The first 20 years PAP did a good job of putting food on the table, shelter over our heads, educating our kids, and providing very affordable healthcare. We were a 'socialist' nation, though our rights and freedoms were curtailed and there was no genuine democracy.
The rot started in the mid-'80s when all the public services and stat boards were privatized, ministers were paid astronomical salaries, GDP growth became the yardstick for progress, HDB flats were pegged to private property, and Singapore was turned into S'pore, Inc. The problems were further exacerbated in the '90s when the floodgates were opened to foreigners, resulting in skyrocketing property prices, high cost of living, stagnant wages, PMET unemployment and widening income gap.
The stunted political system and continued govt repression did not help. People could not voice out and agitate for change; progressive opposition figures were either detained under ISA or sued and bankrupted or exiled. Fear permeated the populace to the extent that people daren't even vote for the opposition even though the vote is secret. Through a combination of fear, gerrymandering and pork-barrelling the PAP has continued to maintain its iron grip on power for 50 years.
So the fundamental truism preached ad nauseam by CSJ that without rights and freedoms we cannot fight for our bread and butter has come to haunt us to this day.
May Sep 11, 2015 be a turning point for us.