Sunday, October 14, 2007

Singapore. A call to conscience

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today's state controlled Singapore newspaper The Straits Times reports the Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew as saying that the strengths of Singapore are its "good governance and rule of law"! We are not sure whether it is senility or just plain dishonesty that makes him say this, but you and I know that the statement does not refer to Singapore and neither will it refer to Burma! He must be referring to some other country.

Singapore's governance has been thoroughly discredited by international organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the European Union as well as the Government of Canada. So has it's rule of law as can be seen by the use of legal process by government ministers to silence dissent. I am talking of defamation actions for which Lee Kuan Yew has become world famous or infamous. The world is now aware that Dr. Chee Soon Juan who has won several international awards for peace and recognized as a fighter for human rights and freedom, now is kept under city arrest, not much different from the brave Aung San Su Shi of Burma who remains under house arrest. City arrest in the case of Dr. Chee, who is denied the right to travel outside the bounds of Singapore island. And all for what? Just for criticizing the policies and the rule of Lee Kuan Yew and his son.

This injustice makes one's blood boil. And even more when this tyrant and bully, Lee Kuan Yew has the gall to say things like "good governance" and "rule of law" of the island that he rules with an iron grip. What a lair.

But one thing for which we can be thankful is modern communication technology which makes news travel throughout the world before you can bat an eyelid; and this technology is working against Lee Kuan Yew. Mr. Lee can keep saying things such as "good governance" and "rule of law" until he becomes blue in the face, but it will do him no good. The world knows that he is a corrupt dictator who pays himself and each member of his family $3 million of Singapore taxpayers money; or theft properly speaking, and Singapore is a dictatorship and nothing nothing less. By uttering such nonsense, it only makes him look stupid in the eyes of the world.

So I say this to all of you. You have a conscience. You have a duty to follow it, if you are an honest person.

Lee is already finding it very difficult to continue. He can make speeches flowing with confidence as much a he wants but he is fighting a losing battle. The tide is against him.

The English educated Singaporeans are leaving the country in droves; children are not being born in sufficient numbers; the population is shrinking except for the fact that he brings in 3rd rate immigrants from neighbouring Asian countries in an desperate attempt to maintain the population; he gives out scholarships generously to Chinese from the mainland, but they use it to learn English and leave for USA at the first opportunity; mainland Indians do the same, study computer science at Singapore's expense and leave for Silicon Valley USA on the first plane out; every so called immigrant to Singapore finds out what is underneath the varnish; that it is rotten to the core, so they have second thoughts and leave Singapore at first light.

It is, to borrow an expression from the Titanic, trying to arrange the deckchairs while the bow is already listing 60% and sinking! The ship is inexorably taking water.

I ask this of you. I ask every civil servant to refuse to do the dirty work of Lee Kuan Yew when his demands are to unjustly hurt the opposition. I ask police officers to refuse to obey orders to arrest Dr. Chee when he is engaged in nothing more that peaceful political activity, knowing that that Lee Kuan Yew's laws to arrest citizens in such cases is a violation of the Constitution which is the supreme law. Singapore laws that violate the constitution are devoid of legal basis and should be disobeyed. I ask Judges and magistrates when called upon to manipulate and abuse the law to silence and punish Singaporean peaceful dissidents to disobey and refuse such orders of Lee Kuan Yew.

I ask each one of you to stand up to your conscience.

I ask every citizen to search your conscience and ask whether what you do is just. Keep in mind that Lee cannot punish everybody. If you stand up to him, he will have to change his ways, and justice and truth will triumph.

Remember, you are not as weak as you think you are. And you will be doing good; not just for yourselves but for your descendants and future generations to follow. Singapore is your country; no one can deny you that. So take it upon yourself to do your country proud.

Just as Dr. Chee Soon Juan, Gandhi Ambalam, Chee Siok Chin, Charles Tan and Jeffrey George and all the others who have shown true grit in the face of repression in the on-going Burma protests.

These protesters as well as all Singaporeans are now able to see how weak this government really is. If they really are as powerful as they want us to believe they are, then they should shoot like the Burmese Junta did. But Lee Kuan Yew knows that Singapore is not a backwater like Burma. If he shoots, it will be the end not only of the protesters, but also himself and his family and last but not least, Singapore itself.

So he doesn't shoot. All he can do is to order his politically obedient judges to mete out one week jail sentences each time; for Dr. Chee to come out a week later and do the same thing again!

If there is a clown among the people here, it has to be Lee Kuan Yew. Surely.

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

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You asked a lot.
You asked your former countrymen to risk their life and limb.
You assure them that there is nothing to be afraid of.

Yet, why did you leave?
Was it not because you were unfairly harassed by PAP after you stood up for election against that old fart?
Why are you now deceiving your former countrymen that there is no consequence, and pushing them to sacrifice for your cause, while you sip coffee 10,000 miles away?

So I say, for your own image sake, please criticise PAP's policies as much as you like. But please stop short of exhorting us to do this or that. You have lost the moral ground to ask that, when you ran away. at the first sign of trouble that PAP gave you.

Just imagine Tang Laing Hong or Francis Seow doing what you are doing now. Can you see the comical side of it? Only those who stayed back to fight have the moral authority to say: "there is nothing to be afraid. I ask you to...". Those who have left, or those who dare not themselves fight (myself, for example), WE do not have such moral authority. To do otherwise is to make ourselves laughable

Anonymous said...

When they incarerated Chia Thye Poh,
And locked Dr Lim Hock Siew into prison,
People were naive to swallow the propaganda trash,
And thus the sad truths lied buried for 32 and 20 years,
Fanned by misinformation spies and brain-washing tales,
A long nightmare for many a few,
So we remained silent and fretted in fear,
Doing nothing that would arouse a suspicion or two,
My own bowl of rice being all that matters to me.

When they started Operation Spectrum,
And hounded those with awakened consciences,
Carved out "confessions" made in cruel duress,
I stayed silent,
I was not a marxist nor a collaborator.
My own bowl of rice being all that matters to me.

When they pursued Joshua and the Chees,
Bankrupted them for their political beliefs,
Jailed them to warn the masses and kill their fight,
My heart pained,
But I did not voice out,
See no evil and hear no evil is the mantra that oppressed folks lived by,
I aint Joshua nor a Chee, not an activist,
Fighting the battle to bring democracy and citizen rights to the fore.
My own bowl of rice being all that matters to me.

Life goes about in my sad ole pigeonhole,
A hole I paid my lifelong savings for, thinking it's mine ownership,
Only to realise the sum is only for a lease,
Shuffling out to work and plodding back to bed,
Mind wrecked with worry about meals and paying bills.
Counting the pittances barely to survive while the Pappies made their dirty pile,
When they can flash their phoney smiles, eat their abalone porridge
And hookwink the suffering serfs to work till they drop.
Dangling the CPF annuity dirty root of a carrot if you can live to 85 that long,
Such are the wicked scams in the demoncrazy of a PAP-run fiefdom.

If they come for me,
When they come for me,
Throwing thy weaken body out of mine hole,
Stamping and cracking my chipped old bowl,
Stealing my meagre retirement funds,
Who would speak up for my sad sorrowful soul?

Anonymous said...

from one anonymous to another...you are an idiot. does it matter where in the world a person offers help from to give advice? another point of your idiot mentality, the author of this blog could have easily lived his life in the states and not give a hoot anything in his former homeland, but he is still trying to awaken people. and, your idiot remarks speak for themselves. you are saying do not mislead singaporeans into thinking there is no consequesnce for opposition actions towards the pap...well moron, we all know there are, and this is partially why this blog exists to tell tell the world of the consequences you butthead. hello, you got to be singaporean because your attitude is so stuck in a box.

if you are worried about image, the world already knows singaporeans are sheep who will follow at will, so it is the world (with a handful of locals) who must also try to lead the flock...meaning yes, it just may be people on the outside trying to slap you in the face to wake you from your fantatsy land. or, look at it this way, what is going on in burma? if singaporeans had spines, how far do you think you are from that situation...not very far my friend. knowing that, it was outsiders that made the world know more about burma and it is the world's outcry that will hopefully change things...so yes people like the author have a place even if it is out of singapore.

but my belief is this. i am an expat living in singapore and i have thought about trying to help...but you know what, it is people like you and the 99.9% the sheep with a ricebowl attitude that has confirmed my beliefs in that yes, singaporeans really are peasants and will vote with a ricebowl instead of a passion, or heart, or with equality and justice in mind as the vote. i give the author of this blog credit for hanging in there when the sheep in singapore, called citizens, are more concerned with what is in the wallet as opposed to what is in their rights. so to the first anonymous writer, you are an idiot, and to the author, keep doing what you can because an expat like me who cares and has fought in his own homeland for rights has been there. the difference is we were people with a passion, not people with a ricebowl and i see this and it is not in my desire to help people who have no spine. granted there are people in singapore with a spine...they are called pap. they have the balls to do what they want at will and only a few singaporeans will do anything. so yes, singapore does need outside help to show how rights should be. but then again people like the threadstarter cannot see that and he/she will be responsible for more kids either leaving or being seen as another singaporean who might work well in a group, but take them individually and you have another sheep...."what to do" be real, why do you think your powers that be wants expats...because it knows what it has...sheep.

you do need outside help. nothing against the blogger or dr. chee and others who stand up...it is moreso for the threadstarter, the first anonymous and the rest of the sheep to wake up...WAKE UP!