Ladies and Gentlemen,
The similarities of Lee Kuan Yew's tiny Singapore island with a mere 2 million or so local born citizens and diminishing and present day Communist China are startling.
In China, the citizens are unable to change their government. The Communist Party is there to stay under law. In Singapore although the Constitution does allow change of government through parliamentary elections every five years, in reality 92 year old Lee Kuan Yew and his son today, who have ruled the island continuously since the early days of the island through their party PAP since 1959 cannot be removed either. They do this by using their handpicked compliant corrupt Kangaroo judges to sue and bankrupt any real challenger to their power. As a result Singaporeans too, like their Communist Chinese counterparts cannot change their government.
China holds elections, just like Singapore periodically. There it is held not to decide on which party will form the government but which persons will assume office under their permanent Communist Government. In Singapore it is no different although they maintain the grip on power somewhat differently. Lee Kuan Yew maintains power by using his corrupt complaint judges to abuse the law to sue and bankrupt political opponents.
The only opposition allowed are those that we have today, the likes of Loh Thia Khiang and Workers Party. They have in fact publicly announced that they do not intend to unseat Lee Kuan Yew and son and are there to merely make mild objections to peripheral issues, not the lack of the rule of law or anything else that would truly challenge the government.
This serves Lee Kuan Yew and his son well enabling them to retain control indefinitely. Elections in Singapore island do not serve any purpose. It is merely a national entertainment every five years for a few days. Lee's power does not emanate from Parliament which is just a rubber stamp. Lee's power comes from his courts. He rules not by rule of law but by rule by law; laws which he can enact however repressive anytime he wants.
In China since Deng Hsiu Peng, there is a dual bifurcated system of government. For business, Chinese citizens can almost do what they want. But in politics, it is firmly Communist. Lee's Singapore island is no different. Singaporeans are allowed to do business. But they are not allowed to criticize the government. If they did, Lee Kuan Yew deploys his Kangaroo judges and you are removed in his courts.
In Communist China, it helps to be a card carrying Communist Party member and hurts if you are a rebel. You are given privileges and career advancement for your support and can expect not only high office but also great wealth. On the other hand, Chinese political dissidents are routinely arrested and sent to prison for long terms. Singapore is no different. It helps to support Lee Kuan Yew and his Peoples Action Party. Singaporeans are given an opportunity to show this support in several ways. One way is to join the several grass roots organizations that belong to the government party such as the Peoples Association. As a member, you will be recognized and enjoy career advancement and other government privileges for yourself and your family.
In Communist China, many would find it distasteful and not in the best interests of China to continue in Communism. They may believe, as Chinese dissidents do, that the country will benefit with democratic reforms. But if anyone attempted to publicly oppose the Communist system of government they will be punished. It is the same in Singapore. Many may feel that Singapore under Lee Kuan Yew and his dictatorship is damaging the island's interests. It destroys independent thinking, denies a free press, denies freedom of speech and expression and expects everyone to worship Lee Kuan Yew and his son. Thinking citizens are repulsed by such mindless conformism but anyone attempting to bring about change risks jail time, loss of jobs and prison time, a defamation lawsuit and bankruptcy.
But in one sense Singaporeans are luckier than their Communist Chinese counterparts. They are able to speak English, even though it may be hardly intelligible elsewhere. Nevertheless this is an advantage that the Chinese in China do not have. Also they are able to leave their island if they wish for settlement elsewhere. This ability to leave and their certain level of international mobility; and their refusal to have children resulting in the island having the lowest birth rate in the world, turns out to be the biggest threat against this Singaporean autocratic regime.
What is happening now is that the island educates it's citizens, although a major portion of that education consists of mind control and brainwashing, end up wanting to leave for the West. This huge brain drain turns out to hit the regime hard, one from which it's leaders do not appear to have an answer.
Surely they can realize that if it's government loses its creditability which it has, with the lack of the rule of law, and the absence of any fundamental human rights which people elsewhere would have taken for granted, it is hard to convince anyone to live in a place like that.
Indeed there are many striking similarities between the Communist regime in China and Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore. But the major difference is that despite repressing their citizens, the Peoples Republic of Communist China will be able to carry on in business because they have more people than they need, one billion to be exact. Tiny Singapore on the other hand does not have that privilege. Already it has just about 2 million local born citizens. Yesterday's Straits Times, the local state controlled newspaper reported that besides the number of childbirth having fallen to record low, a mere fraction of what it was ten years ago, the children each had either one foreign parent or both.
Singapore today is not longer what it was. There are no Singaporeans in Singapore. What you have is a hotch potch of Chinese, Taiwanese, and other peoples from Asia who have no knowledge of English or anything about their new island home. And mostly they have no interest in living there permanently either.
With a reluctant and transient population, recently arrived from diverse regions of Asia, and hardly speaking English, the situation does not look very bright. Lee's policies are driving away their native born citizens, who are far more valuable to the island and replacing them with these Mandarin speaking new arrivals. I guess, the island's dictators should have realized that it was a bad idea repressing their own citizens. In the long run it simply does not work.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont, California USA
Tel: 510 491 4375
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
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