Singapore will not change without peaceful protests

Ladies and Gentlemen,

If you are content living in an island where you have no freedom of the press (all newspapers are state controlled); where there is no rule of law and any open criticism of the government invites arrest and bankruptcy through the courts; where in order to be left alone, you should be a government supporter; then you should have no problem living in Lee's Singapore where the Lee Ruling Family rules as dictators.

Otherwise you either have to leave the country for a life elsewhere or you have to attempt somehow to restore democracy, which unfortunately entails the risk of punishment.

But one thing has to be remembered, the Lee Ruling Family of the father (Lee Kuan Yew) and his son team are not going to allow freedom anytime soon, not in Singapore and not in any other dictatorship in the world including Syria.

And another thing that has to be remembered is this. Dictatorships never allowed democracy to take root through elections, not in Bashar al Assad's Syria, not in the former Egypt of Mubarak nor in the late Sadam Hussein's Iraq. And neither will Lee's Singapore dictatorship ever become a democracy with his blessing.

This one thing has to be remembered. The Lee family will hold on to power for as long as they can and by hook or by crook. It is so in all dictatorships. It really does not matter for whom or how you vote every 5 years. The Lees are fully aware that public opinion is moving steadily against them, and to counter this, they are slowly infiltrating the opposition and turning it into their partners.

At the last election, about 40% of the electorate voted for the opposition. But in reality, they didn't get a single real opposition politician into Parliament. What they did was to turn the Workers Party into the PAP. So what the public got is 2 PAPs instead of one. The actual PAP comprised of the Lee Ruling Family and the other PAP with Low Thia Khiang and his friends. All they do is to ask innocuous questions, which the Lees will simply ignore and they all happily go home to make even more silly arguments the next day.

Why does Low Thia Khaing behave in this disgraceful way? Because the Lees have made an offer to him which he simply cannot refuse. It must be so. Either play ball with me or else, detention without trial, trumped up criminal charges, defamation actions and bankruptcy. So he does what any other man without principles would have done. He agrees to play Lee's game.

Low Thia Khaing has been in Parliament for 2 decades. During this time he has made countless speeches in Parliament and I am sure he would make countless more. But your life has not become one bit freer; in fact your freedoms have become even less.

You are sadly mistaken if you think anything will change with one Low Thia Khiang or a hundred Low Thia Khiangs. And by that time, it will take so long that you would all be dead by then. What good is that?

Egypt did not change through elections, Tunisia did not change through elections, Libya did not change through elections, and Singapore will not change through elections either. It really does not matter that Lee Kuan Yew is not Bashar al Assad Lee Kuan Yew, he is no different. Like any other tyrant, Bashar al Assad Lee Kuan Yew or just Lee Kuan Yew are all the same. He will cling to power. Because if he let slip, there is too much to lose. For one he would lose the ability to steal $2.7 million a year for himself and every one of his family members by calling it a salary. All his friends and cronies in high places with cushy jobs would suddenly have to vacate their palaces and themselves, and we do not know what more he will have to put up with.

If you do not protest now, 2016 elections will come and go, you may vote in even larger numbers for the opposition but what you get is nothing but Low Thia Khiang clones.

If you need change, you will have to take to the streets; there is no other way. You must demand that Lee stops stealing your money. You must demand a free press. You must demand the rule of law and you must demand transparency.

True, you will be arrested. But in today's world it is difficult to lock you up and throw the key away. Far too many people are watching. He would have to release you. You must do it again. This fact of his arresting you for no crime whatsoever will be public knowledge. The injustice of the government would be plain for all to see. A few more will join and with the government's harsh response, which we can expect with time, more and more will join.

This sort of thing is perfect in a crowded built up city like Singapore where every action of the government is subject to wide and minute public scrutiny, both within and outside Singapore. Very quickly the government will have to decide either to give in to your just demands or be condemned as another brutal dictatorship which puts down its own citizens.

The Lee family are a bunch of cowards. They only dare to bully you as long as you allow them to do it. If you stand up to it, they usually back off as bullies always do. Chee Soon Juan is a perfect example. Since they know that Chee would not budge, it appears they have decided to go soft on him.

It is my duty to do what I can from wherever I am. If I can convince public opinion on the efficacy of this approach, then I should do it.

I am convinced that this is the right approach if you want to see change in a dictatorship like Singapore anytime soon.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
Fremont, CA USA
Tel: 510 491 4375

Singapore's biggest problems; it's brain drain and third rate immigrants

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Singapore is a tiny island, tiny speck, with no more than 2.5 million or so local born and another 2.5 million or so, recently arrived Chinese immigrants from Communist China, mostly illiterate of any English.

With such a small tiny miniscule base to start with, any amount of emigration of its people, however small, must raise alarm bells. What will they do if this already tiny population decides to leave? There would be none left!

But in fact that is exactly what is happening. Among the already tiny local born population, there is an even tinier educated class, most of them wanting to leave if they can. In a survey among students and teenagers not long ago, about 60% stated, if given a chance they would emigrate to the West.

As we speak Singaporeans continue to leave for the West for settlement, mainly to Australia. Several newspaper reports have appeared giving the figures leaving as about 1300 a year. As this figure only reflects the head of households, if you add the spouses and children, many more are actually leaving, an unbearable figure for a tiny island, and mounting.

As you can imagine from these figures, Singapore is clearly not an attractive place in the world to migrate to. It is well known that the United States is the most attractive place for migrants attracting the best and brightest from across the world. Trailing closely behind are countries like Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Western Europe.

Every single Nobel Prize class scientist, Olympic athletes, performers, you name it from across the world seek out America as their country of choice. I can tell you it’s not just because of the money. It is also because America is a proud respected country, not a pariah state with a Lee Kuan Yew running around bullying everyone in sight.

As for Singapore, if its own citizens are desperately trying to flee, you can safely assume that it is probably very low down the totem pole for migrants.

Over the last few years, you have seen Singapore state controlled newspaper reports of Lee Kuan Yew and other top Singapore officials going to the places where Singaporeans have gone, such as Sydney and San Francisco, trying to beg them to return, as it is these Singaporeans, the best and the brightest, who have left.

Unfortunate for Lee's government none of these repeated attempts at persuasion appears to have succeeded and now it appears they have just about given up, resigned to the fact that Singaporeans who have gone to the West find their new homes far more desirable than Lee's fascist Singapore. They simply will not return. Can anyone blame them?

Singapore’s Lee has brought in large numbers of recent Chinese immigrants. There are also some Indians from India, mostly software engineers. None of these people qualify for the West which is why they chose Singapore instead, where they can earn a few more measly dollars than they could have in their impoverished homelands. The moment any of them are able to leave for the West, it would be Adios Singapore the very instant.

These people are simply second rate, and they are in Singapore simply because no one else will take them.

To anyone with eyes, it must be obvious why the Unites States and Western countries are so attractive while Singapore is so unpopular. Every human being, in addition to the need for money, also wants security in life and living. In the West you can depend on having a secure dependable life. Why, because you have the rule of law, because you have fundamental rights, the right to speak freely without fear of arrest and to know that your rights are protected by an independent judiciary.

Singapore is unpopular for all except the ignorant masses because it does not guarantee these rights. One has perforce to be insecure in Lee's Singapore. The courts have lost their credibility with judges repeatedly abusing the law to punish government critics, banning critical newspapers and deporting people such as me whom they find uncomfortable, despite the fact that I was born and raised in Singapore.

What you have today is a shrinking English speaking local population who are determined to go to the West in ever larger numbers. Those remaining are the food stall vendors, taxi drivers and bus boys that have little or no education. Their children who go to Singapore schools are taught in a strict regimen of brain washing, rote learning and toeing the line. There is no creativity, or independent thinking whatsoever; since how can you with Lee breathing down your neck and threatening to send you to jail any minute!

What is going to happen is this. With time, the local English educated population is going to shrink even lower from the already low number of 2.5 million. This is because of the additional problem of their lowest birth rate in the world and the world's rapidly dying old people who are not being replaced.

Since no one with any real quality or talent would ever think of going to Singapore, you are left with the ubiquitous recent immigrant from China who knows no English, a few Australians who temporarily work there for what they call, an Asian experience, a few East Europeans trying to escape from their even poorer former Soviet Bloc countries and that are that.

Such a polyglot mishmash of people just thrown together in a small island will have no common direction, no purpose and no common objective. Moreover the recent incidents of foreigner hatred and violence have been increasing and these people have been tearing at each other. As the Singaporean population continues to decline these incidents of racial hatred and xenophobia will only climb.

At the end you will find only Lee's family and friends remaining and an entire island full of people from elsewhere with no Singaporeans left. I don't think such a place can get very far. Nay, simply impossible.

As if all this is not bad enough, we have the 90 year old Lee the dictator, about the kick the bucket any minute. That I think will break the camel's back once and for all.

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

Singapore lawyers are simply not interested

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Although Singapore Island has 5 million people, it has only 3000 or so lawyers!

This figure cannot be accurately be verified as any telephone call to the Singapore Law Society  is invariably answered by a demand that I should officially write a letter for this seemingly innocuous request. I can only assume that even the number of lawyers practicing in Lee's Singapore has to be kept a secret, perhaps because they are ashamed to admit to this totally inadequate number.

Upright principled young men and women shun the legal profession, as it is seen to be used for political purposes to destroy the opposition. Secondly anyone who is seen as someone refusing to show support for Lee's government will not be accepted.

And those who for one reason or another do decide to be lawyers are seen completely indifferent on how their profession is run, since I suppose they know that they can do nothing about it anyway, since it is directly controlled by Lee's government, who will do whatever they want anyway.

Recently there was a case reported in the state controlled papers of a lawyer with bipolar disorder being confronted with another lawyer sent by the Singapore Law Society in court trying to persuade the judge not to allow him to practice law because he has had a relapse in his condition. Some 50 lawyers or so took umbrage to this unwelcome intrusion into the court and had filed a Motion in the floor asking the Society to explain itself.

It is also reported that at the hearing of the Motion, no more tan 500 lawyers attended, a large number by Singapore standards since even at Annual General Meetings, a very important annual occasion, not more than 300 attend.

See http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/law-society-egm-fails-settle-m-ravi-issue-20120925

Imagine these facts. You have a tiny island which is packed with 5 million people, yet it has only 3,000 lawyers or maybe even less; at each general meeting no more than 300 attend; in this case some 50 lawyers filed a Motion and 500 attended for the hearing of the Motion.

Pathetic I think is the word to explain these negligible numbers. But can anyone blame them for this total disinterest, since government lawyers routinely destroy opposition through judges misusing the courts and success at the Bar only comes provided you are seen as a government sympathizer.

As you can see, the administration of the law in Lee’s Singapore has been totally discredited.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
Fremont, CA USA
Tel: 510 491 4375

Singapore. What sort of people are they, anyway

Ladies and Gentlemen,

These are the grim facts about Singapore Island.

Singapore Island is a tiny place which is not more than 26 miles across and 16 miles perpendicular, at the southernmost tip of the Malay Peninsula. In this tiny little crowded place is packed about 5 million people, of which only about 2.5 million are born there. The rest are recent immigrants bought in mainly from Communist China which the ethic Chinese Ruling Family, the Lee Family, prefers over other races.

This tiny island has one of the most corrupted governments in the world, run by the Lee Ruling Family. Lee Senior, even though he is 89 and hardly coherent and almost senile and good for nothing, pays himself no less than about $2.7 million a year, 5 times that of Obama; taxpayers’ money. So does his son and every member of his family, and except for his son, they do no work to earn a penny of it.

As if this was not enough, they have their paws in every kitty. They give themselves directorships in every single government owned company which they created themselves using taxpayers money and siphon off even more from them, literally doing nothing for it. Their sources of income are not disclosed and any attempt to force them to do it, will result in your being bankrupted through libel actions in their Kangaroo Courts.

In fact there is anecdotal evidence that Lee Senior and his son are richer than Bill Gates by a mile, with numbered accounts in almost every single Swiss Bank in existence, villas in the French Rivera, London Paris and Rome. The only reason why they don’t live the lavish lives they can is because they don’t want to end up as another King Louis of France at the guillotine and a missing head.

The entire media is state controlled and any attempt by anyone to publish anything without a permit will result in imprisonment. Even the ownership of a printing press is illegal without government consent.

There is no right to free speech, expression, assembly or any other rights which one would take for granted in Australia or other respected countries.

Simply put, a Singaporean has no voice. Any attempt to demand answers to government actions will result in dismissals from employment, victimization, libel lawsuits, bankruptcy and even imprisonment.

But yet Singaporeans pay their taxes and appear not to complain, living their lives quietly and unobtrusively. If this sort of thing would have been happening anywhere else, the people would be up in arms, and doing summersaults outside Lee's Palace demanding to have answers this very minute come Hell or high water. Very unusual Singaporean indeed.

One cannot avoid hurting the feelings of the average Singaporean but the truth has to be told. The simple answer is, the vast majority of Singaporeans are simply ignorant. They have no idea that they have any rights, because they have never been told of it. And on the principle of what you do not know cannot hurt you, this ignorant lot simply go on with their lives in bliss.

The average Singaporean goes through life in school, learning to read and write, some science, some mathematics and the usual regular subjects. Others who are not smart enough go to trade schools and learn air conditioning, carpentry or diesel mechanics technician course. Most stop school after this and only a small percentage continue to tertiary education.

The vast majority end up as clerks in banks and government offices while others purse their trade as mechanics and technicians. Their education, if you can call it that, equips them to get a job and do their work, nothing more. They are incapable of thinking beyond that.

Those who go on to higher education become accountants, engineers or other professions. Singapore universities make no effort to educate these students more than what they need to know to do their jobs. Nothing more. Therefore the Singapore trained engineer is only able to think as far as his job is concerned. He might become a very able engineer but it will never cross his mind to question the Lee Ruling Family as to what gives them the right to steal his money in the tune of $2.7 million each since he is a taxpayer and this is simply corruption.

Not a single one of the couple of colleges in Singapore has any books on human rights, Constitutional law or John Stuart Mill on Liberty. It will never cross the mind of a Singaporean ever to articulate a phrase such as "It is far better to die a brave man than a coward" or to cry out "Defy authority" not even in his dreams.

This indifference to one's rights is reinforced through fear which the Lee Ruling Family has assiduously cultivated in the minds of Singaporeans. They fear Lee's wrath which makes them go into a state of freeze. It is even further reinforced by this stupid notion of Asian Confucius which extols the virtue of respect for authority. In the Chinese way of thinking, a good man is one that keeps his mouth shut and obeys Lee and his son because they happen to be the rulers and you happen to be no better than a slave.

In the end, I can only say this. It is a society geared to ensure the perpetual rule of the Lee Ruling Family. It is also a society which does not have much quality. People who are perennially afraid do not make good citizenship material. They can never come up with new ideas because they are programmed only to follow, not lead. You also never find true patriotism or loyalty in such a country because it is impossible to be loyal or patriotic to a government which simply steals your money in broad daylight and puts you in jail if you complain.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
Fremont, CA, USA
Tel: 510 491 4375

Singapore Lee Ruling Family's stranglehold on power

*PS.09/18/2012. Remember the Lee Ruling Family of Singapore have never had any respect for the Rule of Law or even the principles of Parliamentary Democracy. Lee Senior has repeatedly said that only he knows best and he could rule much better on his own without the need for any elections.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Never in history have dictatorships and totalitarian regimes among which is Singapore, have ever willingly ceded power; they always have had to be forced out.

We are seeing great shift in their support on the ground. In the last election, Lee Ruling Family's PAP only succeeded in getting 60% of the votes and the opposition had seen the largest shift in their favor, 40%. If the trend is to continue, we can expect the opposition to get even more, perhaps even 60% and turning the tables the other way round.

But the question is, even if the opposition gets the majority, will the Lee Ruling Family ever cede power? I think not. They have too much to lose.

Singaporeans when voting for the opposition were of course thinking that they are getting opposition representatives. But the Lees had no such intention ever to give up even an inch of control. So they did the best they can under the circumstances. They permitted an opposition in Parliament but one which was actually their representatives anyway. Today the Workers Party which won 6 seats are in fact Lee's representatives and have nothing to do at all with the opposition. They are in Parliament performing at a theater, which is to behave like the opposition but make no effort to unseat Lee's PAP even one bit. This way, with the mirage of an opposition, the Lee Ruling Family are still calling all the shots, as they have continuously done the last 52 years.

Recently Lee's government has agreed to lift Chee Soon Juan's bankruptcy and alluding to the fact that he may contest the next elections in 2016. Question is, will they even allow him to win? Just as in every other one party police state in the world, the government can actually decide who wins and who loses. If they wanted Chee to win, their agents would knock on every door in the area demanding they vote him in. If not, they could do the same and intimidate and threaten everyone to not vote for him. And if these tactics did not realize the desired result, they would just as in every other one party state, just shove the ballot boxes.

Can you imagine what it would be, for Lees to willingly hand over power? The tenure of all their judges would be questioned, all their repressive laws would be questioned, their corrupt payments to their friends and cronies of millions of taxpayer’s money would be questioned, and they suddenly find themselves accountable in more ways than one. No, there is simply too much at stake for them to quietly go away no matter what.

In any case, even if the opposition were to succeed, the Lees can make sure that there is no change on the ground. Remember Ministers and Members of Parliament don't run the island, civil servants do. So if necessary, regardless of who sits in Parliament, government departments run by Lee’s sympathizers can continue taking orders from them and the Ministers can do nothing about it.

The only way there can be true change and dictatorships are toppled are not through the ballot box, they are through public protests and civil disobedience. There is simply no other way. If anyone ever thought that Chee Soon Juan is the harbinger of change because he can contest elections or because the electorate has voted out the Lee ruling Family, I would say, think again. Nothing will happen for ions of years. If they are determined to hang on to power no matter what, as they are now, you will have to be content with at least another 50 years of rule by the Lee Ruling Family.

This is why I have always felt that the only way to change Singapore from what it is today, an open party police state, is to engage in mass protests across the island to demand the rights which are rightfully yours. Peaceful protests are a very powerful tool in a crowded city like Singapore. A demand for a free press, or the rule of law, or the abolition of the Internal Security Act will bring immediate results. Lee's government will simply not be able to justify their denial of rights, and once you have succeeded in one case, every other case becomes much easier. This government will simply collapse under such an attack and you will see democracy for once, I can guarantee you that.

For a one party police state like Singapore, there is really no other answer than to take to the streets in demanding what is rightly yours, your freedom. You simply don’t have to live in a state where all the newspapers are state controlled; where there is no freedom of speech and you can be arrested and bankrupted at the slightest criticism of the government or members of the Lee ruling Family; where there is no rule of law; where the Family can get away with paying themselves and their friends $2.7 million a year each; where they can simply use the Internal Security Act and lock you away for decades without trial; where Malays and Indians have to live as second class citizens and Mandarin Chinese recently arrived from China are now the preferred citizens!

As Orwell said in Animal Farm, 4 legs good, 2 legs better. Today, Chinese from China in Singapore are the ones with the 2 legs, while Singapore citizens born and raised in Singapore have 4.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
Fremont, CA, USA
Tel: 510 491 4375

Singapore. Congratulations Chee Soon Juan. Should we rejoice or is it too early to tell

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In a surprise move, after the Lee Ruling Family had for about 3 decades, sued him for defamation in the courts, jailed him repeatedly and holding him under literal house arrest, denying him the right to engage in politics, denying him the right to travel out of Singapore, now suddenly out of the blue, they are about to release him from bankruptcy and allow him to contest parliamentary elections in Singapore.

Please see the article in Singapore state controlled newspaper the Straits Times dated Sept 11, 2012, "Chee's offer of $30K to settle case accepted by former leaders" http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/chees-offer-30k-settle-case-accepted-former-leaders-20120911

It sounds almost too good to be true, but is it? I am not so sure.

If indeed the Lee Ruling Family who have kept Singapore island under their iron grip for the last 52 years, jailing and bankrupting anyone who dared threaten their monopoly on power have suddenly become magnanimous and embraced democracy, it would indeed be an unprecedented event anywhere in the world in it's entire history, because we know that no tyrant has ever willingly agreed to share power with anyone.

Singapore today is, as you know almost the private property of the Lee Ruling Family. They control the press, the entire media, the law courts, all the big businesses and Housing and Development Board in whose apartments almost every single Singaporean lives. There is no right to free speech or expression, no right to peaceful assembly and anyone criticizing them is liable to defamation charges and a prompt bankruptcy.

We also know that without such repression over their people, the Lee ruling Family would not be able to last a day without being overthrown.

In these circumstances, by releasing Chee Soon Juan, the Lee Family's most strident and implacable critic, is the government trying to tell us that they have now had a paradigm shift from dictatorship to democracy, which would also automatically mean the end of the absolute control of the Lees over his people?

Also remember, that as far as we know till now, Chee has been the only one who has all along publicly championed the right to free speech and expression, the right to a free press, the rule of law, the right to assembly and every other right that democracies enjoy around the world.

By allowing Chee to take part in politics, are they now saying that they accept the need to restore democracy to Singapore, which by extension would be the end of their own power?

I think not. My following observations lead me to that belief.

Firstly, you would have noticed that since 2008, the time I was last in Singapore and deported from the island, Chee had not engaged anymore in public protests; not a single one; whereas in the past he had carried them out numerous times, either alone or with others, as his belief always was (and rightly so) that the Lee dictatorship cannot be toppled without peaceful civil disobedience. In fact his idols have all along been as far as I know, men like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King who brought down the British Empire and racial discrimination in America.

Secondly we have noticed that many who were with him in the struggle for decades are now nowhere to be seen. Gandhi Ambalam was his right had man and Chairman of his party for decades. Today, Gandhi is no longer the Chairman or even in his party, the Singapore Democratic Party, replaced by Jufrie Mahmood.

He also had a youth wing associated with the party which had activists such as Seelan Pallay and Kai Xiong, who were both arrested for numerous peaceful democracy political protests throughout the island. They are no longer seen either with him or his party.

I myself used to be a regular contributor to his blog the Singapore Democrat in the past, and was close to him and his party during my visit to Singapore in 2008 which ended up in my arrest for criticizing Judge Belinda Ang Saw Ean, Lee's Kangaroo judge for misusing the law to bankrupt and jail him. I have to say that the help he gave me during that time was beyond measure for which I would be forever grateful.

At some point of time after 2008, I was given the cold shoulder and received several Emails from anonymous people that I should no longer associate myself with Chee's party because Chee is trying to get into Parliament and radicals such as I would become an impediment. I am of course not sure wheather those Emails were either from his party members or from the government’s cyber brigade, an organization set up like a 5^th Column intended to harass and intimidate Lee’s opponents.

Although conjecture and I have no real evidence of this, I believe that Chee in his need to somehow get into Parliament has decided that the only way to do it is not to anger the Singapore Superman Lee Kuan Yew and that open challenges such as public protests will not further that plan.

But I want to tell Dr. Chee, if indeed that is his plan, that this is not the way. One has to do the right thing. And the right thing is to demand that the rights that people are supposed to enjoy must be resorted to the people first, before anything else. There can simply be no dialogue and no debate until and unless the Lee Ruling Family is made to accept this fact. And the only way to get these rights back is to protest, demonstrate and agitate until such time the Lees finally give in, because otherwise Chee would serve no purpose in Parliament.

People should realize that Parliamentary debates make no sense and are useless, unless these fundamental rights are restored to the people. It makes no sense to argue that cost of living should be reduced if the government would simply ignore it, because they control the press, because they can arrest anyone they want, and because they control the police and courts and could bankrupt anyone the moment you criticize.

If indeed Chee Soon Juan is going into Parliament to become another Loh Thia Khiang of the Workers Party, which claims to be opposition, but is in fact merely an extension of Lee's PAP, it is not going to do any good to anyone.

I would ask Chee to remember, that he carries with him the hope of countless Singaporeans, both within and outside Singapore as the torch bearer for democracy. They have waited very long for this, and so have I, and I hope Chee would have the courage to do the right thing, and not be another Workers Party because with them, Hell will freeze over and Satan would ride to work in a snow sledge.

It should be either democracy or none at all. I think many Singaporeans think this way too. Otherwise we might as well embrace the Workers Party. I hope Chee Soon Juan takes heed.

Congratulations Chee Soon Juan. Please do the right thing. We depend on you.

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

Lee's Singapore an arbitrary country. Arbitrary rules, arbitrary policies, arbitrary laws and arbitrary justice

Ladies and Gentlemen,

What are the criteria for a world class first world country? Such a country has the rule of law, laws which tell a citizen exactly what the rules are, what the policies are and who fails and who qualifies for any benefit.

A first world country which is transparent, where one knows regardless of race, creed, religion, membership of a group or political opinion exactly where one stands at any point of time. It is a country that has the courage to treat everyone equally under the law and the courage to uphold what is written in the Constitution.

Countries such as the UK, USA, Australia or Europe; even small countries such as Finland, Denmark, are such countries. All of these countries are governed by laws which are religiously equally applied to everyone. Where you know exactly where you stand if you applied to emigrate there, exactly where you stand if you applied for housing, exactly where you stand if you were arrested. These are countries which mean what they say. Countries which have the courage to criminalize racial discrimination, countries which are required to provide equal opportunity for all regardless of who you are.

For instance, if I were to be brought before a British court, I would feel much safer than if I were before a Singapore court; not because of the crime I committed but because of who I am. I don’t have to worry about that before a British judge because I know I will be treated equally regardless of who I was or what my political opinion is. Why, because the British has the courage to do what is right; while the Singaporean one is afraid of the Lee Ruling Family.

Singapore is not like the proud free countries of the world. Singapore would be no better than a third world country, no different from the dictatorships of Central Asia or Africa which govern on the dictates of the rulers at any one time.  

Singapore is a tiny island with a tiny population; 2.5 million local and 2.5 million foreigners (5 million in all).

For example Singapore immigration does not publicly state its requirements, such as the points system of Australia. Instead they provide broad generalizations; where the government does not have a duty to be fair in their judgment.

Recently at a student seminar, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Singapore Deputy Prime Minister ( I understand Singapore has several Deputy Prime Ministers), when asked why they did not have a point system for immigration like Canada and Australia gave the lame excuse that they could not because they were a multi racial society. The questioner should have asked why, since Australia is also a multi racial society.

In the end, although different persons may have the same qualifications and skills, the ones chosen for settlement are those who are docile timid and unlikely to question the Lee Ruling Party. Also, totally devoid of any fairness, the vast majority of those selected are from Communist China, primarily because the Lees would prefer Chinese over Malays or Indians to populate Singapore, a racist immigration policy.

What this means in the end is that those denied immigration unfairly are going to return to their countries and condemn Singapore among others as nothing more than a banana republic, where the immigration laws are entirely arbitrary. I remember a highly qualified American professor who was denied permanent residence; undoubtedly because they were afraid he would question the Lee Ruling Family’s fascist government.

Housing policies, government employment recruitment and every other government agency are not governed by any publicly known rules and regulations but simply on what the government decides in any particular case. For example, anyone seen to have opposition political tendencies or views would be denied public employment, public housing, or if given housing given the worst of them, refused scholarships and generally discriminated and victimized entirely at the whim of the Lee Ruling Family.

Children in schools are unjustly given bad scores if known to have opposition political views or have parents or relatives who are opposition sympathizers. Also such children are refused admission in Singapore colleges to prevent them from receiving an education. Unless they are sufficiently rich to go abroad for an education, they end up without tertiary education, the fear being that educating such students would endanger the Lee Ruling Family’s position.

Moreover all government agencies never give any reasons for their decisions. Regardless of whether you were denied housing, a job, or immigration or any other government benefit, the standard answer we get, which we all know by heart which we have seen millions of times is

"having considered your application carefully, we regret to inform you that your application is denied".

The funny thing is that ever if you responded to this standard letter asking reasons, you will still get the same response

"having considered your application carefully, we regret to inform you that your application is denied".

The government feels they have no responsibility to justify their actions to their citizens.

As for Lee Kuan Yew's courts of Singapore the laws are unevenly applied to different people. For instance, a foreign bank manager who beat up a taxi driver is usually let off without arrest. Foreign Caucasian males, who sexually molest Singapore Chinese women in bars and nightclubs are allowed to pay a fine (usually $5,000) to the woman, apologize and let off.

If any of these crimes were committed by local Singaporeans, whom the government does not very much care for, the penalty is usually a considerable time in jail.

Extreme punishments, victimization and harassment are reserved for those who stand up to the Lee regime. In this category fall persons like Chee Soon Juan and I. How it is done is like this. First they publicize your identity and picture widely in the local newspapers so that everyone will see who you are. From that point, you are denied every possible benefit that others receive.

If I was in Singapore, no hotel would want to put me up, none would give me a job and no government office would provide any service. From that point, Singaporeans would feel as if it was a patriotic duty to refuse any service to me.

In my case, I was put in jail for criticizing the Kangaroo Judge Ang Saw Ean, disallowed from practicing law in Singapore and prohibited from even entering the island.

What happens then, in an arbitrary island such as this, is for people not only in Singapore but all over the world to disrespect the country, and consider it nothing more than a banana republic, run at the whim and fancy of the Lee Ruling Family who run it.

Because of the large numbers of citizens who emigrate to the west as a result of a total disgust at they way Lee's island is run, Singapore has no choice but to bring in foreigners. But their make up shows the double standards it's rulers employ because they fear people who may have the courage to stand up to this nonsense.

So, many of the professionals who do high level work from Australia and Europe are usually only permanent residents and not citizens. In any case, I don't think people from Western democracies would want to take up citizenship in such as police state anyway, as they have more pride than that. And as for the government, they are reluctant to give them citizenship for fear that Westerners, accustomed to living in democracies, would not be prepared to take such nonsense from this tin pot dictator.

On the other hand most given citizenship are Chinese from Communist China. Why, because just as they lived in their home country, they are very much at home under a dictator; in China the Chinese Communist Party and in Singapore the Lee Ruling Family. Therefore they are ideal citizens to simply submit to authority, which is what the Lee Ruling Family wants. They have no idea of freedom or anything as serious as that, and quiet happy to have their 3 meals and go hone to watch a Chinese soap opera on TV; people who are very suitable candidates for Lee Ruling Family's Singapore.

In the end the West retains its pride and its reputation for being countries that one can trust; where one can live free. Whereas Singapore is a country where you will get along provided Lee Kuan Yew takes a liking to you, and you are not about to question him.

It is nothing more than an arbitrary country, with arbitrary rules, arbitrary policies, arbitrary laws and arbitrary justice.

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