Singapore's defamation lawsuits, "lawyers letters", brutal canings, hangings of petty criminals and Canadian students simply don't mix

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Singapore state controlled newspaper Straits Times of March 22, 2012 has the story "Expat schools to get more land to attract foreigners to stay".

See http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_780370.html

It talks of Singapore government, with it's extremely land shortage challenge in it's tiny island, "releasing more land for international schools to use, for Singapore to attract foreigners to live and work here".

The Minister for trade Iswaran believes "leasing out land for long term use by international schools will encourage them to take a long term view of their presence here". In this case, a $140 million Canadian International School in Singapore's Jurong West.

There are many things here that does not make sense. First why is the government trying very hard to attract foreigners, in this case Canadians, instead of trying to persuade Singaporeans themselves to remain instead of migrating abroad in the thousands, which they are doing?

And the second question is whether Eswaran knows that Westerners, in this case Canadians are a free people who live in a democracy and they do not like living in places where the head of government (Lee ruling family) routinely sues their opponents though defamation actions, where "lawyers letters" threatening defamation lawsuits are sent to bloggers who criticize, where criminals are brutally beaten with a cane (punishment of caning), and petty criminals are executed by hanging at record levels.

If Eswaran knew Canadians, which appears he does not, they would not be attracted to living in North Korea or Singapore which is not much different.

And by the way, Canada has free and independent newspapers unlike the state controlled Singaporean junk which I have just read containing this article.

From appearances, it would seem Eswaran and his one party government made up of the Lee ruling party appears to have lost it. We had a series of articles in the past in this paper reporting their determined efforts to arrest the seemingly unstoppable flood of native born talented Singaporeans abroad, which I understand has exceeded 1,000 ever year, not including family members.

Up till now all those efforts have failed and the numbers leaving for settlement abroad have instead increased, not declined. Singapore is fast managing to disgorge every single educated Singaporean except for the few willing for serve the dictatorship in the government.

It seems to appear that since they have lost the ability to retain their own people, who by the way know what sort of a country Singapore is from personal knowledge, they are trying to hoodwink the rest of the world into thinking that somehow Singapore is a desirable place to live. Unfortunately for them, the Internet has effectively destroyed their ever succeeding to attract good people from the developed countries to ever settle there.

This is what Singapore is. It is a fear ridden society where the rulers have to be treated as if they were Gods who would inflict serious harm to anyone who doesn't like them, in the form of defamation actions and bankruptcy.

I can tell you this much. No decent red blooded Canadian would be prepared to tolerate Lee Kuan Yew's one party state, with a state controlled press, multi million dollar minsters, a corrupt judiciary, no rule of law, defamation actions, no chewing gum and record level hangings in Singapore's Changi Prison

Eswaran should go to Canada and see for himself. If he already knows what Canada is, then please don't insult the Canadians for even suggesting they live in Singapore. And please don't insult Singaporeans either, because they know Canada better than Eswaran appears to do, which is why they are leaving in hoardes to settle in that very country.

I was born in Singapore and left. Why, because I had openly joined an opposition political party and challenged them; they suspended me from practicing law for 2 years just because I wrote a letter to their now deceased former Attorney General; I was fined $8,000.00 Singapore dollars for making an election rally speech on the manner of appointment of lower court judges; and in 2008 I was imprisoned for 3 months for writing a blog here which they did not like; and even more recently disbarred from practicing law in Singapore altogether.

None of this would have happened had I done these things in Canada. Canada is a proud and free democracy. Singapore is the Lee ruling party's banana republic run by corrupt judges. That is the difference. And that is why any attempt to persuade upstanding Canadians to reside in Lee's island will remain a pipe dream.

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
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Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Blog: http://singaporedissident.blogspot.com/

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