One of the most irritating things about Malaysians is their habit of looking elsewhere to find 'good examples'. Some glorify the American media as 'neutral', 'unbiased' and (perhaps the most laughable) 'free'. Now, if Rohana S in her letter The difference between SM Lee and Dr M is right, we have to look at Singapore's Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew as a good example.

Lee and his government are not in any way, shape or form better than Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his lot. In fact, in many ways they are worse. Singaporeans are generally too afraid to launch even the tiniest shrapnel of dissent against their government.

What Lee has tried to do is raise a 'machine-nation' (forgive the pun, but I couldn't resist) bent towards a single goal: economic success. He does not care about his people, their lives and their troubles... he only cares about how useful they are as a commodity, towards the betterment of Singapore. To Lee, Singapore is not a collection of people living on an island but a money-making tool, an object.

If Singapore's economic success depends (in his mind) on the stifling of any opportunities for viable opposition parties, he will go the distance. While Malaysians regard Anwar Ibrahim and ISA detainees as examples (which they are) of governmental tyranny, what of the scores of Singaporean opposition leaders who have faced court action, bankruptcy and even unofficial exile?

Even now, they are attempting once again to grind JB Jeyaratnam under their heels. Just because they do it in a more subtle way does not make it any less wrong.

Does anyone honestly believe that LKY has 'groomed' respectable successors? I'm sorry, are we talking about the same Goh Chok Thong and Lee Hsien Loong here? Both would be nowhere without Lee. Whither respectability?

For every accusation that you level against Dr M, there is a case to be made against Lee. He can be said to be a cruel tyrant, nepotistic, and, like it or not, even sycophantic. While the Singaporean government may seem like a defiant one, it must be noted that most of the time they are only being defiant against their fellow Southeast Asians. When it comes to big kahunas (people with magical powers in Hawaiian folklore) like the US or China, the Merlion is really a Merkitten.

While I am not saying that the Malaysian government and Dr M should not be criticised (far from it), I would like to point out that we should stop looking overseas and saying "this is how things should be".

No country in this world is governed perfectly, which is why we should create our own standards of perfection suitable for this country, without having to follow anyone's guiding light. That way, no one can say "we told you so" when something goes wrong in our 'exemplar' nations. If we keep to our own high standards, then maybe one day we will be a model nation for others to emulate.