Thursday, November 29, 2018

Weak compliant citizenry will do Singapore in

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I have been now living in Fremont San Francisco Bay Area USA for 27 years since leaving Singapore the place of my birth. I have no doubt of having done the right thing. And I believe the Singaporean system itself will do themselves in.

Singapore is not a democracy. We all know that. It is a system where a small elite of the family of Lee Kuan Yew deceased run the show. Unless you submit and are chosen, you have no say in the system regardless if you are citizen or not. It has no right to free speech and expression. Any public criticism is roundly crushed and if serious enough punished through their selected legal system. There are no free newspapers, no free media and everyone is closely surveilled day and night. They can do this because it is a small island.

This outright island wide control serves many purposes. One it attracts foreign investment which does not care of any human rights, only profits matter. Second it serves the rulers well, they can continue ruling without any opposition.

And the people of Singapore who live there are fully aware of everything I have said. And they still live there.

But here lies the problem. There should be no doubt in the minds of any thinking human being that this sort of life is unpleasant. It goes against human nature to simply live a life in submission. Afterall we are human beings and we can think.

And this is exactly why the Soviet Union collapsed. There people were required to suppress what they think and work not for your individual interest but for the state. This sort of life goes against the grain of any thinking human being and at the first opportunity they rebelled or they emigrated and thereby collapsing the state.

And the other problem Singapore island faces is that it is not Communist China. It is small and relies not on manufacturing but the brain industry where brain power jobs in science technology and commerce are needed. Second it is an English speaking country and therefore people are going to study in English either locally or in European Australian and Western democracies. And here lies the problem for this tightly controlled authoritarian state. The moment a young Singaporean studies in Australia or the West he immediately comes into contact with the freedoms of those countries. And he immediately realizes how unattractive a life in the Singaporean authoritarian state is. He immediately applies to remain in the West. He is glad that he has been able to leave the island and he encourages his entire family and friends to do the same.

Singapore is a very small island with a small population. If young educated skilled people continue to leave, the island has no choice to bring in replacements. You cannot bring in many Australians into Singapore because if you did, you would make the island another Australia, the people would demand their rights and the present rulers would be thrown out. That wont do. The only suitable people for Singapore are people from countries where citizens live without any rights, countries like China, Vietnam, Myanmar because in those countries they don't have any rights either. But the problem is these people usually do not know any English, the required language for international success. They usually don't have any real skills either.

So the end result with the increasing numbers of young educated Singaporeans leaving is the continued reduction in the  quality of the workforce. No English no skills and uncompetitive compared to their competitors' across Asia.

Of course the Singapore government could stop Singaporeans from leaving Singapore for education but if they did this, it will only cause a flood of people attempting to leave either lawfully or otherwise and that wont do. I know they are trying various measures in state propaganda to paint a better picture but people with eyes can see how bad it has become.

I don't think people who love freedom have to do anything to bring about the fall of this authoritarian regime. They are already doing it to themselves by demanding people shut their mouths and brains and do as they are told.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
Fremont San Francisco California USA
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com