Ladies and Gentlemen,
The economic and social situation in tiny Singapore today is not looking good at all for it's authoritarian rulers.
The economy, competitiveness and everything else is sliding backwards and downwards.
Not a good sign at all.
Yesterday there was the report in Straits Times state controlled newspaper titled "Unemployment rate dips slightly while employment growth slows" See http://www.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/more-singapore-stories/story/unemployment-rate-dips-slightly-first-quarter-while-empl .
According to the report the number of jobs created has been steadily declining.
The myth touted of the island by the propaganda department of being a popular job destination is now roundly shattered.
As for the constant refrain by the state controlled propaganda newspapers of the island being the safest spot in the world is also now found to be humbug.
Other than the daily robberies and snatch thefts reported in that island, on May 1, 2015 the same state controlled paper has the story "49 year old man arrested for allegedly assaulting Amos Yee" See https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8081742307252789733#editor/target=post;postID=7159093399419360351
Amos Yee as you already know is that 16 year old courageous boy who has more balls than the entire Singaporean population put together was arrested after he made a video entitled "Lee Kuan Yew is finally dead" in which he called the dead dictator a "horrible man" among other things.
I agree and so does anyone with a head with grey matter on his shoulders.
A sycophant among the thousands and thousands you find in that island, who thought he could score points with the dead Lee's son, the present Prime Minister, confronted Yee along the entrance to the court and assaulted him in broad daylight.
These sort of assaults are becoming a daily commonplace way of life in Lee's so-called safest island in the world. There goes the title "the safest island in the world".
That same source of state controlled news reported yesterday "Tough times at Far East Plaza" See http://www.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/more-singapore-stories/story/tough-times-far-east-plaza-20150502.
Far East Plaza is a very popular shopping complex along the premier shopping street in Singapore Orchard Road and only yesterday even suggesting that business has slowed there would have been simply unthinkable.
But it has happened.
Half the retail shops have closed and the other half is struggling to survive and would probably also close.
This can only mean one thing.
Singaporeans simply cannot afford to purchase anything and the foreign tourists who are it's mainstay are no longer coming.
The glitz and shine of the island advertised has faded.
You can imagine of course if this is happening to the island's most popular shopping complex in the iconic Orchard Road, what is happening to the other lesser stores that pepper the entire island!
Yes you are right. It is a case of closing shutters and calling it a day.
If all this is not bad enough, you can hear even more bad news even from the horse's mouth.
On April 29, 2015, one of the few Tamils (Indians) in Singapore who has been accepted by the majority ethnic Chinese government of the island, the Deputy Prime Minister has admitted that productivity is so low, it cannot expect any growth in the future.
See article in the state controlled Straits Times of April 29, 2015 "Global Growth will not be enough to drive Singapore economy: DPM Tharman" See http://www.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/more-singapore-stories/story/global-growth-will-not-be-enough-drive-singapores-economy
Besides this, it is equally bad in every other sector.
Earlier reports on the property sector has news of the record fall in both local HDB (government owned housing comprising 99% of the island's property market) flat prices as well as the luxury property market.
It has been reported that luxury condominiums in Sentosa are lying almost idle and many being sold for as little as 10% of their purchase price.
The rest are lying empty.
It seems Sentosa Cove is now a ghost town.
Looking at all these signs, only one story appears, the island is declining in every way possible, and very successfully going from first world to third.
At the same time we hear that it's brain drain has hit the roof with record applications for settlement to Australia New Zealand Canada and the United States.
For a tiny population of locals comprising no more than 2 million (the rest being foreigners), it simply means that locals are becoming virtually extinct.
At the same time, despite every possible measure taken to encourage childbirth among the preferred Chinese race, the same race as the ruling government and the Lees in power, couples have reduced their childbirth so much that the island holds the dubious world record for the lowest childbirth/fertility rate.
It means a couple are not replacing even themselves when they die.
And to these existential, literally life and death problems the government has finally confessed to have no solution at all, is getting worse by the day.
Anyone with eyes and a head can see where this island created by the man who was "too clever by half" Lee Kuan Yew, as he was described by the first Prime Minister of Malaysia Tenku Abdul Rahman, is heading; to the bog.
And anyone with even the most rudimentary thought process still intact can see why.
Singapore is not today a bunch of illiterate coolies as was the case in the 1950s.
Unfortunately for the Lees who would obviously like to continue in power in perpetuity, the sad fact is that many have had an education.
And among those who has had a bit of that is myself, Gopalan Nair.
And like Gopalan Nair, who decided it best to leave the island of HG Wells Doctor Moreau, there are many there who have had an education too. And as a added bonus, an ability to think as well.
So if you can read and if you can think what do you think Singapore island is?
It is a dictatorship where previously Lee Kuan Yew and after his death now his son, who strut around like prize rooster behaving as if the island belongs to him and he can do just about anything he wants to anybody.
As he doesn't want anyone to criticize him, he arrests and sues anyone he wants for defamation of character in his Kangaroo courts.
He abolishes all constitutional guarantees rights including freedom of speech and expression.
He controls the entire press and only allows propaganda.
He uses fear to subjugate his island.
People who criticize him are fired from their jobs and thrust on to the street.
The only ones who can possible live with their souls intact are the ignorant noodle seller at Toa Payoh food stalls who is content if he as 3 meals a day, a television at home and his children can go to state controlled schools to be indoctrinated in state propaganda.
But Gopalan Nair is not that ethnic Chinese noodle seller and so are many other Singaporeans. So what does anyone who can think do?
He either openly confronts the regime or he simply packs up and leaves the island altogether.
This is why hundreds of thousands of Gopalan Nairs, even the ethnic Chinese version of Gopalan Nairs have simply left the island and others are in the process of leaving.
If for some reason the parents cannot leave, they send their children to the Western schools after which they never come back.
Worse, once they graduate, they bring their parents to the West.
They encourage their siblings and relatives to move to the West.
Like a huge vacuum suction pump, the West attracts every single educated Singaporean who is able to leave, while only those who are ignorant and dumb like that ethnic Chinese needle seller, who have no reason to leave because they know no better, or those without skills remain behind.
You can imagine those departing are a huge segment of the tiny island population , since there are not many human beings to begin with in that island anyway.
In order to replace these talented Singaporeans, the Lees have no other choice but to replace them with immigrants.
What sort of immigrants to Singapore are they? You guessed it, the worst lot.
They all come from countries that are poverty stricken who always had huge outflow of emigrants, mainly China and India.
All these people who want to get out are trying to reach the affluent countries of the West, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand in the first place.
If given a choice, none of these people would want to come to Singapore if they can avoid it.
But because their qualifications are second rate and unsuitable for the West, they come to Singapore as their second choice since almost anywhere is better than Communist China or India.
So the first rate educated qualified Singaporeans like Gopalan Nair leave and in their place you get some ethnic Chinese who could never imagine being accepted by the United States.
The effect of this is to drastically reduce the quality of the Singaporean workforce, with poorly qualified, second rate immigrants because if you asked any one of these immigrants to Singapore if they would rather go to Australia, they would jump at the opportunity.
And as the Lees in government continue to become more and more repressive which will soon be not too dissimilar to North Korea, no one who has a choice would want to live there and submit himself to such nonsense.
With the drop in quality of its citizens, so does productivity, competitiveness and the slide towards the bog of failed states is accelerated.
I am sure Lee's son who is now in power and the island's new dictator to replace his father knows this. But like all dictators, he is riding a tiger. He knows he cannot dismount because the tiger would devour him.
And by the way, the only reason why I can write this without being arrested is because I live in the West.
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
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3 comments:
Keep up the assault on the PAP, Gopalan!
I too have escaped the totalitarian government and am no longer subjugated to their ridiculous laws, which are embraced by stupid, materialistic, gutless and shallow Singaporeans who do not dare to speak up.
Jason
good article. the 154th media tries to paint a rosy picture of the economy all the time to lure unsuspecting foreign investors
The present PAP is ironically endangering PMETs jobs opportunities for virtually all indigenous Singaprean that had been systematically marginalized by the senseless massive imports of foreigners to fill PMET jobs, despite there is no dearth of qualified indigenous Singaporean. These foreign talents are not brought in to close any gaps or supplement our talent pool but it had already been revealed time and again to supplant our local talents with foreign talents with qualifications of dubious or even lesser standing. These are also certainly not industry leaders or movers. As such, these are really foreigners imported merely to displace junior - mid level PMET Singaporeans and not contributing to creation new job opportunities for the locals.
As the loss of PMET jobs to Singaporeans may in reality be significant and even trending upwards, this sorry state of affair has since become critical enough so much so that the government can't help but sound the warning bell on looming unemployment problem for our educated professionals. Apart from banking and IT sectors long invaded by foreigners, the law profession was announced to be suffering the same fate and prospective graduting JC students were warned to stay away from it. It was also reported recently that the government had also agreed to grant free admission of Indian nationals into accountancy, medicine and healthcare professions too. Fearing this long term consequence of unfulfilled aspirations of our tertiary educated Singaporeans may turn into an ugly macro problem with serious industrial strife and political instability implications , the government desperate at nipping this in the bud cannot but raise the ante by openly and blatantly appealing to the masses to forgo university education and go down the vocational route.
On the other hand, it has also been well explained by Michael Y.P. Ang, a Singaporean freelance journalist, that "It is silly to point the finger at immigrants (skilled workers from the West and low-cost labourers from the Indian subcontinent, China or ASEAN) for causing Singaporeans' lack of employment or underemployment and overcrowded public transportation.
Immigrants are drawn to Singapore because we offer them what they cannot find back home, even in Western countries with 'greener pastures'. Don't blame them for doing what is a very human thing to do. Immigrants are allowed to work and live on our island because of the PAP's liberal immigration policy."
This explains squarely why the current PM's team failed miserably to rally many Singaporeans behind them. Regardless of how sound the strategy of gunning for highest short term economic growth exclusively is, the local populace who are unemployed due to the liberal immigration policy, suffering the full brunt of rising costs and dejected would naturally seek the alternative.
In short, there is simply no denying that this tend of systematic undermining of employment propsects for our indigenous Singaporean will continue to premeate our evey remaining PMET job types may very be a grim reality don't bear thinking about. Thus, the slip in popularity shall prevail so long as the present PAP government persist in failing to fathom how their obsession with quick fix economic growth policies had heighten bread and butter fears among Singaporeans.
Can Mr Gopolan Nair or anybody comment why there are still so many apparently highly educated Singaporeans that can continue to justify and support the PAP government's self destructive actions of alienating indigenous Singaporeans please?
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