Originally Posted by
lsquare
What's wrong with Singapore's model? Why is Singapore's model not a good fit for Taiwan?
I would hope one thing everybody learned from the pandemic is that the efficacy of a law is dependent on two things: enforcement, compliance. With the latter being more important. In the US we know that if a government mandates masks it will increase masking by some percentage but compliance will be nowhere close to 100%.
Most people don't like it when their government changes the rules every day, or backtracks. Most governments never admit they are wrong. But Singapore is special. People trust their government (and others, to such an extent that they have a campaign telling people not to trust strangers) and the government is able to get most people to do stuff without needing any penalties.
Taiwan is not, as put aptly by Taipei's mayor:
“For the [world’s] four Chinese-speaking regions — Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Mainland China — the longer the colonization, the more advanced a place is,” Ko said, adding that it was “embarrassing” that “Singapore is better than Hong Kong; Hong Kong is better than Taiwan; Taiwan is better than the mainland.” In a sense I feel it is more similar to China, cause the government has to save face. In Vietnam the COVID rules are not revised, they are just not enforced.
I don't see much similarity in Singapore's government and culture and Taiwan's. What works in one country likely will not work in the other.