Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew: "If you don't fear me, I am nothing"

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Among the other out of this world, bizarre, mind boggling remarks that this man Lee Kuan Yew, has made, the one that beats them all is "If you don't fear me, I am nothing", which appears in his book Third World to First. I suppose it is a quotation from Machiavelli, a book that he appears to have read. One begins to wonder whether it is the only book that he is familiar with since he refers to none other.

Firstly he has got the definition wrong. Singapore, a country which hangs 20 year old petty drug mules, and whips criminals at their behind until it turns into a mesh of blood and flesh, a place which imprisons citizens for peaceful public assembly, while permitting the Burmese to assemble publicly in Singapore in any numbers and where kangaroo courts are used to abuse the law to stifle political dissent is not a first world country by any standards. If he has any doubt about what I said, he should consult the international human rights monitor Freedom House which places Singapore at the same ranking as Zimbabwe!

By now, if anyone has been following what nonsense this man has been saying for the past 2 decades, including this nonsense about people having to fear him, which is only one of a series of silly remarks which he appears determined to utter; one thing must be quite clear. This man, with his son is ruining the country so fast that very soon, there will be no one left in Singapore except for Lee and his immediate family and uneducated office boys. Everyone with any ability to think, some pride and self respect, would have left the country to settle elsewhere for no other reason than their just refusing to take any more insults from him.

If Singapore is trying to become international, like London New York and San Francisco, then it needs people of the level of education and intelligence as expected in such great cities. In other words capable people who would be offended if told that they are required to fear Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, if they wish to live in Singapore.

Lee Kuan Yew, it appears, is still laboring under the impression that everyone in Singapore fears him. Unfortunately for him, this is not true. Many in Singapore may sympathise with him, as an old man suffering from dementia or some other incurable mental illness. Megalomania may be a correct diagnosis. True, there may be those at the lower rungs of society who may really fear him through ignorance, but the educated and discerning who still remain in Singapore, I doubt have any fear.

In any case, most of them have left the country by now and are living in countries such as Australia; from which vantage, I suppose they enjoy a good laugh once in a while, at this silly old man with his stupid remarks, and his country made up of its inhabitants which he calls "digits".

The state controlled media in Singapore reports almost daily that Singapore is trying to be an education hub, a bio tech hub, a transport hub, and not to mention various other hubs of excellence. Unfortunately to date none of these hubs have ever materialized.

The reason should be quite obvious. A banking hub requires highly educated people. And such people are not going to take it kindly if Lee insults their intelligence. Now if you order a highly skilled world traveled international banker to fear you, he is probably going to react in a way that you probably would not like. He may tell you to fly a kite, regardless of whether your name is Lee Kuan Yew or Adolf Hitler. You see, this sort of arrogance is not going to go down well with educated people who do not see the need to prostrate at his feet.

What is even more annoying is this. Lee controls the press, turns the judiciary into a tool for destroying political dissent, imprisons its citizens when they exercise their rights under the constitution, appoints a Tamil boy as the Minister for Law just because he is a willing stooge; and yet after doing all this, he publicly claims that there is no corruption in Singapore and the Singapore legal system is the best in the world and so is the Singapore press even though it is ranked below North Korea!

When a man deliberately, brazenly and unashamedly tells blatant lies which is publicised through a state controlled newspaper, he loses all respect and his country loses it too.

Just as the Soviet newspapers which sang praises for the Communist government until its very last day before it finally fell, the Singapore government continues with these lies unashamedly.

Since Mr. Lee Kuan Yew has completely lost sight of reality, I suppose there is no point in anyone telling him that he is ruining the country. As a result of this stupidity that goes on in that island, educated people who are needed to turn it into Lee's international city are naturally leaving the place. They don't see it becoming any sort of hub that Lee wants. Highly capable individuals would not be prepared to live and work in a dictatorship. The people who stay behind are the ones who are totally incapable of advancing the country. They can only take orders from above, the type which is not the building block of an international city.

Mr. Lee Kuan Yew has to be told to shut up. He is making a fool of himself, let alone ruining the country.

Second, no one with any self respect will fear this man either within or without Singapore. Since this much has been established, someone should tell him that by his own definition, he is in fact, regrettably "nothing".

Gopalan Nair
39737 Paseo Padre Parkway, Suite A1
Fremont, CA 94538, USA
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Blog: http://singaporedissident.blogspot.com/

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