What to read to understand Singapore

Singapore tends to attract extreme views. To its fans it is a miraculous island of stability and prosperity in a troubled sea of regional turbulence. To its critics it is, in the famous phrase of William Gibson, an American-Canadian novelist, “Disneyland with the death penalty”: a dystopia run on the principle “be happy, or I’ll kill you”. The argument has an importance beyond the fate of the 6m people who live there. Singapore’s success in achieving the forms of democracy while remaining under one-party rule is an inspiration to leaders elsewhere, notably in China, and hence a challenge to Western notions of the superiority of political liberalism. These books are all fun to read, and provide insights into Singapore’s history and the arguments on both sides of the debate.