Ladies and Gentlemen,
Singapore state owned newspaper Straits Times of Jan 06, 2014 has the story "More than good grades needed for a place at UniSIM (Singapore Institute of Management University). Please see http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/more-good-grades-needed-place-unisim-20140106-0
It seems Lee Kuan Yew's one party state Singapore is no longer going to be subtle in only helping the ruling party supporters and deny privileges to those who don't; now they are going to be open about it.
According to this report " But to secure one of the 200 places in accountancy marketing or finance applicants will need more than good grades".
I guess this is another way of saying, you have to show your support for Lee Kuan Yew's PAP which has been in power since 1959.
It says "Students will be selected based on not just academic results, but also other attributes such as social consciousness and commitment or creativity".
Since this is a government owned and run university just as nearly all the main educational institutions in the island are, except for a handful of foreign ones with a requirement that they are under the supervision of the ruling government, the management is obviously going to look for signs that the applicant is supportive of Lee Kuan Yew and his ruling party.
"Social consciousness " although not defined in the report would appear to mean participation in civil society groups such as charities and organizations that help the poor and needy.
But the problem in Singapore is that all such organizations are controlled and run by the state or monitored and supervised by the state. Examples of such civil institutions are the Peoples Association and Residents Committees which are entirely owned and controlled by important ruling party officials. It therefore follows that support for such organizations has to include support for Lee Kuan Yew and his son and their PAP which run these organizations.
If a student makes a independent and conscious decision not to support Lee Kuan Yew and his PAP, he will simply not be able to satisfy this "social consciousness and commitment" thereby making him disqualified from ever studying at this university.
Given the fact that Lee Kuan Yew's ruling party is one that
a) pays it's Ministers $3.7 million a year which is blatant corruption
b) a party that completely hijacks the entire news media organs making every single one state controlled and no different from say, Cuba or North Korea
c) a country that has a thoroughly corrupt judiciary which routinely punishes anyone who criticizes the island government or their courts through their usual weapons; defamation actions, contempt of court actions and actions that scandalize their judiciary; victims include the late JB Jeyaretnam, Chee Soon Juan and myself, Gopalan Nair
d) a country that effectively denies freedom of speech, expression or assembly, making even a sole peaceful protester liable to arrest and imprisonment
it becomes difficult for any self respecting human being with a conscience to lend his support to any of these organizations making his admission for higher education in the island impossible.
This sort of state action in denying education to those who think differently brings painful reminders reminiscent to the dark fascist regimes of the past and even present. In Fascist Spain under Franco, the only way to make a livelihood was to show support to his Fascist party. If not you starve.
It was the same with China under Mao and even today. The requirement for survival in Communist China was Communist Party membership which is why every single Chinese person was a card carrying member. The worst nightmare for any Chinese citizen was expulsion from the Communist Party which effectively meant permanent joblessness and impoverishment, making such a victim in China better off dead.
Of course in Hitler's Nazi Germany everyone had to be a member of the Nazi party. The consequences of refusal is too painful to imagine.
With the increasing electoral vote going to the opposition in recent times, it seems Lee Kuan Yew and his son government is becoming desperate.
They have to try any means to force support for them making the ability for one to choose independently no longer an option.
With this news and the blog which I wrote before this of children in Singapore being indoctrinated from the age of 6 to support the PAP, the island is slowly and inexorably edging towards an Orwellian 1984 with support for Big Bother a state requirement for survival.
My answer to this is simple. Students intending to go for tertiary education should simply bypass Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore island, if you can. Don't submit yourselves to this nonsense. If you see what I see, this is clearly another means to brainwash and control the island population to think one way and no other.
But it is not as bad as all that, and this is why. The one party dictatorship of Lee Kuan Yew and son simply will not last. For a start 90 year old Lee Kuan Yew is probably bedridden, too old and sick and probably dying.
If he dies the whole island will simply collapse. Your HDB flat values will become worthless and the PAP will be history. At which point, it may not even be necessary for me to continue Singapore Dissident, the mission having been accomplished.
Moreover too many Singaporeans are continuing to experience life in the West and once experienced like an elixir, it invariably draws them away from that regimented island. No one in his right mind wants to live in a society like this, where you are told what to think and how to think. It is simply not possible to think it is right for any minister top pay himself $3.7 million a year or that freedom of speech should be illegal. It simply does not make sense.
As more Singaporeans continue to move to the West, as more young men refuse to do national service, as the birth rate continues to plunge, the government has no choice but to resort to bringing in huge numbers of Mandarin speaking Chinese from China who are incapable of doing jobs which require the English language. Furthermore the quality of these immigrants are poor for their lack of an English education.
In their stead, huge numbers of English speaking Filipinos or Indians from India are given citizenship, most of whom have no desire to call Singapore home, a country which they see utterly lacking democracy or the rule of law.
A Filipino for instance would be quite happy to call USA home, but not Abu Dhabi, North Korea or Singapore. The Filipinos may be poor but at least you don't get arrested for criticizing their President.
I suppose the Singapore government hopes that at least the children of these reluctant immigrants could somehow be brainwashed and made to accept these unacceptable human rights denying laws. But what is working against them is the fact that the future continues to change with modernisation and international commerce and exchange, and it will be almost impossible to make them accept this one party dictatorship nonsense.
Unfortunately for Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore, it is a little too little and too late. I don't think these measures are going to be effective. If they deny places to non supportive students, they would only be shooting themselves in the foot because in most cases, it is these very students with independent minds who are the best and brightest.
To any reader curious as to why I can write this blog when I say that any criticism within the island results in arrest and imprisonment, it is because I am writing this from Fremont, California, USA and not from within Lee Kuan Yew's island.
His police goons have no power to arrest me in California. And neither can they shut down this blog and prevent it reaching Singaporeans because it is hosted by Google which happens to be an American company to whom they would have to answer some embarrassing questions. That is why I can write this and Singaporeans within Singapore can read it.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
Fremont, California USA
A Singaporean in Exile
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
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