Singapore, an unconstitutional "constitutional" dictatorship

updated Oct 8, 2010
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Singapore strongman 88 year old Lee Kuan Yew has effectively fooled the majority of Singaporeans and indeed quite a portion of the world into thinking Singapore is a "constitutional democracy"; that is up till now.

This is how he has done it. When Singapore became independent as Malaysia and later as Singapore alone, it was created as a constitutional democracy, a constitution similar to most constitutions in the democratic world including the American.

Constitutional provisions as we know are supreme and sacrosanct, and in most democracies impossible or almost impossible to change, because they contain the fundamental rights of the people such as freedom of speech, expression and the other fundamental human rights which we all should be taking for granted.

In order to protect your fundamental rights, all constitutions also include an article which makes illegal and void any law which violates your human rights in the constitution.

For instance, as the constitution protects your freedom of speech, any law which Parliament passes which takes away that right is illegal, because the right to freedom of speech is your inalienable right.

In order to make sure that your fundamental rights are not denied to you, under Singapore's Constitution, any attempt to change Constitutional provisions would require a 2/3 majority vote in Parliament.

Furthermore even if you could get 2/3 of Parliament to vote for constitutional change, there must be a real need (such as an emergency)for such a 2/3 vote to be accepted.

The reason behind this difficulty to change the Constitution is because in democracies people's fundamental rights such as freedom of speech have to protected at all costs. These rights have been enshrined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human rights.

The idea being that freedom is a good thing, and people work and live better in societies with freedom and liberty.

But Lee Kuan Yew does not believe in democracy. He believes in fascism. So he creates in Singapore a fascist state but outwardly having the trappings of democracy. This is how he does it.

He takes away all the fundamental freedoms enshrined in the Constitution that you have, by changing it completely through Parliamentary amendments. In Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore "Constitution", you do not have freedom of speech, because you need a permit, to speak publicly, which by the way, you will not get. He takes away your fundamental right to assemble by placing a requirement that you need a permit. And so on and so forth; each and every right that you should have in the Constitution are taken away.

He does this by "complying" with the Constitution, which is, by getting 2/3 majority vote in Parliament by which he passes these laws. And if you were to ask how he manages to get these 2/3 majority votes in Parliament, the answer is very simple. He simply rigs the elections to make sure that only his supporters win.

And if you ask how he rigs them, it is like this. First he threatens and persecutes any Singaporean with defamation actions and imprisonment if you openly criticize him, his son, his family or his party.

Since every opposition politician has been sued bankrupted and jailed, no one with any ability or political ambition ever stands against him. The only ones who win are his own party members. And even if by chance, someone stood against him despite these dangers, immediately thereafter he is either sued, bankrupted or jailed, dismissed from his job and made a pauper. Today out of a Parliament of 84, 82 members belong to his party. Even the 2 so-called opposition members have been effectively silenced. They are just lame ducks.

And if all else fails, he simply stuffs the ballot boxes.

Singapore is today effectively a one party dictatorship, no different from Communist China, Cuba, North Korea or Burma.

At the same time, he controls the newspapers, the media, the trade unions and everything else. There is a name for this kind of government. It is called fascism.

At the same time, he makes sure that he is surrounded by people who have no leadership qualities or political aspirations whatsoever, being people who have just passed their exams. That way his grip on power is never threatened, since none of them has any political ambitions. They are Members of Parliament and Ministers merely because Lee Kuan Yew put them there, and any time he chooses, he can kick them out.

All his ministers have had scholarships and were educated in foreign institutions. After they graduate, he basically "buys" them over with large salaries and benefits. They, in return for the large salaries they get, do the dirty work for him. They arrest opposition candidates, freedom activists, dismiss opponents from employment, refuse to hire anyone who shows opposition tendencies and generally makes life very miserable for anyone who opposes Lee Kuan Yew and his friends.

And they, as grateful sycophants, blow the trumpet and lick the boots of the 88 year old Lee Kuan Yew and by extension, those of his son.

As someone long time ago had said, these are "running dogs" because they do the errands for Lee Kuan Yew.

At the same time, even though he runs a purely fascist one party state, he tells both locals and foreigners, through his state controlled media, that he has a "Parliamentary democracy" because he holds periodical "elections"; that he has the rule of law even though there is no such thing at all, as the judges are all there to protect him, not the rule of law.

In this way he manages to fool many into thinking Singapore is something which it is not.

Singapore today does not really have a "Constitution" at all. It is simply a one party dictatorship where Lee Kuan Yew can pass any law he wants anytime, with you Singaporeans merely living under his pleasure. No different from Kim Jong Il's North Korea except you cannot escape from North Korea while you can from Singapore.

But sadly for him, the cat has effectively now got out of the bag. Thanks to the Internet, the truth is being told, and the pen is proving to be far mightier than the sword, as the axiom tells us.

The people who have become aware of the truth, which I am glad to say is a growing number, are simply saying bye bye to Singapore itself and choosing to live instead in the West.

With Lee Kuan Yew already 88 years old now, this game has got to end very soon, and we can hopefully see a new beginning. The very foundations are rotting from underneath, and this edifice, based on fraud lies violence and deceit cannot withstand much longer. It must collapse.

For Lee Kuan Yew to continue on his merry ways of a dictator, he has to do something which he has not done so far, which is, close the borders like Cuba and North Korea. But trying to deny every basic right that human beings are entitled to have and still expect Singaporeans to prostrate at his feet, as they have done so far, is simply impossible. Lee Kuan Yew simply cannot have the cake and eat it as well.

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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