Singapore's charade of parlimentary elections in a fascist state

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Singapore is in essence a fascist state. All constitutional rights of citizens is non existent. To make a speech in public one needs a government permit which is never granted, unless it is in praise of the government. Similarly no right to assembly unless it is in support of the government. All newspapers are state controlled which gives no coverage to anyone who challenges the government line. The judges are selected and screened from government minions. Anyone who is opposed to the regime can be dismissed from his job.

Under these dismal state of affairs the Singapore regime conducts elections every 5 years. Every 5 years, Lee's ruling party produces their candidates for elections, like a magician pulls rabbits out of a hat. No one has ever heard of any of them before. They are either civil servants, executives in large government linked companies or from the police and military. The government's reason for choosing them is usually that they have volunteered in grassroots organizations and are responsible individuals. But whether it is true or not, no one knows. But even if it is true, why should anyone want to vote for someone they have never heard of before and worse, allow them to make laws or your behalf?

Because no one is allowed to make public speeches or organize political public protests, there are literally no real political leaders in the island to speak of. Moreover none of them have any independent political ideology of their own, if they do, we have not heard of it. Therefore the only assumption we can make is that they are all fascists like the government they support, which denies free speech, expression or assembly and denies a free press.

It is no different in the case of the self proclaimed opposition politicians. They too appear every 5 years to contest elections, like you pull out rabbits from a hat. They too don't appear to have any independent ideology. Therefor we can assume they too are fascists like the government candidates, as they make no complaint against the lack of any civil rights. We can therefore assume that they too support a system that denies free speech and expression, denies the right of public assembly or protest and are quite comfortable with the entire media being state controlled.

Therefore in Singapore, as far as the rights of individuals go, there is no difference whatsoever between the government and opposition political aspirants. They are both willing to accept living without any rights as they have done for the last 50 years.

The opposition candidates only engage in criticizing specific government policies such as the overwhelming numbers who immigrate to Singapore, the high cost of living and other specific issues relating to daily living. But as for the fact that they don't have any individual freedoms, is something they appear quite comfortable with. If they are not, they have never said so.

You may be wondering why opposition political candidates in Singapore elections never raise the fundamental question, far more important than any specific government policy, of human rights. The answer s simple. It is fear. The Singapore government's main instrument of governance is through denial of human rights. Without the suppression of human rights, the government is simply incapable of governance. Therefore anyone even raising such issues stands to be arrested and bankrupted through their Kangaroo courts because to them the empowerment of the people is an existential threat.
The average Singaporean under these circumstances is left with very little choice. If he demands freedom and the individual human rights, he has no alternative but to go out and break these laws by publicly protesting but doing this will result in his arrest and imprisonment.

Since public protest is  impossible unless you are prepared to be a martyr, the citizen has to resign himself to a living without any rights. Having resigned himself to such a life, at the elections he has to decide whether to vote for this fascist government or any of these nascent opposition politicians who have just risen from the woodwork once in 5 years.

Although a thoroughly unattractive proposition, with no real choice the citizen would unfortunately be much better off voting for the government candidates.

Since it is the government that controls the civil service, builds the high rise buildings, creates employment and make the trains and buses run, it makes sense to vote for them.

These new opposition candidates who have just sprouted out from the blue have no control over the civil service or any other important government institutions.

The entire 50 years of Singapore's modern history has seen the present regime running the show and the opposition have no experience whatsoever in government. Under these circumstances, if I am only interested in living and working peacefully in Singapore, it makes more sense to vote for the government instead of the opposition.

This is of course a tragedy since this government is none other than a fascist state but a fascist state that can at least ensure my survival is better than opposition newcomers without any clout on the pillars of authority.

That is why the Singapore political scene is a tragedy. The government has silenced every form of political activity in the island except their own thereby monopolizing power in their own hands for the entire 50 years of the islands modern history. And since only they have the power and experience in  governing the island the citizen is forced to vote for them since a fascist state is still better than no state at all.

According to the island's state controlled press which has been awash with news of impending elections, the 5 yearly elections charade is about to begin.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
Singaporean by birth
Now American citizen
Fremont, California USA
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Facebnook: www.facebook.com/singapore.dissident