Singaporeans living under a one party dictatorship have lost their ability to think rationally and common sense

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Unless the Singaporean is able to think rationally and exercise common sense as normal human beings, which they appear incapable of, they will forever live under a one party police state as they do now.

At the recent elections, the ruling Lee Kuan Yew's Peoples Action Party which has been running the island for the last 50 years uninterrupted, won again, this time, not surprisingly, with an increased majority. The reasons must appear obvious. Singaporeans have no constitutional rights whatsoever. No right to free speech, free assembly, peaceful protest, no means of challenging the ruling government whatsoever. Additionally there is no free press and no rule of law. The citizens are literally living as slaves and totally obedient to the ruling PAP.

They voted overwhelmingly for this one party state government under which they live with no rights at all! After all in reality, despite the elections, they have no real chance of voting for anyone else.

In Singapore where there is a total denial of human rights, the citizens have no opportunity to engage the government. Public speeches are disallowed. Anyone with a contrary opinion has no way either to make it known to the public, to engage the government or to have their views published in the media which is entirely state controlled. The opposition cannot engage the government on their views. Except for blogs and the social media, where even here, you can be sued for defamation, jailed and bankrupted, the citizens are simply prevented from expressing or promoting their views. The only time they are allowed to make speeches in public is a span of a mere 9 days in every 5 years during the elections, although even here, the speeches have to be muted and carefully moderated lest you are sued for defamation or worse arrested.

Surely anyone with common sense would know that such a system is either fascism or a dictatorship. And any right thinking person who wants to live a free man, like we all do would oppose this.

But the strange thing about the Singaporean is that he doesn't think this way, as a normal person anywhere else would. Through years of subjugation, his thought process is no longer normal. He is prepared to willingly accept these laws without question.

He simply obeys the law which prevents him from speaking publicly, although such a law is totally nonsensical.

Any other person in any other country would have looked at it this way. It is simply outrageous for any law to make it illegal for me to stand at a street corner and complain against the government. I am not hurting anyone by doing so and therefore a law which punishes me from doing something totally harmless is clearly wrong and no one needs obey. Therefore any ordinary rational foreigner would have no hesitation in breaking such a law but the Singaporean simply is incapable of acting in that fashion. He has undergone behavior training for so long and subjected to years of living under fear that his thought process has permanently shifted from the normal.

What harm am I doing anyone if I stood with a placard peacefully at Raffles Place at lunchtime with the words "Down Down PAP". No one is harmed by that and a law which makes it illegal is clearly an ass.

In Singapore it is illegal to assemble in a group in public even though you are entirely peaceful. What harm are you doing anyone else if 5 of you got together in a public place and held up anti- government posters, absolutely none. Yet Lee Kuan Yew's Son's government makes it illegal too and the people of Singapore on their part simply obey.

In Singapore even though the Constitution guarantees a free press, the entire press in  the island is state controlled, yet the average Singaporean makes no complaint of this transgression.

What then happens as a result of these phenomena is the Singaporean during their entire lives are totally incapable and unable to exercise their right of self determination and are totally kept out of any participation in government. They allow the government to do entirely what they want by their complete inability to challenge the government even remotely their entire lives.

Singaporeans through years of living under such total control have lost their ability to think. 

The recent elections in the island where the ruling party not only won as they have done for the past 50 years but had even increased their majority to 70% should have come as no surprise in an behavior trained island such as this.

Opposition political parties such as Chee Soon Juan's Singapore Democratic Party had worked very hard at the recent elections but had lost very badly. They got just 30%. I would have told them they had no chance at all and were simply wasting their time. What surprises me is this. Why does Chee Soon Juan, undoubtedly a man of immense wisdom is incapable of understanding this simple truth.

Chee Soon Juan would be not only wasting his time but that of his party if he continued in his merry way of waiting for 2020 to try his luck once more. In order to persuade the electorate, he should speak in public, make speeches, organize protests against government laws and policies and organize peaceful demonstrations  if the state does not respond to his legitimate demands. These actions are necessary to put out his message to the public. And these actions, although perfectly legal under normally understood laws or morality, it so happens, are also crimes under Lee Kuan Yew's laws.

So until and unless Chee Soon Juan is prepared to break these laws, which are plainly illegal as they are, he would never be able to persuade his voters because he cannot get the message across effectively and will not be able to engage the government as he should.

What he has done so far is going from house to house asking for support. But why should they when he has not shown throughout his time as a citizen of Singapore any willingness to challenge the unjust policies by whatever lawful means necessary, which includes peaceful protests, public speeches and civil disobedience (disobedience to unjust laws). He should know that under the Constitution of Singapore, freedom of expression, assembly and protest are guaranteed Constitutional rights and the restrictions placed on them by this government are illegal.

Chee Soon Juan of the Singapore Democratic Party which is a party most representative of democracy in the island, should engage the government throughout the 5 years up till the next elections. Not just writing blogs and asking people to support him which is not enough; because no one need support him since he can do nothing for them.

There are several burning issues for which he has a huge support base, as was seen in his recent huge election rallies.

One such issue is immigration which is totally destroying the local population. Another is the lack of minimum wage and the plight of the poor.

Form the huge support he had at rallies, he knows he can garner huge numbers for protests for redress. These protests will also force the government to respond to these issues resulting in the government being held responsible for their actions, visibly in the public eye, throughout the 5 years, not just at election time. The trick lies in engaging the government throughout, not just during 9 days every 5 years.

Unless the people of Singapore and their leaders such as Chee Soon Juan are prepared to exercise their minds to rational thinking and do what is peaceful and just to challenge this government, not once in 5 years but throughout their lives in the island; unless the people of Singapore are able to use their common sense and thinking as rational normal human beings, Lee Kuan Yew's PAP will continue to rule over their lives in 2020 and beyond and they will continue to live as slaves as they do now.

And my advice to Chee Soon Juan is this. If you are going to do the same as you have done for the past 20 years, please leave politics and do something else to help yourself. And as for his supporters including the Dr. Paul Anand Thambiyah, I will say this. You are backing the wrong horse. You are wasting your time with Chee Soon Juan and his Singapore Democratic Party because he is leading you nowhere. You could spend your time better doing something useful, not something you know is going to fail again, 5 years time in 2020 and thereafter too. I strongly urge Chee Soon Juan to think rationally and logically, for once.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean by Birth
Now American citizen
San Francisco, California
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/singapore.dissident