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
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3 comments:
The Lee family has accumulated tremendous wealth, probably in hundreds of millions, over the years. They have paid relatively little taxes in favorable tax code devised by them. When Lee's wife passed away, the state conveniently eliminated the estate/inheritance tax. The Lees have received discount in private property purchases in the past, received overseas college education paid for by the state. Almost every one of the Lee family holds top positions in government or government linked entities. Perhaps the journalist from NYT will do an investigative piece on their wealth as he did on the Chinese earlier this year.
A final note - despite their wealth, the Lees are not actively involved in any current of future major philanthropic endeavors. It is really a shame.
"Bought" my first HDB 99 years rental flat many years ago and remember the HDB's appointed lawyer firm is Lee & Lee, just imaging how many 99 years flats the lawyer firm earned over those years...and this is just one of the family business...
Rumour has it that the cancer's back and the old fox is breathless. Singapore will have a double funeral for these 2 greedy *************. Champagnes will flow for weeks.
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