Singaporeans should Protest, Demonstrate and Agitate now.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

For the last 52 years you, Singaporeans have been living under a one party dictatorship of the Lee Kuan Yew's family. They control everything even though there is a worthless piece of paper called a Constitution which as far as they are concerned does not exist.

Just look at your miserable state now.

Lee Kuan Yew and each member of his family and every minister in his government have unilaterally decided that they will pay themselves each $3.7 million a year and a lot more secretly. This is five times the salary of the President of the United States. This is also corruption of the highest level, done openly. It is your money they are stealing.

The courts are rigged and corrupt. They give judgments in favor of the government for the asking. The Singapore legal system has been discredited worldwide as a result. You, the citizen can never be sure what sort of law you will get which would depend on which side of the fence you are on. Chee Soon Juan of the opposition never got justice. JB Jeyaretnam of late, opposition, also never got justice. I, an open critic, never got justice. The government ministers who sue the opposition always get a great deal of justice. This is why I have called it the Kangaroo Courts. 

Lee Kuan Yew being ethnic Chinese discriminates against non Chinese in the island. He brings in plane loads in the thousands of Chinese from China to overwhelm the Malays and Indians in the island. As a result the Malay population has shrunk to no more than 10% or so and the Indian to 8% or so. It was not so in the earlier times when the island was a Malays city, 100% Malay. 

The cost of living is one of the highest in the world while a large segment of its people earns no more than a thousand dollars a month. There is one of the world's greatest disparities of incomes with some people driving around in posh cars, usually money launderers with illicit wealth, while the locals live below the poverty line. 

There is no minimum wage laws, no protection of local labor against recent foreign arrivals who simply take jobs away from you, no race relations laws permitting the majority Chinese to discriminate against Malays and Indians and no social security or state unemployment insurance whatsoever.  Labor rules are simply a free for all.

The foreign population is already nearly 50% of the island's overcrowded 5 million. Lee Kuan Yew's son whom he placed as Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong has threatened to bring in even more foreigners, which means more Chinese of course, to raise the population to 6.9 million. With the overcrowding of people at present, it is already unbearable and to increase it even further is simply madness. Yet there is nothing anyone can do because there is no free press and there is no way anyone can influence others.

Any criticism almost always results in threats of defamation lawsuits. Only a month ago, Yawning Bread a blog which correctly pointed out the corruption of the ruling party selling computer programs to a company owned by the ruling party for use in the island's constituency offices, was ordered to apologize and remove the article which he promptly did. Otherwise he would be sued and bankrupted by the Kangaroo Courts.

I can go on but you get the picture.

On the ground there is the Workers Party which has seven seats in parliament and two additional nominated seats. The Lee Kuan Yew team has eighty. You can see the great disparity. However there is no silver lining as far as they are concerned. They offer no hope at all. They have said it is not their intention to do anything more than merely point out the errors of the ruling government. They have no intention of doing anything more. They are simply playing second fiddle. They are afraid.

Then you have Chee Soon Juan's Singapore Democratic Party. They have no seats in parliament. Although in the past Chee was well known for holding peaceful protests and demonstrations, since 2008, he has completely given that up. It appears that his supporters don't want him to do this anymore and he has agreed. He has a blog which I must say is very good reading. The government completely ignores him and the people mostly don't read his blog. I believe he is waiting for 2016 elections. With him too, nothing will happen. The cows will come home, the chickens will roost and we will all be dead if we wait for Chee Soon Juan.

You can see with the sort of opposition we have, the situation is simply hopeless. The so called opposition is not of any help and they never will. I have in fact suggested that the few so called doctors either medical or otherwise with the Singapore Democratic Party should do better to join the Workers Party where they have a better chance to get into Parliament, although it really does not make much difference one way or the other. Since they are almost duplicating the Workers Party it may even in the interests of Singapore to simply disband and go over to the Workers Party.

As the opposition parties are not likely to do anything for you, not now or not in a hundred years, you have to take matters into your own hands now.

If you rather simply leave the island, that is of course a very good idea. Take your qualifications and your assets and leave for a democratic country where you don't have to live like slaves under a corrupt dictator who pays himself $3.7 million a year.

If you want to stay behind and do something, this is what I suggest. Form your own organizations and societies; informal groups. Keep in touch with each other through mass communication devices; cell phones, Facebook and so on. Ignore any government rule that requires registration of societies because the rules are designed to intimidate, harass and arrest you if you did. These laws are not logical and do not serve any lawful interest, except that of the Lee Ruling family. Disobey them, form your own small organizations and work towards arranging peaceful protests and demonstrations.

The mantra should be agitate, agitate, protest protest, all across the island.

Malays and Indians should form their own racial parties to further their own interests for their people. There is nothing illegal in this. The government would conveniently brand you as racists but to have an organization to further your own religion, race, culture and traditions when the government deliberately discriminates against you is not wrong. Organize peaceful protests to further Malay and Indian rights.

Local Singapore Chinese are also harmed by the importation of thousands of Chinese from China. They don't like it either. They too should organize protests and demonstrations and form their own societies and organizations to further their interests.

There are numerous causes that you have to protest about. The indiscriminate importation of Chinese people from China, the unfair labor rules which enable foreigners to take your jobs, the racial discrimination against the Malays and Indians, the denial of equal housing opportunities to Malays and Indians, and so on.

Protests should not be held just at Hong Lim Park a small nook of a corner which the government has allowed for protests. Protests should be held throughout the island. The laws restricting protests this way is illegal and should be ignored. The Constitution guarantees’ the right to protest anywhere in the island.

The two weak opposition parties are playing to the tune of the government because they are afraid. The question is whether you are patriotic enough not to be afraid of this tin pot dictatorship. I can guarantee you that in today's age, the Lee Kuan Yew is powerless to do much to you. In fact they are more afraid of you than you are of them. They are also very afraid of what I write here.

Remember, an arrest and conviction for peaceful demonstration does not amount to bad moral character for migration purposes. Every western democracy would gladly welcome a Singaporean who was convicted for exercising his human right. US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Europe welcome people who stand up for human rights.

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