Ladies and Gentlemen,
The word "digit" by the way is what Lee Kuan Yew, the Singapore strongman, once referred to Singaporeans; a word that speaks volumes of how little he thinks of them.
Singapore's official newspapers, the state controlled Straits Times of Jan 31, 2010 has the story "Opposition picking new leaders" about how Singapore's almost dead opposition political parties have been picking their "leaders". I say, almost dead, because they are not opposition political parties in the normal sense. For instance a Singapore opposition political party may have no more than 2 people, without any premises and working off their homes, and only do anything once in 5 years just before the elections.
They are not like the England's Labor Party or the American Republican Party. They are all afraid of Lee Kuan Yew for what what he may do, so living in fear, it is best to do nothing at all, except for a few days before the elections.
So much for that.
But what I want to say is this. This report in the state's newspaper is nothing but a gimmick. It makes no difference to Lee Kuan Yew and his government whether the opposition parties elected anyone or none at all. In fact it makes no difference to him if they all just dropped dead, because whatever they do, Lee Kuan Yew and his boys are going to win the next general election. And not just that, he is going to win all seats except for the the 2 pseudo opposition characters Low Thia Khiang and Chiam See Tong, who are almost PAP members except for name. This will be the prediction simply because, as you know, he has no intention of handing power over to anyone.
He will win the next elections one way or another, and if necessary he will rig it if he has not already done so.
But he not only wants to win, he also wants to paint a facade of democracy, because being another Cuba is not good for business. So his brilliant idea of NMPs, or Nominated Members of Parliament. He will nominate many goons to that office, who will pretend to ask pertinent questions on policy and then advertise it in his state controlled newspapers as democratic debate; when everyone will know that these opportunists are just performing in the Punch and Judy Singapore Parliament show.
And this is Singapore's political opera in the totalitarian police state.
Gopalan Nair
39737 Paseo Padre Parkway, Suite A1
Fremont, CA 94538, USA
Tel: 510 657 6107
Fax: 510 657 6914
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Blog: http://singaporedissident.blogspot.com/
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1 comment:
haha exactly
what kind of "democratic" country has the following features:
1. an entire citizenry living in fear, shuddering at the thought of joining opposition parties.
2. a citizenry that doesn't even dare to talk to opposition parties members for fear of getting into trouble with the government.
2. walkover election wins by the government for the past 20 years simply because no one dares to run against the government in elections.
3. fines and jail for peaceful public speeches, protests, gatherings.
in all free countries these would be unvoidable rights. even the UN has also declared these as fundamental human rights. but this clearly is not the case in singapore.
4. using defamation lawsuits to bankrupt opposition politicians
no where else in the world would you see this. one "wrong" sentence and your entire fortune which you have toiled for your entire life is gone.
5. jailing opposition politicians like said zahari and many others for decades without any trial or criminal charge
6. everyone in the world says singapore is undemocratic and autocratic. the only people who says it is democratic is the singapore government. when they find that it is getting harder to call the country democratic because it is too obvious it isn't, the oxbridge educated ministers start sprouting things like "western" democracy don't work (never mind that it has worked in all non western countries in south america and europe, the carribean, and asia - japan, korea, taiwan) or that singaporeans have their own "unique democracy" (where everyone lives in fear and have no rights and don't even dare to voice their political views. where opposition parties are harressed and prosecuted like criminals. and 50% of youths surveyed can't wait to immigrate out of singapore because they want to live as free men)
7. where citizens who are afraid to vote against the government because their id number is linked to their vote. therefore, a large number of citizens choose to vote for the government out of fear.
Singapore would have been much better off had it remained as a british colony as compared to under the singapore government.( the british has started to respect human rights after the world war 2when its empire began to deciminate)
look at hong kong under the british, they enjoyed more rights and freedom, much more than singaporeans ever will in this lifetime under their "elected out of fear government (overlords)". the hong kong economy prospered as well. their laws are fair. the british ruled with a much lighter hand than the heavy handed singapore government who canes and hang its own citizens for minor crimes.
the singapore government treat its citizens much worse than a foreign government would.
if singapore was still a british colony today(like the falklands or some virgin islands), singapore would most probably be a overseas british territory today and singaproeans would be given the right of abode in the uk and be allowed to work freely in the EU.
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