A different Singapore.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

If you were born in Singapore like I have, you would have noticed it has changed completely. What it was in my younger days is a far cry from what it is now.

Lee Kuan Yew's government wanting to develop Singapore, albeit for himself alone, while at the same time confronted with a serious shortage of babies, with reproduction below replacement level, coupled with massive emigration of the educated, an insurmountable double whammy, caused him to solve the problem with human imports especially from Mandarin speaking China.

This meant of course that Singapore is today a far less an English speaking country and I expect in a few years, the main language of communication, if it is not so already will be Mandarin, not English. This is not something Lee Kuan Yew, in his determination to preserve power in himself can possibly avoid, since it has already become impossible for a Malay or Indian to engage in even basic communication in several parts of the city like Chinatown and Ang Mo Kio.

With Chinese Mandarin being the lingua franca in Singapore within the next few years, Singapore can forget it's plans of becoming a great nation, albeit a small one, with a thriving science and arts culture, like the great democratic cities of London and New York. At best it can play second fiddle to Shanghai and Beijing to act as translator and interpreter in their poor English, for the Communist Chinese who have no English at all.

As Lee Kuan Yew continues to deny basic human rights and the rule of law to it's citizens, educated Singaporeans who do not see the need to live under any dictatorship continue to pack their bags for a life abroad. And this would mean an ever greater number of Mandarin speaking Chinese pouring into Singapore to replace those leaving, thereby increasing the dissatisfaction of the local Malays and Indians and forcing even more educated Singaporeans to flee the island.

As for educated Singaporeans still living there, it takes a particularly anaemic and weak individual, weak and helpless in spirit, to willingly remain in an island where he knows he has no rights at all. A meeting with any Singaporean clerk or executive will make that clear. He will say he is helpless, there is nothing he can do, to challenge Lee Kuan Yew is a dangerous thing, and according to him, the best thing is to simply accept the government's repression and go on with life. He has no courage, no sense of pride, honor or adventure. He, an average Singaporean is as good as dead. Life for him is to be lived as safely as possible without any uncertainty or challenge whatsoever. As long as you work in Lee Kuan Yew's HDB, you will get a pay check and have 3 meals a day. And that for the average Singaporean, who has opted to remain in the island, is more than enough.

But for those at the very top of society, with a college degree, preferably a foreign one, with the ability to earn a living at home or abroad, such a life is not enough. His pride, self confidence and a faith in his qualities tell him that he is as good a Lee Kuan Yew if not better, therefore who is he to talk down at me and treat me like a slave? Such qualified men an women, the very ones Singapore needs the most are the very ones who continue to leave the island in ever increasing numbers, leaving behind only those who are weak, cowardly, incapable and content individuals incapable of doing anything, except to follow orders.

In this competitive world, such unimaginative Singaporeans consumed with fear and incapable of taking risk cannot possibly push Singapore ahead into 21 century as a great nation. All it can hope to achieve is a second rate nation behind Communist China.

If Singapore is run, it is not by Singaporeans but by foreigners. Both the foreign and local banks employ foreign high level executives to run the show temporarily for very high salaries. Local Singaporeans have no part at all in this, and in any case they don't have the skills that the foreigners have, and they never will.

It is the same story with international businesses in the island and with commercial lawyers and executives of both local and foreign businesses. They are all foreign, not local. Lee Kuan Yew does not have the schools to train these people and in any case, if they did have the training, they would have left Singapore anyway.

Singapore is today and will increasingly become a joke, a one party state, with a state controlled press, where the import of gum is a criminal offense, and where a criminal is beaten with a stick in judicial punishment; a country not for Singaporeans but a place for foreigners who come in temporarily to make money and leave. As Singaporeans continue to be disgruntled by having to live as a slave in their own country, more will leave, even less babies will be born meaning even more Chinese Mandarin speaking human imports.

Progressively its position as a banking and commercial center will also be lost because banking requires English, not Mandarin Chinese and in any case there won't be any more skilled thinking Singaporeans left. They would all be in Australia or Canada.

I found it impossible myself to live under such circumstances and I am not the only one who thinks this way. And neither did I want my children to live such lives.

They live in America, a society where their success depends on their ability alone, not the patronage of a particular dictator and his political party. A society in which they can think openly and express their thoughts freely without fear. A society in which they can live as human beings, as it was intended. A society in which their destiny is in their own hands, not that of any dictator. They will never live in a country like Singapore.

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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