Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Singapore. "Dictators are rulers who always look good until the last 10 minutes" Jan Masaryk

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I was checking on the famous quotation by former Czechoslovakia Foreign Minister Jan Masaryk " Dictators are rulers who always look good until the last 10 minutes". And how right he is. He must have had a prescience of Singapore when he made the quote in 1940s Prague, Czechoslovakia.

Singapore, just like the countries under the former Iron Curtain have one essential tool to keep looking good. Yes, the state controlled newspapers.

And today the Singapore press just as the state controlled newspapers of former Roumania, Russia, and East Germany churns out the daily dose of good news without fail. We are good. We are fine. Business is up. Profits are up. People are happier. They have more shoes and ad nauseam.

But is it really? Or is it the end?

I was there in Singapore under my forced confinement in the city state of Singapore for 6 months for criticizing a now internationally notorious Singapore judge Belinda Ang Saw Ean. And this is what I see.

The people have been effectively silenced. They are unhappy being literally slaves in the island with no political rights at all.

As a result they are ashamed of themselves. They lament their inability to live as the free men and women of the west. They admire the Americans, the Australians, the West. They admire the spontaneity of an Australian. They admire the courage they have to speak freely. They cannot speak freely fearing arrest. They cannot complain fearing arrest. They cannot protest fearing arrest. They cannot challenge government decisions fearing arrest. They are consumed daily in fear. Fear of what might befall them if they were out of line.

As a result many educated Singaporeans leave the island permanently. Those remaining in Singapore are guilt ridden in government jobs for having to do Lee Kuan Yew's dirty work such as arresting and imprisoning government critics.

Singapore's judges are guilt ridden for having to send innocent Singaporeans to jail like myself and Dr. Chee Soon Juan to please their strongman Lee Kuan Yew.

Many follow their conscience and resign from government jobs. The government finds it hard to recruit young graduates to serve in government as it is seen as a dirty job to punish their innocent fellow Singaporeans for incorrect political thoughts.

Let me give you an example. The rank of Assistant Superintendent of Police is senior, equivalent to that of a Captain or Major in the Army or Squadron Leader in the Air Force. Yet it appeared comical that Abdul Razak bin Zakaria, a Malay Singaporean holding this rank, who had arrested me, did not appear to know the expression "going through it with a fine tooth comb" when he was being cross examined by me in the High Court! He asked the judge what a comb had to do with the charge against me of insulting Judge Belinda Ang Saw Ean! A very simple commonly used English expression!

Second. During my trial in Singapore for allegedly yelling at Singapore police officers, a senior inspector of police did not appear to understand what I meant when I said "it is a figment of your imagination". He asked the judge what a "figment" was!

A senior police photographer giving evidence at this trial did not know what a "junction" was! He knew almost no English!

What this means is this. The Singapore Police Force is simply finding it difficult to attract qualified recruits. Singaporeans know the extent of dirty work they have to do by arresting innocent people to please Lee Kuan Yew. So they refuse to join the police force which is now thoroughly discredited and lost all respect.

To retain the numbers, the government had tried to get Malaysian Chinese to join it, but this supply too is running out, since they too now realize how dishonest the Singapore Police Force has become.

Since English language is unfortunately required for a Singapore policeman, it is not possible to teach a few words of English to a Chinese immigrant from mainland China and make him a Superintendent of Police the next day.

So, with no other option left, they are merely giving jobs to thoroughly unqualified men such as this Malay officer Abdul Razak bin Zakaria. He did not appear to understand basic English, the fundamentals of policing or the laws or the Constitution of Singapore. All he knew was to go out and arrest anyone he was ordered to, take their confessions and send them to jail. It is to him, no more than a mechanical exercise.

The fact today, which the state controlled newspapers will not tell you is this. There are no qualified new entrants for the government service. Those in it are leaving as fast as they can. The only way this government continues is through injecting more and more unskilled foreigners who hardly know any English and local Singaporeans who are thoroughly unqualified.

There are of course the likes of Singapore's Law Minister K Shanmugam who stays, but he does it only for money. He will say anything that pleases his master Lee Kuan Yew as long as that means he continues to collect his millions. Just as Belinda Ang Saw Ean, the judge, who will tailor the law skillfully to the desires of her same master Lee Kuan Yew.

At present, just as Jan Masarky said, it looks good. And it will look good till the last 10 minutes. And then it will be the end.

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.

1 comment:

mycroft said...

Amazing, that video clip shows the scene that will erupt spontaneously in Singapore if PAP returns to Parliament in 2012 with 82 out of 84 seats! The hearse bears the corpse of Lady Democracy to the crematorium.

But you are right about the quality of recruits willing to serve the government. I had occasion to visit a police station on a traffic matter recently and discovered you'd have a hard time making yourself understood if you don't speak Singlish and stick to English words of no more than one or two syllables. Staff are bottom of the barrel, barely-intelligent thick material like you come across in third world countries such as Vietnam for example.

It's really scary that these (armed) officers have been handed such tremendous power over us - more so as there is no longer proper rule of law which would make them accountable for their actions - and yet they have an IQ no higher than the ambient temperature. Dumb brutes who carry out orders without question or thought, perfect tools for a dictator.

So no surprise then that they prevaricate and are easily caught lying time and again under cross-examination by Dr. Chee and yourself. How could any fair-minded judge ever take their testimony seriously? Simple solution for the Lees, DON'T appoint judges with integrity and you're on to a winner every time. Extend that idea top to bottom and you become God.

Well, until the last 10 minutes anyway.