Singapore schools only produce dumb followers

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The worst place to educate your children is in Singapore Island schools. It can only produce dumb feeble minded followers, not independent thinking robust men and women with ideas. The problem lies in the way of life and thought process of Singaporeans after 52 years under the Lee Kuan Yew dictatorship.

In Singapore, the path to success lies not only in ability but equally so in your loyalty to the Lee Kuan Yew government. Every schoolboy is drilled from a young age by his parents as well as in school to show support for the government. It is hammered into their minds that they should not, even if they privately thought so, ever criticize the government and the Lee Kuan Yew family in particular.

If someone in Singapore is stupid enough to openly criticize the government or accuse the Lee family of nepotism or corruption, he is doomed from that point. His deviant behavior (according to the Singapore mindset) and thinking is reported to the authorities by the large network of clandestine secret police from which point his life and career takes an immediate turn for the worse.

If a student, he would probably get bad grades or denied a scholarship. Even if he graduates, it is unlikely the government would employ him. Not just that, his entire social life also changes. His friends among whom reports were already made begin to shun him. He loses friends. His erstwhile friends remind him to say away, for their own sakes; as such dangerous association would hurt them as well. From that point any application he makes for anything is subject to additional scrutiny and denials become the norm.

With the constant barrage of warnings and advisals of the need to stay within the fence of Lee Kuan Yew and company, with the added state propaganda of how good and marvelous Lee Kuan Yew and his government is, and the clear rewards that his bootlickers enjoy with cushy jobs and lavish lifestyles, only an idiot will not join the Lee Kuan Yew Bandwagon. With all these advantages of supporting the Lee Kuan Yew government and so many punishments if you were to oppose, truly, one has to be insane not to join them. And after a time, it changes the way you think. Like the Orwellian Winston in the novel 1984, two and two becomes five, not only in pretense but in reality too. And you would say, perhaps that it was indeed Lee Kuan Yew who invented the aeroplane!

It is not possible, even if the government wanted to reverse the damage done to the minds of citizens even if you wanted to. The government cannot by decree merely order Singaporeans to think independently from now on. 

What this creates is a generation of zombies. People who are capable of only doing as they are told and nothing more. Such a country never achieved greatness and with even neighboring countries realizing the fact that their citizens are their most important asset, Singapore will fall back even further and further in the global race of competition.

The problem is that Singaporeans should not be afraid to openly say that Lee Kuan Yew's annual salary of $3.7 million is theft and corruption. They should not be afraid to say that the newspapers are state controlled propaganda. They should not be afraid to say that Singaporeans are nothing but slaves under the Lee Kuan Yew government. But unfortunately in every single instance, they are simply afraid. And this fear is what is holding the island back.

So any parent reading this, should if possible educate their child abroad in democratic countries because if you do not, you are doing the worst possible harm to their minds which becomes irreversible and remains with them for the rest of their lives.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont, California, USA
Tel: 510 491 4375
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com