Singapore Lee Kuan Yew and Son's insecurity results in loss of the best and brightest

Update 02052014; more Singapore lawyers added from alphabetical list

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Despite the Singapore Lee government's constant refrain ad naseum that it is a meritocracy, it is not.

Nothing is further from the truth. It is an island where to succeed you not only need skills, but far more than that, you need loyalty to the Lee family and the ruling Peoples Action Party.

Without that loyalty, no matter how many attributes you have, you will be destined to nothing. But even if you could not make yourself do it without puking, you are still acceptable even if you just pretended.

In fact one could safely say that the vast majority of Singaporeans simply get along by this make believe life.

But for those with any pride, that is simply the difficult part. Why, because it is simply hard for anyone with a brain of his own to be loyal to them.

Why, because Singapore island is a country where their leaders, Lee Kuan Yew and son, pay themselves $3.7 million a year. Put it another way it is simply daylight robbery. Simply corruption plain and simple. And it is difficult with all honesty to respect corrupt leaders.

It does not have a free press, no human rights whatsoever, where you would be hounded and persecuted if you happen to be on the wrong side of the fence.

And not to mention the lack of the rule of law and Kangaroo courts to administer "justice" to please Lee Kuan Yew and his government.

Under these circumstances, you have to be a thoroughly dishonest scoundrel devoid of any self respect to be able to say with a straight face that you are loyal to them.

And the reason for this insistence that you should support them or else suffer at your peril should be obvious. The Lee family have always been insecure of anyone who is able enough to challenge them; anyone with ideas different from them.

Why, because if the citizen is allowed to state even the obvious, that the Lee administration are a bunch of corrupt men and women who abuse the law and the Constitution for their own personal interest, the Lee Kuan Yew family and their government would be instantly overthrown.

George Orwell had said in 1984 that it was enough for a man to be able to say that 2 and 2 are 4 and everything else will follow. But in Singapore if you were to state that Lee Kuan Yew is corrupt, you would be instantly arrested. I can say it here because I write from California. Otherwise it would not be possible.

The safest thing to do is obviously to accept only those willing to toe the line and prostrate before them; and malign, victimize and marginalize anyone who may be different.

As the Roman Emperor (and Lee and his son who think they are Emperors too) once said, you are either with me or against me.

Remember JB Jeyaretnam. He was a famous lawyer but unfortunately a Lee Kuan Yew contrarian. His views were diametrically opposite of the Lee family dictatorship.

He stood for democracy, freedom and free and fair elections; while Lee stands for fascism and dictatorship. You know what happened to him of course.

He was repeatedly sued, charged with false accusations and bankrupted and eventually died. Had he been given a chance, he would have been an asset to Singapore.

His forward looking ideas, zeal and vitality would have made Singapore a far better place than it is now; a vibrant society, not a dead one like it is now.

But he didn't stand a chance in the world. Lee Kuan Yew and son were mortally afraid of him, and in their selfishness, insecurity and greed, destroyed him and with him went a chance for a democratic vibrant lively society. They were prepared in their selfishness to act against Singapore's interests if necessary.

Chee Soon Juan is presently the Secretary General of the opposition Singapore Democratic party. He is a highly qualified neuro psychologist with a doctorate from an American University.

While employed as a professor at the local university he decided to join the Singapore Democratic Party. That sealed his fate.

He too like the late Jeyaretnam was a highly qualified politician with some brilliant ideas for the island. But the problem was that freedom is the last thing that Lee Kuan Yew and his son want, because freedom would literally mean their end.

Chee too was hounded and persecuted and destroyed. He suffered numerous lawsuits and repeated bankruptcies.

For some time now he has become a changed man, a far cry from the rambunctious firebrand that he once was.

There are those who believe that he had made a deal with the Lee government to cease and desist from protests and civil disobedience, the ultimate threat for the Lees in their overcrowded island, in return for release from bankruptcy and be just left alone.

Today, other than writing in his blog, he doesn't do much more. The fire in him appears to have died. Had Chee been given a chance rather than destroyed, he too would have benefited Singapore greatly.

I can go on about those whom I know.  There are many others of course, both known and unknown, able capable men and women, who have simply either given up or left the island.

I remember Wee Han Kim, the son of the famous politician and lawyer Wee Eng Lock. Since he was sued by the Lees in 1988 he has disappeared into obscurity.

There is Teo Soh Lung and others conveniently labeled Marxist Conspirators. She and the others who wanted to do good for Singapore have simply disappeared into the void. Some have left the country.

In the end in an island where you can only survive if you show the Lee Kuan Yew card, what is Singapore today? It is an island where businessmen who have no care whatsoever about the way they live, as long as they can make money, live.

For them it doesn't matter if they were physically in North Korea as long as Kim Jong Aun gives them a profit.

And then there are the masses who have simply decided that if they want to live in Singapore, the only way to do it is to shut your mouth and mind your own business, dictator or no dictator. To them it doesn't really matter if the Lees were corrupt, if they were denied human rights or if the news fed to them is just propaganda.

The astonishing thing about the island is the lawyers. It is they if anyone who must understand the dictatorship under which they live, yet none of them has the courage to do anything about it. To prove my point I am going to list out names and telephone numbers below of Singapore lawyers selected from the alphabet A for convenience in the lawyers list.

If the reader were to telephone any of them with questions such as a) are you upset with the fact that Lee Kuan Yew and son pay themselves $3.7 million a year b) are you not interested in freedom c) what do you think about the law that even a one man peaceful assembly requires a police permit which is always denied d) what do you thin about the lack of  a free press e) why don't you stand up for the Constitution and demand democracy, you are probably going to get standard answers such as this:

1. I am busy now, call me next time
2. I am not interested in politics
3. Singapore is too small a country for democracy
4. Look at America, they are not doing too well either.

And if you ask them what they thought about Gopalan Nair writing this stuff from America, they would probably say that he is a nut, that he ran away from Singapore and so on and so forth. You see, it is convenient for them to say that because otherwise there may be trouble from the Lee family's direction.  A pathetic bunch of lawyers, if one can call them that.

The country code for Singapore is 65.

1. A Navanitha 62261233, 2. APM Ferlin Jayatessa 66229455, 3. A Rajendran 65361125
4. A Sangeetha 65350550, 5. A Sharihan Anis 62222966, 6. A Tamilselvan 63568391, 7. A Ravi Shankar 63233038, 8. Chan Wai Weng 68832718, 9. Kok Ther Chian 65350733, 10. Lee Teck Chye 68907188, 11. Abdul Aziz 63443088, 12. Abdul Hamid 63239122, 13. Abdul Jabbar 65353600 14. Abdul Jalil 65384727, 15. Abdul Rahman 62982537, 16. Abdul Rashid 65356844,  17. Abdul Rohim 63375447, 18. Abdul Salim 63382477, 19. Abdullah Shaik 90355501, 20. Abdul Raheem  68832718

You can get all the names and numbers of these so called " lawyers" practicing in Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore from their website www.lawsociety.org.sg.  There are according to the Singapore authorities about 3,400 of them, totally inadequate number for an island that allegedly has 5 million people. All their names and phone numbers can be found there.

If you take the trouble to ask them, I can assure you the answers would be mind boggling.

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