Yugoslavia did not last beyond Marshal Tito. Will Singapore Island last beyond Lee Kuan Yew

Ladies and Gentlemen,

You know what happened to Yugoslavia. The country had diverse races, diverse religions and diverse ethnicities, all pulling at each other ready to explode, except for one man, its leader Marshal Tito who somehow managed to keep it together under an iron fist and totalitarian rule. The moment he died, it fell apart.

Do you see the same similarities with Singapore? Old dictator Lee Kuan Yew is 91 years old, probably comatose lying in bed, ready to die any minute. Everyone else in government is nothing more than his minions, capable only of carrying out orders and no one who can think and act independently. If there was anyone with even a modicum of independent thinking and leadership, they have all either packed up and left the island for fear of arrest and bankruptcy. Those who had remained are all silenced through threats of bankruptcy in his Kangaroo courts.

What else? You have a local population who have been overwhelmed by foreigners, and consumed in xenophobic fear anger and hatred ready to slit the throat of the first foreigner they see except for the fear of the consequences of such an action.

You have the Tamils and the Malays in Singapore who have been sidelined and discriminated by the ethnic Chinese government of Lee Kuan Yew, they too boiling with indignation and hate ready to do the same to any Chinese looking person they see except for the restraint of punishment if they did.

And then you have the overwhelming numbers of Singaporeans emigrating to the West, you have the almost non existent birth rate with almost no babies being born and the huge section of population in their eighties dying of old age and depleting the population even further.

I have no doubt whatsoever that if Singapore is lasting today underneath the glittering outward visage of its multi storey skyscrapers, one thing is certain; its continued existence is greatly in doubt.

Just as Yugoslavia post Tito, Singapore post Lee Kuan Yew has no possibility of remaining intact. The Malays and Indians would withdraw cooperation with the Chinese; Lee's son, the Prime Minister appointed by his father, would simply leave once he knows he has become irrelevant; the opposition would clamor for power among themselves; foreign companies with their assets and their employees would simply leave and Singapore would be where it was 50 years ago, nothing but a backwater.

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