Singapore Lee Kuan Yew's servile "leaders", Michael Palmer

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The title of this blog post might appear an oxymoron.

What, servile and yet leader!

No need to surprised, this is Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore that we are talking about or in other words Alice in Wonderland.

In that tiny island, there is only one leader. Yes, you guessed it, 91 year old Lee Kuan Yew himself who according to the law of nature, should not have very long more to live.

As for all the other so called leaders, which is his cabinet, his members of parliament and even it's speaker are all nothing more than hand picked minions, with no mind or spine of their own, their only ability being to follow the leader, such as is the case of this pathetic subject of this blog post.

During the past few days, Lee Kuan Yew's state controlled newspapers have all been carrying the island's sensational sex news.

Michael Palmer, mixed blood offspring of an Eurasian father and a local Singapore Chinese mother had joined Lee Kuan Yew's political party, contested elections in an stage managed political atmosphere (as all elections in the tiny island state are), where Lee's party will win at any cost, was thereafter naturally elected to Parliament and subsequently also made Speaker of Lee's Parliament.

A few days ago, it was discovered that he had an ongoing sexual relationship with a woman Laura Ong, who is another of these mindless opportunists like him, who was working for Lee's political and/or spying agency, Peoples Association Pasir Ris, whose duties include spying on its residents to alert the authorities to individuals not entirely sympathetic to the regime. 

Anyhow he was caught with his pants down, both literally and figuratively speaking in a sense, paraded before the state's TV and made to confess like a schoolboy who was caught being naughty and shamed publically by being forced to resign. 

Please see YouTube video "Michael Palmer resigns as speaker and MP" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK-eXoMpjg8

The objective of this post is to show the total incompetence of Singapore Island's so called "leaders", such as this Palmer is made out to be.

Calling him a leader is an abuse of that word.

He just like all the other so called Lee Kuan Yew's politicians are nothing more than mere opportunists completely devoid of any mind of their own.

Their hope is to make a lucrative career of being loyal to Singapore’s leadership regardless of what it stands for. This way, with Lee's patronage, Palmer just like all his other friends at Lee's Parliament would have a pretty lucrative and lifelong career at the feet of their master. Of course this romance unfortunately threw all that out the window.

The problem with Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore is that it has no leaders at all, except one, Lee himself. He understands that it is dangerous to allow anyone else to acquire leadership as this may threaten his own position. As a result he ensures that persons selected are never allowed to be leaders, since this enables their being kicked and removed anytime it is deemed necessary.

Today, after his sacking by his masters, Palmer is simply a nobody, while yesterday; he was not only Member of Parliament but also speaker of the House, a very important person indeed. Indeed, if Palmer were to walk down Toa Payoh Lorong 1 today, a street in one of Lee's housing estates, no one would give him a second look. Once Lee has finished with him, depending on his pleasure, the victim is simply history.

This pathetic forlorn Palmer in this video, looks no different than a schoolboy caught in the act and just about to be punished.

Next to him sit's lee Kuan Yew's number two, another bootlicker Teo Chee Hean, deputy prime minister, but here more like an assistant school master.

He makes a short speech as if doing it to the school assembly of schoolboys, proclaiming publicly the infractions the miscreant Palmer had committed. Palmer in turn does as he is told like the obedient schoolboy, and humbly confesses, presumably hoping this may result in a lesser punishment.

It is no exaggeration to say that in Lee Kuan Yew’s Singapore, Palmer just as all his other colleagues has no mind of his own. He is there merely to do the bidding and if caught, his duties are merely to comply and take the punishment.

It would not be incorrect to say, he, like all his other PAP colleagues under Lee Kuan Yew, has no ideas of his own about such things as political philosophy except those of Lee himself at any one time; he has no individual ideas of national policies except those of Lee Kuan Yew, and in the absence of Lee Kuan Yew, he simply wouldn’t know what to say, at any one time. All he knows is that it was very lucky for him to have been recognized and selected by Lee for high office but now, unfortunately because of his misbehavior, all that is gone. Simple as that.

From now onward, in Singaporean style, he might hope that the Lee ruling family would not be so hard on him and perhaps give him some job in some state controlled organization or even better instruct his bosses in his law firm Harry Elias not to turn him out to the street.

In any case, he has no intention of giving up licking the boots of Lee Kuan Yew and his political party for a living for the remaining years of his life, that much is certain. This is because, Michael Palmer of Singapore is simply nothing, just something to be disposed off as and when Lee Kuan Yew pleases. On his own, Michael Palmer is not a political animal.

But had Palmer been a politician in a real democracy in some other country, would matter be different? Perhaps. For one, Palmer could have said that he really loves this woman and wants to marry her and could go to the people for support.

Second, the people who look to him as their leader, as he would be elsewhere, would have held massive demonstrations against his dismissal.

Thirdly, he could have started his own party and contested the same ward.

But all this is not possible, because Palmer of Singapore is not a leader and neither is he a real politician. All he is, is nothing more than a mindless opportunist who now finds that his opportunity is lost because he had made a mistake; that he is no longer in the good books of his erstwhile generous patron, and that he has been turned out.

This incident once again raises the dire, precarious and dangerous position tiny Singapore will be in when the 91 year old Lee Kuan Yew kicks the bucket very soon. If all you have are people such as Michael Palmer, Singapore stands no chance at all.

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