Even Lee Kuan Yew, often regarded as the global icon of "benevolent" dictatorship, was known to favor and advocate for the creation of a policestate where legal protections were set aside. “Repression…is a habit that grows,” said Lee addressing Singapore’s British chief minister David Marshall in the island’s colonial legislative assembly.
Pakistan emerged in a state of disarray as a "moth-eaten" country. Our inherited colonial state apparatus was geared only for the implementation of two central policies: the maintenance of law and order, and the extraction of surplus resources from our agrarian economy. The colonial state structure that we inherited was thus ill-suited for the formidable task of fostering comprehensive national development. Following the "transfer of power,"
East Asia's remarkable economic development has often been hailed as a miracle. Pakistan also keeps dreaming of attaining comparable levels of growth and progress.
A section of our elite argues that the Asian tigers achieved their economic miracles because of the "benevolent" dictators, who steered those countries during their take-off stage.