Are things getting too much for our authoritarian Singapore to handle

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Recently you saw the well publicized spectacle of Singapore's Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew's son suddenly fainting and being helped off stage. After a few hours, he returned and changed his prepared National Day Rally speech to talk only of one thing, his need to leave his job. One begins to wonder if the incident was real or was it faked to give an excuse to him to leave in a hurry.

If that was  a theatrical performance, in today's Singapore, one shouldn't be surprised. Things are indeed getting too hot under his seat.

Let me begin by the obvious. Sea level rise. Tiny Singapore island is flooding almost everyday when it rains. And it rains everyday in equatorial Singapore. If the flood level is only knee deep now, it will soon be waist level. And for that this intolerant island government has no answer. For obvious reasons since there are none.

Now for the last few days it has been the Zika virus. In a jam packed equatorial sweaty humid island, a paradise for mosquitoes, where people live both above and beside each other, the virus will spread island wide. What this means is that there won't be any babies born at all. Today with the world's lowest birth rate the situation is bad enough. Thanks to Zika the birth rate will now be zero, not only this year but for years to come. And in order to work their businesses, they will have to flood the island with  even more Chinese Communists who can't speak any English! With no English, the business language will have to change to mandarin, leaving the island without the edge they had in English, not to mention the alienation of Malays and Indians, equal citizens who now have to learn a new language.

Brain drain goes on unabated and climbing. Like a suction pipe, the West including Australia is emptying out anyone who has any education and independence of thought. Why, because the island is a dictatorship with no freedoms, no rights where people live at the mercy of Lee Kuan Yew's son. Those capable of moving refuse to live like that. So they move, leaving only dummies and zombies behind.

The economy is collapsing. Literally collapsing. Why, because there is no independence of thought. Therefore they can only churn out what they have done before and there are no new ideas. Because anyone with any ideas would rather leave. So you have a stagnant society. Since China is no longer performing, the China trade is gone. So is it in Western Europe and America. So there are no exports and there is nothing to offer. The reports are that last year as many of 1400 businesses relocated elsewhere, for lack of business and high wages. The petroleum sector in the island is at a standstill. Like Venezuela, they are losing money and have run out of ideas.

Unfortunately in Singapore today there is no political opposition. Chee Soon Juan who was colorful for many years has finally given up on politics, or almost given up. He was too keen on pleasing the government hoping that they would reciprocate but they haven't. He has stopped his political activism, sacked anyone who would not think like him and very successfully has turned himself into a recluse writing blogs. Beside him there is no one else.

But that is not something to worry about. With or without any opposition, the authoritarian regime has itself laid the elements for their own downfall. With an entire population incapable of thinking through fear, you are not going to get productivity, you are not going to get new ideas, you are not going to get any new babies and with sea level rise, the island will slowly sink under the Straits of Johore.

I think we should all take credit for their eventual demise.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney
Fremont California USA
Tel; 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com