Friday, October 22, 2010

Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew says, if you don't fear me, I am nothing

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Lee Kuan Yew once said "If you don't fear me, I am nothing", which is the coward's rule by which he has governed Singapore since 1959.

Until very recently, it was impossible to openly criticize Lee Kuan Yew, his family or any of his party members in Singapore without being punished, targeted and marked for harassment for life.

The newspapers under his orders only said nice things of him, and so did everybody else, no matter what you thought of him privately. In Singapore he struts around, and still does, like a God. His family including his son and his extended family live above the law, paying themselves anything they want, which today happens to be five times the salary of the American President and much more unofficially. It is called corruption. In other words, Lee and his family were really feared, which is why they have lasted up till now.

But it all appears changing. The political horizon itself is changing, no longer what it was in the past. In my most recent blog "Singapore Dictatorship Under Siege", I wrote things are beginning to look quite different.

Consider Dr. Chee Soon Juan and his Singapore Democratic Party. He has been openly criticizing Lee Kuan Yew now for years in his blog, challenging him both inside and outside the courtroom and on the whole calling him nothing better than a downright cowardly dictator. Had he said this 10 years ago, things would have turned out very different. Dr. Chee would be in jail and for a long time. But today, he speaks openly and fearlessly, and Lee Kuan Yew, the man who claims to be feared by every living thing in the island appears almost helpless to do anything.

No action is taken over his writings in his blog, even if he calls Lee Kuan Yew an gutter rat, which in fact he is. True, he gets punished for his peaceful protests, but not in the way we thought he would; all he gets is a week at a time, when in the past he could have expected 10 years and the key thrown away.

It is impossible to tell why Lee Kuan Yew, the man who must be feared, is not making sure of that in Dr. Chee's case. From the fearsome tiger that we thought he was, and indeed he was in the past, he is becoming not so fearsome after all. The question is why. Has he finally seen the stupidity of his ways and realised that repression of his people is simply ineffective and does not produce results, or has begun to realize that the more he suppresses the rights of his people, the more they would retaliate and the sooner his collapse.

When I was in Singapore last in 2008, I was arrested for writing a blog post criticizing his Judge Belinda Ang Saw Ean for her shameless bias and the total abdication of her duty as a judge in Lee Kuan Yew's defamation case against Dr. Chee Soon Juan, for which I was arrested and sent to jail for 3 months.

The reason why I was punished was I presume, was to stop stop me for writing anymore so that Singaporeans will not read anything I write. Granted, while there they silenced me in the end, and I stopped writing. But today I am still writing from the safety of the United States and Singaporeans are still reading it there. So what they wanted to stop, has not stopped and worse, the readership in Singapore has increased many fold.

And up till now at least, Lee Kuan Yew and his bullies from Singapore are unable to silence me at all. Can anyone tell me what was the point of sending me to jail then when on reflection it has done no good to them at all.

And each time they cane a foreigner in Singapore for trivial violations, each time they convict and bankrupt local dissidents for merely exercising their civil rights, each time they grant massive court awards to Lee Kuan Yew against foreign newspapers, each time they abuse the law to disbar critics such as me who want to see peaceful change in Singapore, they hurt themselves, not any of us, because these punishments mean nothing at all.

In China 2 years ago they imprisoned Liu Xiaopo for 11 years for merely writing an article critical of the Chinese government. The news in China is so controlled that most people there never heard of him let alone that he was awarded the Nobel Prize. In Singapore on the other hand where news is freely available for anyone who cares for it, all these repressions against Singaporeans is simply counter productive, and therein lies the damage it causes to the dictatorship. Lee Kuan Yew cannot, would not and dare not send Dr. Chee to jail for 11 years or even a fraction of it because he simply cannot in the Singaporean of today.

That is why if Lee Kuan Yew is a tiger, he is a castrated toothless one, because I and everyone else who cares to do so is just going to call him a rat whenever and wherever we want and today there is simply nothing that he or his son can do about it. So it is true that he is nothing if no one fears him, because many and a growing number simply don't.

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.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Our own version of the caste system :

http://www.youtube.com/user/wendyneo#p/u/94/AhlMLGQRDU4

Anonymous said...

This is what happened to Alan shadrake - more supporters!

http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/10/23/breaking-news-reporters-without-borders-petitions-the-singapore-government-to-release-british-author/

Anonymous said...

after the mourning, lee jr will consolidate his power and fix his enemies

Anonymous said...

America needs to get its Black leaders involved to support Charlton. Isn't Flogging the same type of brutality that Charlton's ancestors may have been subjected to over one hundred and fifty years ago before the USA abolished this cruelty? I don't know if Obama will speak out (he needs to) but other black leaders need to call these Barbaric criminals out.

Anonymous said...

Sat Oct 23, 01:44:00 AM PDT
Our own version of the caste system :
http://www.youtube.com/user/wendyneo#p/u/94/AhlMLGQRDU4

------
Wendy Neo's Channel is outstanding. Great work. Very sophisticated delivery of the message.

Bravo!

Anonymous said...

Who killed Dr. Wong Ming Yang?

A thirty-one year old, healthy, mother of two dies of A MASSIVE HEART ATTACK and nobody considers that extremely unusual or suspicious???

Where is the autopsy report?

http://www.youtube.com/user/wendyneo#p/u/4/dNs9NLW-UqM

Anonymous said...

Very interesting


http://www.geographyiq.com/ranking/ranking_net_Migration_Rate_dall.htm

Anonymous said...

Nepotism in Singapore.

Li Xiu Qi
Li Yi Peng
Li Hong Yi
Li Hao Yi

LHL's kids are the chosen few and destined to rule over the 'dumb' people of Singapore.

Anonymous said...

If you fear him he's still nothing

If he still lives he's already nothing

When he dies the world will not miss him or his son

You seriously think a man who heads a mere city to be remembered by their greatness??????!!!!! Much less an arrogant dictator?????!!!!

These people are already nothing. They can make up anything in their mind who cares?! But if they want to act what they lied to themselves is another thing. For that I say FUCK YOU ASSHOLES! Go back to your playground and zoo and think you're master of the universe!

Lee who?

The world doesn't revolve around any particular man. No one will be missed. No one gets out alive. No one lives forever.

Lee who? Can't be bothered . . .

Renaldi

Anonymous said...

They should not "caned" Mr. Charlton...

It is the same as the "whip" which the blacks underwent in the past in America as "slaves"...

Why is this particular punishment meted out? And to who?

Is it to tell America and its people you are "nothing" here in singapore...or is it cos PAP government of singapore now have a better buddy in "China" and "India" now...there is a big difference here...America believes in respect, trust and freedom...these other "governments" of these countries...same old class difference...unproductive they truely are...

Really childish these so called "intellect" and "elite" classes of singapore...in the end you will be "played" out yet again...even though in the past they "did" these to you fools so many times in China and India...stupid is as stupid does all right...

A real joke...

And a truth...in the end all are nothing...it is what you leave behind that makes a difference for the long term viability of future generations borned now and yet to be borned...too bad only "money" and quick "finite" gains is all that matters to you greedy gluttons/pigs of the elite/intellect class at the expense of the infinite...

Sad and disappointed.

Anonymous said...

the old man will ally and betray any country that he sees fit, be it malaysia, usa , britain or even china. Once his objectives are met, he readily disposes his allies and build ties with some other country of immediate economic benefit. Does Australia want such an ally?

Anonymous said...

he's even willing to play out Singaporeans who once supported him...

JamesTan said...

Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew says, if you don't fear me, I am nothing.

So Singaporeans fear Lee and discover that they are now nothing and Singapore has nothing livable left to offer the residents.

Kicking out the PAP is something, and will make Singaporeans "some humans". (borrowed from G Orwell's Animal Farm "Some Pig")

Anonymous said...

Lee Kwan Yew not perfect, so are everyone else. But he has done a lot of good for Singapore. We should give him credit for that.

Do not just focus on his mistakes alone. Sure, there is a lot more to do, let us then roll up our sleeves and do the work, then then criticize others who are trying.

Gopalan Nair said...

To Anonymous who said

"Lee Kwan Yew not perfect, so are everyone else. But he has done a lot of good for Singapore. We should give him credit for that."

So did Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany. He managed to make Germany the most successful economy in Europe.

So did Benito Mussolini of Italy. He did that too.

So did Franco of Spain. He too. But one thing common in all of them, they were all dictators. Like them, Lee Kuan Yew suspends the Constitution, denies fundamental human rights. And no honest intelligent human being wanted them.

Like you there were many ignorant Germans who supported Hitler and said he did great things. But by and large they were ignorant. I am not sure if you are too.

Anonymous said...

Yo, you are now an American Citizen.
Arent there more pressing or significant concerns in your adopted country for you to address?