OPINION: Approving of autocracy - Sholto Byrnes

New Statesman, 5 Dec 2010To take another example: semi- or fully autocratic regimes were the norm throughout South East Asia in the 1980s and 90s. Singapore's Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew, has argued this is because what he calls "Asian values" prevail in the region. That this is a distinctly unfashionable analysis is not likely to trouble MM Lee in the least. However, there are some Western