Singapore's denial of democracy is it's biggest problem

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Singapore today is facing a very serious brain drain problem, a problem which will continue progressively in even greater intensity as time passes. A Singaporean family who have lived under the clutches of the Lee Ruling Family accustomed to keep their mouths and minds shut and obey like sheep to survive suddenly realizes with time in the West that life need not be lived that way.

Their children who will go to Western schools will suddenly find that they now have independence of thought, freedom of expression and self confidence, which they were denied in Singapore schools. Suddenly there is no need to toe the line anymore. All of a sudden they can speak their minds without fear of retribution and pursue their ambitions to their fullest. For the first time in their lives they discover freedom.

And now the multiplier effect kicks in. From the West, they tell their friends in Singapore how good it is in Canada, Australia or elsewhere. And once the information is passed, more families and more children pack their bags and leave.

And as even more leave Singapore’s shores even more in the West will pull even more young Singaporeans over. It has become a vicious cycle from which the Lee Ruling Family have no answer. The emptying out of Singapore’s educated.

And the expedient of settling abroad has become easier and easier. Today any overseas student who has studied in a college in Australia, New Zealand, United States, Canada, Germany or almost any other European country is encouraged to permanently settle there as these host countries benefit greatly by these educated skilled migrants.

In fact in the US today, there is a major push to give generous work visas to foreign students as they see the advantage of tapping their education and experience which benefits the US.

We all know why the Lee Ruling Family denies freedom to their people; because if they had freedom, the Family’s grip on power may loosen. So for their selfish interests, and out of fear of the consequences of being overthrown, they rather enslave their population.

The problem with the Lee Ruling Family in Singapore is their failure to understand that you simply cannot distort the truth by propaganda, rumor mongering and smear campaigns against those who have legitimate criticisms against the one party state. And neither is it possible to force citizens to live in your country and support you if you are running a repressive regime.

Lee's Singapore today has a major problem. We know that there is no free press when there should be. We know there is no rule of law when there should be. We know that the Ministers and the Lee Ruling Family steal millions of taxpayer’s money when they should not. We know that if a person criticizes the government as Chee Soon Juan or I do, he is victimized and punished when he should not be. We know that Belinda
Ang Saw Ean and every other judge in Singapore take orders from the government and are not independent when they should be.

And for every one of the above questions in a Western country you get positive answers. For instance the courts are indeed free, the press is indeed free, you do have a right to criticize, the Ministers are not above the law and you walk with your head up as a self respecting citizen with unlimited opportunities.

So faced between living in fear of Lee Kuan Yew strutting around his tiny island like a prize rooster and bullying anyone he pleases, and living as a self respecting human being capable of success regardless of your political opinion, which would you choose? Of course you would choose the West. There are of course ignorant dummies and others who have no self respect or self confidence who rather live like a slave in Lee's Singapore but anyone else with any ability would show his back to the island at the first opportunity.

So as the best in Singapore leave the island, other silly ignorant fools from Communist China would be brought in and they too when the time comes would pack up and leave as well.

Very simply, Lee Kuan Yew cannot expect anyone to love Singapore if this is how he treats his people.

Singapore is a very small island with a tiny population even if it happens to be 5 million because of recent Chinese immigrants. It is not by any stretch of the imagination a sophisticated or educated population because no educated person in his right mind would want to live there.

If Lee wants to retain his people he would have no choice but to put up barriers and stop anyone leaving as they do in Cuba or North Korea. If the present policy continues where it is reasonably easy to leave the island it wont' be long before the flood of emigration abroad increases even further which requires the need to bring in even more illiterate migrants from Communist China. It is not looking good for Singapore. It is only a matter of time before quality of Singaporeans degrades and degrades even further.

If Lee Kuan Yew is actually thinking he would be wise to set up barriers against foreign travel. But of course if he does that, it would only increase the numbers leaving.  

Gopalan Nair
Fremont California
Tel: 510 657 6107 or 510 491 4375