Monday, November 12, 2012

Singapore's Chinese Parliament

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I suppose by now, Peoples Republic of China have behind closed doors, according to their practice, selected who is to rule over their country and the people have been informed accordingly. In their country, the people have no part to play in the decision; in fact they have no part to play in how their country is run at all.

As for the Chinese people, they seem to be quite content to be told what to do by whomever their party decides, as simple as that. And by the way, these rulers will also decide how much to pay themselves for the opportunity, and very handsomely, as Wen Jiabao, the Prime Minister has done by amassing a handsome 1 billion US dollars in foreign bank accounts.

Now compare Singapore. It too like their Chinese partners in China has a one party state and a one party parliament. There is no opposition at all. The Workers Party who claims to be opposition with 6 seats has been found out to be collaborators working to advance Lee's ruling party interests.

Like the Chinese in Communist China, Singapore’s Lee Ruling Family too decide on their leaders behind closed doors, present them at parliamentary elections every 5 years and force the people to elect them. After their election, just like they do in Chinese parliament, decide on whatever they will do for Singaporeans, who like the Communist Chinese simply accept without objection. And they decide to pay themselves anything they want; Lee and every member of his family make officially no less than $3.7 million a year and a further undisclosed amount as they chose. Singaporeans have no right to question this.

Why do the Chinese in China accept this nonsense? We can understand their plight somewhat. They never had a history of free elections since 1949 or even before. They were not under western colonial rule and never had experience of such things as democracy.

But why do Singaporeans accept this nonsense when they do have a Western style constitution with all the enshrined human rights as well as the English language. As Singaporeans have been under Lee Kuan Yew or what we can now say the Lee ruling Family with his son, for the last 52 or so years of it's short history, they have had sufficient behavior training like a dog, to comply without objection.

But the Internet and free and fast worldwide information threw a wrench into the spokes of Mr. Lee's ambitions. He obviously did not anticipate this. Now it is becoming increasing difficult for the either Lee Kuan Yew or his son to strut around like a prize rooster and bully everyone in sight. Singaporeans today have a choice, they can either accept this nonsense and stay behind or get out and live in the West as free men and women, which they are doing in increasing numbers.

As long as the Lees continue to abuse the rule of law for political ends, as long as they continue to control the media, as long as they persecute anyone who openly speaks out against them, more and more people will resist or leave, which will slowly make the island simply ungovernable. Humpty Dumpty would have had a fall.

Moreover the Chinese from the Peoples Republic who are brought in to work in Singapore as Lee Kuan Yew's superior race (Lee considers the Malays and Indians who are Singaporeans, as inferior to the Chinese) in even larger numbers bring with them the practices, such as protesting for higher wages, working conditions or the environment. Lee's government which is unaccustomed to protests suddenly find they are unable to handle these protests in Singapore and especially since it is hard to deport everyone who engages in such practices. Moreover the locals begin learning from the Chinese and are beginning to do it themselves thereby creating a new problem.

With the stresses and tension pulling from many angles at the small Singaporean society of just 2.5 million local born and another 2.5 million foreigners, the population is simply too small to withstand these pressures.

With the increased awareness of rights, the Singapore society is simply disintegrating and the prediction is that it will break up sooner than later but definitely once the 91 year old dictator Lee Kuan Yew dies. So my advice to everyone in the island is to brace yourself, check your seatbelt, lower your heads and prepare for a hard landing.

Gopalan Nair
A Singaporean by birth in exile
Attorney at Law
Fremont, California USA
Tel 510 491 4375

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

1. Unlike HongKong, Singapore did not have much democracy experience during British colonial days, it was only for a very short period during the transition. Lee never give democracy a chance despite enshrining it in the Singapore Pledge.

2. Singapore one-sided parliament vote against disclosure of MP wealth.

3. The only way opposition parties in Singapore can exist, is to play by PAP rules.