>I also never feared police or the state for that matter in Singapore, if I didn't do anything illegal.
Japan, Korea and Taiwan achieve the same level of safety while not being dictatorships. No need to compare it to the US.
They have the rule of law, they have elections, all of those countries are characterized by, in reality, a very monocultural, depolitized, bureaucratic system of government. Live in Singapore in reality is no more or less 'democratic' than live in Japan or Taiwan or SK.
I think this is a false equivalence. TFA mentions a democracy activist who was imprisoned for 21 days because of a small, non violent protest on a subway. He had been previously arrested for criticizing the judiciary in Singapore.
Unless I'm mistaken, you would not be arrested for either of these acts in South Korea or Japan. They are both imperfect, but in some important ways more free.
Things like that, and worse, have happened time and again in the US too...
You absolutely will not be arrested for holding up signs outside government buildings[1], or questioned by the police for reading a book on the train as a protest[2]. You would not be sued to bankruptcy for making what would be considered political speech in these other countries. Or just about anything on this list https://twitter.com/kixes/status/1174024357443600384?s=21.
Singapore is absolutely less democratic - there's no need for scare quotes.
[1]: https://twitter.com/kixes/status/1353999081287245824?s=19
[2]: https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/police-question-one-ma...
Are they the Illinois of SE Asia? For that matter, if the US laws on insider trading applied to congresspeople, half of our elected representatives would rightfully be behind bars, too.