Singapore. The problem with dictatorships

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Any student of politics and history will not fail to see one recurring undeniable result, which is, when the dictator dies, the regime crumbles, followed by an interval of uncertainly and chaos until such time as another dictator comes along and the same stop start process trudges along, but on one certain trajectory, which is on the decline, not upwards. Eventually in the long run the country descends into another basket case, another banana republic.

Singapore is one classic example of a fascist dictatorship with the dictator, who is already either 89 or 88 depending on whom you ask, just about to kick the bucket. And if history is anything to go by, we are quite certain to see that expected chaos and collapse as we have seen so often elsewhere.

And these dire consequences are magnified multi fold in the case of Singapore being just a small overcrowded island with a tiny population, insufficient to provide any buffer, as opposed to a large country such as Russia, against the impending chaos on the demise of the dictator.

The fragility of all dictatorships are these. Firstly all dictatorships never had any real leaders other than the dictator himself. In the case of Nazi Germany, you had that supreme leader Adolf Hitler and everyone else who forms the government with him are merely bootlickers and sycophants who please him and in return are given positions of authority.

If Hitler had others with him who were leaders with ideas of their own, he would never have sent troops into demilitarized Rhineland against the Treaty of Versailles, and even if he did, he would have stopped there. German troops would never have marched into Austria, Czechoslovakia would never haven been occupied, they would never have bombed Poland and the war would have been averted and millions of lives saved. Hitler just like Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew thought he knew everything and no one else know's anything, and this is what becomes of arrogance such as this.

You see the same in Singapore, with every single government minister hand picked by Lee Kuan Yew for their abilities as academics, not their ability as leaders which they have none, and the irony is they never did aspire for leadership either. All of them are merely opportunists who considered themselves very lucky for having been chosen by Lee Kuan Yew for political positions of authority and the consequent good life that comes with it, not to mention a salary of $3.7 million a year!

Secondly if Singapore had any political philosophy of it's own, it has to be that of Lee Kuan Yew. And Lee Kuan Yew's philosophy if I can guess is this. You try to bribe (or in Lee's euphemism, "pay") citizens to work for you by paying them each $3.7 million each as salary a year. In this way, because of the huge windfall of money which you receive through your entire career, the chosen opportunists will sing any tune, and say anything which Lee Kuan Yew demands. In the end the only thinking in the entire country is how Lee Kuan Yew thinks and this is enabled by the state controlled media which will only publish the government line.

And sadly the government line of thought in not something anyone should be proud of. It requires everyone to be self reliant or otherwise starve (no social security for the needy), it requires known government critics such as Chee Soon Juan to be relentlessly persecuted and punished just because he has contrary views, it requires former Singaporeans like myself who write blogposts unflattering of Lee to be imprisoned if he is caught and prohibited from ever entering Singapore, and every other disgraceful practice you can think of.

The result of this shutting out every other way of thinking other than what Lee thinks, results in a dearth of alternative thought. We all know that no one can be right all the time, or even most of the time, which is why democracies encourage alternative ideas because society progresses by this. Denying any form of alternative thinking denies the entire country of a valuable necessary asset resulting in it's going from one calamity to the next.

The next point is this. No government can openly abuse it's powers and expect never to be held accountable. Lee Kuan Yew's policies are openly and blatantly illegal in fundamental aspects and he stays in power momentarily only because Singaporeans presently are afraid to resist.

For instance paying each of themselves $3.7 million a year and calling this a salary is clearly unacceptable anywhere in the world as well as in Singapore although strangely the people are not now up in arms against this. But it does not mean that such corruption is excused. You only have to wait for that oppurtune moment, as when the dictator is no more, when the people will demand an explanation.

Second the muzzling of the entire media and turning it into a propaganda sheet is also unacceptable anywhere in the world although strangely for the moment Singaporeans are not protesting. But again it does not mean that such abuse of authority is excused. You only have to wait for that opportune moment, as when the dictator is no more, when the people will demand an explanation.

Using the courts though corrupt judges such as Belinda Ang Saw Ean to punish innocent Singaporeans who resist is also blatantly wrong and something that is unacceptable anywhere in the world but strangely in Singapore they remain silent. These are only a few of the numerous illegal practices used by Lee which is wrong and unacceptable now or in the future.

The result of this sort of misuse of power is that when the dictator goes, these abuses of power, which is never forgotten by the people suddenly come to the surface to haunt these former Lee Kuan Yew minions. All of a sudden the minions who so far had it so good, and seek control have either to continue these illegal practices against the peoples' wishes or flee for their lives.If they stay, in the event of resistance they would have no choice but to use violent methods against their own people which usually does not work.

With the death of the dictator, there is a void in the leadership since every single one in Lee's government are all merely opportunists and bootlickers who never had any real power base of their own.

If for the moment, people listen to them, it is because they have to, since their power comes not from within themselves but through the dictator who has placed them there. Once the dictator dies, these minions with no longer any power of their own would have to disperse and disappear as fast as they can or seek power with the serious consequences that may follow.

If there is foreign investment in Singapore, it is because Lee has been and is there. As investment dollars do not necessarily chose democracies to invest but places that have the most stability regardless of how corrupt and dishonest the governments are, Lee has been that stabilizing factor which enables investment. With his death, there will no longer be stability, which means investments are unsafe, which means a run on the banks and a flood of investment money out of Singapore.

Almost half if not the majority of Singaporeans are recent immigrants mainly from Communist China who have come to make a living, not necessarily to make a home. Unstable countries are unsuitable places to make a living which means, you would have a flood of these Communist Chinese on their way out to Guanzou and Chendu, Communist China. The same with every other recently arrived immigrant, all heading home to their various impoverished Asian countries.

And with that you have every other calamity imaginable, offshore banking disappearing, money launderers leaving, Burmese drug lords packing up, and Casinos closing. You know the rest.

Of course Lee Kuan Yew's son, whom his father appointed as Prime Minister might decide to get tough and crack the whip by calling out the army to try to maintain order. If he does that, it will only exasperate the already worsening situation because even more Singaporeans and foreigners will leave and Singapore would be empty not only of people but money as well.

This gloomy scenario would never happen if we had a vibrant democracy with everyone given a chance to further their views and vie for power. But with Lee Kuan Yew's shortsightedness, avarice and stupidity, we can only expect the worst sort of gloom over the horizon.

But for people like me who live abroad and see Singapore from the outside, all I can say is "I told you so". All there is to do now is to wait for the fun to begin when Lee Kuan Yew kicks that bucket, which we all know is expected very soon.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
Disbarred from practicing law in Lee's Singapore and refused entry to the island for criticizing Singapore's judiciary.
Actively practicing law in California and in good standing at the California Bar.
Member in good standing as a lawyer in England and Wales (Barrister).
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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