Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew's wife dies, do we grieve or rejoice

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Singapore's state controlled newspaper the Straits Times online edition of Oct 3, 2010 has the story "Mrs Lee dies, aged 89". Kwa Geok Choo, an ethnic Chinese Singaporean woman, the wife of the ethnic Chinese Singapore strongman Lee Kuan Yew who is himself 88 years of age and presently himself hospitalized for a chest infection in Singapore, in circumstances where it is anyone's guess when he too will die; has died herself at 5.40pm at her home.

She had suffered several strokes and has been completely immobilized and mute, or rather in a vegetative state since 2008, and has been taken care of in luxury, I presume at the Singapore taxpayers expense since then.

I am not a heartless brute and am aware and agree with the general principle that you try to be gracious about those who have died, and try to forget or forgive their transgressions as best you can, since it is only nice.

But I don't think that need for graciousness applies, to take an extreme example, in the death of Adolf Hitler or Adolf Eichmann, the man who was himself responsible for the death of millions of innocent people. In such a case, you call a rat, simply a rat.

I am not suggesting in the least that Mrs Kwa Geok Choo was in fact the same as Adolf Hitler or Adolf Eichmann, far from it. But I don't think, looking at her life and what she has done, the requirement for niceties that social graces demand apply to her.

And this is what I am going to say, knowing very well that I am going to invite the ire of thousands of PAP supporters and cronies who are doing very well in the island, this is what I am going to say to the late Kwa Geok Choo, the wife of the Singapore dictator Lee Kuan Yew, Good Riddance, and Thank God.

I am sure those who know Singapore would agree that this woman, even more than the dictator her husband himself, has been the principle architect of what Singapore is today, since the duo were at the helm from 1959 till today, the entire life span of modern Singapore. And let us ask ourselves what is modern Singapore.

1. It has a string of glass buildings along the waterfront. Good, but what good is it for Singaporeans. For your information, those glass buildings that sparkle in the noonday sun and nights, contain thousands of offices of multi national companies with their head quarters in New York, London and Frankfurt. The ordinary Singaporean who lives in his overcrowded cubicle government owned apartment in Toa Payoh and travels in the Singaporean subway neither has any business or interest in them. To him, they are merely white elephants.

2. What is a Singaporean? The average Singaporean is a timid soul who lives in fear of his surroundings and the dictator, devoid of all creativity courage or initiative. Why, because this woman and her husband the dictator has seen to it, that the only qualification to succeed in that tiny island is to crawl, prostrate and sing praises for him and the PAP.

These opportunists who themselves are devoid of any independent thinking rise to the top. Others who question and criticize are destroyed and ruined the rest of their lives. A man who has so suffered and continues to suffer at the hands of the dictator, perhaps under the orders of this woman who died, is Dr. Chee Soon Juan.

Like him thousands upon thousands have been persecuted and silenced, thereby effectively destroying an entire segment of society who would have otherwise been able to contribute a great deal for the betterment of the island. Thanks to the dictator and his late wife, such good people are effectively lost for Singapore.

3. Who are the successful men and women in Singapore? They are the opportunists who play along to the Lee Kuan Yew tune. These men and women who are themselves devoid of any principles of their own who would do anything for the right price. These include judges like Belinda Ang Saw Ean would is prepared to break every single rule of law in order to please her master Lee Kuan Yew as was the case in the 2008 defamation lawsuit of Lee Kuan Yew vs Dr. Chee Soon Juan. I was in the courtroom. I saw it myself.

Other than these opportunist Singaporeans who would willingly say that 2 and 2 is 5, there are the successful recently arrived foreigners in the island; bankers, fund managers and money launderers. They cater for the financial interests of foreign investors, mainly corrupt Communist Chinese, Burmese drug lords and Indonesian embezzlers. They can be seen wining and dining along the posh expensive Singapore River restaurants and pubs every night.

It is one law for them and another for ordinary Singaporeans. They can break the law anytime and get away with it, because of who they are, wealthy bankers. They daily get drunk and beat up policemen, behave in any disorderly manner and have accidents driving drunk. As they are effectively above the law, an unwritten rule, you don't read about their merrymaking exploits so often. Its wink wink nod nod as far as they are concerned. The thinking is they are bankers anyway and Singapore needs them. As far as the ordinary Singaporean Tan Ah Kow is concerned, he can take it or leave it.

4. Another shameful historical fact about this husband and wife team, is the brutality and shame of Singapore. Thousands of Singaporeans were arrested and jailed for decades merely because they were a threat to Lee Kuan Yew's political power. Chia Thye Poh was jailed for 31 years without trial, far longer than even Nelson Mandela. Lim Chin Siong and others were tortured and kept in solitary confinement for years thanks to this woman, the main advisor and confidant of the present day dictator.

Today Singapore is a place where the foreigners and Lee Kuan Yew supporters make a great living, while the ordinary Singaporean who lives in Toa Payoh is ignored to eke out a living the best he can.

And as people are forced to live in cramped high rise housing units, which are meticulously cleaned on the outside, the public is kept in the dark as to how the humans live within. They live in cramped overcrowded unhealthy conditions. Go take a look yourself in the one room flats in Bukit Merah and Pipit Road. I warn you, it is not a pretty sight.

5. And the legacy of this husband and wife team today are these, a completely politicized legal system where you know where you stand even before you step into the courtroom; Lee Kuan Yew and his friends win and you lose. There is no rule of law at all, where the law is used as a weapon to eliminate the opposition. There is no law, you can be thrown out of your flat. There is no law, you can be denied a taxi licence. There is no law, you may or may not get permanent residence. There is no law, some get citizenship and some don't.

6. Thousands of educated Singaporeans leave the island every year for settlement abroad. Singapore has the lowest birth rate in the world. And immigration from China is so high that local Singaporeans are already a minority in their own island state. As per capita of the population, Singapore has the highest rate of emigration (people leaving the country permanently) in the world.

7. And while all these bad things happen Lee Kuan Yew, his dead wife, each of his children and thousands of his personal friends pay themselves millions of dollars, which by the way, they call a salary. This is corruption but if you call it that in that island, you will be arrested. The dictator will have Belinda Ang Saw Ean or one of his other judges throw you in jail.

8. I have no doubt the vast majority of Singaporeans too would say the same thing now to that dead woman, Good Riddance. But you notice there is almost no criticism of her in the island. I guess you should know the answer to that now. The people are afraid to speak openly lest they are arrested. I guess you would be afraid to criticize Kim Jong Il in North Korea too.

9. But the greatest harm deliberately committed by this dead woman and her dictator husband is this. She has methodically destroyed the minds of the average Singaporean into thinking the best course in life is merely to follow orders, not to think and question orders. She has managed to destroy all creativity among Singaporeans ensuring that they will never compete with any Indian from India, any Australian or from anyone else from any free country. That is the shameful legacy she and her husband has left in Singapore, which was deliberately done for their own greed and avarice.

You see, an unquestioning mind will not question authority.

Gopalan Nair
39737 Paseo Padre Parkway, Suite A1
Fremont, CA 94538, USA
Tel: 510 657 6107
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Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Blog: http://singaporedissident.blogspot.com/

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