Now playing: Singapore's Amos Yee live theatrical lawyer show before a Kangaroo Court

Ladies and Gentlemen,

You have all heard  in unique Singapore now, a very interesting event is happening.

I could almost say: "Now Playing in Singapore Court, a theatrical legal comedy "The Amos Yee Case" starring Amos Yee himself and a cast of brilliant actors".

It is cruel tragic irony in a way to say this, as Amos Yee is in real life indeed a budding actor who has starred in movies himself.

In this latest case of make believe, a 16 year old boy, Amos Yee, has been arrested, put in chains and imprisoned all because he made a video in which among other things, generously using expletives, he very accurately called the recently deceased Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore a "horrible man" and a "dictator" "who would sue anyone who crosses him" (right again).

In addition he drew a cartoon of the deceased Lee having sex with the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, whom Amos Yee obviously believed was a dictator like the dead Lee and he also criticized Jesus Christ whom he believed also to be a dictator.

But anyone who knows Singapore knows exactly why they have come down so hard on this very courageous 16 year old in repressive Singapore.

I say "very courageous" because you don't need much courage to make a video like this in Australia and call the Prime Minister Tony Abbott a "horrible man". In fact no one would bother to even pay any attention.

But you need supreme courage to call Kim Jong Un in North Korea or Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore anything unpleasant. In fact you have to be suicidal.

They have come down hard on him only because he insulted Lee Kuan Yew in Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore.

Amos Yee might as well as been in North Korea and insulted Kim Jong Un!

You might also wonder why the Lee Kuan Yew son's government is so intolerant of criticism that they have to go to this extent against a 16 year old boy who simply made a video.

The reason is that they have a serious problem.

They have a system of government which is foundationally unsound.

And if people are allowed to openly criticize them, as they do in other free democracies, they would be overthrown.

As a result the only way they can hope to remain in control is to continue to inflict fear in the minds of the citizens without which they know they will be toppled.

The fundamental faults of this regime are as follows.

It is based on a fraud.

For instance, the Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and expression but in reality this is denied.

Second, the ministers are the most corrupt government in the world because they pay themselves millions of tax payers money which they justify by calling it salaries.

Although the Constitution mandates a free press, the state controls the entire island media.

There is open and public racial discrimination by the ethnic Chinese against the Malays and Indians.

Their fear is that if the people are allowed to speak and make videos criticizing their rulers on these and other injustices and abuses, they would no longer retain control.

Which is why they have to punish Amos Yee because they have to prevent others following in his footsteps at any cost.

You may disagree with him or even agree with him but that is your right.

In the same vein Amos Yee obviously believes in what he put in his video, which is also his right.

And you would also agree with me that if he did any or all of this in any democratic country, throughout the whole of Western Europe, United States or Australia, no one would have even batted an eyelid.

But not in Singapore. Read here of his arrest in the state controlled Straits Times report "Teen blogger pleads not guilty to both charges at start of 2 day trial" http://www.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/courts-crime/story/teen-blogger-amos-yees-two-day-trial-begins-20150507

If you know what Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore is, (now run by his son) is, you would know that all the hype and the courtroom trial is nothing more than a Punch and Judy show with Lee Kuan Yew's
judge sitting up there as Chief Kangaroo, looking down at these lawyers in black robes going through the motions of legalese, at the end of which the Chief Kangaroo will naturally come down with the time honored well known, as expected by all decision, GUILTY.

I am not sure if you had read Alice in Wonderland and the trial of the rabbit who stole the tart. When the King suggested that the evidence should be called, the Queen who was so bored that she said they should deliver the sentence right away and not waste time with the such things as evidence!

Singapore trials whenever they catch a critic of the dictators are what you call a "telephone trial" and what you will get is "telephone justice".

What I meant to say was, it is not the judge presiding over these Kangaroo trials who has any say on its outcome, it is Lee Kuan Yew's son and his government.

In Singapore island, Amos Yee has the dubious advantage which others do not have except perhaps in North Korea; he knows he is already guilty before he even steps into the courtroom!

In a case like this, the government decides what the punishment will be, taking into account all other considerations, which are what is the necessary punishment to deter Amos Yee and others from ever criticizing their rulers.

On the other hand they would also have to take into account, the effect and the consequence of any punishment on the island's citizen's who live in fear.

Is it safe to deliver a very harsh sentence?

Would any harsh sentence tend to push the people to the limit and cause a revolt instead, etc etc.

What is the best punishment for him which would continue to keep the citizens living in fear but not too harsh as to put them off completely?

You see, any politically motivated trial such as this is a political decision, not a legal one. The question is, what is good for Lee Kuan Yew's son; not what is good for the law.

And once Lee Kuan Yew's son decides the punishment he or one of his minions would "telephone" the judge as to what the punishment should be which the Chief Kangaroo judge would accordingly deliver in court, while looking as solemn and serious as possible, to make the spectators believe that it is indeed he, who has decided and no one else.

You see, a job like this for the Kangaroo Judge is not as easy as you think.

For one, you have to make sure you hold yourself back from laughing out loud out at the nonsense of the whole exercise.

You need to have at least some theatrical ability to continue looking solemn and serious throughout the whole trial of a few days, while going through the motions of legal questions and objections, all with solemn seriousness, all to look as if you are in fact in an actual court.

You don't have to be Charles Laughton in the courtroom drama "Witness for the Prosecution" but you still need some theatrical acumen without which you simply cannot sit through the whole thing, in effect, entirely a theatrical performance.

But in fact it is no different from going to Opera House in Sydney and watching "Phantom of the Opera". The only sad thing with this case is that poor Amos Yee is the sacrificial lamb to please the Singaporean rulers.

Beside the Chief Kangaroo judge actor presiding, the lawyers who are involved in this performance are either ignorant fools or thoroughly unscrupulous characters.

In the same state controlled newspaper Straits Times, this report "Court to decide on teen blogger Amos Yee's case on May 12"  it states, various arguments were put forward by the lawyers such as, the cartoon Lee having sex was not obscene, that he didn't hurt the feeling of Christians etc etc. See http://www.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/courts-crime/story/trial-teen-blogger-amos-yee-resume-friday-afternoon-20150508

I am sure as so- called lawyers in that island, they are fully aware that their legal arguments have no effect whatsoever on the decision of the Chief Kangaroo who is now waiting for his orders from Lee Kuan Yew's Son on the punishment.

Or perhaps the punishment may even already have been decided.

Yet they go disgracefully through the motion of play acting as lawyers as they would in a theatrical performance, a disgraceful thing to do for someone who has decided to enter a noble profession such as this.

Let me tell any reader who may not know what Singapore really is.

It is a dictatorship.

It has no rule of law.

It is no better than North Korea.

Just as in North Korea you get punished and destroyed if you criticized Kim Jong Un, so it is in Singapore if you criticize Lee Kuan Yew's son or his government.

In North Korea they shoot you.

In Singapore they either arrest you and throw you in jail or they sue you for defamation.

After they have finished with you in Singapore, you face retribution for life.

Your life is ruined, you will have no career, and you are as good as dead.

In Singapore the citizens have a pack mentality, a lynch mob. As a known target of the state, poor young Amos Yee has no hope in the island after he is released from prison. He is, as they would call someone in India, an untouchable.

In Singapore, as the dead Lee has himself repeatedly said, you have to know which side the bread is buttered.

And it is buttered on the side of the praises and accolades of Lee Kuan Yew's son and his "world class government".

Just as Kim Jong Un would say of North Korea, Singapore is the best country in the world.

Once again, if anyone is wondering why I am able to write this and get away with it, it is because I live in California USA. Lee Kuan Yew's son has no jurisdiction here. This blog is hosted in the United States. To prevent it being seen in Singapore would require them to demand the US Internet provider to stop displaying it in Singapore. And that is a hard thing to do without hurting their own reputation even further.

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