Is Law Society President's statement that lawyers are in short supply because of a surging economy correct?

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The President of the Law Society of Singapore, Phillip Jeyaretnam, has remarked that lawyers are in short supply because of a "surging economy and a property boom" reported in Straits Times May 27, 2007. This is quite hard to believe, especially because the rest of the same report in the Straits Times says "some 329 practicing lawyers, more than half of whom are women, did not renew their practicing certificates!" And then there is more in the report! It says "the number of those who did not renew their practicing reports was higher than in the past 2 years!"

Is there something wrong here or am I not reading correctly? On the one hand Mr. Jeyaretnam, the son of the politician Jeyaretnam, says the economy is surging. Surely that must be good news, and therefore not only that lawyers would want to continue practicing law but more would want to enter the profession. Surely that must be so if the "economy is surging" and there is a "property boom" according to Jeyaretnam Junior, the son of the famous JB Jeyaretnam.

These 2 facts, if indeed they are facts, are conflicting and makes no sense.

Therefore I believe Jeyaretnam junior is trying either to tell us something else, or he is giving us double talk, Orwellian doubletalk.

May I be permitted please to tell you the truth, which I am sure you already know, for which I beg your pardon. The truth is as follows.

The vast majority of lawyers who have a conscience and some self respect and integrity, unlike Mr. Jeyaretnam Junior, are not prepared to claim to uphold the law, when the law in Singapore is merely to please Lee Kuan Yew, his family and friends and carry out his authoritarian dictates without complaint. Lawyers more than anyone else, honest lawyers that is, are aware that the law in Singapore has been thoroughly discredited, judges are corrupt and the Law Society President himself knows that he is there, not to protect the Singapore Constitution but to ensure that Lee Kuan Yew can continue to use defamation lawsuits against political opponents with impunity, his father being one.

Therefore honest upright lawyers continue to leave the profession, despite the "economy surging" and the "property booming". They wish to have nothing to do with the likes of Jeyaretnam Junior or the Kangaroo Judges who do the dirty work of demolishing the opposition, where the law is used as an instrument of oppression. In other words the vast majority of lawyers who leave are not prepared to do the kind of work and say the kind of things that Jeyaretnam Junior does for a living, which is nothing more than say and do anything that the Lee Administration wants said and done, to protect the corrupt legal system existing in Lee's Singapore.

Therefore lawyers leave the profession. And thanks to people like Dr. Chee of the Singapore Democratic Party, they will continue to expose the corruption of the law and the judiciary in Singapore, making it even more difficult to persuade honest good lawyers to join your legal profession or rather the profession that permits itself to be used as a political weapon to destroy Lee's political opponents.

As any honest lawyer knows, it is impossible to practice law in Singapore and keep your conscience intact. Jeyaretnam Junior does not have a conscience or self respect. So he is prepared to do the dirty work he does everyday, that is, as President of the Law Society of Singapore he permits himself to be used as a rubber stamp for Lee Kuan Yew orders violating the constitution against political opponents. He gladly gives legitimacy, as President of the Law Society for Lee Kuan Yew's erosion of the rule of law, by meekly submitting without even a whimper of complaint! Therefore he has no difficulty practicing in that island. But the vast majority of other lawyers are not like him. They have some pride, some self respect. So they refuse to renew their practicing certificates. And they emigrate if they can.

So, Jeyaretnam Junior, I suggest you try telling something else. This time it is not working.

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