Singapore Lee Kuan Yew's cruel repression of his people

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Have you every wondered why students at Singapore universities unlike students in any other university in the world appear never to have held any protests about anything. I understand students in North Korea also never protest unless it is an organized one to shout insults against America.

Are Singapore students happy with everything that is happening because students who are expected to think would be expected to be unhappy at times. Have you ever wondered why in a city state with no free press, no human rights of free speech or expression, no free press or no ability to protest at all, why no one is openly demanding a change?

Unless they are all happy with the way they live, this strange and eerie silence is unusual and out of the ordinary.

I was born in Singapore and it was my home. I can tell you why.

Lee Kuan Yew's suppression is so ruthless that he has successfully intimidated and silenced an entire population.

For those who are unhappy, the only way out is to leave the island entirely for settlement abroad. Those who stay do so out of greed for the millions that come their way in return for supporting the regime. Then you have the other poorer classes who are not aware that they have any rights, due to ignorance or illiteracy.

This ruthless practice which he has fined tuned over the years is like this. He publicly and with great fanfare denies those who oppose him a livelihood.

And he makes sure when he does this to his victim, it is very well publicised so that the message is sent throughout the island of the dangers of this course of action. He uses his state controlled newpapers and his state controlled media to spread the news.

His victim not only suffers a loss of livelihood, the state denies him every other benefit that others receive. In a small island like Singapore, the news of this victimization against anyone is spread right across the island.

This effectively sends chills down the spine of anyone ever contemplating criticizing or challenging Lee Kuan Yew or his family. The disgraceful results of Lee's actions are guaranteed. No one in his right mind would dare openly challenge Lee Kuan Yew in his Singapore.

The Communist Chinese have used this practice successfully for years. It has a name. It is called killing a chicken to frighten the monkeys. And the monkeys are the people. In other words you punish someone very hard to make him an example. It becomes a powerful deterrent.

In China one recent example was Liu Xiabo, the critic who wrote essays on democracy which the state did not like. They have sent him to prison for 11 years, languishing in some remote part of China. An Wei Wei was another critic. He too has been packed off to prison. In Communist China, the monkeys (Chinese citizens) have indeed been frightened.

And Lee has been using this tactic very successfully against any opposition in his island city state for the last 51 years. Here are the examples of the "chickens" (his victims) he has killed (presecuted) in his Singapore to so successfully frighten his Singaporean "monkeys"(his people).

The following victims are only the people whom I personally knew. I am sure there are many hundreds or thousands more who have lost their livelihoods for challenging the island's dictator.

Chee Soon Juan was a university professor at the National University of Singapore. He has a PhD in Neuropsychology. He decided 2 decades ago to openly contest elections in Singapore against Lee Kuan Yew. He is a highly educated man.

Lee terminated his employment as professor, he was sued several times for defamation of character suffering court damages of more than several millions of dollars, he sold his house to pay Lee, he was bankrupted and jailed.

Today he sells books that he himself wrote in the streets of Singapore for a bare living. He is disqualified from contesting elections and banned from politics. His wife and children suffer with him. I am grateful to him for all the help he gave me while I was a Lee Kuan Yew prisoner in 2008 in the island.

His sister is also a Lee Kuan Yew critic, Chee Siok Chin. She was a teacher. She too decided to enter opposition politics against Lee. She was dismissed from her teaching job, and is unemployed. She has no income and no way to make a living.

No one will ever give her a job for fear of inviting the wrath of the Singaporean dictator. She too was sued for millions of dollars, and like her brother is a bankrupt. She is unable to leave the country and is banned from politics.

John Tan was a teacher in James Cook University, a branch of the Australian university in Singapore. He has a Masters degree. He too is an open critic of Lee Kuan Yew and contested elections. He was terminated from his teaching job and sent to prison. He is unemployed.

Gandhi Ambalam was another member of Chee's political party. He has a degree from the University of London in England and used to work in the media. He openly expressed opposition to Lee Kuan Yew's politics. He was dismissed from his job. He is unemployed. He has been sent to prison several times.

Jufri Mahmood used to work as an interpreter in the Ministry of Home Affairs. He had written something in an essay which Lee Kuan Yew did not like. He was charged and convicted of sedition and the Official Secrets Acts. He spent one year in prison. He too was dismissed from his job.

Today he is a building contractor but finds it very difficult to get any work. When I was in Singapore and arrested for writing a blog critical of Lee Kuan Yew's judges, he had some work in renovating the office of the Malaysian High Commission in Singapore.

He has a difficult time surviving. I have to add, he is a very good man. He helped me with accommodation at his office. Just as I am to Chee Soon Juan, I am ever grateful to him.

The late JB Jeyaretnam suffered the most in recent times. For the last 3 decades, he was repeatedly sued for defamation of character, jailed, bankrupted and made to pay several millions of dollars in damages to Lee Kuan Yew. He died in 2008.

Tang Liang Hong was a lawyer who challenged Lee Kuan Yew in the 1997 elections. He had accused Lee of corruption which happened to be true, the case of discounts received in the purchase of Jade Mansions condominiums for himself, each of his children and his wife. He too was sued.

Tang was himself a millionaire. Lee took all his money in court damages, garnished his bank accounts, and wanted to arrest him. He fled into exile by crossing into Malaysia. He is a pauper now. He lives in Melbourne Australia. Lee Kuan Yew took his millions. He cannot return to Singapore.

Wong Hong Toy was working with JB Jeyaretnam in the old Workers Party. He too was sued bankrupted and jailed and disqualified from politics.

Dr. Tan Bin Seng was a medical doctor. He was repeatedly sued and criminally charged. He was also repeatedly subject to cooked up disciplinary charges relating to his medical practice and repeatedly suspended from practicing medicine. I am not sure now whether he practices medicine now or has he given up entirely.

Teo Soh Lung was a woman lawyer with many years experience. She decided to do some good for the poor. Lee arrested her and some 22 others and branded them Marxist Conspirators and put them in jail without trial.

Teo was repeatedly beaten and kept in solitary confinement. She can identify Lee's officers who tortured her. After 2 years in jail she was released. She lost her law practice. She is now unemployed.

In my case, while practicing law in Singapore in 1991, I was found guilty of professional misconduct of writing a letter to the then Attorney General asking for information on JB Jeyaretnam's convictions.

I was suspended from practicing law for 2 years. Also in 1991, I was found in contempt of court for making an election rally speech during the 1991 elections in which I stood as a candidate.

Earlier in the 1980s, also while practicing law in Singapore, disciplinary proceedings were commenced against me for sending foreign embassies and consulates in Singapore information of the injustice to my client. I obtained political asylum in the US in 1995 for the repression I suffered in Singapore.

In 2008 when I returned to Singapore I was jailed for writing a blog post in this blog about the injustice meted out to Chee Soon Juan by Lee Kuan Yew during a Singapore trial. I was present in court. Recently I have been disbarred from practicing law in Singapore. I consider my Singapore disbarment as an honor and a badge to be worn with pride.

This sort of blatant misuse of the law to silence dissent does take it's toll. Singaporeans today are almost to the man so terrified of Lee Kuan Yew which is why you see no one publicly complaining or having anything to do with the trifling opposition parties such as that of Dr. Chee Soon Juan.

Singapore's people today are not ones who appear to have the qualities that one would expect in human beings, the qualities of courage, integrity and honor. The only ones who appear to have them, are those above who have suffered so much. Singapore is one country that punishes and victimizes it's best sons and daughters, and as you can see, every one of the above are Singapore's best.

There can be no better human beings than men like Dr. Chee Soon Juan and his sister Chee Siok Chin today, both who care deeply for the good of Singapore and it's betterment and the courage to fight for those ideals. And this is what they get for their efforts.

Instead Singapore rewards sycophants and bootlickers like the Tamil Minister K Shanmugam who makes sure that every single human right is criminalized. For Lee Kuan Yew, K Shanmugam is his model citizen.

This blog is my very powerful weapon against Lee Kuan Yew's tyrannical regime in Singapore. It enables me to remind Singaporeans exactly what they are living under so as to provoke a sense of indignation and outrage against these injustices.

For political change, under any political doctrine, antagonizing the people against their oppressors is the most important first step to create change.

I know that the Lee Kuan Yew regime is boiling with rage and wish to have me stopped at any cost, especially since it is read in Singapore, but they are constrained, firstly from the fact that I write from abroad and secondly the only way to block it is to demand the US based Internet providers to block it, which they find difficult to do I suppose, as this will show them as an intolerant repressive city state.

Also from California I can write exactly what I think because I have no one in Singapore against whom they can retaliate as opposed to many other Singaporeans living abroad with families still in Singapore. To that extent, I guess I am one lucky man.

I suppose now the reader can see why in Singapore, they are quite content with their lives. They don't appear to have any complaints whatsoever.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
Disbarred from practicing law in Lee's Singapore, imprisoned and refused entry to the island for criticizing Singapore's judiciary in this blog (see blogpost May 29, 2008 Singapore. Judge Belinda Ang's Kangaroo Court)
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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