Ladies and Gentlemen,
Singapore's dictator Lee Kuan Yew appears to be in an untenable situation, just as is the fate of any other dictator anywhere else.
On the one hand Lee has no choice but to continue for Singapore to be a global city with commerce banking and tourism as it's mainstay. After all, Singapore cannot be an agricultural peasant society simply because it cannot survive like that.
On the other hand the more it becomes a society connected to the world and exposed to foreign influences, the more difficult it becomes for him to retain his tight grip over it's citizens.
Let us not forget what Singapore is. It is principally a one party state, with no free press, no fundamental freedoms such as free speech and expression and where the judiciary is not independent, but under the control of the state. It is also a country where Lee and his family pay themselves any amount they want, which happens to be $3.7 million per year today; each.
This sort of a totalitarian society simply does not fit with a global society of free exchange of ideas, since freedom and democracy trumps repression and totalitarianism anytime. His problem therefore is increasingly this; how to reconcile repression and absolute control over an increasingly educated and sophisticated population.
But by Lee Kuan Yew continuing to retain a tight grip over every aspect of his people, and at the same time educating them, it appears either he does not accept the inevitable which is staring him in the face or he he wants to retain power at the expense of the interests of his country.
I am sure if the issue is put to the people, the vast majority of Singaporeans would prefer to live in a democratic society where individuals live as free men and women and not in fear as they live now. But if this happens, Lee Kuan Yew's control over his people will weaken and in no time, he will be shown the door.
Faced with the need of Singapore to connect to the world but at the same time wanting to control every aspect of life of his people, Lee finds himself in an impossible situation. Either he serves himself or he serves Singapore; he simply cannot have both
Distasteful as the situation has become in Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore, those who can leave the island as soon as they can. To replace them he brings in huge numbers of Mainland Chinese who speak no English and who are generally dumb, because if they were anything else, they would not want to live in society such as this.
Today all that is going for him is his state controlled press where articles are published daily praising the successes of Singapore and how good they are, all humbug of course. At the same time the reality is that the people who have any ability are all leaving replaced with these Chinese immigrants with naught in their heads. Such people are incapable of bringing Singapore any success because all they can do is to do as they are told. They know nothing else.
An advanced country should have smart capable; thinking people. No country ever managed to advance without thingking people, people with opinions and some understanding of the world.
When Lee Kuan Yew tries to show a facade of an improving modern advanced city, he is not fooling anyone when all he has are these Mandarin speaking new immigrants from China who have no opinions at all.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
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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