Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore suffers from the consequences of a repressive government

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Tiny Singapore
Island’s state controlled newspapers cannot hide the fact that its native born population continues on its unstoppable downward slide for lack of sufficient childbirth.
It suffers from a mounting large emigration rate to the West, mainly of its educated professionals and the numbers of old age people continue to grow. And no matter how generous the incentives, Singaporeans simply refuse to reverse the trend. 

This pattern of life is ordinarily alien to Asian culture. In the past, Asian families traditionally always hoped for large families with many children looking after the parents in old age and the idea of a network of brothers and sisters and relatives all supporting and caring for each other in times of need.  

Any traditional photo of a Chinese family gathering at New Year will show this, a huge family picture replete with many children, uncles aunties, grandparents and great grandparents all lined up in rows happily smiling. In Singapore in the 1950s and 1960s, the problem was not too few children but too many. That is how traditional Asian families were.

The underlying reason for Singaporeans today not to have children, in fact the lowest birth rate in the world, and to emigrate abroad in droves, is mainly due to the lack of respect Singaporeans have for this government, due to it discrediting itself by its clearly repressive, unjust, unlawful, arbitrary policies and its abuse of the legal system.

JB Jeyaretnam was an opposition politician who stood up to this government. In order to discredit him and destroy his political career, Lee Kuan Yew government embarked on a campaign of repeated defamation lawsuits, none of which had any merit whatsoever. These were not lawsuits, they were political hatchet jobs. He was also sent to prison, although totally innocent of any crime.

Chee Soon Juan is another opposition politician. He too has suffered repeated defamation lawsuits and made to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars and bankrupted. He too was sent to jail for having committed no wrong.

I wrote a letter to the Attorney General in the 1980s when I was in Singapore, asking for an explanation about the late JB Jeyaretnam. Just for that I was suspended from practicing law in Singapore for 2 years. More recently I wrote a blog post in this blog, while in Singapore exposing the dishonesty of Singapore Judge Belinda Ang Saw Ean in the Chee Soon Juan case. For that I was sent to jail in Singapore for 3 months.

Despite the Singapore government’s vigorous attempts to portray JB Jeyaretnam, Chee Soon Juan and I as thugs and serial criminals, not a single Singaporean has accepted such nonsense. In fact the end result of these actions are to clearly impress upon Singaporeans that the Lee Kuan Yew government, now run by his son, is a corrupt arbitrary lawless government , the legal system is corrupt and the judges willingly and eagerly abuse the law to destroy Lee's political opponents.

Singaporeans also realize that had JB Jeyaretnam now been alive in Singapore, or in the case of Chee Soon Juan or had I now been living in Singapore, every single right or benefit given to any Singaporean would always be denied us, applications to government offices would be denied to us, jobs would be denied to us and any law suits and law cases brought by any of us would be forthwith dismissed, we would be harshly dealt with, and all this just because we are who we are.

The life’s lesson learnt from all this by Singaporeans is the importance of making sure that whatever you do make sure the Lee Kuan Yew government is not displeased. Which means, do not openly oppose the system, do not openly challenge the Lee Kuan Yew family, keep your personal feelings to yourself, and outwardly either join the bandwagon or if you rather, just keep your mouth shut.

As seen from the recent elections, it is perfectly all right to make speeches about the high cost of living, the high rates of immigration or the lack of housing. But it is not permissible to call Lee Kuan Yew a thief for paying himself $3.7 million a year for doing nothing although he is one, it is not permissible to ask the Malays to demonstrate to stop the racial discrimination against them (although they are indeed discriminated) and although it is a fundamental right, it is not permitted to protest in front of Lee Kuan Yew’s son’s palace. You would be forthwith sent to jail and henceforth be treated like  how JB Jeyaretnam, Chee Soon Juan or Gopalan Nair was treated.

Of course you know what this does to human beings. It makes you a chameleon. It dampens your spirit. You live in fear of the government. You don't want to be a JB Jeyaretnam, a Chee Soon Juan or a Gopalan Nair. You realize that a quiet life is better than being a hero. Singapore has no heroes. In Singapore only Lee Kuan Yew and his son are heroes and those supporting him are the minders of heroes, something like a second rate heroes.

Which explains why Singaporeans have been judged by an international survey to be the most miserable people on earth, the most emotionless people of earth. A people who lack spontaneity. A people who would have to pause a few seconds even to answer a simple question, lest it be politically incorrect.  

While this miserable condition exists in the island, the quality of its people continues to decline. First, people capable of leaving such as the educated and skilled leave the island. Most have already left. At the same time, the population of native born Singaporeans shrinks due to abysmally low birth rates, the lowest in the world.

To replace them, the government brings in uneducated coolies from China who have no idea what Singapore really is. If anybody decides to settle in the island, it is these ignorant Chinese masses that procreate and have equally dumb children. As for the few educated professionals who come to stay from the neighboring impoverished countries, as soon as they discover what Singapore really is, an island where you have to adjust your thinking to suit the Lee Kuan Yew government, they too will pack up and leave. In the end, if anybody does decide to stay, it is either the ignorant that have no idea how life should be lived or Lee Kuan Yew family’s minions, paid millions to sing the prevailing tune.

This is the problem that Singapore faces with Lee Kuan Yew's government. It is a problem which cannot be solved because the universal fear of the Lee family across the island , the absolute need either to support the government or in the alternative to keep a low profile, and the necessary thought process to do this, is already so entrenched, that it is too late to reverse it. People in Singapore simply are incapable of having independent minds. It is an island where, out of necessity, it may be necessary to call a frog a prince or a prince a frog.

In a society such as this, where no one has the guts to stand up for anything to be counted, you end up with an enfeebled people; a people weak in mind body and spirit. A people who are incapable of being passionate about anything, a people who lack spontaneity, a people without strong views about anything and who have to go about their lives adjusting their minds to stay on the right side of the fence to live another day in peace in Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore.

Such a people never achieved any greatness. They never have and they never will. You simply cannot make a lion out of a goat. Singaporeans will simply continue to be no more than how and what Lee Kuan Yew makes of them, a submissive subjugated people ever willing to please.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont, California
, USATel: 510 491 4375