Singapore's labor relations; the calm of the cemetary

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In the aftermath of the recent unprecedented bus driver strike in the island authoritarian police state run by the Lee Ruling Family who each pay themselves $3.7 million a year and even more secretly, they have come out saying in their state controlled newspapers that the strike has upset the industrial harmony in the island.

Let me tell them this. Harmony extracted through fear, intimidation, threats of arrest and deportation is not harmony. It is slavery. And if Singapore Island has calm in the workforce, it is the silence of the cemetery.

Singapore Island does not have a minimum wage law, union leaders are appointed by the state to represent not workers but employers, any attempt to strike is illegal and subject to arrest and imprisonment, there are no laws against discrimination of race religion or gender; it is simply a paradise for both local and multinational employers to extract every inch of blood from the low wage powerless workers.

Singaporeans have over the years simply accepted this because they had no choice. What else can they do when they face arrest? With no social security of any sort, no unemployment assistance the poor workers are faced with the dire choice of either accepting their terms or they and their families starve.

This is the very reason why Singaporeans, the vast majority of them have said in a recent survey that given a chance, they would emigrate to the West for the betterment of their families. In fact that is what the able and skilled are doing in increasing numbers, forcing the government to resort to increasing numbers of foreigners, which creates this sort of unexpected reaction through strikes.

Unwittingly, these Chinese bus drivers have done a bundle of good for Singapore and Singaporeans. They have brought home the message that not everyone will be pushed around by these state bullies. And the reaction by the state in arresting them has also a done a great deal of good since we once again see that the Lee Ruling Family like a horse in blinkers know only one thing and one way, which is intimidation and instilling fear. They don't seem to realize that such ruthlessness really doesn't work in this day and age and is truly counter productive.

By their behaving like thugs once again, the consequences working against this tiny island of no more than 2.5 local born citizens is magnified even more. The world has now seen at what cost labor harmony is extracted in the island. Even more Singaporeans are angered by such state bullying. Even more Singaporeans will leave the island. Even fewer babies will be born and even faster will Lee's miracle island population dwindle even further. And what should be worrying the most for these Lee Ruling Family thugs is the strong likelihood that other workers emboldened by the courage of the Chinese bus drivers may do exactly that. Then what will they do, imprison everyone?

Gopalan Nair
A Singaporean by birth in exile
Attorney at Law
Fremont, California, USA
Tel: 510 491 4375