Ladies and Gentlemen,
The following is a working manual for anyone wanting to succeed in that one party city state of Singapore. I have lived there for 33 years since birth and I write from personal experience. Many who have at least a modicum of self respect and integrity would refuse to achieve success by these means, whereas others devoid of any honor or integrity may find this manual useful.
Singapore Overview
Singapore is essentially a one party state and a dictatorship. Singapore is ruled by Lee Kuan Yew, his son who is now the Prime Minister and his various family members, who are members of the Peoples Action Party, which has been in power without interruption since 1959.
The correct political system definition of the country would be Fascism. Fascism is a system of government where all organs of power, the judiciary, the media, the trade unions, the civil service, the police and the military are all under the direct orders of Lee Kun Yew and his oligarchy. The people are required to obey without dissent his every order and in the unlikely event of any dissent from any quarter, the dissenters will be punished.
Although Singapore claims to hold periodical national elections, these could be comparable to the elections of Cuba or the former East Germany, where it is a mere pretence, where the people are threatened with harm if they do not vote for the oligarchy, and the Fascist rulers will invariably win each and every election, as they have done since 1959. For the sake of misleading the international community into thinking that there are free and fair elections, they have permitted 2 opposition candidates to win in their constituencies, but with the Fascists having 82 of the seats, the opposition is clearly powerless and their positions merely perfunctory.
Need to Join the Peoples Action Party
The first requirement for success to achieve high office and high financial advantage is to join the Lee's Party, the Peoples Action Party. The applicant should be aware that this party requires unconditional obedience to Lee and his dictates. This need for conditional unqualified obedience to Lee and the Peoples Action Party is an absolute requirement, and if you are not prepared for this, you will not achieve any benefits.
Why it may be difficult to give unqualified support and obedience to the Peoples Action Party
It may be difficult for any decent human being to give their unconditional obedience to Lee and the PAP. This is because it is very clear that Lee and his family corruptly retain power. For example, everyone knows that Lee and his family pay themselves millions of dollars belonging to the people, which they say is their salaries, but which is clearly stealing causing you to feel uncomfortable to go on without complaining. But if you want sucess, not only that you should'nt complain, you have to insist that Lee is justified in this blatant unjust enrichment.
Lee's laws make any form of even peaceful protest illegal. Writing any criticism against him or his family may result in your being sued for defamation, for which he is world famous, and thereby made liable for millions of dollars, and being unable to pay, you will be bankrupted. In other words, you cannot complain about anything that he does. Instead you have to, at all times, justify whatever illegality that he requires of you, by justifying his propaganda, by saying a free press is bad because it stifles growth and causes dissension, that Lee's form of government is good because it provides a peaceful society, that street protests are bad because this will cause alarm to foreign investors who will take their money away from Singapore and the other various lies that Lee utters to maintain his grip on power.
Some may find this blind obedience and the need to praise Lee and his family and the PAP for their dishonest policies distasteful and unconscionable. And therefore you may be unable to provide your unqualified support for these illegalities. If so, you will not succeed as a party member of the PAP and it would not do you any good by joining.
On the other hand, if you have no qualms of doing or saying anything however disgusting and despicable, then you will succeed in the Peoples Action Party and your joining will produce results.
Need to excel in education
In order to succeed in Lee's Singapore, being prepared to praise and justify each and every dishonest act and policy alone is not enough. You need also to do well in education. You have to show that you are useful to Lee and his party. Without a good education, you will be no use to them. Therefore doing well in school is a requirement.
Ability to work as a team
A good team spirit is an absolute requirement. Since you will be selected to high office, having to work with other PAP members, it is essential to have the ability to accept the decisions of your superiors and implement them without complaint. In this circumstance, the ability to blend with the crowd, lie low as part of a team, without being seen to hold any strong views about anything, is essential. In this atmosphere, the only one's who will succeed are those who are prepared to play second fiddle to those higher up who give you the orders. To put it another way, you cannot be that nail sticking out, because you will be hammered in.
Once selected for office, always remember that total obedience and compliance will rule your entire career.
If you are a lawyer, you will be given a good job either in the private sector or in the government. In the private sector, you will perhaps be asked to abuse the law to charge and sue innocent people just because they had criticized the government. Although to most honest decent human beings, such actions may be detestable, in order to continue with the good life that membership and support of Lee's PAP brings, you must be prepared to do this dirty work, however much you personally dislike it, each day of your life.
If you are a judge, you will be ordered to abuse the law to destroy Lee's opponents, which you must do, regardless of how badly you feel about it.
As a high ranking civil servant in the Official Assignee's office you will have to destroy Dr. Chee Soon Juan and other opponents of Lee Kuan Yew by misuse of laws. If you are in the Income Tax Office, you should create trumped up tax fraud charges against Lee's opponents and destroy the hapless victims by bankrupting them and running them out of the country like they did to Francis Seow. In other words for the high salaries that you will be paid having been selected by Lee as his supporter, you will during your entire career, have to do things which as a human being, you will find morally disgusting and unconscionable. If you are prepared to live a life where you are willing to carry out this callous injustice to your fellow man, you will succeed and reap great rewards.
Examples of men and women who have achieved great success by the unconditional support of Lee and his family and the willingness to compromise their conscience
Anyone who has achieved high success in Singapore has done it through their willingness to compromise their conscience. The last and the present Attorney General retain their high office from which they prosecute and persecute opposition politicians like JB Jeyaretnam and Dr. Chee. The judges before and now retain their high office and lavish incomes by punishing Lee's opponents in the courts. High ranking civil servants, police officers, military officers all retain their important positions and salaries by doing harm to victims of Lee's wrath.
Dealings with others
At all times when dealing with others, you have to maintain your position however dishonest that may be. For example, to the question on whether the Singapore’s judges are corrupt, you should be prepared to vehemently deny that that is so. You must insist that the Singapore judges are as independent as can be, taking immediate umbrage at such a preposterous suggestion, even though, throughout, both you and the maker of that allegation are fully aware that the judges are as corrupt as can be.
On an accusation that the civil service is not independent, you have to insist that it is so, and any allegation that it is beholden to Lee is as big a lie as lie can be. Therefore at all times defend your master Lee, even though his actions appear totally indefensible.
Keeping to the PAP crowd
As a successful PAP supporter in a highly paid position, it is necessary, in order to maintain your salary, perks and position to avoid others who have any tendency to criticize the government. This way, the less need to have to justify your position under circumstances when it becomes clearly untenable. For instance, if someone were to question a PAP supporter in a position of authority by wanting to know what right Lee has to pay himself $ 2.6 million dollars of public money, it may be embarrassing not to be able to justify it. Therefore the better policy would be to avoid others who may wish to ask difficult questions.
Conclusion
For many, brought up as honest men and women, it would not be possible to stoop so low, and commit dishonorable and immoral acts against your fellow men to remain in power. Such men as these cannot and will not succeed in Singapore. They either live a simple life with a moderate income or they emigrate to other democratic countries like Australia where thy can live as upright men and women and still succeed. For such people with any set of moral principles, Singapore is not a place to succeed. If you are prepared to say and do anything and everything demanded of you, treating Lee Kuan Yew and his family as Gods, then your great success is guaranteed.
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, January 30, 2007
Monday, January 29, 2007
Singapore. Stop deceiving innocent school children by makin them sing the national pledge.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The Singapore national pledge, required to be sung by schoolchildren each morning of their school going lives reads as follows:
"We, the citizens of Singapore
pledge ourselves as one united people
regardless of race, language or religion
to build a democratic society
based on justice and equality
so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and
progress for our nation"
Schoolchildren who are required by their teachers to sing this each morning are not aware, becasue of their youth and innocence, that almost every line in this pledge contains shameless falsities and untruths of which the Lee government is fully aware, and yet, deliberately, without any regard of the fact that they are deceiving young innocent minds, continue to make them utter this falsity, realizing fully, that they are doing a great injustice to them at a young age, being innocent children, into believing something that is patently false.
This deliberate and wilful deception on the minds of young schoolchildren by the Lee government is a crime and I ask them to cease and desist forthwith this deliberate deception on these children. I also ask parents of the children to ask them not to sing the pledge, when next they are in school, on the grounds that it is shameless lie, deliberately perpetuated by the Lee government.
We can take this line by line.
Pledge ourselves as one united people
There is no unity among the people. We have in Singapore a privileged class. These are the government (Peoples Action Party) supporters and cronies who are given given jobs, well paid and live a life of comfort, just as you find in all other Fascist and dictatorial countries who reward unconditional submission and obedience from its subjects. Then there are those who are unable to be card carrying members of the PAP either by reason of conscience or because they have more pride as human beings than those card carrying sycophants. These suffer from not getting the good jobs and financial disadvantage thereof. What you have is 2 classes, as expected in all Fascist societies like Singapore. The privileged government connected people and those who are not. There is no unity among such a people.
Regardless of Race Language or Religion
There is no unity regardless of race. I have lived in Singapore almost all my life, and I can say without hesitation that the Chinese, Malays and Indians I knew treated each other and still do as one family. And I am sure what I am about to say has the full support of my Chinese friends. My Chinese Singapore friends, with whom I grew up, are not responsible for the progressively increasing rift among the races in Singapore. It is the Lee government of Singapore that deliberately creates a rift among the people for their own dishonest political ends.
Singapore was never intended to be a Chinese country. It was intended to be that of all of us. But today, deliberately it is becoming a totally Chinese country.
The racial mix of the country at present is 75% Chinese, 15% Malay, and 8% Indian. But these are all Singaporeans. Whether the ratios were the other way round, with Malays in majority or the Indians and vice versa should not make any difference to any of us. Certainly not to me or to my Chinese friends with whom I grew up.
But this is not the case in Singapore. Lee Kuan Yew has deliberately decided that this ratio had to be maintained regardless of how many Chinese Malays or Indians are born in Singapore. In other words, he will, (as he already does now) in the event of (as is happening now) the Chinese birth rate declining, bring in sufficient numbers from China, Malaysia or anywhere else in the world, sufficient numbers to ensure the Chinese remain the majority race perpetually in Singapore ad infinitum. The Malays will remain at 15% no matter how hard they try to increase their populations and the Indians must accept, whether they like it or not, the miserable minority of 8%. You will be be surprised to know that nowhere in the constitution of Singapore or the laws that require the Singapore racial mix to be at this level. And I am sure my Chinese and Malay friends would stand by me when I say that it should be the Singaporeans whose children should populate Singapore, not Lee Kuan Yew who does it with a calibrating machine with Chinese imports from Shanghai.
And for this arrogance and blatant abuse of the laws of Singapore of selective racial interference of population to artificially control Singapore's racial balance with a Chinese majority of 75%, all Singaporeans should take to the streets and protest that it should be the Singaporeans who decide their population, not Lee Kuan Yew.
And I am confident that in my saying this, I have the full support of Singaporean Chinese. I mean the real local born Singaporean Chinese and the local born Malays and the Indians. The Chinese of Singapore have much more in common with me being an Indian than they will ever have with an import from Shanghai. That I am sure.
So much for Lee's one united people regardless of race. Totally debunked.
To build a democratic society
If Lee, in drafting this pledge meant a futuristic Singapore, sometime in the future, when it may or may not become democratic, I can agree with him. If Lee is talking about the present however it is certainly not democratic by any measure. However if what Lee means is the interpretation given to the word "democracy" by such countries as North Korea, then it is the perfect example of a democracy, the correct name of North Korea being the Democratic Republic of North Korea! But frankly, neither I, nor anyone of you would want any part of it.
But from what we generally understand to be a democracy, Singapore is not one. And it is a lie to make young children sing the pledge each day, inducing them to think it is. There is no greater crime than misleading an innocent child for political ends. This is what Lee is doing. There is no free press, there is no right to free speech and expression, there is no free trade unions, there is no right to independent thought, there is no independent judiciary. Singapore lacking these fundamental rights, it is not a democratic country. So stop deceiving schoolchildren into thinking it is.
Based on Justice and Equality
Nothing can be further from the truth. See above.
So as to achieve happiness
Yes, there is happiness for the selected few sycophants and trumpeteers of the Singapore Lee family. I understand that in Malawi, the king has official singers of praise. For next, perhaps Lee Kuan Yew could consider the training and employment of singers to sing praises to him each day at various points in Singapore. Unfortunately , there is no happiness among the thousands of low income citizens who suffer silently and kill themselves from their HDB flats.
I ask that any parent realizing this, who has any concern for the moral upbringing of their children should forthwith advise them to tell their teachers in school that this pledge is a ruse, a deception on their children and they will refuse to sing it.
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 Singapore national pledge, required to be sung by schoolchildren each morning of their school going lives reads as follows:
"We, the citizens of Singapore
pledge ourselves as one united people
regardless of race, language or religion
to build a democratic society
based on justice and equality
so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and
progress for our nation"
Schoolchildren who are required by their teachers to sing this each morning are not aware, becasue of their youth and innocence, that almost every line in this pledge contains shameless falsities and untruths of which the Lee government is fully aware, and yet, deliberately, without any regard of the fact that they are deceiving young innocent minds, continue to make them utter this falsity, realizing fully, that they are doing a great injustice to them at a young age, being innocent children, into believing something that is patently false.
This deliberate and wilful deception on the minds of young schoolchildren by the Lee government is a crime and I ask them to cease and desist forthwith this deliberate deception on these children. I also ask parents of the children to ask them not to sing the pledge, when next they are in school, on the grounds that it is shameless lie, deliberately perpetuated by the Lee government.
We can take this line by line.
Pledge ourselves as one united people
There is no unity among the people. We have in Singapore a privileged class. These are the government (Peoples Action Party) supporters and cronies who are given given jobs, well paid and live a life of comfort, just as you find in all other Fascist and dictatorial countries who reward unconditional submission and obedience from its subjects. Then there are those who are unable to be card carrying members of the PAP either by reason of conscience or because they have more pride as human beings than those card carrying sycophants. These suffer from not getting the good jobs and financial disadvantage thereof. What you have is 2 classes, as expected in all Fascist societies like Singapore. The privileged government connected people and those who are not. There is no unity among such a people.
Regardless of Race Language or Religion
There is no unity regardless of race. I have lived in Singapore almost all my life, and I can say without hesitation that the Chinese, Malays and Indians I knew treated each other and still do as one family. And I am sure what I am about to say has the full support of my Chinese friends. My Chinese Singapore friends, with whom I grew up, are not responsible for the progressively increasing rift among the races in Singapore. It is the Lee government of Singapore that deliberately creates a rift among the people for their own dishonest political ends.
Singapore was never intended to be a Chinese country. It was intended to be that of all of us. But today, deliberately it is becoming a totally Chinese country.
The racial mix of the country at present is 75% Chinese, 15% Malay, and 8% Indian. But these are all Singaporeans. Whether the ratios were the other way round, with Malays in majority or the Indians and vice versa should not make any difference to any of us. Certainly not to me or to my Chinese friends with whom I grew up.
But this is not the case in Singapore. Lee Kuan Yew has deliberately decided that this ratio had to be maintained regardless of how many Chinese Malays or Indians are born in Singapore. In other words, he will, (as he already does now) in the event of (as is happening now) the Chinese birth rate declining, bring in sufficient numbers from China, Malaysia or anywhere else in the world, sufficient numbers to ensure the Chinese remain the majority race perpetually in Singapore ad infinitum. The Malays will remain at 15% no matter how hard they try to increase their populations and the Indians must accept, whether they like it or not, the miserable minority of 8%. You will be be surprised to know that nowhere in the constitution of Singapore or the laws that require the Singapore racial mix to be at this level. And I am sure my Chinese and Malay friends would stand by me when I say that it should be the Singaporeans whose children should populate Singapore, not Lee Kuan Yew who does it with a calibrating machine with Chinese imports from Shanghai.
And for this arrogance and blatant abuse of the laws of Singapore of selective racial interference of population to artificially control Singapore's racial balance with a Chinese majority of 75%, all Singaporeans should take to the streets and protest that it should be the Singaporeans who decide their population, not Lee Kuan Yew.
And I am confident that in my saying this, I have the full support of Singaporean Chinese. I mean the real local born Singaporean Chinese and the local born Malays and the Indians. The Chinese of Singapore have much more in common with me being an Indian than they will ever have with an import from Shanghai. That I am sure.
So much for Lee's one united people regardless of race. Totally debunked.
To build a democratic society
If Lee, in drafting this pledge meant a futuristic Singapore, sometime in the future, when it may or may not become democratic, I can agree with him. If Lee is talking about the present however it is certainly not democratic by any measure. However if what Lee means is the interpretation given to the word "democracy" by such countries as North Korea, then it is the perfect example of a democracy, the correct name of North Korea being the Democratic Republic of North Korea! But frankly, neither I, nor anyone of you would want any part of it.
But from what we generally understand to be a democracy, Singapore is not one. And it is a lie to make young children sing the pledge each day, inducing them to think it is. There is no greater crime than misleading an innocent child for political ends. This is what Lee is doing. There is no free press, there is no right to free speech and expression, there is no free trade unions, there is no right to independent thought, there is no independent judiciary. Singapore lacking these fundamental rights, it is not a democratic country. So stop deceiving schoolchildren into thinking it is.
Based on Justice and Equality
Nothing can be further from the truth. See above.
So as to achieve happiness
Yes, there is happiness for the selected few sycophants and trumpeteers of the Singapore Lee family. I understand that in Malawi, the king has official singers of praise. For next, perhaps Lee Kuan Yew could consider the training and employment of singers to sing praises to him each day at various points in Singapore. Unfortunately , there is no happiness among the thousands of low income citizens who suffer silently and kill themselves from their HDB flats.
I ask that any parent realizing this, who has any concern for the moral upbringing of their children should forthwith advise them to tell their teachers in school that this pledge is a ruse, a deception on their children and they will refuse to sing it.
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, January 26, 2007
Singapore. The dismal man. A lawyer at Peoples Park Center
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have discovered that prolonged political subjugation and control over a population, such as in Singapore, leaves many of them in the end, forlorn of hope, desolate and miserable, drains them of any ambition, zest or energy and eventually leaves them hopeless. I have discovered this in meeting people in Singapore again after more than 20 years. The very people whom I knew in 1970s, after years of life in Singapore, appear to have almost given up on life.
This is the story of my meeting a Singapore lawyer who has an office in Peoples Park Complex in Singapore. Let me call this story, My meeting with the Dismal Man. I had known this man since the late 1970s. He was a teacher then, like many other lawyers, who decided to change careers and become lawyers by taking the English law exams through correspondence. When I knew him then, he was ambitious, lively and full of energy, a man with burning ambition, taking a risk but a risk well worth it, at least he thought at the time, to leave his mundane measly teaching job and train to be a lawyer, with big dreams of becoming successful, famous and rich.
Then it was very pleasant to talk to him. He was full of life.
He did study for the law and pass his exams and was admitted to the English Bar as a Barrister. About 1980 he returned to Singapore and embarked on his law career.
Recently I met him again. The man that I knew in 1970s was totally different from the man I met now. On the whole, he appeared despondent depressed and miserable. He appears to have prematurely aged and had entirely grayed. He was not getting much work and was hardly able to pay his rent. He told me that an office in Peoples Park Center was all he can afford, Peoples Park Center being a building in Chinatown next to the lower courts offering cheap rent to small law firms unable to afford better premises. He gave various reasons for the the reduction of his business. For one, the courts filing fees were too high. You had to pay as much as $500.00 to file a civil suit, on top of which there were various other miscellaneous fees payable such as trial costs which can cost as much as $1,000.00 per day. This exorbitant cost actually prevented, according to him, many from filing suit.
There were also the problem of the big government connected firms taking all the cases, reducing the number of cases going to sole proprietor small firms like his to a trickle. He said, the government gave all the cases to law firms which had government connections. Since he did not have any government connections, he was not getting the lucrative work.
He said, he was in a Catch 22 situation. Advertising costs money, and since he did not have much of it, it prevented him from advertising. Studying the law and holding oneself as an expert does no good, he said, in the Singapore context. It is not how good you are at the law that matters, he said, it is who you are. Judges have a bias towards the government connected lawyers as they are beholden to the government. They are not, he said, as independent as judges in other countries where they follow the rule of law.
I asked him, if all this bad news is actually happening to lawyers like him, why did he not garner support from other lawyers and demand some fairness from the Law Society which is supposed to represent him. He called the Law Society a "lame duck" and claimed that it's role was to execute the dictates of the Lee Kuan Yew government and not to represent the interests of it's members! A fact, which alas, we alreay know.
If he hated what was happening that much, why did he not emigrate? He said he was too old now, although he was only 55. He should have done it earlier, he said. Referring to me, as I was living in the USA, he said I was the "luckiest man", for having left.
Well then, I said, since he knows all this, then why did he not join the government political party, the PAP and work towards being known as a Lee Kuan Yew government supporter if this then is the only way to succeed. He said he did not really think of doing this in the past, but now it is too late, as he is old, he claimed, even though he was only 55 years of age. Telling him that 55 years is not old at all, that people have scaled Everest at that age without oxygen, but it all fell on deaf years.
He appeared resigned and desolate. My trying to liven him up did no good. He said he came to the office occasionally and was planning to give up practice of law entirely. He says he plays the guitar and spends time in meditation. My trying to tell him that it was never too late to change the political climate in Singapore did not have any effect.
What I found with him and a number of other lawyers I met was the fact that any attempt by me to talk of the political injustices in Singapore, the negation of the rule of law, human rights and justice and fairness did not kindle any interest at all. In fact, he just told me not to waste his time talking about politics. He simply told me that it won't make any difference.
My conversation with another lawyer in PKMS building, another cheap rent building away from the city, was similarly depressing. He had no hope left whatsoever. He simply said there is nothing he could do to change anything. He even went the extent of saying he was waiting for the Maker to take him! Very sad indeed.
It appeared that all of these lawyers appeared determined to be helpless, determined to have excuses against any suggestion to better their lot.
And none of these lawyers were lacking in qualities when they first started. They were once highly motivated highly qualified English trained barristers. Today they are nothing more than shells of their previous selves. Drained of energy, ambition and life.
I am making a guess as to why they have degenerated so. It has to be the stifling political climate in Singapore which expects everyone to conform without complaint. The need to tow the line. The need to accept anything that is thrown at them. The need to conform to the generally expected behaviour. The need not to stick out like a sore thumb. The fact that all nails that stick out will be hammered in. The long years of these people, even though educated and skilled, forced to conform and accept government dictates, stubs their imagination, stubs their ambition and reduces them to compliant and obedient subjects, unable to get out of a difficult situation because they do not know how.
My study in this case was confined to lawyers. I am sure the same wasting and degeneration also applies to all others, no matter what their profession or vocation. And this way of merely complying without question equally applies to the children of these individuals. A whole generation upon generation of people merely waiting to do what the government has planned for them, unable to take their lives in the direction of their choice.
One reads in the state controlled newspapers that Singapore plans to venture in various new projects and developments, not previously existing in Singapore. This requires independent and courageous thinking on the part of the planners. If this is the sort of Singaporeans that populate the island one party state, I wonder who it is that is planning and thinking all these new things. If indeed all that they say is true.
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 have discovered that prolonged political subjugation and control over a population, such as in Singapore, leaves many of them in the end, forlorn of hope, desolate and miserable, drains them of any ambition, zest or energy and eventually leaves them hopeless. I have discovered this in meeting people in Singapore again after more than 20 years. The very people whom I knew in 1970s, after years of life in Singapore, appear to have almost given up on life.
This is the story of my meeting a Singapore lawyer who has an office in Peoples Park Complex in Singapore. Let me call this story, My meeting with the Dismal Man. I had known this man since the late 1970s. He was a teacher then, like many other lawyers, who decided to change careers and become lawyers by taking the English law exams through correspondence. When I knew him then, he was ambitious, lively and full of energy, a man with burning ambition, taking a risk but a risk well worth it, at least he thought at the time, to leave his mundane measly teaching job and train to be a lawyer, with big dreams of becoming successful, famous and rich.
Then it was very pleasant to talk to him. He was full of life.
He did study for the law and pass his exams and was admitted to the English Bar as a Barrister. About 1980 he returned to Singapore and embarked on his law career.
Recently I met him again. The man that I knew in 1970s was totally different from the man I met now. On the whole, he appeared despondent depressed and miserable. He appears to have prematurely aged and had entirely grayed. He was not getting much work and was hardly able to pay his rent. He told me that an office in Peoples Park Center was all he can afford, Peoples Park Center being a building in Chinatown next to the lower courts offering cheap rent to small law firms unable to afford better premises. He gave various reasons for the the reduction of his business. For one, the courts filing fees were too high. You had to pay as much as $500.00 to file a civil suit, on top of which there were various other miscellaneous fees payable such as trial costs which can cost as much as $1,000.00 per day. This exorbitant cost actually prevented, according to him, many from filing suit.
There were also the problem of the big government connected firms taking all the cases, reducing the number of cases going to sole proprietor small firms like his to a trickle. He said, the government gave all the cases to law firms which had government connections. Since he did not have any government connections, he was not getting the lucrative work.
He said, he was in a Catch 22 situation. Advertising costs money, and since he did not have much of it, it prevented him from advertising. Studying the law and holding oneself as an expert does no good, he said, in the Singapore context. It is not how good you are at the law that matters, he said, it is who you are. Judges have a bias towards the government connected lawyers as they are beholden to the government. They are not, he said, as independent as judges in other countries where they follow the rule of law.
I asked him, if all this bad news is actually happening to lawyers like him, why did he not garner support from other lawyers and demand some fairness from the Law Society which is supposed to represent him. He called the Law Society a "lame duck" and claimed that it's role was to execute the dictates of the Lee Kuan Yew government and not to represent the interests of it's members! A fact, which alas, we alreay know.
If he hated what was happening that much, why did he not emigrate? He said he was too old now, although he was only 55. He should have done it earlier, he said. Referring to me, as I was living in the USA, he said I was the "luckiest man", for having left.
Well then, I said, since he knows all this, then why did he not join the government political party, the PAP and work towards being known as a Lee Kuan Yew government supporter if this then is the only way to succeed. He said he did not really think of doing this in the past, but now it is too late, as he is old, he claimed, even though he was only 55 years of age. Telling him that 55 years is not old at all, that people have scaled Everest at that age without oxygen, but it all fell on deaf years.
He appeared resigned and desolate. My trying to liven him up did no good. He said he came to the office occasionally and was planning to give up practice of law entirely. He says he plays the guitar and spends time in meditation. My trying to tell him that it was never too late to change the political climate in Singapore did not have any effect.
What I found with him and a number of other lawyers I met was the fact that any attempt by me to talk of the political injustices in Singapore, the negation of the rule of law, human rights and justice and fairness did not kindle any interest at all. In fact, he just told me not to waste his time talking about politics. He simply told me that it won't make any difference.
My conversation with another lawyer in PKMS building, another cheap rent building away from the city, was similarly depressing. He had no hope left whatsoever. He simply said there is nothing he could do to change anything. He even went the extent of saying he was waiting for the Maker to take him! Very sad indeed.
It appeared that all of these lawyers appeared determined to be helpless, determined to have excuses against any suggestion to better their lot.
And none of these lawyers were lacking in qualities when they first started. They were once highly motivated highly qualified English trained barristers. Today they are nothing more than shells of their previous selves. Drained of energy, ambition and life.
I am making a guess as to why they have degenerated so. It has to be the stifling political climate in Singapore which expects everyone to conform without complaint. The need to tow the line. The need to accept anything that is thrown at them. The need to conform to the generally expected behaviour. The need not to stick out like a sore thumb. The fact that all nails that stick out will be hammered in. The long years of these people, even though educated and skilled, forced to conform and accept government dictates, stubs their imagination, stubs their ambition and reduces them to compliant and obedient subjects, unable to get out of a difficult situation because they do not know how.
My study in this case was confined to lawyers. I am sure the same wasting and degeneration also applies to all others, no matter what their profession or vocation. And this way of merely complying without question equally applies to the children of these individuals. A whole generation upon generation of people merely waiting to do what the government has planned for them, unable to take their lives in the direction of their choice.
One reads in the state controlled newspapers that Singapore plans to venture in various new projects and developments, not previously existing in Singapore. This requires independent and courageous thinking on the part of the planners. If this is the sort of Singaporeans that populate the island one party state, I wonder who it is that is planning and thinking all these new things. If indeed all that they say is true.
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
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Singapore workers jobs must be protected from foreigners
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have never heard of a single country in the world, where the government allows the entry of indiscriminate and unlimited number of foreign workers when it already knows that these foreigners will take jobs from the locals which they, the locals, are competent and willing to do. I can certainly understand and appreciate that foreign labor is admitted in countries where it lacks the skills and therefore the need to import foreign labor. Software engineers from India work in many other countries where these skills are lacking locally. Doctors, dentists, machinists, you name it, all sorts of workers skilled in these and other occupations are willingly invited and welcomed in countries where the country lacks such skills. Perfectly understandable.
In Singapore, it is different. Listen to this carefully. You will be suprised, is to put it mildly. Singapore, believe it or not, permits foreign workers into Singapore to work, even though local Singaporeans have the skills and are willing to take these jobs. Instead of giving these jobs to Singaporeans to whom Singapore belongs, and to whose citizens the government is primarily responsible before others, they instead give it to some foreigner who is allowed into the country to work and do that same job which the Singaporean is ready and willing to do. End result, foreigner is employed and the Singaporean is unemployed in his own country, having to rely on state assistance which is insufficient to maintain himself and his family.Unable to survive, and to feed their families, many Singapore citizens, either suffer in silence or worse, commit suicide. Singapore citizens take their lives by jumping off high rise buildings. I understand this happens on average of one a day.
Anyway you look at it, surely a citizen of a country should have more rights, than any foreigner. In the UK an Englishman comes first, in Germany a German, in France a Frenchman, and so on. One cannot work in France just because a French employer states he needs workers and displace Frenchmen who are able and willing to do the job. The French government will not permit it. Understandably so.
In every country in the world, there is a process that has to be undergone before the admission of foreign labor. In the US, there is a process called labor certification. A US employer has to prove to the Department of Labor that they have tried to recruit local workers for the job without success, that they will pay the minimum wages for the work in the particular locale, that they are not displacing any US worker already in the job and if unionized, the union consents to the admission of the foreign worker and there is no present strike or lockout in the employer's premises. Various safeguards are put in place to protect local wages and working conditions. We can all understand the need for foreign workers for manufacturing and international trade and commerce. The international movement of labor around the world is on the whole, a good thing and eventually it benefits all. I am not at all against the importation of skills and labor, but surely only when it is not available locally.
But what the Singapore government fails to understand or deliberately refuses to, is that productivity and competitiveness is raised not only becasue of cheaper labor, it can be raised also through better training and increased mechanization. As is the case in the USA and the more developed world. And they refuse to carry out their responsibility of maintaing the living standards of their own people.
But believe it or not, this is not the case in Singapore. In Singapore, local employers are able to bring in workers from abroad regardless of whether there are locals able and willing to do it. Not only that, believe it or not, foreigners can just come to Singapore, show that they intend to set up a company, employ themselves in it and do business. Educated foreigners coming in as visitors, offered a job at a salary above $1500.00 can apply for an employment pass and start working immedaitely. As easy as that. Since the salary level required to satisfy the grant of an employment pass is very low, this effectively disadvantages Singapore citizens who previously could have expected a much higher salary, were it not for the entry of the foreigner. Now because of the low salary rate needed to qualify for an employment pass, either the local Singaporean accepts a lower salary and take that job, or he is unemployed.
There are the lower paid menial jobs such as house maids, construction workers, manual workers, cleaners and so on. These require the local employer to recruit them from foreign third world countries through recruiters overseas after which they are admitted to do lower skilled lower paying jobs even though there are many local Singapore citizens without sufficient education or skills ready and willing to take these jobs. But for Singapore employers, there is no incentive to employ them, as a foreigner worker will cost much less. Here again, many local Singapore citizens find themselves either unable to find any job because it has already gone to some foreign worker who is prepared to do it for less or worse, many who already had jobs have had their jobs terminated and replaced by foreign workers.
The Singapore government argument in this indiscriminate entry of foreign workers is that they have to keep costs down and remain competitive. But surely this argument is not only totally illogical, it is a policy that totally neglects the welfare of it's own people, which any government should be responsible for. Surely as citizens of Singapore, the people should be cared for before anyone else. That is the responsibility of any government. But from what is going on in Singapore, if does not appear that being a Singapore citizen in Singapore gives him any advantages over others. In fact the foreigner is cared for better in Singapore since it is he who gets the job.
The claim by the Singapore government that cheap labor makes them more competitive is untrue. The US, Germany, and all European countries have minimum wage levels much higher than third world countries. These countries too have their nationals doing manual work, diswashing and all kinds of lower paid work. They do not bring in thousands of low cost workers from Africa to fill these jobs. Still, they pay decent minimum wages befitting the standard of life in Europe and America. How do they do it? They improve productivity. A US construction worker is paid a good wage, lives in a good house, has a car and lives a comfortable life. This is because the US worker's productivity is high, he is mechanized, well educated and well trained. The US does not lose it's competitive edge because these workers are well paid.
The action of the Singapore government to admit indiscriminate unlimited numbers of foreigners into Singapore shows a criminal crass indifference to the welfare of Singaporeans and seriously damages the future well being of the country. For the short term, it denies it's own citizens jobs. In the long run, it fails to improve the quality and skills of local Singaporeans since there is no incentive to educate and train Singaporeans, since productivity and competitiveness is achieved through through the simple expedient of cheap foreign labor.
Surely in a situation like this, one may ask what are the labor unions doing. But in Singapore, as you may have expected, they do nothing. The philosophy of the Singapore government, and their compliant unions, is that the unions, just as all other public institutions there, must work in unison with and not against the government. Therefore the unions no longer represent their workers as one would have thought. Instead they comply with what the government tells them. In fact, it would have made no difference, one way or the other, in Singapore, if unions did not exist. For more than 20 years, Singapore unions have abdicated their duty of representing their workers. They are, like somany other positions in Singapore, a government rubber stamp.
And you may well ask after reading this far, as to what is the Singapore worker doing about this attack against his person and his job by his own government and the foreign workers. Well you may have expected this surprising answer. Nothing. He is doing nothing about the injustice being done to him by his own government in his own country and by his own unions. He just suffers in silence. Many, as I have said kill themselves.
Dr. Chee Soon Juan has written about the need for civil disobedience. If Dr. Chee is reading this, may I recommend that this issue of permitting foreign workers to enter the Singapore workforce indiscriminately and take their own jobs in their own country is the one issue that is crying out for civil disobedience. I think Dr. Chee should organize sufficient numbers of people to come forward in a protest to demand jobs and stop giving them to foreigners at their expense. This is an honorable cause which requires immediate action. It is also an issue which, I believe, will stir those affected as it affects their very livelihood. With the news of the government of Singapore increasing the President's salary to even more dizzy heights, this time to $2.6 million, surely, these Singapore citizen workers, unable to afford even the basics, need to be at least looked at.
If such a non violent peaceful protest on a matter which clearly touches their livelihood and existence can be organized, it can serve as a catalyst for other protests on the various other burning issues that face Singaporeans at the hands of this uncaring government.
If Dr. Chee's supporters can spread the word around among the poor and needy that they should do this, this protest, it may serve as a harbinger to new things, with the government being made to reckon with the needs of the people, unlike at present, where they do things at their pleasure without any need for accountability to their people to whom they should be responsible.
I hope Dr. Chee reads this and takes action on this. Also readers in agreement with my sentiment, may be able to ganvanize and garner sufficient, or even a few willing men and women to continue with the the idea of peaceful protests, which Dr. Chee and his supporters already started not too long ago at the CPF building.
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 have never heard of a single country in the world, where the government allows the entry of indiscriminate and unlimited number of foreign workers when it already knows that these foreigners will take jobs from the locals which they, the locals, are competent and willing to do. I can certainly understand and appreciate that foreign labor is admitted in countries where it lacks the skills and therefore the need to import foreign labor. Software engineers from India work in many other countries where these skills are lacking locally. Doctors, dentists, machinists, you name it, all sorts of workers skilled in these and other occupations are willingly invited and welcomed in countries where the country lacks such skills. Perfectly understandable.
In Singapore, it is different. Listen to this carefully. You will be suprised, is to put it mildly. Singapore, believe it or not, permits foreign workers into Singapore to work, even though local Singaporeans have the skills and are willing to take these jobs. Instead of giving these jobs to Singaporeans to whom Singapore belongs, and to whose citizens the government is primarily responsible before others, they instead give it to some foreigner who is allowed into the country to work and do that same job which the Singaporean is ready and willing to do. End result, foreigner is employed and the Singaporean is unemployed in his own country, having to rely on state assistance which is insufficient to maintain himself and his family.Unable to survive, and to feed their families, many Singapore citizens, either suffer in silence or worse, commit suicide. Singapore citizens take their lives by jumping off high rise buildings. I understand this happens on average of one a day.
Anyway you look at it, surely a citizen of a country should have more rights, than any foreigner. In the UK an Englishman comes first, in Germany a German, in France a Frenchman, and so on. One cannot work in France just because a French employer states he needs workers and displace Frenchmen who are able and willing to do the job. The French government will not permit it. Understandably so.
In every country in the world, there is a process that has to be undergone before the admission of foreign labor. In the US, there is a process called labor certification. A US employer has to prove to the Department of Labor that they have tried to recruit local workers for the job without success, that they will pay the minimum wages for the work in the particular locale, that they are not displacing any US worker already in the job and if unionized, the union consents to the admission of the foreign worker and there is no present strike or lockout in the employer's premises. Various safeguards are put in place to protect local wages and working conditions. We can all understand the need for foreign workers for manufacturing and international trade and commerce. The international movement of labor around the world is on the whole, a good thing and eventually it benefits all. I am not at all against the importation of skills and labor, but surely only when it is not available locally.
But what the Singapore government fails to understand or deliberately refuses to, is that productivity and competitiveness is raised not only becasue of cheaper labor, it can be raised also through better training and increased mechanization. As is the case in the USA and the more developed world. And they refuse to carry out their responsibility of maintaing the living standards of their own people.
But believe it or not, this is not the case in Singapore. In Singapore, local employers are able to bring in workers from abroad regardless of whether there are locals able and willing to do it. Not only that, believe it or not, foreigners can just come to Singapore, show that they intend to set up a company, employ themselves in it and do business. Educated foreigners coming in as visitors, offered a job at a salary above $1500.00 can apply for an employment pass and start working immedaitely. As easy as that. Since the salary level required to satisfy the grant of an employment pass is very low, this effectively disadvantages Singapore citizens who previously could have expected a much higher salary, were it not for the entry of the foreigner. Now because of the low salary rate needed to qualify for an employment pass, either the local Singaporean accepts a lower salary and take that job, or he is unemployed.
There are the lower paid menial jobs such as house maids, construction workers, manual workers, cleaners and so on. These require the local employer to recruit them from foreign third world countries through recruiters overseas after which they are admitted to do lower skilled lower paying jobs even though there are many local Singapore citizens without sufficient education or skills ready and willing to take these jobs. But for Singapore employers, there is no incentive to employ them, as a foreigner worker will cost much less. Here again, many local Singapore citizens find themselves either unable to find any job because it has already gone to some foreign worker who is prepared to do it for less or worse, many who already had jobs have had their jobs terminated and replaced by foreign workers.
The Singapore government argument in this indiscriminate entry of foreign workers is that they have to keep costs down and remain competitive. But surely this argument is not only totally illogical, it is a policy that totally neglects the welfare of it's own people, which any government should be responsible for. Surely as citizens of Singapore, the people should be cared for before anyone else. That is the responsibility of any government. But from what is going on in Singapore, if does not appear that being a Singapore citizen in Singapore gives him any advantages over others. In fact the foreigner is cared for better in Singapore since it is he who gets the job.
The claim by the Singapore government that cheap labor makes them more competitive is untrue. The US, Germany, and all European countries have minimum wage levels much higher than third world countries. These countries too have their nationals doing manual work, diswashing and all kinds of lower paid work. They do not bring in thousands of low cost workers from Africa to fill these jobs. Still, they pay decent minimum wages befitting the standard of life in Europe and America. How do they do it? They improve productivity. A US construction worker is paid a good wage, lives in a good house, has a car and lives a comfortable life. This is because the US worker's productivity is high, he is mechanized, well educated and well trained. The US does not lose it's competitive edge because these workers are well paid.
The action of the Singapore government to admit indiscriminate unlimited numbers of foreigners into Singapore shows a criminal crass indifference to the welfare of Singaporeans and seriously damages the future well being of the country. For the short term, it denies it's own citizens jobs. In the long run, it fails to improve the quality and skills of local Singaporeans since there is no incentive to educate and train Singaporeans, since productivity and competitiveness is achieved through through the simple expedient of cheap foreign labor.
Surely in a situation like this, one may ask what are the labor unions doing. But in Singapore, as you may have expected, they do nothing. The philosophy of the Singapore government, and their compliant unions, is that the unions, just as all other public institutions there, must work in unison with and not against the government. Therefore the unions no longer represent their workers as one would have thought. Instead they comply with what the government tells them. In fact, it would have made no difference, one way or the other, in Singapore, if unions did not exist. For more than 20 years, Singapore unions have abdicated their duty of representing their workers. They are, like somany other positions in Singapore, a government rubber stamp.
And you may well ask after reading this far, as to what is the Singapore worker doing about this attack against his person and his job by his own government and the foreign workers. Well you may have expected this surprising answer. Nothing. He is doing nothing about the injustice being done to him by his own government in his own country and by his own unions. He just suffers in silence. Many, as I have said kill themselves.
Dr. Chee Soon Juan has written about the need for civil disobedience. If Dr. Chee is reading this, may I recommend that this issue of permitting foreign workers to enter the Singapore workforce indiscriminately and take their own jobs in their own country is the one issue that is crying out for civil disobedience. I think Dr. Chee should organize sufficient numbers of people to come forward in a protest to demand jobs and stop giving them to foreigners at their expense. This is an honorable cause which requires immediate action. It is also an issue which, I believe, will stir those affected as it affects their very livelihood. With the news of the government of Singapore increasing the President's salary to even more dizzy heights, this time to $2.6 million, surely, these Singapore citizen workers, unable to afford even the basics, need to be at least looked at.
If such a non violent peaceful protest on a matter which clearly touches their livelihood and existence can be organized, it can serve as a catalyst for other protests on the various other burning issues that face Singaporeans at the hands of this uncaring government.
If Dr. Chee's supporters can spread the word around among the poor and needy that they should do this, this protest, it may serve as a harbinger to new things, with the government being made to reckon with the needs of the people, unlike at present, where they do things at their pleasure without any need for accountability to their people to whom they should be responsible.
I hope Dr. Chee reads this and takes action on this. Also readers in agreement with my sentiment, may be able to ganvanize and garner sufficient, or even a few willing men and women to continue with the the idea of peaceful protests, which Dr. Chee and his supporters already started not too long ago at the CPF building.
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 24, 2007
Singaporeans have no rights
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The abruptness of what I am about to say will perhaps take you somewhat aback. Singaporeans have no rights. Lee Kuan Yew and his family controls every Singaporean. Your lives and livelihoods depend on whether he is prepared to allow you that.
You will recall many years ago, Lee made a speech when he referred to his fellow citizens as "digits". Shows the derision and contempt with which he held his population. But at least despite this very insulting remark describing his fellow human beings, there was then, at least some degree of human rights. You will recall in those days, the highest court of appeal was the British Privy Council, which could act as a check on Lee Kuan Yew's excesses. Over the years even that was whittled away.
Over the years Lee began to assault systematically the citadel of democracy which once was, until today, it is laid threadbare, with the people having no rights at all, with the country now being run by nothing more than Lee's dictate.
A people can call themselves free men only if they know that they have certain rights and these rights will be protected by the institutions that are required to protect them. These rights are usually enshrined in a document called the Constitution which is treated as the supreme law of the land. Such fundamental human rights include the right to free speech, the right to free expression, the right to freely assemble, the right to form independent unions, the right to have an independent media. In Singapore the average Singaporean does not have any of these rights. And not having any rights, he is no longer free. He lives at the pleasure of the Lee family. If one were to anger Lee, he is liable to arrest you anytime, successfully sue you and do all manner and harm to you. This is because there is no independent institution such as the courts which will protect you even if you happened to be right. This is because the courts in Singapore are no longer independent and work at the behest of the Lee family. The best way to put it is that you live under a revocable licence from Lee Kuan Yew and his family. That licence can be revoked anytime by Lee without cause.
The Constitution must be the foundation for any free people. That document emboldens people when they know that they have certain rights as stated within it. And it emboldens people when they know that no matter what, no one can punish them unfairly, because there is an independent judge with the authority and the will to enforce this man's rights. When an individual knows this, he is free man. Free because he fears only the law and God.
As I said, not so in Singapore. Lee Kuan Yew and his family have compromised the integrity of the Constitution to such an extent that they it no longer gives him any rights, due to Lee meddling with it to whittle it down to nothing. Take the right to free speech. This is in the constitution. But there is also the provision requiring a licence to be obtained before you can speak. In reality therefore, the necessity of a permit effectively removes your fundamental right to free speech. In any case, you can be sure that even if you applied for it, as an opponent of Lee Kuan Yew, your permit will be denied. Effectively therefore, you no longer have free speech.
The same with the freedom to assemble. Yes, it is in the constitution. But you require a permit. And if you are an opponent, your permit application will be denied. Conclusion, you have no right to assemble.
Again with the right of a free press. Constitutionally you have that right. But Lee and his family control the paper by saying that they have to be "responsible", another way of saying propaganda. Therefore you read propaganda. You are again denied your constitutional right.
The constitution requires an independent judiciary. Lee makes sure that all judges punish and destroy political opponents. End result, you have no independent judiciary.
I can go on.
And by the way, constitutional law makes it very clear that the constitution is sacrosanct. It cannot be changed and modified as and when the government pleases. But in Singapore, that is what Lee and his family do. End result is that Singapore does not have a Constitution. With the rubber stamp Parliament of a one party state, laws can be changed, amended any which way Lee wants.
And what is equally more important other than the constitution is the people who are supposed to uphold it. I have been told that the constitution of the People's Republic of China is a great document on paper because it contains all manner of human rights. However in reality, the subjects of Communist China have no rights at all. This is because the people in positions of authority in China are beholden, not to the constitution but to the Communist Chinese dictators. It is the same with Singapore. Singapore does not give their people any rights in the constitution. But even if the document did give any rights, these are not enforced by the organs of state, because they are all beholden to Lee Kuan Yew and family through fear. Fear for their jobs. Fear for their livelihood. Fear for their children.
With no rights under the constitution and with all the institutions of state, all beholden not to the law, but to Lee Kuan Yew, the prospect is indeed very bleak. The final analysis is that you have no rights at all. You are not free. You live entirely at the pleasure of Lee Kuan Yew and his family who rule you. And if you have not realized this sad state that you are in at present, you should understand it now.
It is indeed unfortunate that in a country of 4 million people, there is only one man, just one man who realizes this and who stands up as a man. That is Dr. Chee. There is no one else. No one in an entire population of 4 million. Dr. Chee has said it before and I will say it again. Until and unless you confront Lee Kuan Yew head on and say enough is enough. I am not going to take this anymore. I demand my rights. I will speak when I want to, assemble when I want to, protest when I want to whether you, Lee, like it or not. Unless you are prepared to do this, you will be forever living under the revocable licence of your master Lee Kuan Yew.
For me at least, it is shameful to live under these circumstances. As for what you will do, it is up to you.
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 abruptness of what I am about to say will perhaps take you somewhat aback. Singaporeans have no rights. Lee Kuan Yew and his family controls every Singaporean. Your lives and livelihoods depend on whether he is prepared to allow you that.
You will recall many years ago, Lee made a speech when he referred to his fellow citizens as "digits". Shows the derision and contempt with which he held his population. But at least despite this very insulting remark describing his fellow human beings, there was then, at least some degree of human rights. You will recall in those days, the highest court of appeal was the British Privy Council, which could act as a check on Lee Kuan Yew's excesses. Over the years even that was whittled away.
Over the years Lee began to assault systematically the citadel of democracy which once was, until today, it is laid threadbare, with the people having no rights at all, with the country now being run by nothing more than Lee's dictate.
A people can call themselves free men only if they know that they have certain rights and these rights will be protected by the institutions that are required to protect them. These rights are usually enshrined in a document called the Constitution which is treated as the supreme law of the land. Such fundamental human rights include the right to free speech, the right to free expression, the right to freely assemble, the right to form independent unions, the right to have an independent media. In Singapore the average Singaporean does not have any of these rights. And not having any rights, he is no longer free. He lives at the pleasure of the Lee family. If one were to anger Lee, he is liable to arrest you anytime, successfully sue you and do all manner and harm to you. This is because there is no independent institution such as the courts which will protect you even if you happened to be right. This is because the courts in Singapore are no longer independent and work at the behest of the Lee family. The best way to put it is that you live under a revocable licence from Lee Kuan Yew and his family. That licence can be revoked anytime by Lee without cause.
The Constitution must be the foundation for any free people. That document emboldens people when they know that they have certain rights as stated within it. And it emboldens people when they know that no matter what, no one can punish them unfairly, because there is an independent judge with the authority and the will to enforce this man's rights. When an individual knows this, he is free man. Free because he fears only the law and God.
As I said, not so in Singapore. Lee Kuan Yew and his family have compromised the integrity of the Constitution to such an extent that they it no longer gives him any rights, due to Lee meddling with it to whittle it down to nothing. Take the right to free speech. This is in the constitution. But there is also the provision requiring a licence to be obtained before you can speak. In reality therefore, the necessity of a permit effectively removes your fundamental right to free speech. In any case, you can be sure that even if you applied for it, as an opponent of Lee Kuan Yew, your permit will be denied. Effectively therefore, you no longer have free speech.
The same with the freedom to assemble. Yes, it is in the constitution. But you require a permit. And if you are an opponent, your permit application will be denied. Conclusion, you have no right to assemble.
Again with the right of a free press. Constitutionally you have that right. But Lee and his family control the paper by saying that they have to be "responsible", another way of saying propaganda. Therefore you read propaganda. You are again denied your constitutional right.
The constitution requires an independent judiciary. Lee makes sure that all judges punish and destroy political opponents. End result, you have no independent judiciary.
I can go on.
And by the way, constitutional law makes it very clear that the constitution is sacrosanct. It cannot be changed and modified as and when the government pleases. But in Singapore, that is what Lee and his family do. End result is that Singapore does not have a Constitution. With the rubber stamp Parliament of a one party state, laws can be changed, amended any which way Lee wants.
And what is equally more important other than the constitution is the people who are supposed to uphold it. I have been told that the constitution of the People's Republic of China is a great document on paper because it contains all manner of human rights. However in reality, the subjects of Communist China have no rights at all. This is because the people in positions of authority in China are beholden, not to the constitution but to the Communist Chinese dictators. It is the same with Singapore. Singapore does not give their people any rights in the constitution. But even if the document did give any rights, these are not enforced by the organs of state, because they are all beholden to Lee Kuan Yew and family through fear. Fear for their jobs. Fear for their livelihood. Fear for their children.
With no rights under the constitution and with all the institutions of state, all beholden not to the law, but to Lee Kuan Yew, the prospect is indeed very bleak. The final analysis is that you have no rights at all. You are not free. You live entirely at the pleasure of Lee Kuan Yew and his family who rule you. And if you have not realized this sad state that you are in at present, you should understand it now.
It is indeed unfortunate that in a country of 4 million people, there is only one man, just one man who realizes this and who stands up as a man. That is Dr. Chee. There is no one else. No one in an entire population of 4 million. Dr. Chee has said it before and I will say it again. Until and unless you confront Lee Kuan Yew head on and say enough is enough. I am not going to take this anymore. I demand my rights. I will speak when I want to, assemble when I want to, protest when I want to whether you, Lee, like it or not. Unless you are prepared to do this, you will be forever living under the revocable licence of your master Lee Kuan Yew.
For me at least, it is shameful to live under these circumstances. As for what you will do, it is up to you.
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, January 23, 2007
Singapore. Another of Lee's dirty trick to win elections. Abusing the Sub Judice rule.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Another dirty trick that Lee used to win the last elections in 2006 was abusing the Sub Judice rule. The Sub judice rule states that when an action has been filed in court, any discussion about it publicly is forbidden lest the court hearing the case will be biased by reason of the public discussion.
The last general elections was held in Singapore in May 2006. More than 10 months earlier, Dr. Chee had written an article in his publication the Democrat criticizing the lack of transparency in the National Kidney Foundation, a public charity which resulted in misuse of public funds in it, and stating that the government should be equally concerned about their own management lest the same thing happens to them as what had happened at the National Kidney Foundation.
As expected, Lee Kuan Yew, having very delicate nerves, as he certainly appears to have, would have taken umbrage and forthwith sued Dr. Chee for defamation of character for which he is world renowned . But he did not do so immediately. He had planned the elections to take place in May of 2006. Therefore he waited a while before filing suit. About a month before the elections he sues Dr. Chee for the article about the NKF breaches in the Democrat which appeared a long time ago. The reason for this was clear. If Lee Kuan Yew has the case filed in court before the elections, Dr. Chee will not be able to raise it in the hustings, a very valuable issue for the oppostion. This way he silences the opposition on an important point which would have clearly advanced the position of the opposition, had they been able to raise the illegalities in the NKF.
This is yet another dirty trick that Lee Kuan Yew used to win the last elections. It is quite clear by now to anyone that if Lee Kuan Yew did not use the shameful litany of tricks and illegalities, it is quite clear to me and to any observer that he would not have won the last election. In any case, as Lee Kuan Yew has no qualms to engage in all sorts of dirty tricks to remain in power, I guess he would have won anyway. He would have stuffed the ballot boxes to win, if he knew that he was not going to.
I was in Singapore during the last elections. At one of the rallies of the Singapore Democratic Party, at Woodlands, the police were at hand to specifically inform the SDP speakers that Dr. Chee is not allowed to speak from the stage and that no reference could be made to the NKF issue. The SDP candidates were held to ransom, so to speak to comply with these unjust demands. Held to ransom, because they must comply and if not, Lee Kuan Yew would have disqualified the candidates from standing. Surely this is a low down despicable dirty trick on the part of Lee Kuan Yew. Having no choice, since they risked being disqualified, they had to submit to these unreasonable and unlawful demands of Lee Kuan Yew.
For those interested in this issue, this is clearly a wrong use of the sub judice rule. This rule in English law came about because in England, where there are jury trials, juries being laymen, may be swayed by public discussion for the issues in the case, one way or the other. The fear is therefore that they would assume their duties being biased as a result of influence from the public discussion. Therefore the need to forbid public discussion of the issues before the court, until after the trial. Quite a reasonable rule. Reasonable if you have juries made up of laymen.
But in Singapore, you do not have juries. Judges try all cases. Judges being trained in law can resist any temptation to bias, however much the public discussion. Therefore in all countries where trials are by judge alone, this rule is inapplicable.
Lee Kuan Yew conveniently hides the exception to this rule in Judge alone trials, and claims with no shame whatsoever that the sub judice rule also applies in Singapore. Since he has no shame and will stoop to any lengths to win the elections for him and his family members to remain in power, I have said this before and I will say it again. You have to have mass public protests to demand your rights. Otherwise you will remain slaves.
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
Another dirty trick that Lee used to win the last elections in 2006 was abusing the Sub Judice rule. The Sub judice rule states that when an action has been filed in court, any discussion about it publicly is forbidden lest the court hearing the case will be biased by reason of the public discussion.
The last general elections was held in Singapore in May 2006. More than 10 months earlier, Dr. Chee had written an article in his publication the Democrat criticizing the lack of transparency in the National Kidney Foundation, a public charity which resulted in misuse of public funds in it, and stating that the government should be equally concerned about their own management lest the same thing happens to them as what had happened at the National Kidney Foundation.
As expected, Lee Kuan Yew, having very delicate nerves, as he certainly appears to have, would have taken umbrage and forthwith sued Dr. Chee for defamation of character for which he is world renowned . But he did not do so immediately. He had planned the elections to take place in May of 2006. Therefore he waited a while before filing suit. About a month before the elections he sues Dr. Chee for the article about the NKF breaches in the Democrat which appeared a long time ago. The reason for this was clear. If Lee Kuan Yew has the case filed in court before the elections, Dr. Chee will not be able to raise it in the hustings, a very valuable issue for the oppostion. This way he silences the opposition on an important point which would have clearly advanced the position of the opposition, had they been able to raise the illegalities in the NKF.
This is yet another dirty trick that Lee Kuan Yew used to win the last elections. It is quite clear by now to anyone that if Lee Kuan Yew did not use the shameful litany of tricks and illegalities, it is quite clear to me and to any observer that he would not have won the last election. In any case, as Lee Kuan Yew has no qualms to engage in all sorts of dirty tricks to remain in power, I guess he would have won anyway. He would have stuffed the ballot boxes to win, if he knew that he was not going to.
I was in Singapore during the last elections. At one of the rallies of the Singapore Democratic Party, at Woodlands, the police were at hand to specifically inform the SDP speakers that Dr. Chee is not allowed to speak from the stage and that no reference could be made to the NKF issue. The SDP candidates were held to ransom, so to speak to comply with these unjust demands. Held to ransom, because they must comply and if not, Lee Kuan Yew would have disqualified the candidates from standing. Surely this is a low down despicable dirty trick on the part of Lee Kuan Yew. Having no choice, since they risked being disqualified, they had to submit to these unreasonable and unlawful demands of Lee Kuan Yew.
For those interested in this issue, this is clearly a wrong use of the sub judice rule. This rule in English law came about because in England, where there are jury trials, juries being laymen, may be swayed by public discussion for the issues in the case, one way or the other. The fear is therefore that they would assume their duties being biased as a result of influence from the public discussion. Therefore the need to forbid public discussion of the issues before the court, until after the trial. Quite a reasonable rule. Reasonable if you have juries made up of laymen.
But in Singapore, you do not have juries. Judges try all cases. Judges being trained in law can resist any temptation to bias, however much the public discussion. Therefore in all countries where trials are by judge alone, this rule is inapplicable.
Lee Kuan Yew conveniently hides the exception to this rule in Judge alone trials, and claims with no shame whatsoever that the sub judice rule also applies in Singapore. Since he has no shame and will stoop to any lengths to win the elections for him and his family members to remain in power, I have said this before and I will say it again. You have to have mass public protests to demand your rights. Otherwise you will remain slaves.
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
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Singapore. Break the law now.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I say break the law now. This certainly may be an unacceptable statement in most other circumstances, even a criminal one, but in the case of Singapore, I say it, and say it deliberately. I am not referring to laws such as murder and other violations which are criminal by any standards. I am referring to Lee's unjust laws, politically motivated laws to silence dissent, laws intended to keep Lee and his family in perpetual political grip over Singapore, such unjust laws as requiring a permit to speak in public where even if applied for by a political opponent will automatically be denied, laws such as requiring a permit to assemble which again is automatically denied when applied for by the opposition, unjust laws such as requiring a permit to form an association which is a means to keep surveillance on all political activities, all the unjust illegal laws enacted for the political advantage of the dictator Lee Kuan Yew and his family.
Dr. Chee has correctly quoted Gandhi and Martin Luther King having said that there are just laws and unjust laws and that it is the right of a free man, nay not just right, but his bounden duty to break that law and in doing so, in breaking that law, he is in fact being even more law abiding than another who complies with them.
There is no doubt on it. Lee stays in power by breaking laws. He shows such disdain and arrogance over his fellow citizens that he feels he can do anything and get away with it.
The pillars of any state are it's public institutions such as the judiciary, the civil service, the military, the police force, the media, the education system. These institutions need to be kept strong and independent for a country to continue to thrive and advance, but in Singapore, Lee has deliberately denied these institutions to function independently under the rule of law, making each of these institutions weak and entirely beholden to him and him alone. These are clearly illegal acts in violation of the law which has undermined the stability and strength of the country so much so that Singapore is turning into a failed republic before one's very eyes.
He has blatantly interfered with the independance of the judiciary, requiring judges to use their office not to administer the rule of law, but to destroy his political opponents. From the early 1970s till date the list of his victims at the hands of his enforcers in the judiciary goes on. JB Jeyaretnam, the former opposition politician repeatedly sued, charged with criminal offenses, thrown in jail, stripped of lawyer's license, forced to pay millions of dollars in illegal court awards and impoverished.
Mr. Tang Lian Hong, charged and sued for criminal and civil cases of defamation after the 1988 general elections, made to pay millions of dollars, bankrupted and hounded out of the country to Australia where he now lives. Mr. Francis Seow similarly dealt with, arrested detained and tortured by the dreaded Internal Security Department beaten, battered and assaulted with serious injuries, then released, for him only to escape to the United States to avoid further beatings, all because he contested the elections against Lee as he was entitled to do. The Marxist Conspirators, so labelled by Lee, 12 civic minded citizens who dared to speak against Lee between 1987 and 1988. Again, they were arrested severely tortured with sleep deprivation and other criminalities, detained for many days, beaten, their confessions obtained under torture, publicly made to confess as being communists and released. I can go on but I will stop. Lee is guilty of breaking the law. The law that makes it illegal to interfere in the independence of the judiciary.
Lee breaks the law by illegally interfering in the independence of the civil service. The civil service is required to carry out their work in accordance with the rule of law in fairness to all under the constitution. But they cannot do it, because Lee requires the civil service to be used as an instrument to oppress and destroy his political opponents. The Official Assignees office ensures Lee's opponents unable to pay Lee's unjust court awards are bankrupted and dealt with very harshly while others are dealt with leniently. Opposition politicians who become bankrupt find it impossible to discharge their bankruptcies and will remain so for life. Since bankrupts cannot contest elections, Lee uses bankrupting his opponents as a means to prevent them from challenging him ever. JB Jeyaretnam who has been bankrupted by Lee has never got out of it. He will die a bankrupt. He is 82 years old.
Dr. Chee has been sued, ordered to pay half a million dollars and being unable to pay has been made a bankrupt. And what did he do? All he did was to ask Lee Kuan Yew as to why he paid Dr. Suharto, the former Indonesian dictator, 17 million dollars and under what authority did he do it. I think he also told Mr. Goh Chok Tong, the former prime minister that he could run but may not be able to hide. Statements completely innocuous and normal in any other country. But under the instructions of Lee Kuan Yew, the Singapore judges beholden to him obediently turned it around and made it defamatory and criminal, ordering Dr. Chee to pay a mammoth crippling half a million dollars to Lee Kuan Yew and friends and unable to pay, he has been bankrupted by Lee's civil servants.
Lee has made the police force directly answerable to him. At his orders, they arrest anyone and everyone, harass them, keep surveillance on them, tail them, and make it very difficult for anyone who challenges Lee.
You can therefore see that Singapore's public institutions have lost credibility and their self respect and have been discredited, brought into ridicule and contempt. Recently, in the High Court of Canada, a Canadian company Evernorth have filed suit to prevent the enforcement of a Singapore court judgment against them in Canada, because they claim, and quite rightly so, that the Singapore courts are corrupt and the corruption vitiated the validity of the award. See Oakwell vs Evernorth. These public institutions such as the courts, have lost their fairness and are no longer bound by the rule of law, beholden only to Lee and his personal family members and friends. These are illegal acts of interference by Lee Kuan Yew and his family and friends. Lee Kuan Yew runs Singapore by personal decree. Singapore is no longer run by the rule of law by independent public institutions.
We also know that that under Saddam Hussein, Iraq was run, not by rule of law, but by his personal decrees. He removed and destroyed his opponents by requiring his judges to punish and put to death his political opponents. Lee Kuan Yew does the same. The only difference is one of degree. He tortures his opponests while under detention by sleep deprivation and other brutalities, but stops short of killing them. Only a question of degree. But the political climate is similar in both countries. People dare not criticise, lest they are arrested tortured, charged sued and bankrupted. Example, JB Jeyaretnam and Dr. Chee Soon Juan.
In this climate where Lee Kuan Yew feels he is at liberty anytime to break the law any time he wants, it is about time you took those liberties. And the reality is that if you do not take those liberties and intentionally break these unjust laws, then you can be certain as the sun rises tomorrow, that you will never be free, you will never enjoy a democracy, you will be forever ruled by this dictator and his family, you will never be able to express yourself freely, you will forever only read propaganda, you will never be able to congregate and discuss views as free men. In short you will die as slaves, which you are now anyway.
So I say this to you now. There is no shame in breaking unjust laws. There is nothing illegal in peaceful protest. It is your right as free men. So go ahead and apply for a permit to hold a peaceful protest. When you receive the notice from the government refusing you that permit, which you invariably will receive, write to them that you intend to break that law and break it and hold that protest anyway. They will arrest you but in the eyes of the world, they will look very small.
In the end, you will undoubtedly win and they will lose. Only in this way, by deliberately breaking unjust laws, and telling them in no uncertain terms that you intend to do it, that you will be able to bring about change to your country Singapore.
Lou Thia Khiang and Chiam See Tong will not be able to bring about any change by asking questions, merely for the sake of asking.
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 say break the law now. This certainly may be an unacceptable statement in most other circumstances, even a criminal one, but in the case of Singapore, I say it, and say it deliberately. I am not referring to laws such as murder and other violations which are criminal by any standards. I am referring to Lee's unjust laws, politically motivated laws to silence dissent, laws intended to keep Lee and his family in perpetual political grip over Singapore, such unjust laws as requiring a permit to speak in public where even if applied for by a political opponent will automatically be denied, laws such as requiring a permit to assemble which again is automatically denied when applied for by the opposition, unjust laws such as requiring a permit to form an association which is a means to keep surveillance on all political activities, all the unjust illegal laws enacted for the political advantage of the dictator Lee Kuan Yew and his family.
Dr. Chee has correctly quoted Gandhi and Martin Luther King having said that there are just laws and unjust laws and that it is the right of a free man, nay not just right, but his bounden duty to break that law and in doing so, in breaking that law, he is in fact being even more law abiding than another who complies with them.
There is no doubt on it. Lee stays in power by breaking laws. He shows such disdain and arrogance over his fellow citizens that he feels he can do anything and get away with it.
The pillars of any state are it's public institutions such as the judiciary, the civil service, the military, the police force, the media, the education system. These institutions need to be kept strong and independent for a country to continue to thrive and advance, but in Singapore, Lee has deliberately denied these institutions to function independently under the rule of law, making each of these institutions weak and entirely beholden to him and him alone. These are clearly illegal acts in violation of the law which has undermined the stability and strength of the country so much so that Singapore is turning into a failed republic before one's very eyes.
He has blatantly interfered with the independance of the judiciary, requiring judges to use their office not to administer the rule of law, but to destroy his political opponents. From the early 1970s till date the list of his victims at the hands of his enforcers in the judiciary goes on. JB Jeyaretnam, the former opposition politician repeatedly sued, charged with criminal offenses, thrown in jail, stripped of lawyer's license, forced to pay millions of dollars in illegal court awards and impoverished.
Mr. Tang Lian Hong, charged and sued for criminal and civil cases of defamation after the 1988 general elections, made to pay millions of dollars, bankrupted and hounded out of the country to Australia where he now lives. Mr. Francis Seow similarly dealt with, arrested detained and tortured by the dreaded Internal Security Department beaten, battered and assaulted with serious injuries, then released, for him only to escape to the United States to avoid further beatings, all because he contested the elections against Lee as he was entitled to do. The Marxist Conspirators, so labelled by Lee, 12 civic minded citizens who dared to speak against Lee between 1987 and 1988. Again, they were arrested severely tortured with sleep deprivation and other criminalities, detained for many days, beaten, their confessions obtained under torture, publicly made to confess as being communists and released. I can go on but I will stop. Lee is guilty of breaking the law. The law that makes it illegal to interfere in the independence of the judiciary.
Lee breaks the law by illegally interfering in the independence of the civil service. The civil service is required to carry out their work in accordance with the rule of law in fairness to all under the constitution. But they cannot do it, because Lee requires the civil service to be used as an instrument to oppress and destroy his political opponents. The Official Assignees office ensures Lee's opponents unable to pay Lee's unjust court awards are bankrupted and dealt with very harshly while others are dealt with leniently. Opposition politicians who become bankrupt find it impossible to discharge their bankruptcies and will remain so for life. Since bankrupts cannot contest elections, Lee uses bankrupting his opponents as a means to prevent them from challenging him ever. JB Jeyaretnam who has been bankrupted by Lee has never got out of it. He will die a bankrupt. He is 82 years old.
Dr. Chee has been sued, ordered to pay half a million dollars and being unable to pay has been made a bankrupt. And what did he do? All he did was to ask Lee Kuan Yew as to why he paid Dr. Suharto, the former Indonesian dictator, 17 million dollars and under what authority did he do it. I think he also told Mr. Goh Chok Tong, the former prime minister that he could run but may not be able to hide. Statements completely innocuous and normal in any other country. But under the instructions of Lee Kuan Yew, the Singapore judges beholden to him obediently turned it around and made it defamatory and criminal, ordering Dr. Chee to pay a mammoth crippling half a million dollars to Lee Kuan Yew and friends and unable to pay, he has been bankrupted by Lee's civil servants.
Lee has made the police force directly answerable to him. At his orders, they arrest anyone and everyone, harass them, keep surveillance on them, tail them, and make it very difficult for anyone who challenges Lee.
You can therefore see that Singapore's public institutions have lost credibility and their self respect and have been discredited, brought into ridicule and contempt. Recently, in the High Court of Canada, a Canadian company Evernorth have filed suit to prevent the enforcement of a Singapore court judgment against them in Canada, because they claim, and quite rightly so, that the Singapore courts are corrupt and the corruption vitiated the validity of the award. See Oakwell vs Evernorth. These public institutions such as the courts, have lost their fairness and are no longer bound by the rule of law, beholden only to Lee and his personal family members and friends. These are illegal acts of interference by Lee Kuan Yew and his family and friends. Lee Kuan Yew runs Singapore by personal decree. Singapore is no longer run by the rule of law by independent public institutions.
We also know that that under Saddam Hussein, Iraq was run, not by rule of law, but by his personal decrees. He removed and destroyed his opponents by requiring his judges to punish and put to death his political opponents. Lee Kuan Yew does the same. The only difference is one of degree. He tortures his opponests while under detention by sleep deprivation and other brutalities, but stops short of killing them. Only a question of degree. But the political climate is similar in both countries. People dare not criticise, lest they are arrested tortured, charged sued and bankrupted. Example, JB Jeyaretnam and Dr. Chee Soon Juan.
In this climate where Lee Kuan Yew feels he is at liberty anytime to break the law any time he wants, it is about time you took those liberties. And the reality is that if you do not take those liberties and intentionally break these unjust laws, then you can be certain as the sun rises tomorrow, that you will never be free, you will never enjoy a democracy, you will be forever ruled by this dictator and his family, you will never be able to express yourself freely, you will forever only read propaganda, you will never be able to congregate and discuss views as free men. In short you will die as slaves, which you are now anyway.
So I say this to you now. There is no shame in breaking unjust laws. There is nothing illegal in peaceful protest. It is your right as free men. So go ahead and apply for a permit to hold a peaceful protest. When you receive the notice from the government refusing you that permit, which you invariably will receive, write to them that you intend to break that law and break it and hold that protest anyway. They will arrest you but in the eyes of the world, they will look very small.
In the end, you will undoubtedly win and they will lose. Only in this way, by deliberately breaking unjust laws, and telling them in no uncertain terms that you intend to do it, that you will be able to bring about change to your country Singapore.
Lou Thia Khiang and Chiam See Tong will not be able to bring about any change by asking questions, merely for the sake of asking.
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. In Singapore's democracy Lee "selects" his Members of Parliment.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Saigon, Jan 21, 2007. Pardon my calling it Saigon instead of Ho Chih Minh City, since Saigon sounds and feels better. I think a lot of Vietnamese would also agree with me there, especially the American Vietnamese that I meet. Lee Kuan Yew said at the Vietnamese capital on Jan 21, 2007 that the new batch of elected PAP Members of Parliament will have 3 years time in which to prove to Lee Kuan Yew whether they are worthy of their positions.
This statement by Lee may appear somewhat overly paternalistic and bossy, since one would have thought that it should be the people, in a democracy, who decide they want their elected leaders or not and not for Lee Kuan Yew to decide on their performance as Members of Parliament.
Singapore is different. It says it is a democracy but it is not. In elections, people who have good jobs and positions and wish to further their careers even further and their financial wealth, will join Lee's party for personal gain. Lee's information apparatus, then decide among these political opportunists, as to who should be selected to contest the elections. These are not leaders in their communities in the liberal western sense of democracy. They may not have been leaders in anything. But one quality that these need for selection into Lee's election slate, is the willingness to give unconditional support to Lee. In a nutshell, it is no different from the other dictatorships of the world. In Cuba to really succeed, you would have to join Fidel's party and show unconditional support to him. You have to attend all indoctrination sessions and show yourself to be an active supporter of Lee. Of course you also have to show that you are hardworking and good at what you do.
Once you have passed Lee's selection test, you are fielded in the elections. Good things are repeatedly said about you in the state controlled press and any opposition candidates are defamed in the same pages as criminals and unworthy. Also because of the presence of serial numbers in the ballot papers, rumors are distributed among the people that the government has the means to trace the identity of opposition voters. This fear causes people not to vote for any opposition candidate.
But regardless of whether the people vote for the opposition or not, the Peoples Action Party, Lee's party, will always win the elections. This is because the elections are rigged and the ballot papers stuffed to ensure PAP victory. But 2 seats will be won by the opposition. This is Hougang and Potong Pasir which has remained in opposition hands for very long. Not because the people of Hougang and Potong Pasir are any different from anyone else, but because Lee will rig the elections in these 2 wards to enable the opposition to win. For Lee, it would give a bad impression if Lee was to take all seats. Then people would say that it is a one party state. Now they cannot say it, although in reality it is true, that Singapore is a one party state. Lee can say that it is not, since 2 seats are held by the opposition.
But in reality, it is a one party state. These 2 opposition Members of Parliament cannot or do not want to do anything much, like challenging Lee in matters of importance such as freedom. They have been cowed into submission through fear of what had happened to Mr. JB Jeyaretnam when he really challenged Lee. You are aware that JB Jeyaretnam, was charged with crimes, sent to jail, made to pay hefty fines, bankrupted and disbarred. So now, these 2 oppostion Members of Parliament are mere seat warmers who collect their salaries for their position each month.
In these circumstances, we should not be surprised to see why Lee can speak the way he does, as if he controls the political destiny of the newly elected PAP members of Parliament. Yes he does control them. They are not really politicians in the real sense. They are selected for one purpose only, that is to go into Parliament and act as a rubber stamp for what he decides.
This, sadly, is the democracy in Singapore. In this democracy, Lee breaks the law to remain in power. I ask the Singaporeans to reject this false democracy. I ask the Singaporeans to break the unjust laws there, deliberately, to demand your democratic rights now.
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
Saigon, Jan 21, 2007. Pardon my calling it Saigon instead of Ho Chih Minh City, since Saigon sounds and feels better. I think a lot of Vietnamese would also agree with me there, especially the American Vietnamese that I meet. Lee Kuan Yew said at the Vietnamese capital on Jan 21, 2007 that the new batch of elected PAP Members of Parliament will have 3 years time in which to prove to Lee Kuan Yew whether they are worthy of their positions.
This statement by Lee may appear somewhat overly paternalistic and bossy, since one would have thought that it should be the people, in a democracy, who decide they want their elected leaders or not and not for Lee Kuan Yew to decide on their performance as Members of Parliament.
Singapore is different. It says it is a democracy but it is not. In elections, people who have good jobs and positions and wish to further their careers even further and their financial wealth, will join Lee's party for personal gain. Lee's information apparatus, then decide among these political opportunists, as to who should be selected to contest the elections. These are not leaders in their communities in the liberal western sense of democracy. They may not have been leaders in anything. But one quality that these need for selection into Lee's election slate, is the willingness to give unconditional support to Lee. In a nutshell, it is no different from the other dictatorships of the world. In Cuba to really succeed, you would have to join Fidel's party and show unconditional support to him. You have to attend all indoctrination sessions and show yourself to be an active supporter of Lee. Of course you also have to show that you are hardworking and good at what you do.
Once you have passed Lee's selection test, you are fielded in the elections. Good things are repeatedly said about you in the state controlled press and any opposition candidates are defamed in the same pages as criminals and unworthy. Also because of the presence of serial numbers in the ballot papers, rumors are distributed among the people that the government has the means to trace the identity of opposition voters. This fear causes people not to vote for any opposition candidate.
But regardless of whether the people vote for the opposition or not, the Peoples Action Party, Lee's party, will always win the elections. This is because the elections are rigged and the ballot papers stuffed to ensure PAP victory. But 2 seats will be won by the opposition. This is Hougang and Potong Pasir which has remained in opposition hands for very long. Not because the people of Hougang and Potong Pasir are any different from anyone else, but because Lee will rig the elections in these 2 wards to enable the opposition to win. For Lee, it would give a bad impression if Lee was to take all seats. Then people would say that it is a one party state. Now they cannot say it, although in reality it is true, that Singapore is a one party state. Lee can say that it is not, since 2 seats are held by the opposition.
But in reality, it is a one party state. These 2 opposition Members of Parliament cannot or do not want to do anything much, like challenging Lee in matters of importance such as freedom. They have been cowed into submission through fear of what had happened to Mr. JB Jeyaretnam when he really challenged Lee. You are aware that JB Jeyaretnam, was charged with crimes, sent to jail, made to pay hefty fines, bankrupted and disbarred. So now, these 2 oppostion Members of Parliament are mere seat warmers who collect their salaries for their position each month.
In these circumstances, we should not be surprised to see why Lee can speak the way he does, as if he controls the political destiny of the newly elected PAP members of Parliament. Yes he does control them. They are not really politicians in the real sense. They are selected for one purpose only, that is to go into Parliament and act as a rubber stamp for what he decides.
This, sadly, is the democracy in Singapore. In this democracy, Lee breaks the law to remain in power. I ask the Singaporeans to reject this false democracy. I ask the Singaporeans to break the unjust laws there, deliberately, to demand your democratic rights now.
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, January 20, 2007
Singapore. The enigmatic riddle of Alice in Wonderland
Ladies and Gentlemen,
For any observer from the outside, Singapore must seem a mysterious enigma. A strange country with customs and laws that defy logic, yet accepted as normal by the 4 million people of that island one party state republic. I am sure most of you about to read this would also have read Lewis Caroll's Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, and if by some chance you haven't, may I suggest reading it. You will probably come to the conclusion that Lewis Caroll, must have a prescience or dream about the future country of Singapore which he wanted to depict in his book, written about a 100 years ago. It would have baffled me as to why the people of that island accept this strange life that they lead, but having been born there myself, I now realize the power of coercion and brainwashing, and now see that such submission to very strange rules is possible if applied long enough on a people. With long usage and and long compulsion, the mind will accept and comply with almost anything. As is the living example of Singapore.
Many nowadays disagree with capital punishment. And even among those who will accept such a law, they would only agree to put to death egregious murderers who committed serial crime. Or at least murder. To ask people to accept a law that puts to death petty drug mules and drug runners would be unacceptable to most civilized people. But anyone who has been following the strange affairs of Singapore, would find just the opposite, which defies logic and common sense. Serious murderers who commit brutal murders are very often given jail sentences of as little as 10 years on the grounds that they were suffering from this or that delusion, argued by lawyers who are political supporters of Lee's People's Action Party, the ruling party in the one party state. Whereas drug traffickers are put to death as matter of law, even if the amount they trafficked was as little as 15 grams!
Lee Kuan Yew, his son and their ministers publicly state that Singapore is corruption free, unlike other third world countries. Any civil servant or member of the public is severely punished with long prison sentences, which are given great publicity in the state controlled press. Yet Lee Kuan Yew himself has publicly decided with the backing of his rubber stamp one party Parliament, where all Members of Parliament are there only to consent to everything that Lee decides as law, that he will lawfully pay himself and all his relatives and hand picked friends in high places in the government $1.5 million each year as salary, despite the fact that the people have had no say in this very handsome salary or the legitimacy of the amount thereof, and in spite of the fact that the money belongs to the people, being monies collected in taxes.
By the way, this is not all the money that Lee Kuan Yew and his friends lawfully take from public funds. The government commingles the money collected in taxes and applies it to various government linked public companies owned by Lee and his family and friends and invests and trades with this money. To date the government has refused to explain to anyone what is happening to it, or how much of it there remains or how much of it has been applied to Lee Kuan Yew and his selected few. Normally in any other country, the public would want to know what has happened to public funds, since it is theirs after all. Not is Singapore. Singapore appears to be suffering from a dearth of men of courage prepared to ask this question. The last man who had any courage, and still has I must add, had asked this very question, that is, where is the money, for which he was promptly sued, made to pay astronomical court damages and being unable to pay has since been bankrupted. As the people are now aware of what will happen to anyone who is so naive as to ask this question, since this brave man's question, some years ago, no one now dares to ask anymore. In fact most people in Singapore do not ask any questions at all about politics. They have left the political questions entirely to Lee Kuan Yew, his son and his selected friends who run Singapore.
Outwardly Singapore claims to be a democracy. They say that they have elections. They point out to the fact that they have 2 opposition Members in Parliament. Of course they don't really stress on the other facts such as there are 82 Members of Lee's party in Parliament. They claim that the Opposition Members can ask any questions they want. But they don't say that the last time, some years ago when JB Jeyaretnam was in the opposition and had asked real questions such as the state of the public coffers, he was promptly kicked out of Parliament, sent to jail and bankrupted. Since the unfortunate events that had happened to him for the temerity of asking real questions, the present 2 Opposition Members of Parliament in a house of 82 government members really have given up asking any important questions for fear that what happened to JB Jeyaretnam will befall them. Really it is a one party state run by Lee's dictates. Yet he wants the people to believe that it is democracy.
The Singapore press is state controlled. One would have expected journalists to run a newspaper. In Singapore, the head of the government controlled press is a officer of the dreaded Internal Security Department, the security branch of the government, which is used to arrest torture and silence any dissenter. A respected international journalist watchdog organization in Paris voted the Singapore press as one of the least free in the world, giving it a ranking of 147th among such dictatorships as North Korea. The Singapore government's response to this was that they were a "responsible" press, unlike the free press of the west. I leave it to you to decide what the Singapore government means by a "responsible press". For myself I think it is another way for saying "propaganda".
There is a system in Singapore of ranking lawyers and the "best" lawyers are given the accolade "Senior Counsel". In reality, you do not have to be a good lawyer to be given this title. JB Jeyaretnam was the best lawyer in Singapore. He was disbarred because he challenged Lee Kuan Yew. The "Senior Counsel" are those who show that they are prepared to tow the government line and will trumpet their approval to each and every decision that the government makes. This has brought the legal profession into disrepute, with many lawyers leaving the country, and generally the civilized world beginning to look upon Singapore laws with suspicion. However, the newspaper editor who also doubles as an intelligence officer in Singapore's internal security services, writes in her state controlled papers that Singapore has the best legal system in the world. I think that Fidel Castro also said that of Cuba.
Singapore labor laws are interesting. As their wages, due to rising cost of living, had clearly climbed above other neighbouring third world countries, it is no longer competitive, for low cost assembly line products. But Lee wants to remain competitive at any costs. The result is his decision to bring in foreign workers to do the low wage jobs, displacing local Singaporeans. This results in heavy unemployment among Singaporeans with the only ones being employed being the foreign workers. Very strange labor laws, surely. Are they not required to protect their own workers? Not in Singapore. The Singapore union leaders work against their own union members. They work for the benefit of foreign workers. Unable to find work and feed their families, the Singaporeans commit suicide by jumping from the high apartments where they live. In order not to give a bad impression to foreigners, and so as not to alarm the local population, the said Intelligence Officer doubling as a journalist in the state controlled press has decided not to report anymore suicides in the local press. In truth, one person a day take their lives by jumping off these apartments, making the Singapore suicide rate among the highest in the world.
Singapore, as you can see, is a mind boggling country of contradictions and strange laws. You have to be there to see it for yourself.
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
For any observer from the outside, Singapore must seem a mysterious enigma. A strange country with customs and laws that defy logic, yet accepted as normal by the 4 million people of that island one party state republic. I am sure most of you about to read this would also have read Lewis Caroll's Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, and if by some chance you haven't, may I suggest reading it. You will probably come to the conclusion that Lewis Caroll, must have a prescience or dream about the future country of Singapore which he wanted to depict in his book, written about a 100 years ago. It would have baffled me as to why the people of that island accept this strange life that they lead, but having been born there myself, I now realize the power of coercion and brainwashing, and now see that such submission to very strange rules is possible if applied long enough on a people. With long usage and and long compulsion, the mind will accept and comply with almost anything. As is the living example of Singapore.
Many nowadays disagree with capital punishment. And even among those who will accept such a law, they would only agree to put to death egregious murderers who committed serial crime. Or at least murder. To ask people to accept a law that puts to death petty drug mules and drug runners would be unacceptable to most civilized people. But anyone who has been following the strange affairs of Singapore, would find just the opposite, which defies logic and common sense. Serious murderers who commit brutal murders are very often given jail sentences of as little as 10 years on the grounds that they were suffering from this or that delusion, argued by lawyers who are political supporters of Lee's People's Action Party, the ruling party in the one party state. Whereas drug traffickers are put to death as matter of law, even if the amount they trafficked was as little as 15 grams!
Lee Kuan Yew, his son and their ministers publicly state that Singapore is corruption free, unlike other third world countries. Any civil servant or member of the public is severely punished with long prison sentences, which are given great publicity in the state controlled press. Yet Lee Kuan Yew himself has publicly decided with the backing of his rubber stamp one party Parliament, where all Members of Parliament are there only to consent to everything that Lee decides as law, that he will lawfully pay himself and all his relatives and hand picked friends in high places in the government $1.5 million each year as salary, despite the fact that the people have had no say in this very handsome salary or the legitimacy of the amount thereof, and in spite of the fact that the money belongs to the people, being monies collected in taxes.
By the way, this is not all the money that Lee Kuan Yew and his friends lawfully take from public funds. The government commingles the money collected in taxes and applies it to various government linked public companies owned by Lee and his family and friends and invests and trades with this money. To date the government has refused to explain to anyone what is happening to it, or how much of it there remains or how much of it has been applied to Lee Kuan Yew and his selected few. Normally in any other country, the public would want to know what has happened to public funds, since it is theirs after all. Not is Singapore. Singapore appears to be suffering from a dearth of men of courage prepared to ask this question. The last man who had any courage, and still has I must add, had asked this very question, that is, where is the money, for which he was promptly sued, made to pay astronomical court damages and being unable to pay has since been bankrupted. As the people are now aware of what will happen to anyone who is so naive as to ask this question, since this brave man's question, some years ago, no one now dares to ask anymore. In fact most people in Singapore do not ask any questions at all about politics. They have left the political questions entirely to Lee Kuan Yew, his son and his selected friends who run Singapore.
Outwardly Singapore claims to be a democracy. They say that they have elections. They point out to the fact that they have 2 opposition Members in Parliament. Of course they don't really stress on the other facts such as there are 82 Members of Lee's party in Parliament. They claim that the Opposition Members can ask any questions they want. But they don't say that the last time, some years ago when JB Jeyaretnam was in the opposition and had asked real questions such as the state of the public coffers, he was promptly kicked out of Parliament, sent to jail and bankrupted. Since the unfortunate events that had happened to him for the temerity of asking real questions, the present 2 Opposition Members of Parliament in a house of 82 government members really have given up asking any important questions for fear that what happened to JB Jeyaretnam will befall them. Really it is a one party state run by Lee's dictates. Yet he wants the people to believe that it is democracy.
The Singapore press is state controlled. One would have expected journalists to run a newspaper. In Singapore, the head of the government controlled press is a officer of the dreaded Internal Security Department, the security branch of the government, which is used to arrest torture and silence any dissenter. A respected international journalist watchdog organization in Paris voted the Singapore press as one of the least free in the world, giving it a ranking of 147th among such dictatorships as North Korea. The Singapore government's response to this was that they were a "responsible" press, unlike the free press of the west. I leave it to you to decide what the Singapore government means by a "responsible press". For myself I think it is another way for saying "propaganda".
There is a system in Singapore of ranking lawyers and the "best" lawyers are given the accolade "Senior Counsel". In reality, you do not have to be a good lawyer to be given this title. JB Jeyaretnam was the best lawyer in Singapore. He was disbarred because he challenged Lee Kuan Yew. The "Senior Counsel" are those who show that they are prepared to tow the government line and will trumpet their approval to each and every decision that the government makes. This has brought the legal profession into disrepute, with many lawyers leaving the country, and generally the civilized world beginning to look upon Singapore laws with suspicion. However, the newspaper editor who also doubles as an intelligence officer in Singapore's internal security services, writes in her state controlled papers that Singapore has the best legal system in the world. I think that Fidel Castro also said that of Cuba.
Singapore labor laws are interesting. As their wages, due to rising cost of living, had clearly climbed above other neighbouring third world countries, it is no longer competitive, for low cost assembly line products. But Lee wants to remain competitive at any costs. The result is his decision to bring in foreign workers to do the low wage jobs, displacing local Singaporeans. This results in heavy unemployment among Singaporeans with the only ones being employed being the foreign workers. Very strange labor laws, surely. Are they not required to protect their own workers? Not in Singapore. The Singapore union leaders work against their own union members. They work for the benefit of foreign workers. Unable to find work and feed their families, the Singaporeans commit suicide by jumping from the high apartments where they live. In order not to give a bad impression to foreigners, and so as not to alarm the local population, the said Intelligence Officer doubling as a journalist in the state controlled press has decided not to report anymore suicides in the local press. In truth, one person a day take their lives by jumping off these apartments, making the Singapore suicide rate among the highest in the world.
Singapore, as you can see, is a mind boggling country of contradictions and strange laws. You have to be there to see it for yourself.
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, January 19, 2007
Singapore. Lee old boy. Where is my money?
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The the main question that Singaporeans should ask Lee, which to date only Dr. Chee had asked, is the question, where is my money. To anyone, not a Singaporean, it would appear very surprising why such an important question, about their own money, has not yet been asked except by one man, and why the people are not fuming mad with indignation, for Lee not to provide the same information. To Singaporeans, who are a unique lot, resulting from many years of brainwashing, the thought of asking this question doesn't occur at all. But Singaporeans are a unique lot.
The question should be asked because Singaporeans pay the government about a third of their money in wages to a retirement fund called the CPF. Since the entire population of 4 million or so work and earn on average of $1500.00 per month, we are talking here of a large amount of money.
Second they pay income taxes. This is a huge amount of money as well, going to the Singapore government coffers.
And then there are various other direct and indirect taxes. Vehicle taxes, road taxes, goods and services taxes, alcohol and cigarette taxes and the list goes on.
All in all we are talking about huge, huge sums of money which the government receives each day, paid for by the residents of Singapore. Now wait for the surprise. The government does not account for the moneys.
Let me explain. The government has various companies known as government linked companies. Also there is the GIC, or the Government Investment Corporation. The government claims that they use all this money collected from the people to invest in various of these corporations and the GIC in order to increase the wealth of the country. Honorable actions indeed if in fact that were true. But for some reason, the government refuses to account for where the money is and how it is being invested.
Now is that not strange. The government claims that all their actions are proper and legal and they are making such investments, received profits and dividends and so on. All very good news. And if indeed so, then why the secrecy. Why not come out with the books and explain exactly where the money is and what is happening to it.
On top of all that, we are told that Lee Kuan Yew collects more than a million dollars each year for doing almost nothing, as he is nothing more than a supernumerary. And so does his son and all his close friends in the government, all collecting millions of dollars each. Wait a minute, one may say. All this money belongs to us. Who gives you the right to take a million dollars when old ladies and young children are starving in their HDB cubicles? Also we may ask what really is the actual amount that Lee and his family and friends earn. What about directors fees, since all of them also take directors fees from the various government linked companies that they sit on as directors.
We do not know whether money is being siphoned off by how much and by whom, money belonging to the people. We have read reports of course, which the people knew through the foreign media. Troubling news, such as Singapore having lost millions in the Thai telephone company debacle, millions lost in the Australian Optel company, and various other losses. The government regularly puts out reports in their government controlled media that everything is fine. If it is indeed fine, then why the reluctance to produce the books.
You will recall that Dr. Chee once asked that important question, where is my money. And you will recall the dire consequences that befell him just for that. The corrupt government-beholden judges were promptly mobilized, false charges were forthwith drawn up, the innocent Dr. Chee was promptly accused of serious defamation and duly bankrupted. And for what? Just for asking this very important question "Where is my money?".
As a result of the government's total unwillingness to answer any questions on this, and the fear of what will happen to someone having the temerity to ask this very legitimate question, everyone is terrified and dare not ask. Well, I think you should ask. Since any other self respecting individual anywhere else in the world will ask, since it is their money.
So, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, tell me now. Where is the money?
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 the main question that Singaporeans should ask Lee, which to date only Dr. Chee had asked, is the question, where is my money. To anyone, not a Singaporean, it would appear very surprising why such an important question, about their own money, has not yet been asked except by one man, and why the people are not fuming mad with indignation, for Lee not to provide the same information. To Singaporeans, who are a unique lot, resulting from many years of brainwashing, the thought of asking this question doesn't occur at all. But Singaporeans are a unique lot.
The question should be asked because Singaporeans pay the government about a third of their money in wages to a retirement fund called the CPF. Since the entire population of 4 million or so work and earn on average of $1500.00 per month, we are talking here of a large amount of money.
Second they pay income taxes. This is a huge amount of money as well, going to the Singapore government coffers.
And then there are various other direct and indirect taxes. Vehicle taxes, road taxes, goods and services taxes, alcohol and cigarette taxes and the list goes on.
All in all we are talking about huge, huge sums of money which the government receives each day, paid for by the residents of Singapore. Now wait for the surprise. The government does not account for the moneys.
Let me explain. The government has various companies known as government linked companies. Also there is the GIC, or the Government Investment Corporation. The government claims that they use all this money collected from the people to invest in various of these corporations and the GIC in order to increase the wealth of the country. Honorable actions indeed if in fact that were true. But for some reason, the government refuses to account for where the money is and how it is being invested.
Now is that not strange. The government claims that all their actions are proper and legal and they are making such investments, received profits and dividends and so on. All very good news. And if indeed so, then why the secrecy. Why not come out with the books and explain exactly where the money is and what is happening to it.
On top of all that, we are told that Lee Kuan Yew collects more than a million dollars each year for doing almost nothing, as he is nothing more than a supernumerary. And so does his son and all his close friends in the government, all collecting millions of dollars each. Wait a minute, one may say. All this money belongs to us. Who gives you the right to take a million dollars when old ladies and young children are starving in their HDB cubicles? Also we may ask what really is the actual amount that Lee and his family and friends earn. What about directors fees, since all of them also take directors fees from the various government linked companies that they sit on as directors.
We do not know whether money is being siphoned off by how much and by whom, money belonging to the people. We have read reports of course, which the people knew through the foreign media. Troubling news, such as Singapore having lost millions in the Thai telephone company debacle, millions lost in the Australian Optel company, and various other losses. The government regularly puts out reports in their government controlled media that everything is fine. If it is indeed fine, then why the reluctance to produce the books.
You will recall that Dr. Chee once asked that important question, where is my money. And you will recall the dire consequences that befell him just for that. The corrupt government-beholden judges were promptly mobilized, false charges were forthwith drawn up, the innocent Dr. Chee was promptly accused of serious defamation and duly bankrupted. And for what? Just for asking this very important question "Where is my money?".
As a result of the government's total unwillingness to answer any questions on this, and the fear of what will happen to someone having the temerity to ask this very legitimate question, everyone is terrified and dare not ask. Well, I think you should ask. Since any other self respecting individual anywhere else in the world will ask, since it is their money.
So, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, tell me now. Where is the money?
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 17, 2007
Singapore. Lee Kuan Yew and Son and million dollar ministers should be sued and charged like TT Durai.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Now when one begins to think about it, are not the similarities between the activities of TT Durai/ NKF and those of Lee Kuan Yew and their family, striking, except that those of Lee Kuan Yew and company, more brazen?
TT Durai is alleged to have paid himself $2 million, money belonging to the public charity NKF, whose money is the people's. Lee Kuan Yew, his son and the Ministers and the President each pay themselves millions of dollars each year, and not just that, without any requirement for accounting, which makes Durai's actions less serious, since at least he was required to account for them.
But in either case, clearly serious breach of trust and if intentional and deliberate, which is clearly evident in Lee's case, the criminal offense of embezzlement.
By now, most of those who follow Singapore affairs already know a few things. Like Lee Kuan Yew is now holding the titular position of Senior Minister without any real work to do, a position which he created himself for himself for a salary which he decided as $1.5 million a year. You also know that he can decide almost anything or do anything, since Singapore is in essence a one party state. Being a generous human being, generous that is, only to his close family members and handpicked lieutenants, he pays them each the same amount. And since he does not want anyone meddling in what he does, never mind the fact that all that money belongs to the public, he has not permitted any accounting or bookkeeping for the money he and his family and friends take.
Therefore should we not ask why Lee Kuan Yew and his family and friends are not investigated for possible breach of trust or criminal wrongdoing, since TT Durai is subjected to it? Especially since Lee and Company's actions appear both egregious and intentional, much more than TT Durai's?
Lee reminds us of other dictators who stole their people's wealth. Men such as Marcos and the Shah of Iran. It is about time the people of Singapore made Lee and family account for their actions.
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
Now when one begins to think about it, are not the similarities between the activities of TT Durai/ NKF and those of Lee Kuan Yew and their family, striking, except that those of Lee Kuan Yew and company, more brazen?
TT Durai is alleged to have paid himself $2 million, money belonging to the public charity NKF, whose money is the people's. Lee Kuan Yew, his son and the Ministers and the President each pay themselves millions of dollars each year, and not just that, without any requirement for accounting, which makes Durai's actions less serious, since at least he was required to account for them.
But in either case, clearly serious breach of trust and if intentional and deliberate, which is clearly evident in Lee's case, the criminal offense of embezzlement.
By now, most of those who follow Singapore affairs already know a few things. Like Lee Kuan Yew is now holding the titular position of Senior Minister without any real work to do, a position which he created himself for himself for a salary which he decided as $1.5 million a year. You also know that he can decide almost anything or do anything, since Singapore is in essence a one party state. Being a generous human being, generous that is, only to his close family members and handpicked lieutenants, he pays them each the same amount. And since he does not want anyone meddling in what he does, never mind the fact that all that money belongs to the public, he has not permitted any accounting or bookkeeping for the money he and his family and friends take.
Therefore should we not ask why Lee Kuan Yew and his family and friends are not investigated for possible breach of trust or criminal wrongdoing, since TT Durai is subjected to it? Especially since Lee and Company's actions appear both egregious and intentional, much more than TT Durai's?
Lee reminds us of other dictators who stole their people's wealth. Men such as Marcos and the Shah of Iran. It is about time the people of Singapore made Lee and family account for their actions.
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
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