Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Singapore Island's dead legal profession

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is always the case with newspapers in totalitarian regimes. After some time they don't care anymore whether they look silly. After all who is there to question them? This has been the case with Singapore's state controlled newspaper, the Straits Times for some time now, whose online edition of Oct 15, 2009 has this pathetic story "More lawyers".

It says Singapore now has more lawyers now because there are 3697 of them which is 280 more than in August 2007! Think about it. 3697 lawyers in Singapore which has a population now of 5 million! It is like saying, we had 10 lawyers in 2007, now we have 12!

The figures are disgraceful. You have an island of 5 million people and it has only 3687 of them?

Singapore according to Lee Kuan Yew is a first world country, believe it or not, and it has trading, banking and what not. 3697 lawyers is not enough for an island of 100,000 people, let alone a country with 5 million! You need at least 20 times that number. And saying, it has increased by 280 since 2 years ago is hardly anything to be proud about. It is a shame. A disgraceful shame.

These figures speak for themselves. The severe lack of lawyers is causing the system itself to thoroughly inefficient. And what is worse is this. Throughout the profession what remaining few you have are either inept or inefficient for lack of experience. The experienced ones have just about had it, and packed up and left long ago, mainly for Australia. There are insufficient lawyers in banking insurance and international commerce. Most of the criminals rather defend themselves since a guilty verdict is almost certain, so why waste money.

And despite all the talk by Lee Kuan Yew's handpicked Minister for Law K Shanmugam, there are no takers. Recently he ordered his newspapers to print huge headlines with a picture of a smiling foreign Indian lawyer grinning from cheek to cheek, claiming he has recently joined the Singaporean ranks. What happened? He is probably gone; went as quickly as he came after he read the International Bar Association's scathing attack on Singapore's legal system, one shamelessly beholden to Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew.

And the article claims the Singapore profession is "back on a growth path" because of the increase of 280 lawyers over 2 years. Perhaps they would have said the same had it been an increase of 2 from a total number of 10.

Come on guys. Admit it. You are a disgrace. And it shows in the figures. You can print a whole load of bull. But I tell you what, you will never have any lawyers. You may have a handful as you have now, lawyers without experience imagination, gumption or the courage to stand on their own; it is not going to do you any good.

And we all take credit for the exposure of the Singaporean lie. Dr. Chee takes credit for it by revealing the truth to the International Bar, by challenging their unjust laws and forcing them to send him to prison. I take credit for it by writing here. And every other person who was arrested and persecuted by fines and prison sentences take credit for it, because we manage to reveal the truth. And I and many others will continue to force the hand of these thugs. As as we continue, this administration finds it ever more difficult to get good capable people to manage the ship.

And we will not stop.

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/

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

3 comments:

Aaron said...

heh, its not just the profession that's dead, the country is pretty dead as well.

Anonymous said...

Hi Gopalan,

I'm taking that the number 3697 includes your name as well as you are still on the register (for now).

That brings up the question, how many of the 3697 are (like you) just on the roll but not practicing at all in Singapore? Any way of getting that data?

Perhaps we may find out that there may be only say 2000 or so practicing lawyers who are in Singapore. Some may be overseas, and some may not be practicing at all (having shifted to other vacations instead).

And oh yeah, 3697 may soon become 3696 considering that your name is very likely to be removed despite your hard fight to remain on the rolls. No offence, but you know how it works :)

Cheers!

Gopalan Nair said...

To Anonymous of Wed Oct 21, 02:11am,

Please do not misunderstand my vigour in disputing these nonsensical charges by the Law Society of Singapore. This will give me an excellent oppurtunity to expose in detail the misuse of the law in Singapore. This is why I am going to do it. Not because I have any desire to remain as a lawyer in this disgraceful dictatorsdhip. It is if you are trying to say that I am trying very hard to remain on the roll of lawyers in Pyongyang, North Korea. I trust you now appreciate what is happening.

Second, there are a number of comments sent to me comparing Singapore's lawyers of over 3000 to entire countries such as Moldova, Uzbeckistan and so on. Also some comaprisons have been made with entire states such as North Dakota, Wyoming and so on.

The reader will understand that this is no comparison. It is no good comapring a large localized farming community such as Moldova, Uzbeckistan or even North Dakota to Singapore. They are not international city states and there is very little international commerce, banking and insurance. Farmers farming large swathes of land with no contact in business have no need for lawyers. That is why they have few lawyers.

Signapore is a city state. Somewaht like New York, or London or Los Angeles. They shold tell us how many lawyers practice there and how many in Singapore.

Therefore not to waste time with such silly arguments, I have not posted them.

This sort of argument from these anonymous individuals confirms one of 2 things. One, they know what nonsense they are saying but say it anyway, anonymous. Or, they confirm what I have said, that Singapore is losing it's smart people, and leaves only those with mental capacities of this sort.