(Disclaimer: This is purely a fictional storyline generated for my own Shadowrun Campaign and has no bearing on my real-life personal/political views whatsoever.)
Chapter 19: The Early Papper Years (Pre-2020)
Year 2035 was supposed to herald a new beginning for the country's perennial ruling party– the PAP.
Singapore turned independent in 1965, and Mr Lee Kwun Yew (the main catalyst for the independent movement and co-leader of the PAP) became the first Prime Minister of the fledgling country. He was visionary, and pragmatic at the same time; ushering Singapore into an era of wealth and unhindered progress.
In the 1980s, The bustling trading port soon turned into a leading world financial center. In 1990, Mr Lee stepped down as the Prime Minister and his deputy Mr Goh Cheok Tong took over the reins. Mr Lee became the Senior Minister and chief advisor to Mr Goh, but still wielded much political clout and influence, so much so that the general public wondered if Mr Goh was merely a political stand-in for the much more experienced Senior Minister.
By then, the population had already heard of sweeping reforms (after the 1st and 2nd "Shiawase Decision" were passed in the United States) throughout the world where numerous Corporations—Seretech Corporation (New York), Shiawase Inc. (U.S.), Ares Macrotechnology (U.S), Aztechnology Corp. (Aztlan), and Renraku Computer Systems (Japan Imperial State) have wrested control and gained extraterritoriality status from their federal courts; making them near-equals to Central Governments in terms of law-making and security on their own private turfs (commonly known as "Sprawls").
They would not need to answer to the Government for their actions and can even maintain their own private security forces. This in turn allows the Corporations to go about their business without interference and generate more commercial revenue purely based on market forces. They will also be able to answer directly for their own policies and decisions, thus freeing the Central Government from the extra burden of having to oversee them.
With less responsibilities, the Central Government then has more time and resources to work on its people and their welfare, which was supposed to be their goal in the first place. Financial-wise, the Corporations will cough up a token sum annually to the Government as goodwill for the land that the Corporation sits on.
Singaporeans made their feelings known the year after, when Mr Lee Sien Loong, eldest son of the Senior Minister, was elected to become the 3rd Prime Minister of Singapore after the 2004 Elections. He retained several traits of his father; his bold decision-making to introduce F1 Night Racing and open world-class Integrated Resorts (w/ the casinos inside being the main attraction) improved tourism and boosted the economy greatly.
In 2008, due to increasing pressure from the public, PM Lee passed the Priva-Heal law whereby the three (read: all) major health-care subsidiaries in Singapore were taken over by multi-national Corporations and given total freedom in terms of decision making and policies within their territory. They still could not keep a private security force, but by doing this, the country had already taken a big step in supporting the fast-growing international trend of granting extraterritoriality to certain entities.
With the influx of the bigger Corporations, Singapore soon became a cosmopolitan world city, vibrant in business and the arts. At this point (2010-), PM Lee Sien Loong's two sons, Lee Hong'e and Lee Hao'e had become capable young men. In the mold of their father and grandfather– they excelled at studying and were top scholars, and showed leadership as army officers during National Service.
However, the elder son Hong'e displayed signs of rebelliousness and fierce independence in a particular incident during his officer stint, which involved a complaint made against a fellow officer which was unfortunately leaked to the media. The accused was court martial-ed and fined for his actions. For his part, Hongyi was given a stern reprimand for bypassing proper channels in his complaint, and causing the media leak which painted the Singapore Defense Forces (SDF) in a negative light.
On December 24th 2011, Singapore felt the "Awakening". A large percentage of children were born "deformed". They were later given official racial types in their SINs— Dwarves and Elves. This Unexplained Genetic Expression (UGE) affected as much as 40% of total births that year, and caused untold chaos with expectant mothers committing mass suicide in order to avoid this "disease".
A historic interview was given by the great dragon Dunkelzahn at Cherry Creek Lake in Denver on January 27, 2012 explaining the "Awakening". He claimed that Magic has returned to the world, and that the new races were simply evolutionary manifestations of DNA; not freaks of nature. The pointy-eared Elves (w/ the fine facial features) were magically inclined, while the stout Dwarves were physically hardy and resistant to many harmful effects (toxins and pathogens etc). He also warned that this event was just the first of many more changes to come; and that change was inevitable as the era of the Sixth World is upon us.
Racial riots ensued, and local abortion rates hit sky-high proportions as pregnant mothers refused to birth the Demi (street slang for non-humans in Singapore). PM Lee decided on another radical solution. He offered Aztechnology Corp.— one of the Big Ten AAA Mega-Corporation hailing from Aztlan (Central America), acres of free land in the west (Ju'Rong Town, Tuas Industrials). They were also promised extraterritoriality— as that was one of the prereqs required to attract a Big Ten Megacorp.
In the span of a few years, Aztechnology Corp. had greatly lessened the fear and hate of meta-humanity in Singapore, and the rest of the island regained commercial viability by late 2017, w/ the Mega-Corporation leading the way in terms of productivity and net profits. PM Lee won the next two General Elections by landslide margins; the contented public now firmly on his side.
This era of stability did not last, as the following decade (2020-2030) was to prove Dunkelzahn's words right.
(To be continued)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
