Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Singapore. A country that has gone backwards

Ladies and Gentlemen,

True Singapore today has skyscrapers. It did not in 1955. But truly, Singapore was far more advanced in 1955 than it is today. Surprised? You shouldn't be. Just look at this.

In 1955 Singapore had a free press. You could read independent news. People could criticize the government without being arrested. There was no Lee Kuan Yew bullying everyone into submission. People could look forward to work and a pension and retirement. If you did something wrong, you got a small fine, not several hundreds of thousands of dollars. Life was good. People were happy. You could see it in their faces.

Today you cannot do any of this. If you criticized you would be sued and arrested. People have to work until they dropped dead. Judges are not independent but Lee's agents. You don't have jury trials and if you were not on Lee's side there is double trouble from all sides.

Please take your silly skyscrapers and give me Singapore of 1955 anytime. And while at it, take your superman Lee Kuan Yew with you, please.

Tell me now, which country in the world has actually gone backwards except Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore?

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
Disbarred from practicing law in Lee's Singapore, imprisoned and refused entry to the island for criticizing Singapore's judiciary in this blog (see blogpost May 29, 2008 Singapore. Judge Belinda Ang's Kangaroo Court)
Actively practicing law in California and in good standing at the California Bar.
Member in good standing as a lawyer in England and Wales (Barrister).
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3 comments:

Dirty plates and rubbish said...

Chinese New Year is the time when Singapore missed its low-wage cleaners, cos they have all return home to visit their families.

Anonymous said...

Hi Gopalan,

This is another story that Lee's state controlled press will try hard to avoid being shown public. But sadly, we are now living in the age of social media.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/no-student-freedom-at-nus--foreign-student-.html

Some shocking revealations from that student:

1) A student who completed his second semester through a joint program between University of North Carolina and NUS last year, pointed out that the latter is not a “free university” as the students are ruled by self-censorship.

2) Describing students and teachers here as “self-policing subjects”, he recounted his experience in a political science class where the professor told students to “lower your criticism of the PAP” and “reduce your coverage of opposition parties”.

3) “Students change arguments, button their lips and absorb opinions from on high. Singapore is not a free country and NUS is not a free university,” Vincoli wrote.

4) it “has succeeded in making self-censorship routine and integrating it into the state-owned media, the state-controlled university and the minds of its citizens”.

Gopalan Nair said...

To Anonymous who wrote

"This is another story that Lee's state controlled press will try hard"

You will notice in the article that there were some students who said students were entirely free to criticize and this student Vinoli was all wrong. No suprise at all. They were very probably government agents who would then report on Vinoli.

Noone actually tells you that you cannot do this or that. But if you do, then you are targeted. When I was in Singapore, no one told me that I could not criticize Lee Kuan Yew. But when I did, you know what happened.

The article is really silly for some to say there is no censorship. There is none. But if you challenge them, you are in trouble. In essense they are a bunch of cowards.