Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew treating us as fools

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In my blog "Singapore says Social network working" Dec 03, 2010, I had pointed out how false Lee Kuan Yew's son, whom he appointed Prime Minister was when he said, in his state controlled paper, Straits Times, that the Singapore's disadvantaged are being taken care of, when in fact there is no social welfare to speak of, with many having to live in terrible poverty.

Even though every other Singaporean knows this is a lie, but because he controls all the newspapers, there is nothing that anyone can do to rebut it.

Another example of this appears in Singapore Democratic Party's website, of Dec 06, 2010, headed "Stage protests in ballrooms, really". In it, Dr. Chee Soon Juan writes about what transpired in the high Court, at his appeal hearing for his conviction for peaceful protest. Even though Article 14 of the Constitution, specifically guarantees freedom of assembly, the Singapore government deputy public prosecutor, Nor Ashikin Samdin, a local Singapore Malay woman, in her astonishing argument says, Dr. Chee should have had his protest in a private ballroom!

This unbelievable statement from Singapore's so called deputy public prosecutor raises some very disturbing issues. For one, it appears she does not understand the Constitution, perhaps never heard of it. Second she probably does not know any constitutional law, the backbone for a provision that guarantees free speech and assembly.

Singapore has had a limited form of self government in 1959 and independence in 1965 based on a Constitution that guarantees democracy, which is the basis for such fundamental rights as free speech and expression. From what this woman appears to say, she appears to think Singapore is none other than a dictatorship under Lee Kuan Yew and since he does not like people publicly criticizing him, they should all do it in private ballrooms!

And this is what happens under a dictatorial regime, like Singapore. People reach a point where they simply find living under a system where you are forced to listen to rubbish or propaganda daily, where the Media is completely controlled, simply intolerable. This sort of a system insults the people's intelligence, making the able and capable simply leave the country for the West.

What is left in the island is simply incompetence and ignorance, such as this woman arguing in a court of law that Dr. Chee should go on and hold a public protest in a private ballroom, when we know that she would never have uttered such nonsense had she known even the basics of constitutional law, politics or history.

We know that for decades Singapore's legal profession has been shrinking not expanding, even though the population has burgeoned to 5 million. It has today no more than, believe it or not, 3,000 lawyers a number completely inadequate. So what the government does to carry on, is to give jobs to women such as Nor Ashikin Samdin, who has no law at all in her head to pretend to act as Deputy Public Prosecutors.

I always have believed, as I do now, that surely this situation is untenable and cannot last. We have heard K Shanmugam, Lee Kuan Yew's Minister for Law claiming to increase the number of lawyers in Singapore but up till now, there has been nothing. Of course, he can say anything he wants in their state controlled papers since no one would be permitted a rebuttal, but the fact that he has to know is this; Singapore has a bad name as a place that uses the law to silence dissent. With a bad reputation like that, you will not only fail in getting locals to enter the profession, no foreigner with any qualifications would want to come.

Lee should realize that he is not only weakening himself and his government by this refusal to allow democracy in his island. If you had a free press in Singapore today, not just I but thousands of people would be pointing out the stupidity and incompetence of this woman, but today, except for a handful of people, no one can or dare criticize this woman and expose the pathetic state of the Singapore legal system.

The State Controlled Media will not publish any rebuttals, leaving the handful of critics who dare to criticize, no other option but to use the Internet. But even so, in Singapore even to do that entails great danger.

But the good news is this. If Lee Kuan Yew has to use women such as this to prosecute their cases, they have hit rock bottom in legal recruitment and the dearth of legal talent itself will bring them down. And second, I am sure, with increasing Internet use, while the government continues to use an iron grip to criminalize free speech or an independent press, there will come a breaking point very soon. It has to be. We will see 10 or more people breaking these unjust laws and protesting on the streets, which will open the floodgates. And we will see the fall of the dictatorship.

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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