Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Singapore, no longer what we knew

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Singapore strongman Lee's worry, according to his speech recently on Singapore’s National Day, that unless it's citizens procreate in sufficient numbers, foreigners will become the majority, which means the loss of Singapore’s traditional social norms, culture, behavior and practices. In his words when this happens, Singapore "will fold".

Lee was right except for the timing. Singapore has already "folded". The culture, social norms and traditions of Singapore today are not what are native to the island. It is that of Communist China, as a result of hordes and hordes of immigrants brought in from that country to replace those who are leaving in increasingly larger numbers and to compensate for the declining birth rate.

To WP Pritam Singh's question in Parliament (not that Pritam Singh or anyone else from the opposition will make any difference to anything), Teo Chee Hean, Lee Kuan Yew's minion in Parliament replied that since 2000, on average about 1,000 Singaporeans left to settle abroad.

Please see http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest+News/Singapore/Story/A1Story20120109-320813.html

It is quite obvious that Teo is hiding something, when he speaks of the number 1,000 annually. Why should he say 1,000? Why not state the exact figure? I can only suspect that just like the propaganda dished out by all the state controlled media in totalitarian regimes worldwide, this is one big lie.

I won't be surprised that the figures are ten times that number each year and mounting.

What this means of course is that the total depletion of Singaporeans who are capable of leaving the island, can and will leave and the trend is simply irreversible. The best will leave Singapore and you would be left with the mediocre and some who come in for short stints to make some money. As to anyone with any merit wanting to call Singapore home, I don't think there will be any takers.

This is what Singapore has become. It is an island controlled and run by the Lee Kuan Yew family who want people to simply accept whatever is being done for them. To govern the island, he needs some skilled people, which he attracts with very high salaries. Some of them are locals who have returned from scholarships at government expense and some are foreigners who come for the money for short stints.

As for the local people, Lee is frankly not interested in what they think, since he doesn't think much of them anyway. Their job is simply to accept what is thrown at them. As to the thinking, formulating and executing government policies, Lee and Company will be in charge. Singaporeans are not encouraged to have any part in it.

If you feel you want to contribute to the country, they are left with only one choice, that is, to join the government. There are various grass roots and government controlled organizations which cater to Singaporeans. From volunteers in these organizations, better described as opportunists, Lee and company will choose future ministers, members of parliament and others to fill important positions. In such positions, the incumbent has a good salary, good life and a secure future, that is, as long as Lee continues to rule Singapore, and as long as they run around like dogs licking his boots and singing his praises.

You may have heard foreigners describing Singaporeans as a boring people. You can see why of course. In Singapore you can safely have only one philosophy, that of Lee Kuan Yew and his government. Having any other theory of government will not do you any good. Indeed if you are stupid enough to openly challenge Lee and his ideas, you stand to be prosecuted, sued, bankrupted and dismissed from your job; even jailed.

Of course compared to living in Afghanistan, Mali or Senegal in Africa, Singapore is a far more desirable place to live. But compared to the West, you cannot find a worse place to live than Singapore. Why, because who wants to live in submission to Lee Kuan Yew and his ideas even if they were the best in the world, if the consequence of having a different view would mean punishment, victimization and abuse?

When I was suspended from being a lawyer in Singapore in 1991 for 2 years merely for writing a letter to then Attorney General Tan Boon Teik, I told myself that this is not the way to live. And neither did I want to subject my children to a life no better than a mindless robot, which Lee Kuan Yew demands. I therefore left for the United States where I and my children have been living, in a society where we can act according to our ideas; pursue our dreams without the government denying them simply because we refuse to submit.  

Since the last two decades, increasing numbers of capable, skilled and educated Singaporeans have left for settlement in the West. Since anyone who has gone to the West will immediately see why life is far superior to that in Singapore, they will continue to attract their friends, family and acquaintances to join them abroad. With Singapore’s already small native population remaining, coupled with a declining birth rate and an ageing population, the death knell of the local population has already been rung.

What are left in the island are only foreigners, mainly those from Communist China. These immigrants have brought with them their Communist Chinese mannerisms, practices and cultural norms and social ethos which has now already become the island’s predominant cultural and social identity.  

Singapore culturally as we knew is dead. Singapore is now just another Communist Chinese city.

The only native Singaporeans left are those who earn millions at the very top, such as the Lee Kuan Yew extended family, their relatives and friends who rule the island; second,  the unskilled predominantly Malay, some Indian and some local Chinese who are unable to acquire the education and skills leaving them incapable of settlement abroad.

As time progresses, as the Lee ruling family decides to develop new industries and money making businesses, they will bring in more and more foreigners from diverse countries to do the work. Many of these foreigners will earn, as they do now, huge salaries while the local Singaporean will be left to look at them with envy and resentment, as they do now.

Singaporeans have already become second class citizens in their own country. The winners are the Lee Kuan Yew ruling family and their minions and bootlickers who benefit by nepotism and association. The other winners are the foreigners who run the important establishments and positions to make money for themselves and the Lee Kuan Yew family.

As for me, according to the Lee Kuan Yew family view of things, I am an unrepentant criminal (I must say I am very proud of that title), so is Dr. Chee Soon Juan who disagrees with Lee's one party totalitarian police state and so was the late JB Jeyaretnam. 

Lee's model citizens are his minions, such as K Shanmugam, who eloquently and successfully argued for a law that criminalizes all protests, even peaceful ones, and even one man protests, even though it is clearly unconstitutional. So are all his other ministers and minions in his government, all model citizens, who successfully argue for laws and policies designed to keep the Lee Kuan Yew family in power?

If I knew this much, so have thousands of educated skilled Singaporeans. That is why they continue to leave the island in even greater numbers and that is why with a tiny native population which was until recently only about 2 million, it is descending fast into extinction.

If Lee is believed to have built Singapore ( a completely false claim), it should be quite clear by now that he has also destroyed it. Today native Singaporeans are not living in Singapore anymore. They re living in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, London, Vancouver and Toronto. Some of them are also living in the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States. One of them is I, Gopalan Nair, Attorney at Law.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
Fremont, California, USA
Tel: 510 657 6107 or 510 491 4375

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mr Nair,

Since you write about a very strong man. Let me ask you.

These days, Singapore IRAS has not been getting enough tax since the Estate Duty was abolished some years back to accommodate the estate of a very rich important strong lady.

Can you lobby to reinstate the Estate Duty before the pending departure of that very rich woman's even stronger Old Fart.

Perhaps have a reinstatement date set this year so that he can avoid Estate Duty and stop scolding us!

Anonymous said...

you hit the nail on the head. one can argue that in the 1960-70s , stablity must be maintained at all cost. but lky refused to adapt even in the 80s till now. lky did contribute greatly to singapore but he and his family benefited greatly too from singapore esp $$ wise. young people see singapore run like a company where everything is secondary to the bottom line= money$$. so they do not feel loyalty and will leave if they can secure employment and citizenship elsewhere.

Gopalan Nair said...

To anonymous,
Lee did not contribute anything to Singapore. In fact he has destroyed their spirit. Like you for being afraid even to identify yourself. A great leader would have made a great people. Lee has created mice like you.