Singabloodypore

Stumbled upon an article in the Telegraph called Old habits die hard as the East changes by Sebastien Berger, South East Asia Correspondent. Only one Singaporean politician was deemed worth mentioning.

Outside poverty-stricken basket-cases like Burma and Laos, increasing material comforts have allowed the authorities to establish a trade-off with political liberty, with Singapore and Vietnam as the prime examples.

At the celebrations for the Crown Prince of Brunei's wedding, one citizen explained: "Who needs democracy when the sultan gives us everything?"

And with face and status all-important in many societies, such as Thailand, the opportunity to buy international brand names matters more to some than the nature of their government.

Instead it is left to a few brave souls to carry the torch for greater freedoms than the right to buy a Louis Vuitton bag.

Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi is renowned as the world's only imprisoned Nobel laureate, but there are unsung heroes too - Chee Soon Juan, Singapore's most outspoken politician and an occasional resident of the city-state's prison, or Thich Quang Do, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who lives under "pagoda arrest" in Ho Chi Minh City for daring to defy the Communist regime.