What do Singaporeans who have lived and studied overseas think about the Singaporean political system?

For many years now Singaporeans have voted in the (People’s Action Party) PAP into power again and again. This trend began during the time when the state of Singapore was a new and growing republic. Some people say that Singapore has an administration and no politics. I would contest that but would add a twist. Singapore is a small country with no natural resources. Even water has to be imported. The only resource that Singapore has is its people. That is why Singapore invests heavily on its people. Singapore produces highly competent technocrats at various levels to keep Singapore afloat. Singapore society is kept on a tight lid because of the fragility of race relations. By and large, the minority Malay community in Singapore is willing to play along with the “assumed social contract” of “help us keep our heads above the water and we will let you take the steering wheel”. The majority of Malays are not into business in Singapore. If they are into business, they would be in the food business, which sells well regardless of ethnicity. The Malay provision shop is moribund, if not dead already. They cannot compete with the financially more muscular supermarket chains. Even the Chinese owned provision shops operators would like to see less competition by powerful grocery sellers. There is an increasing number of Malays working in banks which attests to the success of the secularization of the Malay ethos. Some years ago, the banking sector is frowned upon as a den for usury among the Malays and they would avoid going into this sector. Nowadays, Malay university graduates nowadays are increasingly into the banking, finance, and insurance sector of Singapore’s economy which suits the Singapore system just fine. Among the majority Chinese, I sense that they feel checkmated by a fairly good economic system that allows them to accumulate wealth on the one hand but does not allow them to express their own political opinions as freely as the wish - among those who are interested in politics in the first place - on the other hand. Corporatocracy takes precedence over other every creed in Singapore. This is not a surprise nor should it be. The direction that Singapore takes is tied to a leash which is tethered to Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund. In this sense, Singapore still serves overseas European powers given that they have a substantial stake in Singapore’s oil and gas sector.