Singapore an intolerant fascist racist state below it's outward appearance

Ladies and Gentlemen,

If a fascist society is one where every pillar of government works to serve one leader alone and his dictates, then there is no doubt, Singapore is a classic fascist state, under it's supreme leader Lee Kuan Yew and by extension today his son, the Prime Minister.

The system of real parliamentary democracy has been dismantled long ago. The constitution has been amended to reflect the ideas of Lee Kuan Yew. There is no rule of law. The courts are politicized and function to further Lee Kuan Yew and his ruling party's interests.

There is no right to free speech, expression, or assembly. Everyone except government supporters need permits to engage in any of this. If your intention is to question authority, no permit is granted. Government supporters on the other hand are freely given permits anytime they want.

The only voice heard is that of Lee and his supporters. Any other voice has no chance whatsoever. 

Any criticism against the ruling Lee family, his government, their judicial system or their policies will result either in criminal prosecution or defamation actions which usually results in bankruptcy. The idea is to force you to accept the government line. As a result no one dares to criticize. Praising the government of course is not only welcome and rewarded which everyone who desires success does.

In order to please the powers above they join the ruling party and volunteer at their grassroots organizations as the sure path to success. The Peoples Association is one of their largest organizations. Joining it and being noticed always leads to career advancement in both government and private employment. Businessmen supporters of the government are given lucrative contracts and financial rewards.

To put it another way, Singapore is a bootlicker's paradise, the boots of Lee Kuan Yew, that is.

As a result, the average Singaporean sees no advantage in claiming an independent mind. Since supporting Lee and his ruling party brings benefits while thinking and speaking independently always results in pain, why would anyone want to openly criticize. There is simply no advantage in it.

Any student of Singaporean history is fully aware of the many who have suffered unimaginable suffering for standing up to the regime. Chia Thye Poh was in jail longer than Nelson Mandela, the late JB Jeyaretnam was repeatedly sued, bankrupted, jailed and removed from office. Several lawyers and other professionals were labeled Marxists jailed without trial and tortured. Many have gone into exile.

For having openly dared to join an opposition party and stand up to them, I was repeatedly harassed, denied a living, initially suspended from practicing law for 2 years in Singapore, then fined for contempt of court. Even after I left the island for America, in 2008 during a brief visit to the island, I was charged for insulting a judge for something I wrote in this blog, imprisoned and deported. Even after having left the island, I was disbarred from practicing law in Singapore for refusing to submit to them.

They simply, it appears, will not accept anyone who shows defiance to their authority. Their argument is, that if you are defiant, they will lose their respect and therefore lose their authority to rule. As if to say, they alone hold a license to rule from God and no one else is allowed any contrarian opinion.

On the other hand those who support them are rewarded with unimaginable riches. Every minister is paid millions; yes I mean it, millions. Singapore's minister for law, a Tamil, who would ordinarily have been no more than a mediocre backlane lawyer, lives an opulent lifestyle, thanks to his disgusting unconditional political loyalty. Another Tamil, SR Nathan who was Lee's sidekick since early days was made President and paid millions if not billions.

Not only this Tamil president, but his daughter, whom no one would have bothered to even notice is made the CEO of the Courts where she spends most of her time on the phone with her friends, when she does bother to turn up for work, or throwing lavish parties for other of Lee's cronies to wine and dine which happens more often than any work.

Of course no one would dare to criticize her. After all she is the daughter of one of Lee's staunch supporters.

You can imagine what sort of society this reward for obedience and punishment for disobedience creates. Like a dog, the average Singaporean realizes that it is good to jump whenever his master demands. No dog wants to be called a bad dog.

So you might wonder why is it that a seemingly modern educated and affluent society would rather live as Labrador Retrievers and not human beings? Why do they accept a life where they have to live no better than slaves, where they have no rights and completely at the mercy of a dictator?

One may argue that as the vast majority are ethnic Chinese and they by nature prefer to accept authority than challenge it, this explains their subservience. But this argument fails. Hong Kong is Chinese too but they have repeatedly shown that they refuse to be pushed around by the Communist Chinese mainland government under which they live. The Taiwanese too have guts.

Having been born and having lived in the island most of my life, I will tell you why. The ethnic Chinese, the majority race, originally came from the Southern port cities of China to find work. Most of them were illiterate and could not distinguish freedom from a donkey's backside. Their children who went to school had only a Lee Kuan Yew style education, which is, to pass your exams and get a job and keep your mouth shut. You have a entire society of mindless conformists where any original thinking is almost a crime.

The Malays and Indians who settled there are inherently a more freer people but since they are today such a small minority, their thinking is naturally overtaken by the particularly Singaporean Chinese culture of submission and obedience.

Remember the Singaporean Chinese is a special creation of Lee Kuan Yew and in no way equated with their fellow Hong Kong Chinese.

Racism is openly practiced and well entrenched. In both government and private sector everyone in authority has to be ethnic Chinese. If Malays and Indians are employed they serve under a glass ceiling of Chinese rule. Since they have nowhere else to go, they simply suffer in silence. There are no race relations laws to which they can turn since officially, there is no racial discrimination in Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore.

This total submission to authority, regardless whether through ignorance or fear or opportunity, may be good in one sense, as it results in peace and stability. There is no mass protests for freedom as you would see in the Arab Spring. But it is also a sterile boring and dull society where the people simply follow. They have no minds of their own. This results in stagnation, boredom and a society which has no novel ideas at all. There is no doubt, it is a society that will be slowly left behind the vibrant free democratic societies of the world, where man live as men and not Lee Kuan Yew's Labrador Retrievers.

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