Singapore threatens to create a frightful brave new world

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Singapore has already come a long way from its intended status as a democracy. Although the Constitution guaranteed a free press, right to free association and assembly and the rule of law, today nothing remains of these guarantees. In fact Singaporeans simply do not have any guarantees of human rights.

Instead of a free press, the entire press is state controlled. Instead of the right to free association and assembly, all protests, even if peaceful are illegal. Instead of the rule of law, Lee Kuan Yew crony judges misuse the law to destroy political opponents.

Today, the entire mindset of the citizens has had a paradigm shift. No longer is the independent thinking man respected. If the thinking went against that of the Lee Ruling Family, he is treated as a criminal.

A good man in the Singaporean sense today is one who parrots the government line which is; Lee paying himself millions is not corruption, it is a salary; Lee's PAP government is the best and every other system is wrong; joining and supporting opposition parties such as Chee Soon Juan's SDP is engaging in confrontational politics which is bad, joining Lee's party is consensus politics, therefore good; and so on and so forth.

In today's Singapore, the passport to success in career and life lies in joining and supporting Lee Kuan Yew's policies which prevail at any one time, keeping in mind that they change with time. For instance it was good to say that families should have no more than 2 children (Lee's policy some years ago) but now it is necessary to say that families should have as many children as possible (Lee's policy now).

The problem with life in Singapore, which you can well see, is that any right thinking human being has to shut out his own views about things and be required to articulate those of Lee's, which can be found at any point of time in his state controlled press.

If you thought this was bad enough, be warned; there is worse to come. Lee's son who runs the country now has said that he is determined to look at how Singapore is run continuously and will make the changes as and when he decides.

This means your views will have to change in tandem with his, whatever they may be. Please see the article in Singapore state controlled newspaper the Straits Times of Sept 9, 2012 headed "Let's improve prudently: PM Lee"
http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/lets-improve-prudently-pm-lee-20120909

He has made clear his threat in the following in this article, "So each time we come back, some problems are revisited, some issues which we did not alter before, we may come to conclusion we need to make changes. We have to take it in that perspective. We can't say that we have had a discussion before, so there is nothing new to discuss. That is not the way the world is." In other words, Singapore will not be run as other democracies around the world on a set of principles laid down in the Constitution, but on the thinking of the Lee Ruling Family and his minions at any one point of time. Today it might be this way and tomorrow the other, and you better conform or else!

I worry what next are Singaporeans required to do? Will the numbers of government spies be increased at all work places to report on troublemakers? Will workers be required to pledge their allegiance to Lee's ruling party and if not be fired? Will all unpatriotic (meaning people not supporting his party) employees be fired from their jobs? Will sons be required to report on their father's disloyalty? Will Singaporeans be required to attend mass sessions to sing praises to the Lee Ruling Family? Will Singaporeans be required to attend mass sessions to condemn Chee Soon Juan on his criminal (Lee's proclamation) activities?

How far will Lee go in changing the island to suit his thinking? And how far will Singaporeans go in accepting these demands of the Singapore strongman? All very worrying questions.

Although one may say that such things happening are highly unlikely, I would urge him to think again.

Anyone visiting Singapore today will find the mindset of the people altered to an extent almost beyond belief. For instance which human being would not be up in arms to be told that their elected leader pays himself 5 times the salary of Obama? Which human being would be prepared to accept the fact that even a single peaceful one man protest is illegal? Which human being would accept the fact that his entire mass media is state controlled? Which human being would accept the fact that their courts have been reduced to nothing better than Kangaroo Courts delivering judgments to please the Lee Ruling Family?

Today Singaporeans surprisingly accept these policies without complaint, the reason being that they have been subjected to Lee's rule for so long so much so that they have almost forgotten what it is to be a free human being.

Although Lee thinks that Singaporeans would accept whatever he throws at them, today, he is completely out of touch with how his people think. No longer are people willing to accept anything he says. And by strutting around like a prize rooster in his tiny island, bullying everyone in his way, he is not having the results he expects to have. For instance increasing numbers of Singaporeans simply look at him as an insane fool, laugh at him instead of fearing him, pack up their bags and emigrate to the West.

The brain drain has become so large and increasing that the civil service is finding it difficult to function without manpower. Retired employees who are even over 65 are asked to return to work due to the manpower shortage. All the other services are facing the same fate. To replace those leaving, new Chinese immigrants are brought in from Communist China who do not know English and unsuitable for the jobs left vacant.

Lee and his son, collectively known as the Lee Ruling Family should realize that they can no longer demand loyalty through force and intimidation like this, as people do have a choice whether to live this way under a dictator. Singapore is not George Orwell’s fictional country. A few unprincipled opportunists, like K Shanmugam and Tharman Shanmugaretnam, may stay for the money because they are incapable of making it on their own, but many others have more pride than this. They will leave in even greater numbers.

Forcing people to think the way the Lee Ruling Family demands is simply not going to work in the 21st century. The island would simply empty out of its own people, as is already happening now. Those left behind would be the simple hawkers and the likes of my friend the security guard in Veerasamy Road who thinks the police should have the right to stop, question and search anyone anytime because it makes the island safe! He wants a police state, which is what Lee Kuan Yew’s Singapore is today.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
Fremont, California
Tel: 510 657 6107 or 510 491 4375

Singapore. Beware. Lee Kuan Yew has other plans for you

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The problem that Singaporeans face today is their ruler, Lee Kuan Yew. His problem is that he thinks he knows far more than anyone else, and therefore, being so smart, he is not bound by anything laid down such as the rules and foundation for the island.

Singapore started off as you know with a Constitution upon which the laws and policies have to comport. But since Lee thinks he is so smart and knows better than anyone else, he has refused to follow it.

If I understand him correctly, he believes that such things as the rule of law, fundamental human rights such as freedom of speech and expression are not necessary. He believes that he could rule much better by doing whatever he wants, and in the process secure his position as well, without such obstacles as human rights.

So he has done away with every single human right that Singaporeans are supposed to have. Today they have no rule of law, any free speech or expression, and all newspapers are state controlled.

And with his control over the Singapore police force who is by and large dumb ignorant fools who have never heard anything about rights, he can freely have anyone arrested at the wink of an eye.

And with the help of Kangaroo judges whom he has placed to do the dirty work, anyone whom he takes a dislike to, can easily be destroyed, which in Singaporean parlance means, being sued for libel and bankrupted.

As a result Singaporeans in Lee Kuan Yew's island, are left with no choice. They either simply go along with Lee Kuan Yew's vision of how the island is run, at any point of time according to Lee’s thinking, or simply get out of the island entirely.

Lee's minions in the island have routinely threatened that they are looking out at the countries of the world so as to tweak and change their present style of authoritarian government as and when they feel the need.

They have threatened to change the style of government anytime they want if they see the need to do it, and it is not up to the people to question them.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam, one of Lee’s minions in government has threatened that they intend to make further changes as and when necessary because, according to him, they know best on how to run the island.

He is also quoted to have said that every 5 years, the island has elections and if  Singaporeans did not like them, that is the time to boot them out. But once you elected them, they will no longer entertain any complaints, until the next 5 years!

But the disgusting thing about Lee's government is not only the fact that they adopt their own style of government instead of the lawful Constitution of Singapore, what is more disgusting is the fact that they don't have the courage to admit it.

They disgracefully continue to pretend that the Constitution exists and display the outward trappings of a Parliamentary democracy in their official functions such as the opening of Parliament, when they know that they simply ignore the Constitution as if it never existed.

If they truly believed in what they were doing, should they not openly admit that Singapore is not a parliamentary democracy, but a fascist state based on the thinking of Lee Kuan Yew and his selected minions at the top, at any point of time?

Should they not openly abolish the Constitution of Singapore and isn’t that the more honorable thing to do in the circumstances?

Today, you find the quality of its citizens is at its rock bottom. Any observation of its students shows their general inability to articulate themselves and their general lack of confidence, unlike those in the West and Australia.

This can only be explained by one thing. The best students have all packed up and left. They are either studying or living in the West, leaving mediocre students such as this in the island. And as time passes, the brain drain problem gets progressively worse.

Many other people including myself do not believe that Lee Kuan Yew is the total depository of all the wisdom on earth.

And we do not want to live in a society where Lee decides, according to what he thinks, how the country should be run, what we can say and what we can write and what newspapers we can read.

We are not prepare to live in a island where Lee and his minions would collectively decide how the government has to be changed, what rights we should have and what rights we should not have.

We want the Constitution to be the paramount law of the land, which is a good constitution, which protects our human rights.

But as Lee will not allow it, what other choice but to either stand and fight which entails being bankrupted by his Kangaroo judges or simply pack and leave for the West as many smart Singaporeans continue to do. Why not let Lee and his friends simply have their island and act as fools if they want to. Why not just leave them alone.

Lee appears to think that just because he has built these skyscrapers, roads, and bridges and the subway, people would marvel at him and stay back for even more of these things. Someone should tell Lee that that is not the human behavior he thinks humans have. What they want most is to live independent free lives, and able to think, act and say what they think is right and if necessary fight for these ideals. But since our Big Boy thinks he knows best about everything, like a fool, he now realizes his folly, I hope.

Singapore today has the highest rate of emigration in the world, the lowest fertility rate in the world (no babies) and the largest aging population in the world for a small local population of 2.5 million and for a tiny island like this, these figures are simply intolerable.

He has survived so far by importing huge plane loads of Communist Chinese from China but that is not solving the need for an English educated population.

Just like the frog in the well, he continues to push his people around while they on their part are secretly laughing at him, packing their bags and taking the next flight out.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
Fremont, California
Tel: 510 657 6107 or 510 491 4375

Singapore. Laws that every true Singaporean should break

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Singapore strongman Lee Kuan Yew and his family have managed to rule for the last 52 years thorough illegal laws and the ignorance of its people. Today with more and more Singaporeans with tertiary education with overseas travel, they are slowly becoming aware of their plight and this is now causing Lee's government intolerable levels of emigration to the West where they can live free, and their refusal to have babies, bringing Singapore’s fertility rate to the lowest in the world.

But as long as some Singaporeans remain with increasing numbers of third rate immigrants from China seeking a better life than the coolie lives that they lead, Lee's government can trudge along for a while longer.

But if any true Singaporean wants to restore freedom to his country which they are rightfully entitled to, they have to break some of these laws that prevent them from exercising their rights.

Firstly the newspapers. Remember, Singapore does not have a free press with every single newspaper and broadcast media controlled by the government. The Newspapers and Printing Act makes it illegal to print and publish anything unless you are licensed. So  Singaporeans should openly break this law which is deliberately intended to continue feeding with you state propaganda and nothing else.

Second, any peaceful protest requires a permit, which will be denied if you applied. This law is illegal. As long as you are denied the right to peacefully protest, you will continue a slave. If you want to be free, break this law. Protest without a permit and see what they will do.

Political parties require a permit before they can function. The idea is for the government to know who you are and to watch and monitor your activities, harass you and victimize you if you are opposition. This law is illegal. You should break it and be free.

Malays and Indians are prevented from living in any part of the island they wish and are required to live only in designated areas which the government will allow. This law is no different from apartheid in the South Africa's earlier days. Malays and Indians should stand up to this and live where ever they want by renting through their friends and relatives. If Lee's thugs from the Housing authority try to throw you out, stand and resist. This is what you should do to deny apartheid in Singapore.

Lee abuses the law to deny human rights to all and discriminates against those he does not like in the courts. Singaporeans should defy these unjust law judgments passed down by his Kangaroo courts and obstruct and thwart every possible attempt to enforce them.

Singaporeans both in Singapore and abroad should continue to write about Lee's one party totalitarian police state so that the world would increasingly become aware of what the island really is, an Island of Dr. Moreau.

Today, you see the world laughing at Lee Kuan Yew's island, the first thing they mention being his bizarre decision to ban chewing gum. By laws which cane and hang people, they look upon him as a thug who clings to power by brute force.

I urge local Singaporeans to deliberately and openly break these unjust laws. Every single act of civil disobedience which is both just and noble, should be done if you can for the sake of delivering your island from the clutches of the Lee Ruling Family.

You should openly proclaim no more Kangaroo Courts, no more laws to deny freedom and democracy and that you shall not rest until you can live free. That is what you Singaporeans should do, if you can, for your own sakes.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
Fremont, California
Tel: 510 657 6107 or 510 491 4375

Singapore Dissident. Very good news

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I should periodically report on the extent of this blog being read throughout the world. Here are the statistics as of today Sept 3, 2012.

The total number of reviews for the period May 2008 till now is 998,200, almost a million worldwide.

The top 10 countries reading the blog and the number of reviews over this period are:

Singapore	580847
United States	142458
Australia	40541
United Kingdom	36987
Malaysia	36764
Canada	27350
France	5097
Maldives	4569
Germany	4303
Netherlands	4080

Thanks again
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
Fremont, California

Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore. The need to keep citizens in the dark

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Singapore has a Constitution which guarantees citizens their human rights. But strangely, if you were to ask the average man on the street, if he knows about the Constitution, you will be surprised to know that he has never heard of it, let alone what it means.

A trip to the island’s national library law section will surprise you. There are no books on Constitutional law except for a couple or so which merely skim over the subject.

And here lies the dishonesty of the Lee Kuan Yew government.

You may want to correct my definition of Singapore by pointing out that it is his son that governs the island now and not Lee Kuan Yew, but just as almost everything else in that island which is make believe, so is the placing of his son by him as Prime Minister. Make no mistake; it is Lee Kuan Yew who is very much the dictator of Singapore regardless of who sits on the Prime Minister's chair.

One would have thought that a government which claims to govern under the power of a Constitution would have at least found it necessary to tell their people what it means. But here again is the mistake. Lee Kuan Yew has no intention whatsoever of obeying any Constitution because he thinks he knows best; what need therefore for any piece of paper called the Constitution.

And his belief is that the less the people knew about such things as rights, the better. It would be far easier to govern an ignorant people than people who thought they knew too much. Without knowing what your rights are, the government can do away with all that burden that Western democracies have, such as having to explain to your people your policies, and even worse, having to obey them.

If you look at the Constitution of Singapore, it has in fact all the rights that a free people are entitled to, such as freedom of speech, expression, assembly and the rule of law. But another careful look at it will show that every one of these rights is negated. Permits are needed to even peacefully assemble and any criticism of the Lee Ruling Family will result if a libel suit and your bankruptcy.

Lee's argument for the legality of such changes to the Constitution would be that the Constitution provides for this with a 2/3 majority in Parliament. Since Lee's Singapore’s have always had nearly all the seats at elections, these changes to the Constitution are technically legal.

But of course, just like everything else that meets the eye in Lee's Singapore turns out to be make believe, these elections themselves have always been completely illegal, because at every election, the opposition (I don't mean Workers Party style opposition) is routinely threatened, sued for defamation and even arrested making it impossible for them to run, leaving Lee's choice of candidates to be elected almost by default.

Since these elections are false anyway, these amendments to the Constitution by this phony Parliament are also false.

What we are left with today is a thoroughly intimidated and ignorant population who have no idea what all the fuss is about, since all they are concerned is 3 meals a day and to be left alone.

I have a security guard friend who lives in Veerasamy Road Singapore whom I have known since childhood. A few days ago, I spoke to him over the telephone complaining about Singapore turning into a police state where policemen can stop anyone anytime without rhyme or reason and ask any number of questions they want, or be arrested. Such police behavior is not allowed in any western democracy where they need probable cause before stopping anyone, the reason being the privy rights of the individual to ensure that the police do not become an overbearing force over it's citizens.

In fact this right is also stated in the Singapore Constitution just as it is in the American Constitution but the problem of course is that this security guard has never heard of it, and what is more, he was very upset about my trying to bring Western norms of freedom to his beloved island where there is 24 hours safety precisely because the police can stop you and arrest anyone they want anytime of the day!

And this security guard, with whom I have stopped discussing matters of this nature, which I should have realized would be a waste of time, since he obviously has no clue about such things as rights just as the vast majority of his fellow Singaporeans.

For him, it appears to me, each police action boils down to whether the officer acted reasonably; not whether he acted according to a set of rules. In other words, for him, if a police officer has suspected, without any rational basis whatsoever, that every Tamil walking along Singapore’s Little India is an illegal immigrant, he could do that if he wants. He could also stop everyone walking along the street to know if he had paid his taxes, whether they had committed any crime in the past or are they intending to, how old they are and how many children they had and where they lived. All these questions, according to him, directed at anyone anytime, are perfectly legitimate because he is keeping Singapore safe, unlike the crime ridden cities of the US (according to him) where people go around shooting everyone they want to any time of the day or night.

And I am sure he must be counting me a very lucky man to be still alive here in California after 20 years, with all the bullets flying around me!

This is total ignorance and Lee Kuan Yew has managed to keep almost an entire island of about 2.5 million local citizens at the same level of wisdom, or the lack of it, as this Veerasamy Road resident, who has taken the Lee Kuan Yew tale, hook line and sinker. 

Fascist regimes which find it easy to govern by keeping its citizens ignorant, as this security guard is, may for a time get away with it, but over a long period it will cause much more problems than they can solve.

For one, when the rule of law is denied and the people have lost confidence in their courts, they will take it out some other way, which they are already doing. Murders, robbery and other violent crime continues to climb since a large segment of the population simply cannot get justice, since government connected elites are either not charged or let off with small fines while the ordinary citizens gets the book thrown at him.

The same goes for monetary disputes and all other disputes. If you cannot rely on a government that does not believe in the rule of law, you simply either withdraw into your shell or just accept it, or you may take it out in a more violent way or you simply leave the island altogether if you can.

A reading of the local state controlled newspaper will tell you that crime is so rampant; it has almost become a crime hub. There are no less than 5 reports of loan sharks beating up their clients, robberies at elevators at housing complexes and the largest of them all are the fraud cases and cheating.

It is a very precarious sort of lifestyle. You never know when you are thrown out of your job, or when you would be arrested simply because Lee Kuan Yew does not like you.

In 2008 when I was in Singapore, you would recall that I was stopped by police because they claimed that I had knocked their police car. When I was accosted and asked for my name, I refused, not knowing who they were and in any case why should I tell them who I was. The next minute, I was arrested and locked up, and the charges were not that I had knocked their car but I had behaved in a disorderly manner and that I had yelled insults at them. They could have, if they wanted to come up with any number of charges, all plucked out of thin air. And the problem was that I refused to an admit guilt resulting in the case running a full 18 days of trial. At the end, you guessed it, I was found guilty. If the charge was that I broke into instantaneously singing the Blue Danube and dancing the Waltz, they would have found me guilty of that too.

If anyone of you reading this is aware of your rights and simply refuse to be pushed around by Big Brother, I am afraid you have a hard battle ahead. The vast majority of people have heads such as this security guard friend of mine and no extent of convincing will change his thinking.

The police officer feels he has a right to arrest anyone, the security guard thinks the policeman has that right, the civil servant feels that he ahs a right to deny privileges to Chee Soon Juan, a Lee Kuan Yew critic, and the judge feels it is his duty to bend the law to destroy political opponents.

It is a hopeless case.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
Fremont, California
Tel: 510 657 6107 or 510 491 4375

Fascist states always self destruct and Singapore is no exception

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The elements of a Fascist state is the control of all organs of power by a dictator or by an oligarchy leaving the citizens no choice but to obey or be destroyed.

In Singapore, the Lee Ruling Family, consisting of the father Lee Kuan Yew, who then places his son as the Prime Minister with himself a self styled title of Minister Mentor, controls everything and everybody in the island, not to mention the fact that that he is openly corrupt, with a salary each of 5 times the salary of the US President!

First is the control of the law.

Judges are appointed not on legal ability but their willingness to toe the line, where the law is routinely misused to destroy the Lee Ruling Family's political opponents. Examples are Dr. Chee Soon Juan, the late JB Jeyaretnam and I, as a result of which the citizenry loses all respect for the courts.

Second, every single government department is run, not on a set of laws but on policies which are arbitrarily set at any point of time and enforced on the person seeking redress.

Always you find that decisions are made favorably in the case of known supporters of the government whereas those who are known critics are deliberately denied redress.

Moreover ethnic Chinese Singapore citizens always receive preferential treatment over Malays and Indians as the Lee Ruling Family government has openly made known their racial preference as is seen by the overwhelming numbers of Chinese brought to Singapore and given citizenship whereas there is not single Malay given this benefit.

Increasing numbers of residents who have to live in close proximity with the recently arrived Chinese immigrants have had violent clashes with them because they do not appear to know how to live among people of other races and origins.

I have heard last week that some Malays in Teban Gardens Housing estate ended up having heated confrontation with their recently arrived Chinese neighbors who had insulted them on the way they look and the food they eat.

Last week I had received information about a similar incident in Queensway Housing Complex also involving recently arrived Chinese immigrants insulting local Indians resulting in a fracas which nearly turned violent.

I have been told that incidents like this happen nearly every day all over the island, some of them even turning violent and bloody. Since the entire news media is controlled by the Lee Ruling Family government, as expected in any Fascist state, the bulk of such instances are not reported so as to play down the seriousness of the issue and its likelihood to turn into island wide racial riots.

The only indication of this is the almost daily refrain you see in the local state controlled media of Lee's ministers urging people to be tolerant.

In the state controlled newspaper Straits Times of Aug 31, 2012, titled "Issue of foreigners dominates National Day Rally Forum", Lee Kuan Yew's Hen (his name is Ng Eng Hen, Lee's Minister) tries to urge Singaporeans to be kind to foreigners. http://www.straitstimes.com/archive/friday/breaking-news/singapore/story/issue-foreigners-dominates-national-day-rally-forum-20120831

On Sept 3, 2012 issue of the same state controlled newspaper, there is the story "Public Feedback on population issues pouring in".

The Lee government after having decided to bring in unlimited planeloads of Chinese from Communist China to settle among Singapore locals and finding that violent clashes are becoming commonplace among these close proximity neighbors, have suddenly realized they have no answers to the problem they created, and have turned to Singaporeans, I must add in desperation, to provide the answers, not something unusual for the Lee government to do in such instance.  Frankly I don’t think they will find the answers they are seeking.

Also on Sept 03, 2012 in the same newspaper we have the story "Be big hearted, Lawrence Wong urges Singaporeans". http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/be-big-hearted-lawrence-wong-urges-singaporeans-20120903

Again another desperate plea on the part of the government which appears to have run out of ideas for calm.

But the problem with Singapore and other fascist regimes in commonplace situations like this one is this. They simply cannot solve the problem, as fascism simply does not have the tools for civilized conflict resolution. The people in such regimes have no respect for their government or their ability to dispense justice. Therefore the government can only continue under the threat of force and subjugation, not through fair and just dispute resolution.

The Malay or Indian Singaporean who has been discriminated by the Housing administration in favor of an ethnic Chinese is going to harbor his hatred for the regime and its administration, and having no other recourse for justice, will naturally at some point turn violent to vent his anger. He is going to beat up the first ethnic Chinese from Communist China that he sees.

This is not a sentiment felt only by ethnic Malays or Indians but also Singapore Chinese. How would they feel if another recently arrived Chinese immigrant accepts a job at half the pay he needs to survive, leaving him and his family unemployed and impoverished? It is only natural for him to beat up the first Chinese from China that he sees along Toa Payoh Lorong 1, Singapore. Can anyone blame him for that?

In democracies, you have organs of state based on the rule of law. The courts are respected and justice is dispensed not based on who you are but on the merits of your case. Housing departments have a set of rules and laws that govern disputes which is public. An aggrieved party in entitled to appeal. At the end of the day, the loser goes away, knowing that justice has nevertheless been served.

This is not the case in Singapore. There are no open hearings. You are not given the reasons for any decision, and having practiced law in Singapore for 10 years before I came to California, I know the disgraceful sentence they always write : "Having carefully considered your case, we regret to inform you that you are unsuccessful".

Nothing is said as to why wherefore or whatever. They might as well have said "Having considered your nose to be too long, instead of the Chinese stubbed nose, we regret to inform you that you have failed"

In fascist regimes, where discontent does not have an outlet, it always ends in violence, or people getting out for settlement abroad, or their refusal to co-operate in work or anything else. Productivity falls, public anger increases and the island slowly grinds to a halt. This is exactly what is happening in the Lee Ruling Family's Singapore.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
Fremont, California USA
Tel: 510 657 6107 or 510 491 4375

Singapore. Anti foreigner vitroil can damange the island's reputation says Lee Kuan Yew's son. What else did he expect

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Lee Kuan Yew's son who rules Singapore (the Lee ruling family) has admitted that the hatred against foreigners in Singapore is mounting and it hurts Singapore’s image. Of course it will. What else did he expect?

See Singapore state controlled newspaper Straits Times article of Aug 26, 2012 titled "Anti foreigner vitriol can damage Singapore's reputation: PM Lee. http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/anti-foreigner-vitriol-can-damage-singapores-reputation-pm-lee-2012082

It is disappointing to see in it, his blaming native Singaporeans and not the foreigners by reducing the issue to simply whether the foreigners are right or local Singaporeans are right and either deliberately or through ignorance (I would think it is very much the former), ignoring the underlying reasons behind this trend.  

For instance he says "that bad behavior from foreigners provoke an overwhelming response while bad Singaporean behavior goes uncriticized". Frankly if you knew how he and his father Lee Kuan Yew are hurting local Singaporeans in every possible way in their own country, and favoring foreigners, it is small wonder why Singaporeans haven't yet got to the throats of every single foreigner they see.

He then goes on to quote several instances where foreigners have been good to Singaporeans and therefore presumably expects Singaporeans to be nice to them.

Lee Kuan Yew's son who has been appointed Prime Minister by his father and is now dictating to us (he has been dictating to Singaporeans for decades), appears not to know the underlying reasons for this hatred. Very convenient indeed.

Let me at least enunciate them for the benefit of the reader.

In Singapore foreigners are treated equally with Singaporeans even though they have had no relationship with Singapore in the past, and are total strangers to the island. They could just arrive in Singapore at Changi, stay a couple of days in a hotel, casually look at the local jobs vacant column, apply for a job and be hired the next day, no questions asked.

This is a totally unacceptable policy. In every other country in the world, the local citizens are given priority over jobs and residential rights. Citizenship has to mean at least something, surely. In every other place, a foreigner is required to go through a process to show local people are unavailable or unwilling to accept the job, and only then and then alone, is the foreigner given the job. This is not so in Singapore.

And if that is not bad enough, the reality in Singapore is even worse. Very often, foreigners who are usually alone without families and who come from the nearby impoverished countries are willing to accept far lower salaries, they are not bound by local national service requirements which causes disruption from work, which makes them far more attractive to employers. A local on the other hand cannot live on a few hundred dollars having to support a wife and children.

In this uneven playing field, why when the Singapore employer who can get away with paying less and moreover have an employee who will not leave each year for military service, not employ him.

In fact, the sad truth is that, increasing numbers of Singaporeans are thrown into unemployment while foreigners enjoy full employment, in a country that has no social security net whatsoever for the unemployed.

Unless the Lee Ruling Family of Singapore have their brains in their backsides, they have no concern whatsoever for the plight of local Singaporeans and the day when they will make it fair for them is the day Satan will go to work on a snow sledge.

Personally I am against violence and would urge Singaporeans to use non violent means such as peaceful protests to reverse this policy of advancing the interests of foreigners in Singapore, although I have heard of increasing incidents of violence against foreigners by Singaporeans because of this and I have to say that I can fully understand why.

However as a man who believes that violence is not only useless and counter productive, it can also lead to totally unexpected negative consequences. Therefore no violence please. You should manage to get your way using peaceful methods.  I am sure of that.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
Fremont, California
Tel: 510 657 6107 or 510 491 4375