Ladies and Gentlemen,
My last post "Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew's children" of June 11, 2010, was about how in Singapore there is a unique (in fact Singapore has officially adopted the name "Uniquely Singapore)understanding that to survive you have to show absolute loyalty to Lee Kuan Yew who calls himself the father of Singapore; and in return he will take care of you, like a father would to a faithful son.
The catch of course is that no matter how corrupt or how badly he treats Singaporeans (his children) they, as traditional Asian children are expected to behave, are prohibited from complaining.
It is well known, for instance, that Lee Kuan Yew is corrupt paying himself, and his family members, millions of Singaporeans tax payers dollars but yet Singaporeans are not allowed to complain at all, even though the money that he steals is theirs.
A classic example of such servile or cowardly, as one may call it, Singaporean behavior can be seen in the case of Sydney Michael Hwang, the President of the Singapore Law Society.
Despite his western name, Sydney is not a European or a Westerner. He is very much a regular Singaporean ethnic Chinese; an older man in his late 70s or 80s, who has spent all his life in Singapore practicing Lee Kuan Yew's version of law.
I wonder why Singaporeans, especially the Chinese, have such a great desire to adopt Western names, but that of course, is beside the point.
From his bio data, it appears that he was educated in either Oxford or Cambridge University in England, but from what he has achieved as a lawyer, all that Western education has not done him or the state of the law in Singapore much good.
One glaring fact which perhaps would explain a lot about the state of the law in Singapore, of whose professional body, Sydney is the President, is that Singapore today with a population of nearly 5 million people only has about 3,000 lawyers, a number totally inadequate for a city state that claims to to be primarily engaged in international business and banking.
Being someone who was born and lived in Singapore, I can tell you that the only reason for this totally inadequate number is because the law has been thoroughly discredited in the public eye both in Singapore and abroad.
A student of Singapore's history would note that Lee Kuan Yew throughout his 50 years of control over Singapore has routinely and systematically misused the law as a political tool to silence dissent, that any and all respect for it has been irretrievably lost.
Singapore judges are seen publicly as corrupt, such as Judge Belinda Ang Saw Ean who awards a defamation action to Lee Kuan Yew against Dr. Chee Soon Juan, the most vocal political critic there even without a trial, deciding the case privately in her chambers.
As a result it seems almost impossible to attract any honest decent student to the profession which has been disgraced beyond help.
If one was looking for a guardian of the Constitution and the rule of law, one would of course be primarily looking at the President of the Law Society of Singapore, this man Sydney. But yet, in the Singaporean fashion of not questioning government authority and complete loyalty to the Singaporean father Lee Kuan Yew, Sydney does nothing at all.
He, just as all the other past handpicked Presidents of the Singaporean body of lawyers, simply stands by and does nothing at all, as the law is abused and misused by Lee Kuan Yew to keep himself and his family in power.
Today, the Constitution of Singapore which is supposed to be the Supreme law of the law is adulterated so much so that it is no longer recognizable, having become a tool principally to put anyone in jail who dares challenge the Lee Kuan Yew family.
For instance, there is no freedom of speech, no freedom of expression, no freedom of assembly, no freedom to organize oneself into societies, no freedom to walk in numbers along public streets, no freedom of the press, in other words no freedom at all; freedoms which one would expect in any other democratic country in the world.
And while Lee Kuan Yew systematically denies the very semblance of a citizens' rights in that island, what does the President of that Law Society do, a person who is charged with the responsibility not only to defend his lawyers but the laws of it's citizens; nothing, absolutely nothing.
According to the laws enacted by the rubber stamp one party state of Singapore, the law prohibits the Law Society of Singapore from questioning legislation unless the government specifically allows it. And since, and this is Sydney's argument, the Singapore parliament disallows him to question legislation, he does not bother to do it.
It of course does not occur to him, or he refuses to acknowledge it, that the Singapore parliament itself is unconstitutional, since there has never been any free and fair elections in that island throughout it's 50 year history under Lee Kuan Yew.
Like a disgraceful opportunist, looking out only for himself, and fawning at the feet of the Singaporean tyrant, since that is the safest way of survival in the island, Sydney Michael Hwang continues to call himself the president of the Singapore Law Society but does nothing at all to protect it.
You could say, he behaves like an Asian filial, or cowardly, son to his father Singaporean strongman Lee Kuan Yew. And in return like a caring father Lee Kuan Yew showers Sydney Michael Hwang, with goodies and goodies.
If you want to ask him what he is doing, his particulars are:
Michael Hwang
One Marina Boulevard, #25-01
Singapore 018989
Tel: 65-6327 5855
Fax: 65-6557 0165
Email: michael@mhwang.com
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.
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