Singapore's Big Bother is watching you

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am not sure if you have been following the latest from Singapore’s state controlled newspapers but some of their recent reports are bizarre, to say the least. For instance two days ago, Singapore strongman's former multi million dollar president (by the way they all get paid multi million dollars) SR Nathan gave a speech where he lamented the island's lack of a common identity and he has sworn to create one.

Two weeks ago, Singapore’s Minister for Education pointed out that Singapore students should have good character such as integrity, and he has started on a project to do this.

But anyone who actually knows Singapore would have realized that these are impossible tasks in a one party state where conformism is required to live a normal life, let alone succeeding.

This is what it is. It is generally accepted in that island that Lee Kuan Yew and by extension all his family members, in other words the Lee ruling family, are the creators of Singapore and without them Singapore would have been nothing more than a backward fly infested fishing village.

Singaporeans are expected to believe that it was they who single handedly brought Singapore to what it is today, an island with gleaming skyscrapers skirting the waterfront. Every single Singaporean is expected to owe his entire existence to this great family who have spent their entire lives selflessly struggling for the welfare of the people without an iota of self interest.

In fact they want you to believe that since Jesus Christ, Mahatma Gandhi or Mother Theresa, there has been noone comparable to this distinguished family.

They require you to believe, the Lee ruling family, especially Lee Kuan Yew himself, is the sole repository of all the word's knowledge, having scored a double first at the esteemed Cambridge University and everything he has done so far and will ever do until our Good Lord takes him will be the best thing that ever happened or will ever happen to the very lucky Singaporeans who have been blessed with a man like him.

As for anyone who criticizes his paying himself millions of dollars for himself and each of his family members, they are entitled to every penny of it, because they are such great and smart people while any criticism of corruption against them is totally and absolutely misguided. This is what they want Singaporeans to believe.

Lee our great leader knew that newspapers should not be free and should be state controlled in a small city state like Singapore, which is why he did it. Also he realized that peaceful protests, freedom of speech and expression and such rowdy and unacceptable behavior are a sign of the decadent West and should be avoided at all costs, which is why he arrests anyone who dares to criticize or hold any peaceful protests. Since there is no way he could be wrong, anyone who criticizes him should be sued and bankrupted which explains why today Chee Soon Juan has been adjudicated a bankrupt and so was the earlier troublemaker, the late JB Jeyaretnam. This is what Singaporeans in Lee’s Singapore should believe.

Also according to them, Singapore judges are the best in the world and it's justice is admired and respected universally and judges like Belinda Ang Saw Ean are unparalleled for her integrity honesty and wisdom which is why Gopalan Nair the thoroughly ingrate deserves being sent to jail for 3 months in 2008 for doing such a despicable act at to criticize her, someone who could do no wrong, as good as God or even as good as Lee Kuan Yew himself.

The problem is this. In order to live a peaceful life in that one party city state, let alone succeeding, one has to accept everything that has been said above as true; and if you wanted to go far, openly proclaim this to be true, if not life can be very troublesome because Big Brother is constantly watching.

As for myself, it is impossible for me to accept any of this nonsense. I do not believe one bit that Lee Kuan Yew or any of his extended Lee ruling family is either necessary or even advantageous for the small island nation. Indeed I believe that this fellow is nothing but a small time thug who goes around punishing his detractors because he has the benefit of a compliant police force and a corrupt judiciary who prop him up because of the bribes and kickbacks they receive in the millions.

I do not believe that having a state controlled press is a good thing, nor having a state controlled judiciary nor the denial of the rule of law as being desirous in any way.

I believe that giving the people the right to be free, to be free to think and to act as long as they comply with a set of lawfully elected laws which Singapore does not have because these laws that deny free speech and expression are illegal and an affront to humanity and should be disobeyed.

Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore today inhibits freedom of thought or expression, denies the free expression of ideas and requires one to conform in order to live a peaceful life. This is bad not only for it's people, it is bad also for Singapore.

And the deleterious effects of such a controlled society is apparent daily. Thousands of educated people continue to leave for settlement abroad. People simply refuse to have children and the native born are simply dying off from old age. To replace the ones who left or died, the Lee ruling family bring in mindless and brainless third rate Chinese immigrants from mainland China who fit in very well with the Lee ruling family's idea of good citizenship. But these mindless brainless characters do not advance Singapore one bit.

I am not a man who would use strong words but sometimes one cannot just help it. I want to tell this small time bully, Lee and his family, in the small island city state of Singapore that he can take his harebrained ideas and shove it up you know where. He is simply an old fool who does not realize that in this day and age, you simply cannot ask some to dance because they simply won't.

And I want to wish him and his minions who run around him such as the former president of Singapore SR Nathan and the present Minister for Education, both millionaires several times over and both of whom I believe would swear upon their mother’s graves that the Lee family is God’s gift to Singapore, good luck in creating a population with an independent character and a Singaporean identity, whatever that may be.

I am sorry but this is not the type of character or identity that I would want to wish on myself or anyone else, million dollars or none at all.

Of course, in the Singaporean meaning of things, I just as Chee Soon Juan and the former JB Jeyaretnam are criminals and miscreants of the worst kind, who deserve to be locked up and the key thrown away.

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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