Singapore 40 years on. Slow road to democracy

Singapore got a new Prime Minister in August 2004 - only the third one since 1959, and incidently the son of the first. The ruling People’s Action Party appears as firmly in power as ever before. However, under that apparent immobility, very significant changes have taken place since a decade. They did not affect (yet?) the core of the political system, and its compulsive authoritarianism, but otherwise the atmosphere is simply no more the same. Liberalization has especially affected culture and private life. But, since 2001, the new threat of terrorism has put into question the always delicate ethnic equilibrium. It could also slow or even stop the timid political opening.