Singapore Lee Kuan Yew and Son's very successful 50 year behaviour training (like you would train a dog) of its citizens

Ladies and Gentlemen,

If there is one thing that Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew and Son have very successfully accomplished it is this. The successful instilling of fear in the entire small tiny population in the small tiny island, turning the people into a submissive, subservient, obedient and naïve society. There is a carrot for obedience and submission and a stick for opposition.

The average citizen goes through his entire life learning that the way to survive is to keep one's mouth and one's brain shut and simply obey. Those who showed any independence of spirit have been routinely and without exception destroyed. JB Jeyaretnam the opposition lawyer and politician was repeatedly sued, jailed and bankrupted. So was Chee Soon Juan. So was countless others. And each time they punish detractors and critics, the news is prominently displayed for days in the state controlled press with the deliberate intent of sending clear signals to everyone to behave or else.

In the end you have a nanny state where the state builds the housing and provides  accommodation for everyone. The state provides the jobs either directly or indirectly through government employment, government linked companies and foreign companies that the state attracts into the island. The state provides medical care with the state owned and run hospitals and education in state run schools.

Life can be very easy and uneventful provided you are not the sort to make waves. As long as you keep your mouth shut and obey, do as you are told, all your needs are actually taken care of.

But to enjoy any of these benefits, the underlying requirement is obedience to the state and the acceptance of their style of government.

But this is where the rub is. What is Singapore anyway?. It is an island that does not tolerate dissent. Even the slightest criticism  will result in your being targeted for punishment and discrimination. You wont gets the jobs you want, you wont get the housing you want, you wont get the schools you want and you wont get the medical care you want.

Singapore is a society which effectively has no constitution. There is no right to free expression, assembly or an independent media, which is state controlled.

In a society such as this, if that is where you want to live, you are placed in an intolerable position. In order to survive, you have to submit. And submit to what? You have to submit to a dictatorship in a state where you have literally no rights at all.

So what does one do if you refuse to live literally as a slave? One emigrates. This is why day after day the brain drain continues unabated. And there is nothing they can do about it. Now more than before the government comes up with propaganda and false information in their state controlled press that in fact this is not the case. In today's state controlled Straits Times it is reported "More Singapore docs trained abroad are coming home " please see http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/health/more-singapore-docs-trained-abroad-are-coming-home

This reports claims that more Singapore doctors in England are deciding to come home. This is a cleverly crafted half truth intended to make the abysmal state of the brain drain look good . There may be a handful of doctors who are retuning, but the truth is that no doctor in his right mind would want to live and bring up his family in a country where he nor his family have any rights. A Singaporean under this regime is literally brainwashed into becoming a helpless robot and no one wants this least of all doctors. The truth is that there are more Singapore doctors abroad than there are in Singapore and the numbers emigrating continue to increase.

In the last election nearly 70% actually voted for this dictatorship. But this 70% are the lower rungs of society, the unskilled and poorly educated classes who have no means of leaving the island. The 30 % who voted against them are the highly educated and skilled classes and it is these who are continuing to leave the island, the very ones this tiny island needs the most. And it is their departure that progressively turns the island into this society into one that is second rate and unskilled, as the best continue to leave, not wanting to live under a dictatorship.

In this blog I wrote an article headed "How to avoid national service" and it this article that has been overwhelmingly the most popular for a long time. Singapore's young men are refusing to do national service, they are leaving the island and refusing to return and the threats of imprisonment if they ever return is not making them submit. Singapore young national service deserters are growing in numbers all over the world and they are persuading others in similar circumstances to leave as well. As a result the Singapore army is so short of manpower that it is no longer effective and has become a security threat to the island in case of outside attack.

We have seen the nonsensical attempts of Lee Kuan Yew's son in recent days of trying to encourage young men and women to think critically. It appears he has begun to realize that his obedience training that he and his father has done, like you would train a dog with a stick and a bone, for 50 years has actually become too successful, actually turned the entire island into obedient robots and human robots are no good for any society in this modern age.

But what he fails to realize that you cannot turn submissive timid souls unable to think into thinking ones like you would turn a light switch. You cannot simply turn a subservient timid submissive society into a questioning one by simply waving a wand. It is not possible. It is too late. The damage has been done. The average Singaporean is only capable of obedience, not leadership.

I would encourage more people to leave the island if you can. I would also encourage more young men to leave for settlement abroad and if you can avoid doing national service in this dictatorship, you should do it.

I have been writing this blog for many years and have been an implacable thorn on the side of this regime. I suppose they misunderstood me too. Over the years while I lived in that island, they repeatedly brought up politically motivated cases to silence me. It didn't work. I then left the country. I suppose they thought that once I left I would simply turn quiet. But I didn't. When I started this blog many years ago, I had several people, presumably their agents writing to me to stop. But I know the law. I am protected by the American Constitution. They cant do anything to me here. And I will continue to write. This blog will continue.

How much my criticism has hurt this regime I do not know. But I know one thing. It has hurt them and it will continue to hurt them.

Singapore's population will continue to decline through the on going brain drain. The fertility rate of 1.2 which is the lowest in the world will continue to decline even further. The old age population will die off sooner than we think. The government would be compelled to bring in even more economic migrants for settlement only for them to leave once they see better prospects elsewhere.

After all there is nothing attractive of living in a dictatorship.

The prognosis is not good for this dictatorship. It is just as all dictatorships, where they put their interests above that of the nation.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com