They did a number of things right. Nonetheless under less fortuitous circumstances Lee Kuan Yew would still be ruling a third world country with an iron fist.

They've also had race riots - there was one while I was living there in 2013 on race course road.

That was the first riot in 44 years, and describing it as a race riot is a bit much.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Little_India_riot

It was urban unrest driven by anger against systemic discrimination against people with dark skin triggered by a fatal accident caused by a perpetrator of a different race who wasnt punished.

I think arguing that it wasn't about race and bore no similarities whatsoever to America is stretching it just a bit. Don't you think?

You're looking at this through a very American lens. The riots were kindled by the many frustrations of being a migrant worker in Singapore, which are much more about class/poverty than skin color (for one thing, there is a very large Chinese migrant worker contingent as well), and it was triggered by a traffic accident, not (eg) police brutality.

I'm not American.

There is a racial hierarchy among migrant workers in Singapore (as well as among citizens). Mainland Chinese are at the top, people from the subcontinent at the bottom. This is partly what inspired the riot. They are the lowest "caste" in Singapore - even below other migrant workers. their friend died in front of their eyes largely because he, like them, was at the bottom of the ladder and they (police,first responders,the govt) could not give a shit whether he lived or died. So he died.

It also inspired the bus driver strikes - partly because this racial hierarchy was encoded into pay.

American racism is often more subtle (you won't get lower published pay rates for blacks) but tends to be more brutal at the same time (routine police beatings). Not fun being part of either system.