Ladies and Gentlemen,
In a dictatorial island where peaceful protests are allowed at only one single spot, Speakers Corner, as soon as Lee Kuan Yew died, protests have been banned even there. Now the ban against peaceful protests is island wide. See article of Press TV dated March 23, 2015 "Singapore Bans Protests at Free Speech Park" http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/03/23/403053/Singapore-bans-protests-at-Lim-Park
One can assume the only reason for this is nervousness on the part of the government of Lee Kuan Yew's son, fearing that his father's death might unleash island wide street protests.
But even if those anticipated street protests has not yet occurred, Singaporeans who want to protest the blaring injustices against them should know that the Singapore government under Lee Kuan Yew's son has greatly weakened after his death. Although the administration was completely lackluster and at time downright incompetent under his rule for the past decade, he has managed to stay in power only because his father was alive. Now since he is gone, anyone who has the interests of Singapore at heart will no longer prop up the son who is clearly lacking any leadership and competence whatsoever.
Remember once again that the right to peaceful protest is a universal human right and neither Lee Kuan Yew nor his son has the right to deny it.
One has seen increasing dissatisfaction and human rights activism in recent times despite the knowledge that they would invariably be arrested and harshly treated. Some months ago, 3 teenage students climbed aloft a government housing apartment block (HDB block) and wrote anti graffiti slogans. Although they were sure they would be arrested, it did not stop them from publicly showing their anger.
Also about the same time there were several instances of similar anti government graffiti. In all cases the activists knew they would be arrested, punished and even caned, but this did not stop them from doing what they felt they should rightfully do.
There were numerous computer hacking incidents where government department websites were hacked including that of Lee Kuan Yew's son the Prime Minister. They have all been arrested and are now facing charges. But despite the knowledge of certain arrest and harsh punishment, the people's anger against the government's arrogance was so great that they did it anyway.
Roy Ngerng, a young blogger was sued for defamation for alleging the Prime Minister's involvement in the massive mismanagement of state retirement funds (CPF). This action by Lee's son, rather than silencing the remaining citizens, the Internet has burgeoned with anti government articles which Lee Kuan Yew's son now finds too much to suppress. In fact lately, instead of suing any of them, he has now begun to simply ignore them. He is realizing that he is no longer the terror that he was with his father around.
Once again let me remind Singaporeans that Lee Kuan Yew son, the present dictator of Singapore like his father before him is not going to willingly restore your freedoms. If you want democracy, you have to grab it because no dictator would ever hand it to you in a plate. And you will not get democracy by simply writing Internet articles either. The only way you can get your freedom is through unrelenting public island wide peaceful protests.
There are many things you should protest about. You have blatant shameless corruption by the Lee family to the extent of $3.7 million a year each for every one of their family members and much more secretly. Then you have the shameless nepotism where Lee Kuan Yew makes his son Prime Minister and his son makes every single relative of his multi millionaires through cushy jobs and kickbacks.
Then there is the denial of your freedoms; no free speech expression or assembly and being treated as slaves with no rights whatsoever. Then you have the total absence of the rule of law and Kangaroo Courts.
And then you have the Malays and Indians being denied their equal rights, being denied housing, jobs and denied access to justice. Malays and Indians too should protest against this government for their rights.
I don't think Lee Kuan Yew's son can continue behaving in his dictatorial manner over his citizens as he did for the 10 years he was in control. In the past he managed this because his father was still alive. Now since his father is dead, and realizing that he doesn't instill confidence in anyone, not even among his political colleagues, the time has come to test his mettle.
I think it is most unlikely that he will have the courage to arrest any peaceful protester now since his father has gone because he knows that the law makes the denial of the right to peaceful protest unconstitutional and illegal. If he had run roughshod of the law in the past, he knows he can no longer do it now.
A weakened Lee's son who no longer has the support of even his own party members without his father, is in no position to intimidate anyone. And he knows that too.
Singaporeans should therefore take to the streets now in peaceful protests and reclaim their rights under the Constitution. If you do, you would be kicking this pansy son of Lee Kuan Yew full clear of his palace.
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
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
9 comments:
I think the beginning of the end has started with Amos Yee's provocative video. The reaction to it is absolutely surreal. It seems like something has been brewing for a while, the pressure has to get out somehow and this has now hit this young man. The reaction shows that pro-PAP people are not sure at all about their faith, because if they would be sure about it, they wouldn't have to react in this way to a seventeen year old.
The original link to Amos Yee's video has been taken down. Someone else uploaded a copy at the following link (which may in turn be taken down).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEbu7dbj-Yo
Watch this
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/police-report-lodged-over-amos-yee-anti-lee-kuan-yew-video-063152918.html
About Amos Lee, I've seen death threats from my own family (sans myself and my father, we hate The Dictator with every last fiber) pointed to the kid simply because 'LKY was good'.
The brainwashing has never been so apparent to myself until now. And I'm regretting not making a run for it.
Unfortunately the video has already been removed, so I cannot comment on its content. I am an Australian citizen/singapore PR and am pretty shocked at the "mob" mentality against this boy and his parents in particular. The Yahoo article on Facebook on which comments appear ask for him to be deported, flogged, jailed for life. I am so happy to no longer be living in SG and being able to speak freely in Australia. The only reason for my anonymous is the barrage of abuse which I have witnessed people being subjected to when speaking out and expressing their own opinion. yru R lyrics was a society to live in. We'll done on this article.
@ Daniel Kevlar: Try to make them see their mistakes by leading them carefully on the way. Whoever saves one life, saves the world.
@ Anonymous from Australia: I'm really interested. How can expats live in Singapore and ignore all of this? Is the money really that great in comparison? What is your experience, do they really consciously shut up and collect the money? Did you feel guilty supporting the regime?
To the Anonymous who said:
"@ Daniel Kevlar: Try to make them see their mistakes by leading them carefully on the way. Whoever saves one life, saves the world. ..."
I've tried though the rest of them are in total denial. Hell, the expat half of my family is still worshipping The Dictator and sending Amos death threats.
@ Daniel Kevlar: For some people it is hopeless like the people who killed themselves when the Nazis lost power. Most of them, however, just turned 180° and pretended they never shared their views and had been secretly opposing the regime. I guess something very similar will happen in Singapore.
I live in a democratic society, but even here a lot of people lack basic skills of self-reflection. For a fact it also took me a very long time till I started thinking. It is just so much easier to go with the flow. I'm amazed how people like Amos Yee and yourself can get to it even with this authoritarian background, because I'm not sure if I would have made it. You should be proud of yourselves!
I met expats in Singapore who loved that lifestyle and appeared unaware or chose to ignore what was going on outside of their expat circles, the British/American clubs, maids, holidays paid housing, cars etc, made it worthwhile. So for them I suppose they did shut up and take the money.
We found it very difficult as my family and I chose not to partake in the expat lifestyle and saw how the not so wealthy local people lived,the hours they worked, low salaries, how taxi drivers suffered etc. I especially was upset at how maids were treated and wrote a couple of articles, one titled "Cinderella Lives In Singapore". We chose to leave Singapore and give up our expat lifestyle as we didn't like seeing the great divide of the "have and have nots". We voted with our feet.
Post a Comment