Channel News Asia has lived up to it's reputation as nothing more than propoganda. Lies lies and more lies.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am referring to the Channel News Asia report by Nathan King dated April 22, 2007 "Overseas S'poreans flock to inaugural Singapore Day in NYC". Don't believe a word of it. It is one big lie. Nathan King has spun up a big story. It is nothing more than his imagination.

It is like this. New York Central Park as you know is a public park. Anyone can go there. What Lee Kuan Yew did was to spend your tax payers money, lots of it, and hired American contractors paying them lots of money (yours), to erect a lavish looking stage in the middle of the park, which was open to the general public, and gave out free food to any member of the public who wanted to eat (paid for by tax payers like you). Please note that the spot for the event in the public park was not sequestered, meaning anyone, including American Australian and Mongolian, never mind Singaporean, could come and go and eat all the food they want and stand wherever they want.

Naturally they got a big crowd. Who wouldn't want to eat free food, tell me? But the big crowd were not Singaporeans. They were Americans who happened to be there, being a weekend, at the park. There might have been few Singaporeans but they could not have been more than a handful. If you look carefully at the picture provided in the paper, most of the faces are that of Americans. I could not find any Chinese face among the crowd, except of course that of Wong Kan Seng speaking to a Chinese man and woman.

According to Mr. King, the writer, he claims that there were 6,000 people there and Wong Kang Seng met them personally. I suppose there could have been more than 6,000. After all it is Central Park New York on a weekend! And what is more, there was free food for all! But the question is how many Singaporeans were there among the general American public in the park.

This is classic Hitlerian propaganda at it's best. And I doubt even Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda minister could beat this lie, making it look so real.

Of course, since you are not in Central Park, you could not have known this lie one way or another, unless someone from here points this out to you. And I have been glad to have been given the chance.

My answer to Mr. Wong Kang Seng is this. Don't count on it. Singaporeans have left Singapore because they could not stand people such as Wong Kan Seng who refuses to allow people their fundamental human rights and their liberty. Where he has made Singapore into a police state so much so that you may need a police permit, almost, even if you needed to wink! Try to get it into your head Mr. Wong Kan Seng, that people who leave Singapore are smarter than you think. The people who are prepared to live in Singapore other than freedom fighters like Dr. Chee Soon Juan, are those with little education, who do not know their rights. Had they a better education they would have left too. So, Mr. Wong, I am sorry to tell you that Singaporeans who have left will not return to your Alice in Wonderland Police State. And at the same time, more and more people are leaving the shores of Singapore each day to supplement those already abroad.

And finally the number is not 6,000. If you subtract the Americans who came to spend their time at the park on the weekend and those American passers by who came to try free Singaporean food for the first time, the actual Singaporeans there would have numbered not more than 40. Not 6,000 as Mr. King claims.

Mr. King, the writer has used a great deal of imagination in conjuring up the number of 6,000 and Singaporeans coming from Canada and California. Good thing, he did not suggest that Singaporeans had flown from all over Europe to come to Central Park New York that day!

Lies, Lies and More Lies. But in the end, it will not work. You see, Mr. Wong, all over the world, Singaporeans have said good riddance to your police state. Unless you give them their human rights, they will get their education in Singapore and be on the next plane to Perth, Sydney, Auckland, Toronto or San Francisco.

By way, I live in the outskirts of San Francisco.

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