Singapore's Lee Ruling Family's total grip on power by total control of the press

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Lee Kuan Yew Ruling Family's total grip over Singapore Island since self government in 1959 can be almost solely attributed to their disgraceful practice of totally  controlling the media and information in the island. Any newspaper wishing to publish in the island has to obtain a government permit under the Newspapers and Printing Presses Act. Naturally any paper which is not a government mouthpiece will not be allowed and the violator promptly arrested and imprisoned in Lee Kuan Yew’s jail.  

Every single newspaper, TV station, radio and every other local news organization in the island is completely controlled by the government. Every Singapore news media are allowed to report news only which is acceptable to the government. In this way, the government is enabled to put out what they want people to hear and completely shut out anything which they dislike. You could say, it has Lee Kuan Yew’s Pravda or Izvestia, like the Soviet days.

Although people can buy foreign publications in the island, since they do not normally cover the local island news, Singaporeans are left no choice but to rely only on this government vetted and approved news agencies which dish out daily government supportive news and propaganda.  

In this disgraceful way, the Lee Kuan Yew government has successfully kept their citizens away from anything that government critics or the real opposition, like Chee's party, the Singapore Democratic Party has to say. This ongoing and longstanding practice of blacking out opposition views results in the government being enabled to carry on with misguided and wrong policies, in their top down, you listen to me style of government, which is now beginning to have a disastrous consequence on the well being of the island.

For instance, you can read Chee Soon Juan's Singapore Democrat blog, which reports on a well written treatise on the mismanagement of government housing by the Lee totalitarian administration and the well reasoned solutions to this problem which effect the vast majority of Singaporeans, but yet, the state controlled media completely neglects to mention any of this, denying Chee the opportunity to make this publicly known.

See: http://yoursdp.org/

Besides this report on housing, the Singapore Democrats blog has numerous articles and reports of alternate viable solutions to Singapore’s major problems today, such as unaffordable healthcare costs, the problems consequent on uncontrolled immigration among many others. Again none of these views that will contribute hugely to the well being of Singaporeans and their island is ever allowed in print. This shameful and disgraceful policy of abusing their powers to keep out news that is not agreeable to them serves the purpose only of keeping the Lees in power; it does no good for the island of Singapore or its people.

Unfortunately today, it appears that Chee and the Singapore Democratic Party, except for  complaining about this misuse of power by the Lee family in their blog and speeches and writings, are not prepared to do more. Surely Chee should realize that this illegal refusal by the Lee Family government in deliberately and illegally shutting out contrarian views of state importance cannot be tolerated and should be resisted at any cost.

If there is one main reason why the Lee Administration is illegal, it is because of this, the control of the media. I would urge Chee and his Singapore Democratic Party to do the right thing now and publicly protest island wide against this illegal manipulation of the news media and demand that unless the people are allowed their freedom of expression without government interference, he will carry on peaceful protests island wide until his demands are met.

If there is one thing that cries out for mass demonstrations and peaceful public protest, it is this; the denial of the freedom of the press and free expression. Chee and his party must accept the responsibility that by their inaction and passively standing by, the island is slowly descending into chaos and decline.

I have referred to Chee Soon Juan and his Singapore Democratic Party only because they are the only ones who are truly standing for the principles of democracy and freedom in the island of Singapore, and for whom I have the utmost respect. The other opposition people are simply a waste of time.

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