Singaporeans. Are there any left?

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Only 6 months ago and before, Singapore's state controlled newspapers lamented almost daily on the mounting emigration rate running into thousands a year from their already tiny population of just 2.5 million or so native born citizens. What was even more alarming was that the numbers leaving for settlement in the West were the brightest among their citizens, men and women with education skills and money. For a tiny island with a tiny population, and with no natural resources, mass emigration at this rate is damaging beyond salvation. It is nothing short of a disaster.

You will recall that the government tried everything they could to stem the flood. Goh Chok Tong, Lee Kuan Yew's former handpicked Prime Minister called those leaving traitors and quitters in an attempt to shame them into staying. It did not work. Many articles were written in their state controlled newspapers urging, in fact begging Singaporeans to stay.

In desperation, Lee Kuan Yew's ministers including Goh Chok Tong and Lui Teck Yew and in fact Lee himself made their rounds to all the world's capitals where any Singaporean can be found to urge them to return. I remember about a year ago, Lui came to San Francisco and spread out lavish lunches in a top hotel, mind you at Singapore tax payers expense, to dine and wine the escaped Singaporeans presumably in the hope that in return for the free lunches, they may somehow decide to be nice and return to Lee Kuan Yew's  no-nonsense island.

Alas it appears, none of it worked. Overseas Singaporeans rebuffed every attempt to coax them back to Lee Kuan Yew's paradise. Why should they when they have tasted freedom in their new found countries. Why should anyone in their right mind think of going back to Lee Kuan Yew's dictatorship where he rules through Kangaroo courts, an attack dog police force and a state controlled media which dishes out propaganda on a daily basis.

The other problem which Lee daily publicized in the past on his state controlled newspapers was it's almost zero birth rate. There was almost no babies being born with Singapore having been declared having the world's lowest birth rate. This too is utter suicide for a tiny island with such a tiny population. And to solve the problem they resorted as is usual in dictatorships to such stupidity like showing soft porn movies late night on state television presumably in the hope that after watching it, you may decide to have sex with your wife and hopefully have a baby! I am not sure what happened to this stupid policy but like every other of their hare brained ideas, I guess that too died a natural death.

The other major headache for Lee Kuan Yew was that the predominantly Chinese population of Singapore who are traditionally averse to any military duty were trying very hard to avoid national service by sending their children abroad and making sure they did not return. We were told that barracks were becoming empty for lack of conscripts and in fact the very security of the island was being threatened by lack of manpower. This subject too previously on headline news is not not mentioned anymore.

The good thing about having a state controlled press is that you don't have to publish any bad news. I can only guess that as they have realized that every single Singaporean capable of escaping the clutches of the Singaporean dictator and his island has already left or if not, is in the process of leaving and there is nothing they can do about it.

Lee has realized that Singaporeans are simply not going to have babies and showing soft porn wasn't a good idea.

And since there is nothing they can do about it, and presumably, the local born Singapore population has already probably declined to less than 2 million with a majority in the island being a growing foreign population, perhaps they thought it best to just forget about the problem.

There is a word for this. It is called living in denial.

It is like being on the sinking Titanic and dancing the waltz. After all, if there is nothing you can do, why worry about it!

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