Singapore. Living under the Ming Emperor

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Living under the government of Singapore’s Lee Ruling Family, father Lee, self appointed Minister Mentor, a somewhat unusual title he gave himself, like as if he is daily mentoring the others whom he has appointed in office; and his son, whom he appointed the Prime Minister.

In fact, if you look at it carefully, there is no one and nothing that he has not appointed in the island which literally belongs to him, just as China belonged to the Ming Emperor.

It is no secret that Lee Kuan Yew has total disdain for the idea of democracy. He has repeatedly said, very frankly, that he would be able to do much better for Singapore Island if he had a free reign on running the island.

Unfortunately for him, the island came with the trappings of a British parliamentary democracy, with its requirement for the rule of law, a free press, free trade unions and free speech and assembly. These were for him an impediment, without which he could, he claims to believe, that he could do much more, much better.

And to add to this fanciful thought, he has an altogether inflated opinion of himself. He has reminded everyone that he had studied at a British University, Cambridge and he considered the ordinary citizen nothing more than a "digit" (his own word).

His idea of government is like this. Every 5 years or so, you conduct an election in the island which is completely rigged. The rigging is done this way. He instills fear into every person not to challenge his rule. So no one truly capable, qualified and sincere would dare to stand for election because he knows that if he did, he would be imprisoned and bankrupted.

In order to do this he makes examples of a few. One such person in the past was JB Jeyaretnam who has since died. He had the temerity (in Lee's opinion) of thinking he was smarter than him. To punish the poor man, he was repeatedly sued in his Kangaroo courts, ordered to pay millions and promptly bankrupted and as a result disqualified from Parliament.

The other victim was Chee Soon Juan. He unlike Jeyaretnam is still alive. He has lost everything. Today he sells books on the streets in the island. He was a university professor before he challenged Singapore’s Ming Emperor. With such dire consequences you have to be a madman to stand against him.

And as for the other pillars of democracy, he simply denies them. The papers are all owned and controlled by him. Free speech, expression and assembly are all outlawed. The courts are misused through compliant corrupt judges. One such disgraceful judge is the woman Belinda Ang Saw Ean.

His newspapers publish daily propaganda claiming Singapore has become a legal hub, that it has become a communications hub or that it has become an arts hub. In order to tell that lie, he will have pictures of lawyers in black robes talking to some European lawyers who say that Singapore has the best legal system in the world.

He will publish reports that Singapore is the best place to live with pictures of Eduardo Saverin, Facebook Vice President, in Singapore stating he has made his home there. The truth which he will not say is that Saverin is a dead beat US tax avoider who has chosen Singapore because it is a money laundering center. Saverin has given up his US citizenship to escape paying taxes. Not such a model citizen really, but useful to hoodwink the Singaporean dumb "digit".

Make no mistake; this is how it is done. He is determined to rule. In his book, just like the Ming Emperor did, there are 2 kinds of people. Those destined to rule, like him and his son, and those who will be ruled, the "digits". So the rulers rule, and like good "digits" the citizens should be grateful. Under his enlightened rule, he will bring prosperity to his people. He will provide jobs, provide housing, build infra structure and put criminals away and bring peace and harmony. The problem is, he is finding it more and more difficult in this day and age to do any of this.

As for the "digits" they should do as they are told, because they know no better. After all they don't have a British university degree like he has. They, the Singaporeans are just dumb. And being dummies what business is theirs to be going around complaining and acting as if they were too big for their shoes.

If they had any brains in their heads, they would realize what they would miss without their Ming Emperor, none other than the Lee Ruling Family, and their wisdom.

This is how Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore thinks.

The problem of course is that his ideas are totally out of place. Today there are no "digits" any more. True, there may be a few uneducated dummies but more and more people are not only well educated, they are also well travelled. One of them is myself, Gopalan Nair. For them, it is not acceptable to sit around waiting for the goodies that our good old Lee Kuan Yew will throw at us, in fact there are many who believe that we know a thing or two.

Since no one of such men who know, are prepared to waste their time in Lee Kuan Yew's nonsense of an island, they simply pack up and leave which is why the island has the highest rate of overseas migration in the world. Not to mention the highest rate of suicide, the lowest birth rate and the fastest aging population.

But being incapable of anything else other than being Singapore’s Ming Emperor, he continues to control the media, he continues to ban free speech and expression and he continues to plunder the island's wealth through astronomical salaries which he pays himself. The poor senile dementia  inflicted man is simply in blinkers. Hey, wake up. It is not 1959!

A stupid man, don't you think? More a Nero who fiddled while Rome burnt rather than a Ming Emperor. The Ming Emperor of China had more sense. It least he acted according to his times.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
Fremont, California
Tel: 510 657 6107 or 510 491 4375