Singapore. The most miserable people in the world, says Gallup poll

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The internationally respected Gallup Poll has just released a report on happiness in the world.

Not surprisingly, if you know the island like I do, Singapore has earned the dubious distinction of having the most unhappy people in the world, even less happy than war torn Iraqi, poverty stricken camel grazing terrorist infested desert Yemeni or vessel hijacking Somali where there is simply nothing.

See report http://sg.news.yahoo.com/singapore-%E2%80%98least-positive%E2%80%99-country-in-the-world--survey-072026104.html

Not only that, in fact just a few weeks ago, the same Gallup poll had given Lee Kuan Yew’s Singapore the other dubious distinction of being the most "emotionless" people in the world.

Gallup poll report is read worldwide, highly damaging for the image of Singapore, which its authoritarian government touts as an island of paradise whose image has been brought down by another two notches.

What is Singapore anyway? It is simply a tiny overcrowded place with over 5 million people packed like sardines one above the other in high rise apartments because they have no space left.

With overcrowded trains buses and roads clogged up with traffic and chocking with pollution, you can hardly move, let alone breathe.

It is an island where you live in fear. Fear of the government which will arrest and sue you if you criticize. Fear of government secret security watching you round the clock. Fear of a judicial system which is corrupt and makes judgments favoring the government. Fear of losing one's job anytime and become indigent, as there is no minimum wage, no job security and no social welfare or unemployment insurance. Fear of getting sick because there is no state medical help unless you have money. Fear of racial discrimination because there are no laws against it. Fear of voting or speaking against the government for fear of reprisals. Fear of not being told the truth as all newspapers and media are state controlled like in the former Soviet Union. Fear of speaking loudly for fear that government goons may overhear.

In Singapore you live every minute not knowing whether the next minute you would be destitute.

In such circumstances, how could people be happy? For happiness you need a sense of security, a sense of justice, a sense that tomorrow you will still have your job and not be thrown out unjustly and left to starve.

To be happy you need to have hope, and that is the one fundamental which is lacking.  Unless you are a government crony, and even that is not entirely secure, you simply don't have hope, no hope of advancing, no hope of a bright future, none at all. You are lucky to keep your present position without regressing two steps back.  

These difficulties faced by Singaporeans are loudly manifested in, if you know the island like I do, Singapore’s insurmountable problems. It is well known that the people have the lowest birth rate in the world, not even enough to replace those dying. The population size is only being maintained by continuous importation of foreign labor mainly from China in the thousands. A friend of mine with whom I spoke over the phone yesterday said after his recent visit, that he found ever single person working in Singapore Recreation Club a Chinese foreign migrant worker. There were no Singaporeans.

As the hopelessness continues, birth rate will continue to fall, even more foreigners would be imported and the island would simply change forever, leaving only the Lee family and cronies and a foreign migrant workforce.

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