Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore island feels the heat. Clamps down on Internet

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Finally the moment has arrived, not that anybody had ever thought it will not happen. Lee Kuan Yew's one party police state island has finally realized that the Internet has now become an imminent threat to their dictatorial rule over their helpless subjects. Realizing that if they did nothing, it is going to be their end sooner than later, they have decided to silence the Internet. See state controlled newspaper the Straits Times report "MDA rolls out licensing scheme for news websites" May 28, 2013. (MDA is a government ministry which controls media communication. It stands for Media Development Agency, clearly a deliberate false label, because it does not develop it, it stifles it)

http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/new-licensing-scheme-news-websites-reach-50000-people-month-20130528

In spite of the government's hopeless attempt to deny the stifling of free speech (not that Singapore had any in the first place), for the first time blogs who report on Singapore have to be licensed and may be shut down or required to take down blogs which they do not like.

It says
"From June 1, websites that regularly report Singapore news and have significant reach will require individual licenses to operate".

Whether your blog requires licensing depends on how many hits your blog receives, decided as at least 50 for 2 months, and also if the contents are primarily about Singapore.

Furthermore now blogs would have to
“Under the new framework, these sites must also put up a performance bond of $50,000, similar to that required for niche TV broadcasters".

The idea of this bond requirement is that if you get notice from Big Brother that your blog should be taken down and you don't, the Lee family will sue you in their Kangaroo courts and if you don't pay, they will take it out of your $50,000.00 bond.

And the rules for them to accuse you of breaking the rules are very broad. They simply have carte blanche. They merely have to show that”This material could cover content that is against the public interest, public security, or national harmony".

As to what they mean by "against public interest" of "public security" or "national harmony" is not anywhere defined. In the end, what they mean is what they say it means. What they are literally telling you is either shut up or we will close your blog and take your money through their Kangaroo courts.

After all this, what, with Kangaroo courts, no freedom of speech, expression or assembly, no fee trade unions, and now this, only a very dull and desperate person would want to live in an island such as Singapore.

By this law they are trying to effectively shut up the only avenue left for criticism, which was the Internet. Not that Singaporeans had any right of criticism in the past. Today the only criticism you see is the anonymous kind on the Internet because Singaporeans are afraid to put their names to what they write fearing Lee's Kangaroo courts. But at least they could do it anonymously. After this new law, even that is prohibited, because they can trace the authors of even anonymous blogs and come after you if they took offense.

It is not Singaporeans who will suffer from this but the brainless Lee Kuan Yew government. Already anyone capable of leaving Singapore for settlement in the West has already done so or is actively pursuing that plan. Now with this new law silencing even anonymous writers on the Internet and squashing even Internet criticism, they are literally ringing their own death knell. From now on, even more Singaporeans are going to leave the island, fewer babies will be born and those remaining in Singapore will be of the worst quality of human species imaginable; ignorant, spiritless and cowardly.

The Singapore junta is shooting themselves in the foot.

And by an uncanny coincidence, this blog "Singapore Dissident" is going to even more widely read, since, except for blogs from overseas, nowhere will you see any blog calling their courts Kangaroo. You know that these courts are corrupt as well as I, but no one within that island would ever dare say it. So if you want to hear someone calling a rat by that very name, you have to turn to Gopalan Nair and his Singapore Dissident.

The only reason why I can continue to say it is because to sue me they would have to contend with an American court. And there are no Kangaroo courts in the US unlike Singapore Island.

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

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

LKY, his idiot son and their cadre of cowards have come up with a solution to 'push water uphill'.

Morons! Lets see how attempt at controlling the Internet works out.

Anonymous said...

The truth is hidden in plain sight..... Yahoo sg news is the only online site in my opinion that has furtherst outreach of open resentment and criticism of the government by Singaporeans...... The other 9 online news sites are state-controlled and used as patsies to cover-up and shut down independent liberal-thinking media freedom of Yahoo sg news........ Deeply appreciate if Gopalan Nair could weigh in on this matter and help out Yahoo sg news to left status quo as of now.... Thanks...

Anonymous said...

Will they try to take you down as well using their new ridiculous media law, Mr Nair. I really enjoy reading your sharp criticism against PAP.

Anonymous said...

Will those idiots try to block you out using proxy tactics? You will be miss if that happens since I live in Singapore.

Anonymous said...

Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945

This are the Goebbels of Singapore. They look like they could all fit in easily in the PRCs version of the MDA.

Ms Koh Lin-Net
Chief Executive Officer
Mr Kenneth Tan
Ms Valerie Cheng
Mr Yeo Chun Cheng
Ms Amy Chua
Mr Lim Chin Siang
Ms Ho Hwei Ling
Mr Joachim Ng
Mr Tow Joon Lai
Ms Joyce Tong
Ms Toh Kai Ling
Ms Lai Lei Khim
Ms Ling Pek Ling
Mr Yap Shao Peng
Mr Thomas Lim
Mr Trevor Sim

http://www.mda.gov.sg/AboutUs/Pages/SeniorManagement.aspx

Anonymous said...

Prof. Tey did write about kangaroo courts in Singapore, albeit in a more scientific and soft-worded manner, so they couldn't sue him for stating obvious facts and of course they do not want to interfere too much with academic freedom, with scepticism of Yale and all. Hence they brought up some other stuff to remove him, as they always do. Tey removed, Cherian George removed, now new regulations for the internet - it seems Singapore is becoming more authoritarian by the day. Even very mild criticism is no longer wanted in the island. I wonder if this will work out for the Lees.

Anonymous said...

GN,
High time you set up a twitter feed. Imgaine if you ended up with a one million followers from Singapore.

Anonymous said...

Dear Mr Gopalan

The more they clamp down on local blogs, the more valuable your blog becomes. Delicious irony if Singaporeans come to rally here, thanks to the govt. Cheers!

Anonymous said...

There is no way they can clamp down on external sites, though they may be able to block using censoring techniques, but there are so many ways around that by way of VPNs, its a joke