Monday, January 29, 2007

Singapore. Stop deceiving innocent school children by makin them sing the national pledge.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Singapore national pledge, required to be sung by schoolchildren each morning of their school going lives reads as follows:

"We, the citizens of Singapore
pledge ourselves as one united people
regardless of race, language or religion
to build a democratic society
based on justice and equality
so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and
progress for our nation"

Schoolchildren who are required by their teachers to sing this each morning are not aware, becasue of their youth and innocence, that almost every line in this pledge contains shameless falsities and untruths of which the Lee government is fully aware, and yet, deliberately, without any regard of the fact that they are deceiving young innocent minds, continue to make them utter this falsity, realizing fully, that they are doing a great injustice to them at a young age, being innocent children, into believing something that is patently false.

This deliberate and wilful deception on the minds of young schoolchildren by the Lee government is a crime and I ask them to cease and desist forthwith this deliberate deception on these children. I also ask parents of the children to ask them not to sing the pledge, when next they are in school, on the grounds that it is shameless lie, deliberately perpetuated by the Lee government.

We can take this line by line.

Pledge ourselves as one united people

There is no unity among the people. We have in Singapore a privileged class. These are the government (Peoples Action Party) supporters and cronies who are given given jobs, well paid and live a life of comfort, just as you find in all other Fascist and dictatorial countries who reward unconditional submission and obedience from its subjects. Then there are those who are unable to be card carrying members of the PAP either by reason of conscience or because they have more pride as human beings than those card carrying sycophants. These suffer from not getting the good jobs and financial disadvantage thereof. What you have is 2 classes, as expected in all Fascist societies like Singapore. The privileged government connected people and those who are not. There is no unity among such a people.

Regardless of Race Language or Religion

There is no unity regardless of race. I have lived in Singapore almost all my life, and I can say without hesitation that the Chinese, Malays and Indians I knew treated each other and still do as one family. And I am sure what I am about to say has the full support of my Chinese friends. My Chinese Singapore friends, with whom I grew up, are not responsible for the progressively increasing rift among the races in Singapore. It is the Lee government of Singapore that deliberately creates a rift among the people for their own dishonest political ends.

Singapore was never intended to be a Chinese country. It was intended to be that of all of us. But today, deliberately it is becoming a totally Chinese country.

The racial mix of the country at present is 75% Chinese, 15% Malay, and 8% Indian. But these are all Singaporeans. Whether the ratios were the other way round, with Malays in majority or the Indians and vice versa should not make any difference to any of us. Certainly not to me or to my Chinese friends with whom I grew up.

But this is not the case in Singapore. Lee Kuan Yew has deliberately decided that this ratio had to be maintained regardless of how many Chinese Malays or Indians are born in Singapore. In other words, he will, (as he already does now) in the event of (as is happening now) the Chinese birth rate declining, bring in sufficient numbers from China, Malaysia or anywhere else in the world, sufficient numbers to ensure the Chinese remain the majority race perpetually in Singapore ad infinitum. The Malays will remain at 15% no matter how hard they try to increase their populations and the Indians must accept, whether they like it or not, the miserable minority of 8%. You will be be surprised to know that nowhere in the constitution of Singapore or the laws that require the Singapore racial mix to be at this level. And I am sure my Chinese and Malay friends would stand by me when I say that it should be the Singaporeans whose children should populate Singapore, not Lee Kuan Yew who does it with a calibrating machine with Chinese imports from Shanghai.

And for this arrogance and blatant abuse of the laws of Singapore of selective racial interference of population to artificially control Singapore's racial balance with a Chinese majority of 75%, all Singaporeans should take to the streets and protest that it should be the Singaporeans who decide their population, not Lee Kuan Yew.

And I am confident that in my saying this, I have the full support of Singaporean Chinese. I mean the real local born Singaporean Chinese and the local born Malays and the Indians. The Chinese of Singapore have much more in common with me being an Indian than they will ever have with an import from Shanghai. That I am sure.

So much for Lee's one united people regardless of race. Totally debunked.

To build a democratic society

If Lee, in drafting this pledge meant a futuristic Singapore, sometime in the future, when it may or may not become democratic, I can agree with him. If Lee is talking about the present however it is certainly not democratic by any measure. However if what Lee means is the interpretation given to the word "democracy" by such countries as North Korea, then it is the perfect example of a democracy, the correct name of North Korea being the Democratic Republic of North Korea! But frankly, neither I, nor anyone of you would want any part of it.

But from what we generally understand to be a democracy, Singapore is not one. And it is a lie to make young children sing the pledge each day, inducing them to think it is. There is no greater crime than misleading an innocent child for political ends. This is what Lee is doing. There is no free press, there is no right to free speech and expression, there is no free trade unions, there is no right to independent thought, there is no independent judiciary. Singapore lacking these fundamental rights, it is not a democratic country. So stop deceiving schoolchildren into thinking it is.

Based on Justice and Equality

Nothing can be further from the truth. See above.

So as to achieve happiness

Yes, there is happiness for the selected few sycophants and trumpeteers of the Singapore Lee family. I understand that in Malawi, the king has official singers of praise. For next, perhaps Lee Kuan Yew could consider the training and employment of singers to sing praises to him each day at various points in Singapore. Unfortunately , there is no happiness among the thousands of low income citizens who suffer silently and kill themselves from their HDB flats.

I ask that any parent realizing this, who has any concern for the moral upbringing of their children should forthwith advise them to tell their teachers in school that this pledge is a ruse, a deception on their children and they will refuse to sing it.

Gopalan Nair
39737 Paseo Padre Parkway, Suite A1
Fremont, CA 94538, USA
Tel: 510 657 6107
Fax: 510 657 6914
EMail: gopalnair@us-immigrationlaw.com

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

since which ice age had sch children started to SING the pledge?

Anonymous said...

Reciting is like singing the pledge with the same rythm....

Anonymous said...

I just remembered this pledge.

It meant so incredibly little to me then. It still means nothing.