Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew and his son, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Singapore strongman Lee Kuan Yew and his son, who brooke no critics, are beginning to look like the Singapore version of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Lee Kuan Yew, who is now 88, who all along thinks he is Superman and his son who tags along after his father two steps behind, are both beginning to tilt at windmills, to the amusement of the world.

Take his latest imbroglio with Alan Shadrake the British author. All he did was to write a book, and he wasn't asking for any trouble, but no, Lee Kuan Yew simply refuses to mind his own business, and this time, he has picked on the wrong guy at the wrong time.

If Lee Kuan Yew had only used his head, he would have left Shadrake alone, because Shadrake, a well known British author is liable to bite, and bite he did, and it is going to be deadly.

Singapore Don Quixote and his sidekick son, must have thought, very wrongly this time, that Shadrake was just another of his Singapore locals who he can bully anytime anywhere and in any manner he pleases; after all he owns the law courts, the judges, the newspapers, every single lawyer and anything that moves in his island. Wrong this time. Shadrake is English, he is not his slave as his helpless Singaporeans are and he is not going to take it sitting down.

We were told from reliable information earlier that Lee Kuan Yew's case against him in the Singapore High Court was expecting a verdict a few days ago but for some reason which we are not told, the verdict is to be postponed to the first week of November 2010.

I can tell you why they have moved the date. They have run out of ideas on how to deal with "the meddlesome priest", to borrow a phrase from Bekett. Lee Kuan Yew's handpicked Judge in this case Loh Sze Onn, Quentin, a stooge, just like all the others, has been ordered to hold the horses, while the Lee family think what to do next.

Shadrake so far has been behaving in a completely Unsingaporean manner.

He has been clearly told that his book is contemptuous of Lee's Singapore courts and their judges and therefore like an obedient Singaporean he should have gone on his knees, begged for mercy and undertaken never to criticize Lee Kuan Yew or his judges again; but instead of that he not only refuses to roll over and lie dead, he has in fact upped the ante, increased his criticism of Lee's courts by giving even more examples of corruption of his judges.

And mind you, this is despite the fact that Lee Kuan Yew has in addition to Shadrake's present problems, dangled 2 criminal defamation charges over his head like the Sword of Damocles in the belief that Shadrake would wise up and stop calling them hooligans anymore.

If history is anything to go by, with Shadrake's brazen taunting and mocking the very foundations of the state of Singapore upon which their reputation depends, sticking a finger publicly up the noses of the Lee Kuan Yew family and his recently appointed stooge of a judge, they should if they are worth their salt send Shadrake to prison for a long time and after his release charge him yet again for criminal defamation and send him back to jail for an even longer time.

But I think not this time. This time is going to be different. Singapore and it's tin pot tyrant Lee Kuan Yew are going to suffer the humiliation of a lifetime.

It's going to be Carpe Diem the other way around. Instead of Lee Kuan Yew seizing Shadrake by the neck, Shadrake is the one going to do it to Lee.

I expect Lee Kuan Yew will have to eat humble pie and let Shadrake go despite all the insults Lee and his courts have received at his hands.

And you know why, because every single criticism that Shadrake had said in his book is true, and we know it and the world knows it.

Lee Kuan Yew, his son and his obedient judge Loh Sze Onn would have to crawl very low with their tails between their legs and realise this time they got it wrong, very wrong.

Shadrake recently sent an open letter to the Australian press about his unjust confinement in Singapore. I am reproducing it with the permission of Amnesty International.

JUSTICE SINGAPORE STYLE

I AM BEING PROSECUTED AND FACING JAIL FOR EXPOSING JUDICIAL SCANDALS IN SINGAPORE – SCANDALS THIS PAP DICTATORSHIP DOESN’T WANT DECENT SINGAPOREAN CITIZENS TO KNOW ABOUT.

ONE PARTICULARLY HEINOUS SCANDAL CONCERNS GUIGA LYES LAROUSSI, A TUNISIAN, WHO WAS THE MAIN DRUG SUPPLIER TO SINGAPORE’S SO-CALLED HIGH SOCIETY DRUG CIRCLE IN 2004.

THIS DESTROYER OF LIVES WAS ALLOWED TO ESCAPE SINGAPORE AFTER FACING A MANDATORY DEATH PENALTY CHARGE. THE CHARGE WAS THEN ‘NEGOTIATED’ DOWN SO HE WOULD RECEIVE A JAIL SENTENCE OF BETWEEN 20 TO 30 YEARS IN PRISON INSTEAD.

THEN ANOTHER MIRACLE HAPPENED: HE WAS ALLOWED BAIL IN THE SUM OF $280,000, GIVEN HIS PASSPORT BACK AND ALLOWED TO LEAVE SINGAPORE. THIS WAS DONE WITH THE HELP OF TOP GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS BECAUSE THEY FEARED HE WOULD EXPOSE BIGGER NAMES IF HE WERE TO BE SENT TO THE GALLOWS.

I EXPOSED THIS AND OTHER JUDICIAL SCANDALS IN MY BOOK BECAUSE I HATE INJUSTICE. WHILE THIS EVIL DRUG BARON – FRIEND OF THE RICH AND PRIVILEGED IN SINGAPORE – IS ENJOYING HIS LIFE OF LUXURY IN HIS MANSION ON HIS FAMILY ESTATE IN LE BARDO, TUNISIA, SINGAPORE IS PLANNING TO HANG MORE PITIFUL DRUG MULES - PERHAPS SOME WHO HELPED GUIGA GET RICH.

HOW IS IT THAT THIS EVIL DRUG TRADER MANAGED TO ESCAPE JUSTICE? I CANNOT GET MY PASSPORT BACK AND BE ALLOWED TO LEAVE SINGAPORE. THEY ARE DETERMINED TO PUNISH ME FIRST!

I AM FACING A SIX MONTHS PRISON SENTENCE FOR EXPOSING THIS AND MANY OTHER JUDICIAL SCANDALS IN SINGAPORE. THERE ARE TWO OTHER CHARGES HANGING OVER ME ARISING FROM MY BOOK ONE OF WHICH CARRIES A TWO YEAR PRISON SENTENCE. MY MEDICAL PROBLEMS HAVE BEEN HORRENDOUS TO MY WELL-BEING AND FINANCES. I ALMOST BLED TO DEATH IN THE STREET SIX WEEKS AGO FROM INTERNAL BLEEDING. HAD I NOT BEEN RUSHED TO HOSPITAL I WOULD HAVE COLLAPSED AND DIED WITHOUT ANYONE KNOWING THE CAUSE UNTIL IT WAS TOO LATE.

WHERE IS THE JUSTICE IN WHAT THEY ARE NOW DOING TO ME? DID ANYONE NOTICE THAT GUIGA LYES BEN LAROUSSI HAD ESCAPED JUSTICE? DID THE STRAITS TIMES PUBLISH THIS SCANDAL? THEY DID NOT! WHY NOT? BECAUSE THE POWERS THAT BE IN SINGAPORE, WHO CONTROL THE MEDIA, DIDN’T WANT TO ANYONE TO KNOW.

BUT WHAT HAPPENED WHEN A ROMANIAN DIPLOMAT RAN AWAY IN MARCH FOLLOWING A FATAL TRAFFIC ACCIDENT? SCREAMING HEADLINES IN THE NEW PAPER AND STRAITS TIMES FOR HIM TO BE BROUGHT BACK AND TRIED!

GUIGA LAROUSSI, DESTROYER OF LIVES – INCLUDING HIS OWN SINGAPOREAN GIRLFRIEND MARIANA ABDULLAH - - HAS BEEN ON INTERPOL’S WANTED LIST FOR FIVE YEARS. THE HEAD OF INTERPOL IS YOUR VERY OWN FORMER POLICE CHIEF KHOO BOON HUI! NO ATTEMPT HAS BEEN MADE TO BRING HIM BACK. HIS LAWYER, SUBHAS ANANDAN, HAS SAID THAT HIS POWERFUL FAMILY WILL TELL THE TUNISIAN POLICE TO ‘GO FLY A KITE’ IF THEY ATTEMPT TO ARREST AND HAVE HIM EXTRADITED. THIS IS YET ANOTHER SCANDAL IN THIS SAGA. I WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER TREATED HAD I BEEN A DRUG SYNDICATE BOSS.
AMAZINGLY, Law Minister and Second Home Affairs Minister, K. Shanmugam recently told TODAY that the death penalty for drug offences here is a “trade-off” the government must make to protect “thousands of lives” if drugs became freely available. He further explained that if Yong Vui Kong (now on death row with 36 others) escapes the death penalty, drug lords will see it as a sign that young traffickers will be spared and will then use more of them as drug mules. “You save one life here, but 10 other lives will be gone. What will your choice be?” he added.
MY CHOICE MR. SHANMUGAM? IF ANYONE HAS TO BE HANGED, START WITH DRUG BARONS LIKE GUIGA LYES BEN LAROUSSI!
I KNOW I WILL NOT GET FAIR JUSTICE. I WILL GET SINGAPORE JUSTICE!

Alan Shadrake
A Prisoner of Singapore
October 28 2010

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/

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

Singapore's problem, what to do with Alan Shadrake

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The case of Alan Shadrake the author of Once a Jolly Hangman, which described Singapore's legal system and their judiciary in rather unflattering terms, is scheduled to have a verdict on his contempt of court charges tomorrow, Tuesday the 26th of October 2010 in the High Court before the recently handpicked toady of Singapore strongman Lee Kuan Yew, Judge Loh Sze Onn, Quentin.

In the one party state of Singapore run by the dictator Lee Kuan Yew, we all know, there is no rule of law but rather the law of Lee Kuan Yew.

In a case like this, we all know the one who is the judge is Lee himself, and Loh Sze Onn, Quentin's job is merely to relay that order in the courtroom settings, that's all.

It is just a make believe court court, rather like that in Alice in Wonderland in the case of the rabbit who stole the tarts.

In Singapore cases like this, where someone criticizes the government or the legal system, it is truly a political decision.

By now, unfortunately for the one party state, the cat has got out which is why the International Bar Association pulled no punches in their detailed 72 page report on Singapore plainly stating without mercy that Singapore judges are not independent, period.

With the already tattered reputation of Singapore internationally as a place that uses the law to silence criticism, there are several scenarios that are open to Lee Kuan Yew in his island.

First, he can let Shadrake go with a small fine and no jail time, claiming they are showing sympathy for a man who is 75, a weak heart and ailing health, but this comes at a price.

Singaporeans who have been routinely accustomed to harsh penalties and punishments even for seemingly minor criticism, would think Singapore has gone soft, it has seen the folly of it's ways and become, thankfully a more tolerant society.

Foreign newspapers and organizations who were punished harshly for a tenth of what Shadrake had said in his book would feel unfairly treated if Shadrake is to be let off lightly.

And then there is the floodgates argument, with every Tom Dick and Harry criticizing Lee Kuan Yew and his judiciary thinking it is now OK.

On the other hand they can, as is expected, deliver a harsh punishing verdict, with several months in jail and a stiff fine.

If they did this, they would be maintaining their uniformly standards by punishing all critics harshly as they have always done, and argued they are fair and do not show favors to anyone.

But if they took this course, Singapore would again be condemned worldwide as an intolerant one party Stalinist city state which only confirms what everyone thought of it, resulting perhaps in even fewer tourists, fewer investment, fewer commercial transactions and the eventual slide into another pariah North Korea.

Which ever way Singapore decides to go on this, Alan Shadrake is a hero for those fighting for democracy in Singapore, because Singapore will be hurt and hurt very badly in either case.

It is one more nail in Singapore's reputation as an "open democracy" as Lee Kuan Yew's handpicked Minister for Law, K Shanmugam, who is clearly making a fool of himself, claimed yesterday on one of his visits to another government owned housing estate.

We see the same scenario in the fall of every dictatorship around the world. In the end they themselves turn out to be their own enemies. The rule to be learnt is, repression results in an inability to stop it even if they wanted. And being unable to stop it, that same repression, which they themselves created, turns out to be their own greatest enemy, causing their inevitable demise.

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/

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew says, if you don't fear me, I am nothing

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Lee Kuan Yew once said "If you don't fear me, I am nothing", which is the coward's rule by which he has governed Singapore since 1959.

Until very recently, it was impossible to openly criticize Lee Kuan Yew, his family or any of his party members in Singapore without being punished, targeted and marked for harassment for life.

The newspapers under his orders only said nice things of him, and so did everybody else, no matter what you thought of him privately. In Singapore he struts around, and still does, like a God. His family including his son and his extended family live above the law, paying themselves anything they want, which today happens to be five times the salary of the American President and much more unofficially. It is called corruption. In other words, Lee and his family were really feared, which is why they have lasted up till now.

But it all appears changing. The political horizon itself is changing, no longer what it was in the past. In my most recent blog "Singapore Dictatorship Under Siege", I wrote things are beginning to look quite different.

Consider Dr. Chee Soon Juan and his Singapore Democratic Party. He has been openly criticizing Lee Kuan Yew now for years in his blog, challenging him both inside and outside the courtroom and on the whole calling him nothing better than a downright cowardly dictator. Had he said this 10 years ago, things would have turned out very different. Dr. Chee would be in jail and for a long time. But today, he speaks openly and fearlessly, and Lee Kuan Yew, the man who claims to be feared by every living thing in the island appears almost helpless to do anything.

No action is taken over his writings in his blog, even if he calls Lee Kuan Yew an gutter rat, which in fact he is. True, he gets punished for his peaceful protests, but not in the way we thought he would; all he gets is a week at a time, when in the past he could have expected 10 years and the key thrown away.

It is impossible to tell why Lee Kuan Yew, the man who must be feared, is not making sure of that in Dr. Chee's case. From the fearsome tiger that we thought he was, and indeed he was in the past, he is becoming not so fearsome after all. The question is why. Has he finally seen the stupidity of his ways and realised that repression of his people is simply ineffective and does not produce results, or has begun to realize that the more he suppresses the rights of his people, the more they would retaliate and the sooner his collapse.

When I was in Singapore last in 2008, I was arrested for writing a blog post criticizing his Judge Belinda Ang Saw Ean for her shameless bias and the total abdication of her duty as a judge in Lee Kuan Yew's defamation case against Dr. Chee Soon Juan, for which I was arrested and sent to jail for 3 months.

The reason why I was punished was I presume, was to stop stop me for writing anymore so that Singaporeans will not read anything I write. Granted, while there they silenced me in the end, and I stopped writing. But today I am still writing from the safety of the United States and Singaporeans are still reading it there. So what they wanted to stop, has not stopped and worse, the readership in Singapore has increased many fold.

And up till now at least, Lee Kuan Yew and his bullies from Singapore are unable to silence me at all. Can anyone tell me what was the point of sending me to jail then when on reflection it has done no good to them at all.

And each time they cane a foreigner in Singapore for trivial violations, each time they convict and bankrupt local dissidents for merely exercising their civil rights, each time they grant massive court awards to Lee Kuan Yew against foreign newspapers, each time they abuse the law to disbar critics such as me who want to see peaceful change in Singapore, they hurt themselves, not any of us, because these punishments mean nothing at all.

In China 2 years ago they imprisoned Liu Xiaopo for 11 years for merely writing an article critical of the Chinese government. The news in China is so controlled that most people there never heard of him let alone that he was awarded the Nobel Prize. In Singapore on the other hand where news is freely available for anyone who cares for it, all these repressions against Singaporeans is simply counter productive, and therein lies the damage it causes to the dictatorship. Lee Kuan Yew cannot, would not and dare not send Dr. Chee to jail for 11 years or even a fraction of it because he simply cannot in the Singaporean of today.

That is why if Lee Kuan Yew is a tiger, he is a castrated toothless one, because I and everyone else who cares to do so is just going to call him a rat whenever and wherever we want and today there is simply nothing that he or his son can do about it. So it is true that he is nothing if no one fears him, because many and a growing number simply don't.

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/

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

Singapore, a dictatorship under seige

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore is facing attacks under several fronts, and beginning to feel the heat.

Firstly you have the Internet openly criticizing it, for its lack of human rights, its lack of a Free press, its lacking rule of law, its immigration polices that discriminates it's own people and the list goes on, an overwhelming negative atmosphere where they find their state controlled media impossible to rebut.

Then you have Alan Shadrake coming out of the blue calling Lee and his one party state nothing more than a fiefdom in his book Once a Jolly Hangman which is flying off the shelves like a machine gun. In just a few months already over 6000 copies has been sold and what is worse, Shadrake has threatened to sell it worldwide. Imagine what it would do to Singapore's image, already seriously compromised with 50 years of repression.

Then you have Dr. Chee Soon Juan writing his blog Singapore Democrat criticizing Lee Kuan Yew left right and center over which Dr. Chee remains unmolested. On top of that they keep sending him to jail repeatedly at the rate of once a month for his peaceful protests, but he simply refuses to quit, and instead coming for more. Gandhi Ambalam another democracy activist and the party's Chairman has recently written a blog challenging the Lee Kuan Yew dictatorship to keep sending him to prison for which he remains ready and willing.

And then you have the Singapore lawyer M Ravi, who not only had the temerity to cross examine both Lee Kuan Yew and his son in court in the Lee Kuan Yew vs Dr. Chee Soon Juan and others, defamation case in 2008, he has represented Alan Shadrake himself and openly told the judge among other insults that the judge has been a mere "rubber stamp" for the government's contempt cases. Up till now, M Ravi remains a free man.

Only a few months ago we had Oliver Fricker who decided to paint graffiti on a Singapore train, I am sure obviously knowing the harsh penalties for the same and yet doing it. The Singapore court ordered him to be caned (tortured) which attracted the outcry of the free world for such barbarism for a seemingly minor offence.

Yong, a teenager when he committed the murder is now in Singapore death row waiting to be executed while the world once again looks in shock at Singapore for it's insatiable desire for killing and brutality of teenagers.

Only yesterday, another American Kamari Kenyada Charlton has been arrested for overstaying his visit in Singapore and even for this, Singapore is planning to use violence on him by caning, which they are threatening to do, which drew the remark of the US Department of State telling the Singaporean dictator that this is not "an acceptable form of punishment"; simply egg on Singapore's face.

And as for me, they are working hard on papers to have me disbarred from the Singapore Bar because I had criticized one of Lee Kuan Yew's judges Belinda Ang Saw Ean in this blog in 2008.

It look like poor Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore is embattled and under siege from several fronts. It would be interesting to see how he handles this one, or is it finally on the way down. The island continues to be internationally the object of contempt and ridicule.

How long can this go on.

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/

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

Singapore lawyer's dilemna, damned if I do and damned if I don't

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Singapore's state controlled newspaper the Straits times online edition of Oct 20, 2010 has the story "Lawyer offers to quit, he cites conflict of interest but judge persuades him to stay".

The story is about the 3 day contempt trial in the Singapore High Court against the British author Alan Shadrake, which ended yesterday, over his book, Once a Jolly Hangman, which Singapore claims is contemptuous of the Singaporean judiciary.

Shadrake brings out clear and well researched instances in it showing the Singapore courts to be clearly biased against the poor, opposition politicians and anyone who criticizes them, when they are routinely arrested, bankrupted and destroyed.

In fact anyone who has even a cursory interest in Singapore affairs would have known that much, that it is a one party dictatorship under the Lee Kuan Yew family where the legal system is their principle tool to silence dissent. It is simply a police state, period.

Coming to his his lawyer, M Ravi, we must say that he is a brave man indeed who is in an unenviable position defending his client, who now happens to be the number one enemy of the state.

Before saying anymore, anyone who knows Singapore should not have any doubts of the verdict, which is Shadrake would be found guilty, as sure as the Sun rises. If there is any speculation, it can only be on the sentence.

Ravi, if he wishes to fully defend his client has no choice, even if he knows he is going to lose, which is, that he has to do just that, defend his client.

Which means he has to justify his clients actions, which means he has to say that the court is indeed biased, which is why his client wrote what he did.

For Ravi to argue otherwise, that the Singapore court is indeed impartial and complies with the rule of law as the government wants him to say, and yet argue that what his client did was not wrong, would be impossible; since if it is impartial, then Shadrake had no business writing the things he wrote, and therefore he is guilty as charged.

But we see in the newspaper article that the Attorney General has threatened Ravi of committing contempt of court himself by his representations in court, by calling it a "rubber stamp" for the government (which we all know is true) whenever contempt proceedings are instituted.

Ravi is in a position where defending his client to the fullest would mean sticking his neck out himself, while not making any criticism of the judiciary would mean that his client is not receiving the defence he needs.

It is my view that the point has reached regardless of whatever assurances the judge has given him, for Ravi to withdraw from further representation.

In these circumstances, his position as his client's lawyer has been clearly compromised as well as the client's interests, because it is now impossible to know whether or not Ravi has has done or not done what he should do, because he feared contempt proceedings against himself, and the safety of his license to practice law.

In fact, in a country such as Singapore which is ridden with fear both in and out of the courtroom, Shadrake should have defended himself.

Had he done so, he could have called a rat by that very name, simply a rat, which Ravi cannot do.

If he did, he would be in the slammer himself and instead of practicing law, he would be selling Indian pancakes along Singapore's Serangoon Road. I think he knows that too.

But for the extent he has gone so far in that Alice in Wonderland, we must take our hat off for him. Ravi is a brave man, unlike the cowards in Singapore who call themselves lawyers in Lee Kuan Yew's tiny island "paradise".

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/

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

"Fixing" the troublesome Singapore's Tumasek Review

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Those following the predictable events in Singapore when Lee Kuan Yew's dictatorship goes after his opposition would have read by now, about the trouble the blog Tumasek Review which often writes in unflattering terms about the Singapore strongman Lee Kuan Yew and his dictatorship is facing.

Lee's government wants the name of the blog to be changed to something else because they allege the name Tumasek Review is too similar to their Tumasek Holdings, a state wealth management fund, and therefore the public is misled and their their interests are hurt.

By the way, to call Tumasek Holdings a state wealth management fund is itself a misnomer, since it is in reality the private company of the Lee Kuan Yew family to enrich themselves through the people's forced savings, but that story is for another time. By the way this sort of activity is called theft in other places.

Coming back to the demand by the Lee Kuan Yew dictatorship to Tumasek Review, this is seen by most Singaporeans who know what Lee Kuan Yew and his government are, just a one party city state, as another instance of "fixing" the opposition as Lee Kuan Yew's son honestly, albeit unwittingly admitted at the last general elections.

"Fixing" is done Singapore style, by abusing the legal system through corrupt judges and the Attorney Generals office to punish and destroy his political opponents. This latest attack is another instance of that shameful predictable pattern.

I am not an Intellectual Property lawyer and this issue comes directly within it, namely copyright law; to that extent this article is wanting. However my general understanding of copyright law is this. No one can claim any propriety rights under a general word, such as Lion City, which is also another name for Tumasek. So I don't think they can demand under the law that your name be changed, since Tumasek is just another name for Singapore and it does not and cannot belong to anybody.

For instance no one can claim a propriety interest to the word "Global" for instance. So if someone was using the name Global Computers, he cannot stop another from using the name Global Toothpicks, since they are both totally different and distinguishable.

Second, even if a special name is generally used by a certain entity, Tumasek Holdings, it does not prevent another user of the name Tumasek to use it in terms which are completely different from the other. As an example, Soni is the Japanese company producing electrical goods. We all know that. But if there is a Soni Dry Cleaner at the corner of Norris Road and Serangoon Road run by my friend Wong Can Do, this would not be considered an infringement, since anyone can distinguish Soni Japanese from Wong Can Do's Soni Dry Cleaner.

So in this case, even if Tumasek Holdings can argue that people think of it when the word Tumasek is used, Tumasek Holdings is a business while Tumasek Review is a blog. This in my view cannot be an infringement since sufficient differentiation has been made.

On the other hand we are in Singapore and not dealing with Common Law but Lee Kuan Yew's law where a Marxist Conspiracy can be plucked out of thin air and 22 people can be imprisoned in solitary confinement for several years in 1988 just for agitating for democratic change. In this instance, all they have to do is to unleash Lee Kuan Yew's ever willing judge Belinda Ang Saw Ean and Tumasek will be the same as Gopalan Nair or anything they want.

I don't think even the best Intellectual Property lawyer in the world can predict anything in Singapore, and moreover, even he may be imprisoned at short notice.

I am sure any lawyer dealing with Intellectual Property Law reading this and would want to take the trouble of telling Lee Kuan Yew and his son a thing or two by please polishing this article, where necessary, you are very welcome.

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/

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

Singapore, lies, half lies and hogwash

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In a country such as Singapore, which not only controls all the newspapers and the entire media, TV Radio and every other mass communication system, but also owns them totally, you can say anything you want anytime, and you may even get away with it to a point.

Unfortunately for them, now that point has been reached. People both local and foreign have begun to understand the game. And when that happens, as now, the plan no longer works.

Take the following.

1. Lee Kuan Yew runs the place and we know it is a dictatorship, yet the government claims it is a multi party democracy.

2. The Judiciary is corrupt and is an essential arm of the government to promote government policy and silence dissent. They claim it has an independent judiciary and the rule of law.

3. The people either live slightly above subsistence level or in poverty, but they claim Singaporeans are the 4th richest in the world.

4. The newspapers are no better than mere company newsletters publishing the latest news of the Singapore government, when they claim it is a free press and independent.

5. Chinese are preferred in housing jobs and benefits while Malays and Indians are discriminated but they claim there is racial equality.

6. Foreigners are brought into Singapore in the millions to suppress wages and deny a decent living for Singaporeans to keep Singapore a low wage country, but the government claims that it is because they want to be competitive.

7. Lee Kuan Yew and his ministers pay themselves millions of dollars in corruption which is rampant on the government levels but they claim Singapore is corruption free.

8. Singapore today has a serious crime problem with murders and muggings happening daily but they claim Singapore has the lowest crime rate in the world.

9. Severe flooding happens throughout the island almost every 5 days with as much as 2 feet of water in places, but they claim it happens only once in 5 years.

10. The newspapers do not provide anything that goes on in the country except reporting crime and trivia but they claim they have the best newspapers in the world.

11. English writing standards in the newspapers have dropped so low and that even high school newsletters in the US are better written but they claim that their newspapers are the best in the world.

12. Everyday 2 people commit suicide but the newspapers never report these facts.

13. The people are not told the exact extent of the brain drain form the island, how many are resigning from the government, how many are exactly coming into Singapore from where and other similar data, while they claim they are the most transparent country in the world.

14. The reputation of the Singapore legal system has dropped so low that the High Court sits idle most of the time because there are no cases, while they claim Singapore is the legal hub of the world.

15. The island imports for money foreign athletes from China who are given instant citizenship and made to compete in the games and win gold medals but none of them are really Singaporean. Yet they publish headlines news in the state controlled press that Singaporeans have won these gold medals.

16. They purchase a sailboat called Uniquely Singapore and employ Australian and British skippers and crew and sail the world with one miserable Singaporean passenger and yet claim that the Singaporean skippered the yacht around the world. We all know most Singaporeans cannot swim even though surrounded by water, and will die of fright if put in a sailboat.

17. They claim that Singapore housewives are going to scale Everest but a day or 2 later they all gave up even without reaching base camp.

18. Singapore welcomes the world's money launderers, embezzlers, tax evaders and criminals of all sorts for settlement, who stack their money in the island, but they claim that only the best human beings in the world are accepted for settlement.

19. Singapore's Geylang is today the second biggest red light district in the world second only to Bangkok where whores are crowding the streets, and used condoms are littering the streets, with HIV infection rate sky high, but the they deny it is a vice hub of the world or that people are dying of HIV.

I can go on but you got the message. What is going on there is comedy, Singapore style. And thank God the world has got wind of it.

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/

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

Singaporean's greatest enemy, the Lee Kuan Yew government

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The greatest enemy of the average Singaporean is their own government, that is Lee Kuan Yew and his PAP.

The Singapore state owned and controlled newspaper the Straits Times online edition of Oct 13, 2010 has this cruel story, "Minimum wage won't work". In it, the Lee Kuan Yew's handpicked Minister for Labor says "employers have strongly opposed the idea of a minimum wage and debunked recent claims it (a legal minimum wage) would be effective in helping the country's low wage earners". He says "the nasty consequences (of a legal minimum wage) include raising business costs driving up joblessness, pushing up costs of living and eroding Singapore's competitive edge, while doing little to lessen income equality"

Without more anyone with average intelligence knows this is a whole load of hogwash.

Had this man made such a heartless statement in France, Greece or India, or other self respecting people, he would probably be badly beaten up and made to eat his words, literally.

They would have given him the paper and made him eat it. He is lucky he lives in Singapore since the islanders there have been so much intimidated by Lee Kuan Yew as to be terrified even by their own shadows, he is not likely to be molested, good for him.

And why a man like this making a government statement which is so unreal and so dishonest, a normal human being would have to check himself before doing something he may regret to this cruel man.

Let me explain. Despite all the literature and the wisdom behind the need for any self respecting society to have a minimum wage, the Lee Kuan Yew government using minions like this man, simply refuse to enact such a law for it's people.

And what happens in this tin pot dictatorship is this, any employer can pay anything he wants to his employees, $1 and hour $0.50 cents an hour or whatever. The employee is free either to take the job at this pitiful wage or leave it.

And while this criminality against the Singaporean wage earner goes on, the cost of living in Singapore continues to rise. At the minimum, for a family of 3, you need on average at least $1500 per month.

And while this injustice goes on, the Lee Kuan Yew government using minions such as this man, permits hundreds of thousands of immigrants from low wage countries to enter Singapore for work, where there is no laws to ensure that Singaporeans are given jobs first before foreigners.

In other words, although you may find it unbelievable, Singapore employers today are giving jobs to these recent immigrants from these low cost countries like China while Singaporeans either do not have jobs or even it they do, have to accept the very low wages that these recent immigrants from low cost China, Malaysia, Burma and Bangladesh are prepared to accept.

Put briefly, this minion of Lee Kuan Yew is carrying on a policy where they are deliberately attracting increasing numbers of foreign cheap labor, to deliberately give them jobs at the expense of Singapore citizens, to deliberately lower the Singaporean wages because they want to be "competitive".

In fact the wages have become so low because of this policy that no matter how many jobs you do, your income does not match the increasing cost of living in Singapore. As a result, the state controlled newspapers are covered daily with reports of crimes from theft to burglary to murder. Somehow Singaporeans have to find money to survive in this concrete jungle of a city.

What good is "competition" if a Singaporean cannot feed his family and is forced to commit suicide at the rate of 2 a day either by jumping off high rise buildings minus parachutes, and willy nilly lying down on train tracks so the 3.45pm to Yishun will run over him and kill him!

And this is why I am asking good people like Dr. Chee Soon Juan and others to gather around a thousand working men and women in their overalls and tools to march to Lee Kuan Yew, the dictator's palace to demand justice. Stop doing this. Stop bringing in foreign cheap labor to suppress and deny the rights of Singaporeans who have a right to a decent livelihood.

Comrades, this is injustice.

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/

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

Waiting for the Singapore dictatorship to collapse.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Waiting for the Singapore dictatorship to collapse is like waiting for an old man to die, both literally and metaphorically.

In the case of Lee Kuan Yew, who is synonymous with the one party city state itself, he is 88 years old and will die any minute. Although he presently lingers on, one thing we know is that he will die very soon, and when that happens there will be a political tsunami of change.

It is the same with the city state itself, if looked upon as an old ailing man on the throes of death.

The island's population is almost entirely alienated; the government now rules with fear and violence alone; the state controlled newspapers can only come up with propaganda, since true news is all bad; you have massive brain drain and those leaving are being replaced with half witted non English speaking foreigners who are reducing standards and quality of government; all signs of total collapse.

But for the moment the city state continues to trudge along but collapse it will and must since with these insurmountable difficulties, Lee Kuan Yew simply has no answers.

So like an old man who is terminally ill, the Singapore one party city state and it's master limp along while we, like vultures wait. We know it has to collapse, but what we do not know is when. Will it be next week, next month a year ahead? I don't think it will be more than that, as long as the present trends continue with mounting emigration and dissatisfaction all around.

It was George Orwell who said in his novel 1984, that as long as people are free to openly declare that two and two are four, everything else falls into place.

In Singapore more and more people are beginning to have the courage to say just that, and that alone is the harbinger to the dictatorship's demise.

Like a hungry vulture, I am waiting patiently next to that terminal half living corpse, the Lee Kuan Yew PAP government, on the throes of death.

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/

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

Information is the cancer that destroys totalitarian Singapore.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

One thing is sure. Today's totalitarian government of Singapore run by Lee Kuan Yew and his family is going to fall. And the reason for it is the free flow of Information.

Singapore today can be described as an illogical dysfunctional place. The people are English educated who have access to all sorts of information, including such ideas of freedom and democracy which are obviously more attractive than living under a dictatorship. But Lee Kuan Yew and his family, because they want to retain power tells the citizens otherwise; that democracy is bad and living under a despot is good, an idea that simply cannot sell.

And while the educational level continues to rise and increasing numbers are exposed to life in the West where people are free to live without fear of authority, Lee Kuan Yew continues to carry on in the only way he knows, which is to persecute and punish his detractors and censor the local press in the hope that they are intimidated enough to accept a life under his dictates. It is a plan that has not worked and as time goes on, the disenchantment would cut across the whole of the educated class at which point, the government will simply collapse.

You can already the see the signs of the rot. Massive brain drain, insufficient childbirth, progressively poor quality of migrants from Communist China who can't speak English to run an English speaking government. The supply of Malaysian Chinese who in the past were the main source of English speaking migrants has run out. There are none left.

Had Lee Kuan Yew been running the shop this way in Communist China, he would have had some success.

Although Liu Xiaobo, the PRC national had won the Nobel Prize, because China controls the entire media as well as the Internet, it appears not many Chinese even heard of him, let alone his winning the Nobel Prize.

For another example of the total control that China has, consider my imprisonment for 3 months in Singapore in 2008 for criticizing the Singapore Judge Belinda Ang Saw Ean. I shared my prison cell with 2 other inmates one of whom was a Chinese national from the Peoples Republic of China. On the issue of the Chinese government arresting and torturing Falungong practitioners, his views were that the Chinese government was doing the right thing because all these Falungong members were good for nothing and were faking their claims, a stance which was exactly what the Chinese government was saying. This man was successfully kept out of any outside information by the Chinese communist government.

My point is this. If the Lee Kuan Yew government wants to continue to impose a repressive society in Singapore where the people have no choice in the matter, with a case of My Way or the Highway, then they have to do what Peoples Republic of China, North Korea and Cuba do. First close the borders and prevent people from leaving. Second control the Internet making sure like China that no adverse information enters the island. If they did these 2 things, the Lee Kuan Yew family may hope to limp along a little longer.

But at the same time, these measures are a double edged sword. If you close the borders, it would encourage even more to leave. And those leaving like they are today, would be the brightest and most able citizens whom Singapore needs the most.

But if Lee Kuan Yew continues the way he does, it is only a matter of time that the yearning for freedom will spread like a cancer right across each and every educated person, leaving behind only those without any skills whatsoever. And like the cancer, it will spread and eventually strangle the life out of this dictatorship which we have today.

The concept of freedom and democracy are far more attractive than repression and bondage. The Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and Cuba have proved this. The only countries remaining standing are Communist China and North Korea, but because of their peculiar circumstances they have managed to hold out so far. How much more for them is also anybody's guess. But one thing is certain, even they would eventually collapse. Dictatorship and fascism stand no chance at all before democracy and freedom.

I know Lee Kuan Yew knows this too. But if he were to change, it would be the end of him and his ill gotten gains. He is waist high in a bog and can't extricate himself.

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/

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

Singapore's Commonwealth Games "victories"

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Singapore state controlled newspaper the Straits times online edition of Oct 9, 2010, has the story "Commonwealth Games 2010. Gold for Singapore Paddlers"( for those who are unfamiliar with Singaporean English, also known as Singlish, a silly sounding local patois, Paddlers means Ping Pong players).

The report reads "Singapore's paddlers began their gold rush in emphatic style last night, crushing India 3-0 to claim their third straight woman's title".

But let me tell you, this report is a blatant shameless lie. Actually Singaporean sportswomen never took part at all in this match. It was in fact a match between Peoples Republic of China sportswomen who played this table tennis match against the Indian team and the Chinese side won 3-0.

Confused? Let me explain. The so called "Singapore players" in this match were Feng Tianwei, Wang Yuegu and Li Jiawei. These 3 were all born in the Peoples Republic of China, not Singapore, and were until a few months ago, citizens of the Peoples Republic of China. Until a few months ago, they had nothing to do with Singapore and had never even heard of such a place.

They were all trained in China, a country that produces the world's best table tennis players, trained professionally as is the fashion in China from a tender age, and since their teenage years, had already reached world class standard, just as every other sportsman and woman in their country.

Singapore on the other hand does not have any sportsmen or women of any class, let alone world class.

Singaporeans have never won any medals in any sporting events and even if they ever did, it probably would have been in chess, or some other sport which does not need much physical exertion.

Singaporeans are by and large a weak effete people, lacking spontaneity or creativity, who live in fear under a dictatorship of Lee Kuan Yew. Their entire lives are consumed with how to make a living and keeping clear of the wrath of the Singapore strongman Lee Kuan Yew who can have you arrested anytime he wants, as there is no rule of law.

What the one party state Singapore government under Lee Kuan Yew has done in this case is this. Just a few months ago they went to China and literally "bought" world class Chinese players, that is, by paying each of these 3 women millions of dollars to come to Singapore where they are given instant Singapore citizenship, after which they are sent to the Commonwealth Games in India to compete as "Singapore" sportsmen and women.

The article reports of the Chinese sportswomen (or Singaporean which Singapore wants you to believe) having defeated the Indian player Mouma Das. Mouma Das by the way is truly Indian. India does not engage in the dirty business of "buying" sportsmen or women from China or anywhere else. India has more pride than that.

And the disgrace of the Republic of Singapore in this shameful deceit is even worse because they deliberately get Chinese from China to fool the world, since both Chinese from China or Singapore are both ethnic Chinese and therefore look alike. People are therefore more likely to be fooled into believing the Chinese from China are Singaporean. Imagine the opposite if India had gone to China and similarly "purchased" world class players, no one would believe they were Indian!

Singapore never won any sports medals and never will. Singapore island, a place fast declining in population, in morale, in economy and a growing disgruntled population realizes they have to resort increasingly to deception and lies to keep the country going. Only yesterday, there was another false report claiming they were the 4th richest country in the world, when the truth is, they have a few millionaires and the rest of the country live in poverty or just above it.

There was another report in the same disgraceful paper that the Singapore table tennis team (paddlers in Singlish, a stupid concoction of various local dialects spoken in a sing song effeminate style) beat the English team. Of course they did. The English table tennis team is no match for PRC Chinese team, and we all know that. The so-called Singapore team too were in effect professional Chinese players recently "purchased" from China. The English team on the other hand was truly English, as they too are not in the habit of parading foreign sportsmen and women under British colors. They too like the Indians have more pride than that.

The moral of the story is that even if the Indian team and the English team lost to the "Singapore team" , I mean the Peoples Republic of China team, at least the they had some honor in their defeat. Singapore on the other hand has none; no shame whatsoever.

Only a disgraceful country behaves the way Singapore does. I am not surprised there are no jubilant celebrations on the Singapore streets over these "victories". Singaporeans too known these shameless desperate acts of their 88 year old leader Lee Kuan Yew, who is going to kick the bucket any minute.

And by the way, had not Singapore bought over these Chinese trained Chinese nationals to play for Singapore, they would not otherwise been able to play in the Commonwealth Games at all. Peoples Republic of China is not a Commonwealth country.

And if I would guess the sequel to this disgraceful episode, these Chinese nationals would thank their Singapore patrons very much for the millions of dollars, fling these stupid medals and their Singapore passports in the nearest garbage, and say goodbye to Singapore once and for all, heading back to China with a few millions dollars of Singapore tax payers money in their pockets. All they wanted was the money. They would care two hoots for Lee Kuan Yew or his small little island.

If I recall, that was exactly what another Chinese woman ping pong player did not too long ago.

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/

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

"Singaporeans 4th richest" simply baloney!

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore's state controlled newspaper the Straits Times once again unashamedly publishes propaganda that even a child would know is false, and yet, they willingly do it.

In this case, the October 9, 2010 online edition of the Straits Times has the gall to say, believe it or not, that Singaporeans are the 4th richest people in the world; the story's headline is "Singaporeans 4th richest"!

Who are they talking about anyway, and who are these world's 4th richest Singaporeans, I would like to know.

Of course there are some multi multi millionaires and billionaires money launderers, drug runners from Burma and Indonesian embezzlers who have stacked their ill gotten gains in Singapore. These people are not just the 4th richest in the world but simply the richest.

I am not sure if the late Pablo Escobar, Colombian drug lord ever applied for permanent residence in Singapore, but if he did, I am sure with his money, millions of it, Lee Kuan Yew would have managed to claim that Singapore is not just 4th richest but the 3rd or even the richest country in the world.

The dirty trick that he uses here, just as all the dirty tricks he employs in his state controlled propaganda sheets which he calls newspapers, is this; he has taken the wealth of the few dozen very very rich people in Singapore, added it to the rest of the Singaporean population who hardly survive the poverty line, divided the total by Singapore's total population and come up with a huge Alice in Wonderland figure for each person, saying Singaporeans are one of the richest people in the world.

I can tell you the average, I mean average Singaporean, is far far poorer than those in every Western country. In fact I would go so far as saying that the average Singaporean is even poorer than the average Malaysian or Indonesian, regardless of what the numbers say.

I can tell you how an average Singaporean, a product of the dictator Lee Kuan Yew lives in one of the ubiquitous government owned apartment owned by Lee Kuan Yew's government. I know because I am a Singaporean myself and many of my friends live this poverty stricken lives, pathetic lives. I can tell you right away, they are not the 4th richest people in the world.

First unlike every Western individual, the Singaporean lives in a cubicle, like a human pigeon hole, in a high rise building. He has no garden, and usually has bad air flow caused by buildings built very close to each other. He usually has no view to speak of, blocked by other buildings only a few feet away. His living conditions are crowded with noise and disturbance every minute.

Unlike the westerner, he does not own the apartment. He only has a 99 year lease, and it is any body's guess when the government may take it back. For this almost worthless piece of property, he is made to pay hundred upon thousands of dollars.

The average Singapore in an ordinary job earns somewhere between US dollars 1000 to 1500. These are the clerk, the postal workers and sales staff. If they had a wife and children, by the end of the month, they would have nothing left. The rent for the apartment takes the bulk of the money, then there is food, children's clothes, schooling etc. If they were foolish enough to have a car, they would be running into debt.

The average European, Australian has far more money and a better living than these pathetic Singaporeans. First they all have cars, they all live in houses, not pigeon holes, and they all have better quality of life overall. And far far better than any Singaporean, the government provides enough social security to ensure that they would not have to become beggars, or worse, kill themselves if they fall into bad times.

And more than that, people in the West are all the more happier, since they don't have to live lives in perpetual fear of a Lee Kuan Yew suing them into bankruptcy if they ever criticized him.

In fact there is about 20% to 30% of Singaporeans who actually live below the poverty line in their HDB cubicles. Many go starving or have to send their children to school without food. In order to make ends meet, many down-size from small apartments to even smaller ones in the hope that the money they get would see them through a while longer.

And unlike people in the West, Singaporeans simply cannot retire because there is simply no safety net of government social security. If they stopped working they would starve. That is why you see tottering old stooped men and women well into their 80s and 90s shuffling to your restaurant table to take your finished crockery, not because they enjoy the work but because they would starve otherwise.

The average Singaporean has no car, no proper house, no social security and no money. The average Singaporean lives hand to mouth, a day at a time.

Malaysians and Indonesians live much better. Of course they don't have the wealth of Singapore's money launderers, but their cost of living is cheaper, they live in houses, they have cars because they are cheaper, and they don't have to live in fear of Lee Kuan Yew suing you into bankruptcy.

And there is not a single day that passes in the island where you don't see crowds gathered under the high rise HDB apartments with police cars and ambulances. Another Singaporean has just committed suicide by jumping off their high rise government owned apartments.

In Singapore on average 2 people take their lives every day. The preferred methods are jumping off high rise buildings and throwing themselves on to high speed trains.

The trains are delayed everyday because of having to extricate bone and twisted flesh because the wheels of trains and the machinery under them almost turn the person into a mess as if he was put through a meat grinder. The dead man of course is no longer recognizable.

This sort of poverty does not exist in the West.

Singaporeans 4th richest? Baloney!

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/

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

Singapore, an unconstitutional "constitutional" dictatorship

updated Oct 8, 2010
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Singapore strongman 88 year old Lee Kuan Yew has effectively fooled the majority of Singaporeans and indeed quite a portion of the world into thinking Singapore is a "constitutional democracy"; that is up till now.

This is how he has done it. When Singapore became independent as Malaysia and later as Singapore alone, it was created as a constitutional democracy, a constitution similar to most constitutions in the democratic world including the American.

Constitutional provisions as we know are supreme and sacrosanct, and in most democracies impossible or almost impossible to change, because they contain the fundamental rights of the people such as freedom of speech, expression and the other fundamental human rights which we all should be taking for granted.

In order to protect your fundamental rights, all constitutions also include an article which makes illegal and void any law which violates your human rights in the constitution.

For instance, as the constitution protects your freedom of speech, any law which Parliament passes which takes away that right is illegal, because the right to freedom of speech is your inalienable right.

In order to make sure that your fundamental rights are not denied to you, under Singapore's Constitution, any attempt to change Constitutional provisions would require a 2/3 majority vote in Parliament.

Furthermore even if you could get 2/3 of Parliament to vote for constitutional change, there must be a real need (such as an emergency)for such a 2/3 vote to be accepted.

The reason behind this difficulty to change the Constitution is because in democracies people's fundamental rights such as freedom of speech have to protected at all costs. These rights have been enshrined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human rights.

The idea being that freedom is a good thing, and people work and live better in societies with freedom and liberty.

But Lee Kuan Yew does not believe in democracy. He believes in fascism. So he creates in Singapore a fascist state but outwardly having the trappings of democracy. This is how he does it.

He takes away all the fundamental freedoms enshrined in the Constitution that you have, by changing it completely through Parliamentary amendments. In Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore "Constitution", you do not have freedom of speech, because you need a permit, to speak publicly, which by the way, you will not get. He takes away your fundamental right to assemble by placing a requirement that you need a permit. And so on and so forth; each and every right that you should have in the Constitution are taken away.

He does this by "complying" with the Constitution, which is, by getting 2/3 majority vote in Parliament by which he passes these laws. And if you were to ask how he manages to get these 2/3 majority votes in Parliament, the answer is very simple. He simply rigs the elections to make sure that only his supporters win.

And if you ask how he rigs them, it is like this. First he threatens and persecutes any Singaporean with defamation actions and imprisonment if you openly criticize him, his son, his family or his party.

Since every opposition politician has been sued bankrupted and jailed, no one with any ability or political ambition ever stands against him. The only ones who win are his own party members. And even if by chance, someone stood against him despite these dangers, immediately thereafter he is either sued, bankrupted or jailed, dismissed from his job and made a pauper. Today out of a Parliament of 84, 82 members belong to his party. Even the 2 so-called opposition members have been effectively silenced. They are just lame ducks.

And if all else fails, he simply stuffs the ballot boxes.

Singapore is today effectively a one party dictatorship, no different from Communist China, Cuba, North Korea or Burma.

At the same time, he controls the newspapers, the media, the trade unions and everything else. There is a name for this kind of government. It is called fascism.

At the same time, he makes sure that he is surrounded by people who have no leadership qualities or political aspirations whatsoever, being people who have just passed their exams. That way his grip on power is never threatened, since none of them has any political ambitions. They are Members of Parliament and Ministers merely because Lee Kuan Yew put them there, and any time he chooses, he can kick them out.

All his ministers have had scholarships and were educated in foreign institutions. After they graduate, he basically "buys" them over with large salaries and benefits. They, in return for the large salaries they get, do the dirty work for him. They arrest opposition candidates, freedom activists, dismiss opponents from employment, refuse to hire anyone who shows opposition tendencies and generally makes life very miserable for anyone who opposes Lee Kuan Yew and his friends.

And they, as grateful sycophants, blow the trumpet and lick the boots of the 88 year old Lee Kuan Yew and by extension, those of his son.

As someone long time ago had said, these are "running dogs" because they do the errands for Lee Kuan Yew.

At the same time, even though he runs a purely fascist one party state, he tells both locals and foreigners, through his state controlled media, that he has a "Parliamentary democracy" because he holds periodical "elections"; that he has the rule of law even though there is no such thing at all, as the judges are all there to protect him, not the rule of law.

In this way he manages to fool many into thinking Singapore is something which it is not.

Singapore today does not really have a "Constitution" at all. It is simply a one party dictatorship where Lee Kuan Yew can pass any law he wants anytime, with you Singaporeans merely living under his pleasure. No different from Kim Jong Il's North Korea except you cannot escape from North Korea while you can from Singapore.

But sadly for him, the cat has effectively now got out of the bag. Thanks to the Internet, the truth is being told, and the pen is proving to be far mightier than the sword, as the axiom tells us.

The people who have become aware of the truth, which I am glad to say is a growing number, are simply saying bye bye to Singapore itself and choosing to live instead in the West.

With Lee Kuan Yew already 88 years old now, this game has got to end very soon, and we can hopefully see a new beginning. The very foundations are rotting from underneath, and this edifice, based on fraud lies violence and deceit cannot withstand much longer. It must collapse.

For Lee Kuan Yew to continue on his merry ways of a dictator, he has to do something which he has not done so far, which is, close the borders like Cuba and North Korea. But trying to deny every basic right that human beings are entitled to have and still expect Singaporeans to prostrate at his feet, as they have done so far, is simply impossible. Lee Kuan Yew simply cannot have the cake and eat it as well.

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/

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

Law Society of Singapore vs Gopalan Nair, what's happening to my Singaporean disbarment!

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Hey, what in Heavens is happening to my Singaporean disbarment!

The Singaporean Kangaroo Disciplinary Proceedings against me, held in my absence, since they would have arrested me if I landed in Changi Airport, presumably went on from Sept 20 to Sept 24, 2010 (at least that is what I think) since no one has told me anything!

Is this another legal marathon or what, another 20 year trial of the century just to have me disbarred!

Especially since my actionable "criticism" of Lee Kuan Yew's judge Belinda Ang Saw Ean had happened more that 2 years ago, on May 29, 2008 to be exact, surely this delay must be a world record for disciplining a lawyer anywhere in the world.

Is this delay because the Attorney General of Singapore, the Singaporean Minister for Law and perhaps the 88 year old Lee Kuan Yew himself in his intermittent lucid moments away from his senility and dementia in collaboration with the Singaporean Law Society, an arm of the one party state government, are all putting their heads together to decide what exactly is to be done in this rather unexpectedly difficult situation of disbarring the troublesome Gopalan Nair in Singapore.

Please, you must admit, I am providing some amusement for you here, surely. And if I am, please let me know.

In my recent blogs I had provided the contact particulars of the participants in this charade, the Disciplinary Tribunal Judge, his Judge Assistant, the Prosecutor Peter Cuthbert Low (fancy name but local Singapore Chinese) and Audrey (not Hepburn) Lim Yoon Cheng (local Chinese woman, Deputy Registrar).

It might be good for you to contact them and demand an immediate explanation. What are they playing at!

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/

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

My advice to Lee Kuan Yew's son, step down while you still can

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Politically things appear to be moving fast in Singapore. Yesterday, Singapore dictator Lee Kuan Yew's wife died. The Singapore Democratic Party chief Dr. Chee Soon Juan sent a one liner message of condolence to Lee Kuan Yew, in his Singapore Democrat blog, which is not surprising since he and presumably his deceased wife in the background have been his principal tormentors for decades. Had it been myself, I would not have sent any condolence, but then after all I am not Dr. Chee. It is like a Jew who has been tortured by Hitler sending condolences to him on his wife's death!

Apart form this, we had only a few days ago seen a picture of Lee Kuan Yew, age 88, presently resident of General Hospital Singapore undergoing chest infection treatment. Given that only a few days earlier the old man had a fall in Europe and was administered physiotherapy, it is any one's guess how long the incumbent will remain in this world. Looking at his picture in the state controlled press a few days ago, which did not appear promising, it appeared to me more likely that he had already left this world entirely! A walking corpse you may say. But I must confess, he did appear to be standing.

And that is why, since it is any body's guess whether it is today or tomorrow that Lee Kuan Yew himself is going to kick the bucket, regardless of whether or not anyone takes the trouble to put a bucket in his way, the best thing his son who is the Prime Minister can do now is to step down and hand over the premiership to someone else, who is stupid enough to take it under the present circumstances.

Why I say this should be obvious to anyone who knows Singapore. The island will not outlast the man. Lee Kuan Yew had made sure that every single person surrounding him is a mere lackey, a minion, picked out of thin air and given positions of authority. Such men only take their power vicariously through the support of Lee Kuan Yew. Upon Lee Kuan Yew's demise, they are nothing. Teo Chee Hean is nothing. Mah Bow Tan is nothing. George Yeo is nothing. And especially K Shanmugam is nothing. They are merely obedient dogs wagging their tails because their master has been good to them, that's all.

And as for the son himself, he too knows that he is nothing without his father. His father made him the Prime Minister. Had he any other father, he would probably be working as an Executive at Hong Kong Bank in downtown Battery Road, Singapore. And he too knows that Singaporeans are not prepared to prostrate themselves tomorrow at his feet once his father is gone.

And the ground in Singapore for them is not favourable either. By and large Singaporeans today are outraged by what is happening; massive immigration, massive emigration, no child birth, a mounting brain drain, foreigners taking good jobs from Singaporeans and suppressing wages and so on ad infinitum.

And the Internet is not helping other. Today other than myself, Singaporeans openly criticize the father and son but the government appears helpless to do anything. In the past, we would not have the courage to say even a tenth of what is being said now, as arrests and defamation actions were swift and certain. Today Dr. Chee Soon Juan criticizes Lee Kuan Yew and the PAP with impunity daily in his blog, yesterday Vincent Cheng, Lee Kuan Yew's victim who was wrongly arrested and tortured as a Marxist, spoke publicly against it at Hong Lim Park and condemned his arrest, but remains unmolested.

The signs are clear. With the Internet and the multiplying voices of dissent across the board, the ground is hostile and Lee's son should know this. Upon Lee Kuan Yew's death, I am sure there is going to be civil unrest and disorder. During Lee Kuan Yew's time he would have responded with martial law, curfews and arresting scores of people. The question is whether Lee Kuan Yew's son is going to resort to such violence and more importantly whether he is in fact capable of such action.

I don't think so. I don't think anyone of his friends are capable of that either. And in the remote event that he did in fact do it, the result will be an exodus of the century, with almost everyone from Singapore leaving especially the foreigners upon whom Singapore has become so reliant.

In fact it will be the end for them and for Singapore. That is why I advice Lee Kuan Yew's son to step down now and hand the office over to someone else, provided someone else will even take it. Then, if there is going to be large scale disorder, he can quietly try to slip out of the country, taking his money with him.

I think USA might give him protection, like they gave it to the late Ferdinand Marcos, the dictator of Philippines. The US has a history of protecting their supporters except when it is politically difficult as with the case of the overthrown Shah of Iran who died in Egypt. In his case they perhaps they did not want to anger Israel by accepting him. Lee Kuan Yew's son should face no such difficulty.

Unless of course he wants to be another General Gordon (Chinese Gordon), metaphorically speaking, who was beheaded by the Mahdi in Omdurman, January 26,1885.

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/

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew's wife dies, do we grieve or rejoice

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Singapore's state controlled newspaper the Straits Times online edition of Oct 3, 2010 has the story "Mrs Lee dies, aged 89". Kwa Geok Choo, an ethnic Chinese Singaporean woman, the wife of the ethnic Chinese Singapore strongman Lee Kuan Yew who is himself 88 years of age and presently himself hospitalized for a chest infection in Singapore, in circumstances where it is anyone's guess when he too will die; has died herself at 5.40pm at her home.

She had suffered several strokes and has been completely immobilized and mute, or rather in a vegetative state since 2008, and has been taken care of in luxury, I presume at the Singapore taxpayers expense since then.

I am not a heartless brute and am aware and agree with the general principle that you try to be gracious about those who have died, and try to forget or forgive their transgressions as best you can, since it is only nice.

But I don't think that need for graciousness applies, to take an extreme example, in the death of Adolf Hitler or Adolf Eichmann, the man who was himself responsible for the death of millions of innocent people. In such a case, you call a rat, simply a rat.

I am not suggesting in the least that Mrs Kwa Geok Choo was in fact the same as Adolf Hitler or Adolf Eichmann, far from it. But I don't think, looking at her life and what she has done, the requirement for niceties that social graces demand apply to her.

And this is what I am going to say, knowing very well that I am going to invite the ire of thousands of PAP supporters and cronies who are doing very well in the island, this is what I am going to say to the late Kwa Geok Choo, the wife of the Singapore dictator Lee Kuan Yew, Good Riddance, and Thank God.

I am sure those who know Singapore would agree that this woman, even more than the dictator her husband himself, has been the principle architect of what Singapore is today, since the duo were at the helm from 1959 till today, the entire life span of modern Singapore. And let us ask ourselves what is modern Singapore.

1. It has a string of glass buildings along the waterfront. Good, but what good is it for Singaporeans. For your information, those glass buildings that sparkle in the noonday sun and nights, contain thousands of offices of multi national companies with their head quarters in New York, London and Frankfurt. The ordinary Singaporean who lives in his overcrowded cubicle government owned apartment in Toa Payoh and travels in the Singaporean subway neither has any business or interest in them. To him, they are merely white elephants.

2. What is a Singaporean? The average Singaporean is a timid soul who lives in fear of his surroundings and the dictator, devoid of all creativity courage or initiative. Why, because this woman and her husband the dictator has seen to it, that the only qualification to succeed in that tiny island is to crawl, prostrate and sing praises for him and the PAP.

These opportunists who themselves are devoid of any independent thinking rise to the top. Others who question and criticize are destroyed and ruined the rest of their lives. A man who has so suffered and continues to suffer at the hands of the dictator, perhaps under the orders of this woman who died, is Dr. Chee Soon Juan.

Like him thousands upon thousands have been persecuted and silenced, thereby effectively destroying an entire segment of society who would have otherwise been able to contribute a great deal for the betterment of the island. Thanks to the dictator and his late wife, such good people are effectively lost for Singapore.

3. Who are the successful men and women in Singapore? They are the opportunists who play along to the Lee Kuan Yew tune. These men and women who are themselves devoid of any principles of their own who would do anything for the right price. These include judges like Belinda Ang Saw Ean would is prepared to break every single rule of law in order to please her master Lee Kuan Yew as was the case in the 2008 defamation lawsuit of Lee Kuan Yew vs Dr. Chee Soon Juan. I was in the courtroom. I saw it myself.

Other than these opportunist Singaporeans who would willingly say that 2 and 2 is 5, there are the successful recently arrived foreigners in the island; bankers, fund managers and money launderers. They cater for the financial interests of foreign investors, mainly corrupt Communist Chinese, Burmese drug lords and Indonesian embezzlers. They can be seen wining and dining along the posh expensive Singapore River restaurants and pubs every night.

It is one law for them and another for ordinary Singaporeans. They can break the law anytime and get away with it, because of who they are, wealthy bankers. They daily get drunk and beat up policemen, behave in any disorderly manner and have accidents driving drunk. As they are effectively above the law, an unwritten rule, you don't read about their merrymaking exploits so often. Its wink wink nod nod as far as they are concerned. The thinking is they are bankers anyway and Singapore needs them. As far as the ordinary Singaporean Tan Ah Kow is concerned, he can take it or leave it.

4. Another shameful historical fact about this husband and wife team, is the brutality and shame of Singapore. Thousands of Singaporeans were arrested and jailed for decades merely because they were a threat to Lee Kuan Yew's political power. Chia Thye Poh was jailed for 31 years without trial, far longer than even Nelson Mandela. Lim Chin Siong and others were tortured and kept in solitary confinement for years thanks to this woman, the main advisor and confidant of the present day dictator.

Today Singapore is a place where the foreigners and Lee Kuan Yew supporters make a great living, while the ordinary Singaporean who lives in Toa Payoh is ignored to eke out a living the best he can.

And as people are forced to live in cramped high rise housing units, which are meticulously cleaned on the outside, the public is kept in the dark as to how the humans live within. They live in cramped overcrowded unhealthy conditions. Go take a look yourself in the one room flats in Bukit Merah and Pipit Road. I warn you, it is not a pretty sight.

5. And the legacy of this husband and wife team today are these, a completely politicized legal system where you know where you stand even before you step into the courtroom; Lee Kuan Yew and his friends win and you lose. There is no rule of law at all, where the law is used as a weapon to eliminate the opposition. There is no law, you can be thrown out of your flat. There is no law, you can be denied a taxi licence. There is no law, you may or may not get permanent residence. There is no law, some get citizenship and some don't.

6. Thousands of educated Singaporeans leave the island every year for settlement abroad. Singapore has the lowest birth rate in the world. And immigration from China is so high that local Singaporeans are already a minority in their own island state. As per capita of the population, Singapore has the highest rate of emigration (people leaving the country permanently) in the world.

7. And while all these bad things happen Lee Kuan Yew, his dead wife, each of his children and thousands of his personal friends pay themselves millions of dollars, which by the way, they call a salary. This is corruption but if you call it that in that island, you will be arrested. The dictator will have Belinda Ang Saw Ean or one of his other judges throw you in jail.

8. I have no doubt the vast majority of Singaporeans too would say the same thing now to that dead woman, Good Riddance. But you notice there is almost no criticism of her in the island. I guess you should know the answer to that now. The people are afraid to speak openly lest they are arrested. I guess you would be afraid to criticize Kim Jong Il in North Korea too.

9. But the greatest harm deliberately committed by this dead woman and her dictator husband is this. She has methodically destroyed the minds of the average Singaporean into thinking the best course in life is merely to follow orders, not to think and question orders. She has managed to destroy all creativity among Singaporeans ensuring that they will never compete with any Indian from India, any Australian or from anyone else from any free country. That is the shameful legacy she and her husband has left in Singapore, which was deliberately done for their own greed and avarice.

You see, an unquestioning mind will not question authority.

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/

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.