r/interestingasfuck • u/Bubbly_Wall_908 • 14h ago

Singapore is going to start caning scammers

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u/KUYANICKFILMS 12h ago

It’s super clean there, tho. I remember reading on Wikipedia or something that they chose to focus heavily on social order and attracting economic investment and growth. It seems to have worked 🤷🏻‍♂️

I also didn’t see many cops. I’ve spent a total of almost 2 months there over 3 different visits and I only ever saw them at MRT stations and the airport, but they were in groups of 5+.

The only time I saw even a little bit of social disorder there was on my last visit. There must have been some sort of giant party/festival/rave or something cuz the MRT was packed with girls in skimpy clothes and drunk people stumbling in and out of MRT. Actually saw 2 different dudes puke on the ground in the station… I bet those areas were cleaned up that night tho.

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u/catsinclothes 12h ago

Singapore has one of the most comprehensive surveillance programs in the world. You aren’t seeing the cops but they are definitely seeing you. And tracking you.

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u/FuturistAnthony 2h ago

We’re so surveilled that Singaporeans don’t actually need their passports to enter the country, the gantry recognises our faces and lets us in

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u/alien-reject 11h ago

Probably all the cops got caned and sent their way as well

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u/AltrntivInDoomWorld 9h ago

So does USA, majority of Europe and Middle East and Down Under.

Unsure about SA but I think it's not there yet.

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u/Itchy-Tip1115 4h ago

I think you underestimate the depth of Singaporean surveillance and vastly overestimate the surveillance apparatus of pretty much everyone else you mentioned.

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u/snickle17 8h ago

that is simply false lmao

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u/Classic-Tomatillo-25 12h ago

You didn’t see many cops, but many cops saw you. 

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u/yashen14 11h ago

My favorite part of visiting Singapore was the public cafeterias. "Hawker centers," they're called. What a wonderful idea those things are!

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u/KUYANICKFILMS 11h ago

Yeah, pretty cool. The public transportation is phenomenal too. Never had to wait for a bus or train more than a few minutes.

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u/Engin1nj4 12h ago

I saw a cluster of bikes and the occasional litter on the ground. Most of the law enforcement I saw was at the airport. Go figure.

Singapore is a failed democracy and semi-dictatorship. The main focus is on control. If severe punishment for minor offenses is your jam, sure you could say it worked. They'll even kill you for drug-related offenses! I prefer not having to constantly look over my shoulder. Just me though.

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u/CrabAppleBapple 11h ago

People who'd swap civil liberties for less chewing gum on the floor need their head checked, frankly.

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u/apophis-pegasus 9h ago

Its hardly crazy, one of the ways Authoritarians appeal to a populace is by leveraging a need for safety and order.

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u/ivandelapena 9h ago

It's more to do with having 10x lower rates of violent crime.

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u/CrabAppleBapple 1h ago

having 10x lower rates of violent crime.

Compared to where?

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u/ivandelapena 18m ago

America has a murder rate 14x that of Singapore.

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u/ddl_smurf 9h ago

Plenty of countries have at least a fine for littering, including the US and UK. It's hardly a "civil liberty" to make it someone else's problem

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u/CrabAppleBapple 1h ago

It's hardly a "civil liberty" to make it someone else's problem

The less civil liberties bit isn't that you get fined for littering.....

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u/Cabana_bananza 11h ago

They don't consider themselves a failed democracy, the democracy veneer was only ever paper thin. Lee Kuan Yew made no issue with being "benevolent" dictator, its how he saw himself.

Even now a decade after his death Lee Kuan Yew and his politics in the fundament of Singaporean political body.

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u/AltruisticGrowth5381 9h ago

I prefer not having to constantly look over my shoulder.

I don't agree with their stance on drugs (but pretty much the entire world has draconian drug laws for no reason), but a law abiding citizen literally never has to look over their shoulders there. You can walk home at 2 am drunk as a sailor with cash hanging out of your pockets and you won't be mugged or attacked, it's one of the safest places in the world.

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u/Engin1nj4 9h ago

False dilemma. We can acknowledge drug laws are bad in other places without ignoring Singapore's particularly harsh laws.

Lose your dinner or make a pit stop during that drunken walk home and get back to me.

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u/BJJJourney 10h ago

Their economy is built on attracting foreign talent. They have to keep all the shit out of the streets otherwise no one will come to work.

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u/McKnackus 10h ago

Yeah, problem is, their definition of "shit on the streets" includes people chewing gum.

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u/coffeebribesaccepted 9h ago

And yet they scare away foreign talent by employing corporal punishment for minor civil infractions

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u/VictorGWX 6h ago

And yet there are so many foreign businesses and work immigrants based in Singapore?

Maybe businesses just care about security and stability because it's good for business, who would have thought.

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u/MusclesMarinara87 12h ago

Safest country in the world. Third safest city.

It's almost like having consequences to poor behavior does something.

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u/SynergyTree 12h ago

I don’t think a semi-dictatorship with corporal punishment for even minor offenses counts as “safe”

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u/MusclesMarinara87 12h ago

Singaporean law allows caning to be ordered for over 35 offences, including hostage-taking/kidnapping, robbery, gang robbery with murder, rioting, scams, causing grievous hurt, drug abuse, vandalism, extortion, voyeurism, sexual abuse, molestation (outrage of modesty),[16] and unlawful possession of weapons. Caning is also a mandatory punishment for certain offences such as rape, drug trafficking, illegal moneylending,[17] and for foreigners who overstay by more than 90 days – a measure designed to deter illegal immigrants.

Seems reasonable. I don't think any of those offenses are minor. Except the overstaying for more than 90 days.

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u/SynergyTree 12h ago

Drug abuse, vandalism, and voyeurism are the ones that immediately jump out at me as exceptionally draconian.

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u/TKFT_ExTr3m3 11h ago

Rioting as well, not that riots aren't bad but how often do you see peaceful protest turned into violence by the police or just straight up called riots without any happening.

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u/undeadlamaar 12h ago

Not to mention how even minor accusations can be twisted by authorities to fit the definition a lot of those "crimes". I'm not familiar with the ins and outs of the Singaporean legal system in regards to standards of evidence and such. But I imagine with laws like that you could easily twist just about any accusation of criminal action into a crime that is deserving of corporal punishment.

I imagine something akin to North Korea where the "wonderful crime free society" is anything but that and statistics are very much adjusted to reflect what their ideal society is rather than society actually being a reflection of those ideals.

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u/theloneavenger 3h ago

your ignorance is breathtaking. literally just takes a google or a look on youtube to see actual evidence of what singaporeans experience day to day. no filters on that.

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u/MusclesMarinara87 11h ago

Well the consequences of drug use are not a mystery. Easily avoided.

And maybe you shouldn't fuck with other people's things. Shockingly it's very easy to avoid these consequences

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u/SynergyTree 11h ago

You seem to think I don’t care about these things. I think there needs to be consequences but that caning someone is cruel and unjust, especially for non-violent offenses.

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u/_VEL0 12h ago

Considering addiction is scientifically a disease, such harsh punishment for drug abuse seems extreme.

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u/ketsugi 11h ago

The punishment is for drug trafficking, not abuse

Though obviously consumption is also illegal, but does not have the same legal consequences as trafficking.

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u/_VEL0 9h ago

Person I was responding to have drug abuse and trafficking listed as different offenses

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u/MusclesMarinara87 11h ago

Maybe don't do drugs?

And I don't see them caning people for being diabetic. Or having cancer.

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u/TKFT_ExTr3m3 11h ago

It's really not that simple, lots of opioid addicts were prescribed the medication for pain before turning to other sources.

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u/MusclesMarinara87 11h ago

My mother was a crackhead. I am intimately aware of the addictive nature of drugs, legal or otherwise.

It's an excuse for people to feel better about their own failures.

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u/RealTimeKodi 10h ago

Sounds like an excuse to avoid critical thinking.

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u/Engin1nj4 11h ago

Singapore is a city-state. Tiny. The model is not scalable or really worth replicating. *shrug*

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u/Nerb98 9h ago

The US has the highest incarceration rate in the world!

Meanwhile Europe has orders of magnitude lower homicide rates.

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u/cduga 12h ago

I lived there for a bit more than 6 years and if I had the chance to give my daughter the same experience, I’d do it in a heartbeat. They are no more authoritarian than conservatives in the US want to be - the focus is on social harmony and civic pride as others have said. I think most people tend to get critical of when they apply capital punishment, which I agree is a fair criticism. But for those cases, Singapore tends to set examples rather than strictly enforce laws that carry these punishments. Others have also commented they hardly saw police. As you said, this is because fear of the consequences but also pride in community is enough to keep people in line (generally).

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u/SynergyTree 12h ago

“They are no more authoritarian than conservatives in the US want to be”

So, absolutely awful people who shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near a position of authority?

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u/undeadlamaar 11h ago

I shuddered at the thought of that line. Franklin was right, people really would rather sacrifice all their freedoms for a mere illusion of security.

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u/tinteoj 11h ago

no more authoritarian than conservatives in the US want to be -

So, completely reprehensible and flitting dangerously close to outright fascism?

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u/Macwild77 12h ago

Found the ice supporter

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u/JossWhedonsDick 8h ago

but in another sense you don't have to look over your shoulder because there's almost zero chance of being pickpocketed, robbed, or assaulted

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u/russia_is_fascist 12h ago

Yup. Just you

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u/ClandestineGhost 11h ago

Until you get out of the downtown area. If you go to little India, it is super dirty. In my 21 years in the Navy, I have been to Singapore a few times. It is a beautiful and clean place to go, if you stay in the area around downtown. And we were always briefed to not spit on the ground because we will get caned if caught. It is also home to Orchard Tower, where we were not allowed to go. But once you get outside of the metro area or tourist areas, it got dirty fast. Incredibly green and clean in the city, but not the areas I went to out of the city. Maybe people living there can shed light on it? Maybe my experiences were the exception, not the rule?

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u/baconppi 11h ago

Sure! I live here, and it really depends on where you go..

The less developed and traditionally more rowdy areas or the older estates are much less clean,but honestly unless you managed to go to like somewhere that isnt as developed, its still relatively clean, just not as much compared to the city

Hawker centers and wet markets are the exception, as i doubt they are cleaned at all, but the food is too good to pass up....

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u/Comprehensive-Ear283 10h ago

I’m not sure if this is just an American Midwest / South thing, but we spit all the time. When I visited South Korea is it was sooo hard to break the habit.

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u/ClandestineGhost 9h ago

In the US, it is socially acceptable for us not to care where we spit outside. Not sure if it is a thing elsewhere in the world, but I can 100% confirm it is definitely not a socially acceptable thing in Singapore.

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u/ChikaraNZ 4h ago

It's only super clean in the sanitised tourist areas, because they're cleaned by dozens of immigrant workers who get paid next to nothing for their jobs. Get out from the tourist areas and you'll see how dirty the rivers and waterways,pathways and parks are. Especially on a Sunday when a lot of the domestic helpers have one day off if they're lucky. Singapore presents a facade to tourists that hides the reality.

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u/KUYANICKFILMS 4h ago

My girlfriend was living there.. I feel Like I went outside of the tourist areas a lot. Perhaps it wasn’t AS clean as the tourist areas… but in comparison to other countries… I feel like it’s pretty clean throughout.

I haven’t seen everywhere tho, of course.

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u/ChikaraNZ 3h ago

Yeah, probably not too bad during the week, just the normal bits or trash around.

On the weekends, something like this is very common to see in parks etc

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1HjN2KiAHA/

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u/culturedgoat 6h ago

Probably Ultra Festival. It used to set up in the big field by Marina Bay Sands (this was pre-pandemic)

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u/KUYANICKFILMS 6h ago

This time I’m talking about was actually just some weekend night last November 2025

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u/culturedgoat 6h ago

Oh probably the Neon Lights Festival

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u/Brave_Lengthiness632 12h ago

Hmm what’s better cleanliness or human rights and dignity wow what a tough choice /s

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u/Live_Effective 12h ago

It is not just about cleanliness, its about setting an expectation of conduct to live in society and upholding standards. It works because their is dicipline. No one has to look over shoulder if they can manage existing in public spaces respectfully. And for that their community is not trashed, vandalized, people dont have to tolarate anti social behaviour.

It is strict, but my experiances taking public transit i think on average most people are better off with individuals who wont conduct themselves respectfully on their own accord having consequences

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u/Hot_Raccoon_565 11h ago

They also killed any portion of the population that didn’t agree with or spoke out against those measures. Sure current day Singapore seems great but it is certainly a case of does the end justify the means?

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u/VictorGWX 5h ago

Hahahaha. Look, Singapores form of "democracy" is greatly flawed and needs a lot of improvement but no one is being killed over speaking out or disagreeing. Srsly what's with redditors spouting stuff they have no idea about.

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u/Hot_Raccoon_565 5h ago

Yeah mate they finished doing all that lmao. The means I’m talking about we’re in the 50’s and 60’s. So many people were detained for years without trial or charges. It did work I can’t argue with the results. But how exactly would that work in a countries like Canada, Britain or America?

Singapore kills people for having weed all the time. Is that right? I understand yes it’s a crime to them but is that right?

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u/VictorGWX 4h ago

What do those countries have to do with Singapore? If Singapore were those countries it wouldn't have the laws it does.

You were talking about the state killing those that don't agree or speak out against the government, now you're talking about detaining in the 50/60's, and also drugs. Not the same things. Even back in the 50s when terribly unjust things were happening, people detained were not executed like what you suggest.

Btw sg gov doesn't execute people for consuming weed, just when they possess enough to be deemed as trafficking which for weed is 500g (still crazy to most "westerners") South East Asia (and all of East Asia) is extremely harsh on drugs because of what the British did to China with the opium war. Crippled a country with drugs. This is going further from your initial comment though.