IMO there is more than enough, if not more, to keep the paranoid conspiracy theorist buzzing in Singapore.CitizenOfTheWorld wrote: suffice it to say I'm one of those who take seriously talk of bond market collapse, imposition of martial law, fema camps, etc. In other words, a conspiracy theorist.
Without a debate about it, for the sake of argument let us assume my fears are reasonable. If so, would Singapore be a safer place to hide away? I'm well aware Sing is not exactly a democracy, but I appreciate its lack of pretense to such. Also, since I'm not at all familiar with local politics, I can keep my mouth shut more easily than at home.
You don't need martial law, we actually have the ISA It is active and readily used.. (Google "Singapore internal security act"). You won't hear too much about it though, or any court case, because of the next point...
Media is censored. Movies are chopped up, you can't even go to youporn.com or playboy.com from the Internet here (Google "mda banned websites"). Major criminal cases? Unless it is some middle manager getting put on trial for corruption because he got a hummer in a carpark, you'll be lucky to read a three sentence summary 18 months after the crime occurred. Brutal murder in the flat next to yours? You'll never know.
The top Singaporean companies are all heavily invested in by the government, and the top CEO/Directors of most are either former government officials, current ones, or the wives or off-spring there-of. The land is nearly all owned by the government, and oh by the way, have you heard about all of the millionaires created by the property bubble?
I could go on, but there are too many. But one last popular conspiracy: You (foreigners) will be brought in to steal the jobs of the locals, turned into citizens, to continue voting for the ruling party.