia. The democracy established here
was, in effect, one-party rule through repression
but by the consent of the majority. The opposi-
tion in the legislature has become more lively but
is powerless and small.
The economic crisis of 1997 did not pass
Singapore by, but Singapore soon recovered. As
a developed nation, Singapore faces new chal-
lenges in trade and its economy, surrounded by
countries that can manufacture the goods that
made Singapore rich, more cheaply. There are
now, in the new millennium, no development
models to follow any longer. The high degree of
education and business skills of Singapore’s
people, the absence of crime and conflict provides
a good base for the future.
After the terrible devastation of war, Korea was
still a partitioned country in the early 1990s.
Sporadic talk of bringing the two Koreas
together, of uniting families again, had made little
progress. No personality cult anywhere equalled
the excesses of worship bestowed on Comrade
Kim Il Sung, the longest-ruling communist dic-
tator in the world. He had presided over the
‘democratic’ Korean Republic since 1948 and was
already a veteran communist then. There was no
freedom in North Korea, with its showpiece
capital Pyongyang, its huge and costly military
establishment and all the trappings of an oppres-
sive one-party state. Living standards were
appallingly low in consequence and did not
compare with those in the South.
The history of South Korea can be told in two
quite different ways. When the world came to
Seoul in 1988 and the XXIV Olympic Games
were televised, a fine modern city came into view
with well-dressed people in the streets. The eco-
nomic recovery and industrial growth of South
Korea, which accelerated after the 1970s, now
place it in Asia’s club of rich nations. The other
side of South Korea’s history, however, has to
recount the violence and brutality of its politics.
For most of the years since the early 1950s the
military ruled Korea oppressively, violent student
and popular protests were put down with force
and bloodshed. Aligned with the West, especially
with the US, South Korea had to make some
show of a democratic process with a national
assembly and elections. But the military made
sure that they held on to power, ruling under
martial law, imprisoning opposition leaders and
resorting to torture and bloodshed to suppress
demonstrators who, in their frustration, fre-
quently turned to violence. The ruling cliques
were identified by those who opposed them with
the US, so anti-American and anti-military agita-
tion often merged. For the Americans such
authoritarian regimes were an embarrassment, but
pressure to democratise took second place before
1990 to the global aim of containing commu-
nism. South Korea was a frontline state of the free
world, and the credentials of the South Korean
rulers as implacable opponents of communism
were never in doubt.658 TWO FACES OF ASIA: AFTER 1949
Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, 2000Population GDP per head Purchasing Power
(millions) (US$ millions) per head (US$)
Taiwan 22.2 13,950 22,000
Hong Kong 6.9 23,930 25,900
Singapore 4.0 22,960 24,900