"Disneyland with the death penalty" may be a unique selling proposition but I well believe it when metamemetics says it's bad at "attracting young international people looking to do startups".
There's a lot more than that, e.g. you have to be careful about what you write and perhaps say about the government.
That is being paranoid. I don't understand the downvoting. Is US a "Disneyland with guns" then? How many people have been killed by guns versus death penalty in Singapore? (Before you downvote me again, hear me out)
I live here. I see lots of curses in facebook and websites about the government and I mean really really mean curses, personal attacks and so on. I complain lots about the government. And to clarify, there is a line which you don't cross, which is the religious line and accusing the govt of corruption without proof. It is rather simple.
I don't really see how young people doing startups care about that? Just respect your neighbours and their religion, is it hard to do? If you have proof that someone is corrupted, just report it. (Btw, some govt guy just got charged for a huge corruption case.) Having a death penalty doesn't mean the whole country is one brainwashed crazed population looking to execute anyone. In fact there are so many foreigners here at any startup event that the locals are beginning to seem like the minority.
Yes, this small place(market) has lots of problems and it is definitely not disneyland. But to say it is a bad place just because of death penalty or lack of freedom to insult other religion is just ridiculous. Just look beyond political nonsense and journalistic opinions.
There's a lot more than that, e.g. you have to be careful about what you write and perhaps say about the government.