Singapore ranks 20th on the world’s best countries list compiled by Newsweek. But it would have the third highest score if the list didn’t include the political category.

If you look at the chart, it includes five categories: education, health, quality of life, economic dynamism and political environment. Newsweek says the list gives equal weight to all five categories.

The chart shows Singapore ranked first in economic dynamism, fourth in education, seventh in health and 23rd in quality of life but 67th in political environment. That is what dragged it down. Leave aside the political environment and tot up the scores (shown in brackets in the chart) in the other categories. And only two countries emerge with higher scores than Singapore: Switzerland followed by Finland. Japan comes a close fourth.

Newsweek also ranks Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong among the world’s top 10 leaders. He is amusingly billed as “The Middleman“. But then, as Newsweek says:

In foreign policy, Lee’s managed to carve out a role as friend to all the big powers in the region.

And it pays tribute to his economic acumen, too:

The steward of the fastest-growing economy in the world, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is a master at risk management… Global credit insurers such as France’s Coface now rate Singapore as the safest place to do business in Asia.