Singapore. The position of Minister Mentor is illegal.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Lee Kuan Yew has once called the citizens of Singapore, "digits", meaning that they can be pushed around at will. He said it in one of his Parliamentary speeches about two decades ago which insult has now become famous. It is quite clear that he still feels that way by his actions. One of which is to give himself the position of "Minister Mentor".

Officially we are told Singapore is a constitutional democracy. Nothing can be further from the truth. In a constitutional democracy, the persons forming the government have to hold their positions in accordance with the Constitution. Therefore the position of the Prime Minister, the Ministers, the members of the Cabinet, the Members of Parliament all have authority because these positions are approved under the Constitution.

But in the entire Constitution, you will like to know that there is not a single reference whatsoever for "Minister Mentor". Lee Kuan Yew has created this position for himself without any legal authority, and furthermore decide to pay himself for a position which is itself illegal, $3 million or so a year. Totally downright illegal and unconstitutional.

This Minister Mentor is 83 years old. Let alone the fact the position of Minister Mentor is itself illegal, we should ask Lee Kuan Yew, the Minister Mentor, how much mentoring has he done to justify this salary of $3 million. He has not provided any time sheets to show how much mentoring he has done, how many hours exactly and why that amount of mentoring is worth this huge colossal amount of $3 million a year. All that he does, as we see, is giving some unsolicited speeches on what and how the world should be, which most us find tiresome and boring beyond endurance and very often, down right silly. Second he goes around the world telling every one else how they should run their countries when no one else has even asked. If this is the sort of mentoring he provides, it is totally useless to anyone.

But what is even more puzzling is why should he be mentoring anyone. If we are to assume that his self imposed duties as Minister Mentor includes mentoring his son, the Prime Minister, to whom he has given that position; why is it that his son, can only do the job if he is mentored by someone? Is he not then, unfit for the job, and should he not let someone else be prime minister who doesn't need mentoring. Furthermore, this would save the taxpayer of $ 3 million a year, which now goes to pay this self proclaimed mentor, which should be ordinarily unnecessary. Look around you. Does the British Prime Minster Gordon Brown have a mentor on how he should govern? John Howard of Australia does not have one either. No other country has this professional position of mentor.

And it downright silly for a government to claim to have been voted into power and yet say that they can only do the job if they are "mentored".

As we know Mr. Lee Kuan Yew is 83 years old. He has to die some day. When he dies who is going to mentor his son? No provisions have been made for this, since it does appear from his son's total lack of ability, that he indeed needs a full time mentor, and even a nanny perhaps, to show him how to be Prime Minister. It should be the responsibility of Mr. Lee Kuan Yew to look around now for a suitable mentor for his son, before he dies, otherwise, without mentoring, Singapore will be in a worse shape than it already is.

Gopalan Nair
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Email: gopalnair@us-immigrationlaw.com