As someone who has lived in Singapore for a couple of decades I think I'm well suited to answering this.

There is plenty of criticism that goes on against the government both online and in real life. The only people who are charged with libel suits are those who have either - a) put forth blatantly false statements and have achieved a certain level of fame b) made statements against certain races and religions.

Obviously this isn't the same level of freedom of speech that is found in America but it is nowhere near as draconian as the western media would like to portray.

The number of people who fall into the categories above are a handful. For the millions of people who are only superficially engaged politically this simply does not matter to them, and the quality of living they enjoy far outweighs whatever prohibitions on free speech is imposed.