The role of citizen political participation in Hong Kong and Singapore Hong Kong and Singapore are city-states that have traditionally lacked broad political participation , instead, policy decisions were left to a small group of leaders. Historical factors played a crucial role in determining the role of political participation in the two city-states. Hong Kong's colonial history and the strength of the People's Action Party (PAP) in Singapore have kept broad citizen participation in government at a minimum. After World War II, Hong Kong remained a colony of England and its government remained under colonial rule. Unlike other Asian countries like Singapore, there was no major anti-colonial movement and the colonial government was free from political pressure because many Chinese residents and immigrants valued the business opportunities that Hong Kong had to offer and feared that if England relinquished control of Hong Kong, the small state would be invaded by expansionist and newly established Communist China to the north. In the years immediately following 1949, China expanded, seizing Tibet and Mongolia; Hong Kong's feeling of insecurity was very real. The colonial government established the Legislative Council and the Executive Council of Hong Kong in subsequent years, and the colonial government appointed prominent and respected local Chinese citizens to serve on these bodies. These councils, while far from democratic, ensured that Chinese citizens would at least have representatives to express their pleasure or displeasure with the colonial administration. But these representatives had no real power and only served at the whim of the colonial administration. The Hong Kong government was administered and run by English Foreign Service officers who flocked to Hong Kong, the last vestige of the English Empire. In Hong Kong, it was really the English who ruled the Chinese public. In Singapore, after the end of World War II, only one political party came to power, the People's Action Party, a strongly anti-colonial left-wing party. composed of communists and more moderate socialists. After independence, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and his allies managed to move the party away from communism and towards a more moderate position. The People's Action Party tolerated dissent and other political parties because Lee Kuan Yew believed it had a strong political base. The PAP has so dominated politics that no other political party has emerged as a powerful force in Singapore. In democratic elections in Singapore, the PAP has always won by large majorities. The biggest blow came to the PAP in 1984, when the opposition won