Singapore, Incomplete: Reflections on a First World nation's arrested political development

As the government lays the ground for a transition to a fourth generation of leaders after the death of Lee Kuan Yew and its 2015 general election triumph, Cherian George considers the unfinished business of political liberalisation and multicultural integration. Singapore, Incomplete is a collection of personal reflections about the country’s underdeveloped political culture and structure. “Ours is a middle-aged country with a maturing economy—but a political system that treats us like children,” he argues. George calls for more open “rules of engagement” that will protect and celebrate a diversity of ideas and beliefs. He critiques Singapore’s culture of fear, the lack of political transparency, and governmental groupthink. This is his first book for a general audience since Singapore: The Air-Conditioned Nation (2000).

Cherian George

Born in Singapore in 1965, is a journalist-turned-academic who has written on Singapore politics for 30 years. After studying social and political sciences at Cambridge and journalism at Columbia, he spent the 1990s working at The Straits Times. He received his PhD in communication at Stanford in 2003 and is currently a professor of media studies at Hong Kong Baptist University. He researches media freedom, censorship, and hate propaganda in Asia and around the world. His six previous books include Hate Spin: The Manufacture of Religious Offense and its Threat to Democracy (MIT Press), which was selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the 100 Best Books of 2016.