Ladies and Gentlemen,
An occurrence which is sure to happen by the law of nature, and by the subject's own admission, (Lee confessed in his recent book that he is dying) is that 90 year old Lee Kuan Yew is about to die any moment now.
Being in essence a dictatorship Singapore's unique problem, unlike any democracy with an established political system allowing for peaceful political change to happen without revolutions and coups d'état is that he alone single handedly was responsible for running the place and everyone else, whom he considered far inferior to him, was a mere handpicked minion as well as his son the Prime Minister whom he appointed to that position.
Singapore has no leaders except for one, Lee Kuan Yew himself.
And what usually happens in dictatorships once the reigning dictator dies is that there is the inevitable jockeying for power by the political aspirants, very often bloodshed, total economic ruin and from the rubble a new dictator rises and life goes on in the miserable boring way it did all along under the previous dictatorship.
The question is, when the present dictator Lee Kuan Yew dies, will Singaporeans be content merely to obey Lee's son, the Prime Minister, and life goes on in it's present boring manner under the son's dictatorship , or will there be the aforementioned unavoidable chaos and instability from which hopefully a democracy emerges? Only time will tell.
Knowing Singaporeans very well, they are more educated and demanding than you may think. True, they have quietly accepted life under Lee Kuan Yew thus far without complaining but I am not so sure that with his demise, they are going to accept the nonsense under his son lying down. I don't think it is going to be business as usual.
Singaporeans for the first time will demand real representative government, not a mere handpicked errand boy as Lee Kuan Yew's son is. I don't believe any Singaporean has any faith in him, let alone any respect and if they haven't risen up in revolt up till now, it has to be because his father is still around to call the shots. I believe once Lee senior is dead, his son will be history, very ancient history.
I really don't know what will be the new Singapore be but it will certainly be interesting to see. I am holding my breath for the moment of Lee Kuan Yew's death, and I am sure thousands of other Singaporeans are doing the same and waiting for that epic monumental event to happen.
There are many Singaporeans who had to go into exile to escape Lee's punishment for having stood up to him. Many of them may come back to lead the new Singapore after the dictator is gone. Former Singaporeans such as Francis Seow who lives in the US, Tang Liang Hong who lives in Australia, Tan Wah Piow who lives in England and many others both known and unknown may return to work or help in the new Singapore. Of course, since it may have been a long time when some left the island and having sunk roots in their new countries may not find it so easy to return but hopefully they may assist in other ways possible.
I am eagerly looking forward to the death of the Singapore dictator Lee Kuan Yew so that there can be a chance for a new Singapore, not based on totalitarianism but on democracy, and freedom for all.
Of course the faster Lee Kuan Yew dies, the sooner change can happen. For the present moment, we will just have to wait a little.
I personally don't think it is too early to put the champagne bottle in the ice.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont, California, USA
Tel: 510 491 4375
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Singapore's best kept secret. Is Lee Kuan Yew still breathing
Ladies and Gentlemen,
For a country that has boasted daily for the last 50 years of their Lee Kuan Yew, the miracle man, who had done Singapore single handedly everything it is now, appears suddenly to be eerily silent on the subject.
Had not the 92 year old man recently written a book in which he confessed that "he is weakening daily" and that "no matter how much exercise he takes, it does him no good" and that if bedridden and turned into a cabbage, he "would rather die quickly" and had not the international media picked up on it, we would never have known that he in fact already has one foot firmly in his grave, and by all reckoning, it is only matter of days for the end.
But you notice that for such an important personage, made larger than life by his state propaganda team during the last 50 years while he has been perfecting his one party state no-nonsense, you-listen-to-me- or- else Stalinist police state plus the skyscrapers, it is surprising all of a sudden for them to be so quiet.
They are suddenly behaving as if Lee's health was the number one state secret. Except for one report which they were compelled to write since the foreign press had already broken the story, there has been nothing at all about how the old man is faring, especially since it has already been reported that he is in no less than a dying state.
Why the need to keep Lee's state of health secret?
I reckon, Lee's minions at the top are now no longer confident that their island with no more than 2 million local born citizens, with the lowest birth rate and the highest brain drain in the world, will outlast the superman who will soon die.
Perhaps they are not very sure whether the island will now smoothly rally around his son and carry on as if this were normal.
Perhaps Singaporeans who look at his son only as the son of the father with no other redeeming qualities will evict him from his palace which his father gave him.
Perhaps Teo Chee Hean the half sleepy looking deputy to the son, whose qualifications are successfully passing his exams in school, and an expert in licking the asses of both father and son, may no longer be acceptable to Singaporeans upon his master's demise.
Perhaps they will look upon the Tamil Minister for Law K Shanmugam good enough only for tossing Indian pancakes in Singapore's Little India after the departure of his master, we will never know either.
I think a creeping crippling fear has come upon the entire bunch of scholar bootlickers and minions who form Lee's government, that they are now genuinely afraid whether the entire island will descend into another Dubai during the recent economic depression with banks leaving, money outflowing and persons leaving in a mass exodus over the uncertainly which will certainly loom over the future of the island, upon Lee's death, one does not know.
In fact I think they are not sure if the island will in effect literally disintegrate, unravel and collapse entirely.
Which is why I think it is important to put forward a confident face and not look nervous before the world, or they may give the cat away. Which is why they behave as if everything is fine in their house of cards as the Sun rises in the East in their island every morning.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont, California, USA
Tel: 510 491 4375
Email:nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
For a country that has boasted daily for the last 50 years of their Lee Kuan Yew, the miracle man, who had done Singapore single handedly everything it is now, appears suddenly to be eerily silent on the subject.
Had not the 92 year old man recently written a book in which he confessed that "he is weakening daily" and that "no matter how much exercise he takes, it does him no good" and that if bedridden and turned into a cabbage, he "would rather die quickly" and had not the international media picked up on it, we would never have known that he in fact already has one foot firmly in his grave, and by all reckoning, it is only matter of days for the end.
But you notice that for such an important personage, made larger than life by his state propaganda team during the last 50 years while he has been perfecting his one party state no-nonsense, you-listen-to-me- or- else Stalinist police state plus the skyscrapers, it is surprising all of a sudden for them to be so quiet.
They are suddenly behaving as if Lee's health was the number one state secret. Except for one report which they were compelled to write since the foreign press had already broken the story, there has been nothing at all about how the old man is faring, especially since it has already been reported that he is in no less than a dying state.
Why the need to keep Lee's state of health secret?
I reckon, Lee's minions at the top are now no longer confident that their island with no more than 2 million local born citizens, with the lowest birth rate and the highest brain drain in the world, will outlast the superman who will soon die.
Perhaps they are not very sure whether the island will now smoothly rally around his son and carry on as if this were normal.
Perhaps Singaporeans who look at his son only as the son of the father with no other redeeming qualities will evict him from his palace which his father gave him.
Perhaps Teo Chee Hean the half sleepy looking deputy to the son, whose qualifications are successfully passing his exams in school, and an expert in licking the asses of both father and son, may no longer be acceptable to Singaporeans upon his master's demise.
Perhaps they will look upon the Tamil Minister for Law K Shanmugam good enough only for tossing Indian pancakes in Singapore's Little India after the departure of his master, we will never know either.
I think a creeping crippling fear has come upon the entire bunch of scholar bootlickers and minions who form Lee's government, that they are now genuinely afraid whether the entire island will descend into another Dubai during the recent economic depression with banks leaving, money outflowing and persons leaving in a mass exodus over the uncertainly which will certainly loom over the future of the island, upon Lee's death, one does not know.
In fact I think they are not sure if the island will in effect literally disintegrate, unravel and collapse entirely.
Which is why I think it is important to put forward a confident face and not look nervous before the world, or they may give the cat away. Which is why they behave as if everything is fine in their house of cards as the Sun rises in the East in their island every morning.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont, California, USA
Tel: 510 491 4375
Email:nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Friday, August 16, 2013
Singapore's newspapers without any news
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Those who are not very accustomed to Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore would have thought the finding by 2013 Reporters Without Borders placing Singapore's newspapers 151 at the bottom of the list below Somalia for press freedom to be rather harsh.
But a quick look at today's Singapore state controlled newspaper Straits Times would make you think even the 151st ranking was a little too generous. It should be below even that of North Korea.
This is what is reported in today's Straits Times breaking news for the local section
1. Lee Kuan Yew says children should be bilingual
2. Parking in private streets are not allowed
3. English Premier League's football creates interest
4. War Memorial is to be gazette
5. Car firms give perks to customers
6. Car dealers adjust down payments
7. A report about Singapore zoo
8. New standards for improved food
9. Five got scholarships
10. 2 were arrested in Ubin for stealing
11. Some kids rely too much on parents
12. A Bank officer was jailed for theft
13. Day care for dementia patients
14. Murder suspect gets medical exam
15. A student is a computer wiz
16. A program to deputize neighbors
That's all the local headline news in Singapore's, I have to say, premium state controlled newspaper, Straits Times. I am sure no one would disagree with me if I say, it is certainly not the New York Times. But letting alone the New York Times, it may not even be anywhere near the Havana Times either.
And this is what happens when a society like Singapore allows a dictator to get away with controlling everything in the island, the newspapers, the judges, speech, expression, assembly and every possible human right that you could possibly think of for the last five decades.
Thanks to Lee's state controlled Straits Times, the people of Singapore, as evidenced by the rubbish you see in those pages, have completely switched off, and they appear to no longer even care if they don't get any news about their country. In the end the dire result is that the government is not interested in telling Singaporeans anything important, while the Singaporeans couldn't care two hoots about anything important either.
Those who would have cared have all left the island, of no more than 2 million local citizens, in the world's largest on going brain drain to the West, while those remaining and the recent arrivals from China in the island are so ignorant or so intimidated, they don't really think they need any news anyway.
There is nothing really happening in the island. There are no protests. There are no complaints. There are no view points. There is simply nothing. Lee Kuan Yew's island today has the quiet of the cemetery.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont, California, USA
Tel: 510 491 4375
Email:nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Those who are not very accustomed to Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore would have thought the finding by 2013 Reporters Without Borders placing Singapore's newspapers 151 at the bottom of the list below Somalia for press freedom to be rather harsh.
But a quick look at today's Singapore state controlled newspaper Straits Times would make you think even the 151st ranking was a little too generous. It should be below even that of North Korea.
This is what is reported in today's Straits Times breaking news for the local section
1. Lee Kuan Yew says children should be bilingual
2. Parking in private streets are not allowed
3. English Premier League's football creates interest
4. War Memorial is to be gazette
5. Car firms give perks to customers
6. Car dealers adjust down payments
7. A report about Singapore zoo
8. New standards for improved food
9. Five got scholarships
10. 2 were arrested in Ubin for stealing
11. Some kids rely too much on parents
12. A Bank officer was jailed for theft
13. Day care for dementia patients
14. Murder suspect gets medical exam
15. A student is a computer wiz
16. A program to deputize neighbors
That's all the local headline news in Singapore's, I have to say, premium state controlled newspaper, Straits Times. I am sure no one would disagree with me if I say, it is certainly not the New York Times. But letting alone the New York Times, it may not even be anywhere near the Havana Times either.
And this is what happens when a society like Singapore allows a dictator to get away with controlling everything in the island, the newspapers, the judges, speech, expression, assembly and every possible human right that you could possibly think of for the last five decades.
Thanks to Lee's state controlled Straits Times, the people of Singapore, as evidenced by the rubbish you see in those pages, have completely switched off, and they appear to no longer even care if they don't get any news about their country. In the end the dire result is that the government is not interested in telling Singaporeans anything important, while the Singaporeans couldn't care two hoots about anything important either.
Those who would have cared have all left the island, of no more than 2 million local citizens, in the world's largest on going brain drain to the West, while those remaining and the recent arrivals from China in the island are so ignorant or so intimidated, they don't really think they need any news anyway.
There is nothing really happening in the island. There are no protests. There are no complaints. There are no view points. There is simply nothing. Lee Kuan Yew's island today has the quiet of the cemetery.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont, California, USA
Tel: 510 491 4375
Email:nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Thursday, August 15, 2013
The greatest threat to tiny Singapore island's survival, the islandwide lack of leadership material
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Tiny Singapore island with no more than perhaps 2 million native born Singaporeans and with perhaps 3 million recently arrived foreigners, the majority, has been ruled since 1959, that is over five decades, in fact during it's entire modern existence, by one man, Lee Kuan Yew who is perhaps 92 years old and by his own confession, dying.
The principal character of his rule over these years is very clear. He never planned on a democratic government, which the colonial British intended at independence, but a dictatorship under his total control.
To enable this, he ensured throughout his rule he alone wielded supreme power. And to assist him govern, he selected only handpicked professionals and bureaucrats, scholarship students who had passes exams, somewhat similar to the Scholars of the Chinese Ming Dynasty who ran that Chinese Empire.
Firstly, we have blatant and shameless nepotism. He appoints his son Prime Minister and his various other close and distant relatives to top Ministerial positions including Wong Kang Seng and his Senior Minister Goh Chock Tong, not to mention countless others. Not a single Singaporean has any respect for any of them, their positions seen not because of any qualities they may have but because they are connected to Lee Kuan Yew.
A look at his entire cabinet and members of parliament reveals all of them to have been government scholarship students who were sent abroad to Europe and America and upon return required to sign bonded contracts with him to serve his government for a fixed number of years. These scholars are then required to stand for the island elections and promised astronomical salaries upon their winning.
Being nothing but opportunists, naturally they jumped at the opportunity at a career of licking Lee's ass for the huge monetary rewards.
Although no one knows any of them, almost invariably every single one of these handpicked civil servants win the elections which is held every five years, since Lee makes sure they win.
This is done by rigging the elections, by commencing defamation actions and trumped up criminal charges against his real opponents so that they will be disqualified from contesting even before elections even start. Since the ones left would be the thoroughly inadequate ones, 6th grade elementary school bicycle thieves, whom he leaves alone, with no possibility of winning, his selected candidates breeze their way to success.
He not only uses the law to persecute and disqualify election candidates, he uses it to silence and destroy every person with leadership qualities in any walk of life, so as to ensure every single threat to his continued power is removed.
The result of this cleansing and purging of the island of anyone with ideas not like his, leaves the entire island without any leaders at all. His idea of leaders are only those selected by him, unconditionally loyal to him and think like him. Independent thinking leaders do not exist in Lee's tiny Singapore island.
The danger of a society like this, without any leaders, is that it always needs a Lee Kuan Yew like leader, like a Fuhrer or a Messiah to rule over them and tell them what to do. Like a Lee Kuan Yew who says, you listen to me or else! Such a society is incapable of sprouting up leaders to formulate ideas and policies for the rest of society, since anyone with the slightest of leadership qualities is not allowed to exist.
This creates the real worry as to what will happen to tiny Singapore island when their omnipotent all powerful supreme God like leader, 92 year old Lee Kuan Yew who has confessed that he wants to die quickly, kicks the bucket. Unless some other Lee Kuan Yew like leader sprouts up from somewhere, which is impossible, since no such person exists, it is going to look as if the ship SS Singapore is going to float around aimlessly without a captain. What is worse, tiny SS Singapore will begin listing in a few days or months and then promptly sink.
Let me give you some examples. Teo Chee Hean, Lee's deputy prime minister has been making all sorts of speeches and lecturing Singaporeans in the island's state controlled newspapers as to how we should live and what we should do with our lives. You can see his face and read his speeches almost every day ad nausea.
But let let me ask him who the Hell does he think he is anyway? His background shows, as every other single Minister minion of Lee Kuan Yew, he is nothing more than a scholar who passed his exams and was handpicked by his master Lee Kuan Yew for office.
He is not a leader by any means of anyone and he will never be. He is nothing but an opportunist who is licking Lee's boots because it pays well and through corruption; he and his children enjoy large sum of money, benefits, perks and advantages. He is not a leader by any standards. And if Lee Kuan Yew dies, no one is even going to give him a second look, not that they are looking at him now anyway.
It is the same with all of Lee's ministers. Nobody bothers about them now and nobody will bother about them after Lee dies.
And once Lee Kuan Yew dies it is going to be a free for all. There will be no leaders who will be able to garner the support of any single section of Singaporean society. It is inconceivable that anyone would pay any interest to any of these bootlickers.
Unlike respected democratic countries, tiny Singapore does not have any Constitution or any real set of laws that anyone can possibly respect. Lee has done away with all of this. Just as Lee today, with Lee's passing, no one knows what anyone who seizes control would demand as it is anyone's guess. It will be like today, entirely arbitrary.
This means of course with the island having a mere 2 million or so local born citizens (no one has any exact figure since the press is all state controlled) and the vast majority of recent immigrants who had no idea of what Singapore is before they were recently given citizenship en mass, even more locals will leave for settlement abroad, the recently arrived foreigners would leave and tiny Singapore would disappear from the South East Asia map.
This is the dire result of a dictator's selfish policies who makes sure that there is no one to challenge him.
Worrying times, I would say. And all this created entirely by a very selfish man who wanted everything for himself and his family, with no care at all as to what happens to his island. Another downright King Leopold the Second in his Congo Free State or Singapore.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont, California, USA
Tel: 510 491 4375
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Tiny Singapore island with no more than perhaps 2 million native born Singaporeans and with perhaps 3 million recently arrived foreigners, the majority, has been ruled since 1959, that is over five decades, in fact during it's entire modern existence, by one man, Lee Kuan Yew who is perhaps 92 years old and by his own confession, dying.
The principal character of his rule over these years is very clear. He never planned on a democratic government, which the colonial British intended at independence, but a dictatorship under his total control.
To enable this, he ensured throughout his rule he alone wielded supreme power. And to assist him govern, he selected only handpicked professionals and bureaucrats, scholarship students who had passes exams, somewhat similar to the Scholars of the Chinese Ming Dynasty who ran that Chinese Empire.
Firstly, we have blatant and shameless nepotism. He appoints his son Prime Minister and his various other close and distant relatives to top Ministerial positions including Wong Kang Seng and his Senior Minister Goh Chock Tong, not to mention countless others. Not a single Singaporean has any respect for any of them, their positions seen not because of any qualities they may have but because they are connected to Lee Kuan Yew.
A look at his entire cabinet and members of parliament reveals all of them to have been government scholarship students who were sent abroad to Europe and America and upon return required to sign bonded contracts with him to serve his government for a fixed number of years. These scholars are then required to stand for the island elections and promised astronomical salaries upon their winning.
Being nothing but opportunists, naturally they jumped at the opportunity at a career of licking Lee's ass for the huge monetary rewards.
Although no one knows any of them, almost invariably every single one of these handpicked civil servants win the elections which is held every five years, since Lee makes sure they win.
This is done by rigging the elections, by commencing defamation actions and trumped up criminal charges against his real opponents so that they will be disqualified from contesting even before elections even start. Since the ones left would be the thoroughly inadequate ones, 6th grade elementary school bicycle thieves, whom he leaves alone, with no possibility of winning, his selected candidates breeze their way to success.
He not only uses the law to persecute and disqualify election candidates, he uses it to silence and destroy every person with leadership qualities in any walk of life, so as to ensure every single threat to his continued power is removed.
The result of this cleansing and purging of the island of anyone with ideas not like his, leaves the entire island without any leaders at all. His idea of leaders are only those selected by him, unconditionally loyal to him and think like him. Independent thinking leaders do not exist in Lee's tiny Singapore island.
The danger of a society like this, without any leaders, is that it always needs a Lee Kuan Yew like leader, like a Fuhrer or a Messiah to rule over them and tell them what to do. Like a Lee Kuan Yew who says, you listen to me or else! Such a society is incapable of sprouting up leaders to formulate ideas and policies for the rest of society, since anyone with the slightest of leadership qualities is not allowed to exist.
This creates the real worry as to what will happen to tiny Singapore island when their omnipotent all powerful supreme God like leader, 92 year old Lee Kuan Yew who has confessed that he wants to die quickly, kicks the bucket. Unless some other Lee Kuan Yew like leader sprouts up from somewhere, which is impossible, since no such person exists, it is going to look as if the ship SS Singapore is going to float around aimlessly without a captain. What is worse, tiny SS Singapore will begin listing in a few days or months and then promptly sink.
Let me give you some examples. Teo Chee Hean, Lee's deputy prime minister has been making all sorts of speeches and lecturing Singaporeans in the island's state controlled newspapers as to how we should live and what we should do with our lives. You can see his face and read his speeches almost every day ad nausea.
But let let me ask him who the Hell does he think he is anyway? His background shows, as every other single Minister minion of Lee Kuan Yew, he is nothing more than a scholar who passed his exams and was handpicked by his master Lee Kuan Yew for office.
He is not a leader by any means of anyone and he will never be. He is nothing but an opportunist who is licking Lee's boots because it pays well and through corruption; he and his children enjoy large sum of money, benefits, perks and advantages. He is not a leader by any standards. And if Lee Kuan Yew dies, no one is even going to give him a second look, not that they are looking at him now anyway.
It is the same with all of Lee's ministers. Nobody bothers about them now and nobody will bother about them after Lee dies.
And once Lee Kuan Yew dies it is going to be a free for all. There will be no leaders who will be able to garner the support of any single section of Singaporean society. It is inconceivable that anyone would pay any interest to any of these bootlickers.
Unlike respected democratic countries, tiny Singapore does not have any Constitution or any real set of laws that anyone can possibly respect. Lee has done away with all of this. Just as Lee today, with Lee's passing, no one knows what anyone who seizes control would demand as it is anyone's guess. It will be like today, entirely arbitrary.
This means of course with the island having a mere 2 million or so local born citizens (no one has any exact figure since the press is all state controlled) and the vast majority of recent immigrants who had no idea of what Singapore is before they were recently given citizenship en mass, even more locals will leave for settlement abroad, the recently arrived foreigners would leave and tiny Singapore would disappear from the South East Asia map.
This is the dire result of a dictator's selfish policies who makes sure that there is no one to challenge him.
Worrying times, I would say. And all this created entirely by a very selfish man who wanted everything for himself and his family, with no care at all as to what happens to his island. Another downright King Leopold the Second in his Congo Free State or Singapore.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont, California, USA
Tel: 510 491 4375
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore "miracle" running out of steam
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Authoritarian countries like the former Soviet Union, today's China and one party state Singapore undoubtedly have achieved some success through coercion and compulsion of their people. That is why you can see some skyscrapers among Singapore's waterfront.
Under these systems citizens are required to obey and toe the government line, which reduces dissension and debate, thereby increasing quick productivity and wealth creation. But studies have also shown that invariably these authoritarian countries cannot sustain their upward trajectory for long, and they all invariably run out of steam and decline.
What they lack is democracy, a plurality of ideas and opinions where people can hold diverse opinions, express and promote them without fear of arrest intimidation and prosecution.
Authoritarian Soviet Union was far more successful than the democratic United States in the 1950s and 1960s when people thought that Russia was the model for the world for economic growth, far better than the United States.
But we see Russia today in shambles and economic collapse. It had simply run out of steam. China today appears to be advancing much faster than other countries but it is based on the same top down, authoritarian model which will, before too long, simply decline as Russia has.
Singapore, just like these other authoritarian regimes will run out of steam, stagnate and decline before too long. In Singapore success requires that you are in effect a card carrying member of Lee's PAP, submit to authority and obey without question.
If you are seen otherwise, you stand no chance in a career either in the government or in the private sector. But the government's dictatorial laws and policies make it very uncomfortable for anybody with some decency to support them.
What then is Lee Kuan Yew government of today?
It is a one party state where every single member in Parliament is either an official member of the ruling party or a de facto member such as the Singapore Workers Party is. For all intends and purposes, it is a one party state. Anyone who prefers democracy and a multi party country is not going to be comfortable in such a system.
Second the government rigs every election through fraud to win. This is done through defamation actions against political opponents either before or after the elections to remove them from running. JB Jeyaretnam was repeatedly charged with fake and dubious charges and removed from Parliament. Che Soon Juan was bankrupted thereby disqualifying him from running.
Third, the government uses corrupt judges in their Kangaroo courts to destroy political opponents. We have seen this repeatedly done against JB Jeyaretnam and Chee Soon Juan. They knew they would be found guilty even before they stepped into the courtroom. Against Lee Kuan Yew's political opponents, the conviction rate is 100%.
Four, Lee has passed laws through his rubber stamp one party Parliament to criminalize free speech, expression or assembly. Today the islanders have no human rights at all. Anyone criticizing the government runs the risk of being sued for defamation of character, being charged for contempt of court or for scandalizing the judiciary, their favorite legal theories to extract island-wide obedience.
Five, the government has decided to pay themselves the highest salaries in the world for politicians. Each one of them is paid $3.7 million a year in compensation. This is corruption. This is a corrupt government.
Six, the entire press and media island wide is state controlled just as the former Soviet Union's Pravda and Isvetzia. Singapore's Newspapers and Printing presses act makes it a crime to run a newspaper without a government license. In fact it even makes owning a printing press machine unlawful unless you had a license.
Despite these thoroughly disgraceful laws, in order to succeed the government demands that you support them and show loyalty to them, a pre-requisite for success. The result of this is that only dishonest opportunists and downright crooks would want to be associated with a government such as this.
As these authoritarian regimes would be obnoxious to most decent human beings, with time their support wanes and lose support, they decline, stagnate and finally destroy themselves. They lose the support of the masses, since most people are not charlatans and ruthless characters as Lee Kuan Yew expects human beings to be.
The Singapore government, their civic institutions and their courts have lost the respect of the citizens. The people do not know if they would jailed on trumped up charges at the whim and fancy of the government.
In respected democracies such as Australia the people have confidence in their government and their core institutions, a healthy respect for their country. Their citizens stay and work for the betterment of themselves and their country benefits from their presence. This is not the case in a discredited one party authoritarian regimes such as Singapore. As one can see, it has already begun to stagnate. In no time, it will begin to decline, as is the fate of all these authoritarian countries with their selfish corrupt regimes.
Gopalan Nair
Attiorneyh at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont, California, USA
Tel: 510 491 4375
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Authoritarian countries like the former Soviet Union, today's China and one party state Singapore undoubtedly have achieved some success through coercion and compulsion of their people. That is why you can see some skyscrapers among Singapore's waterfront.
Under these systems citizens are required to obey and toe the government line, which reduces dissension and debate, thereby increasing quick productivity and wealth creation. But studies have also shown that invariably these authoritarian countries cannot sustain their upward trajectory for long, and they all invariably run out of steam and decline.
What they lack is democracy, a plurality of ideas and opinions where people can hold diverse opinions, express and promote them without fear of arrest intimidation and prosecution.
Authoritarian Soviet Union was far more successful than the democratic United States in the 1950s and 1960s when people thought that Russia was the model for the world for economic growth, far better than the United States.
But we see Russia today in shambles and economic collapse. It had simply run out of steam. China today appears to be advancing much faster than other countries but it is based on the same top down, authoritarian model which will, before too long, simply decline as Russia has.
Singapore, just like these other authoritarian regimes will run out of steam, stagnate and decline before too long. In Singapore success requires that you are in effect a card carrying member of Lee's PAP, submit to authority and obey without question.
If you are seen otherwise, you stand no chance in a career either in the government or in the private sector. But the government's dictatorial laws and policies make it very uncomfortable for anybody with some decency to support them.
What then is Lee Kuan Yew government of today?
It is a one party state where every single member in Parliament is either an official member of the ruling party or a de facto member such as the Singapore Workers Party is. For all intends and purposes, it is a one party state. Anyone who prefers democracy and a multi party country is not going to be comfortable in such a system.
Second the government rigs every election through fraud to win. This is done through defamation actions against political opponents either before or after the elections to remove them from running. JB Jeyaretnam was repeatedly charged with fake and dubious charges and removed from Parliament. Che Soon Juan was bankrupted thereby disqualifying him from running.
Third, the government uses corrupt judges in their Kangaroo courts to destroy political opponents. We have seen this repeatedly done against JB Jeyaretnam and Chee Soon Juan. They knew they would be found guilty even before they stepped into the courtroom. Against Lee Kuan Yew's political opponents, the conviction rate is 100%.
Four, Lee has passed laws through his rubber stamp one party Parliament to criminalize free speech, expression or assembly. Today the islanders have no human rights at all. Anyone criticizing the government runs the risk of being sued for defamation of character, being charged for contempt of court or for scandalizing the judiciary, their favorite legal theories to extract island-wide obedience.
Five, the government has decided to pay themselves the highest salaries in the world for politicians. Each one of them is paid $3.7 million a year in compensation. This is corruption. This is a corrupt government.
Six, the entire press and media island wide is state controlled just as the former Soviet Union's Pravda and Isvetzia. Singapore's Newspapers and Printing presses act makes it a crime to run a newspaper without a government license. In fact it even makes owning a printing press machine unlawful unless you had a license.
Despite these thoroughly disgraceful laws, in order to succeed the government demands that you support them and show loyalty to them, a pre-requisite for success. The result of this is that only dishonest opportunists and downright crooks would want to be associated with a government such as this.
As these authoritarian regimes would be obnoxious to most decent human beings, with time their support wanes and lose support, they decline, stagnate and finally destroy themselves. They lose the support of the masses, since most people are not charlatans and ruthless characters as Lee Kuan Yew expects human beings to be.
The Singapore government, their civic institutions and their courts have lost the respect of the citizens. The people do not know if they would jailed on trumped up charges at the whim and fancy of the government.
In respected democracies such as Australia the people have confidence in their government and their core institutions, a healthy respect for their country. Their citizens stay and work for the betterment of themselves and their country benefits from their presence. This is not the case in a discredited one party authoritarian regimes such as Singapore. As one can see, it has already begun to stagnate. In no time, it will begin to decline, as is the fate of all these authoritarian countries with their selfish corrupt regimes.
Gopalan Nair
Attiorneyh at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont, California, USA
Tel: 510 491 4375
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Sunday, August 11, 2013
Singapore's lack of a level playing field causes stagnation and decline
Ladies and Gentlemen,
A look at all the developed democracies of the world, both big and small, one thing you see in common, is their determination to ensure their people have trust in their government, a trust in the rule of law and the assurance that everyone has an equal opportunity for success.
This is what Singapore lacks. In essence, it's people have no respect or trust in their government, their civil institutions or in the rule of law. Just as the authoritarian Africa nations such as Zimbabwe or the Latin American Venezuela, to succeed in Singapore it is not how good or able you are but how good are your connections.
Almost every single large business enterprise in Singapore is either state owned or controlled by the state, such as Singapore Airlines. Every one of these organizations only accept workers who are either connected to the Lee Kuan Yew government or at least sympathetic to them. All of Lee Kuan Yew's family members including his son, the Prime Minister and all his relatives, both distant and close, are given lucrative jobs, directorships, and money while those outside have no chance to partake in the wealth.
The Civil Service, the Police Force and the Judiciary are no different. You can only manage to work and succeed in any of these organizations if you are politically on their side. Judges are specifically told to make sure that laws are bent to deny justice to anyone not willing to toe the line. On the rare occasion when you see a judge showing some spine, he is promptly removed. Civil servants similarly deny petitions of anyone who is not seen as supportive. It is one law for the connected, another for ordinary Singaporeans.
Just like in Venezuela, Zimbabwe or Sierra Leone, in Singapore, the elite connected to the government protect their sources of wealth by denying anyone who is not on their side any opportunity of enjoying it.
As a result of this uneven playing field, where the average citizen has lost any confidence in their legal system, where justice is meted out depending on which side you are on, or when you realize that you have no hope of success either in a career or in business unless you are one of them, it denies a large section of an already small tiny population any hope. They are put off and refuse to contribute their best to their country. And the value and input of these people which could have benefited the island greatly is simply lost as they have lost respect for the core institutions of their island and their government.
If you consider Singapore nothing more than an authoritarian Banana Republic as I as well as many other Singaporeans do, you are simply putting off many who could have contributed to Singapore with lively zest and a passion.
Let me give you an example. The Lee Kuan Yew dictatorship repeatedly parrot the claim that they are a meritocracy, when anyone with two eyes can see that this is blatantly untrue. Take the case of Chee Soon Juan. He was a highly qualified neuropsychologist professor with an American degree at the national University of Singapore. When he decided to enter opposition politics, Lee's government not only fired him from his job but also convicted him on trumped up charges resulting in his bankruptcy and imprisonment.
Tell me, what sort of meritocracy is that? Had he been a Lee Lee Kuan Yew supporter, which he refused to do, he would now probably be the head professor at the University or even been made president. This is not meritocracy, this is simply rubbish.
Every single person who has received any success in the island is because he supports the dictatorship of the Lee Kuan Yew regime. Anyone even if highly qualified and able stands no chance of getting anywhere in Lee Kuan Yew's island.
It is this disenchantment and lack of respect for the civil institutions of the regime that will result in stagnation and decline as time passes. For any nation success and progress requires a vibrant citizenry with new ideas and new ways of thinking so that it enables creative destruction, by which I mean better ideas superseding existing ones, which can only happen if it's people trust their government and their legal system. Singapore island lacks a level playing field for all which is deliberately slanted to favor those who support the Lee Kuan Yew's regime.
Unlike Singapore the people in other developed democracies have a strong respect for their government and their legal system. As a result no one is left behind with everyone given an equal chance at success without regard to their political affiliation or connection.
Unfortunately for Singapore, even if now the government decides to open the island to all Singaporeans, it is a little too late. Once the trust and respect is lost, it is almost impossible to recover. For instance no amount of persuasion by the government could convince anyone that Lee Kuan Yew's corrupt judge Belinda Ang Saw Ean of the Singapore High Court is impartial after what she had done to Chee Soon Juan.
And just like the worst autocratic regimes around the world, Singapore does not have a free and independent press. It's ranking in world for press freedom is lower than Somalia. As a result just as in these other autocracies and dictatorships, you don't really know whether to believe what you read and as a result the people are deprived of hearing any contrarian idea and opinion.
In Peru under Fujimori, he went around paying millions to newspapers to make sure nothing bad is said about him. In Singapore Lee did not have to pay any millions to any newspaper. He just passed a law, the Newspapers and Printing Presses Act preventing any independent newspaper. And worse than Fujimori, Lee just had the elections rigged to make sure that he had a majority in Parliament, a rubber stamp, enabling him to pass any law he pleases.
You can already see the damage being done to the island by this government which has lost all integrity and respect. It has the largest brain drain in the world and for an island which has only about 1.5 million native born citizens and shrinking, the local native born Singaporeans would be wiped out in no time. Second it's population on the whole is dying with the lowest birth rate in the world and the numerous attempts to increase it by financial grants and benefits has simply not worked. And as a result the government is now accepting third rate Chinese speaking immigrants thereby totally changing the identity, history, customs and heritage of the island.
This is why you see proud respectable democratic countries like Australia continuing on a path of growth and progressive change with new ideas continuously advancing whereas Singapore can only stagnate with these Lee Kuan Yew supporters who run around singing the government tune for the benefits it provides. Just like the citizens of the late Chavez of Venezuela benefited by licking his boots for a living so do Lee's citizens, or "digits" as he has called them.
Singapore has lost the respect of it's citizens. And this results in stagnation in the long run and certain decline, not progress and advancement. It lacks a level playing field for all citizens.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont, California, USA
Tel: 510 491 4375
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
A look at all the developed democracies of the world, both big and small, one thing you see in common, is their determination to ensure their people have trust in their government, a trust in the rule of law and the assurance that everyone has an equal opportunity for success.
This is what Singapore lacks. In essence, it's people have no respect or trust in their government, their civil institutions or in the rule of law. Just as the authoritarian Africa nations such as Zimbabwe or the Latin American Venezuela, to succeed in Singapore it is not how good or able you are but how good are your connections.
Almost every single large business enterprise in Singapore is either state owned or controlled by the state, such as Singapore Airlines. Every one of these organizations only accept workers who are either connected to the Lee Kuan Yew government or at least sympathetic to them. All of Lee Kuan Yew's family members including his son, the Prime Minister and all his relatives, both distant and close, are given lucrative jobs, directorships, and money while those outside have no chance to partake in the wealth.
The Civil Service, the Police Force and the Judiciary are no different. You can only manage to work and succeed in any of these organizations if you are politically on their side. Judges are specifically told to make sure that laws are bent to deny justice to anyone not willing to toe the line. On the rare occasion when you see a judge showing some spine, he is promptly removed. Civil servants similarly deny petitions of anyone who is not seen as supportive. It is one law for the connected, another for ordinary Singaporeans.
Just like in Venezuela, Zimbabwe or Sierra Leone, in Singapore, the elite connected to the government protect their sources of wealth by denying anyone who is not on their side any opportunity of enjoying it.
As a result of this uneven playing field, where the average citizen has lost any confidence in their legal system, where justice is meted out depending on which side you are on, or when you realize that you have no hope of success either in a career or in business unless you are one of them, it denies a large section of an already small tiny population any hope. They are put off and refuse to contribute their best to their country. And the value and input of these people which could have benefited the island greatly is simply lost as they have lost respect for the core institutions of their island and their government.
If you consider Singapore nothing more than an authoritarian Banana Republic as I as well as many other Singaporeans do, you are simply putting off many who could have contributed to Singapore with lively zest and a passion.
Let me give you an example. The Lee Kuan Yew dictatorship repeatedly parrot the claim that they are a meritocracy, when anyone with two eyes can see that this is blatantly untrue. Take the case of Chee Soon Juan. He was a highly qualified neuropsychologist professor with an American degree at the national University of Singapore. When he decided to enter opposition politics, Lee's government not only fired him from his job but also convicted him on trumped up charges resulting in his bankruptcy and imprisonment.
Tell me, what sort of meritocracy is that? Had he been a Lee Lee Kuan Yew supporter, which he refused to do, he would now probably be the head professor at the University or even been made president. This is not meritocracy, this is simply rubbish.
Every single person who has received any success in the island is because he supports the dictatorship of the Lee Kuan Yew regime. Anyone even if highly qualified and able stands no chance of getting anywhere in Lee Kuan Yew's island.
It is this disenchantment and lack of respect for the civil institutions of the regime that will result in stagnation and decline as time passes. For any nation success and progress requires a vibrant citizenry with new ideas and new ways of thinking so that it enables creative destruction, by which I mean better ideas superseding existing ones, which can only happen if it's people trust their government and their legal system. Singapore island lacks a level playing field for all which is deliberately slanted to favor those who support the Lee Kuan Yew's regime.
Unlike Singapore the people in other developed democracies have a strong respect for their government and their legal system. As a result no one is left behind with everyone given an equal chance at success without regard to their political affiliation or connection.
Unfortunately for Singapore, even if now the government decides to open the island to all Singaporeans, it is a little too late. Once the trust and respect is lost, it is almost impossible to recover. For instance no amount of persuasion by the government could convince anyone that Lee Kuan Yew's corrupt judge Belinda Ang Saw Ean of the Singapore High Court is impartial after what she had done to Chee Soon Juan.
And just like the worst autocratic regimes around the world, Singapore does not have a free and independent press. It's ranking in world for press freedom is lower than Somalia. As a result just as in these other autocracies and dictatorships, you don't really know whether to believe what you read and as a result the people are deprived of hearing any contrarian idea and opinion.
In Peru under Fujimori, he went around paying millions to newspapers to make sure nothing bad is said about him. In Singapore Lee did not have to pay any millions to any newspaper. He just passed a law, the Newspapers and Printing Presses Act preventing any independent newspaper. And worse than Fujimori, Lee just had the elections rigged to make sure that he had a majority in Parliament, a rubber stamp, enabling him to pass any law he pleases.
You can already see the damage being done to the island by this government which has lost all integrity and respect. It has the largest brain drain in the world and for an island which has only about 1.5 million native born citizens and shrinking, the local native born Singaporeans would be wiped out in no time. Second it's population on the whole is dying with the lowest birth rate in the world and the numerous attempts to increase it by financial grants and benefits has simply not worked. And as a result the government is now accepting third rate Chinese speaking immigrants thereby totally changing the identity, history, customs and heritage of the island.
This is why you see proud respectable democratic countries like Australia continuing on a path of growth and progressive change with new ideas continuously advancing whereas Singapore can only stagnate with these Lee Kuan Yew supporters who run around singing the government tune for the benefits it provides. Just like the citizens of the late Chavez of Venezuela benefited by licking his boots for a living so do Lee's citizens, or "digits" as he has called them.
Singapore has lost the respect of it's citizens. And this results in stagnation in the long run and certain decline, not progress and advancement. It lacks a level playing field for all citizens.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont, California, USA
Tel: 510 491 4375
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Lee Kuan Yew's ego trip on Singapore
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Singapore's state controlled newspaper, Straits Times of August 11, 2013 has the story "Lee Kuan Yew on fate of Singapore in 100 years time". In it, the paper reports that in a recent book he had written, he is unsure whether Singapore would exist in a 100 years time although he believes other countries like USA and Australia will. Please see the report http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/lee-kuan-yew-fate-singapore-100-years-time-20130811
A lot of the article is pure and unadulterated self praise, an ego trip, to take credit for what the island is today, although a deeper examination by an erudite student would indeed show Singapore, despite it's high rise buildings which by the way is used by many of his citizens to jump from and commit suicide, to be no more than a failure than any real success.
The article says "People like Mr Ow-Yeong have seen Singapore develop from the unsettling 1960s, when hardship and poverty were still the rule rather than the exception, to today's vibrant and cosmopolitan Singapore, providing well-paying jobs to a highly educated population."
But he fails to mention that not just Singapore but many other countries, even much larger ones with much larger populations have also achieved equally great success.
Furthermore other countries are not like a small tiny island like Singapore is. They have to contend with millions of people across large land areas and they, unlike Lee and his tiny island, cannot change overnight with a flick of a finger.
Governing Singapore is the easiest job in the world for Lee. All you do is to silence everyone with Kangaroo court justice, bring in a few foreign investors and bingo, you have a functioning country. Singapore is not India or China with hundreds of millions of people over a large land mass . Both the Chinese and the Indians in rural areas are having it hard. But hopefully they are moving ahead too. You can't change India overnight with a flick of a finger like Lee Kuan Yew in his tiny island inhabited by an obedient and subservient people can.
As for "today's vibrant and cosmopolitan Singapore providing well paying jobs to highly educated population" he has conveniently left out the details which are not so flattering.
As for well paying jobs, they only go to Lee Kuan Yew's sycophants and bootlickers who sing praises and prop up the dictatorship. K Shanmugam his Tamil Minister for Law has a well paying job. His job primarily is to prostrate daily before his Chinese master, and pass legislation to deny Singaporeans even a single human right. Thanks to him, the island has no free speech or expression and even a single man peacefully protesting can be locked up in jail.
As for an education, Singaporeans cannot be said to be educated. They are merely literate, because an educated man would not be willing to live under this dictatorship.
And don't forget, most people merely earn enough to survive and don't even have a car, while the wealthy drive around in their brand new Lamborghini. Singapore has the largest income gap in the world.
You can read the rest of the article yourself. It is just one long litany of self praise and braggadocio. But a careful examination of Singapore shows that he had not developed it. On the contrary he has destroyed it.
Merely building skyscrapers, roads and communication systems will not ensure success if you don't have the right type of people to run the island.
After having locked up, threatened and bankrupted anyone with views opposite to him, almost the entire generation of educated thinking people who would have stayed behind to lead Singapore have all left the island in disgust.
They are all settled today in Australia and elsewhere. Fearing any intelligent thinking people as a possible threat to him and his selfish desire to remain in power, he has made sure that anyone who uttered any contrarian view was silenced and destroyed.
Most left and those remaining in the island live quiet obscure lives. Their wisdom is wasted for Singapore. On the whole they are not leadership quality. A leader would have stayed and fought for freedom. If not, he would have cleared out and refused to live in a dictatorship.
This leaves the vast majority of people in the island who by and large are a cowardly, spineless and indifferent lot. As they are afraid to question authority, they live their lives under Lee Kuan Yew as a mindless conformist going about their jobs and waiting for Lee to tell them what to do next.
By Lee Kuan Yew ensuring that everyone who remains is just a mere obedient follower he has the left Singapore very unstable without any real foundation for continuity. In such a situation, you always need to have some leader to come along so that these blind voiceless timid Singaporeans can rally around and obey their new master.
But moving from one master to another master which Singapore has no choice but to do, thanks to Lee Kuan Yew's selfish motives to keep the islanders politically ignorant, is a very dangerous thing.
The island has no template, no backdrop upon which to rely as other countries because it does not have a Constitution in reality. Lee has successfully managed to criminalize every single human right in the Constitution. Without a constitution, it is like a ship sailing in uncharted waters without a compass or sextant.
Singapore's future, thanks to Lee Kuan Yew will be like the blind leading the blind. After 92 year old Lee Kuan Yew dies, which by his own admission is going to happen very soon, no one knows in an island without any rule of law or political doctrine, what will the new leader expect Singaporeans to do. The future, thanks to Lee Kuan Yew's thoroughly misguided policy of intimidating everyone is one big mystery and only time will tell.
And he has conveniently left out the fact that the numbers emigrating to the West from an already tiny native born population of just 2 million or less is increasing at a break neck speed. Those who can afford to leave are leaving as fast as they can. They know that with his demise, there is bound to be island wide uncertainty, a very possible stock market collapse and the Singapore dollar possibly being worthless. The citizens CPF monies being held by the government would probably be lost.
If there are immigrants coming in, they are mostly from Communist China who are useless as immigrants, most of them not knowing even English. This is further going to cause the economy to collapse even further and the island would be nothing thanks to his selfish desire to keep his grip on the power, his corrupt desire to steal as much as he can and to keep anyone with any ability silent.
And he goes on this self praise by saying that it is because he permits his ministers to be corrupt by paying themselves millions of dollars, which is why the Singapore streets are clean, no corruption and low crime rates. This is a blatant lie.
You can go to any other modern city in the world and they too are clean if not cleaner. Have you see San Francisco, Madrid, Barcelona or even Kuala Lumpur. Singapore is not any cleaner than them but the ministers there don't corruptly pay themselves $3.7 million a year.
Low crime rates? Really? Then how do you explain the innumerable daily reports of particularly violent gruesome crime daily in the newspapers, such as loan shark attacks, gang attacks slashing necks and throats with knives, HDB elevator attacks and murders.
At this rate of violence, in a small tiny island with a tiny population, I would prefer living in the West side of Oakland California, known for it's violence anytime, than in so called safe Singapore. And then he says there is no corruption! What do you call paying yourself $3.7 million a year? Isn't that corruption?
I am sorry to tell Lee Kuan Yew that he is being too optimistic to say that Singapore will be fine for the next 10 to 15 years. If 92 year old Lee Kuan Yew were to die this year since he has said he doesn't want to hang around too long, Singapore will collapse within just 5 years. I am prepared to take a bet on that.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in exile
Fremont, California, USA
Tel: 510 491 4375
EMail: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Singapore's state controlled newspaper, Straits Times of August 11, 2013 has the story "Lee Kuan Yew on fate of Singapore in 100 years time". In it, the paper reports that in a recent book he had written, he is unsure whether Singapore would exist in a 100 years time although he believes other countries like USA and Australia will. Please see the report http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/lee-kuan-yew-fate-singapore-100-years-time-20130811
A lot of the article is pure and unadulterated self praise, an ego trip, to take credit for what the island is today, although a deeper examination by an erudite student would indeed show Singapore, despite it's high rise buildings which by the way is used by many of his citizens to jump from and commit suicide, to be no more than a failure than any real success.
The article says "People like Mr Ow-Yeong have seen Singapore develop from the unsettling 1960s, when hardship and poverty were still the rule rather than the exception, to today's vibrant and cosmopolitan Singapore, providing well-paying jobs to a highly educated population."
But he fails to mention that not just Singapore but many other countries, even much larger ones with much larger populations have also achieved equally great success.
Furthermore other countries are not like a small tiny island like Singapore is. They have to contend with millions of people across large land areas and they, unlike Lee and his tiny island, cannot change overnight with a flick of a finger.
Governing Singapore is the easiest job in the world for Lee. All you do is to silence everyone with Kangaroo court justice, bring in a few foreign investors and bingo, you have a functioning country. Singapore is not India or China with hundreds of millions of people over a large land mass . Both the Chinese and the Indians in rural areas are having it hard. But hopefully they are moving ahead too. You can't change India overnight with a flick of a finger like Lee Kuan Yew in his tiny island inhabited by an obedient and subservient people can.
As for "today's vibrant and cosmopolitan Singapore providing well paying jobs to highly educated population" he has conveniently left out the details which are not so flattering.
As for well paying jobs, they only go to Lee Kuan Yew's sycophants and bootlickers who sing praises and prop up the dictatorship. K Shanmugam his Tamil Minister for Law has a well paying job. His job primarily is to prostrate daily before his Chinese master, and pass legislation to deny Singaporeans even a single human right. Thanks to him, the island has no free speech or expression and even a single man peacefully protesting can be locked up in jail.
As for an education, Singaporeans cannot be said to be educated. They are merely literate, because an educated man would not be willing to live under this dictatorship.
And don't forget, most people merely earn enough to survive and don't even have a car, while the wealthy drive around in their brand new Lamborghini. Singapore has the largest income gap in the world.
You can read the rest of the article yourself. It is just one long litany of self praise and braggadocio. But a careful examination of Singapore shows that he had not developed it. On the contrary he has destroyed it.
Merely building skyscrapers, roads and communication systems will not ensure success if you don't have the right type of people to run the island.
After having locked up, threatened and bankrupted anyone with views opposite to him, almost the entire generation of educated thinking people who would have stayed behind to lead Singapore have all left the island in disgust.
They are all settled today in Australia and elsewhere. Fearing any intelligent thinking people as a possible threat to him and his selfish desire to remain in power, he has made sure that anyone who uttered any contrarian view was silenced and destroyed.
Most left and those remaining in the island live quiet obscure lives. Their wisdom is wasted for Singapore. On the whole they are not leadership quality. A leader would have stayed and fought for freedom. If not, he would have cleared out and refused to live in a dictatorship.
This leaves the vast majority of people in the island who by and large are a cowardly, spineless and indifferent lot. As they are afraid to question authority, they live their lives under Lee Kuan Yew as a mindless conformist going about their jobs and waiting for Lee to tell them what to do next.
By Lee Kuan Yew ensuring that everyone who remains is just a mere obedient follower he has the left Singapore very unstable without any real foundation for continuity. In such a situation, you always need to have some leader to come along so that these blind voiceless timid Singaporeans can rally around and obey their new master.
But moving from one master to another master which Singapore has no choice but to do, thanks to Lee Kuan Yew's selfish motives to keep the islanders politically ignorant, is a very dangerous thing.
The island has no template, no backdrop upon which to rely as other countries because it does not have a Constitution in reality. Lee has successfully managed to criminalize every single human right in the Constitution. Without a constitution, it is like a ship sailing in uncharted waters without a compass or sextant.
Singapore's future, thanks to Lee Kuan Yew will be like the blind leading the blind. After 92 year old Lee Kuan Yew dies, which by his own admission is going to happen very soon, no one knows in an island without any rule of law or political doctrine, what will the new leader expect Singaporeans to do. The future, thanks to Lee Kuan Yew's thoroughly misguided policy of intimidating everyone is one big mystery and only time will tell.
And he has conveniently left out the fact that the numbers emigrating to the West from an already tiny native born population of just 2 million or less is increasing at a break neck speed. Those who can afford to leave are leaving as fast as they can. They know that with his demise, there is bound to be island wide uncertainty, a very possible stock market collapse and the Singapore dollar possibly being worthless. The citizens CPF monies being held by the government would probably be lost.
If there are immigrants coming in, they are mostly from Communist China who are useless as immigrants, most of them not knowing even English. This is further going to cause the economy to collapse even further and the island would be nothing thanks to his selfish desire to keep his grip on the power, his corrupt desire to steal as much as he can and to keep anyone with any ability silent.
And he goes on this self praise by saying that it is because he permits his ministers to be corrupt by paying themselves millions of dollars, which is why the Singapore streets are clean, no corruption and low crime rates. This is a blatant lie.
You can go to any other modern city in the world and they too are clean if not cleaner. Have you see San Francisco, Madrid, Barcelona or even Kuala Lumpur. Singapore is not any cleaner than them but the ministers there don't corruptly pay themselves $3.7 million a year.
Low crime rates? Really? Then how do you explain the innumerable daily reports of particularly violent gruesome crime daily in the newspapers, such as loan shark attacks, gang attacks slashing necks and throats with knives, HDB elevator attacks and murders.
At this rate of violence, in a small tiny island with a tiny population, I would prefer living in the West side of Oakland California, known for it's violence anytime, than in so called safe Singapore. And then he says there is no corruption! What do you call paying yourself $3.7 million a year? Isn't that corruption?
I am sorry to tell Lee Kuan Yew that he is being too optimistic to say that Singapore will be fine for the next 10 to 15 years. If 92 year old Lee Kuan Yew were to die this year since he has said he doesn't want to hang around too long, Singapore will collapse within just 5 years. I am prepared to take a bet on that.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in exile
Fremont, California, USA
Tel: 510 491 4375
EMail: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
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