Singapore strongman Lee Kuan Yew and son determined to silence every single soul in his tiny island

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Lee Kuan Yew and his son, as I have said, rule through their Kangaroo courts which they use to silence and punish critics. Till some 10 years ago, they used to go against the serious threats to them, such as the late JB Jeyaretnam, lawyer and formidable politician and Chee Soon Juan, another opposition politician.

Now his tactic appears changed. Probably due to nervousness out of the Internet empowering more and more citizens, their only hope of clinging to power maybe is to silence and intimidate each and every single soul in that tiny island, so that there will be no one, not a single human being would dare utter the slightest insult.

This more aggressive policy is seen from the recent years where an English author had been jailed for writing a book they did not like, numerous bloggers within the island (they leave alone bloggers such as myself outside their jurisdiction for obvious reasons) have been sent lawyers letters to apologize and remove their blogs. And to ratchet the repression even more, there is now a new law requiring Singaporean blogs which have a certain amount of exposure in in the island to come up with $50,000.00 deposit which you would lose if you criticize.

The latest victim to this aggression is a Singaporean cartoonist Leslie Chew. His news is all over the papers. All he did was to draw a cartoon showing the fact that Singaporean courts are mere instruments which the strongman uses to silence dissent.

There is no doubt as to the truth of that statement. For this, it appears  that after arresting and presumably intimidating and mentally torturing him, they naturally expected him to confess, admit his guilt and apologize. This would have satisfied them since they could then publish this fact in their state controlled press with a large photo of this man having realized his mistake and confessed his sin.

However it appears it did not work out that way. Either on his own or because of his lawyers advice he did the right thing. He refused to kowtow. He must have known that the hopes and aspirations of countless freedom loving Singaporeans ride on his shoulders and a capitulation in this case would be a let down for all of them, let alone the cause of freedom. 

This probably infuriated these ruling bully boys. It appears they told him that the charges would be withdrawn if he apologizes. Since he has refused, and the Chinese gentlemen Lee Kuan Yew and his son cannot lose their Chinese honor before such an insult, they have had no choice but to go ahead and produce him before their Kangaroo judges on the charge of contempt of court.

What is left of course is that Chew would undoubtedly be punished but more importantly, he will be shown in all the island state controlled newspapers and the media with his photo prominently displayed as a warning to every other Singaporean individual not to behave like Chew or else they will receive what Chew did, the stick.

This sort of total repression across the island against even the slightest criticism is going to take it's toll against this dictatorial regime. The average citizen realizing that they now live completely at the mercy of this father and son government, the already huge brain drain to the West would probably increase even further. We have heard in the past that the government was concerned about the loss of such large numbers of the skilled and talented, but it appears they no longer care.

It maybe that the government has changed it's policy and would in fact prefer that questioning and troublesome citizens may be detrimental to their continued rule over the tiny island. Perhaps they now prefer that independent thinking heads should better leave. In their place as they are doing now, they can bring in large numbers of Chinese from mainland China and other places, screening them first for obedience, so that they will never question the policies of their government.

In this manner they may hope to rule over an island comprised entirely of citizens absolutely loyal to their government. Like a mini North Korea. They would therefore not have to deal with critical blogs troublesome cartoonists and graffiti artists who write things that they do not like. I think in all probability, this is what Lee Kuan Yew and his son are aiming at. And I think they are probably going to get their paradise happy island.

I think this is going to be Lee Kuan Yew's Brave New World. An island where everyone is happy, all living in their government provided cubicles high rise apartments, going about their daily lives in total bliss under the kind and merciful arms of the Lee Kuan Yew family and their Peoples Action Party, who will always provide. Isn't that nice.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont, California, USA
Tel: 510 491 4375
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com