Singapore. The results of a You-Listen-To-Me-Or-Else government. A submissive society of obedient followers.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Tiny economic miracle, or so they claim, Singapore appears to have many insurmountable problems such as the precipitously unstoppable declining birth rate, the almost total lack of marriages or childbirth and ever mounting brain drain principally to Australia. These problems, as I said are insurmountable. The government of Lee Kuan Yew and his son have principally given up on these issues and have literally buried their heads in the sand. They appear resigned to their fate.

The reasons for Singapore's difficulties can be attributed to Lee Kuan Yew himself and by extension, his son.

The problem with Lee Kuan Yew who had been running the island for the 5 decades undisturbed and unquestioned is his grandiose megalomaniac philosophy of himself. As far as he was concerned, only he knew all the answers and no one else. Which required everyone else to simply play second fiddle.

At the same time, being completely insecure and always worried that someone would unseat him, the way to prevent that ever happening was to to destroy anyone who was in his path.

Ably applying the chicken and the monkey doctrine, which is accomplished by making examples of anyone who questioned him by destroying them, bankrupting them and jailing them, this practice sent sufficient shudders down every Singaporean spine keeping him in line and obedient.

According to Chinese lore, the Emperor used to kill a chicken to frighten all the monkeys who watched, the monkeys being Chinese people and the chicken being the Emperor's victim and example.

Using the courts as his principle tool, and applying corrupt judges to do his bidding, one prime example being Belinda Ang Saw Ean, even the most moderate of criticisms was turned into a defamation of character lawsuit sending opposition leader JB Jeyaretnam to jail, bankrupting and impoverishing him, the chicken was JB Jeyaretnam and the monkeys were Singaporeans.

The same tactic was applied to every other critic worth his salt such as Chee Soon Juan, Tang Liang Hong and a long line of others.

In my case, I was sent to jail for 3 months in September 2008 when I entered Singapore and wrote a blog in Singapore Dissident about Belinda Ang Saw Ean and was disbarred from practicing law in the island.

In my case, the signal being sent was to every other lawyer in Singapore not to question authority like Gopalan Nair, he being the chicken and Singapore lawyers, the monkeys.

Lee Kuan Yew's principal and sole instrument for repression and subjugation was demonstrably the Chinese Imperial practice of chickens and monkeys to keep subjects in line. And it has worked very well for Lee Kuan Yew and his Singapore.

You can see what this does to society. These repeated defamation lawsuits, threats of litigation and arrest done repeatedly over decades literally silences and enfeebles the entire society because nobody wants to be like JB Jeyaretnam, Chee Soon Juan, Tang Liang Hong or Gopalan Nair if they can help it. 

At the same time as sending this terrible message through the entire society, he also ably uses the carrot.

Here students, willing to serve Lee Kuan Yew's one party police state government, are given state scholarships to study abroad after which they sign contracts to serve him and his government for a period of years.

I must add, these students are fully aware what the state apparatus is, a one party state which denies the freedom of speech expression or a free press, where the rule of law is abused for political ends, where one lives literally at the mercy of the Lee family. It should take a particularly unprincipled rascal to accept a scholarship like that, but that is what they are.

It is like Adolf Hitler dishing out scholarships to young Germans who then serve the Nazi Government under Hitler. Perhaps the comparison is rather exaggerated but in principle it is correct. In Nazi Germany, Hitler's employees sent Jews to the gas chamber. In Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew's employees like Belinda Ang Saw Ean bankrupts and jails innocent people whose only crime was to disagree with Lee Kuan Yew's government.

The income that are paid to these scholars who lick his ass and accept these scholarships are very generous indeed. If they were lucky enough, or unlucky, depending on your point of view, to be selected as Ministers, their salaries are astronomical, literally millions.

So these scholars, characterless and unscrupulous opportunists, accept these scholarships for the money it pays, never mind what they have to do for it.

The effect of this dog training on Singaporeans, the Chicken and the monkey behavior training or the carrot for obedience and the stick for disobedience, meant that an entire society of Singaporeans literally either gave up ever thinking anything about politics or they became obsessed with doing well in exams and being selected for a scholarship for the money.

As a result of this, the average Singaporean became a greedy opportunist completely devoid of altruism, principles or the ability to think independently. Their main purpose in life was the need to pass their exams and hope that Lee Kuan Yew or his son were watching so that they can graduate to become Minsters and bingo, they have struck gold.

As a result the average Singaporean is unlike in other democratic societies, less concerned in excelling in any particular field of science or art but more concerned with being recognized and appreciated by the Lee Kuan Yew top brass. No single student ever dreams of going into a science or art hoping to excel in it and achieving success. Everyone of them is thinking only of passing exams, joining Lee's political party and getting recognized. The more you are recognized, the more your success.

As a result there are no brilliant lawyers in Singapore because brilliance does not get you anywhere, connections does. Neither are there great scientists. But there are millionaire scientists who are connected to the Lee Kuan Yew political party.

In every walk of life, not only in government but also in private business, just as it was in china today or the Soviet Union of the past, you cannot hope to succeed unless you happened to be on the right side of the fence. No Singapore businessman, worker, civil servant or anyone would dare openly to challenge Lee Kuan Yew or his son's authority.

Even assuming arguendo, that I was allowed to return to Singapore to practice law. No matter how hard I struggled and no matter how much I know, it won't do me any good. I won't get any cases and even if I did, judge Belinda Ang Saw Ean and company would make sure that I lose them all. I would be judged not by my legal acumen but by who I am.

And this is not how one lives in Australia, the United States or elsewhere. My success depends on who I am and how good I am, not whom I know or which political party I support or how obedient I am to Barak Obama. Through assiduous and persistent hard work and attention, I can hope to reach the skies, something that I can never aspire in Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore.

It is this assurance and hope that makes countries such as Australia, Canada and the United States so much more attractive to live than a place like Singapore.

You can imagine why this sort of life would be unacceptable to anyone with an independent head. Success has a price in Singapore, and that is obedience to Lee Kuan Yew, his son and their party.

Just as myself who has no need to play second fiddle to Lee Kuan Yew because he could very easily succeed elsewhere, thousands of others are, as we speak running away to Australia Canada and beyond.

And the other thing that works against the Lee regime is education. If he could, he would have far preferred to keep his citizens ignorant and uneducated as education works directly opposite to totalitarian governments.

No matter what your education may be, education inherently creates curiosity and curiosity leads to greater awareness of rights, and greater awareness of rights leads to dissatisfaction and dissatisfaction leads to instability and instability leads to revolution and revolution leads to the overthrow of tyrants. This is a fact of life, which our Lee kuan Yew must be aware.

The huge mounting and on-going brain drain to the West would not have happened without greater education, and so are all the other problems to which Lee and son have no answers.

Even without anyone doing anything, the situation in the island, now in default mode, the forces are simply destroying the island.

Today it is by all accounts accurate to say that there are more foreigners in the island than locals. And the foreigners are bringing with them behaviors that Singapore finds unable to handle.

Only a few weeks ago, Indian migrant workers rioted, as they are accustomed to do in India when they felt disadvantaged, leaving the island police with no clue what to do, as this has never happened before, in a submissive complaint obedient Singapore.

Earlier Chinese bus drivers went on strike, something they do in China almost on a daily basis, which was never heard of in Lee's sheep like Singapore. A few weeks ago, Chinese nationals were caught trying to pass gutter oil to street vendors as cooking oil.

And even if they wanted to, they could not stop importing foreign labor, these unwelcome behaviors are progressively going to increase with more and more foreigners and fewer and fewer Singaporeans.

And this wholesale importation of foreigners into the island makes it a permanent hotel with revolving doors. Some come for a time and then leave to be replaced by others who similarly come and go. It turns the island into a transient temporary destination for workers needing some extra cash.

Singaporeans today having seen what they did to JB Jeyaretnam and others, have lost all respect for the island's courts. The civil service has lost respect when they routinely favor government supporters and victimize those who do not openly crawl and kowtow.

It has turned into an island that has only one opinion, that of Lee Kuan Yew's and no other.

It has turned the entire people into one that looks forward to being recognized and talent spotted by the Lee government for the riches that will inevitably follow.

So what is a Singaporean? He is one that tries to pass his exams, gets a job with either the government, government linked company or private company in that order, who joins the Peoples Association or other government grass roots organization, makes sure he is a team player and is liked by his bosses, one who hopes that for his support of the ruling party, he would be promoted to higher positions, makes sure that in his entire life he continues to praise and support them, and eventually, if he is lucky, perhaps will be made a Minister and live a life of luxury and opulence.

So who is not a Singaporean? Someone who likes to think and read. Someone who has perhaps understood that Lee Kuan Yew is a bully and is bad for Singapore. Someone who openly joins an opposition party and deliberately tries to rock the boat. Someone who tried to persuade others to protest and demonstrate publicly against the ruling regime. Someone who thinks that Singapore is a dictatorship and should be replaced by a democracy. Such a man has no hope in Singapore. He simply does not fit in. But such a man would do very well in USA Australia or Canada.

The reason why Singapore is bound to fail and fail very soon is because it does not have any independent minded people. And without them, in this day and age, no country can expect to succeed.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont, California USA
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com