Extract from the article on IPS Commons:
It has certainly been the government’s position that Singapore requires a strong state and top-down consensus building, even at the expense of some individual rights. According to this view, a more pluralistic polity would erode the government’s ability to deliver the goods. Maintaining harmony in a diverse society like ours is only possible with a dominant state that mediates between the conflicting interests of citizens, so this theory goes.
The scenario as written is not implausible. If the government resists change and fails to adapt, the result could well be a broken system, forcing citizens to adopt the wiki-like approach of solving their own problems.
But we would suggest that a WikiCity.sg scenario need not be the outcome of a collapse of trust in public institutions and the resultant paralysis in government. It can instead be embraced as a positive vision for Singapore.
Read the full article by Donald Low and Cherian George on IPS Commons: http://ipscommons.sg.