Singapore's (or Australia's) James Gomez

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Singapore one party state's state controlled newspaper Straits Times online edition of Nov 14, 2010 has the story "James Gomez joins the SDP". It tells us that at Hong Lim Park, Singapore's version of London's Speakers Corner, with one difference, that in Singapore you are watched when you speak by Big Brother; Gomez had announced his joining Dr. Chee Soon Juan's Singapore Democratic Party and that he may even contest the next general elections as their candidate.

James Gomez is a highly desirable candidate, there can be no doubt about it. He has a PhD in a social science discipline and has many years of research experience in studying Singapore politics.

But as much as I would love to see him in Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore parliament, I can tell you this much.

He not only has no chance of winning, and what is more, he is a serious impediment to SDP's electoral prospects.

My friendly advice to him is both to stay out of politics and stay away from opposition political parties; because it would do him no good and neither the party.

If there is one human being that Lee Kuan Yew or his son for that matter wants to keep out of their Parliament is Dr. James Gomez, other than Dr. Chee himself of course.

James Gomez knows too much and if he is to get into Parliament, he will ask difficult questions which they have no desire or intention to answer.

They know, Gomez is the genuine product, not the "government approved" "half opposition" such as Low Thia Khiang and Chiam See Thong.

If only Gomez was like them, not only would he have been in Parliament a long time ago, they would have even invited him to their PAP as a candidate.

But not being another Low Thia Khaing, and knowing too much, Gomez has to be destroyed at any cost.

And it is very easy for them to do the dirty work, thanks to Gomez himself for giving them sufficient rope.

I can predict very correctly that Lee Kuan Yew's as certain as sunrise, smear campaign against Gomez is going to be like this.

Firstly he is a fly by night politician, literally so.

You notice that in 2006, when he had lost the election, the first thing he did was to book the first flight out to Sweden where he was permanently stationed for several years. It was indeed a night flight, "so fly by night", a slogan they are bound to repeat non stop.

They are going to say that he is a man who runs away at the first opportunity rather than one who stands and fights for his people.

In fact they are gong to say that for more than half a decade, Gomez was living and working abroad permanently, not in Singapore.

After Sweden he went to live in Japan for some years, never living in Singapore at all.

They are going to say that he maintains his Singapore passport only for show, that he is a man who has all along been living abroad, who flits in and out of Singapore like a housefly, makes a speech or 2 and gets his name reported in the press, pays for his HDB flat which he has rented out while he permanently lives elsewhere, and leaves on the next flight out.

A man who does not even want to live in Singapore among his people, preferring rather to live in Australia permenently is surely not a political representative that can be trusted by any Singaporean. So much for that.

Then we have his dishonesty alleged to have committed at the Parliamentary Elections Nomination Center in 2006.

You will recall that he said he had handed an election form to the Election Officer when in fact he was caught red handed on video tape putting that very same form into his briefcase.

A blatant lie, the Lee Kuan Yew faction is going to say.

They are going to say there surely cannot be a greater dishonesty shamelessly carried out by any politician living or dead; that he is the most dishonest person there can ever be, a man not to be trusted and never voted into Parliament.

In 2006 Lee Kuan Yew himself spent several days speaking in public and widely telecast and publicised, calling Gomez a lair, a cheat, and many other unflattering names you could think of.

In fact many believed that it was Gomez who had ruined the chances of the Workers Party GRC team in Aljunied and without him, they would have won a GRC.

One cannot deny there is justification for this argument, although any reasonable person would have given him the benefit of the doubt and dismissed his actions as a mistake.

But you are not talking about reasonable people in other countries, you are talking about Singaporeans, a fear ridden people who have consistently voted for the PAP mostly out of fear.

In such a society, Gomez with a rather blemished history for honesty or for his commitment to Singapore stands no chance at all.

Even today, it is well publicised fact that Gomez does not live in Singapore.

He lives and works in Australia where it is believed he is a permanent resident, as a Professor at Monash University in Melbourne, for the past several years.

With the imminent elections in Singapore, he has flown into Singapore recently a few times to make speeches and this last time to publicise his membership of the SDP.

I expect he makes these short overnight flights into Singapore in between his teaching assignments at Melbourne Australia.

This fact that even today, he is nothing more than a fly by night character who only comes in and out occasionally into Singapore but yet wants to represent Singaporeans in Parliament, an unsavory fact that Lee Kuan Yew's people will be drumming into the electorate.

Frankly with this kind of a record, just packing up and leaving but keeping a Singapore passport just for namesake, is not a person most would be prepared to trust.

And lastly PAP journalists would have a field day questioning him on his switching political parties.

In 2006 he stood as a Workers Party candidate, but now has gone over to the Singapore Democratic Party.

A man who cannot make up his mind what he wants. I am sure they are going to ask him why he left the Worker's Party?

Did he not know that Low Thia Khiang was nothing but a PAP stooge when he joined them or did he join them anyway despite knowing it? A very difficult question to answer indeed.

And as for Dr. Chee Soon Juan, he is making a terrible mistake if he allows Gomez to contest under his party's ticket.

In this event, Lee Kuan Yew's men would claim, quite justifiably too that SDP is a party that associates with fly by night slimy characters such as Gomez, and in the process, discrediting the SDP.

The Singapore Democratic Party stands for many in Singapore including myself in California as the one real political party willing to to face Lee Kuan Yew's PAP.

Dr. Chee has stood his ground among his Singaporeans and unlike Gomez has not opted to live permanently in Stockholm Sweden or Melbourne Australia just because he lost elections.

And everyone in the SDP has stood their ground in Singapore and never backed off when faced by a bully such as this.

Gomez is not made of that mettle.

He is seen as a man who runs at the first opportunity of trouble, a sort of quitter, who comes back in the middle of the night, periodically for a few nights at a time to contest elections and immediately thereafter disappears at night on the next flight out to his permanent residence and job in Australia.

This is a bad idea for Gomez and a bad idea for Dr. Chee's SDP.

In fact I would suggest to Gomez to do the honorable thing, be loyal and grateful to his new country Australia.

It is Monash University in Australia that has given him a job and it is Australia that has given him his new home and new opportunity. Gomez should thank them for it.

Gomez should do the honorable thing and take up Australian citizenship and continue living in Australia which has accepted him.

He can of course contribute to the betterment of Singapore from Australia but to claim to be wanting to represent Singaporeans in Parliamentary Elections, a people whom he has literally abandoned, is somewhat stretching it.

When I came to the United States, this country country accepted me, admitted me to the Bar and gave me a living.

This is where my 3 children were educated with college degrees, and which made them proud upright individuals, something which Singapore could never have given.

I appreciated that and felt the only right thing to do is to become an American citizen. That was the only honorable thing to do.

That does not mean of course that I could not fight for the betterment of Singapore, a country in which I was born. That I intend to do.

But for me to try to contest Singapore elections, even if that was possible, like what Gomez is trying to do, is simply wrong.

Talking of honor, there could not be a more honorable person than Dr. Chee. He stands his ground. He takes all the punishment thrown at him, but stand he does, without wavering.

The only difference between me in California and Gomez in Melbourne Australia is that I have given up my Singapore passport, Gomez has held on to his.

But in every other respect, Singapore is as distant to him from Australia as it is to me from California.

Gomez, take my advice, don't waste your time or that of the SDP. Furthermore your name is going to be dragged though the dirt for a mile. It is not worth it.

Remember Lee Kuan Yew controls the entire media in Singapore. Before you could bat an eyelid, you would have been the next most evil person beside Satan.

Stay in Australia and enjoy a Thee Star Beer or whatever else they drink in the West side of Melbourne. Do yourself and the SDP a favor by not contesting Singapore's elections now.

If you really want to enter Singapore politics, I suggest you do this.

Give up Australia and return to Singapore permanently.

Stop this flitting in and out of Singapore like a housefly.

For 10 years show your commitment to Singaporeans, living among them and fighting for them.

Then in the year 2021, when you are past 50 years old, contest under whatever party you want.

In that case I say you have a slim chance of succeeding.

I say slim because even then it is not certain.

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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