The dirty tricks of the government of Singapore.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

If there is one thing that Lee Kuan Yew is afraid of is the prospect of mass protests as was the case in Philippines that brought down Ferdinand Marcos. If only that happened in Singapore even if it was on a scale of just one tenth of it, it would be goodbye to Lee Kuan Yew's government. That is why whatever they do, they must stop protests at any cost, never mind the Constitution of Singapore expressly guaranteeing that right.

The days when even a segment of Singapore was supportive of the regime are long over. Today there is just one thing that keeps the people from the necks of the Singapore government, and that is fear. Fear of arrest and certain prosecution and conviction before Lee's corrupt judges. I had given one example of such a judge in this blog; Judge Belinda Ang Saw Ean who recently ordered Dr. Chee Soon Juan, Lee's arch political opponent to pay $410,000.00 in damages to him.

With the worrying prospect of protests in Singapore Lee does everything he can to stop it any any cost. That is why throughout the history of Singapore, there have never been protests, except in the 1960s, something that is common in every democratic country in the world.

On March 15, 2008 in front of Singapore Parliament, the unthinkable happened. 17 young men and women, an unprecedented number throughout the history of Singapore, stood peacefully with placards and signs protesting against the steep rises in food prices. They were harming no one. They were in the way of no one. They were a danger to no one. Yet Lee Kuan Yew ordered his police to come down hard on them and arresting everyone of them and charging them with criminal offenses, when no offense was committed. The point was not that no offense was committed. The point was that Lee Kuan Yew cannot tolerate even the slightest sign of public dissatisfaction because it may gain in strength which will result in his having to say goodbye.

The trial of these 17 started as early as September of 2008. It has been dragging on even till today and we do not know how long it will go. This means of course that the defendants will be burdened with hardships in more ways than one. They will have to take time off work for this extended period, which may mean loss of jobs, which means financial hardship not only for them but for their entire family. This small minded and heartless government deliberately does this, punishing them indirectly, so as to force these citizens to give up their just cause.

At the same time, while they hurt these defendants by deliberately prolonging these trials, it serves no purpose for them to let the general public know their dirty tricks. So they order the state controlled press not to report anything about this important ongoing trial so that others will not know the pain they cause their own citizens, and the dirty tricks they use.

With 2 of the 17 having pled guilty for personal reasons, the remaining 15 refuse to give up despite being tied down with this trial over several months and continue to put up a valiant fight against these unjust laws. And as this trial drags on, if the remaining 15 stand their ground till the end, which we know will be jail terms for sure, they would have won this fight against this dictatorship. They would have shown that there are some people that you just cannot take for granted.

It was the same in my case. When I wrote the blog post in this blog on May 29, 2008, I was arrested on May 31, 2008. The first thing Lee Kuan Yew's goons did was to take my passport. They then made sure that the trial date was way off, in fact 6 months away on Sept 08, 2008, meaning that I had to stay in Singapore for this entire duration, neglecting my office and business in California. The idea was of course that hopefully I will be financially ruined and would be at a loss to criticise this government in this blog thereafter. But luckily for me, this turned out not to be the case. After all I live in America. And I happen to be a lawyer by training. In America, one can always bounce back from adversity. It is not for nothing they call America the Land of the Brave.

Reading the Singapore Democratic Party Website, Dr. Chee Soon Juan and his brave activists are deliberately being kept away from their work by these never ending trials, which has been going on since September last year. My view is this. It does not do much good fighting these trumped up false criminal charges for which no one cares. Nothing is lost and everything is gained by spending as little time in these corrupt courts before these corrupt judges.

Therefore I feel the best course of action in fighting these unjust laws is plead guilty at the first opportunity. This will deny Lee Kuan Yew his dirty trick by prolonging the trials over months and years, and giving you more time to do real political work. Of course Lee Kuan Yew's newspapers will have a field day trumpeting the fact that you succumbed and admitted guilt. So what? You could write a blog post the next day denying you were guilty of anything and did so only to save time. Singaporeans already know the satire and charade which is these kangaroo courts and you would come out of it fine. But immediately after that, you must do it again and go through a second round of arrests and show trials. This way, instead of they wearing you out, you will they.

Keep this in mind. Lee Kuan Yew is now very weak in the eyes of the world. He cannot behave the way Burma does whether he likes it or not. All that is going to happen is a few days in Queenstown Prison, that's all. The reason why Lee Kuan Yew is a toothless tiger is because if he acted tough, there will be no one left in Singapore except for bicycle messengers and hawkers. The rest would have moved to Australia.

That is why, peaceful protesters in Singapore get 7 days in jail. Not like Nay Phone Latt, the Burmese blogger who was recently sent to jail for 20 years! Not that Lee Kuan Yew does not like sending you in for 20 years! It is because he just cannot!

Gopalan Nair
39737 Paseo Padre Parkway, Suite A1
Fremont, CA 94538, USA
Tel: 510 657 6107
Fax: 510 657 6914
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Blog: http://singaporedissident.blogspot.com/

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