Singapore. Don't hide your head in the sand

Ladies and Gentlemen,

You cannot fail but read the self praise, the self serving accolades that one sees daily, as one might expect of state controlled newspapers, such as Singapore's Straits Times. But someone knowing the island a little better like myself will see that all this is just that much window dressing, nothing more.

The men who lay claim to Singapore's so called achievement, Lee Kuan Yew and Son, are nothing but 2 very afraid people, who are so afraid of 2 ordinary Singaporeans, Chee Soon Juan and his sister, that he has to have them totally destroyed lest they unseat them. And any man who can rule only after stooping so low is not worth a second look.

Chee Soon Juan is a former professor who had the temerity to stand against Lee Kuan Yew's politics. Consequently, Lee had him removed from his job, repeatedly made to pay court awarded damages in the millions, repeatedly jailed and bankrupted. Today he and his sister who has suffered the same fate are also banned from travelling outside Singapore and disqualified from politics.

Lee Kuan Yew, it appears, is so mortally afraid of Chee Soon Juan and his sister that he had to completely destroy them to stay in government. Frankly all his achievements, if in fact there were any, are completely negated if it is achieved at this cost, of shamefully misusing the courts to keep out 2 ordinary people.

And then there is so much talk about Singapore having a large per capita GDP, the best airport and the best shopping mall, claims which we do not know if true or just made up propoganda. But even if they were true, none of this is of any use to the average Singaporean.

For instance having the best airport is of no good to the average Singaporean who hardly has any money to live comfortably let alone take flights out to foreign countries. Recently there was a mysterious report by some so called French survey which claims that Singapore had the best shopping mall. Even if it was true which we doubt, it is of no use to the ordinary Singaporean since the shops are all luxury stores selling Gucci and Pierre Cardine, objects totally beyond their reach. Then we have the talk of high GDP when we know that such figures mean nothing to the ordinary man since it is made up from the incomes of some very rich people such as drug lords who are given residence in the island.

Then we know of the other serious problems eating away at Singapore, such as the lowest birth rate in the world, very high rates of emigration, ever increasing frequency of flooding and train breakdowns across the island. These are matters that the government should publicly admit and seek solutions instead of pretending that they do not exist, and behaving as if the all propose remedy is to merely bring immigrants from Communist China in even larger numbers.

You can see why this government dare not do anything to address these issues, and prefers to go on as if nothing has happened. It is because Lee Kuan Yew is such man that is so afraid of facing his opposition head on that the only thing he is capable of doing is to destroy them completely. He knows no other way to remain in control.

And although he can see that the causes of the almost non existing birth rate and the high emigration rates is because of the stifling political climate, he dare not allow political freedom for fear that it will destroy him. So he does what any other insecure dictator will do, he punishes criticism and abuses the courts to achieve this end.

And because of his all consuming fear under which he lives, Singapore itself is being destroyed by the relentless and mounting rates of emigration and the birth rate simply refusing to climb no matter what. And while this damage is being done to Singapore, he further damages it by changing the very character of Singapore by bringing in ever larger planeloads of Communist Chinese immigrants who are incapable of contributing to Singapore one bit. These immigrants are not the answer to Singapore's problems. The answer is to allow more political space for it's citizen's but Lee appears incapable of facing it.

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).
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