Singapore poised for inter-racial violence

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Singapore's state controlled newspaper Straits Times of Aug 30, 2013 has the story "Indian community concerned about job discrimination". Please see http://www.straitstimes.com/archive/friday/breaking-news/singapore/story/indian-community-concerned-about-job-discrimination-20130830

Singapore's multi millionaire Minister for Environment and Water Works, Vivian Balakrishnan (by the way they are all multi millionaires. Each of them get paid five times what the President of United States is paid) has said "employment discrimination was a key concern raised by (Singapore's) Indian community" and "I think it's a perception that we must address head-on"

But so far, despite the island's claim to glitter and glamour and first world status, it is actually worse than even the worst sub-Saharan African country. Believe it or not, the island does not have any minimum wage laws and neither does it have any anti racial discrimination laws.

And let me say this one more time if it hasn't sunk in. Singapore does not have any laws against racial discrimination!

In Singapore island, where the population is deliberately maintained at least 75% Chinese by deliberately bringing in Chinese immigrants from China, because Lee Kuan Yew the island dictator prefers Chinese over others, Chinese businesses, which by the way are naturally the majority can lawfully deny a job to an Indian or Malay for no other reason other than his race. And this racial discrimination can be practiced not only by private employers but also by the government.

And even if they are compelled, in the unlikely event, to employ an Indian because no Chinese person had applied, he would be passed over for promotions and at the earliest opportunity fired from his job to give it to an available Chinese applicant.

In developed countries, where there are laws in place prohibiting such discrimination, the aggrieved person has a recourse and can seek redress in the courts under race relations laws. But in Singapore where there are no such laws, what does a person such as this do? I tell you what they will do. When the kettle reaches the boil, he will explode. And he would beat the brains out of the Chinese person who has treated him this way. That is what any human being in this situation would do.

It is the same with an Indian or a Malay who has been denied a job, fired from his job for a Chinese, denied a HDB flat because he was an Indian or in any other situation, where he cannot seek redress under the law which clearly requires a set of rules, they would simply explode. I would. It is only human to seek redress for this injustice.

The reason why the Singapore government, bent on being business friendly at all costs, refuses to have minimum wage laws or race relations laws, is the fear that such legislation would adversely affect business or the rights of employers. You see, it is all about protecting employers in that Alice in Wonderland island, never mind the stupid worker.

But this is a stupid reason not to legislate in such areas where laws are clearly required for peaceful co-existence among different races. There is not a single developed nation in the world that does not have such laws. And their failure to realize this would inevitably result in far more racial violence than is already happening there, which the state controlled newspapers refuse to report.

Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew's son who runs the island should take note that unless he does something to really address the situation, by which I mean enforceable legislation to criminalize racial discrimination, the Malays and the Indians are going to beat the Hell out of the nearest ethnic Chinese person.

It is only human. Unless of course they are all Mahatma Gandhis and sworn adherents and proponents of the principle of non violence or Satyagraha. I am not and I don't think most Indians and Malays are either.

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

Asylum for Singapore lawyers in USA

Ladies and Gentlemen,

If you are a Singapore lawyer and want to move to the US through asylum, I could help you.

As lawyers you are aware, or should be, that the Singapore dictatorship always punishes those who exercise their human rights to criticize them. The right to free speech, expression and assembly are universal and strictly recognized and enforced in the US. When the Singapore government arrests those who criticize or peacefully protest, this is a violation of these rights which enables the person to seek asylum in the US.

As a lawyer, you are aware that the Constitution of Singapore does provide these guarantees, which the government unlawfully subverts with laws criminalizing such acts through subsequent legislation. Constitutional law clearly makes such disenabling provisions clearly illegal and unenforceable unless the state can make out an argument that it's interests would be gravely compromised unless such laws are enacted. Such an argument cannot be made making such laws clearly ultra vires and unenforceable.

The US is a great place to practice law and the wide range  and spectrum of legal specialization makes success at the Bar readily available for those willing to work hard and exercise their imagination. Also everyone can own a drive a car. Even two cars or as many as you want.

I live in the San Francisco area and there is a good deal of work here and the other major cities such as Los Angeles and San Diego. Besides work, the weather alone is reason enough to work and live in California.

There is no better climate anywhere in the world, I can vouch for that, beside the most important fact of all, which is, it does not have an idiot like Lee Kuan Yew or his son to strut around like the prize rooster in the chicken cage bullying everyone in sight.

This is how it can be done.

First you have to break the law such as the one that requires you to have a permit to protest. Such a law is unenforceable anywhere in the world other than Singapore. So make a placard or a poster with the words such as " We want freedom" or "Stop further immigration and job loss" or "Singaporeans first, foreigner second" or other words to your preference. With this poster stand along the Raffles Place pedestrian walk or busy Orchard Road pedestrian walkway on a busy afternoon.

If possible have someone to take a video of you doing this and when you get arrested. I am sure within a few minutes, Lee Kuan Yew's goon police would turn up and have you arrested and confiscate your poster or placard.

When you are in detention and being interrogated don't give in. Refuse to confess and demand a trial. They would have no choice but to put you on trial and put your picture and the news of your arrest in their state controlled press. They do this to deter others from doing what you did. They are overcome with fear of protests by their citizens.

In court demand a trial. Do not plead guilty. In the end, they would give you a fine or a short prison sentence. Pay the fine if you want. The Law Society of Singapore (the island State Bar) would probably commence some action to punish you. Fight the charge. You will be found guilty anyway.

If you can do so, after this case, do this one more time. They will arrest you again. Fight the case again. Another guilty verdict. Another fine. If you don't have the money or don't wish to pay, then don't. You will be once again sent to jail. And the same process aforementioned. You don't have to do this again, but it doesn't hurt if you can.

Keep the newspaper cuttings of your arrest and the video if possible. You could use it at your asylum hearing.

After this fly to San Francisco on your Singapore passport. You don't need a visa as Singapore is a Visa Waiver country. All you need is a return ticket and a little money.

When you arrive at San Francisco Airport, you don't have to disclose to US Immigration that you intend to apply for asylum. That way they won't detain you for their mandatory credible fear interview at the airport. Just say you are coming for a short visit. Once in the US come to see me at my office in Fremont, which is a suburb of San Francisco. Or call me and I will come to pick you up.

You have a good chance of success on these facts. By arresting you and jailing you they are clearly denying your right to hold and exercise your political opinion and your right to free speech and expression. They are also clearly denying your right to practice your profession and earn a livelihood since we all know how their system works once someone is targeted as a political opponent.

I will file your asylum application. I am the best possible lawyer in this case as I know the Singapore political system more than any other lawyer in the US, and an added benefit of personal experience. The asylum case will be heard within a month or so. The important thing is there is no danger from doing this. If in the unlikely event you don't get asylum for some reason, you simply revert to your visitor status and no information is passed to the Singapore government. You could then simply fly back if unsuccessful and no one will know.

My fees are US$3,500.00 payable in advance. You can Email me at nair.gopalan@yahoo.com. Or you can call me at 510 491 4375. Please remember when calling that Singapore time is 16 hours ahead of California. The best time for you to call is during morning hours in Singapore.

Once you get asylum, you would get work authorization. You can legally work, find out from the State Bar of California in San Francisco the requirements needed to be licensed in California and once that is done, start a life here at the Bar. I have no regrets in coming.

Once a few of you come over, there will be more coming. Singapore's acute shortage of lawyers would become even more intense. The freedom loving people are winning the war against the Lee Kuan Yew regime. Already now, the Singapore government is struggling with a shortage of lawyers. When even more come over like you, you would not only be helping yourself, you will be lending a hand towards crippling the dictatorship.

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

With no human rights, or real Constitution, Singaporeans drift from dictatorship to dictatorship

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Despite all the glitter in the Singapore city skyline, the skyscrapers and the glass, the city state is literally a dictatorship. It's people have no human rights, a constitution ignored, the last 50 years under Lee Kuan Yew and recently under his son.

The government is run by Lee's son, assisted by handpicked government scholarship funded scholars who are fielded at elections every five years where the outcome is predetermined. They always win. The detractors are all destroyed through defamation lawsuits and contempt of court charges. The fear running down their spine of every islander in criticizing the dictatorship is real resulting in effectively shutting out any debate and dialogue on government by their people.

Government agencies such as Resident's Committees and Consultative Committees stage manage public debate. Recently a government organized project put forward various perceived ideas on the future of the country called OSC (Our Singapore Conversation). This is a fraud. Known government sympathizers were handpicked to take part and naturally gave predictable answers to questions. The state controlled media then publishes this nonsense as public feedback and the dictatorship go out and claim to redress the failings. Utter stupidity.

The majority of the population have no voice. They can write their grievances anonymously in the hope that the dictatorship will not know who they are. Beyond this, there is nothing more they can do. Every form of civil society debate or discussion is illegal. Free speech is illegal. Protests are illegal. Forming a society without a government license is illegal.

In the end we have in Singapore island, a dictatorship under Lee's son who do what they think is right. Since they feel they know everything, there is no need for any people consultation. They pay themselves any amount they want. And do what they want with the help of their corrupt multi million dollar ministers, the highest paid in the world. The people have no part in deciding how their country is run.

What you see in the island today, the skyscrapers, the schools, the roads, the telephones are entirely the doing of this dictatorship. As for the people, they simply sit back waiting for what more their dictatorship will do for them next.

As a result the people's only hope is to live from one dictatorship to the next. Now it is Lee Kuan Yew's son's turn. When or how long he will remain as dictator, no one knows. It is entirely up to him. Afterall he can do anything he wants. He may decide some time in the future to leave and appoint another dictator who will in turn select his ministers and assistants to run the island. Of course they will all be elected by destroying the opposition through their Kangaroo Courts.

Unfortunately for Singaporeans this sort of living from one dictatorship to another where they have no rights at all and are entirely at the mercy of any dictator that happens to be around is not just undesirable, it is dangerous. For stability and peaceful transition of governments, the people have to be empowered. There has to be elected representatives, the rule of law not Kangaroo
courts, and free and fair elections and last but not least human rights. They have to have a stake in their country. All these requirement of civil society is absent in the island.

If Singaporeans really wanted to save their island, the only thing they can do is to publicly protest and demand of this dictatorship for their rights to be restored which they have not known for 50 years. If they don't they are destined to live from one dictatorship to another and hope that their dictatorship will build the roads, ensure safe drinking water and the skyscrapers. The people unfortunately have no control over whether this will be done.

Singaporeans are nothing but "digits" as Lee Kuan Yew once called them. They are told to be silent and obey. The Allmighty Lee Kuan Yew's son knows what is best.

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

Singapore's dictatorial government and an uncertain future

Ladies and Gentlemen,

For the last 50 years of Singapore's history under Lee Kuan Yew, his idea was to replace the intended Constitutional parliamentary democracy which the island inherited from the British to a total dictatorship to enable him to rule any way he wants with the help of handpicked ministers and civil servants.

This he managed handsomely. Although in paper the island was a parliamentary democracy, every single human right, that one would expect in a democracy was swiftly removed with legislation. Today the right to freedom of speech has another law which says it is a crime to speak publicly without a permit. Assembly needs a permit. Newspapers need permits. Union leaders need permits.

Lee had no intention of relying on parliamentary elections. He picks who his ministers will be and he makes sure they win at elections. This is done by suing real opposition candidates with libel lawsuits which he will always win before his Kangaroo courts. His judges do what he wants.

In this way the island has been run as if it was a company. Lee Kuan Yew owns the company. In his company, he decides who will be given directorships and who will manage it; who will get more and who less. Usually his family members are the ones who get the lion share. The ordinary Singaporean is only a worker. If he doesn't perform or turns out to be  troublemaker, he is punished by the Kangaroo courts.

As a result the ordinary citizen lives in mortal fear of Lee Kuan Yew and his government. It can be trouble if he is displeased. Most ordinary Singaporeans therefore simply toe the line and do as they are told. It made sense to keep a low profile and be obedient. If your ideas do not correspond with his, he can cause you a lot of trouble.

What this meant was that there wasn't any established template for government as democracies do. In a democracy, the people elect their representatives who then govern in their name. If you don't like them you can vote them out. A free press ensures that the population is informed as to what is happening.

No politician can last long in a democracy without the support of his people. In a democracy unlike Singapore, the legal system is trusted and upholds the law and integrity. The average man in a democracy, unlike Singapore, can expect justice in it's courts. In democracies, multitude viewpoints are allowed to be aired and debated. With the combined effort and contribution of it's people democracies advance far better and in new directions each passing day.

So far for the last 50 years, Singapore's dictatorship has carried on without much opposition. This was because the people were not so aware of what was happening before the advent of the Internet. Today it is different. More and more citizens are becoming aware that this is a government without legitimacy. A government that has hijacked the Constitution and governs by dictate instead of law. The people have no faith in the government.

90 year old Lee Kuan Yew will die very soon. He has admitted he is dying. It will be a watershed in Singapore's' history. Question is, how is his son whom he appointed Prime Minister going to govern henceforth. Is he going to become another Lee Kuan Yew. Is he going to govern like his father by jailing and bankrupting his critics and appointing handpicked ministers to government by making sure they win at elections by destroying the opposition?

Is he going to continue ruling by denying his people their constitutional rights by jailing anyone who spoke publicly without a permit? Is he going to carry on like this for another fifty years and will his handpicked successor rule for another fifty by jailing the opposition and denying human rights through Kangaroo courts?

You can see why such a system of government is weak. It is fragile. It is not based on any law because there is none. It is based entirely on dictates of one man, formerly Lee Kuan Yew and henceforth his son. We don't know what he will do next. It is entirely up to him. Unless you are one of his party, you have no say whatsoever in the running of your country. And with the passing of each dictator, you don't know what will happen next.

The difficulty that Lee's son faces today as well as all other dictators around the world is the advent of the Internet. It has educated and informed the population far too much. It becomes increasingly difficult to justify this sort of government.

Which is why you see increasing numbers of educated and skilled Singaporeans leaving it's shore for settlement abroad. Another consequence of this sort of misrule is the world's lowest birth rate. Regardless of how much you pay women to have children, they simply refuse.

CIA fact book records Singapore as having the lowest birth rate in the world. With the local Singapore population almost disappearing, the island has no choice but to bring in increasing numbers of Chinese who not only have no clue about the island, they don't even speak English.

90 year old Lee Kuan Yew has left the island completely in tatters and an uncertain future by denying Singaporeans the well tested time honored democracy and replacing it with a dictatorship. He has left Singapore as nothing but a fraud. Singapore is a fraud because it claims to be pretend to be a democracy but it is not. It claims to have a constitution but it does not. It claims to have human rights but it does not. Singapore is nothing but a tiny island with skyscrapers run by a dictatorship.

It would have been better for Lee's son now to come out with the truth and lay the cards on the table, not only for it's own citizens but the rest of the world. He should admit it is not a democracy. He should take down all the highfalutin Latin words extolling the rule of law in his courts and replace them which pictures of kangaroos in judicial robes.

He should change it's constitution to reflect the fact that it is dictatorship. It should state that his party alone will have the right to rule in perpetuity, like the Chinese Communist party. He should do away with elections and choose ministers and civil servants of his liking to govern the island with him.

Instead of abusing the law to destroy political opponents, he should make if illegal to criticize him or his government. This way, the people and the world will know what Singapore really is. At least they can give him credit for being honest. Instead of this, he as well as his island is nothing but a fraud. It is a fraud on his people and the world to claim to be a democracy and run it as a dictatorship.

This arbitrary dictatorial rule leaves the future of Singapore very uncertain. Singapore's future literally lies in uncharted waters. No one knows what he will do next or what will happen next or who will rule over the people. 

This is the greatest harm Lee Kuan Yew has done to his country, leaving it without a respectable representative government, to the vagaries of whoever happens to seize power or be handed it. Skyscrapers are of no use if the people have no guarantee if they would be turned into slaves the next day. Perhaps they have already become slaves.

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

Singapore's false sense of calm extracted through threats intimidation and repression

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Singapore's state controlled newspaper Straits Times of Aug 23, 2013 has the story "PM Lee describes being unashamed and thick skinned as elements key to online resilience".

He says "one must not be ashamed of doing what is right and one must be thick skinned". Please see http://www.straitstimes.com/archive/friday/breaking-news/singapore/story/pm-lee-describes-being-unashamed-and-thick-skinned-elements-key-online

Very wise words indeed, but Lee Kuan Yew's son is once again not telling the whole truth, is he?

For one thing, the newspaper here, like all others in his island, are all state controlled. Which means of course he can order them to come running to him anytime he wants and write anything he wants. This report is not so much a news report but rather more like a notice put out in a company news bulletin board intended to inform it's workers. 

Second, he conveniently fails to mention that criticism of him, within his island is not only muted, it is entirely anonymous. No one in his right mind would dare to openly criticize him, his father, his government or anyone associated with him simply because any such criticism is illegal and the offender liable to arrest.

The only reason I, Gopalan Nair, can do this is because I am writing from California, and obviously he is not so confident in winning a lawsuit against me here.

Throughout it's history, anyone who criticizes him is immediately either sued for defamation, brought before his Kangaroo courts whose job is to destroy his critics. The victim is promptly found liable and slapped with million dollar damages and bankrupted. Alternatively he is arrested, charged and convicted of sedition or some other law and imprisoned.

Despite the great danger of open criticism, the fact that Lee's son still concedes in this report that there is a sizeable number of people who want him out, is clear evidence that opposition to his rule is far more widespread than appears. 

If despite the terrible dangers one still finds so many of it's citizens willing to criticize, can you imagine how many more would openly vent their anger if they could do so without fear of arrest?

Lee Kuan Yew's son is deluding himself if he thinks his island is peaceful and calm. If there is peace and calm, it's peace and calm not because it's citizens are happy but because they are not allowed to openly protest. Singapore uses defamation laws, contempt of court laws, sedition laws and a litany of other laws to prevent any open criticism against their rule.

As the old adage goes, just because the water is calm, does not mean there are no crocodiles.

Singaporeans have a great deal to be unhappy about. About their lack of freedoms. About their lack of a free press. About their inability to criticize. About their unattainable housing needs which has become simply unaffordable. About racial discrimination. No possibility of car ownership. Jobs going to foreigners. The island being flooded by foreigners.

You have a groundswell of dissatisfaction only waiting for the right moment to explode, and that moment is soon to come.

Singaporeans will not be content to live under Lee's son when 90 year old Lee Kuan Yew, in failing health, dies. Singapore is not Syria where Bashar al Assad takes over when his father Hafiz al Assad dies. Syria never had a British constitutional parliamentary tradition unlike Singapore.

Neither is it a Chinese dynasty where the job of emperor goes to his son when he dies.

Lee Kuan Yew's son should realize very clearly that his government is simply illegitimate. He came to power, not by free and fair elections but through his father rigging it by disqualifying and destroying all political opponents and subsequently appointing him Prime Minister. He lacks not only moral but also legal authority to rule.

If Singaporeans are simply going to accept his government upon his father's death, this would mean their accepting an illegitimate government to carry on passing over control from one dictator to another. I don't think Singaporeans are going to allow this.

I think not only Lee Kuan Yew's son the prime Minister but the entire island should brace themselves for some very unsettling times the moment Lee senior dies, which is going to be very soon. If Lee's son feels complacent and confident now, he should realize he is on thin ice. Island wide dissatisfaction against his government and policies is only waiting for the right time to explode into more open and sustained protests and demonstrations. You are going to see thousands who have been denied jobs by the recently arrived foreign workers taking to the streets. And many others with their grievances are going to join in.

If Singapore is calm today, it is a false calm extracted through threats, intimidation and repression. It cannot last. Once Lee Kuan Yew dies, Singaporeans would no longer be constrained to take this repression lying down. Then you are going to see the real fireworks. And with the fireworks this small tiny island with a miniscule population reliant on foreign investment may entirely unravel. This is a real scenario very likely to happen.

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

Lee Kuan Yew's death. Singapore's time for hope or a time for despair

Ladies and Gentlemen,

An occurrence which is sure to happen by the law of nature, and by the subject's own admission, (Lee confessed in his recent book that he is dying) is that 90 year old Lee Kuan Yew is about to die any moment now.

Being in essence a dictatorship Singapore's unique problem, unlike any democracy with an established political system allowing for peaceful political change to happen without revolutions and coups d'état is that he alone single handedly was responsible for running the place and everyone else, whom he considered far inferior to him,  was a mere handpicked minion as well as his son the Prime Minister whom he appointed to that position.

Singapore has no leaders except for one, Lee Kuan Yew himself.

And what usually happens in dictatorships once the reigning dictator dies is that there is the inevitable jockeying for power by the political aspirants, very often bloodshed, total economic ruin and from the rubble a new dictator rises and life goes on in the miserable boring way it did all along under the previous dictatorship.

The question is, when the present dictator Lee Kuan Yew dies, will Singaporeans be content merely to obey Lee's son, the Prime Minister,  and life goes on in it's present boring manner under the son's dictatorship , or will there be the aforementioned unavoidable chaos and instability from which hopefully a democracy emerges? Only time will tell.

Knowing Singaporeans very well, they are more educated and demanding than you may think. True, they have quietly accepted life under Lee Kuan Yew thus far without complaining but I am not so sure that with his demise, they are going to accept the nonsense under his son lying down. I don't think it is going to be business as usual.

Singaporeans for the first time will demand real representative government, not a mere handpicked errand boy as Lee Kuan Yew's son is. I don't believe any Singaporean has any faith in him, let alone any respect and if they haven't risen up in revolt up till now, it has to be because his father is still around to call the shots. I believe once Lee senior is dead, his son will be history, very ancient history.

I really don't know what will be the new Singapore be but it will certainly be interesting to see. I  am holding my breath for the moment of Lee Kuan Yew's death, and I am sure thousands of other Singaporeans are doing the same and waiting for that epic monumental event to happen.

There are many Singaporeans who had to go into exile to escape Lee's punishment for having stood up to him. Many of them may come back to lead the new Singapore after the dictator is gone. Former Singaporeans such as Francis Seow who lives in the US, Tang Liang Hong who lives in Australia, Tan Wah Piow who lives in England and many others both known and unknown may return to work or help in the new Singapore. Of course, since it may have been a long time when some left the island and having sunk roots in their new countries may not find it so easy to return but hopefully they may assist in other ways possible.

I am eagerly looking forward to the death of the Singapore dictator Lee Kuan Yew so that there can be a chance for a new Singapore, not based on totalitarianism but on democracy, and freedom for all.

Of course the faster Lee Kuan Yew dies, the sooner change can happen. For the present moment, we will just have to wait a little. 

I personally don't think it is too early to put the champagne bottle in the ice.

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

Singapore's best kept secret. Is Lee Kuan Yew still breathing

Ladies and Gentlemen,

For a country that has boasted daily for the last 50 years of their Lee Kuan Yew, the miracle man, who had done Singapore single handedly everything it is now, appears suddenly to be eerily silent on the subject.

Had not the 92 year old man recently written a book in which he confessed that "he is weakening daily" and that "no matter how much exercise he takes, it does him no good" and that if bedridden and turned into a cabbage, he "would rather die quickly" and had not the international media picked up on it, we would never have known that he in fact already has one foot firmly in his grave, and by all reckoning, it is only matter of days for the end.

But you notice that for such an important personage, made larger than life by his state propaganda team during the last 50 years while he has been perfecting his one party state no-nonsense, you-listen-to-me- or- else Stalinist police state plus the skyscrapers, it is surprising all of a sudden for them to be so quiet.

They are suddenly behaving as if Lee's health was the number one state secret. Except for one report which they were compelled to write since the foreign press had already broken the story, there has been nothing at all about how the old man is faring, especially since it has already been reported that he is in no less than a dying state. 

Why the need to keep Lee's state of health secret?

I reckon, Lee's minions at the top are now no longer confident that their island with no more than 2 million local born citizens, with the lowest birth rate and the highest brain drain in the world, will outlast the superman who will soon die.

Perhaps they are not very sure whether the island will now smoothly rally around his son and carry on as if this were normal.

Perhaps Singaporeans who look at his son only as the son of the father with no other redeeming qualities will evict him from his palace which his father gave him.

Perhaps Teo Chee Hean the half sleepy looking deputy to the son, whose qualifications are successfully passing his exams in school, and an expert in licking the asses of both father and son, may no longer be acceptable to Singaporeans upon his master's demise.

Perhaps they will look upon the Tamil Minister for Law K Shanmugam good enough only for tossing Indian pancakes in Singapore's Little India after the departure of his master, we will never know either.

I think a creeping crippling fear has come upon the entire bunch of scholar bootlickers and minions who form Lee's government, that they are now genuinely afraid whether the entire island will descend into another Dubai during the recent economic depression with banks leaving, money outflowing and persons leaving in a mass exodus over the uncertainly which will certainly loom over the future of the island, upon Lee's death, one does not know.

In fact I think they are not sure if the island will in effect literally disintegrate, unravel and collapse entirely.

Which is why I think it is important to put forward a confident face and not look nervous before the world, or they may give the cat away. Which is why they behave as if everything is fine in their house of cards as the Sun rises in the East in their island every morning.

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

Singapore's newspapers without any news

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Those who are not very accustomed to Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore would have thought the finding by 2013 Reporters Without Borders placing Singapore's newspapers 151 at the bottom of the list below Somalia for press freedom to be rather harsh.

But a quick look at today's Singapore state controlled newspaper Straits Times would make you think even the 151st ranking was a little too generous. It should be below even that of North Korea.

This is what is reported in today's Straits Times breaking news for the local section

1. Lee Kuan Yew says children should be bilingual
2. Parking in private streets are not allowed
3. English Premier League's football creates interest
4. War Memorial is to be gazette
5. Car firms give perks to customers
6. Car dealers adjust down payments
7. A report about Singapore zoo
8. New standards for improved food
9. Five got scholarships
10. 2 were arrested in Ubin for stealing
11. Some kids rely too much on parents
12. A Bank officer was jailed for theft
13. Day care for dementia patients
14. Murder suspect gets medical exam
15. A student is a computer wiz
16. A program to deputize neighbors

That's all the local headline news in Singapore's, I have to say, premium state controlled newspaper, Straits Times. I am sure no one would disagree with me if I say, it is certainly not the New York Times. But letting alone the New York Times, it may not even be anywhere near the Havana Times either.

And this is what happens when a society like Singapore allows a dictator to get away with controlling everything in the island, the newspapers, the judges, speech, expression, assembly and every possible human right that you could possibly think of for the last five decades.

Thanks to Lee's state controlled Straits Times, the people of Singapore, as evidenced by the rubbish you see in those pages, have completely switched off, and they appear to no longer even care if they don't get any news about their country. In the end the dire result is that the government is not interested in telling Singaporeans anything important, while the Singaporeans couldn't care two hoots about anything important either.

Those who would have cared have all left the island, of no more than 2 million local citizens, in the world's largest on going brain drain to the West, while those remaining and the recent arrivals from China in the island are so ignorant or so intimidated, they don't really think they need any news anyway.

There is nothing really happening in the island. There are no protests. There are no complaints. There are no view points. There is simply nothing. Lee Kuan Yew's island today has the quiet of the cemetery.

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

The greatest threat to tiny Singapore island's survival, the islandwide lack of leadership material

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Tiny Singapore island with no more than perhaps 2 million native born Singaporeans and with perhaps 3 million recently arrived foreigners, the majority, has been ruled since 1959, that is over five decades, in fact during it's entire modern existence, by one man, Lee Kuan Yew who is perhaps 92 years old and by his own confession, dying.

The principal character of his rule over these years is very clear. He never planned on a  democratic government, which the colonial British intended at independence, but a dictatorship under his total control.

To enable this, he ensured throughout his rule he alone wielded supreme power. And to assist him govern, he selected only handpicked professionals and bureaucrats, scholarship students who had passes exams, somewhat similar to the Scholars of the Chinese Ming Dynasty who ran that Chinese Empire.

Firstly, we have blatant and shameless nepotism. He appoints his son Prime Minister and his various other close and distant relatives to top Ministerial positions including Wong Kang Seng and his Senior Minister Goh Chock Tong, not to mention countless others. Not a single Singaporean has any respect for any of them, their positions seen not because of any qualities they may have but because they are connected to Lee Kuan Yew.

A look at his entire cabinet and members of parliament reveals all of them to have been government scholarship students who were sent abroad to Europe and America and upon return required to sign bonded contracts with him to serve his government for a fixed number of years. These scholars are then required to stand for the island elections and promised astronomical salaries upon their winning.

Being nothing but opportunists, naturally they jumped at the opportunity at a career of licking Lee's ass for the huge monetary rewards.

Although no one knows any of them, almost invariably every single one of these handpicked civil servants win the elections which is held every five years, since Lee makes sure they win.

This is done by rigging the elections, by commencing defamation actions and trumped up criminal charges against his real opponents so that they will be disqualified from contesting even before elections even start. Since the ones left would be the thoroughly inadequate ones, 6th grade elementary school bicycle thieves, whom he leaves alone, with no possibility of winning, his selected candidates breeze their way to success.

He not only uses the law to persecute and disqualify election candidates, he uses it to silence and destroy every person with leadership qualities in any walk of life, so as to ensure every single threat to his continued power is removed.

The result of this cleansing and purging of the island of anyone with ideas not like his, leaves the entire island without any leaders at all. His idea of leaders are only those selected by him, unconditionally loyal to him and think like him. Independent thinking leaders do not exist in Lee's tiny Singapore island.

The danger of a society like this, without any leaders, is that it always needs a Lee Kuan Yew like leader, like a Fuhrer or a Messiah to rule over them and tell them what to do. Like a Lee Kuan Yew who says, you listen to me or else! Such a society is incapable of sprouting up leaders to formulate ideas and policies for the rest of society, since anyone with the slightest of leadership qualities is not allowed to exist.

This creates the real worry as to what will happen to tiny Singapore island when their omnipotent all powerful supreme God like leader, 92 year old Lee Kuan Yew who has confessed that he wants to die quickly, kicks the bucket. Unless some other Lee Kuan Yew like leader sprouts up from somewhere, which is impossible, since no such person exists, it is going to look as if the ship SS Singapore is going to float around aimlessly without a captain. What is worse, tiny SS Singapore will begin listing in a few days or months and then promptly sink.

Let me give you some examples. Teo Chee Hean, Lee's deputy prime minister has been making all sorts of speeches and lecturing Singaporeans in the island's state controlled newspapers as to how we should live and what we should do with our lives. You can see his face and read his speeches almost every day ad nausea.

But let let me ask him who the Hell does he think he is anyway? His background shows, as every other single Minister minion of Lee Kuan Yew, he is nothing more than a scholar who passed his exams and was handpicked by his master Lee Kuan Yew for office.

He is not a leader by any means of anyone and he will never be. He is nothing but an opportunist who is licking Lee's boots because it pays well and through corruption; he and his children enjoy large sum of money, benefits, perks and advantages. He is not a leader by any standards. And if Lee Kuan Yew dies, no one is even going to give him a second look, not that they are looking at him now anyway.

It is the same with all of Lee's ministers. Nobody bothers about them now and nobody will bother about them after Lee dies.

And once Lee Kuan Yew dies it is going to be a free for all. There will be no leaders who will be able to garner the support of any single section of Singaporean society. It is inconceivable that anyone would pay any interest to any of these bootlickers.

Unlike respected democratic countries, tiny Singapore does not have any Constitution or any real set of laws that anyone can possibly respect. Lee has done away with all of this.  Just as Lee today, with Lee's passing, no one knows what anyone who seizes control would demand as it is anyone's guess. It will be like today, entirely arbitrary.

This means of course with the island having a mere 2 million or so local born citizens (no one has any exact figure since the press is all state controlled)  and the vast majority of recent immigrants who had no idea of what Singapore is before they were recently given citizenship en mass, even more locals will leave for settlement abroad, the recently arrived foreigners would leave and tiny Singapore would disappear from the South East Asia map.

This is the dire result of a dictator's selfish policies who makes sure that there is no one to challenge him.

Worrying times, I would say. And all this created entirely by a very selfish man who wanted everything for himself and his family, with no care at all as to what happens to his island. Another downright King Leopold the Second in his Congo Free State or Singapore.

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

Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore "miracle" running out of steam

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Authoritarian countries like the former Soviet Union, today's China and one party state Singapore undoubtedly have achieved some success through coercion and compulsion of their people. That is why you can see some skyscrapers among Singapore's waterfront.

Under these systems citizens are required to obey and toe the government line, which reduces dissension and debate, thereby increasing quick productivity and wealth creation. But studies have also shown that invariably these authoritarian countries cannot sustain their upward trajectory for long, and they all invariably run out of steam and decline.

What they lack is democracy, a plurality of ideas and opinions where people can hold diverse opinions, express and promote them without fear of arrest intimidation and prosecution.

Authoritarian Soviet Union was far more successful than the democratic United States in the 1950s and 1960s when people thought that Russia was the model for the world for economic growth, far better than the United States.

But we see Russia today in shambles and economic collapse. It had simply run out of steam. China today appears to be advancing much faster than other countries but it  is based on the same top down, authoritarian model which will, before too long, simply decline as Russia has.

Singapore, just like these other authoritarian regimes will run out of steam, stagnate and decline before too long. In Singapore success requires that you are in effect a card carrying member of Lee's PAP, submit to authority and obey without question.

If you are seen otherwise, you stand no chance in a career either in the government or in the private sector. But the government's dictatorial laws and policies make it very uncomfortable for anybody with some decency to support them.

What then is Lee Kuan Yew government of today?

It is a one party state where every single member in Parliament is either an official member of the ruling party or a de facto member such as the Singapore Workers Party is. For all intends and purposes, it is a one party state. Anyone who prefers democracy and a multi party country is not going to be comfortable in such a system.

Second the government rigs every election through fraud to win. This is done through defamation actions against political opponents either before or after the elections to remove them from running. JB Jeyaretnam was repeatedly charged with fake and dubious charges and removed from Parliament. Che Soon Juan was bankrupted thereby disqualifying him from running.

Third, the government uses corrupt judges in their Kangaroo courts to destroy political opponents. We have seen this repeatedly done against JB Jeyaretnam and Chee Soon Juan. They knew they would be found guilty even before they stepped into the courtroom. Against Lee Kuan Yew's political opponents, the conviction rate is 100%.

Four, Lee has passed laws through his rubber stamp one party Parliament to criminalize free speech, expression or assembly. Today the islanders have no human rights at all. Anyone criticizing the government runs  the risk of being sued for defamation of character, being charged for contempt of court or for scandalizing the judiciary, their favorite legal theories to extract island-wide obedience.

Five, the government has decided to pay themselves the highest salaries in the world for politicians. Each one of them is paid $3.7 million a year in compensation. This is corruption. This is a corrupt government.

Six, the entire press and media island wide is state controlled just as the former Soviet Union's Pravda and Isvetzia. Singapore's Newspapers and Printing presses act makes it a crime to run a newspaper without a government license. In fact it even makes owning a printing press machine unlawful unless you had a license.

Despite these thoroughly disgraceful laws, in order to succeed the government demands that you support them and show loyalty to them, a pre-requisite for success. The result of this is that only dishonest opportunists and downright crooks would want to be associated with a government such as this.

As these authoritarian regimes would be obnoxious to most decent human beings, with time their support wanes and lose support, they decline, stagnate and finally destroy themselves. They lose the support of the masses, since most people are not charlatans and ruthless characters as Lee Kuan Yew expects human beings to be.

The Singapore government, their civic institutions and their courts have lost the respect of the citizens. The people do not know if they would jailed on trumped up charges at the whim and fancy of the government.

In respected democracies such as Australia the people have confidence in their government and their core institutions, a healthy respect for their country. Their citizens stay and work for the betterment of themselves and their country benefits from their presence. This is not the case in a discredited one party authoritarian regimes such as Singapore. As one can see, it has already begun to stagnate. In no time, it will begin to decline, as is the fate of all these authoritarian countries with their selfish corrupt regimes.

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

Singapore's lack of a level playing field causes stagnation and decline

Ladies and Gentlemen,

A look at all the developed democracies of the world, both big and small, one thing you see in common, is their determination to ensure their people have trust in their government, a trust in the rule of law and the assurance that everyone has an equal opportunity for success.

This is what Singapore lacks. In essence, it's people have no respect or trust in their government, their civil institutions or in the rule of law. Just as the authoritarian Africa nations such as Zimbabwe or the Latin American Venezuela, to succeed in Singapore it is not how good or able you are but how good are your connections.

Almost every single large business enterprise in Singapore is either state owned or controlled by the state, such as Singapore Airlines. Every one of these organizations only accept workers who are either connected to the Lee Kuan Yew government or at least sympathetic to them. All of Lee Kuan Yew's family members including his son, the Prime Minister and all his relatives, both distant and close, are given lucrative jobs, directorships, and money while those outside have no chance to partake in the wealth.

The Civil Service, the Police Force and the Judiciary are no different. You can only manage to work and succeed in any of these organizations if you are politically on their side. Judges are specifically told to make sure that laws are bent to deny justice to anyone not willing to toe the line. On the rare occasion when you see a judge showing some spine, he is promptly removed. Civil servants similarly deny petitions of anyone who is not seen as supportive. It is one law for the connected, another for ordinary Singaporeans.

Just like in Venezuela, Zimbabwe or Sierra Leone, in Singapore, the elite connected to the government protect their sources of wealth by denying anyone who is not on their side any opportunity of enjoying it.

As a result of this uneven playing field, where the average citizen has lost any confidence in their legal system, where justice is meted out depending on which side you are on, or when you realize that you have no hope of success either in a career or in business unless you are one of them, it denies a large section of an already small tiny population any hope. They are put off and refuse to contribute their best to their country. And the value and input of these people which could have benefited the island greatly is simply lost as they have lost respect for the core institutions of their island and their government.

If you consider Singapore nothing more than an authoritarian Banana Republic as I as well as many other Singaporeans do, you are simply putting off many who could have contributed to Singapore with lively zest and a passion.

Let me give you an example. The Lee Kuan Yew dictatorship repeatedly parrot the claim that they are a meritocracy, when anyone with two eyes can see that this is blatantly untrue. Take the case of Chee Soon Juan. He was a highly qualified neuropsychologist professor with an American degree at the national University of Singapore. When he decided to enter opposition politics, Lee's government not only fired him from his job but also convicted him on trumped up charges resulting in his bankruptcy and imprisonment.

Tell me, what sort of meritocracy is that? Had he been a Lee Lee Kuan Yew supporter, which he refused to do, he would now probably be the head professor at the University or even been made president. This is not meritocracy, this is simply rubbish.

Every single person who has received any success in the island is because he supports the dictatorship of the Lee Kuan Yew regime. Anyone even if highly qualified and able stands no chance of getting anywhere in Lee Kuan Yew's island.

It is this disenchantment and lack of respect for the civil institutions of the regime that will result in stagnation and decline as time passes. For any nation success and progress requires a vibrant citizenry with new ideas and new ways of thinking so that it enables creative destruction, by which I mean better ideas superseding existing ones, which can only happen if it's people trust their government and their legal system. Singapore island lacks a level playing field for all which is deliberately slanted to favor those who support the Lee Kuan Yew's regime.

Unlike Singapore the people in other developed democracies have a strong respect for their government and their legal system. As a result no one is left behind with everyone given an equal chance at success without regard to their political affiliation or connection.

Unfortunately for Singapore, even if now the government decides to open the island to all Singaporeans, it is a little too late. Once the trust and respect is lost, it is almost impossible to recover. For instance no amount of persuasion by the government could convince anyone that Lee Kuan Yew's corrupt judge Belinda Ang Saw Ean of the Singapore High Court is impartial after what she had done to Chee Soon Juan.

And just like the worst autocratic regimes around the world, Singapore does not have a free and independent press. It's ranking in world for press freedom is lower than Somalia. As a result just as in these other autocracies and dictatorships, you don't really know whether to believe what you read and as a result the people are deprived of hearing any contrarian idea and opinion.

In Peru under Fujimori, he went around paying millions to newspapers to make sure nothing bad is said about him. In Singapore Lee did not have to pay any millions to any newspaper. He just passed a law, the Newspapers and Printing Presses Act preventing any independent newspaper. And worse than Fujimori, Lee just had the elections rigged to make sure that he had a majority in Parliament, a rubber stamp, enabling him to pass any law he pleases.

You can already see the damage being done to the island by this government which has lost all integrity and respect. It has the largest brain drain in the world and for an island which has only about 1.5 million native born citizens and shrinking, the local native born Singaporeans would be wiped out in no time. Second it's population on the whole is dying with the lowest birth rate in the world and the numerous attempts to increase it by financial grants and benefits has simply not worked. And as a result the government is now accepting third rate Chinese speaking immigrants thereby totally changing the identity, history, customs and heritage of the island.

This is why you see proud respectable democratic countries like Australia continuing on a path of growth and progressive change with new ideas continuously advancing whereas Singapore can only stagnate with these Lee Kuan Yew supporters who run around singing the government tune for the benefits it provides. Just like the citizens of the late Chavez of Venezuela benefited by licking his boots for a living so do Lee's citizens, or "digits" as he has called them.

Singapore has lost the respect of it's citizens. And this results in stagnation in the long run and certain decline, not progress and advancement. It lacks a level playing field for all citizens.

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

Lee Kuan Yew's ego trip on Singapore

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Singapore's state controlled newspaper, Straits Times of August 11, 2013 has the story "Lee Kuan Yew on fate of Singapore in 100 years time". In it, the paper reports that in a recent book he had written, he is unsure whether Singapore would exist in a 100 years time although he believes other countries like USA and Australia will. Please see the report http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/lee-kuan-yew-fate-singapore-100-years-time-20130811

A lot of the article is pure and unadulterated self praise, an ego trip, to take credit for what the island is today, although a deeper examination by an erudite student would indeed show Singapore, despite it's high rise buildings which by the way is used by many of his citizens to jump from and commit suicide, to be no more than a failure than any real success.

The article says "People like Mr Ow-Yeong have seen Singapore develop from the unsettling 1960s, when hardship and poverty were still the rule rather than the exception, to today's vibrant and cosmopolitan Singapore, providing well-paying jobs to a highly educated population."

But he fails to mention that not just Singapore but many other countries, even much larger ones with much larger populations have also achieved equally great success.

Furthermore other countries are not like a small tiny island like Singapore is. They have to contend with millions of people across large land areas and they, unlike Lee and his tiny island, cannot change overnight with a flick of a finger.

Governing Singapore is the easiest job in the world for Lee. All you do is to silence everyone with Kangaroo court justice, bring in a few foreign investors and bingo, you have a functioning country. Singapore is not India or China with hundreds of millions of people over a large land mass . Both the Chinese and the Indians in rural areas are having it hard. But hopefully they are moving ahead too. You can't change India overnight with a flick of a finger like Lee Kuan Yew in his tiny island inhabited by an obedient and subservient people can.

As for "today's vibrant and cosmopolitan Singapore providing well paying jobs to highly educated population" he has conveniently left out the details which are not so flattering.

As for well paying jobs, they only go to Lee Kuan Yew's sycophants and bootlickers who sing praises and prop up the dictatorship. K Shanmugam his Tamil Minister for Law has a well paying job. His job primarily is to prostrate daily before his Chinese master, and pass legislation to deny Singaporeans even a single human right. Thanks to him, the island has no free speech or expression and even a single man peacefully protesting can be locked up in jail.

As for an education, Singaporeans cannot be said to be educated. They are merely literate, because an educated man would not be willing to live under this dictatorship.

And don't forget, most people merely earn enough to survive and don't even have a car, while the wealthy  drive around in their brand new Lamborghini. Singapore has the largest income gap  in the world.

You can read the rest of the article yourself. It is just one long litany of self praise and braggadocio. But a careful examination of Singapore shows that he had not developed it. On the contrary he has destroyed it.

Merely building skyscrapers, roads and communication systems will not ensure success if you don't have the right type of people to run the island.

After having locked up, threatened and bankrupted anyone with views opposite to him, almost the entire generation of educated thinking people who would have stayed behind to lead Singapore have all left the island in disgust.

They are all settled today in Australia and elsewhere. Fearing any intelligent thinking people as a possible threat to him and his selfish desire to remain in power, he has made sure that anyone who uttered any contrarian view was silenced and destroyed.

Most left and those remaining in the island live quiet obscure lives. Their wisdom is wasted for Singapore. On the whole they are not leadership quality. A leader would have stayed and fought for freedom. If not, he would have cleared out and refused to live in a dictatorship.

This leaves the vast majority of people in the island who by and large are a cowardly, spineless and indifferent lot. As they are afraid to question authority, they live their lives under Lee Kuan Yew as a mindless conformist going about their jobs and waiting for Lee to tell them what to do next.

By Lee Kuan Yew ensuring that everyone who remains is just a mere obedient follower he has the left Singapore very unstable without any real foundation for continuity. In such a situation, you always need to have some leader to come along so that these blind voiceless timid Singaporeans can rally around and obey their new master.

But moving from one master to another master which Singapore has no choice but to do, thanks to Lee Kuan Yew's selfish motives to keep the islanders politically ignorant, is a very dangerous thing.

The island has no template, no backdrop upon which to rely as other countries because it does not have a Constitution in reality. Lee has successfully managed to criminalize every single human right in the Constitution. Without a constitution, it is like a ship sailing in uncharted waters without a compass or sextant.

Singapore's future, thanks to Lee Kuan Yew will be like the blind leading the blind. After 92 year old Lee Kuan Yew dies, which by his own admission is going to happen very soon, no one knows in an island without any rule of law or political doctrine, what will the new leader expect Singaporeans to do. The future, thanks to Lee Kuan Yew's thoroughly misguided policy of intimidating everyone is one big mystery and only time will tell.

And he has conveniently left out the fact that the numbers emigrating to the West from an already tiny native born population of just 2 million or less is increasing at a break neck speed. Those who can afford to leave are leaving as fast as they can. They know that with his demise, there is bound to be island wide uncertainty, a very possible stock market collapse and the Singapore dollar possibly being worthless. The citizens CPF monies being held by the government would probably be lost.

If there are immigrants coming in, they are mostly from Communist China who are useless as immigrants, most of them not knowing even English. This is further going to cause the economy to collapse even further and the island would be nothing thanks to his selfish desire to keep his grip on the power, his corrupt desire to steal as much as he can and to keep anyone with any ability silent.

And he goes on this self praise by saying that it is because he permits his ministers to be corrupt by paying themselves millions of dollars, which is why the Singapore streets are clean, no corruption and low crime rates. This is a blatant lie.

You can go to any other modern city in the world and they too are clean if not cleaner. Have you see San Francisco, Madrid, Barcelona or even Kuala Lumpur. Singapore is not any cleaner than them but the ministers there don't corruptly pay themselves $3.7 million a year.

Low crime rates? Really? Then how do you explain the innumerable daily reports of particularly violent gruesome crime daily in the newspapers, such as loan shark attacks, gang attacks slashing necks and throats with knives, HDB elevator attacks and murders.

At this rate of violence, in a small tiny island with a tiny population, I would prefer living in the West side of Oakland California, known for it's violence anytime, than in so called safe Singapore. And then he says there is no corruption! What do you call paying yourself $3.7 million a year? Isn't that corruption?

I am sorry to tell Lee Kuan Yew that he is being too optimistic to say that Singapore will be fine for the next 10 to 15 years. If 92 year old Lee Kuan Yew were to die this year since he has said he doesn't want to hang around too long, Singapore will collapse within just 5 years. I am prepared to take a bet on that.

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

Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew says he wants to die quickly

Ladies and Gentlemen,

AFP and several other news services have reported the Singapore dictator Lee Kuan Yew who has ruled the island since 1959 and is 92 years old having said in a book that he recently wrote that he wants to die quickly in the event of his becoming comatose and a vegetable. Please see Yahoo News with the AFP report http://sg.news.yahoo.com/singapores-lee-says-wants-quick-death-112100482.html

In the article which reads Singapore's Lee wants a quick death, it states Lee has visibly weakened since then and revealed in the book that despite daily exercise and a disciplined lifestyle, "with every passing day I am physically less energetic and less active."

I am not a vindictive man but I have to say that those who have suffered terribly at his hands,  persecuted, jailed and tortured for his selfish reasons to maintain his grip on power may perhaps not have as much sympathy or be gracious for what he is going through.

Indeed they may cherish the fact that he is now literally suffering, with according to him "aches and pains" which he has to endure, not knowing for how long.

In the sad state that he now is, this is what I will say to him.

Remember Lim Chin Siong, once his colleague in politics whom had arrested, and tortured for many years, forcing him into exile in England, reduced to selling flowers in London's Covent Garden with his wife, impoverished and subsequently returned to Singapore and left to die. Did he torture, imprison and destroy Lim Chin Siong for the sake of Singapore or did he do this crime to retain his control over Singapore.

Remember Chia Thye Poh, another of Lee's victims whom he accused of being a Communist and jailed him for no less than 31 years. After his release, Chia has been living an obscure life in Singapore having lost everything including his entire youth spent in jail.

I met Chia once around 1988 before I left Singapore in 1991. He was then required to live in Pulau Blakang Mati, now called Sentosa island, an amusement resort for tourists and Singaporeans. He was given a small former colonial house along the street where thousands of tourists and visitors pass. Did Lee Kuan Yew imprison Chia for the good of Singapore or was it to secure himself in power. Why was it necessary to demand that Chia live in an tourist entertainment island deliberately located at a spot for the entrainment and curiosity of tourists?

Was it necessary for him to use his Kangaroo Courts to bankrupt and impoverish a once very wealthy Singapore lawyer and politician Tang Liang Hong just because he had questioned Lee about some dubious property purchases which indicated corruption and bribes having been paid. Tang was forced to escape to Melbourne where he now lives. Did Lee do this for the sake of Singapore or was it for himself.

Lee is reported to have said in his book that he neither believes in God and neither does he deny God. In the past he always maintained that he did not believe in God. Why the sudden reservation about God, and a qualified statement which is neither here nor there. I can tell you why. He realizes that he is at the throes of death. He is at the door of Hades. And then he remembers all the terrible things he did in his life, to keep his power and to enrich himself and his family. What if there was a God. Will he have to burn in Hell till eternity? So as the cunning fox that he is, he conveniently now tailors his views so that if God is hearing perhaps he may still have the slightest of chances of redemption.

I think the same sort of feelings was felt by the other corrupt dictators of the world, General Pinochet of Chile and Mobuto of the Congo. They too tortured and jailed their opponents to enrich themselves. I suspect that they too at the throes of death did look back with pain at the terrible things they did. They too must have gone through a long and painful death and they too must have questioned their actions and must have felt a terrible pain reliving the pain they caused others.

Feodor Dostoevsky had written a wonderful book Crime and Punishment. It is the story of a man who kills another but justifies his actions because it would do society good. Eventually his guilt and conscience consumes him and every minute of the day he is tortured in his mind by the crime he committed. Dostoevsky argues that much worse than any Hell after life, Conscience is a far worse living Hell and those who do evil suffer much more in life than they can ever possibly suffer after death. Just like Lee Kuan Yew today, the character in Crime and Punishment also yearns for death to be relieved from his tormentor, his Conscience.

In Lee Kuan Yew's case Dostoevsky is proved right. Lee's conscience is torturing him and tearing him apart in his old age. He would rather die than be reminded every minute in his mind as to what he did to Lim Chin Siong, Chia Thye Poh, Tang Liang Hong, Toh Soh Lung and countless others whom he tortured and destroyed in the name of Singapore.

Even though I am not a vindictive man, I cannot help but wish that he live many more years, while he gets weaker and weaker by the day, while he pains over every bone in his body, while his memory takes him back all those years when the tortured, jailed and destroyed perfectly innocent people to ensure that he alone remain on the throne in his island.

A quick death would be too good for him and will not do justice to his victims, many in Singapore, some abroad and one in Fremont, California USA

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont, California, USA
Tel: 5104914375
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com

Singapore island government using law to stay in power

Ladies and Gentlemen,

When a country such as one party police state like Singapore has lost the confidence of it's people, the only way it can remain in power is to use the law to remain in control. It is not the rule of law which enables them to remain in power, it is rule by law.

A country that has rule of law recognizes and abides by the requirements of democracy, which is the respect for the Constitution, a willingness to honor the human rights of it's citizens such as freedom of speech, expression and assembly and a willingness to give their people a voice as to how they wish to live. In other words, a country that believes in democracy is willing to accept it's destiny according to the wishes of it's people.

Singapore on the other hand is a country that uses law to remain in power. They can pass any law they want however unjust because it is a one party state and the Parliament is merely a rubber stamp. So to suppress and deny it's citizens a voice by which it is far easier to rule, they deny human rights of it's people by passing unjust laws. In Singapore, even though the Constitution guarantees free speech, expression and assembly, there is legislation in place which criminalizes every single one of these rights, leaving it's citizens with no human rights at all.

In Singapore there are defamation laws which can bankrupt and jail you for criticizing the government, contempt of court laws if your criticize the judiciary, and a slew of other laws that completely deny the rights of citizens to criticize their government.

The laws enable even a single peaceful protester to be jailed, as a result of which the island has not seen any protests for decades. Bloggers, cartoonists and anyone else who criticizes is liable to arrest and punishment. They do all this because they can pass any law they want to extract total obedience from their citizens.

As for the elite ministers and governors they pass laws to pay themselves any amount of money they want, which now happens to be a salary of  no less than $3.7 million a year and even more secretly. And if you complain and call it corruption, there is a criminal defamation law to punish you for it.

As a result of the government of Singapore using laws to destroy political opponents and critics, there is really no open opposition to the government because any civil society political action that is normal and acceptable anywhere else in the world becomes criminal if done in Singapore.

History has shown that when a country resorts to governing by law, not the rule of law, it doesn't take long for it to slide into a failed state. Such methods could have worked in the past but in this day of the Internet, these repressive and arbitrary methods attract the wrath and anger of it's people who refuse to co-operate resulting in mass brain drain and emigration thereby depleting the island of it's skilled and loyal workforce, a element absolutely essential for success.

We also see the deleterious consequences of such repression as manifested in the island's almost non-existent birth rate, perhaps the lowest in the world which compels them to import hundreds of thousands of immigrants who know nothing of Singapore, a very poor replacement for the native Singaporeans who have left. 

With the dying 92 year old Lee Kuan Yew dictator and now with his son as Prime Minister determined to govern by continuing to pass laws which suit them, Singapore is fast heading to become a failed state in the region.

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

Singapore's dangerous immigration policies

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In the one party Singapore island state's headlong rush to first world status, it may have caused serious damage to it's very survival. One such misguided policy is to expand the economy at lighting speed through the use, primarily of Chinese national immigrants. In the long run, this Chinesezation of the island will upset the entire South East Asian region's equilibrium and creates the real possibility of tension and disharmony within the region.

Today, by all reckoning, Singapore has about 74% people of ethnic Chinese descent. As a result of the plummeting birth rate among native Singaporeans, hardly 2 million of them can be considered native born, with them and their parents both born in Singapore. An ever increasing part of this ethnic Chinese population of the island are recent arrivals from Communist China.

A portion of this Chinese population are also comprised of Malaysian Chinese who have decided to immigrate to Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore. A much smaller minority today, about 12% are native born Malays whose numbers are fast declining and not being replaced. An even smaller minority are the Singapore born Indians who are a mere 8%. Their numbers too are declining into extinction.

With an indiscriminate and rapid increase of businesses being created to boost the GDP so as to be seen as a an even wealthier city state, the government has decided to bring in ever increasing numbers of immigrants. The question is, immigrants from where?

It is very clear that Lee Kuan Yew's best choice of immigrants are Chinese from China. Although he hasn't said why it must be quite obvious from his statements. He admires the Chinese culture and heritage, the Ming Dynasty and the glorious past of China and I suppose he believes that these Chinese arrivals in Singapore in sufficient numbers would repeat that glorious imperial past.

With Singapore's declining native born population Chinese population, which is already tiny, this would mean even more Chinese from China who in the end will populate the entire island to make it almost entirely Chinese.

This would also mean that their main connection outside is with Communist China, with increasing trade business and transactions with China alone. The busiest air route will be the Singapore Beijing run, not the Singapore London run. There will be Chinese signboards, Chinese music and Chinese language spoken everywhere and anytime.

Mandarin pop stars will fly regularly for shows in the island and very soon we would be more familiar with the latest Chinese idols in China, not the American idol anymore.

It is also very possible that the business language of the island today being English would be very quickly replaced by Mandarin. In the end China would be able to have a serious effect on both domestic and foreign relations of the island resulting in Singapore being another satellite outpost region of China as Hong Kong or Tibet is today.

Can you imagine how this will affect Malaysia and Indonesia, both Malay Muslim countries to have a proxy China island which takes orders from China in their everyday business. It will undoubtedly increase the hostility which is already there today to a much greater level. And this large Communist Chinese population in the island will put off even the tiny native Singapore Chinese sector and alienate even the Malaysian Chinese who have become Singapore citizens. It may well cause them to leave island too, by which time all the Indians and Malays would have been long gone.

A Chinese satellite island of Communist China, miles away from Mainland China in the middle of Muslim South East Asia and taking orders from Beijing is not something Muslim Malaysia or Muslim Indonesia will tolerate.

In the misguided immigration policy of going exclusively for Chinese immigrants from mainland China, and the equally misguided policy of expanding the economy at any cost, I am afraid they are heading into troubled waters. And with Singapore's native born population as low as 2 million and falling, the dire prospect of transforming Singapore entirely into China and a real confrontation with both Indonesia and Malaysia cannot be ruled out.

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

Singapore strongman Lee Kuan Yew admits defeat on falling birth rate

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In Singapore's state controlled newspaper Straits Times of August 06, 2013 story "Money won't solve low birth rate problem" Singapore strongman Lee Kuan Yew admits that he unable to find a solution to the island's plummeting birth rate of 1.2. At this rate, a woman with a child does not replace herself let alone both parents. Please see the report at http://www.straitstimes.com/archive/tuesday/breaking-news/singapore/story/money-wont-solve-low-birth-rate-problem-mr-lee-20130806

It is reported that in his recent book "One Man's View of the World" he has said "I cannot solve the problem, and I have given up. I have given the job to another generation of leaders. Hopefully, they or their successors will eventually find a way out."

He conveniently sidesteps his own responsibility for this damage being done to the island by claiming that it is the lifestyles of the modern Singaporean that is responsible for this. He should know full well that it is his determination to continue the repressive policies so as to hang on to power over his people that has made the island so unattractive for raising families.

It is denying the average Singapore's normal human aspirations that has resulted in making life so unattractive, precarious and uncertain that people simply do not have the courage to have families. In Singapore, there is a law that denies the average man freedom of speech and expression which means that he has no avenue to express his unhappiness about government policies.

The newspapers and media are all state controlled which means he cannot express himself there either, unless it is an opinion supportive of the government.

In the event he or his children criticize the government he is liable to be charged and jailed and bankrupted by a Kangaroo legal system whose primary purpose is to silence dissent and destroy critics.

There is no real opposition party in island, which makes it literally a one party state. The so-called opposition Workers Party which has a handful of members are nothing more than an extension of the ruling party. It exists merely to ask a few meaningless questions but principally to ensure the ruling party remains in power and in return the ruling party allows them to remain in Parliament. In other words, you scratch my back and I scratch yours.

While the vast majority of the people earn about a $1,000 more or less, a month, Lee Kuan Yew and his handpicked ministers earn millions. If you accuse them of corruption, which it clearly is, you will be sued for defamation of character, or sedition, or contempt of court or a combination of these charges and promptly punished by the Kangaroo judges.

Last but not least, it is the numerous blogs, including mine, the Singapore Dissident which has been continuously and relentlessly writing about the injustices in the island which has reminded Singaporeans of the plight they are in. And this has in a large measure contributed to the islander's sending a signal to these billionaire politicians that they simply refuse to live like this or have babies.

Surely under these circumstances no one in his right mind would want to have children in Lee Kuan Yew's island. It is funny, this man still claims not to know this.

Well, it is simply too late pal. Singapore can only increase it's population by bringing in more transient workers from China who would spend a few years there for a few dollars more, only to leave and be replaced by others to take their place. Singapore is becoming a "hotel population" and this is not a harbinger for better times.

Lee Kuan Yew has himself said that this destructive uncontrollable slide in population which is already small to begin with, the local native born being no more than perhaps a mere 2 million, raises the greatest challenge to the island's very survival. I must admit, on this score, he is right.

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

Singapore's athmosphere of fear produces only spineless timorous youth

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In Singapore the one's who have to bear the butt end of the stick in brainwashing are the weakest and most deserving of a good upbringing, the youth.

Any parent, who has a head on his shoulders must realize that a good son or daughter is someone who can not only read and write, but someone who is capable of thinking, forming their own opinions, the courage to stand up for their beliefs, and if necessary to die for them.

It is with the help of such people, upright men and women, that countries advance, come up with new theories, not only in science and technology, but in morality, philosophy, political theory and government.

And this is where Lee Kuan Yew has failed Singapore completely. In his eagerness to do everything to remain in power, he has deliberately created an island wide atmosphere of fear, that is fear of him, and the need to obey and not question him, and the disastrous consequences for anyone who was stupid enough to challenge him.

As a result of the fear firmly instilled in every parent of every Singaporean child not to question authority, on a daily basis they instill the same fear on their young children. They instruct their children to be careful in what they say about their government making sure that they support Lee Kuan Yew's one party state Singapore.

Since there have been far too many instances almost on a daily basis of citizens being charged for contempt of court if they criticized, defamation lawsuits being filed resulting in astronomical damages jail and bankruptcy for those who espouse alternate theories of government, it makes it almost suicidal for citizens to even engage in normal and justifiable criticism of their government.

The Singaporean children, on top of the brainwashing to blindly submit and conform which they have to endure in their homes, they are subjected to the same demands by their teachers. All teachers in Singapore schools as the parents of their students similarly live in mortal fear of the Lee Kuan Yew's one party state administration.

As they are all civil servants employed by the government, they are aware every minute of the day, that any attempt to embolden the minds of their children to think independently may result in their losing their jobs.

It is inconceivable for any Singaporean teacher to tell their children to think independently and to criticize the government if they felt their government was wrong.

As a result of this general atmosphere of fear in that society, they grow up just as their parents and their teachers, as conformists, able to recite some science and technology but incapable of understanding or debating the policies of the Singapore government, and if necessary, the courage to protest and resist their rulers if need be. They grow up as children and live their entire adult lives like an obedient poodle, who would jump or roll over anytime his master demands.

Many Singaporean parents are in fact aware of the damage being done to their children's minds and to try to correct the harm by sending their children abroad for an education when they are in their twenties. I am afraid to say that in most cases, this does little good. The harm done to their minds at infancy to prop up the Singaporean dictator is usually irreversible.

I am not a child psychologist but I can safely say that the most formative years for a child is when they are toddlers and infants. Unfortunately for them, it is during these formative years that the most damage is done to their minds under Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore.

After they go abroad in their twenties, when their minds have already been molded to conform without question, they are usually incapable of asserting their rights in Western societies where people are expected to be confident and assertive.

As a result they lose out in competing with Europeans and Americans because of their fear  and general insecurity which the Singaporean system has hammered into their young minds.

Since starting this blog, I have had contract with many young men and women from Singapore, who appear to me totally incapable of doing what even normal people from other Western countries can do.

Many write to me about how to immigrate to the West. I tell them that they should first make a trip out to find out the general sense of their intended destination, to do some research and make a go for it. But beyond expecting me to tell them everything, they appear incapable of doing anything on their own. I suppose they are all back there waiting to be told exactly what to do. Whereas someone from any other country would have packed up, left, looked around his new country and found a way to stay.

I don't blame the timidity of these young Singaporeans but as you can see, they are the product of their Singaporean parents and their Singaporean teachers who have to live in fear of their multi-billionaire master Lee Kuan Yew and his son in their island.

My advice for Singaporeans is take your children and emigrate at a young age if you can, so that they would have the benefit of growing up in an open transparent society where there is the rule of law and everyone has a fair chance to excel and reach for the sky.

Unfortunately for those who live in Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore, their idea of those capable of doing any independent thinking are only Lee Kuan Yew and his elite friends  who rule over you. As far as he is concerned, you are incapable of doing any thinking or forming any new ideas because your job is simply to accept and obey without question. Otherwise he will put you in jail.

Not wanting to be personal, I have to say that on the whole, Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore is a stupid place. I don't have any respect for this prize rooster strutting around in his hen cage and bullying everyone in his way and neither do I think he cares for me either. So if you don't want to be thrown in jail and neither do you want your children to be thrown in jail because the bully boy is displeased, the best thing to do is to clear out of Singapore now and let him try to run the place with his Chinese nationals who come temporarily to work in Singapore for some extra money.

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

The 92 year old Lee Kuan Yew and the Singaporean's dilemna. To stay or to go

Ladies and Gentlemen,

For citizens of the tiny tropical island of Singapore with a mere 2 million local born citizens, run on almost military precision by the no-nonsense dictator Lee Kuan Yew, these must be worrying times.

Lee Kuan Yew, the man who has ruled Singapore with an iron grip since 1959, is already 92 years old, either older by a few years or younger, depending on who you ask. Asking him is no use because he is not going to tell exactly. Any way, in the order of Nature, a 92 year old man hasn't long to live, and that is certain. He will either go next week or next month. His batteries will not last till 2050!

In any democracy, the death of the leader shouldn't worry anyone as there is a universally accepted peaceful method to transfer power from one government to another. However in places such as Singapore, where one individual has developed a sort of cult personality where he alone is the reason for the very existence of the place, his passing results usually in a state of total instability and disorder. Lee Kuan Yew, as he has made himself to be is Singapore and Singapore is Lee Kuan Yew. It is as if, the Singaporean birds sing because of Lee Kuan Yew, the Singaporean sun rises because of him and at the flick of his finger you can disappear or appear.

The parliament of Singapore is nothing but a rubber stamp, his son whom he has appointed Prime Minister is nothing because he doesn't instill any confidence in anyone but everything still functions because they do in his name alone.

As in every other one party police states around the world, Singapore will collapse entirely when Lee Kuan Yew dies simply because there is no established civil system of government where power can evolve from one authority to another.

It is impossible to believe that with Lee senior's passing, the island will rally behind the son because the son really has no real power since his government rules through the perceived authority of his father. It is very likely that there will be a total state of disorder, with all sorts of political aspirants both in the ruling party and those yearning for democratic change to clash for power.

With the uncertainty,  and possible street demonstrations, protests, strikes and total chaos it is almost certain that foreign investor's upon whom the tiny island relies almost entirely would in all probability head straight to the airport for the next flight out. And like the domino, the damage will spread. Singaporeans will leave with their money and their families. Foreigners will leave.

I am not sure with such a tiny island and a tiny almost totally foreign population, whether it has the means to recover from such a calamity. Sure a country like Russia with hundreds of millions of people has the buffer to withstand a total tsunami of change. I am not sure tiny Singapore island can.

Should the prudent citizen see the writing on the wall and pack up and leave now, or should he stay and ride out the storm. I am not sure. I cannot advice. It's your life not mine.

I left the island more than twenty years ago. I refused to live under a dictatorship, just as millions of Germans left refusing to live under Adolf Hitler. Of course many Germans stayed arguing that good or bad Germany is my country. As for me, it was the right choice. It is like a breath of fresh air to step into a free society like America.

But you are now at the cross roads. Should you stay or should you go. You can still go to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Europe or even America. They are all still accepting immigrants. Or you could send your children abroad for an education and then join them at a later date. There is simply no need for you to tolerate a dictatorship or worse, descend into calamity and chaos with the 92 year old man gone.

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

Singapore, a yes-man's paradise

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Depending on who you are, crowded tiny tropical Singapore island may not be such a bad place after all. For a start, you have clean running water, 24 hours electricity which does not go off as in other  3rd world countries, a good infra structure and transport system. Most of all, you can earn more than in the impoverished countries of the world.

But the problem is this. It is not the inability to make a living that is the obstacle, it is your mindset that is the issue. Singapore unlike other countries has a Lee Kuan Yew who demands acceptance of a certain philosophy for success, by which I mean, his philosophy.

And a few examples of his  philosophy are, Malays and Indians although citizens can be discriminated by the Chinese majority, a race relations law is unnecessary, a minimum wage law is unnecessary, trade unions shouldn't have any rights, the judges should abuse the law when ordered to destroy political opposition, the newspapers have to be controlled by the state, and people should not have the right to strike, protest, or the right to free speech, expression or assembly.

In other words, you simply have to accept whatever Lee Kuan Yew, his son, and their handpicked brilliant Harvard and Yale scholars in their infinite wisdom tell you to do. He wants you to tell yourself that since they are all so highly qualified and you are nothing compared to them, who are you to question them. They are Gods; who the Hell are you?

The pre-requisite to succeed in the island is to accept the fact that Lee Kuan Yew, his son, and their political party are your masters to whom you have to give your undivided loyalty and support. They have ruled over you since 1959 and they have no intention of doing anything else, now or anytime in the future. You have to get that into your head if you want to succeed.

Your total submission is what makes the Lee family happy and this is your ticket to a prosperous and successful life and career in his island. In his mind, you have to be a fool to question him and willingly suffer the dire consequences, that will undoubtedly follow.

Of course you have to be good in school and pass your exams. Having done that, if you toe the line without question, join his party, and always espouse your support for him and his government, I expect you to have a very prosperous, successful and long life.

Most people who live in his Singapore island live this way. They wake up in the morning, go to work, send their children to schools, go home and watch television or have a beer and do that day after day. Life is peaceful and uneventful. None of them have any trouble. As long as you don't commit any crimes and mind your own business, or better still, volunteer your time at his political organizations, he would love you and do all he can for you. As for you, you can enjoy the good transport system, the clean running water and the working telephones in his island, and thank God you are not living in Somalia.

In fact even his supporters in government who have transgressed the law are still looked after once they completed their punishments. They may be quietly given jobs in state controlled companies or some other posts where they can serve the government. Lee Kuan Yew does not forget his supporters as long as you continue in submission and obedience.

Another way of putting it; you have to be like a faithful Labrador; never leaving his master's side.

On the other hand, Lee Kuan Yew hates, and I can say, viscerally hates, people such as myself, the late former opposition politician JB Jeyaretnam or anyone else who dared to question his style of government.

People like us have no place in Lee Kuan Yew's island. Showing opposition to him is unforgivable and subject's one to life long punishment. We are treated even worse than his supporters who have committed crimes. At least they will still be cared for in Lee's merciful arms, but not anyone who has dared to question him. We are forever doomed in Lee Kuan Yew's island; our unforgivable crime was our refusal to accept the reality of Lee Kuan Yew's omnipotence and absolute wisdom.

Unfortunately it was not possible for me or for others who have stood up to him in the past, even if we tried, to accept life under Lee Kuan Yew's one party police state lying down.

Our minds simply do not allow it. It is simply not possible for us to be that obedient Labrador. And Lee knows that too. So for many of us, the answer has been either to emigrate to the West or to simply disappear into oblivion in his island, if that is all possible, not to mention poverty and misery of not having a job.

But for those who will accept such a life, for the countless Indian nationals who are simply looking for a better job than in their impoverished India, the same with the Chinese from their native remote areas where they were previously living in poverty, Singapore is an excellent place to live. More money and clean running water. Surely it can't be so bad and what is wrong about kowtowing to a tyrant, if it means a better, prosperous and secure life and career, not only for yourself, but also for your offspring.

Surely life under Big Brother (the Lee Kuan Yew family)  can't be that bad after all. Should I now become the reformed Winston in Orwell's 1984 when he finally realized the big mistake he made in not accepting Big Brother? Surely Big Brother was right after all. Big Brother was always right. How stupid of me to have wasted my life by not submitting to our loving kind and caring Big Brother.

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