Singapore. You can't have the cake and eat it.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In the wake of the recent arrest in Lee Kuan Yew's one party state Singapore island of Alan Shadrake over his book "Once and Jolly hangman", one thing becomes obvious; the wisdom in the adage, you cannot have the cake and eat it as well.

No matter how much Singapore tries to argue otherwise, we all know it is not a democracy, it's judges routinely misuse the law as a tool to silence critics, there is no freedom of information with the newspapers all under the hands of the government, and ad nauseam. Quite simply it is a one party dictatorship under the total grip of the octogenarian Lee Kuan Yew and his sidekick son.

And if you have a system such as this, a dictatorship and a corrupt legal system, you simply cannot stop people from criticizing it; it is simply human nature. And that is exactly what is happening there, with a mountain of literature all condemning Lee Kuan Yew's one party state.

But what Singapore is trying to do in this lost cause is to force people through violence and imprisonment to say otherwise; to say that it is not what it is, and to accept Lee Kuan Yew's lie that it is a democracy, when it is clearly not.

Lee Kuan Yew and his Singapore should understand what must be obvious to anyone. You simply cannot silence criticism when you abuse the system for your personal gain. Regardless of how many critics you unjustly punish and imprison, there will be even more doing the same, and no matter how much you try, you simply cannot run away from the truth.

In 2008 while in Singapore I was sent to prison for 3 months for criticizing Judge Belinda Ang Saw Ean for what she did to Dr. Chee Soon Juan. But that has not stopped me from continuing to write about it from California and neither has it prevented Singaporeans from reading my writings. In fact, it had the opposite effect, by popularizing this blog much more than it would have otherwise been.

Alan Shadrake will of course be punished and very likely sent to prison. But that is not going to stop Alan Shadrake from continuing his writings, with greater force from outside Singapore after he leaves the island.

Lee Kuan Yew has not broken me and neither will he break Alan Shadrake. And while he continues in this futile exercise of punishing legitimate criticism,, even more critics appear to join the bandwagon of criticism.

With these repeated arrests and jailing of critics, it is Lee Kuan Yew and Singapore which are made to look like a bunch of bullies taking them a step further to the likes of North Korea.

And what baffles me writing from California USA is the man's inability to understand this.

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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