John Baird: Canada's freedom agenda - Diplomat Magazine

MICROSTATES|Di spatchesL. BaykalSea ofJapan(East Sea)YellowSeaTropic of CancerEast ChinaSeaChensiyuanSingapore, whose skyline appears here at South dusk, China sits near Sea one of the most important shipping lanes in the world.2. SingaporeMalaysia SingaporeIndonesiaThis island nation of some 4.7 millionpeople controls a combinedland and sea territory of less than700 square kilometres. But if this figureranks Singapore as one of the smallestnation-states, its location between Malaysiaand Indonesia grants it an immense, ifnot disproportionate, amount of strategicinfluence, for it sits near one of the mostimportant shipping lanes in the world.Not surprisingly, Singapore’s port ranksamong the world’s busiest. In 2010, morethan 120,000 vessels called on the port.Granted, it might be tempting to dismissthe status of Singapore as an accidentalproduct of geography. But sucha position would prohibit us from seeingthe skill with which the elites of Singapore(under the leadership of the long-rulingPeople’s Action Party) have leveraged thehuman capital of their resource-poor landto the country’s benefit. They have turneda multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multilingualpolyglot into one of most livableand prosperous states, whose virtuallycorruption-free economy grew by almost15 percent in 2010 on the strength of highendexports, such as consumer electronicsand pharmaceuticals.Singapore also continues to positionitself as an escape hatch for global financialinstitutions, whose corporate leadersmight be unwilling to face tougher restrictionsin the northern hemisphere. Whileone might have good reasons to questionthe ethics of this behaviour, it speaks tothe ability of this resource-poor country toquickly spot and fill niches. Newsweek, forexample, recently ranked Singapore as themost economically dynamic state.Such flexibility, however, appears to beunlikely in other spheres of Singaporeansociety. The country continues to enforcestrict laws and penalties against actionsthat may be legal or may be minor offencesin Canada. They include jaywalking,littering, spitting, smoking in publicplaces, and the importation and sale ofchewing gum. Acts of graffiti remain punishablethrough caning. And this catalogueof apparent crimes and their punishmentshardly represents the worst, as Singaporecontinues to crack down on homosexualityand other perceived vices.Freedom House, a Washington-basednon-governmental organization trackingcivil liberties, currently ranks Singaporeas “partly free” and heading in the wrongdirection, thanks to measures that restrictpublic assembly and press freedoms, afrustrating condition that has even appearedon Washington’s radar. This said,Singapore and its eponymous capital, alsoknown as the Lion City, might be truly themouse that roars, at least when it comes tobeing heard in the global economy.diplomat and international canada 49