Singapore, ratcheting up the good news

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We all know that if you control the entire media in a country, as well as all the newspapers and anything that is being said, sure you can paint a good story made out of whole cloth. The question of course is, is anyone going to believe it, given the power of the Internet which cannot be stopped, and is it going to change anything. History has shown that it is merely arranging the deck chairs while the Titanic sinks.

This is especially so, in this day of the Internet. In the past, without it, dictatorships lasted a little longer, but even then the end came sooner or later.

Singapore is disadvantaged right from the start. It is a very small overcrowded island with a small population just a few inches above the rising sea level, no more than 16 miles by 26, and a population of just 5 million, out of which an ever declining 2/3 population is native Singaporean and the other rising 1/3 foreigners who know nothing of Singapore when they came just yesterday.

And if these were factors were bad enough, out of the present 2/3 of the already small native population, emigration to other countries is mounting at the present rate of 1,000 per year, it has the lowest birth rate in the world, only higher than Macao and almost every Singaporean has lost all respect for the government and it's legal system which they feel is controlled by one family, the Lee family, who own almost everything in Singapore as well as it's people. Simply put, with a Western education, Singaporeans simply cannot reconcile with a government which is more like that in Communist China than Westminster.

Franky, even if the opposition did nothing, and I too stopped complaining in this blog, Singapore would collapse anyway within a very short while. The damage done is so great and irreversible. What I, as well as those clamouring for freedom there are doing is merely helping to precipitate that undeniable collapse.

So Singapore just as it was in the dying days of East Germany, Ceausescu's Romania and the other Eastern European countries ratchet up the "good news" in the media they control in the hope that people would be fooled into thinking otherwise. But no, the brakes have failed, the motor car is on a slide and nothing can stop it's destruction.

Today Singapore's newspapers have descended into nothing more than a newsletter of the Lee Kuan Yew family which runs Singapore. There is no independent investigative journalism to speak of and it churns out daily a string of junk which has nothing to do with the state of the country except to give it a boost.

Take the headline stories of just one day, Sept 26, 2010 in the Straits Times, online edition. "Dramatic Singapore" with a picture of the Formula one car with a driver at the wheels, tells of Singapore's staging the race. How and in what manner would the race benefit any local Singaporean is not explained!

"Best foot forward" has a picture of a Chinese woman, a handpicked Lee Kuan Yew minister herself, Lim Hwee Hua, exercising with the "usual suspects" or Lee Kuan Yew government supporters, exercising in public, with a story as to how she is going to improve the health of other Singaporeans. Looking at her own grossly overweight body in the picture, it does not explain how she herself is going to deal with her overweight problem! Perhaps that is why she is seen exercising herself!

In "Public Feedback Counts", another handpicked Lee Kuan Yew minister Liu Tuck Yew is seen in a picture shaking hands with other Singaporeans, I suspect the usual suspects who have been rounded up again for a photo opportunity. He is trying to decide whether Chinese movies should be censorship rated even further than what it is in the island. Remember in the Nanny state of Singapore even Playboy is banned.

In "Making Mandarin fun and engaging", there is a picture of someone called Teo Ser Luck in a karate pose, telling us how he is going to make Mandarin exciting. Since Singapore is already a satellite city of China, it does make sense to have more people speak it better. Never mind Malays and Indians who are left out of the equation altogether and never mind the English language itself. Why do we need it if we have Mandarin, a language that has lasted several thousands of years as Lee Kuan Yew and his son, both both Chinese themselves never fails to remind us.

In "Central CDC in $1 million drive", it talks about the government dishing out as much as $1 million in Toa Payoh, a district in Singapore. Unfortunately, as is usually the case, it does not mention how much each poor person will get or over what period of time. If we can go by these past "generosities", it is usually a sum less than $100 just once. How this small amount given once can help alleviate the poverty of the poor in Singapore is conveniently left out.

In "Million Dollar Tutors" the story talks of some private tutors making a great deal of money. Not surprising since Lee Kuan Yew and his family themselves rake in several millions of dollars and so do their friends at the top. The name for it is nepotism. And it should be obvious they can afford to pay princely sums, not to mention the money launderers from Indonesia and Russia who call Singapore their home. I have heard the Nepali Prince who came to Singapore with his children when their monarchy was overthrown not too long ago also employs very expensive tutors. How all this should gratify the average Singapore who is eking out a living in the increasingly unaffordable Singapore is of course your guess or mine.

In "Get married at Jurong" we have a picture of Tharman Shanmugaratnem, a Lee Kuan Yew minister, at Jurong Lake telling us how beautiful it is, even good enough to be married. What it doesn't say is that no one is getting married either in or out of the lake. For that matter no one is getting married in the entire island, not having any babies and in fact fleeing the Alice in Wonderland island of Lee Kuan Yew entirely!

You know this sort of nonsense is repeated on a daily basis in the news papers. In fact I had left out the story of "SM Goh launches health drive", "Kudos to Indian students", "351 at Mendaki Awards" and a number of stories about Mas Selamat who was recently recaptured.

By now this government already knows that the average reader can see through this stupidity but just as all the failed states in the past in Eastern Europe and elsewhere, the government finds it impossible to confront this failure or do anything about it, because this would mean their own downfall. So merely to postpone the eventual collapse of their system of government, which they themselves know is going to happen, until the 11th hour, they continue with this charade which does not impress anyone, least of all themselves.

So all that we have to do is to sit back and enjoy the fun, which is not going to be too long in coming.

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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