Ladies and Gentlemen,
The article below is written by Mr. Brian Murphy an American student studying now at the National University of Singapore. A very well written article. An in depth understanding of the real Singapore.
If I could add to what Mr. Murphy has written it is this. Mr. Murphy points out many issues in Singapore which affect people’s lives and highly controversial; yet not resisted by the people, which in any other society such as America would have attracted robust argument for and against the issue. Issues such as the death penalty, legalized prostitution, criminalizing gays and lesbians and so on.
Mr. Murphy feels that Singaporeans do not either openly protest or approve any of these things because they are comfortable and affluent. Life goes on anyway and father (Lee Kuan Yew) will take care of them. So why get involved. I believe this is what Mr. Murphy thinks.
Mr. Murphy’s observations are very accurate despite the short period of time he has been there. Had he been longer in Singapore, I am sure he would have known that the reason for Singaporean's indifference to what goes on around them is not due to apathy. It is due to fear.
There is in Singapore at present, but slowly easing a little, an all encompassing fear of Lee Kuan Yew and his government. History has shown and as Mr. Murphy himself has observed that all one has to do to be liable in the tune of $500,000.00 in libel damages, is to just ask Mr. Goh Chock Tong about the whereabouts of $17 million of taxpayer’s money. Lee Kuan Yew had threatened to give this money as a gift to his friend the former dictator Suharto.
This causes a chill to flow down the spine of even the most courageous of Singaporeans; so they decide it best to not be heard at all. Any critic of Lee Kuan Yew's policies would be seen as an opponent which may mean, God forbid, being another Dr. Chee Soon Juan.
As for protests against the death penalty, there was not too long ago, an Indian lawyer who went around the island carrying candles in vigil outside Changi Prison before the execution of a number of condemned men; giving interviews to various local and international organizations on the injustice of the death penalty in Singapore.
Soon after that this Indian lawyer, was suspended from practice for 1 year and detained at a mental institution for 6 months! He has since been released from the mental institution. However, to be fair to the Singapore government in this case, knowing this Indian gentlemen personally, his suspension from law practice and incarceration at the mental institution was both self inflicted. Nevertheless, these events tend to have a chilling effect on anyone wanting to agitate for change.
Of course these are not the only instances where people have been persecuted for voicing their dissent. Mr. Murphy is himself aware of the sorry case of JB Jeyaretnam and others both before and after him who have paid a heavy price for having the gumption to stand up to this tyrant.
I think therefore, it is fear that stops people from having opinions, not affluence. In any case, it is also not entirely true to think Singaporeans are affluent. The Singapore skyline, not unlike Hong Kong or New York with its dazzle and glitter might make someone think that Singaporeans are affluent. As the saying goes, all that glitters is not gold. Not even silver. Even if it was copper, we would have been happy, but it is not even that.
It is something like this. Singapore being a money laundering center, has some super rich millionaires, such as Indonesian bank embezzlers, thieves and Burmese drug lords. This is the 5% of population. Then there are the other 40% or so of people with an education, many of who are politically connected with the establishment. These live comfortably too. Then there is the other 60% who do not pay any taxes, not because they are tax dodgers but because their incomes are not high enough. These are the ones that live in the one room and 2 room HDB flats who somehow survive on a meal a day and spend their nights under candlelight because they cannot afford to pay for electricity. It would be a good idea for Mr. Murphy to be taken around Singapore to the very common one room and 2 room flats to see the misery that goes on inside.
And finally Mr. Murphy refers to the disinterest of Singaporeans in such things as freedom rather than for modern electrical appliances and other luxuries. Being a Singaporean myself, I do be believe that a Singaporean is no different from any American given the opportunity. Alas they do not have that luxury, the reason being this. First, Singaporeans are deliberately kept in the dark about their rights. Mr. Murphy would be surprised to know that many do not even know that such a thing as a constitution exists.
Education has been deliberately side stepped from subjects such as political science and law, preference being for science subjects where things such as rights and wrongs do not come into play. Secondly, even if they knew their rights, the fear factor comes into the equation making it difficult if not impossible to form deep seated strong passionate opinion about anything. Singaporeans you may say, are not, by long years of brainwashing or indoctrination by Lee Kuan Yew, a passionate, spontaneous people.
Unlike Palestinians. I was in Ma'adaba, a small town 25 miles south of Amman, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan speaking to my client Abdullah, an Arab (name changed) in 2006. He is about 75 years old. He was a displaced person, having been born in Haifa before partition, now presently in Israel. As a young boy there, his family grew olives, oranges and other citrus, when they were forced out, in 1948, into refugee settlements in the West Bank after which he became a Jordanian citizen now living in Jordan. With the utmost seriousness and determination in his face, he tells me that he will not rest until he regains the citrus orchards that were stolen from him by the Jews in 1948! There you have a passionate man. You will never find a Singaporean like him.
But we must thank Mr. Bryan Murphy for this excellent observation on Singapore. Such writing and exposure truly helps the rest of the world to know what Singapore really is, the totalitarian and intolerant authoritarian dictatorship. Not the global democracy that Lee Kuan Yew tries very hard to paint it as such. Singapore is, as someone said, the Disneyland with the death penalty!
Gopalan Nair
39737 Paseo Padre Parkway, Suite A1
Fremont, CA 94538, USA
Tel: 510 657 6107
Fax: 510 657 6914
Email: gopalnair@us-immigrationlaw.com
Singapore trades freedoms for happiness
Bryan Murphy
The Daily Campus
09 Feb08
http://media.www.dailycampus.com/media/storage/paper340/news/208/02/08/Commentary/Singapore.Trades.Freedoms.For.Happiness-3197792.shtml
Ho-ho-holy crap. Most people tend to make decisive judgments without fully realizing their implications, from "Yeah, applying early decision is an amazing idea," to "You're right, we don't need to use a condom for this."
To that list one could add, "Sure, let's go to study in this small tropical island nation without fully realizing that it's essentially a one-man state whose track record on press freedoms ranks it below the civil-war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan and Djibouti."
Think of some form of political expression you might reasonably expect to employ in the United States and it would almost certainly get you incarcerated in Singapore. In the U.S., it's not really such a big deal if you're a famous political analyst who goes around calling a former presidential candidate a "faggot" and doing so certainly won't hurt your next big book deal - though it will serve to further convince everyone that you're a leathery old shrew.
Consider, by way of comparison, the plight of Dr. Chee Soon Juan, the leader of an opposition party here in Singapore. During the 2001 General Elections in Singapore, Dr. Chee made a stir about a $17 billion loan to former Indonesian President-slash-brutal-dictator Suharto. You might think an astronomical loan to a man whose administration was specifically condemned by the U.N. Human Rights Commission for its abominable conduct and repeated slaughters of unarmed protesters would be fair game for a bit of political rabble-rousing, but you'd be wrong. Dr. Chee was hit with libel suits totaling 500,000 Singaporean dollars ($352,933) by Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Chok Tong, at the time the senior minister and prime minister of Singapore, respectively. Dr. Chee lost.
An interesting thing about libel suits filed by high-ranking members of the Singaporean elite is that you are pretty much guaranteed to lose them - especially if you belong to an opposition party. Another interesting fact is that under Singapore's Constitution, those fined at least S$2,000 cannot run in Parliamentary elections for five years. As one could easily imagine, the libel suit is a favorite tool in the political arsenal of Singapore's ruling class. One must concede that there is a certain element of poeticism to this form of control. Rather than taking one's political opponents into a small room and shooting them, one sues them until they are reduced to hawking self-penned novels by the side of the street like a crazy old man - as happened to Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam, the first member of an opposition party elected as a member of the Singaporean Parliament.
Then, if some group tries to make a documentary about the tragic plight of such a street-side novelist and decides to call it, hypothetically, "A Vision of Persistence," one need only remind the filmmakers that according to the Films Act in Singapore, it is illegal to make a film which "contains wholly or partly either partisan or biased references to or comments on any political matter," or could be construed as making a comment on "a current policy of the government or an issue of public controversy" - though, of course, the prime minister can also ban any film whatsoever at any time at his utmost discretion.
Addendum: the possession of "obscene films" is also a crime, carrying a fine of S$1,000 per film, though prostitution itself is not illegal in Singapore.
More unsettling than the thought that a cursory scan of my hard-drive by a police officer would result in about S$500,000 worth of fines, however, is the total apathy of the younger generation here to their seemingly unnoticed plight.
So as not to seem negative, I've got to mention that the National University of Singapore student body has the Huskies whipped in terms of athleticism and entrepreneurialism. One cannot seem to take three steps on this campus without passing a horde of toned bodies or flat tummies - nor can one get from one class to another without being bombarded with offers to purchase roses for their loved ones, sweets for their friends, or tickets to student plays and dances.
However, there's almost nothing here in the way of student debate societies or political groups. Not that there isn't more than ample soil for an advocacy group to grow in. Prostitution is legalized in this nation, yet there are no feminist protests. Pornography is illegal, yet there are no free-speech advocates. Possession of a gram of marijuana might not even get you a night in jail in certain cities in the U.S. - Boulder, Colorado, cough cough - yet the U.S. has spawned "Students for Sensible Drug Policy." Meanwhile, in a nation with the highest per-capita execution rate in the world - where the vast majority of executions are drug-related - there is nary a whimper of protest raised.
Of course, I don't expect anyone in the U.S. to care at all about the political apathy of Singaporeans. As Jimmy Buffet would say, "It's their own damn fault." The unsettling implication is what their silence might mean for, well, all of us. Why don't Singaporeans complain when minor drug pushers are straight-up hanged, or when Playboy.com is added to a national block list? Mostly, it's because things are pretty good here. Singapore is extremely clean, extremely safe and extremely wealthy. No one gets worked up over Presidential elections - even when they're entirely canceled by the Presidential Election Commission - because what does it matter? "The Father" will take care of things, anyway.
It's part of the American value-system to believe the rest of the world is chomping at the bit for their chance for democracy and personal freedom - but really, one has to wonder how many in the Third World want to emulate America's rights and how many really just want to emulate America's economics. The Singaporeans seem to have settled this question for themselves and the answer is not what John Locke would have hoped. One has to ask oneself what the truth is even here, in the homeland of Thomas Jefferson - what price do Americans affix to their freedoms? Is a couple hundred dollars from an Economic Stimulus plan enough to buy them off? If not that, then how about a vague assurance of freedom from terrorism?
It's the romantic view to believe that everyone burns with a deep-seated desire for freedom and political rights, but it often seems more accurate to assume that everyone burns with need for an iPod and a Corolla.
Weekly Columnist Bryan Murphy is a 4th-semester economics major currently studying abroad in Singapore. His column appears on Friday. He can be reached at
Bryan.Murphy@UConn.edu
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Friday, February 8, 2008
Singapore. Education comes with responsibilities.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
When one becomes educated, with it comes responsibilities. And it is dishonorable for the educated to remain silent when a dictator misleads, deceives his fellow citizens but yet remains silent; even though he knows the truth. Even though, by virtue of his education, he is in a position to stand up to the dictator and stop him from carrying on with the mischief.
Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore runs the country as a dictatorship even though it was meant to be a democracy. Singapore has a constitution which gives citizens their basic fundamental rights. A constitution which guarantees the citizens rights against excesses by the government. A constitution which is meant to allow the citizens through elections to change the government. A constitution which guarantees a free press, free speech and expression; which guarantees the rule of law and the right to equality among people; the right to be protected from racial and religious discrimination. The citizens of Singapore have the right to live as free men and women. This is the right that they are guaranteed under the constitution.
Before their very eyes, deliberately and without any shame, Lee Kuan Yew has denied the citizens of Singapore each of these rights, making the citizens of Singapore live at the whims and fancies of the supreme dictator, Lee Kuan Yew. All these guarantees in the constitution are openly and shamelessly broken and violated. There is no free speech. To speak you need a license and if it is speech that the government does not like to hear, you will not get the license. And not getting the license, you will be arrested, sued, impoverished and bankrupted in that order, by a pliant and corrupt judiciary, if you did speak.
Although the constitution guarantees the right to assemble, a license is needed to do it; if it is an assembly to criticize the government, no license will be granted and if you assembled anyway, you will be punished in the above order; even though the assembly did not even hurt a fly.
Every aspect of freedom is denied; if the intent is to criticize the government. In Singapore people are permitted to go about their lives, do their work, go about their occupations and recreations, go about their living, but with one caveat, which is this. Do not criticize the government. Do not complain even if Mr. Lee Kuan Yew and his son steals $3.7 million of your money each year, for each of them; which by the way he does claiming it to be a salary.
If you wish to live in peace, do not criticize if the government refuses, as they do now, to pay your retirement CPF money when you reach 60 years; which by law they are required to do.
You have no right to criticize if the government is building gambling dens next to your homes which they intend to do. You have no right if the government permits prostitution in Geylang by the massive influxion of Peidu Mama, single mothers from Communist China whose children are given scholarships at government expense.
You will be punished if you complained about racial discrimination and ethnic rearrangement though the massive importation of Communist Chinese so as to maintain the illegal racial quota of 75 % Chinese.
To put it simply, the Constitution of Singapore is a dead letter. It is intended to fool the rest of the world and Singapore citizens into thinking it is a Constitutional Parliamentary democracy. Nothing can be further from the truth. Singapore is nothing more than a country run by the Lee family, the Lee Kuan Yew family, assisted by their corrupted minions, who decide what the lives of an average Singaporean will be, day by day.
I know this fact, the fact that it is nothing more than a dictatorship of Lee Kuan Yew. But I am not the only one who knows this fact. Every educated person, if he bothers to find out, knows all that I have said. Every educated person in Singapore knows that Lee Kuan Yew has brought Singapore to what it is now; a place where he and his family can make as much money as they want without complaint from anyone. A place where decisions are made by them and them alone. A place without any set rules for government, the rules being made by the Lee family as time goes on. A place where the people have to live entirely at the mercy of what Lee may or may not decide tomorrow.
Every educated Singaporean knows this. They know that their rights have progressively been diminished over the years until today, when they have none. A self respecting Singaporean would feel outraged at this denial of his rights which are guaranteed to him under the Constitution. Any self respecting Singaporean should take back his rights that Lee has stolen; how dare Mr. Lee Kuan Yew take away the rights that belong to them. The educated Singaporeans should ask who this man thinks he is is. God? Any self respecting Singaporean should not tolerate this. They should demand redress. They should demand the right to live as men again, not sheep.
There are those whom Lee has deliberately kept only partially educated and who may not be aware that they have more power than they think. If these people did not see their lives being in bondage, it is possible to understand. But how can one forgive those with an education, those who are aware of the damage being done, and yet remain silent. These people cannot be forgiven. These are shameful people, fearful people who do not have the confidence to stand up to a tyrant, so they continue with their sheepish lives.
Within this group of shame; that is the educated people who lack the courage to do thief right thing; I include the lawyers, all of them; I include all the other professionals; I include the professors and lecturers at the universities who claim to have a lot of gray matter in their heads but not the courage to stand up to tyrants; I include the school teachers, the engineers, the scientists; in fact I include everyone with any amount of tertiary education.
If I know this much, they too know this much. If I know Lee Kuan Yew is a thief, they too know this. If I know that all their rights are denied, they too know this.
I know of a professor at the SMU who was my classmate at Raffles Institution. I should not say too much about him; so as not to give away his identity. Needless to say, he lives in fear of Lee Kuan Yew. He reads a lot, literature, poetry and English. He wants us to believe that he is a man of letters. He even wrote a comical poem to me once. He even told me once, how far true I do not know, that he had lunch with Vaclav Havel. He attends theatrical performances, symphony performances. In other words he wants me to believe that he is part of the educated polished elite. But in spite of all this; in spite of all his accomplishments; in spite of the fact that he knows full well that in Singapore, he is nothing more than Lee Kuan Yew's subject to do as he pleases; this professor does not dare to raise a single complaint, openly against this dictatorship. It is such people who live lives in disgrace, in denial and in cowardice. He knows that if Lee so desires, his entire career, his wine sipping and theatrical performances would disappear overnight. So like a cowardly goat, he remains silent as Lee rules over him.
Not only him, the entire educated class deserves contempt. Contempt because they as citizens of Singapore, are prepared to stand idly by, as Lee and his family continue to steal from them at will; steal their money, their rights, their everything.
As for me, I have a stake in Singapore. I was born there. My father spent almost his entire life in Singapore, building up the country to what it is today. I have a right to complain and to expose these dictators. And like myself, I ask others in Singapore and elsewhere to cry out against these dictators and these tyrants.
The wheels of change have begun to turn. The Lee government is finding it impossible to stifle the criticism that is outpouring against this dictatorship; but so far, except for a few, the criticism has been only incognito, hiding behind pseudonyms and false pretenses. The educated should stand out now, openly identifying themselves in criticism. Being educated, they will always manage to survive. Therefore they should have more courage. Remaining silent is not an option in these circumstances.
The professor at the SMU should not only be writing poetry, but like Vaclav Havel, be a beacon for truth and freedom. Like it was in Czechoslovakia.
These blogs that I write and others write will continue to prick the minds of their readers, and even if a single person was moved into some thought process to demand change, even in a very small way; this blog would have served its purpose.
Each reader even in a small way can be part of the movement for change by small efforts, such as distributing these blog posts to others and disseminating the information in them throughout the island. These small efforts by all of us combined will help towards political change in Singapore.
Gopalan Nair
39737 Paseo Padre Parkway, Suite A1
Fremont, CA 94538, USA
Tel: 510 657 6107
Fax: 510 657 6914
Email: gopalnair@us-immigrationlaw.com
When one becomes educated, with it comes responsibilities. And it is dishonorable for the educated to remain silent when a dictator misleads, deceives his fellow citizens but yet remains silent; even though he knows the truth. Even though, by virtue of his education, he is in a position to stand up to the dictator and stop him from carrying on with the mischief.
Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore runs the country as a dictatorship even though it was meant to be a democracy. Singapore has a constitution which gives citizens their basic fundamental rights. A constitution which guarantees the citizens rights against excesses by the government. A constitution which is meant to allow the citizens through elections to change the government. A constitution which guarantees a free press, free speech and expression; which guarantees the rule of law and the right to equality among people; the right to be protected from racial and religious discrimination. The citizens of Singapore have the right to live as free men and women. This is the right that they are guaranteed under the constitution.
Before their very eyes, deliberately and without any shame, Lee Kuan Yew has denied the citizens of Singapore each of these rights, making the citizens of Singapore live at the whims and fancies of the supreme dictator, Lee Kuan Yew. All these guarantees in the constitution are openly and shamelessly broken and violated. There is no free speech. To speak you need a license and if it is speech that the government does not like to hear, you will not get the license. And not getting the license, you will be arrested, sued, impoverished and bankrupted in that order, by a pliant and corrupt judiciary, if you did speak.
Although the constitution guarantees the right to assemble, a license is needed to do it; if it is an assembly to criticize the government, no license will be granted and if you assembled anyway, you will be punished in the above order; even though the assembly did not even hurt a fly.
Every aspect of freedom is denied; if the intent is to criticize the government. In Singapore people are permitted to go about their lives, do their work, go about their occupations and recreations, go about their living, but with one caveat, which is this. Do not criticize the government. Do not complain even if Mr. Lee Kuan Yew and his son steals $3.7 million of your money each year, for each of them; which by the way he does claiming it to be a salary.
If you wish to live in peace, do not criticize if the government refuses, as they do now, to pay your retirement CPF money when you reach 60 years; which by law they are required to do.
You have no right to criticize if the government is building gambling dens next to your homes which they intend to do. You have no right if the government permits prostitution in Geylang by the massive influxion of Peidu Mama, single mothers from Communist China whose children are given scholarships at government expense.
You will be punished if you complained about racial discrimination and ethnic rearrangement though the massive importation of Communist Chinese so as to maintain the illegal racial quota of 75 % Chinese.
To put it simply, the Constitution of Singapore is a dead letter. It is intended to fool the rest of the world and Singapore citizens into thinking it is a Constitutional Parliamentary democracy. Nothing can be further from the truth. Singapore is nothing more than a country run by the Lee family, the Lee Kuan Yew family, assisted by their corrupted minions, who decide what the lives of an average Singaporean will be, day by day.
I know this fact, the fact that it is nothing more than a dictatorship of Lee Kuan Yew. But I am not the only one who knows this fact. Every educated person, if he bothers to find out, knows all that I have said. Every educated person in Singapore knows that Lee Kuan Yew has brought Singapore to what it is now; a place where he and his family can make as much money as they want without complaint from anyone. A place where decisions are made by them and them alone. A place without any set rules for government, the rules being made by the Lee family as time goes on. A place where the people have to live entirely at the mercy of what Lee may or may not decide tomorrow.
Every educated Singaporean knows this. They know that their rights have progressively been diminished over the years until today, when they have none. A self respecting Singaporean would feel outraged at this denial of his rights which are guaranteed to him under the Constitution. Any self respecting Singaporean should take back his rights that Lee has stolen; how dare Mr. Lee Kuan Yew take away the rights that belong to them. The educated Singaporeans should ask who this man thinks he is is. God? Any self respecting Singaporean should not tolerate this. They should demand redress. They should demand the right to live as men again, not sheep.
There are those whom Lee has deliberately kept only partially educated and who may not be aware that they have more power than they think. If these people did not see their lives being in bondage, it is possible to understand. But how can one forgive those with an education, those who are aware of the damage being done, and yet remain silent. These people cannot be forgiven. These are shameful people, fearful people who do not have the confidence to stand up to a tyrant, so they continue with their sheepish lives.
Within this group of shame; that is the educated people who lack the courage to do thief right thing; I include the lawyers, all of them; I include all the other professionals; I include the professors and lecturers at the universities who claim to have a lot of gray matter in their heads but not the courage to stand up to tyrants; I include the school teachers, the engineers, the scientists; in fact I include everyone with any amount of tertiary education.
If I know this much, they too know this much. If I know Lee Kuan Yew is a thief, they too know this. If I know that all their rights are denied, they too know this.
I know of a professor at the SMU who was my classmate at Raffles Institution. I should not say too much about him; so as not to give away his identity. Needless to say, he lives in fear of Lee Kuan Yew. He reads a lot, literature, poetry and English. He wants us to believe that he is a man of letters. He even wrote a comical poem to me once. He even told me once, how far true I do not know, that he had lunch with Vaclav Havel. He attends theatrical performances, symphony performances. In other words he wants me to believe that he is part of the educated polished elite. But in spite of all this; in spite of all his accomplishments; in spite of the fact that he knows full well that in Singapore, he is nothing more than Lee Kuan Yew's subject to do as he pleases; this professor does not dare to raise a single complaint, openly against this dictatorship. It is such people who live lives in disgrace, in denial and in cowardice. He knows that if Lee so desires, his entire career, his wine sipping and theatrical performances would disappear overnight. So like a cowardly goat, he remains silent as Lee rules over him.
Not only him, the entire educated class deserves contempt. Contempt because they as citizens of Singapore, are prepared to stand idly by, as Lee and his family continue to steal from them at will; steal their money, their rights, their everything.
As for me, I have a stake in Singapore. I was born there. My father spent almost his entire life in Singapore, building up the country to what it is today. I have a right to complain and to expose these dictators. And like myself, I ask others in Singapore and elsewhere to cry out against these dictators and these tyrants.
The wheels of change have begun to turn. The Lee government is finding it impossible to stifle the criticism that is outpouring against this dictatorship; but so far, except for a few, the criticism has been only incognito, hiding behind pseudonyms and false pretenses. The educated should stand out now, openly identifying themselves in criticism. Being educated, they will always manage to survive. Therefore they should have more courage. Remaining silent is not an option in these circumstances.
The professor at the SMU should not only be writing poetry, but like Vaclav Havel, be a beacon for truth and freedom. Like it was in Czechoslovakia.
These blogs that I write and others write will continue to prick the minds of their readers, and even if a single person was moved into some thought process to demand change, even in a very small way; this blog would have served its purpose.
Each reader even in a small way can be part of the movement for change by small efforts, such as distributing these blog posts to others and disseminating the information in them throughout the island. These small efforts by all of us combined will help towards political change in Singapore.
Gopalan Nair
39737 Paseo Padre Parkway, Suite A1
Fremont, CA 94538, USA
Tel: 510 657 6107
Fax: 510 657 6914
Email: gopalnair@us-immigrationlaw.com
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Letter to the SDP
Dr. Chee Soon Juan
Secretary General
Singapore Democratic Party
Singapore
February 05, 2008
Dear Dr. Chee,
I can see the continued destruction of Singapore before my very eyes. The list is too long but a few can be mentioned, such as, the denial of the rule of law; the total disregard of the Constitution, such as the segregation of the Malays and Indians under HDB policy, such as the illegal importation of millions of Chinese from China to deny the Malays and the Indians equality in citizenship; the indiscriminate importation of foreign workers deliberately intended to destroy the livelihood of Singapore workers; the deliberate policy of not educating Singaporeans fully so that they will be forever kept ignorant of the injustice done to them; the consequent massive flood of educated Singaporeans overseas resulting in unacceptable levels of loss in skilled people; the unacceptable income disparity between rich and poor; the beatings of prisoners as part of their punishment called caning; the highest rate of legal executions of any country in the world; the unacceptable levels of suicides; the ministers paying themselves $3.7 million dollars a year and calling it a salary! I can go on but I must stop. The list is too long.
In other words, Lee Kuan Yew is behaving as if he is the law unto himself. As if the Constitution never existed. As if he can do anything he wants.
If any citizen of Singapore stood by as he continued on his merry way, Singapore will be totally destroyed. It will no longer be recognizable as the Singapore that anyone knew. As you are aware, the legal profession having been discredited, with a corrupt judiciary and the absence of the rule of law; lawyers are leaving the profession as we speak. The Civil Service despite large pay increments and other perks as inducements is continuing to see massive resignations and no new entrants.
Having said all this, I understand you yourself having agreed with Freedom House, the international monitor on democracies that democracy cannot come about in Singapore though the ballot box. Lee Kuan Yew and his son have both admitted themselves that they have "fixed" the system so they continue to win.
Since waiting for the next elections is useless, since it is going to be the same arrogance from Lee Kuan Yew, or if he is dead by then, from his son; surely there is common ground here that only one thing and one thing alone can work to bring about change; and that is physically demanding it from the dictators. Since we all know that there is no dictatorship in the world, so far as we know, that peacefully handed over power to someone else.
I have been in the Workers Party from 1984 to 1991 and contested 2 elections, Tiong Bahru in 1988 and Bukit Merah in 1991. During these years, I have seen the Workers Party cater to perceived or imagined preferences of the citizenry. For instance since JB Jeyaretnam was an Indian and Singapore is predominantly Chinese, whenever he appeared in public, he arranged to be surrounded by Chinese, to allay any impression that the Workers Party was an Indian Party. During the later part of his career in the party, there was constant talk that Mr. Low Thia Khiang should take over since he was Chinese, and will be appreciated by the Chinese majority instead of an Indian. Even for photo ops, there was usually a magical chairs merry go round where the races were rearranged to show more Chinese. When I look back, I say all this was wrong. We are all Singaporeans. What difference did it make whether you were a yellow Chinese with slit eyes and no facial hair at all, or if you were an Indian with a sharp nose and hair all over your face? What difference did it make? None.
My point is this. In whatever that men do, the governing rule is what is right and wrong. What people think in the immediate future should make no difference on one's judgment.
And let me come to the point. Since we both agree, I hope that elections never got rid of any dictator, the answer lies; you guessed right as to what I will say; the answer lies in protests. Protests against an unjust regime are both legally and morally right. In fact not protesting against these outrages makes every local Singaporeans an accomplice and collaborator with Lee Kuan Yew as he continues to destroy Singapore.
I personally know that there are many who may say that Singapore should be changed the conventional way, that is through elections. That protests and such things are not within the Singapore psyche. That Singaporeans are more civil and gentle people. That if there are protests all foreign investment will leave Singapore and we will be turned overnight into beggars.
None of these questions should even come anywhere near the equation. The answer is very simple. Should something be done to stop the rot? And can that something be contesting elections as usual. And if you already know of its inefficacy, then what is the point of doing it. I say public opinion does not matter. What matters is what is right and wrong. That alone should be guiding principle, because doing the right thing always ensures success in the end. Otherwise, you will be no better than the present toothless Workers Party.
Today, the situation is prime for protests. It is perfect. You have more grievances that what you need. These grievances cut across racial lines, income groups; in fact these grievances affect every Singaporeans.
What you must do is to deliberately make Mr. Wong Kan Seng realize that he has become helpless. By deliberately breaking these laws unjust laws such as the assembly and speech laws designed specifically to keep Singaporeans without a voice. The dense population of Singapore which equates such places as Gaza and Hong Kong, makes protests especially effective. The concentration of people is so great that one message spoken once will be heard by at least 100 people along Orchard Road. This is the reason why Wong Kan Seng is terrified of the word protests. Its effectiveness is exemplified in countries such as Singapore.
Of course there is the danger of arrests and other forms of intimidation by the government against protestors. But I believe even now that too many protests have happened that criminalizing it is becoming counterproductive. I recall a number of protests organized by the SDP in 2007, for instance the Burmese protests, the Istana protest, and so on. I have not read in any news media that the police have taken any action against any of the protestors.
If Dr. Chee Soon Juan and his friends are deliberately going to defy these laws, and if the police are going to arrest him, try him in the Subordinate Court for 2 months, levy a small fine which he will refuse to pay, go to jail for a week; come out and do it all over gain. You see it is this government that is losing its respect, its time and money; Dr. Chee loses nothing. Instead he gains international respect and admiration as a freedom fighter. And if a few can join him and with a few more as time goes on; you will have another Intramuros Manila Filipinos who ousted the dictator Marcos.
Moreover, Lee being an octogenarian or whatever name he may have, he will die soon. That too must give an added impetus for the movement for change.
The good news. Singaporeans are very suitable for democracy. Over the years they have become a civil people. A law abiding people. A gentle people. They are not like Pakistanis or the Afghans who are out to kill. Singaporeans will not kill anyone. Such people are best suited to democracy. And for making them a gentle people we can thank Lee Kuan Yew for that. But having thanked him, we should ask him to step aside. Right now.
So my dear Dr. Chee. Please do something. Talking about electoral reforms within 4 walls are good but not enough. What is needed is physical action.
Thank you.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
Secretary General
Singapore Democratic Party
Singapore
February 05, 2008
Dear Dr. Chee,
I can see the continued destruction of Singapore before my very eyes. The list is too long but a few can be mentioned, such as, the denial of the rule of law; the total disregard of the Constitution, such as the segregation of the Malays and Indians under HDB policy, such as the illegal importation of millions of Chinese from China to deny the Malays and the Indians equality in citizenship; the indiscriminate importation of foreign workers deliberately intended to destroy the livelihood of Singapore workers; the deliberate policy of not educating Singaporeans fully so that they will be forever kept ignorant of the injustice done to them; the consequent massive flood of educated Singaporeans overseas resulting in unacceptable levels of loss in skilled people; the unacceptable income disparity between rich and poor; the beatings of prisoners as part of their punishment called caning; the highest rate of legal executions of any country in the world; the unacceptable levels of suicides; the ministers paying themselves $3.7 million dollars a year and calling it a salary! I can go on but I must stop. The list is too long.
In other words, Lee Kuan Yew is behaving as if he is the law unto himself. As if the Constitution never existed. As if he can do anything he wants.
If any citizen of Singapore stood by as he continued on his merry way, Singapore will be totally destroyed. It will no longer be recognizable as the Singapore that anyone knew. As you are aware, the legal profession having been discredited, with a corrupt judiciary and the absence of the rule of law; lawyers are leaving the profession as we speak. The Civil Service despite large pay increments and other perks as inducements is continuing to see massive resignations and no new entrants.
Having said all this, I understand you yourself having agreed with Freedom House, the international monitor on democracies that democracy cannot come about in Singapore though the ballot box. Lee Kuan Yew and his son have both admitted themselves that they have "fixed" the system so they continue to win.
Since waiting for the next elections is useless, since it is going to be the same arrogance from Lee Kuan Yew, or if he is dead by then, from his son; surely there is common ground here that only one thing and one thing alone can work to bring about change; and that is physically demanding it from the dictators. Since we all know that there is no dictatorship in the world, so far as we know, that peacefully handed over power to someone else.
I have been in the Workers Party from 1984 to 1991 and contested 2 elections, Tiong Bahru in 1988 and Bukit Merah in 1991. During these years, I have seen the Workers Party cater to perceived or imagined preferences of the citizenry. For instance since JB Jeyaretnam was an Indian and Singapore is predominantly Chinese, whenever he appeared in public, he arranged to be surrounded by Chinese, to allay any impression that the Workers Party was an Indian Party. During the later part of his career in the party, there was constant talk that Mr. Low Thia Khiang should take over since he was Chinese, and will be appreciated by the Chinese majority instead of an Indian. Even for photo ops, there was usually a magical chairs merry go round where the races were rearranged to show more Chinese. When I look back, I say all this was wrong. We are all Singaporeans. What difference did it make whether you were a yellow Chinese with slit eyes and no facial hair at all, or if you were an Indian with a sharp nose and hair all over your face? What difference did it make? None.
My point is this. In whatever that men do, the governing rule is what is right and wrong. What people think in the immediate future should make no difference on one's judgment.
And let me come to the point. Since we both agree, I hope that elections never got rid of any dictator, the answer lies; you guessed right as to what I will say; the answer lies in protests. Protests against an unjust regime are both legally and morally right. In fact not protesting against these outrages makes every local Singaporeans an accomplice and collaborator with Lee Kuan Yew as he continues to destroy Singapore.
I personally know that there are many who may say that Singapore should be changed the conventional way, that is through elections. That protests and such things are not within the Singapore psyche. That Singaporeans are more civil and gentle people. That if there are protests all foreign investment will leave Singapore and we will be turned overnight into beggars.
None of these questions should even come anywhere near the equation. The answer is very simple. Should something be done to stop the rot? And can that something be contesting elections as usual. And if you already know of its inefficacy, then what is the point of doing it. I say public opinion does not matter. What matters is what is right and wrong. That alone should be guiding principle, because doing the right thing always ensures success in the end. Otherwise, you will be no better than the present toothless Workers Party.
Today, the situation is prime for protests. It is perfect. You have more grievances that what you need. These grievances cut across racial lines, income groups; in fact these grievances affect every Singaporeans.
What you must do is to deliberately make Mr. Wong Kan Seng realize that he has become helpless. By deliberately breaking these laws unjust laws such as the assembly and speech laws designed specifically to keep Singaporeans without a voice. The dense population of Singapore which equates such places as Gaza and Hong Kong, makes protests especially effective. The concentration of people is so great that one message spoken once will be heard by at least 100 people along Orchard Road. This is the reason why Wong Kan Seng is terrified of the word protests. Its effectiveness is exemplified in countries such as Singapore.
Of course there is the danger of arrests and other forms of intimidation by the government against protestors. But I believe even now that too many protests have happened that criminalizing it is becoming counterproductive. I recall a number of protests organized by the SDP in 2007, for instance the Burmese protests, the Istana protest, and so on. I have not read in any news media that the police have taken any action against any of the protestors.
If Dr. Chee Soon Juan and his friends are deliberately going to defy these laws, and if the police are going to arrest him, try him in the Subordinate Court for 2 months, levy a small fine which he will refuse to pay, go to jail for a week; come out and do it all over gain. You see it is this government that is losing its respect, its time and money; Dr. Chee loses nothing. Instead he gains international respect and admiration as a freedom fighter. And if a few can join him and with a few more as time goes on; you will have another Intramuros Manila Filipinos who ousted the dictator Marcos.
Moreover, Lee being an octogenarian or whatever name he may have, he will die soon. That too must give an added impetus for the movement for change.
The good news. Singaporeans are very suitable for democracy. Over the years they have become a civil people. A law abiding people. A gentle people. They are not like Pakistanis or the Afghans who are out to kill. Singaporeans will not kill anyone. Such people are best suited to democracy. And for making them a gentle people we can thank Lee Kuan Yew for that. But having thanked him, we should ask him to step aside. Right now.
So my dear Dr. Chee. Please do something. Talking about electoral reforms within 4 walls are good but not enough. What is needed is physical action.
Thank you.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
Monday, February 4, 2008
Three quarters of Singapore as a viable state has been destroyed. Act now before it is completely destroyed.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Lee Kuan Yew has managed to almost completely destroy Singapore’s continued viability as a state. Unless you act now, Singapore as what we knew would be completely destroyed.
1. Massive Emigration: As you are aware, for a small country like Singapore with a small domestic population of about 3 million, such massive brain drain of the educated and capable is hurting. It cannot go on like this. The reason being Lee Kuan Yew's turning Singapore into a dictatorship run by his family.
2. Lack of Rule of Law: With the misuse of the law to eliminate political opponents, Singapore cannot claim any longer to have the rule of law. This absence of law is hurting Singapore’s future as a business and trading center which requires the rule of law for public confidence in upholding contracts.
3. The dishonesty of lawyers: For a small country the size of Singapore with a legal profession of only 3,400, Singapore is known to have the highest number of lawyers stealing their clients money and running away. This is affecting the credibility of Singapore as a trading and business center. I have heard that lately, the state controlled and owned Singapore newspapers have decided no longer to publish cases of lawyer dishonesty.
4. Suicides: Singapore has about at least 2 people a day who take their own lives either by jumping onto oncoming trains or by throwing themselves off high rise apartments. Lately the state owned and controlled press have either stopped reporting such suicides or saying that someone fell onto tracks or fell off buildings. I have heard that they have decided altogether to stop reporting them.
5. Racial Discrimination: Even though the Constitution requires racial equality, Singapore Malays and Singapore Indians are discriminated by the Singapore Chinese. They are denied jobs with the requirement that applicants should know Mandarin.
6. Racial Discrimination in Housing: Even though the constitution requires equal opportunity in housing, the HDB where 99% of Singaporeans live discriminates against Singapore Malays and Indians by denying them the right to live areas of their choice. Singapore housing policy illegally requires segregation. Each housing estate should have 75% Chinese 15% Malay and 10% Indian. This is illegal and contrary to the constitution.
7. Racial Discrimination in the Peidu Mama policy: A peidu mama is a Chinese woman from Mainland Communist China, usually divorced, single mother is permitted to come and live in Singapore with her child. The child is educated at Singapore government expense while the mother or Peidu Mama ends up working in a massage parlor or in prostitution. This is done only for the Chinese because the Singapore government is determined to keep increasing the Chinese population in Singapore as a result of their falling birth rates so that the Chinese population will not fall below 75%. No such provision is allowed in the constitution. This advantage is only for Communist Chinese single mothers who wish to have a career in the massage or prostitution industry while their children get an education. As a result of this peidu mama policy there are recent reports that the number of prostitutes in Geylang red light area has increased exponentially thereby undermining the moral fibre of Singaporeans.
8. Massive poverty: As Singapore welcomes international bankers and other millionaires to settle in Singapore, there is about 5 % of the people who are extremely wealthy. Then you have another 30% or so government connected people who benefit with high salaries. The rest about 70% of the population hardly manage to survive. About 30% or so live in abject poverty in their HDB flats on porridge rice with salted fish eating under candlelight. They cannot afford to pay for electricity. The Gini coefficient states Singapore to have one of the world's largest income gaps between rich and poor. This explains why there are 2 suicides a day.
9. Money Laundering Center: Most everyone knows by now that Singapore is a money laundering center for the crooks of the world. These include Indonesian businessmen and Burmese drug lords. Which explains why Singapore has several thousand businesses in Rangoon (I will not call it Yangon).
10. Casinos: As a result of the Indonesians not having any more money, Singapore has decided to go into gambling as a source of income. This is going further corrupt the morals and decency of good Singaporeans. This will increase suicides from the present 2 a day to 10 a day.
11. Casinos without people's consent: For such a major change in policy of going into gambling, the people should have been consulted. They were not. There was no referendum.
12. Most educated and thinking people are outside Singapore: I do not wish to be presumptuous and will not include myself, but Francis Seow, Tan Wah Piow and Tang Liang Hong, and not including thousands or even millions of highly talented persons such as these are all outside the borders of Singapore. In the USA in Australia and elsewhere. These are thinking people. The number of thinking people in Singapore is greatly diminished. Singapore cannot survive like this.
13. Locating leaders: Any government who have to physically go around Singapore looking for leaders, who are perhaps reluctant to reveal themselves, round them up and appoint them leaders is surely in serious trouble. Singapore is in trouble.
14. No Cpf: Even though the people are entitled to CPF retirement savings, they are not being paid a cent because Lee Kuan Yew wants them to work until they drop. This explains why there are unusually large numbers of 95 year old men and women, who can hardly stand up, being put to work as table cleaners in HDB food stalls. I have heard of several actually just dropping dead while cleaning the table.
15. Annuities: Lee Kuan Yew has recently passed a law that requires Singaporeans to live until 85 before they can get any retirement savings. He is himself 85 and has threatened never to retire but drop dead while working. He is demanding that every Singaporeans do the same!
16. Foreigners: Most jobs in Singapore are given to foreigners because they accept lower pay. Singaporeans who are unable to survive on such low wages are given $200.00, a few pounds of salted fish and cooking oil and told to fend for themselves. With the money, they have to purchase candles which they need since they cannot afford electricity. Dickensian poverty of the poorhouses is nothing compared to what Singaporeans have to endure.
17. Speaking license: You need a license to speak publicly.
18. Assembling license: 5 or more people intending to assemble in public require a license.
19. No licenses to political opposition: Political opposition will not be given licenses.
20. No longer an English speaking country: It is not possible to move around in Singapore with English. The vast majority of people speak Mandarin. The Malays and Indians are left out.
21. Speedy defamation trials: Lee Kuan Yew's favorite tool to eliminate political opposition is to sue them and bankrupt them. If Lee Kuan Yew or his family are the plaintiffs, the outcome is known before hand. In fact recently Judge Belinda Ang awarded the case to Lee Kuan Yew in world record time of 5 minutes or so. From her private office, she called in Davinder Singh, Lee Kuan Yew's lawyer who entered her office. After 5 minutes she emerged, told Dr. Chee Soon Juan that he lost his case and had to pay $500,000.00 to Lee Kuan Yew. When he said he had no money, he was made a bankrupt on the spot and was immediately asked to hand in his passport. I understand this was the fastest ever defamation of character trial and the Guinness Book of Records is preparing an entry to their books!
22. No legal minimum wage: Despite spiraling costs Singapore refuses to legislate minimum wage. They say it is free market and it is up to the employers. So the employers conveniently keep lowering the wages which Singaporeans cannot live on. By the government permitting unlimited numbers of Bangladesh and Communist Chinese, these peasants are prepared to work for pennies. So they get the jobs. Singaporeans unable to cope end their lives or like the government says fall onto railway tracks.
23. Stoppages on train schedules: Each time a Singaporean jumps onto oncoming trains to kill himself the entire train system has to stop. The government is trying to find a solution to keep the trains running despite the suicides. They are not by the way, trying to stop any suicides.
If you are a Singaporean and reading this, understand the position is dire. You have to do something now before it is too late. Before Lee Kuan Yew completely destroys Singapore. Dr. Chee Soon Juan of the SDP is working on these issues. You can offer your help. You would be helping not only yourself but future generations from the utter destruction of the country.
Gopalan Nair
39737 Paseo Padre Parkway, Suite A1
Fremont, CA 94538, USA
Tel: 510 657 6107
Fax: 510 657 6914
Email: gopalnair@us-immigrationlaw.com
Lee Kuan Yew has managed to almost completely destroy Singapore’s continued viability as a state. Unless you act now, Singapore as what we knew would be completely destroyed.
1. Massive Emigration: As you are aware, for a small country like Singapore with a small domestic population of about 3 million, such massive brain drain of the educated and capable is hurting. It cannot go on like this. The reason being Lee Kuan Yew's turning Singapore into a dictatorship run by his family.
2. Lack of Rule of Law: With the misuse of the law to eliminate political opponents, Singapore cannot claim any longer to have the rule of law. This absence of law is hurting Singapore’s future as a business and trading center which requires the rule of law for public confidence in upholding contracts.
3. The dishonesty of lawyers: For a small country the size of Singapore with a legal profession of only 3,400, Singapore is known to have the highest number of lawyers stealing their clients money and running away. This is affecting the credibility of Singapore as a trading and business center. I have heard that lately, the state controlled and owned Singapore newspapers have decided no longer to publish cases of lawyer dishonesty.
4. Suicides: Singapore has about at least 2 people a day who take their own lives either by jumping onto oncoming trains or by throwing themselves off high rise apartments. Lately the state owned and controlled press have either stopped reporting such suicides or saying that someone fell onto tracks or fell off buildings. I have heard that they have decided altogether to stop reporting them.
5. Racial Discrimination: Even though the Constitution requires racial equality, Singapore Malays and Singapore Indians are discriminated by the Singapore Chinese. They are denied jobs with the requirement that applicants should know Mandarin.
6. Racial Discrimination in Housing: Even though the constitution requires equal opportunity in housing, the HDB where 99% of Singaporeans live discriminates against Singapore Malays and Indians by denying them the right to live areas of their choice. Singapore housing policy illegally requires segregation. Each housing estate should have 75% Chinese 15% Malay and 10% Indian. This is illegal and contrary to the constitution.
7. Racial Discrimination in the Peidu Mama policy: A peidu mama is a Chinese woman from Mainland Communist China, usually divorced, single mother is permitted to come and live in Singapore with her child. The child is educated at Singapore government expense while the mother or Peidu Mama ends up working in a massage parlor or in prostitution. This is done only for the Chinese because the Singapore government is determined to keep increasing the Chinese population in Singapore as a result of their falling birth rates so that the Chinese population will not fall below 75%. No such provision is allowed in the constitution. This advantage is only for Communist Chinese single mothers who wish to have a career in the massage or prostitution industry while their children get an education. As a result of this peidu mama policy there are recent reports that the number of prostitutes in Geylang red light area has increased exponentially thereby undermining the moral fibre of Singaporeans.
8. Massive poverty: As Singapore welcomes international bankers and other millionaires to settle in Singapore, there is about 5 % of the people who are extremely wealthy. Then you have another 30% or so government connected people who benefit with high salaries. The rest about 70% of the population hardly manage to survive. About 30% or so live in abject poverty in their HDB flats on porridge rice with salted fish eating under candlelight. They cannot afford to pay for electricity. The Gini coefficient states Singapore to have one of the world's largest income gaps between rich and poor. This explains why there are 2 suicides a day.
9. Money Laundering Center: Most everyone knows by now that Singapore is a money laundering center for the crooks of the world. These include Indonesian businessmen and Burmese drug lords. Which explains why Singapore has several thousand businesses in Rangoon (I will not call it Yangon).
10. Casinos: As a result of the Indonesians not having any more money, Singapore has decided to go into gambling as a source of income. This is going further corrupt the morals and decency of good Singaporeans. This will increase suicides from the present 2 a day to 10 a day.
11. Casinos without people's consent: For such a major change in policy of going into gambling, the people should have been consulted. They were not. There was no referendum.
12. Most educated and thinking people are outside Singapore: I do not wish to be presumptuous and will not include myself, but Francis Seow, Tan Wah Piow and Tang Liang Hong, and not including thousands or even millions of highly talented persons such as these are all outside the borders of Singapore. In the USA in Australia and elsewhere. These are thinking people. The number of thinking people in Singapore is greatly diminished. Singapore cannot survive like this.
13. Locating leaders: Any government who have to physically go around Singapore looking for leaders, who are perhaps reluctant to reveal themselves, round them up and appoint them leaders is surely in serious trouble. Singapore is in trouble.
14. No Cpf: Even though the people are entitled to CPF retirement savings, they are not being paid a cent because Lee Kuan Yew wants them to work until they drop. This explains why there are unusually large numbers of 95 year old men and women, who can hardly stand up, being put to work as table cleaners in HDB food stalls. I have heard of several actually just dropping dead while cleaning the table.
15. Annuities: Lee Kuan Yew has recently passed a law that requires Singaporeans to live until 85 before they can get any retirement savings. He is himself 85 and has threatened never to retire but drop dead while working. He is demanding that every Singaporeans do the same!
16. Foreigners: Most jobs in Singapore are given to foreigners because they accept lower pay. Singaporeans who are unable to survive on such low wages are given $200.00, a few pounds of salted fish and cooking oil and told to fend for themselves. With the money, they have to purchase candles which they need since they cannot afford electricity. Dickensian poverty of the poorhouses is nothing compared to what Singaporeans have to endure.
17. Speaking license: You need a license to speak publicly.
18. Assembling license: 5 or more people intending to assemble in public require a license.
19. No licenses to political opposition: Political opposition will not be given licenses.
20. No longer an English speaking country: It is not possible to move around in Singapore with English. The vast majority of people speak Mandarin. The Malays and Indians are left out.
21. Speedy defamation trials: Lee Kuan Yew's favorite tool to eliminate political opposition is to sue them and bankrupt them. If Lee Kuan Yew or his family are the plaintiffs, the outcome is known before hand. In fact recently Judge Belinda Ang awarded the case to Lee Kuan Yew in world record time of 5 minutes or so. From her private office, she called in Davinder Singh, Lee Kuan Yew's lawyer who entered her office. After 5 minutes she emerged, told Dr. Chee Soon Juan that he lost his case and had to pay $500,000.00 to Lee Kuan Yew. When he said he had no money, he was made a bankrupt on the spot and was immediately asked to hand in his passport. I understand this was the fastest ever defamation of character trial and the Guinness Book of Records is preparing an entry to their books!
22. No legal minimum wage: Despite spiraling costs Singapore refuses to legislate minimum wage. They say it is free market and it is up to the employers. So the employers conveniently keep lowering the wages which Singaporeans cannot live on. By the government permitting unlimited numbers of Bangladesh and Communist Chinese, these peasants are prepared to work for pennies. So they get the jobs. Singaporeans unable to cope end their lives or like the government says fall onto railway tracks.
23. Stoppages on train schedules: Each time a Singaporean jumps onto oncoming trains to kill himself the entire train system has to stop. The government is trying to find a solution to keep the trains running despite the suicides. They are not by the way, trying to stop any suicides.
If you are a Singaporean and reading this, understand the position is dire. You have to do something now before it is too late. Before Lee Kuan Yew completely destroys Singapore. Dr. Chee Soon Juan of the SDP is working on these issues. You can offer your help. You would be helping not only yourself but future generations from the utter destruction of the country.
Gopalan Nair
39737 Paseo Padre Parkway, Suite A1
Fremont, CA 94538, USA
Tel: 510 657 6107
Fax: 510 657 6914
Email: gopalnair@us-immigrationlaw.com
Saturday, February 2, 2008
In Singapore, locals have no advantage in securing a job over any foreigner.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I read in the Straits Times, the state owned and controlled newspaper in Singapore on January 31, 2008 the following story “Singapore adds record number of jobs in 2007, a third by foreigners”.
I always thought that citizenship has its privileges. In one's own country, one is usually treated better than foreigners. Citizens usually have first preference over jobs, housing, medial insurance and retirement benefits and social security.
Believe it or not, this is not the case in Singapore. Foreigners are permitted to come to Singapore in unlimited numbers and take any job they want, from highly skilled to unskilled. It does not matter if local Singaporeans are available eager and willing to take the jobs.
By employers lowering wages to such an extent; falling below the wages normally prevailing for the job; which by the way is beneficial for employers to do; foreigners who have less living expenses manage to secure them; thereby encouraging employers to progressively keep lowering wages, resulting in more and more Singaporeans being left unemployed. Believe it or not, this is what happens in Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore.
Many countries in the world suffer labor shortages, such as Australia, New Zealand and Canada and all of them admit foreigners for work and settlement. But all of them have a system in place where labor conditions are found to lack workers in specific areas, data being obtained by research and statistics on the ground confirming these shortages. In the USA, an employer wanting to engage foreign software engineers for temporary positions, have to attest under oath to the fact that they were unable despite diligent efforts to secure locals for the job. For permanent positions, they have actually to carry out supervised labor recruitment attempt in the US and only if unsuccessful, are they allowed to recruit a foreigner. In other words, in the USA, citizenship has its privileges. And such is the case in Australia New Zealand and all other self respecting democracies.
Singaporeans have no privileges in citizenship at all. I know many Indians from India who come to Singapore, live rough and cheap for a few months in Singapore, read the classified ads in the papers each day for jobs, secure a job and even without returning to India first, is given a change in status to a work visa and carries on working. After a few years he applies for citizenship. We will never know why a local was not given the job and how many locals are remaining unemployed because of Indians like this coming and taking their jobs.
Indians are not the only culprits. Filipinos, Bangladesh, Communist Chinese, Malaysians, you name it; they are all in Singapore and taking Singaporeans jobs. The foreigners are enjoying full employment in Singapore while Singaporeans who are ready and willing to work are staying at home, given $200.00 per month and asked to live on bread and water under candlelight, because they cannot afford to pay their electricity bills. Since the Chinese culture in Singapore tends to have many more suicides in their midst; many jump from their flats to die.
You are also aware that a large portion of these jobs going to foreigners are unskilled assembly line work. The cost of living in Singapore has already overtaken the wages paid for such work; meaning the cost of HDB payment, the utility bills, the food and transport expenses would all cost nearly $2,000.00 at bear minimum, when these assembly line jobs only pay $800.00. So Malaysian housewife’s living in Johore Bahru and Bangladesh living in over crowded HDB flats, meaning 20 people living in a one room flat, are able to take these jobs.
Their total monthly expenses does not exceed $200.00. Being paid $800.00 they can not only survive but send half their earnings to their families in Bangladesh. While all this happens, Singaporeans do not get any of the jobs. And as time goes on, more and more Singaporeans find themselves impoverished, while the foreigners become fat with food drink and employment. Fat at the expense of the Singaporean worker.
And the reason for the jobs going to foreigners is because employers are permitted without any legal check; permitted to bring in any amount of foreigners into Singapore for work and pay them anything that they like. There is no minimum wage law. There is no law against unjust termination; no law against racial discriminatory practices in the job market. It is free for all in the Singapore job scene. The Singapore government justifies this totally unacceptable discrimination against Singaporeans by calling it a free market. This is not free market. This is criminal. The Singaporean government is deliberately hurting local Singaporeans while advantaging foreigners. And they do this entirely because such a system is advantageous to companies because it lowers costs. It is not at all concerned about the welfare of Singaporeans.
Singapore as you know has grown out of the assembly line third world factory stage. The wages cannot compete with the lower wages in Indonesia and Thailand. It is pointless for Singapore companies to hang on to the disk drive assembly line business when they can no longer compete.
But the problem is that foreign companies doing the high end R and D in science and technology, the high end manufacturing businesses do not wish to come to Singapore. Why should they when Singapore has such a bad name, being known as a repressive cruel dictatorship. Since wages in a democratic country such as the Republic of Ireland are not much different, they might as well invest in such humane decent law respecting countries. They do not need Singapore.
The problem are many because of the shortsightedness and greed of Lee Kuan Yew and company. The political repression drives educated Singaporeans away. Unless you are prepared to join the government party, you have no say in how the country is run. As a result the government continues to function in denial, by not listening to the vast majority of Singaporeans with many great ideas. As a result, the input of ideas is insufficient because the idea pool is too small, and what is worse shrinking. The government’s style of giving some scholarships to a select few and asking them to do all the thinking is insufficient in this day and age. It may have been sufficient in the Ming Dynasty but not enough in the Singapore of 2008.
And to make things worse, insufficient babies being born despite all the enticements in cash and benefits. Perhaps their parents think that their suffering under Lee Kuan Yew is enough. They have no right to hurt these unborn babies by bringing them into Lee Kuan Yew's Paradise.
And then Lee openly and brazenly steals $3.7 million per year calling the theft, salary. All this is manifested in the multitude of difficulties this government is facing. People are openly calling Lee Kuan Yew a liar and a cheat. Lawyers are leaving the profession, civil servants are leaving the country, and Human Rights Watch calls Singapore one of the most dictatorial lawless cruel countries in the world equating it to the Republic of Congo, Kinshasa, not to be confused with Congo Brazzaville.
It is about time for the workers of Singapore to strongly send a message to this government that it is not entitled to hurt them and favor foreigners. The remedy or medicine for all these ills is democracy. So take it now. Demand it now. Transform into democracy now. March along the streets now. Sing freedom songs now. Put freedom leaflets into HDB mailboxes now. Distribute leaflets at Tekka Market now. Apply for assembly permits now and if denied, assemble without permits now. Use loud hailers now and if Deep Singh of Tanlgin Police Station tries to confiscate it, resist now.
Don’t just wait for Lee Kuan Yew to die. Do them now. His son is now finding it difficult already. Do it now.
As Mahatma Gandhi had said, there is no stronger force in the world than non violent resistance. You have already seen the power of it through Dr. Chee’s actions. He has managed to almost make these laws such as speech and assembly permits a dead letter. Many have begun breaking these laws while the government remains powerless to do anything.
And Dr. Chee is making it very difficult for the government to push through with their policies. I am sure one of Warwick University’s reasons not for having a campus in Singapore is Lee’s punishing Dr. Chee. They must have concluded that if there is no rule of law, how can there be academic independence. Best to stay out of countries such as Singapore, Rwanda and Communist China!
I have no doubt in my mind Mr. Lee Kuan Yew hates Dr. Chee Soon Juan more than he hates the devil. What, with bankrupting him suing him through the attack dog Davinder Singh Senior Counsel, sending him to jail, and yet this man refuses to go away. Lee Kuan Yew must hate his guts so badly that he must be dreaming each night of having got rid of him; only to awake to reality next morning to see Dr. Chee still alive and kicking.
I recall having read Mr. Neville Chamberlain the pre-war British Prime Minister going to see Adolf Hitler in Munich in 1938 in an attempt to secure peace. During his meeting with Hitler, in passing, Neville Chamberlain had told Hitler about the problems the British Government was having in India with the freedom fighter Mahatma Gandhi with his independence struggle. Hitler’s advice on how to deal with Mahatma Gandhi was this. He said “Shoot him!”
I am sure if Lee Kuan Yew can get away with shooting Dr. Chee, he probably will. But with Dr. Chee having become so famous internationally, Lee cannot do it. And this helplessness is agonizing him even more, poor man! For once, with Dr. Chee, Lee Kuan Yew is at loss which way to turn. He is helpless, because unlike all the others who came before him, Dr. Chee just refuses to go away.
Gopalan Nair
39737 Paseo Padre Parkway, Suite A1
Fremont, CA 94538, USA
Tel: 510 657 6107
Fax: 510 657 6914
Email: gopalnair@us-immigrationlaw.com
I read in the Straits Times, the state owned and controlled newspaper in Singapore on January 31, 2008 the following story “Singapore adds record number of jobs in 2007, a third by foreigners”.
I always thought that citizenship has its privileges. In one's own country, one is usually treated better than foreigners. Citizens usually have first preference over jobs, housing, medial insurance and retirement benefits and social security.
Believe it or not, this is not the case in Singapore. Foreigners are permitted to come to Singapore in unlimited numbers and take any job they want, from highly skilled to unskilled. It does not matter if local Singaporeans are available eager and willing to take the jobs.
By employers lowering wages to such an extent; falling below the wages normally prevailing for the job; which by the way is beneficial for employers to do; foreigners who have less living expenses manage to secure them; thereby encouraging employers to progressively keep lowering wages, resulting in more and more Singaporeans being left unemployed. Believe it or not, this is what happens in Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore.
Many countries in the world suffer labor shortages, such as Australia, New Zealand and Canada and all of them admit foreigners for work and settlement. But all of them have a system in place where labor conditions are found to lack workers in specific areas, data being obtained by research and statistics on the ground confirming these shortages. In the USA, an employer wanting to engage foreign software engineers for temporary positions, have to attest under oath to the fact that they were unable despite diligent efforts to secure locals for the job. For permanent positions, they have actually to carry out supervised labor recruitment attempt in the US and only if unsuccessful, are they allowed to recruit a foreigner. In other words, in the USA, citizenship has its privileges. And such is the case in Australia New Zealand and all other self respecting democracies.
Singaporeans have no privileges in citizenship at all. I know many Indians from India who come to Singapore, live rough and cheap for a few months in Singapore, read the classified ads in the papers each day for jobs, secure a job and even without returning to India first, is given a change in status to a work visa and carries on working. After a few years he applies for citizenship. We will never know why a local was not given the job and how many locals are remaining unemployed because of Indians like this coming and taking their jobs.
Indians are not the only culprits. Filipinos, Bangladesh, Communist Chinese, Malaysians, you name it; they are all in Singapore and taking Singaporeans jobs. The foreigners are enjoying full employment in Singapore while Singaporeans who are ready and willing to work are staying at home, given $200.00 per month and asked to live on bread and water under candlelight, because they cannot afford to pay their electricity bills. Since the Chinese culture in Singapore tends to have many more suicides in their midst; many jump from their flats to die.
You are also aware that a large portion of these jobs going to foreigners are unskilled assembly line work. The cost of living in Singapore has already overtaken the wages paid for such work; meaning the cost of HDB payment, the utility bills, the food and transport expenses would all cost nearly $2,000.00 at bear minimum, when these assembly line jobs only pay $800.00. So Malaysian housewife’s living in Johore Bahru and Bangladesh living in over crowded HDB flats, meaning 20 people living in a one room flat, are able to take these jobs.
Their total monthly expenses does not exceed $200.00. Being paid $800.00 they can not only survive but send half their earnings to their families in Bangladesh. While all this happens, Singaporeans do not get any of the jobs. And as time goes on, more and more Singaporeans find themselves impoverished, while the foreigners become fat with food drink and employment. Fat at the expense of the Singaporean worker.
And the reason for the jobs going to foreigners is because employers are permitted without any legal check; permitted to bring in any amount of foreigners into Singapore for work and pay them anything that they like. There is no minimum wage law. There is no law against unjust termination; no law against racial discriminatory practices in the job market. It is free for all in the Singapore job scene. The Singapore government justifies this totally unacceptable discrimination against Singaporeans by calling it a free market. This is not free market. This is criminal. The Singaporean government is deliberately hurting local Singaporeans while advantaging foreigners. And they do this entirely because such a system is advantageous to companies because it lowers costs. It is not at all concerned about the welfare of Singaporeans.
Singapore as you know has grown out of the assembly line third world factory stage. The wages cannot compete with the lower wages in Indonesia and Thailand. It is pointless for Singapore companies to hang on to the disk drive assembly line business when they can no longer compete.
But the problem is that foreign companies doing the high end R and D in science and technology, the high end manufacturing businesses do not wish to come to Singapore. Why should they when Singapore has such a bad name, being known as a repressive cruel dictatorship. Since wages in a democratic country such as the Republic of Ireland are not much different, they might as well invest in such humane decent law respecting countries. They do not need Singapore.
The problem are many because of the shortsightedness and greed of Lee Kuan Yew and company. The political repression drives educated Singaporeans away. Unless you are prepared to join the government party, you have no say in how the country is run. As a result the government continues to function in denial, by not listening to the vast majority of Singaporeans with many great ideas. As a result, the input of ideas is insufficient because the idea pool is too small, and what is worse shrinking. The government’s style of giving some scholarships to a select few and asking them to do all the thinking is insufficient in this day and age. It may have been sufficient in the Ming Dynasty but not enough in the Singapore of 2008.
And to make things worse, insufficient babies being born despite all the enticements in cash and benefits. Perhaps their parents think that their suffering under Lee Kuan Yew is enough. They have no right to hurt these unborn babies by bringing them into Lee Kuan Yew's Paradise.
And then Lee openly and brazenly steals $3.7 million per year calling the theft, salary. All this is manifested in the multitude of difficulties this government is facing. People are openly calling Lee Kuan Yew a liar and a cheat. Lawyers are leaving the profession, civil servants are leaving the country, and Human Rights Watch calls Singapore one of the most dictatorial lawless cruel countries in the world equating it to the Republic of Congo, Kinshasa, not to be confused with Congo Brazzaville.
It is about time for the workers of Singapore to strongly send a message to this government that it is not entitled to hurt them and favor foreigners. The remedy or medicine for all these ills is democracy. So take it now. Demand it now. Transform into democracy now. March along the streets now. Sing freedom songs now. Put freedom leaflets into HDB mailboxes now. Distribute leaflets at Tekka Market now. Apply for assembly permits now and if denied, assemble without permits now. Use loud hailers now and if Deep Singh of Tanlgin Police Station tries to confiscate it, resist now.
Don’t just wait for Lee Kuan Yew to die. Do them now. His son is now finding it difficult already. Do it now.
As Mahatma Gandhi had said, there is no stronger force in the world than non violent resistance. You have already seen the power of it through Dr. Chee’s actions. He has managed to almost make these laws such as speech and assembly permits a dead letter. Many have begun breaking these laws while the government remains powerless to do anything.
And Dr. Chee is making it very difficult for the government to push through with their policies. I am sure one of Warwick University’s reasons not for having a campus in Singapore is Lee’s punishing Dr. Chee. They must have concluded that if there is no rule of law, how can there be academic independence. Best to stay out of countries such as Singapore, Rwanda and Communist China!
I have no doubt in my mind Mr. Lee Kuan Yew hates Dr. Chee Soon Juan more than he hates the devil. What, with bankrupting him suing him through the attack dog Davinder Singh Senior Counsel, sending him to jail, and yet this man refuses to go away. Lee Kuan Yew must hate his guts so badly that he must be dreaming each night of having got rid of him; only to awake to reality next morning to see Dr. Chee still alive and kicking.
I recall having read Mr. Neville Chamberlain the pre-war British Prime Minister going to see Adolf Hitler in Munich in 1938 in an attempt to secure peace. During his meeting with Hitler, in passing, Neville Chamberlain had told Hitler about the problems the British Government was having in India with the freedom fighter Mahatma Gandhi with his independence struggle. Hitler’s advice on how to deal with Mahatma Gandhi was this. He said “Shoot him!”
I am sure if Lee Kuan Yew can get away with shooting Dr. Chee, he probably will. But with Dr. Chee having become so famous internationally, Lee cannot do it. And this helplessness is agonizing him even more, poor man! For once, with Dr. Chee, Lee Kuan Yew is at loss which way to turn. He is helpless, because unlike all the others who came before him, Dr. Chee just refuses to go away.
Gopalan Nair
39737 Paseo Padre Parkway, Suite A1
Fremont, CA 94538, USA
Tel: 510 657 6107
Fax: 510 657 6914
Email: gopalnair@us-immigrationlaw.com
Friday, February 1, 2008
In his Alice in Wonderland, Lee Kuan Yew has begun his search for political leaders!
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The state owned and controlled news media of Singapore, Channel News Asia of February 1st 2008, carries and article "MM Lee says Singapore must find fourth generation of leaders soon".
He says it is necessary to discover such leaders before the next general elections, and if not, Singapore will be in deep trouble. We know Singapore is a strange place with some strange laws, but this one beats them all. I mean a government going out looking for political leaders!
I have never heard of any incumbent government which has to go searching for leaders! Should not leaders have identified themselves yet, if indeed they are leaders? Does not the definition of the word “leader” mean that they have shown their ability to lead? And what sort of a leader is someone who is not prepared to even show himself! Certainly not a leader. And if Lee Kuan Yew has to go out now, with a deliberate plan to search for them; when they themselves are afraid to even show themselves; what sort of leaders are they anyway?
Should not someone tell Mr. Lee Kuan Yew that political leaders have got to at least identify themselves? They have to have shown political leadership. People have to know who they are. They should by now have got the support of the people. Without public support, no one can be a political leader.
Should not someone tell Mr. Lee that things are not done the way he wants? He cannot just go around the country and choose a few educated people, anoint them leaders, and order the population to obey them forthwith. It is not the same as employing a CEO of a company. Singapore is not a company, it is a country. People don’t just work in Singapore, they live there. The bottom line is not just increasing profits, it is the betterment of life; which means better social conditions, economic conditions, better education, a more thinking people, in other words being able to live as complete human beings. Countries require leaders, not managing directors which Lee is trying to find.
He talks of optimum size of Singapore. What does he know of optimum size? Should it not be the people to decide their population? His arrogance never changes. It is him deciding everything including the size of the Singapore population, and it is this arrogance of "I know best" attitude which is ruining Singapore.
He then talks about talent pool being scarce in the globalized world. And for once, he admits that even his grandchildren will probably decide to leave Singapore to live elsewhere; admitting there is huge suction pump like situation, which continues to make Singapore’s able and capable leave Singapore as quick as possible. He admits for once that capable Singaporeans are leaving Singaporeans in alarming numbers and those already abroad are refusing to return.
He was wrong in his belief that capable Singaporeans are attracted to foreign countries by big financial institutions and legal institutions. No this is not true. They leave Singapore because of the appalling state of the political situation. Where there is no human rights. Where you cannot live as free men and women. Where one man, Lee Kuan Yew is constantly talking and giving his unsolicited opinions where no one cares. And why should anyone care when it is only he and a handpicked few that have the right to decide all aspects of people’s lives?
No, the educated leave Singapore because they have passed the stage where only bread and butter mattered. They are not prepared to live their lives in absolute silence and obedience to one man. If it is God, it is understandable, but Lee Kuan Yew is not God and total obedience is unnecessary. And since Lee demands total obedience, they leave for places where Lee no longer can preach to them.
At at the rate Lee Kuan Yew is going on, he will only have the dumb illiterate old women to preach to. All the others would have gone to Australia by then unless Lee Kuan Yew wakes up and realizes that he himself is the reason for this impossible brain drain. It is not because of superior financial and legal institutions in Australia.
Lee Kuan Yew has made many speeches on this subject of brain drain; educated capable Singaporeans leaving Singapore’s shores, never to return. But no other country appears to have the problem that Singapore has. Australia is a net recipient of immigrants, that is, an overwhelming numbers of foreigners want to come to Australia. Australians themselves have no desire to leave their country. Why is that?
New Zealand is a net recipient of immigrants. An overwhelming number of people the world over want to live in New Zealand. But New Zealanders themselves stay in New Zealand. Some may work in Australia for some time, because of the special political relationship between New Zealand and Australia, which in many ways is almost one country. But they remain New Zealanders and proud to remain so.
The same situation in European countries and Canada and South Africa. Others want to go to live in these countries. Their local populations do not leave; like in Singapore.
Now let me tell you the real trouble that Singapore is in with their skilled population. Between 1999 and 2007, the number of lawyers in Singapore only increased by 400. For a business center like Singapore, at present, it only has 3,400 practicing lawyers. And as we speak more and more are leaving the profession and despite various carrots and enticements, the lawyers are not taking the bait.
In order to stem the high rate of resignations from the Singapore Civil Service and with diminishing numbers of new applicants, the government in their desperation had no choice but to increase their wages; hoping more money will make them stay. Sorry to say, it did not work. Despite increased salaries and wages, ever increasing numbers are leaving the civil service.
The same sad story with all the other government services. Lee Kuan Yew is finding it increasingly difficult to attract and retain able capable and dedicated people in government positions or the professions.
The reason for this almost universal dislike and disinterest with Lee Kuan Yew and his Singapore, is not because of money. After all pay scales are good. Much better than any of the neighboring Asian countries and in many instances even better than Australia or New Zealand. No, it is not the money. It is Lee himself.
For educated capable people, it has almost become a disgrace to be called Singaporean. A country which beats his criminals with a cane for offenses, where you do not have any of the basic fundamental rights which a free people naturally enjoy, and the pain of having to listen to Lee Kun Yew day in and day out, claiming that only he has a cerebral capacity and others have no capacity at all; zero.
Well big boy, you can have the stage to yourself. Very soon, you will have no audience left. And you may find yourself speaking to yourself, ad nasium.
And now my advice to Lee Kuan Yew. At the moment there are no leaders in Singapore except for a handful. Dr. Chee Soon Juan, JB Jeyaretnam, Gandhi Ambalam, Chee Siok Chin and John Tan are leaders. Leaders because they inspire others; because of the sacrifices they have to make in standing up to you; and the courageous manner in which they remain undeterred despite your daily punishment. They have remained undaunted standing their ground in spite of the relentless persecution they suffer. These are leaders. Not the sort like Jeffrey Palmer or Hri Kumar SC who will do whatever you want as and when you demand it. Hri Kumar is not a leader. He is a poodle. And you cannot expect educated Singaporeans to listen to him, even if you wanted them to.
Let me tell you this Mr. Lee. Leaders have to voluntarily come out and lead. People do not miraculously turn into leaders just because you want them to. Leadership does not come about that way. You should stop your leadership search because you are wasting your time.
If you want the educated to stay, keep your mouth shut for once. Let Dr. Chee Soon Juan have his say. Stop your defamation actions. Stop abusing the law. Stop restricting the press. Allow free speech and expression. Realize for once that others are not as stupid as you think. Listen to the people. Allow democracy. This way you will stop the brain drain overnight; but you cannot do this. If you did what I ask, you will no longer be Minister Mentor. You will perhaps be in the dock in the High Court facing corruption charges.
And lastly let me tell you one more reason, even if minimal, for the exodus out of Singapore by the educated. It is this blog that I write, Singapore Dissident. It is being read throughout the island. I am constantly reminding Singaporeans about the pathetic lives they lead under your dictatorship. I keep saying they should either stay and fight, or leave. And it is effective in both these ways. Many Singaporeans have bravely come out in the open showing their opposition to your dictatorship. Such a phenomenon could never have been even imagined in the past. At the same time many have chosen the path to leave.
Lee Kuan Yew should realize that the situation is now hopeless for his government. It is getting worse by the day. There is still time to salvage the wreck by his government speaking to Dr. Chee and other real opposition leaders in Singapore ( I do not include Low Thia Khiang, Silvia Lim or Chiam within the meaning of opposition) to see how the present hopeless situation can be improved.
In the meantime, this blog will go on, and the exposure of the true Singapore will continue.
Gopalan Nair
39737 Paseo Padre Parkway, Suite A1
Fremont, CA 94538, USA
Tel: 510 657 6107
Fax: 510 657 6914
Email: gopalnair@us-immigrationlaw.com
The state owned and controlled news media of Singapore, Channel News Asia of February 1st 2008, carries and article "MM Lee says Singapore must find fourth generation of leaders soon".
He says it is necessary to discover such leaders before the next general elections, and if not, Singapore will be in deep trouble. We know Singapore is a strange place with some strange laws, but this one beats them all. I mean a government going out looking for political leaders!
I have never heard of any incumbent government which has to go searching for leaders! Should not leaders have identified themselves yet, if indeed they are leaders? Does not the definition of the word “leader” mean that they have shown their ability to lead? And what sort of a leader is someone who is not prepared to even show himself! Certainly not a leader. And if Lee Kuan Yew has to go out now, with a deliberate plan to search for them; when they themselves are afraid to even show themselves; what sort of leaders are they anyway?
Should not someone tell Mr. Lee Kuan Yew that political leaders have got to at least identify themselves? They have to have shown political leadership. People have to know who they are. They should by now have got the support of the people. Without public support, no one can be a political leader.
Should not someone tell Mr. Lee that things are not done the way he wants? He cannot just go around the country and choose a few educated people, anoint them leaders, and order the population to obey them forthwith. It is not the same as employing a CEO of a company. Singapore is not a company, it is a country. People don’t just work in Singapore, they live there. The bottom line is not just increasing profits, it is the betterment of life; which means better social conditions, economic conditions, better education, a more thinking people, in other words being able to live as complete human beings. Countries require leaders, not managing directors which Lee is trying to find.
He talks of optimum size of Singapore. What does he know of optimum size? Should it not be the people to decide their population? His arrogance never changes. It is him deciding everything including the size of the Singapore population, and it is this arrogance of "I know best" attitude which is ruining Singapore.
He then talks about talent pool being scarce in the globalized world. And for once, he admits that even his grandchildren will probably decide to leave Singapore to live elsewhere; admitting there is huge suction pump like situation, which continues to make Singapore’s able and capable leave Singapore as quick as possible. He admits for once that capable Singaporeans are leaving Singaporeans in alarming numbers and those already abroad are refusing to return.
He was wrong in his belief that capable Singaporeans are attracted to foreign countries by big financial institutions and legal institutions. No this is not true. They leave Singapore because of the appalling state of the political situation. Where there is no human rights. Where you cannot live as free men and women. Where one man, Lee Kuan Yew is constantly talking and giving his unsolicited opinions where no one cares. And why should anyone care when it is only he and a handpicked few that have the right to decide all aspects of people’s lives?
No, the educated leave Singapore because they have passed the stage where only bread and butter mattered. They are not prepared to live their lives in absolute silence and obedience to one man. If it is God, it is understandable, but Lee Kuan Yew is not God and total obedience is unnecessary. And since Lee demands total obedience, they leave for places where Lee no longer can preach to them.
At at the rate Lee Kuan Yew is going on, he will only have the dumb illiterate old women to preach to. All the others would have gone to Australia by then unless Lee Kuan Yew wakes up and realizes that he himself is the reason for this impossible brain drain. It is not because of superior financial and legal institutions in Australia.
Lee Kuan Yew has made many speeches on this subject of brain drain; educated capable Singaporeans leaving Singapore’s shores, never to return. But no other country appears to have the problem that Singapore has. Australia is a net recipient of immigrants, that is, an overwhelming numbers of foreigners want to come to Australia. Australians themselves have no desire to leave their country. Why is that?
New Zealand is a net recipient of immigrants. An overwhelming number of people the world over want to live in New Zealand. But New Zealanders themselves stay in New Zealand. Some may work in Australia for some time, because of the special political relationship between New Zealand and Australia, which in many ways is almost one country. But they remain New Zealanders and proud to remain so.
The same situation in European countries and Canada and South Africa. Others want to go to live in these countries. Their local populations do not leave; like in Singapore.
Now let me tell you the real trouble that Singapore is in with their skilled population. Between 1999 and 2007, the number of lawyers in Singapore only increased by 400. For a business center like Singapore, at present, it only has 3,400 practicing lawyers. And as we speak more and more are leaving the profession and despite various carrots and enticements, the lawyers are not taking the bait.
In order to stem the high rate of resignations from the Singapore Civil Service and with diminishing numbers of new applicants, the government in their desperation had no choice but to increase their wages; hoping more money will make them stay. Sorry to say, it did not work. Despite increased salaries and wages, ever increasing numbers are leaving the civil service.
The same sad story with all the other government services. Lee Kuan Yew is finding it increasingly difficult to attract and retain able capable and dedicated people in government positions or the professions.
The reason for this almost universal dislike and disinterest with Lee Kuan Yew and his Singapore, is not because of money. After all pay scales are good. Much better than any of the neighboring Asian countries and in many instances even better than Australia or New Zealand. No, it is not the money. It is Lee himself.
For educated capable people, it has almost become a disgrace to be called Singaporean. A country which beats his criminals with a cane for offenses, where you do not have any of the basic fundamental rights which a free people naturally enjoy, and the pain of having to listen to Lee Kun Yew day in and day out, claiming that only he has a cerebral capacity and others have no capacity at all; zero.
Well big boy, you can have the stage to yourself. Very soon, you will have no audience left. And you may find yourself speaking to yourself, ad nasium.
And now my advice to Lee Kuan Yew. At the moment there are no leaders in Singapore except for a handful. Dr. Chee Soon Juan, JB Jeyaretnam, Gandhi Ambalam, Chee Siok Chin and John Tan are leaders. Leaders because they inspire others; because of the sacrifices they have to make in standing up to you; and the courageous manner in which they remain undeterred despite your daily punishment. They have remained undaunted standing their ground in spite of the relentless persecution they suffer. These are leaders. Not the sort like Jeffrey Palmer or Hri Kumar SC who will do whatever you want as and when you demand it. Hri Kumar is not a leader. He is a poodle. And you cannot expect educated Singaporeans to listen to him, even if you wanted them to.
Let me tell you this Mr. Lee. Leaders have to voluntarily come out and lead. People do not miraculously turn into leaders just because you want them to. Leadership does not come about that way. You should stop your leadership search because you are wasting your time.
If you want the educated to stay, keep your mouth shut for once. Let Dr. Chee Soon Juan have his say. Stop your defamation actions. Stop abusing the law. Stop restricting the press. Allow free speech and expression. Realize for once that others are not as stupid as you think. Listen to the people. Allow democracy. This way you will stop the brain drain overnight; but you cannot do this. If you did what I ask, you will no longer be Minister Mentor. You will perhaps be in the dock in the High Court facing corruption charges.
And lastly let me tell you one more reason, even if minimal, for the exodus out of Singapore by the educated. It is this blog that I write, Singapore Dissident. It is being read throughout the island. I am constantly reminding Singaporeans about the pathetic lives they lead under your dictatorship. I keep saying they should either stay and fight, or leave. And it is effective in both these ways. Many Singaporeans have bravely come out in the open showing their opposition to your dictatorship. Such a phenomenon could never have been even imagined in the past. At the same time many have chosen the path to leave.
Lee Kuan Yew should realize that the situation is now hopeless for his government. It is getting worse by the day. There is still time to salvage the wreck by his government speaking to Dr. Chee and other real opposition leaders in Singapore ( I do not include Low Thia Khiang, Silvia Lim or Chiam within the meaning of opposition) to see how the present hopeless situation can be improved.
In the meantime, this blog will go on, and the exposure of the true Singapore will continue.
Gopalan Nair
39737 Paseo Padre Parkway, Suite A1
Fremont, CA 94538, USA
Tel: 510 657 6107
Fax: 510 657 6914
Email: gopalnair@us-immigrationlaw.com
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Adolf Hitler and Lee Kuan Yew
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Today, the 3oth of January 2008, is the 75th anniversary of Adolf Hitler forming the government in Berlin with his appointment as Chancellor in the Reichstag, Berlin, 30th January 1933. So I thought of Lee Kuan Yew. Are there similarities?
In 1933 when Hitler formed the government, Germany was under the yoke of the West. The Treaty of Versailles signed at the end of the First World War in 1918 humiliated the Germans. They were required to pay reparations to England, their navy was ordered reduced, air force curtailed, the Rhineland was off limits and the Reichmark, the Germany currency was not worth the paper it was printed of.
For this defeated humiliated people came a Hitler who told them it was time to rise again. Time to be proud again. Time to throw up the unbearable yoke that was put over them by the victors Britain and France. And he told them he would do it.
Although he did not win outright at the elections, he managed by skullduggery and violence to force President Hindenburg to swear him in as the Chancellor. And so began the Third Reich. And true enough, Hitler did manage to make Germany the strongest mightiest and economically strongest and most powerful European country from 1933 to 1939 and beyond. From shambles, Hitler managed to make Germany the most powerful country in Europe.
And Lee Kuan Yew? In 1959, Singapore was nothing more than a backwater and a sea port. Unemployment was high, poverty was all around and people did not know which way to turn, or what was to come. But Lee Kuan Yew becoming Prime Minister in 1959 did turn the country around. From the sleepy shipping harbor that it was Lee Kuan Yew and his policies managed to turn it into what it is today, an international city.
So the similarities and the abilities between the two are striking. From great adversity they managed to turn a difficult situation around. But, just as Hitler, Lee Kuan Yew will eventually fail. For Germany the failure was due to military defeat. For Singapore, it will be because the basis of his policies have lost their appeal in this modern age.
In 1959, it was easy for Lee to tell the people to support his policies without complaint. It was a time when people were just trying to survive. With heavy unemployment, with poverty and little hope, the people of Singapore were prepared to pay any price, sacrifice their rights and liberties in return for a better life; in return for bread and butter.
So for a long time, he forced every Singaporean into resettlement into HDB flats, he controlled the unions, he denied civil liberties, he kept wages low in order to compete with other low cost countries, he invited Western countries to set up assembly line factories with cheap labor from Singapore, he controlled the press with propaganda, he denied assemblies and protests. In other words he controlled people's lives for one purpose and one purpose alone; that is for economic development. The Singapore people who were predominantly poor allowed him to control their lives any way he wanted; as long as he managed to lift up their lives economically.
But the problem now is different. Singaporeans have now reached a certain level of education. A certain level of sophistication. They are no longer the impoverished coolie of 1959. They cannot be expected to tolerate those restrictions imposed on them such as in 1959. But the problem is, Lee Kuan Yew feels he can still make Singaporeans obey his orders like before. And this is where he will fail.
Singaporeans of today are not those of 1959. Today they expect a little more than just food on the table. They expect some liberties too. They expect a right to criticize the government. The right to speak. The right to assemble. The right to a free press. The right to live like Europeans, as they have the means to do so.
Very soon I expect more and more Dr. Chee Soon Juans to appear in Singapore. As if one is not bad enough! You can see this happening already. And just as Hitler fell, having been defeated militarily, Lee Kuan Yew too will fall because there are too many Dr. Chee Soon Juans. Who refuse to roll over, just because Lee says so.
Gopalan Nair
39737 Paseo Padre Parkway, Suite A1
Fremont, CA 94538, USA
Tel: 510 657 6107
Fax: 510 657 6914
Email: gopalnair@us-immigrationlaw.com
Today, the 3oth of January 2008, is the 75th anniversary of Adolf Hitler forming the government in Berlin with his appointment as Chancellor in the Reichstag, Berlin, 30th January 1933. So I thought of Lee Kuan Yew. Are there similarities?
In 1933 when Hitler formed the government, Germany was under the yoke of the West. The Treaty of Versailles signed at the end of the First World War in 1918 humiliated the Germans. They were required to pay reparations to England, their navy was ordered reduced, air force curtailed, the Rhineland was off limits and the Reichmark, the Germany currency was not worth the paper it was printed of.
For this defeated humiliated people came a Hitler who told them it was time to rise again. Time to be proud again. Time to throw up the unbearable yoke that was put over them by the victors Britain and France. And he told them he would do it.
Although he did not win outright at the elections, he managed by skullduggery and violence to force President Hindenburg to swear him in as the Chancellor. And so began the Third Reich. And true enough, Hitler did manage to make Germany the strongest mightiest and economically strongest and most powerful European country from 1933 to 1939 and beyond. From shambles, Hitler managed to make Germany the most powerful country in Europe.
And Lee Kuan Yew? In 1959, Singapore was nothing more than a backwater and a sea port. Unemployment was high, poverty was all around and people did not know which way to turn, or what was to come. But Lee Kuan Yew becoming Prime Minister in 1959 did turn the country around. From the sleepy shipping harbor that it was Lee Kuan Yew and his policies managed to turn it into what it is today, an international city.
So the similarities and the abilities between the two are striking. From great adversity they managed to turn a difficult situation around. But, just as Hitler, Lee Kuan Yew will eventually fail. For Germany the failure was due to military defeat. For Singapore, it will be because the basis of his policies have lost their appeal in this modern age.
In 1959, it was easy for Lee to tell the people to support his policies without complaint. It was a time when people were just trying to survive. With heavy unemployment, with poverty and little hope, the people of Singapore were prepared to pay any price, sacrifice their rights and liberties in return for a better life; in return for bread and butter.
So for a long time, he forced every Singaporean into resettlement into HDB flats, he controlled the unions, he denied civil liberties, he kept wages low in order to compete with other low cost countries, he invited Western countries to set up assembly line factories with cheap labor from Singapore, he controlled the press with propaganda, he denied assemblies and protests. In other words he controlled people's lives for one purpose and one purpose alone; that is for economic development. The Singapore people who were predominantly poor allowed him to control their lives any way he wanted; as long as he managed to lift up their lives economically.
But the problem now is different. Singaporeans have now reached a certain level of education. A certain level of sophistication. They are no longer the impoverished coolie of 1959. They cannot be expected to tolerate those restrictions imposed on them such as in 1959. But the problem is, Lee Kuan Yew feels he can still make Singaporeans obey his orders like before. And this is where he will fail.
Singaporeans of today are not those of 1959. Today they expect a little more than just food on the table. They expect some liberties too. They expect a right to criticize the government. The right to speak. The right to assemble. The right to a free press. The right to live like Europeans, as they have the means to do so.
Very soon I expect more and more Dr. Chee Soon Juans to appear in Singapore. As if one is not bad enough! You can see this happening already. And just as Hitler fell, having been defeated militarily, Lee Kuan Yew too will fall because there are too many Dr. Chee Soon Juans. Who refuse to roll over, just because Lee says so.
Gopalan Nair
39737 Paseo Padre Parkway, Suite A1
Fremont, CA 94538, USA
Tel: 510 657 6107
Fax: 510 657 6914
Email: gopalnair@us-immigrationlaw.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
