Immigration, democracy and capitalism in Singapore

On February the 16th, a rare event will take place in Singapore- a political demonstration. The protesters plan to voice their displeasure at the Government's White Paper on Population, which sets out plans to provide for a population projected to grow to 6.9 million in 2030. 

When I was growing up some twenty years ago in Singapore its population was but a mere 2.5-3 million. Since then it has grown to 5.3 million and the leisurely tropical garden state of my childhood has come to resemble more and more the dense megalopolises of Tokyo and Hong Kong with their towering highrise blocks. For a tiny island of 714 sq km, such a huge increase has put great strain on public infrastructure such as transport schools, etc. Further, against a background of widening inequalities, many aggrieved "heartlanders" who have had to compete with keener and more sharp-elbowed newcomers have found it all too natural to point the finger at the influx of immigrants from mainland China who have virtually poured in through an open door. More than any other issue, it has been behind the biggest groundswell of discontent with the governing party, who has suffered an historic setback in the last election because of it, and only last week lost another seat in a by-election. 

The chief rationale for the policy of population increase is that maintaining the annual rate of GDP growth  of(average 6.3% since 2003) to which the country has become accustomed will require the population to grow by that much.

I must confess that I've been away too long from the country of my birth to be a really informed commentator.  I'm no fan of the PAP's dynastic hegemony but I do find it interesting that the most potent challenge to its less than democratic rule has been grounded in the same kind of populist anti-immigration xenophobia that we find here in Europe. That, alas, is democracy for you. 

What's more subversive though is that the opposition Worker's Party, and indeed some of the PAP's own MPs such as Inderjit Singh are now making tentative noises about accepting a lower rate of GDP growth. The Singapore model was modelled on the premise that that economic competitiveness in the age of globalisation for a country bereft of natural resources required a one-party state form of democratic rule.   It will be interesting to see how the debate around the population-growth rate develops given that maintaining a certain level material well-being is such a fundamental part of the Singaporean social and political contract. It would be ironic if the forces of globalisation are in the end responsible for undermining the Singaporean model.