Ladies and Gentlemen,
In July 2011, I was disbarred from practicing law in Singapore for my open criticism of their lack of independence in their legal system and their judiciary. I was sent to jail for 3 months and deported from the island as well.
If their intention was to prove that I was a evil criminal that needed to be punished and unbefitting to be a lawyer, I think they have failed miserably.
I am an active member of the State Bar of California and have been in practice for nearly 20 years from my office in Fremont California near San Francisco. The State Bar of California, just as other law licensing bodies all over the world require their members to have good moral character not only in their jurisdiction but anywhere else in the world.
A California lawyer disbarred in Australia for instance or any other country would be liable to explain why he should not be disciplined in California. Similarly any criminal conviction either in California or anywhere else in the world makes him liable to discipline at the California Bar.
Furthermore the Rules of the State Bar of California require all members to immediately report any discipline or conviction imposed upon them not only in California but throughout the world and the failure to report itself renders him liable to discipline.
In accordance with the rules, immediately upon notice of my disbarment in Singapore, I wrote to the State Bar of California explaining in detail the circumstances surrounding my imprisonment and disbarment for writing the blog. Naturally I was expecting to receive some sort of notice to appear before their disciplinary committee to explain why I should not be disciplined here as well.
Not surprisingly, not only did they not require any explanation beyond what I had intimated, they did not even acknowledge my correspondence! And this speaks reams and reams as to how much the rest of the world thinks of Lee Kuan Yew's Kangaroo courts and his pliant legal system. You could say the ultimate slap in the face for Lee Kuan Yew and his Singaporean legal system.
What is also noticeably telling is the failure of Singapore authorities to press their case before the California Bar to have me disciplined. Surely they must feel peeved by the fact that a lawyer who has been given the severest of punishments in Singapore, disbarment, is happily practicing law in California with no worries whatsoever. Have they no respect for their own legal system?
And not to forget, the English Bar of England and Wales of which I am a member in good standing have also totally ignored the Singapore judgment as well.
Surely it is a slap in the face for Lee Kuan Yew's legal system and their courts for a lawyer who is so incorrigible, according to them, who deserves the ultimate punishment of disbarment to be going around, not only actively practicing law in a respected jurisdiction such as California but worse, boasting about it as well!
Let me remind the Singapore authorities that it is still not too late for them to file a formal complaint against me to the State Bar of California, as well as the English Bar, asking that I be disciplined by reason of my disbarment in Singapore.
But I have a funny feeling that they would do no such thing because they know they will end up looking worse than they already are, their judges a bunch of Kangaroos in judicial robes waiting for the next order from Lee to destroy another hapless victim.
On the whole, my disbarment in Singapore has turned out to be a great advantage. Here is a situation where a blogger, I mean myself, who repeatedly and openly criticizes the dictatorial one party regime in Singapore who is punished with jail and disbarment in the island, a punishment which no one anywhere else takes any notice, while Gopalan Nair continues to trumpet his Singapore disbarment as if it was a medal, nothing short of a Victoria Cross.
And while Gopalan Nair wallows in the pleasure of repeating his Singapore disbarment and Singapore island's helplessness to do anything about it, the reputation, or rather the lack of it, of Singapore legal system continues to take a beating for all to see.
Perhaps they now feel it was a bad idea to disbar Gopalan Nair in Singapore and send him to jail. Instead of silencing him, he has become even more louder than before. But them, who knows what they think?
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont, California, USA
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
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3 comments:
I'm sure they are monitoring your blog.
In the old days when the state controlled the media, they would not care what you wrote.
But now they can't really prevent locals from reading your postings...
They can moniter as much as they want. Not going to do them any good.
well done Sir,
hope you doing fine there. A day will come when you can go back to kiss the land you were born.
God bless you.
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