THE SINGAPORE PLAYBOOK FOR FIXING AMERICA'S MESS: COMMON SENSE LEADERSHIP THAT ACTUALLY WORKS

Folks, look at what’s happening right across the Pacific Northwest. Oregon is blessed with incredible land, hardworking people, forests, farms, and tech talent, yet our streets are a disaster, families are struggling, and government keeps making things worse with one bad decision after another. We don’t need more fancy studies or progressive experiments. We need leaders who put results first, just like Lee Kuan Yew did in Singapore. 

Before retiring from the military I worked in Singapore over a four year period. I found the country to be stunningly clean and safe. We can learn from Singapore.

Back in 1959, Lee took over a dirty, poor, chaotic island with nothing going for it; disease, ethnic fights, no jobs. Through straight-talking, merit-based government and zero tolerance for nonsense, he turned it into one of the cleanest, safest, richest places on earth. Oregon can do the same. We’ve got the resources. What we’ve been missing is discipline and accountability.

Hire Competent People, Not Connected Cronies

First thing: Run government like a business that actually works. Lee Kuan Yew demanded the best people in charge not party hacks or campaign donors. He built a professional civil service that delivered. Here in Oregon, we’ve seen the opposite. Delayed unemployment checks when people needed them most, billions thrown at drug treatment with little to show for it and endless bureaucracy while roads crumble and permits take forever. It’s time to demand real competency tests and performance standards for agency heads. No more political favoritism. Hire managers who hit measurable goals or they’re gone. Taxpayers deserve services that work, not excuses. 

Safety and Order Come First — No Apologies

You can’t have a thriving state without safe streets. Lee understood that basic public order isn’t “mean”, it’s compassionate. It protects the vulnerable and lets businesses and families flourish. Portland and too many of our towns have become national punch lines for open drug use, property crime, tents everywhere, and chaos. Oregonians are compassionate people. We want to help those down on their luck, but compassion without consequences has turned into enabling. We don’t need Singapore’s cane. We need to enforce the laws we already have. Clear out illegal camps. Prosecute theft and vandalism consistently. Set firm rules for public behavior. Clean, safe neighborhoods aren’t a luxury, they’re the foundation for kids playing in parks, local shops succeeding, and people actually wanting to live here. Enough is enough.

End the Drug Experiment That Failed Oregonians

Measure 110 was sold as compassion. It delivered more addiction, more chaos, and more heartbreak for families. Lee Kuan Yew treated drugs as the societal poison they are; tough enforcement on dealers, mandatory structured help for users. Oregon needs to shift from passive “harm reduction” that harms everyone to active recovery. That means mandatory treatment programs for severe cases, real accountability, and getting people off the streets now, today, and back on their feet. We can be firm and humane at the same time. Our current approach is neither.

Pro-Business Pragmatism and Investing in Oregon Workers

Lee aggressively cut red tape, built great infrastructure, and attracted good jobs. Oregon has agriculture, timber, the “Silicon Forest”, and huge potential in clean energy and manufacturing. Yet over-regulation, high taxes, and instability are driving employers away. We need to streamline rules that make sense, offer targeted incentives for companies that create family-wage jobs, and stop punishing success with back-breaking taxation. At the same time, invest in real workforce training; vocational academies, apprenticeships, and programs that match what employers actually need. Not more ideology in the classroom, but skills that put Oregonians first in a competitive world.

Oregon Values + Singapore Discipline = A State That Works Again

This isn’t about turning Oregon into Singapore or giving up our freedoms. It’s about borrowing proven ideas that deliver results: accountability, merit, order, and long-term thinking. We keep Oregon’s creativity, community spirit, and love of the outdoors. We add the discipline and common sense that have been missing.

The career politicians and Portland-centric bureaucrats have had their turn. Their ideas have given us higher costs, worse safety, and struggling families. It’s time for a course correction; practical, no-nonsense governance that puts Oregon families, small businesses, and taxpayers first.

We can have clean streets again. We can have safe parks and thriving towns. We can have an economy where hard work pays and government stays out of the way. It won’t happen by continuing the same failed policies. It happens when we demand better.

Oregonians are ready for leadership that listens to the people, delivers results, and stops the madness. The Singapore model shows what’s possible when government focuses on what works. Let’s get it done for our kids, our neighbors, and the beautiful state we love.

Let us all work together as one people to restore America, Oregon and Clackamas County to the glory days of prosperity, social harmony and a bright future for all.