Singapore's stage managed "happiness"

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As recent as Jan 9, 2013 Singapore has been found in respected international surveys to have earned the dubious distinction of being the saddest country in the world. Please see article in Forbes magazine, 1/9/2013/ "The Happiest and Saddest Countries in the World" http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2013/01/09/the-worlds-happiest-and-saddest-countries-2/2/

If that wasn't enough they also have the double honors of being the least emotional people in the world, please see Guardian newspaper article of 11/21/2012, Guardian newspaper reports "Singapore is the world's least emotional country in the world" http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/nov/21/singapore-least-emotional-country-poll

But here is where the advantage of having a state controlled media comes in. You can literally not only write anything you want, in Lee Kuan Yew's dictatorship, you can instantly turn the saddest people into the happiest in the world as well!

And not unexpectedly, Singapore state controlled newspaper the Straits Times of Oct 31, 2013 reports "Singaporeans seen as happiest among residents in four Chinese majority countries". Please see http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/singaporeans-seen-happiest-among-residents-four-chinese-majority-terri.

I quote "More than half of all Singapore respondents saw themselves as the happiest while a third chose Taiwan".

And as proof of their astounding claim they have conveniently published a picture of beaming faces of ethnic Chinese Singaporeans at the last national day parade proudly waving Singapore flags and grinning from cheek to cheek. What they have forgot to tell as is that these convenient characters are all card carrying members of Lee Kuan Yew's ruling party and they would have got up that very instant and done the foxtrot on the spot if that was what was demanded.

And what is not conveniently mentioned of course is the perks that go with such performance in the  orchestra; perhaps more secure jobs, career promotions and more money and benefits all around. Surely for such benefits, it is not too much to ask to smile broadly for the camera and wave a few flags!

I remember seeing such happy faces carrying their state flags in unison in another place. It was a picture of North Koreans on their republic day. They too appeared very happy indeed and I am sure they would have no problem claiming that their citizens are the happiest in the world too.

Since no mention is made of the other races who also happen to be living in Singapore, I am confident that if it is necessary to prove that they too are the happiest, that too can be arranged by lining up the necessary Lee Kuan Yew card carrying ethnic Malay and Indian members with the necessary photograph to prove the point.

 

Audience members cheering at this year's National Day Parade. -- ST PHOTO: DESMOND LUI

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont, California, USA
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com     

                                        

 

 

Audience members cheering at this year's National Day Parade. -- ST PHOTO: DESMOND LUI

 

NEXT STORY: YouTube video by "Anonymous" hacker group threatens to attack Singapore

 

Singapore Minister says no to setting a poverty line, because it will unjustly enrich the poor.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Singapore despite the outward appearance of good roads and skyscrapers, in terms of social welfare, it is among the worst developed in the world. For instance the government officially allows racial discrimination as it has no laws prohibiting it. It does not have any minimum wage laws allowing employers to pay a few dollars an hour if they like, and workers have no trade union protection since unions are controlled by employers.

As for the poor who suffer greatly in a Singaporean tiny concrete jungle with no welfare whatsoever to speak of, the government has stated through their Minister for Social and Family Development that it will not legally set a poverty threshold for the poor because, incredibly, such as threshold will enrich them! Please see Singapore state controlled newspaper article of Oct 23 2013 headed "Why setting poverty line may not be helpful: Minister Chan Chun Sing" http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/setting-poverty-line-may-not-be-helpful-minister-20131023

What it says is "Singapore is not considering having an official poverty line as it would not fully reflect the severity and complexity of issues faced by the poor and may also lead to those above the  line missing out on assistance"

Other than this being one long piece of long winded verbiage, or should I say garbage, intended to confound the reader without saying anything, what he is trying to say is simply this; that they are simply not interested in giving any assistance to the poor whatsoever.

It is not too difficult to realize that there are people in Singapore who are in abject poverty in the midst of the recently arrived millionaires and that unless the government helps them, they and their children are doomed to suffer in their lives. This will affect the children's performance in school, among other deleterious societal consequences, and this is certainly not in the interests of Singapore. Surely for a tiny island like this, every man woman and child should count, both rich and poor.

It is also not too difficult to realize that it is easy for a supposedly wealthy government to set a poverty line below which people are recognized as needing help and according to their family size, granted monetary assistance to bring them up to a living standard.

You don't need to be a rocket scientist to understand that, which is why every developed and some not so developed countries as well have used an official poverty line to identify and help the needy to uplift them and their offspring with a hope towards betterment.

These countries realize that setting official poverty thresholds is the only and best way to clearly identify those in need. Since this is an established nationwide figure applicable to all according to family size, it prevents complaints of bias, favoritism and  misuse of the system.

In Singapore which is adamant not to have such legally defined rules, people who are dissatisfied with government assistance can clearly point a finger at racial preference claiming the ethnic Chinese were paid more than them or because certain beneficiaries received more because of government connections.

From what I understand in Singapore today, there is a myriad of measly arbitrary plans for ad hoc assistance, such as giving bags of rice to some, giving transport allowances to others and giving school fees assistance to some others.

All these different schemes, which most do not even understand, end up not only confusing to those who desperately need help, it is intended to make it so complicated, time consuming and demoralizing, you are better off getting your teeth pulled than going through the torture. The sad truth is that many simply starve rather than be put through this nightmare.

Of course you know why they have to suffer the Byzantine rigmarole. It is simply because they don't want you to ask for help.

Ministers such as this Chan Chun Sun or whoever he is should be ashamed of himself. We all know that he draws as much as $3.7 million a year, which is five times more than President Obama and all he can do is to come up with this nonsense which no one can understand.

The only other reason why they don't want to give the poor anything may probably be because they want all the poor to die leaving Singapore island as the millionaires island, for people like him.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont, California, USA
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com

Singapore's false sense of security and the impending demise of 90 year old Lee Kuan Yew

Ladies and Gentlemen,

If Singapore's leaders today go on their business as if nothing is amiss, they are doing a very good job of hiding their fear. If I was a Singaporean today, especially if I was working for the Lee Kuan Yew government, these would indeed be troubling times.

Singapore strongman, 90 year old Lee Kuan Yew is today as we all know gravely ill. No one knows if he will last another week, let alone a month in an island where he alone ran the whole show with his handpicked scholar turned recently graduated Ministers.

The idea of a democracy of popularly elected government was completely shelved and the islanders no longer know how to hold free and fair elections. Like leeches, these ministers Vivian Balakriahnan, K Shanmugam, Judge Quentin Loh, former judge Selvam and each of these high ranking government employees all hold their power through the grace of this Singapore strongman. And every one of these minions, metaphorically speaking, has blood on his hands.

K Shanmugam was instrumental in enacting laws that denied Singaporeans even an iota of human rights. Judge Belinda Ang Saw Ean shamelessly abused the law to destroy a loyal Singapore patriot Chee Soon Juan. Judge Quentin Loh is one record for sending Alan Shadrake to jail because he wrote a book they did not like. I was sent to jail for 3 months because they did not like a blog I wrote about  corrupt judge Belinda Ang. Not just these people but each and every one of them should be really worried what will happen to them if the Lee government falls after his death.

I have grave doubts if the political situation would remain the same after the fast approaching Lee's demise, principally because there is no accepted protocol in place for continuity of government. I don't think Lee's son could simply strut around like the prize rooster, his father , did bullying anyone in sight in his Singaporean chicken coop. When that eventful day happens either this week or next, his government ministers will either obey the son or simply defy him, the latter being the far more probable than the former.

If I was any of these Lee Kuan Yew identifiable collaborators for actions inimical  to Singaporeans, they should seriously consider bolting to some foreign country right now with their loot and pray Singaporeans will be kind and not pursue them.

But it seems as if none of these Lee Kuan Yew men seem the slightest worried. Either they are naïve which I doubt they are or they have turned into passengers of the sinking Titanic. If it is going to sink and there is nothing we could do, we might as well fiddle and make merry while we can.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in exile
Fremont, California, USA
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com

Singapore island needs a new operating manuel

Ladies and Gentlemen,

A student of Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore would know that the island is run, not by it's Constitution which is officially in the books, but through a system which Lee Kuan Yew, the 90 year old ruler had devised himself which is something like this.

You choose students who have done well in school, give them scholarships at government expense at overseas universities and upon return field them at elections where they invariably win because the political opponent has been removed through defamation lawsuits. From that point, paid about $5 million a year each, they will speak at the parliament as if they were all leaders chosen by their people and demanding obedience of them.

This is exactly the system that governed Imperial China (minus the need for defamation lawsuits) where the Emperor chose bright students who passed exams to rule over their subjects with absolute power, being only accountable to the Emperor or in Singapore's case, to Lee Kuan Yew. And just like in ancient China, these scholar rulers remained in power as long as the Emperor approved, and not by any vote of their subjects.

The idea of Parliamentary elections based on the modern concept of democracy are completely ignored. The concept of modern parliamentary democracy of leaders naturally emerging from among the people who vied for the people's vote for office in free and fair elections is not the practice in Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore.

This made elections in Singapore, held every 5 years, a big fraud.

In the last 2011 elections the foreign media has made a big thing of the fact that as much as 40% voted for the opposition Workers Party. But little do they know that a vote for the Workers Party is as good as a vote for the government party because they are in office to dupe the people into thinking they are truly opposition.

They are in fact working for the interests of Lee's Peoples Action Party. History clearly shows that if indeed anyone in the Workers Party truly stood for a change of government, they would all by now have suffered the same fate that the late JB Jeyaretnam suffered through repeated libel actions, jail and bankruptcy. The very fact that none of this has happened to any of them is ample proof as to who they really are.

Except for formerly bankrupted and jailed Chee Soon Juan and a handful of others there are no real opposition politicians. They have all been intimidated or silenced or have fled the island. It is simply too risky to be an opposition politician in Lee Kuan Yew's island.

But while Lee had devised his own system of choosing leaders, it is not what the Constitution demands; in fact all of this is simply unconstitutional. These elections are simply a fraud upon the people, because these hand-picked "leaders" cannot justify their positions under any legal instrument in the law.

Politics has gone on in Lee Kuan Yew's island by his unique style of political selection for the last 52 years but the question is what will happen when the 90 year old leader dies?

How is his son whom he placed as Prime Minister going to justify this practice of selecting his own candidates and make sure they win through  defamation actions against opponents like his father did.

Is he going to assume that he could simply do exactly what his father did without any resistance from Singaporeans?  And will the Singapore electorate simply accept it lying down?

I have serious doubts if political business can go on the same way it has gone on so far. As you can see, the whole thing is a charade, a farce, a theater and simply nonsense.

The Lees should either come out in the open and amend the Constitution to reflect what is going on by admitting that the island's political leaders are not selected by any elections, but by Lee Kuan Yew or his son.

They should also amend the Constitution to remove any reference to a multi party system of government and state that there is only one political party that can rule Singapore, and that is their own party, the Peoples Action Party.

This way the people will know exactly what the deal is, and Lee Kuan Yew and Son would not have to continue with this disgusting make-believe by insisting ad nauseum that Singapore is a democracy when we all know it is not, and have the courage to officially state what it really is, a one party totalitarian police state. At least that is more honorable than the disgraceful charade they carry on each day with their people by proclaiming they are something else they are not.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont, California USA
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com

Singaporeans in Australia say "I love Singapore". Only problem, noone wants to return! Ha ha. Part 2

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Singapore government has expended a large sum of taxpayers money recently in Sydney Australia to host a party which they call "Singapore Day" to reach out to Singaporeans who have decided to emigrate to encourage them to return. This party is held once a year in the cities of the world such as London and New York.

Singapore is suffering from an unprecedented rise in the numbers leaving the island for settlement abroad and with a local native born population of not more than perhaps 2 million in a tiny island, they are losing the best of their citizens. At this rate, they simply cannot function.

In this post I want to tell you why the Singapore government's attempt to lure overseas Singaporeans back to Singapore is simply a waste of money. It simply will not work. In fact despite these efforts, the numbers leaving for settlement abroad continue to mount. Once one person leaves, he gets his other family members, his friends to join him. With this multiplier effect the numbers leaving is constantly increasing multifold. Below are a few Singaporeans videos of the Singapore Sydney Party, again produced I am sure with taxpayers money, to promote their doomed plan to hopefully lure these frustrated Singaporeans abroad back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG4LAx8U4q8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9u8yQv2HJ_8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMIXWhwvwhQ

In the videos you see the government's hand in trying hard to make Singapore look good, with elaborate career promotion stands all shipped from Singapore for jobs in the military, business and government.

You see elaborate stage managed stage performances of attendees singing songs in praise of Singapore, like the Hitler youth sang for their Fuhrer, and huge signs with the words "I love Singapore", which begs the obvious question, if you love it so much, why did you leave in the first place! It is simply not possible. They will simply not return. This is why.

Australia is a far superior country than Singapore. Compared to Australia Singapore is just a banana republic. If those who left did not know this at first, they would have known this within a few weeks.

The average Australian is a normal human being. Singaporeans are not. You may first think this is a gross exaggeration and unfair to say Singaporeans are not normal. But a closer look will confirm this.

An average Australian would tell his government that he is unhappy with it if that is what he thinks, without hesitation; a normal human reaction. A Singaporean is unable to do this because he fears reprisals from the Singaporean dictatorship. He has a fear in him which has been entrenched in his psyche since childhood. So when he begins to live in Australia, he would soon realize how much more comfortable it is to live in a place where you can speak your mind.

In Australia there is rule of law. If your rights are violated you have a remedy in the courts, regardless if you are white, black or multi colored. In Singapore it is not like that. Justice depends on who you are. If you are connected to the government, it is one rule, if not another rule.

If you openly criticize the Australian government, they are not going to sue you for defamation of character, contempt of court or some other law. They are confident of their reputation and need not resort to the courts for reassurance. In Singapore they are not so confident. If you criticize, you stand to be punished. As a result the average Singaporean has no opinion of anything. He is a programmed machine which will come up with the right answers anytime.

In Australia it is illegal to racially discriminate. In Singapore the Chinese majority are encouraged to discriminate by their government against the other races, Malays and Indians. This makes Australia attractive to Chinese Singaporeans unhappy with the government racial discriminatory policy and for Malays and Indians who are second class citizens.

Now I would ask you to view the videos.

You will see that almost every single person there is an ethnic Chinese Singaporean. Except for one Malay and one Indian, there are none.

This does not reflect the Singapore population in Australia which is already huge and growing. There are far more Malays and Indians in Australia except you don't see them in these videos. They want nothing to do with Singapore anymore. They refuse to attend these functions. They don't want to stay connected, thanks very much. They don't want even to be called Singaporeans. Like a bad dream, they have once and for all, rid Singapore from their lives and their minds.

Australia politicians don't pay themselves millions like the corrupt Singapore politicians. Today each Singapore minister pays himself officially $3.7 million a year, much more secretly. In Singapore the politicians are not accountable to the people; in Australia they are. An Australian politician won't even dream of paying himself even a fraction of what is paid in Singapore.

On the whole Singapore has lost it's credibility. In order to retain it's people, the government has to have some respectability. Singapore has simply lost it. They cannot hope either to stem the biggest brain drain nor try to coax any Singaporean who has left to return.

As for the ethnic Chinese Singaporeans you see in the video, most of them are mere opportunists who will go to Australia if the money is better. Otherwise they will return if the money is otherwise. On the whole they have no qualms even if their ministers were monkeys.

Many of them in Australia (those in the video) work in Singapore companies or seek contracts with the Singapore government. They would sing a tune for Singapore today if it is profitable. Tomorrow they will sing a tune for Australia if the profits are the other way round. They will dance this way or that depending on which way the wind blows. These characters are simply spineless who would winningly prostitute their souls for the highest bidder. There are not many of these. You can disregard them.

Once Singaporeans leave for these free democracies like Australia, it wont' be long before they realize how much their minds and their lives have been damaged by the country of their birth.

Once they see how free Australia is, with their respected laws and their government which allows everyone to be counted, a government accountable to the people, they are never going to return to a dictatorship like that of Lee Kuan Yew and his son.

If Singapore wants to retain it's people, they should make travel outside the island illegal; like Cuba. They should restrict the Internet. They should isolate their people like the North Koreans do.
Otherwise as soon as people are able to travel abroad and taste the life in Australia, Canada, the UK or USA, they simply will not ever come back.

And the sooner they stop spending taxpayers money on these lavish parties in Sydney and the other capitals of the world, the sooner they could put this money to good use such as feeding the Singapore poor whom this government has simply chosen to ignore.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in exile
Fremont, California, USA
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com

Singaporeans in Australia say "I love Singapore". Only problem, noone wants to return! Ha ha.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Singapore state controlled newspaper Straits Times of Oct 15, 2013 has the story "Foreign guests can attend Singapore Day but admission is by ticket only: Organizer" Please see report http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/foreign-guests-can-attend-singapore-day-admission-ticket-organiser-201

A little background. Tiny Singapore continues to have a major disastrous unsolvable population problem. The island is very tiny a mere 274 square miles. The local native born population has been declining through the world's lowest fertility rate. In other words almost no children are being born. Second the brain drain is the highest in the world. Every person capable of leaving for the West has already left or is in the process of leaving. Third, the island today has no more than perhaps 2 million native born citizens, and shrinking.

The problem for the shrinking population, the world's highest brain drain and the world's lowest birth rate is because the people have lost confidence in their government. In Singapore, there are no human rights; no right to free speech, expression or assembly. The entire media is state controlled and the courts and judiciary are no longer impartial. They have become an extension of the government one party police state.

In this scenario, with the population being English speaking, it is not too difficult to move to the West. As a result any capable person able to emigrate is doing so. If not they are sending their children abroad for education after which they do not return. And once their children are settled in the West, they arrange for their parents and relatives to join them. And with this multiplier effect, the number moving abroad increases multifold with each passing day.

Realizing that the government simply cannot function without any skilled educated Singaporeans, they had sent out numerous high ranking government officers including the Singapore dictator himself Lee Kuan Yew and other Ministers to go the capitals of the world to persuade Singaporeans to return evoking their sense of loyalty to their country of birth.

Unfortunately for them, none of these tactics worked and the Singaporeans who have left not only refuse to return but in fact are encouraging their friends and relatives to join them thereby increasing the rate of brain drain.

You can see no doubt that a tiny island with a tiny population such as this simply cannot survive under these circumstances.

Realizing that the battle is lost and Singaporeans abroad are simply not going to come back to the one party police state of Lee Kuan Yew and his son, they have done the next best thing. At the Singapore taxpayers expense, they have set up Singapore government funded organizations around the world and they now try, instead of persuading them to return, "to keep in touch with their homeland"  instead.

I doubt very much whether any of these foreign Singaporeans who were so eager to get out of Singapore are bothering to "keep in touch" with Singapore, but that is another matter.

One such function organized by these overseas Singapore associations in this case is the Sydney Australia Singapore Day.

It appears as many as 6,000 Singaporeans living in the Sydney area have turned up to for the event (which shows how large the overseas Singapore population has grown)  which has put up a huge sign saying "I Love Singapore". But there is only one catch to this. They may love Singapore, but they simply don't want to come back. Not only that, while loving Singapore so much, they are persuading ever more of their friends and relatives in Singapore to join them in Australia.

Even though I find this funny, I also consider this a tragedy. If only Lee Kuan Yew, his son will understand. The West is far superior to Singapore because they are democracies and their inhabitants have freedom. And as long as Singaporeans are treated as "digits" as Lee Kuan Yew has called them with no freedom, no rights and Kangaroo courts, no foreign based Singaporean would ever want to return and ever more Singaporeans given the choice would leave for the West.

And you can go on putting these lavish parties in Sydney and elsewhere and call them Singapore Days and put up huge sings saying "I Love Singapore" but it is simply not going to do you any good. The sooner Lee Kuan Yew  and son realize it the better.

And the sooner they stop wasting taxpayers money with these lavish parties and big signs saying "I love Singapore", the better. They should get this into their heads; they simply don't love Singapore because if they did, they would not have left.

I live in San Francisco, California. I have no intention of returning to a one party police state like Singapore. I think those in Sydney think so too.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont, California USA
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com

Singapore. An economy for foreigners, not Singaporeans

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Singapore has an thoroughly absurd economic model which has been created to further the interests of foreigners, not Singaporeans. This is why.

Lee Kuan Yew and his son whom he appointed the Prime Minister brought out some scholars who had passed exams and were serving out their careers at million dollar salaries in the government to develop a plan to boost the economy.

Since Singapore is nothing but a dictatorship run with the help of handpicked scholars in high places, they had no need whatsoever to discuss any of this with their ordinary citizens whom Lee Kuan Yew had once described as mere "digits".

If they did, I don't think they would find themselves in the pickle they do now.

So here comes the utterly nonsensical plan, and you don't have to be a professional economist to know how stupid it is.

During the past 30 years or so, Ministers were asked to come up with economic sectors which showed prospects. They had given them the name "hubs".

One of the chosen areas was off shore banking and tax haven business, "banking hub" since there were embezzlers of state owned corporations from China who had lots of questionable money to put away, and since Singapore had a Chinese population, it seemed very probable they would choose Singapore. So, the idea of turning the island into a banking hub took off in a heart beat.

But the only problem in this case was Singaporeans had as much knowledge of off shore banking as they would have of a donkey's backside. But that didn't deter these million dollar ministers who run around the legs of the Lee family who dishes out the millions.

So what do they do? They not only allow these multi national banks to set up shop in Singapore, they also allow any number of foreign specialists in banking to staff these banks.

And what about the Singaporeans? Have they any part in this economic explosion of money and wealth? Sadly none at all.

Up till today, local Singaporeans haven't a clue what happens in international banking and they are lucky if they get jobs as petty junior clerks working under the English banker from London who has not only the academic qualification in banking but also 20 years experience in it. So in time to come, do the pathetic Singaporean digits have any hope? None at all. Why, because Singapore colleges don't have programs such as these, and even if they did, there is no way they can get the exposure needed to run these international transactions.

And do I blame the Singaporeans for not knowing this business of high finance? Of course not. Singapore is a tiny island with not more than perhaps two million local Singaporeans. And in any case it does not have the long history of banking as London Geneva or Zurich have.

So you can see, I hope, why this idea is so silly, even a ten year old boy can see how silly it is. You simply don't create plans and programs out of the blue simply because it seems profitable.

You create programs that take into account your own peoples skills and abilities and allow the market to grow in the direction it wants through market forces; not by some handpicked scholars deciding that tomorrow we are going into the diamond cutting business, even though the locals has no clue about how it is done.

Simply put, you leave the Singapore market alone to grow by market forces; not by some scholar sitting in some backroom deciding that tomorrow the island will become a banking hub! It is like Vanuatu, a small Pacific atoll saying tomorrow we will be like London. How silly.

As a result of this banking hub nonsense, which has left the local Singaporean citizen completely behind; what you see are British, Swiss, Australian and a slew of other Western expatriates sipping expensive champagne along the waterfront cafes and driving around in their Ferrari's doing just about anything they want, while the locals looks upon them drooling with envy.

The local has to be content being the low down secretary or office boy to the Swiss millionaire expatriate. This banking hub is not furthering the interests of locals; it furthers the interests of foreign expatriates on employment passes.

It is the same with every other harebrained "hub" in the tiny island. Singapore is the bio tech hub which claims to manufacture all sorts of miracle medicines. But who are they anyway? They are all scientists from the United States and elsewhere who work these businesses for large sums of money while the local is employed to run errands and pass the beaker.

True the Singapore government is trying to educate Singaporeans into becoming scientists. There is only one problem. Once they become scientists, they no longer have any desire to live in Lee's dictatorship and emigrate at the first opportunity. They are Singapore's biggest headache; the brain drain.

And then you have the health care sector. Call it the health care hub. Some Lee Kuan Yew's minion decided to come up with this nonsensical idea.

They reckoned, that as market for health services is probably going to grow, with rich Asians wanting to come to Singapore to be treated rather than going to London, why not become a health care center and make tons of money.

Only one problem; they don't have the doctors or the specialists to run the show. So what do they do? They simply import thousands of doctors and nurses from around the world to work them.

So what about the Singaporean? There are none around. Singapore doctors have either emigrated or there are not enough around. In fact, if you take a look at any Singapore hospital, you would notice that if the foreign workers left, the hospital would close; no doubt about it.

And then they have the legal hub. Only problem is that no one wants to come to Singapore for their cases. Why should they come to a judiciary made up of Kangaroos. So the idea of legal hub has died a natural death.

So what do I say? I say that you don't go around sitting in some high rise glass tower in down town Singapore and come up with economic plans which simply has nothing to do with the reality on the ground.

Instead, you let the economy grow by itself assuring Singaporeans that they have a country which cares for them and treats them like human beings, not "digits". And let them decide what is good for them instead of the government coming out of the blue and deciding that Singapore is going to be a banking hub with the locals working as coolies for the Swiss banker in downtown Singapore.

Is it too late? Unfortunately yes. These minions who are only too happy to please Lee Kuan Yew's son the Prime Minister so much so that they have expanded the economy at such break neck speed that they simply don't have a choice but to continue bringing ever more foreigners to run these businesses or rather "hubs". Otherwise these businesses would just fold for lack of manpower.

Despite the fact that the government has recently put out claims to reduce the intake of foreign labor, it is simply not possible. If they seriously went ahead, it would undoubtedly lead to a recession and it does not take much for a tiny island like Singapore to completely collapse. A tiny island like this will fold if you have businesses closing at such a rate.

Unfortunately they are in the grip of the vise. They simply have to go on bringing even more and more foreigners, and with the numbers of locals leaving the island continuing to mount in a huge brain drain, and with the almost zero fertility rate, this nonsensical policy will inevitably lead to the total disappearance of the local Singaporean in Singapore island. I have no doubt about it. A tragic irony indeed.

This is the sort of thing that happens with all dictatorships. Why, because they are not accountable to anyone.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont, California USA
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com

Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew and Son's warning to the people. If you live in glass houses, don't throw stones.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am not sure whether Singapore strongman Lee Kuan Yew or his son, the anointed Prime Minister had ever said the words "If you live in glass houses, don't throw stones" but the  metaphorical warning has been made very clear by their actions to their helpless subjects for the last 52 years! By referring to the  glass house, I mean of course Singapore island.

For a former native born citizen and a victim of his repression, I can make this painful revelation unequivocally; the only way to live happily in Singapore is to be a card carrying supporter of Lee Kuan Yew and his Peoples Action Party.

It is in reality no different from Nazi Germany minus the murders, Franco's Spain, Mussolini's Italy or Stalin's Soviet Union. Without exception, every single instrument of control is directly answerable to Lee Kuan Yew, and since he is 90 years old and about to die, today vicariously his son.

The Constitution has no longer any meaning. Every single right of the citizen including freedom of speech, expression and assembly is denied. The courts publicly and openly make comical judgments to punish political opponents who are naïve enough to think otherwise.

The entire Media is state controlled under the island's Newspapers and Printing Presses Act, TV and radio included. Elections every 5 years are stage managed and Lee Kuan Yew's handpicked candidates invariably win. If any naïve individual is dumb enough to think these proceedings are real and goes ahead to challenge the Supremo, he will face defamation action, contempt of court charges, bankrupted and even jailed.

As a result of this total control, you can imagine the type of people who inhabit that island.

The ordinary Singaporean is a person who, out of necessity keeps his thoughts to himself for the sake of a living. Then you have those looking for much greater rewards like the judge Belinda Ang Saw Ean,  who shamelessly in full sight of the public prostitutes her judicial office to please her master. For the dirty work she does, she is rewarded handsomely, I mean in the millions. I was in her court in 2008 in Singapore watching the shameful spectacle of her making short shrift of the law against Lee Kuan Yew's political opponent Chee Soon Juan.

I am not exaggerating when I say this, now that I am a well publicized Lee Kuan Yew opponent.

Since I criticized the Singapore government, even though I was born there, I have been deported.

To return I need a visa which they will not give. Even if I could get  one, no hotel will give me accommodation. Even if some hotel did in the unlikely event not knowing who I was, the moment they discover my identity, they would refuse accommodation.

Assuming I never left Singapore and remained a citizen, I would never be given a job. Even if I found one somehow, I would probably be fired the next week. I probably would not be served in restaurants.

In other words life would become so miserable that sooner or later, I would just have to stop being Gopalan Nair and subscribe to the ideas of Lee Kuan Yew and his political party.

The reason why no one would give me service is not necessarily because there is a directive from the Prime Minister's office but because the ordinary citizen is afraid of government reprisals for assisting a known political opponent.

Yes, it is as bad as that. And anyone who has read history would have known that this was how it was in Nazi Germany, Franco's Spain, Mussolini's Italia or Soviet Union under Stalin.

No developed democracy in the world behaves like this. I can be an Obama opponent and still succeed in America.

Question is, whether any nation can progress if it's people are forced to keep their thoughts of government to themselves like they do in Singapore.

Any country especially one like Singapore island in the 21st Century which depends on free trade and international traffic has to have a thinking people with new ideas, as it is ideas that advance any society.  But because allowing people to think openly may threaten their monopoly of power, father and son simply silences them. 

Beside the fact that this sort of suppression impedes progress, it is also a life that any thinking person would find abhorrent. And this explains why increasingly greater numbers of local talented Singaporeans continue to emigrate since the only way to live in peace and succeed requires you to submit.

Singapore is a glass house and you are well advised not to throw stones while in it. Or else Big Brother will get you.

In the end, do I have any regrets? None at all. The punishment that the tin pot tyrant has dished out has been my ammunition to continue writing to the world the dire situation there. And not being able to return is a small price to pay, and well worth paying.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in exile
Fremont, California, USA
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email:nair.gopalan@yahoo.com

Singapore. The widening divide between the people and the Lee government

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Despite the claims from abroad, from people who cannot see beyond the skyscrapers that line the waterfront, that Singapore is a miracle, a paradise and a list of other sky high  praises, the fact remains that as each day passes, ever more locals are simply saying they don't want any part of it.

These are the painful facts. Despite the desperate pleas of the government, the people are refusing to have babies, a serious problem when you consider that the island has no more than perhaps 2 million local born citizens, whose numbers alarmingly continue to fall.

Singapore has one of the highest rates of brain drain to the West.

In the past senior government ministers including Lee Kuan Yew and his son had travelled to the capitals of the western world where so many talented Singaporeans have fled to, desperately begging them to return.

Anyone can see the serious damage being done to tiny Singapore if their skilled and educated leave in such great numbers; in fact even a small number leaving given their already tiny number is bad enough.

Not surprisingly, no one wanted to return. As we speak the deluge of emigration especially to Australia continues unchecked, which further reduces the already negligible numbers remaining.

Those native Singaporeans remaining in the island are in fact themselves dying of old age, with a great proportion consisting of persons aged 60 or more, the product of the baby boom of the 50s and 60s. 

Having already embarked on their misguided policy of expanding the economy at breakneck speed by bringing in foreigners to do the work as the local workforce pool is too small, now with the added problem of having the lowest fertility rate in the world coupled with unprecedented levels of emigration to the West, they are left with no choice but to continue to bringing in increasing numbers of foreigners into the workforce.

In this manner, like a complete blood transfusion, local Singaporeans are being completely displaced while the island is beginning to have a majority of foreigners claiming to be Singaporeans all of whom know nothing of the culture, ethos, identity or heritage of what being Singaporean means. As time progresses it will be 90% foreign and 10% local.

It is like changing England entirely by bringing in so many Italians that it is no longer England but Italy. 

The reasons why local Singaporeans are so disenchanted by their rulers must be very clear to anyone. How do you respect a government which pays it's Ministers $3.7 million a year and if you include bonuses, each would receive about $5 million at least. If this is not corruption , what is corruption?

You have bald and blatant nepotism. Almost every single person in top government positions are either Lee Kuan Yew's son or his relative. His son by the way is the Prime Minister. How do you respect a government comprised entirely of a dictator's family?

And then you have a state controlled press and media. The information you receive is carefully censored and selected leaving you not knowing at any one time whether you are actually told the truth and how much of it is left out.

And then you have a judiciary which would have put to shame the Court in Alice in Wonderland. Their Kangaroo judges are so adept at judicial somersaults whenever they have to deal with a political opponent which is when you begin to wonder whether night is in fact day or whether 2 and 2 actually make 25!

And lastly if you were to complain about any of this, you would be charged with a defamation lawsuit, contempt of court charges and if necessary sent to jail and bankrupted. Your guilty verdict is guaranteed.

I suppose now it will appear very clear why no one in his right mind, if he can help it, wants to bring up a family, get married and have children in Lee Kuan Yew's island paradise.

In my own case I have been having the butt end of the stick in the island since the 1980s as a lawyer and opposition politician.

Realizing that I wasn't going to be the good boy they expected of me by prostrating before the mighty Lee Kuan Yew, when I showed contrarian tendencies, they started by repeatedly bringing fake legal disciplinary charges to have me disbarred.

Then when I questioned the Attorney General on his stand over the late opposition politician  JB Jeyaretnam, they suspended me from practicing law for 2 years and when I spoke at an election rally in 1991, had me charged for contempt of court and made me pay a hefty fine.

More recently in 2008, when I criticized the judge Belinda Ang Saw Ean for showing bias against opposition  leader Chee Soon Juan while physically within Singapore, I was arrested and jailed for 3 months.

Later when I wrote a similar blog against another equally obnoxious political judge Judith Prakash from the US, for sending three men to jail just for wearing T shirts with a picture of a Kangaroo in judicial robes, I was disbarred from practicing law in the island.

Not that it matters to me since I am actively practicing in California and when the California state licensing body were informed of my disbarment in Singapore, rightly took no notice of it.

Since all this is deliberately very widely reported in their local press, the idea being to give the locals pangs of fear trickling down their spine of ever criticizing their rulers, it also has a clear counter productive effect.

English educated professionals would ask themselves if this is the sort of country they and their children should live in where critics are bullied into silence and if the victim refuses to co-operate, hounded for the rest of his life.

For the sake of argument, if I was living in Singapore, I would be denied every conceivable assistance that anyone else would have taken for granted. That is, until you repent and grovel at Lee Kuan Yew's feet, which many do out of necessity.

Just because I have been identified as a political opponent, every single application would be refused, whether it be for jobs or any benefit which others are entitled to.

In the end, it must be obvious that most decent people would find such a bully boy government not a place to live in which explains why despite all their efforts and pleas, the local Singaporean population is simply vanishing, thus creating a growing divide between the people and the government.

The educated thinking Singaporean is simply refusing to co-operate with their government.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com

Singapore Lee Kuan Yew's greatest failure. A complete lack of cvil society

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Many in Singapore have written to me that Singapore is now in a historical cross road of almost existential proportions.

Lee Kuan Yew is 90 years old and apparently is gravely ill. They say it is anytime now that he will call it a day from this world. As for his son, we know that he has had cancer before, and according to reports, it has returned.

And in fact some say, the situation with the son is so bad, it is open to question whether he goes first or his 90 year old father.

You might also have noticed that unlike what everyone thought of a dynasty in the island, with Lee Kuan Yew, then his son the Prime Minister, and then his grandson; the grandson heir apparent is  nowhere to be found. Are we to assume that he has given up on the Chinese Emperor dynastic ambitions altogether or is it because he can read the writing on the wall; that it simply won't work anymore.

It would appear no doubt that Lee Kuan Yew has done a very good job on Singapore's appearance. He has built all those motorways, cleaned up the place through draconian fines and imprisonment, built all those skyscrapers and made sure the telephone always worked and there was clean running water.

But what is remarkable by any account is his building all those high rise shoebox pigeonhole apartments throughout the small island to house his citizens except for the fact that he repeatedly distorts the truth by calling them purchased when in fact they are all 99 year leases and those who dwell in them mere renters.

So much for the infra structure. It very strange that for a man who is attributed with such great vision and foresight, it had never occurred to him that the country needed leaders and without leaders there will be chaos, in fact there will not even be any Singapore after him! His idea of leaders are not leaders at all, they are mere bootlicking overpaid bureaucrats.

His government is in fact based on an entirely unsustainable model and entirely reliant on one man Lee Kuan Yew who unfortunately is not an inanimate object that can last forever.

If Lee goes Singapore goes with him. This is why. He has a government made up entirely of scholars who do not represent anyone. Young students who study hard are given overseas government funded scholarships, who upon return promise to work in his government for a length of time.

As Lee controls everything including parliamentary elections, these former scholarship students are invariably elected since any real opposition is roundly destroyed by defamation or contempt of court charges.

Once in Parliament, the state controlled newspapers are ordered to show them prominently and their speeches and their ideas. If you thought about it for one moment, it must dawn on you that these instant politicians, or scholar turned politician, don't represent anyone, least of all you. And the last person in the world whom you would expect to lecture to you are these characters.

And it is impossible to call them leaders because they obviously are not. In fact were it not for the fact that Lee Kuan Yew is around, no one would even care to take a second look at Teo Chee Hean, Lee's sidekick.

But since Lee controls everything that moves in the island, you simply cannot tell Teo off as you would anywhere else because Lee's police attack dogs will get you and charge you for defamation of character.

So you end up in a situation like this. On the one hand you have Singapore's supreme authority, 90 year old Lee Kuan Yew whom many believe is the very reason why the sun rises.

Second you have his son whom he anointed Prime Minister who naturally wields great power, not on his own but vicariously through his father.

One rung below you have the numerous Teo Chee Heans and the Vivain Balakrishnans who run around under the legs of both Lee and his son, looking very intelligent but more importantly obedient with powers to tell off any Singaporean who may have other ideas.

And then you have the rest of the population, whose job it is to do their work, keep their mouths shut, live in the pigeonhole apartments that Lee builds for them and work in the jobs that Lee gives them and quietly like obedient schoolboys live what is left of their remaining lives in Lee Kuan Yew's island.

But here lies the problem. What happens when  the 90 year old Lee Kuan Yew finally goes to his maker. What happens then?

Do we all rally around his son, the new Lee Kuan Yew as their new supreme leader to take his father's place, and will all these former scholarship students turned Ministers this time rally around the son and worship him as the new Prophet of God?

And will the Singapore police attack dogs who so faithfully arrest and jail anyone who criticizes the Supreme Leader do the same in the name of his son? Or will the thus far loyal police force decide that they will not put up with this baloney anymore and refuse to obey?

You may have noticed like I do that Lee Kuan Yew appears almost to have a deliberate plan to make sure that none can ever achieve any leadership status. No single person in his government other than himself can claim to have any following among the people.

Teo Chee Hean does not stand for any particular political ideal or opinion. His job is nothing more than merely carrying out Lee's orders. I am sure you will agree that Teo is not going to have 20,000 people standing up to cheer him when he appears. Except for the fact that the state controlled newspapers publish his photo, no one would have even recognize him otherwise.

On the other hand Singapore had many leaders who were passionate about Singapore, great patriots, and who showed great potential. But every single one of them without exception was mowed down and destroyed.

JB Jeyaretnam was a leader who wanted to improve workers rights and democratize the island. He was expectedly removed with fake criminal charges, defamation actions, imprisonment and bankruptcy.

There was Tan Wah Piow a student leader in the 1960s who spoke for the underdog and the workers. He was convicted of rioting through the Kangaroo judge Sinnathuray. He managed to escape to England.

Chee Soon Juan today leads his party, a very much moderated person who no longer hold protests and demonstrations. He is never mentioned in any state controlled newspapers and is a victim of Lee's Fifth Column with his reputation maligned and a subject of ridicule odium and contempt.

There are others, far too many to be mentioned. There is Teo Soh Lung a former lawyer who had worked so hard for a better Singapore. For her troubles she was arrested under the ISA without charge, held in solitary confinement, tortured and abused and after her release, her law practice destroyed. After having contested the last elections in 2011 and lost, she has literally gone into obscurity. Had she been given a chance, I can see her in active politics and serving Singapore famously.

My case too was not very different. In the 1980s I joined the Workers party under Jeyaretnam whom I greatly admired. I stood for 2 elections, 1988 and 1991. For my troubles, I was repeatedly charged with law practice professional misconduct violations, and placed in disciplinary proceedings for asking then Attorney General Tan Boon Teik to explain himself of his position regarding Jeyaretnam. I was also charged for contempt of court in 1991 for suggesting that the manner of appointment of Sub Court judges should be removed from the control of the Legal Service Commission and made independent.

Not wanting to ruin my life and that of my children in an island where Lee can literally do whatever he wants, I left for America.

In this manner Lee destroyed every single Singaporean who had any interest in Singapore's future. And at the same time, while these victims were being destroyed, the entire island was silenced with an understanding that it is very dangerous to have political ideas in Singapore. And at the same time it was very clear that the only ones who were allowed this luxury were these scholarship students handpicked to serve Lee Kuan Yew and any others who may join his party.

Today it can be very correctly said that Singapore has no independent leaders. The only leader is Lee Kuan Yew. And among the entire population, there is no one out there, other than Lee Kuan Yew, who is able to claim that he has any support from anyone on the ground.

In this precarious state of affairs can anyone imagine what will happen when Lee dies? Will his son become the new Lee Kuan Yew and will all the others rally around the new King? Or would they say enough is enough and refuse to play second fiddle. And then what? Will new leaders suddenly sprout from the woodwork? And how can this happen when there are none?

I am sorry to say that here lies a system, a prime example of one that will completely fail, and even descend into chaos, even mayhem.

And it is Lee Kuan Yew's greedy deliberate and selfish plan to keep all the power to himself that has resulted in this untenable situation.

In fact this 90 year old dictator showed a reckless disregard for the interest of Singapore when he took no attempt to develop a civil society to ensure that while he built his magnificent skyscrapers, he also cultivated and nurtured a civil society where people with diverse opinions were allowed to co-exist and take over after he is gone. He will sadly leave behind an island bereft of leadership.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont, California, USA
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com

Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew has successfully changed the software.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

During the spate of lawsuits against the foreign media a few years ago for defamation of character and contempt of court for having criticized Lee Kuan Yew or his son, a prominent American journalist whose name I forget had gone to Singapore to interview Lee Kuan Yew.

This is what he said Lee told him "We have changed the hardware, now we have to change the software" pointing to his head.

I think Lee has succeeded very well in changing the software. By hardware he meant the skyscrapers and the infra-structure. By software he meant how people think.

There are two kinds of people in Singapore. Those who are aware that one should not be living , simply blindly obeying a government and others who think that it is far better to do as you are told and go about your life without much fuss.

The former would find life distasteful in the island and emigrate to free societies in the West.

But increasing numbers in the latter category simply are not aware at all that life should not be  just obeying orders. In fact many in the island genuinely believe that it is a good life in Singapore regardless of the fact that they have no say at all in how things are run. As long as they have food, a job and the normal pleasures of life, it is all that is necessary. Of course, more money the better.

Frankly I know many in Singapore who consider me insane to have challenged the government, resulting in all my trouble, my imprisonment, disbarment and deportation.

They find it strange that I having left to the United States and made a life for myself there, would want to waste my time to come to Singapore, provoke the Singapore government and causing all these problems for myself.

Far batter, according to them, if I could just come to Singapore periodically on holiday as I used to do before, enjoy a few days there, and go home. No trouble whatsoever.

In fact I am aware that many of the people I knew have distanced themselves from me, as a person they consider to be against their country! They equate Lee Kuan Yew's government as the island of Singapore. And therefor my writing these blogs, criticizing their judges and causing all these problems is as if I have gone against the country itself!

They would rather have friends who go to work quietly, have a beer with friends, go for a picnic and just enjoy yourself. According to them that is who friends should be. And had I been like them I would today have many Singaporeans friends. Somehow I don't understand the logic.

Singaporeans of this mindset, very successfully created by Lee Kuan Yew over the years would for instance consider people such as Arabs who court danger by  demonstrating  for freedom in the
West Bank, Greenpeace protestors who risk life and limb to save the environment, Chee Soon Juan who has gone to jail repeatedly in the name of freedom, the American who ties himself to the tree in Seattle to save the spotted owl from loggers would all be considered stupid for wasting their time instead of just enjoying life like he does and making money the Singaporean way.

Lee Kuan Yew has very successfully created a society which has no aspirations beyond just living and who truly believe that all that matters in life is just normal uneventful and a boring life. Singaporeans have been successfully brought up not to be passionate about anything unless it has anything to do with money.

But because of the openness of the society with foreign travel increasing, more Singaporeans may see the other side of the life but not being able to live such a life, their only option left is to leave for settlement abroad.

Frankly I am not sure brainwashed Singaporeans are going to see the light anytime soon. Whether the increased exposure to the West would cause people to think or whether the long years of brainwashing has created an obedient people in blinkers who have suffered irreparable mind-change, I do not know.

But I do know that there are many in Singapore who sincerely believe that going about challenging the government is silly and the smart man in the Singaporean sense is one who just minds his own business and makes as much money in Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore, if it is possible.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com

Singapore Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew's son admits that "Trust in public service crucial to success of government policies"

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Singapore's state controlled media, Channelnewsasia.com of 09/30/2013 has the story "Trust in Public service crucial to success of government : PM Lee" . Please see http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/trust-in-public-service/830958.html. Very correct indeed. I dare say this is the major problem that faces a dictatorship such as Singapore. And he should rightly worry that the people are not going to go along with what he does.

He is reported to have said "Ultimately integrity is not about systems and processes but values. The government must have a culture that doesn't tolerate any wrongdoing or dishonesty and the public officers must have the right values----service integrity excellence------- and each officer and the service as a whole must take pride in being clean, in corrupt"

Very nice words indeed. But this precisely where the problem lies for Lee Kuan Yew's son. Does he command any integrity or respect? Look at him. He is Lee Kuan Yew's son and was placed in his position for no other reason. We all know that. He knows that too. So where is the integrity in his case?

And then take the money that he and his father and all his friends steal from the Singapore Exchequer. Let me remind you once again that he, his father and all the ministers in Singapore are paid $3.7 million a year.

This is already five times the salary of Obama the President of the United States. In fact you can combine the salaries of Angela Merkel, and all the salaries of the European leaders and that will still not be more than what he gets.

As if this is not bad enough he and his friends pay themselves five to six months of salaries in bonuses! What do call this, integrity? I call this daylight robbery, extortion and and shameless corruption. I know this. The people of Singapore know this. In this appalling situation of corruption by the son and his father Lee Kuan Yew, how in Heavens did you expect to get respect? Does the word integrity have any meaning in this case.

The Straits Times another one of their state controlled newspapers of Sept 30, 2013 has the story Chief justice lawyer appointed judicial commissioners. See http://www.straitstimes.com/archive/monday/breaking-news/singapore/story/chief-district-judge-lawyer-appointed-judicial-commissioners-20130930

It says Tan Siong Thye and some lawyers are now appointed judicial commissioners in the High Court. I know who these people are. To call them lawyers or judges is an egregious misuse of the word. More correctly, they are "agents" of "representatives" of the Lee Kuan Yew government.

They are given some guidelines on how they should punish criminals. Much more importantly they are to carry out the demands of the Lee Kuan Yew government by cleverly misusing the law, changing court testimonies when necessary and claim whenever the occasion demands to put away a political critic, that the victim is bad, a criminal and a serial child molester.

In consideration of the dirty work, they can look forward to lavish lifestyles, million dollar salaries and a comfortable retirement. All they have to do is to sell their souls which they are always ready to do.

I recently read that the Peoples Republic of China chief justice no longer has to be trained as a lawyer as there is very little law. The only qualification needed is to be a senior member of the Chinese Communist Party. And all they have to do is to put away criminals according to guidelines and as for political criminals merely wait for the telephone to ring to be advised of the necessary sentence to be meted out.

I think the way things are going, Lee Kuan Yew's son's fears would be realized sooner than he thinks.

Today lets face it, Singapore is governed simply by brute force. It is an island where the government can do anything they want with impunity, such as paying themselves millions in corruption leaving the citizens powerless to object. If you do, you will be sued for defamation of character, for contempt of court or be sent to jail. You simply have no way to challenge whatever they do. In a state like this, the average person feels powerless and retreats into his own shell. All he can do is to bite his teeth but beyond that he is powerless.

The average person knows the judiciary is not made of independent judges. They are Kangaroos in judicial robes whose duty is to put away troublemakers and to sentence some harsher than others. You will recall the abuse of the law in the case of JB Jeyaretnam, a prominent and popular lawyer who was put away, jailed and bankrupted for standing up to them. You have seen Chee Soon Juan destroyed. This sort of thing sends a chill down the spine of any individual discouraging any possible resistance to this government who are literally thugs.

What will happen is this. When a citizen finds that he has been victimized and unfairly treated leaving him no recourse, he can either simply retreat into his shell and take it lying down, or he can retaliate the same way the government does, in violence. He can say the Hell with it, all that can happen to me is that they will take my head, but at least I go down fighting.

I fear this is what is going to happen to Singapore sooner than you think. No man will continue to take "bull s..t", forever, that much I can tell you.

And this is something European countries and America is fully aware of. That is why they go out of their way to ensure that citizens continue to have confidence and respect in their government and legal system. And that is why even if you lose in an American court, you still go away knowing that justice has been served. That the lawyers and judges are true lawyers. That they are there not as agents for Obama. And this is why regardless of who you are, the government goes out of their way to treat everyone equally, regardless of whether you are a white Caucasian banker or the local cashier at the 7Eleven.

And this is why you will never see an armed rebellion happening in the USA since no one can really point to any egregious misuse of power such as Singapore's corrupt politicians paying themselves $10 million each and calling it a salary or a judicial system which is in place merely to remove and destroy government critics.

This is why Lee Kuan Yew's son should really worry because such a system that keeps the people silent under the threat of brute force is not a system that can last for any considerable period of time.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont, California USA
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.giopalan@yahoo.com