Today #39;s News on LIVE TV - Democracy Now | November 4
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South Africa - 20 Years of Democracy
2014 marks the 20th anniversary of the ending of apartheid and the beginning of the transition to democracy in South Africa. Since 1994, South Africa has embarked on many reforms focused on...
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Today #39;s News on LIVE TV - Democracy Now | November 5
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File photo: While Singapore's mercantilism appears the epitome of success, it is an economy unable to re-generate itself, writes Dr Chee Soon Juan.
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Editor's note: Dr. Chee Soon Juan is the secretary-general of the Singapore Democratic Party. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
(CNN) -- Hong Kong's democracy movement has raised issues such as income inequality and an increasing cheerless economic outlook, especially for the younger generation. Not coincidentally, these are the same issues that are causing Singaporeans to despair over their future.
Despite the fact that, according to the Economic Intelligence Unit, Singapore lays claim to the dubious honor of being the most expensive city in the world, there is no minimum wage in Singapore. Is it any wonder then, that amongst comparable economies, the island-state has one of the highest levels of income inequality? Singapore has the highest proportion of millionaires in the world but nearly 5% of the workforce have an annual income of less than U.S. $5,000, according to a 2011 report by The Straits Times.
And it's not just the lower-income workers who are getting pounded. The middle-class squeeze is as prevalent as ever. Nearly 50% of Singaporeans subsist from paycheck to paycheck, saving less than 10% of their monthly incomes. An alarming 14% have no savings at all. If and when an economic whirlwind visits, many will be left unable to cope.
Working conditions have also deteriorated. For years, Singaporean workers have worked more hours than in most countries, and, perhaps unsurprisingly it has resulted in an extremely unhappy workforce.
The death of innovation
What facilitated such a dismal outcome? One major factor is the lack of dissenting views. The ranks of the opposition, civil society and labor movement have been decimated in the last 50 years through imprisonment without trial and criminal prosecution, and nearly every newspaper, TV channel and radio station is owned and run by the state. Without an opposing voice, the echo chamber in government simply grew louder.
Singapore's first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew has argued that the practice of democracy serves only to undermine political stability and, therefore, economic progress. The strategy that Lee articulates, what might be called the Singapore model, bifurcates the economics of a community from its politics, the goal being to maintain absolute power while pursuing economic growth.
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'Singapore needs democracy'
HONG KONG - Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters clashed with police in the densely populated district of Mong Kok early on Thursday as tensions escalated at one of three remaining demonstration sites for the first time in more than two weeks.
Dozens of police armed with batons and shields swept into the area where hundreds of protesters were gathered and scuffles broke out after 2am local time in the gritty district that has become a flashpoint for ugly street brawls.
More than 30 people wearing grinning masks of Guy Fawkes, who plotted to kill a British king in 1605 and who has become a symbol of anti-capitalist protests, joined the demonstrators who are calling for greater democracy in the former British colony.
The protesters, led by a restive generation of students, have been demanding China's Communist Party rulers live up to constitutional promises to grant full democracy to the city which returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
In August, Beijing offered Hong Kong people the chance to vote for their own leader in 2017, but said only two to three candidates could run after getting backing from a 1,200-person "nominating committee" stacked with Beijing loyalists.
On Wednesday, Regina Ip, a former Hong Kong security chief and a top adviser to the city's embattled leader proposed members of the Hong Kong Federation of Students be given seats on the committee, broadcaster RTHK reported.
Students are hoping to take their protest to Communist Party rulers in Beijing and are expected to announce details of their new battle plan on Thursday.
Pro-democracy activists plan to march on Sunday from the heart of the city's financial centre to the Chinese central government's liaison office in Hong Kong.
For more than a month, key roads leading into Hong Kong's most economically and politically important districts have been barricaded with wood and steel by protesters.
The protests drew well over 100,000 at their peak and are now concentrated in two key areas - the district of Admiralty next to government buildings and across the harbour in Mong Kok. A handful of protesters remain in the bustling shopping district of Causeway Bay.
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Hong Kong democracy protesters in fresh clashes with police