A parliamentary democracy is a sham arrangement where one man one vote is so magnified as if it can turn water into wine. The promises are usually empty and generationally embarrassing.

Let's take a trip. The very least you probably knew of him just before pneumonia took him away in 2015 was his outsized role as prime minister of Singapore from 1959 to 1990. A country with a population 6.12 million living in 287 square miles.

Lee Kuan Yew’s illiberal democracy was a special moulding of democracy suited to take away the fact that the lawyer-politician fashioned a one-party state that had no choice but to succeed at major economic reforms, urban development, meritocracy, and strong anti-corruption measures.