Singapore uses increasingly repressive measures to silence growing dissent

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Poor Singapore Lee Kuan Yew's son, the Prime Minister. He is now feeling the heat.

Today, ever increasing numbers of Singaporeans, both young and old are agitating for greater freedom. The reasons are obvious.

Singapore today has an ancient Chinese feudal system of government, where people are supposed to go around simply obeying Lee Kuan Yew government dictates, through proxy his son, the Prime Minister.

While the Singaporean society is far advanced with universal Internet access, highly educated and  well traveled people, a large section of whom have not only visited the West but have studied and lived there.

It is simply ludicrous to ask such a sophisticated society as this to live like ignorant peasants, simply obeying Lee Kuan Yew's son; but that is exactly what he, Singapore's de facto dictator wants them to do.

And he has made it very clear that although such a proposition is ridiculous, which I am sure he himself knows, which by the way the Singaporean people have so far complied with strangely enough, he intends to punish harshly anyone who dares to criticize him.

On May 6, 2014 5 teenagers had climbed over a rooftop wall of the HDB (government housing) flat in Toa Payoh and wrote the following graffiti: "Fuck the PAP" "Wake up SG" "Singapore government can't give us freedom". Please see the article "Vandalism incident signals mounting public dissatisfaction in Singapore " Asian Correspondent http://asiancorrespondent.com/122472/vandalism-incident-signals-mounting-public-dissatisfaction-in-singapore/

The state controlled newspapers in the island have widely carried this story and have repeatedly labeled them criminals and vandals and have threatened to jail and cane them on their buttocks, a brutal barbaric punishment usually reserved for violent criminals.

The other recent case is against a Singapore blogger Roy Ngerng who said in his blog Hearth Truths on May 15, 2014 that Lee Kuan Yew's son, the Prime Minister has not been very straight in his handling of public funds. See the article "Singapore PM demands apology from blogger" which appears in the Singapore paper Sin Chew Jit Poh on May 19, 2014. See http://www.mysinchew.com/node/98367?tid=37

It has transpired that the blogger has since apologized but the Prime Minister is not satisfied. The multi millionaire Prime Minister wants the blogger to pay his legal costs as well as paying damages, which has normally in cases such as this, in Singapore's Alice in Wonderland history,  amounted to several hundreds of thousands of American dollars. The intent of course is not to receive the money. It is to bankrupt and destroy him, and in the process send a signal to every other Singaporean not to mess with the Almighty Lee Kuan Yew's son.

Like Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Mubarak and Gaddafi, Lee Kuan Yew's son expects to rule Singapore, as his father had done before him through instilling fear in the minds of his people.

This 33 year old blogger's picture has been widely published in all the state controlled newspapers with threats from the Prime Minister's lawyer that he intends to proceed with legal action if he does not comply with all of the Prime Minister's demands. And we known from the past disgraceful history of Singapore as to what happens to anyone who stands up to the Lee family. They stand no chance at all. They will be vilified, defamed, charged, convicted, sentenced, caned and bankrupted, not necessarily all of them or in that order either.

You can see that poor Lee Kuan Yew's son is now in a hole. And the hole is getting deeper.

And he simply doesn't know how to get of it. Singapore as created by his father under whose permission he rules is in effect an Imperial Chinese dynasty. The emperor today is Lee Kuan Yew's son who rules with the help of his chosen lieutenants, his million dollar ministers who run around for him. The people unlike in a democracy, have no say in the system. Their job is to simply obey and shut up.

General elections mean nothing. Lee's chosen Ministers will rule. The Constitution has been sidelined. The rule of law is non existent. Everything and everybody must be made subservient to the master emperor Lee Kuan Yew's son.

The problem is, it is becoming increasing difficult to shut up and obey, provided you have a head on your shoulders, when there is so much misuse of power, abuse of government and unpopular policies. There are many but I can list a few. There is no free press. No right to free speech expression of assembly. No rule of law. Unrestricted immigration results in there being more foreigners than locals. Jobs go to foreigners while Singaporeans are unemployed. National service obligation for Singaporeans while foreigners are exempt. Ministers are paid millions while 30% of locals live below the poverty line. Local Malays are discriminated and prevented from becoming pilots because they may bomb Lee Kuan Yew's house. And so on and so forth.

Singaporeans are clearly feeling outraged but have nowhere to express their dissent. If they do criticize they are arrested. Despite all these misguided government policies and laws, incredulously, Lee Kuan Yew, his son and the PAP demands the people accept it without complaint!

The graffiti artists who wrote "Fuck you PAP" are part of a growing number of people in Singapore who say they are prepared to stand up to the Lee family despite the harsh punishments and great danger they face because that is the only honorable thing to do.

History has repeatedly shown that dictators such as Lee Kuan Yew's son faced with growing dissent among his people have no choice but to use harsh repressive measures to cow the people to submit. And we have seen where this inevitably ends up; their overthrow. Hosni Mubarak faced with mass protests in Egypt began shooting at his people; he was overthrown. Qaddafi of Syria faced with mass dissent also shot the demonstrators; he was overthrown. Assad did the same; he is hanging on to dear life and faces trial at the International Criminal Court.

In Singapore, it's dictator, Lee Kuan Yew's son is doing the same. He has threatened to jail and cane the teens who wrote "Fuck you PAP". He wants to sue and bankrupt 33 year old Roy Ngerng for accusing him of embezzlement.

Either way Lee Kuan Yew's son is doomed. If he punishes the slogan writers and the blogger harshly, he only antagonizes even more Singaporeans who will undoubtedly  retaliate with even more slogans and blog posts. After all writing a political slogan against a dictator is an act of patriotism and heroism. Any punishment should be nominal to pay to clean off the graffiti. This is not a crime of moral turpitude. The teens had nothing to gain from it except to protect their country.

As for the blogger, he argues that his reasonable observation of the facts does indicate the Prime Minister to be not entirely honest. Here again the man is a patriot and hero for daring to speak up, into the lions mouth, as Singapore is. He should be congratulated. Not sued.

On the other hand, if Lee Kuan Yew's son ignored it and did nothing, which in fact I think he would if he can; the consequence will very probably be that even more would be emboldened in the safety of it; resulting in his overthrow.

Therefore if he crushes dissent the undoubtedly growing dissent will generate even more dissatisfaction and dissent. On the other hand, if he allows it, the pent up dissent would flare up and surface island wide. This is a case of heads I lose and tails I lose.

I expect Lee Kuan Yew's son to take the increasingly repressive course. Harsher and harsher methods can be expected of Lee Kuan Yew's son. Instead of silencing the people through fear, even more young men would stand up. The PAP government doesn't have a chance. It is history being repeated once again.

I urge as many young men and women to stand up against this tyranny like the teen graffiti artists who so proudly wrote "Fuck you PAP" and the brave blogger who pointed out to Lee Kuan Yew's son that he is an embezzler. You may be punished but you will not be alone. By your actions even more young men and women would stand up to the tyranny and history would record your brave and heroic stand.

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