Ladies and Gentlemen,
After Singapore blogger Roy Ngerng recently accused the Prime Minister of misappropriating state run retirement fund, CPF, clearly with sufficient justification as shown by mismatched interest rates and the total lack of transparency on where the missing money went, he was naturally sued for defamation for which Prime Minister has achieved international notoriety.
Not satisfied with having sued him despite an apology, he has gone on to fire the poor Ngerng from his job in a state run public hospital. Please see the report of the state controlled newspaper Straits Times of June 10, 2014. http://www.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/more-singapore-stories/story/tan-tock-seng-hospital-terminates-blogger-roy-ngerngs-em
Although the hospital naturally says that he was fired for incompetence, we all know what the actual reason is, punishment for daring to criticize the Almighty Prime Minister as is seen from Singapore's shameful past with other political victims.
JB Jeyartnam was disbarred, Chee Soon Juan was fired from his professor position, and John Tan, the Vice Chairman of the Singapore Democratic Party was dismissed from his professorship at Cook University, Singapore, to name a few.
It always works like clockwork. First there is defamation action. Then the humongous damages. Then bankruptcy when you cannot pay. Then making you jobless. This is the shame of the Prime Minister's one party state.
Mr. Prime Minister of Singapore in doing so has not only disgraced himself but has also disgraced his country.
If you were not aware of the dirty business of the Singapore rulers, their principle tool to silence dissent, is the use of defamation lawsuits which, by the way, they always win, thanks to their Kangaroo court judges who double as PAP politicians.
Once Singapore rulers have set eyes on a victim to be destroyed, it is a forgone conclusion, not only of their victory but also the damages, usually several hundreds of thousands intended not so mush to enrich the plaintiffs, since they are already multi millionaires, but principally to destroy the victim and the consequent chilling signal to everyone else not to mess or else.
They are once again killing the chicken to frighten the monkeys.
I am sure the bookies are not going to take any bets on the outcome of the Prime Ministers lawsuit. If there is any betting, it can only be on the quantum; whether it is $200,000.00 or $300,000.00.
I am not sure what the Prime Minister thinks he gains by all this, but surely anyone with a head can see the damage he is doing to himself and the reputation of Singapore by his actions.
To sue a private citizen for criticizing him on a matter of pubic interest and controversy, the state run retirement funds is telling the world that there is no right to free speech whatsoever in an absolute dictatorship.
It shows him as a disgraceful and cowardly dictator and Singapore as nothing more than a banana republic with a Chinese feudal emperor.
If the Prime Minister's plan was to silence dissent through fear and terrorizing his people, if he has any brains, he should by now know that it simply is not working.
The people are being emboldened, despite the terror tactics of the Prime Minister.
Only a few days ago, there was not only a huge crowd of Singaporeans at a protest at Hong Lim Park, the only location allowed for protests, they were also holding up signs and placards in open defiance, directly attacking him and his government, such actions unheard of in the fear ridden island's past.
In fact we should thank this totally clueless Prime Minister for his actions.
Thanks to him, we can expect even more Singaporeans to oppose him, even more Singaporeans to add the flood of emigration to the West, even more citizens to bad mouth the government and their one party dictatorial rule and most importantly add to the increasing numbers of protests against their high handed authoritarian rule.
In this way, the ruling PAP party would soon find the island simply ungovernable and high time to say adios to the Prime Minister and his dynasty.
We are all indebted to blogger Roy Ngerng not only for standing up and facing the punishments thrown at him but for fearlessly daring to speak at the very protest held in his support even though he knows that it will only enrage the infallible Prime Minister even more to order his Kangaroo judges to add a few more zeros to the quantum of defamation damages.
The Singapore Prime Minister is not only a bully. He is also dumb.
And by the way, he is also a coward. He won't sue me because he has no confidence of winning in any court outside Singapore. He only does when he is sure to win. I live in Fremont California and not in Singapore. I am not an easy target.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont, California USA
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
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From Alice in Wonderland
“Sentence first, verdict afterwards”
'Let the jury consider their verdict,' the King said, for about the twentieth time that day.
'No, no!' said the Queen. 'Sentence first - verdict afterwards.'
'Stuff and nonsense!' said Alice loudly. 'The idea of having the sentence first!'
'Hold your tongue!' said the Queen, turning purple.
'I won't!' said Alice.
'Off with her head!' the Queen shouted at the top of her voice.
“Sentence first, verdict afterwards”
Isn't it great that Lee Kuan Yew is still alive,
... so that he can see his son being humiliated by bloggers and other like minded Singaporeans.
Long live LKY.
TTSH CEO: Professor Philip Choo
You can write to him here telling him what a coward he is.
philip_choo@ttsh.com.sg
His phone number if you wish to call him in person
6357 7850
Blog such as this is not necessary a bad thing for the SG govt. If I was them, I would use the feedback and ideas shared here to make sound changes. But when ego gets in the ways, things go south. A government is only as good as its people. If SG did well all these years, its because the people made it happen. The current population is more exposed to how CPF money is used and invested by other governments and how lucrative the returns are and you don't need to be a president scholar to figure out how to best invest the money and get good returns. The SG govt should be humble enough to listen to its people and find a middle ground. In this time and age, change management rules not ego. If the govt is running SG like a big MNC, it better have a credible HR policy. If they don't care and don't want to do anything, business continuity will be affected. Human Capital Strategy should be a top priority, happy employees are effective contributors. To make them happy, you need to invest in them, not the other way around. Get rid of president scholars who have been promoted every six months to get top jobs.
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