Is William Gibson's mention of Singapore really hip?

In The Sunday Times, 15 May 2005, there is a huge feature story on Singapore being hip called Singapore Swings. Under the heading of "Singapore in Literature", the article said

Count Zero
What: In this 1986 sci-fi novel, American cyberpunk pioneer William Gibson weaves a tale of industrial espionage.
It's hip because: Gibson foresaw Singapore as a premier biomedical hub. An hour after he gets blown up in an assassination attempt, Turner, the novel's protagonist, arrives in the island-state. He is then reassembled by Dutch doctor over three months, with missing body parts "bought on the open market".

Well, when the papers used this example as a mention that Singapore is "hip", I really wonder if they realise the irony of what they have printed.

The papers may think that Gibson's mention points to the fact that Singapore is a happening place, but did they realise that Gibson, in his piece on Singapore in Sept/Oct 1993 Issue 1.04 of Wired magazine, the sci-fi writer actually did a piece calling Singapore "Disneyland with the Death Penalty"? So linking the two ideas together, does it mean that Singapore is the "hip place with a death penalty"?

Guess the good folks in Straits Times didn't want you to know that.