Ladies and Gentlemen,
For 50 years now, the entire history of Singapore island, it has been under a dictatorship, first under the father Lee Kuan Yew and since his death only recently, his son. At least over the years those who wished a life of democracy did try, although not hard enough for change. In earlier days we had Chee Soon Juan of the Singapore Democratic Party bravely breaking unjust laws such as anti-public protests, and public speaking, and going to jail for it. The Internet was abuzz with anti government statements and people thought that this time, there might have been real change.
Any hope in that direction was finally and conclusively dashed by the electorate voting overwhelmingly for Lee Kuan Yew's son's dictatorship with a 70% vote. Immediately thereafter any sentiment for democracy was quashed. The Internet with desire of democracy went silent as if it was lights out.
Chee Soon Juan, of the opposition Singapore Democratic Party who lost badly has turned out to be a sore loser. He has come up with a long list of reasons why he lost, such as an uneven playing field, gerrymandering and fear mongering by the establishment. But one fundamental piece of evidence that he cleverly refuses to see is that for whatever reasons, the people voted for the establishment and not for him. It would be far better for him to admit that fact and ask why they are doing so and try to address that.
Singapore government's total triumph at the elections may turn out to be a double edge sword. It may hurt the island far more than it may benefit them.
The Singaporeans who voted this administration into power are certainly different from the minority who voted against them. They are by and large ordinary people doing ordinary jobs and unlikely to have an advanced education. They feel voting for the administration would mean keeping their jobs, keeping their apartments and living their daily boring lives as they have done yesterday. To them ideals such as freedom of speech, expression, assembly or protest are unimportant. It doesn't matter to them that Lee Kuan Yew's son is one of the most corrupt leaders in the world paying himself millions in public funds. It does not matter to them that there is no rule of law or that the entire media is state controlled, no different from North Korea. They are in other words, a thoroughly obedient timid lot.
Such a society may be good for stability and order. But it is no good for individual ideas, innovation and independent thinking. Every single one of these people have no leadership whatsoever. They are only capable of following their leader.
This lack of independent thinking would result in their failing the global race for innovation and competitiveness. Free societies such as Australia and the West would always beat societies like that of Singapore because they are not afraid to think outside the box and question authority. In Singapore on the other hand, if you question authority, you either go to jail or face a defamation of character lawsuit and bankruptcy before Kangaroo courts.
It would also result in a growing brain drain to the West. No one independent thinking person would want to live or bring up their children in such a society where people are expected to obey unconditionally. More students would study in the West and not return while their parents would join them. This would result in a shrinking of already tiny section of Singaporeans who have a mind of their own.
The almost zero birth rate would decline even further requiring the government to import even larger numbers of immigrants from China, all of them who speak no English at all. And don't expect any independent thinking from these immigrants since they have lived their entire lives obeying the Chinese Communist Party.
It is ironic that the Singapore government have now an elections victory from which they literally cannot escape. By their victory they have sown the seeds for their own destruction, mounting brain drain, a society of mindless conformist orchestrated morons, simply a North Korea style government. If there is one difference between North Korea and Singapore, it is this. You can escape from Singapore but you cannot from North Korea.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
Fremont California
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Saturday, November 28, 2015
Sunday, November 1, 2015
Singapore's broken national service policy
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Not a day goes by without Emails asking how to avoid national service. It appears as if nobody in Singapore island wants to serve. The national service system there is simply nonsensical and one can see why.
There is no problem getting enough professional pilots or naval officers. It is the army which consists almost entirely of conscripts that faces a crunch. The reasons as many.
Firstly you have an abysmally low birth rate, the lowest in the world and consequently insufficient young men. Secondly you have an ageing population who are too old to serve. Thirdly you have a totally discredited government, indeed a Fascist state with no democracy whatsoever, causing many to question why they should serve a country such as this. Fourthly you have sophisticated young men who have travelled to the West and are repulsed by the way they are treated in their own country and want no part of it.
Yet this desperate government, realizing they are in some real trouble, become the enemies of their own young men, trying to enforce the this totally broken system with threats of fines and imprisonment for failing to serve.
Here are a few things you may want to know. The Enlistment Act requires any Singapore citizen as well as second generation permanent residents to serve. Unlike citizens, permanent residents can avoid it simply by giving up their residence status subject to some penalties such as the inability to either study or wok in the island. The penalties for refusal for citizens are harsh, 2 years imprisonment and heavy fines.
You can avoid national service but it comes with some difficulty, which are not insurmountable. If you are studying abroad, simply do not return. They cannot have you extradited. While abroad, your own Embassy will be your main enemy in the sense they may not renew your passport. To overcome this, you somehow have to get valid residence status. You can do this by filing an asylum claim e.g. by raising a conscientious objector defense, or that you are a Jehovah Witness preventing you from taking up firearms. Although asylum laws do not consider refusal to do national service as a valid claim, in practice they will at least not forcibly send you back. Also in most European countries as well as United States or Canada, you can get status by marrying a local. This shouldn't be difficult especially since you are a young man.
One major downside of this is that no matter how long you stay aboard, you can never return to Singapore. If you do, you will arrested. You are in effect a lifelong fugitive from the island. Personally I don't think this is a big deal. You can go anywhere in the world even to Malaysia. In any case they can never forcibly get you to return.
It is encouraging to see more an more young men deciding to abscond from the island. I want to see the fall of this PAP one party fascist regime and the collapse of their national service policy would in some way precipitate that end.
It is a big adventure no doubt fraught with some risk to go and remain abroad to avoid national service. But I would encourage you to do it. The recent elections has made it abundantly clear that they are going to continue denying any semblance of democracy in the island, forever. So if you want to save yourself, go abroad and stay abroad. That way you not only save yourself, you are giving a solid blow to the solar plexus of the Lee regime, where it hurts.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean by birth
Fremont (San Francisco) California USA
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/singapore.dissident
Not a day goes by without Emails asking how to avoid national service. It appears as if nobody in Singapore island wants to serve. The national service system there is simply nonsensical and one can see why.
There is no problem getting enough professional pilots or naval officers. It is the army which consists almost entirely of conscripts that faces a crunch. The reasons as many.
Firstly you have an abysmally low birth rate, the lowest in the world and consequently insufficient young men. Secondly you have an ageing population who are too old to serve. Thirdly you have a totally discredited government, indeed a Fascist state with no democracy whatsoever, causing many to question why they should serve a country such as this. Fourthly you have sophisticated young men who have travelled to the West and are repulsed by the way they are treated in their own country and want no part of it.
Yet this desperate government, realizing they are in some real trouble, become the enemies of their own young men, trying to enforce the this totally broken system with threats of fines and imprisonment for failing to serve.
Here are a few things you may want to know. The Enlistment Act requires any Singapore citizen as well as second generation permanent residents to serve. Unlike citizens, permanent residents can avoid it simply by giving up their residence status subject to some penalties such as the inability to either study or wok in the island. The penalties for refusal for citizens are harsh, 2 years imprisonment and heavy fines.
You can avoid national service but it comes with some difficulty, which are not insurmountable. If you are studying abroad, simply do not return. They cannot have you extradited. While abroad, your own Embassy will be your main enemy in the sense they may not renew your passport. To overcome this, you somehow have to get valid residence status. You can do this by filing an asylum claim e.g. by raising a conscientious objector defense, or that you are a Jehovah Witness preventing you from taking up firearms. Although asylum laws do not consider refusal to do national service as a valid claim, in practice they will at least not forcibly send you back. Also in most European countries as well as United States or Canada, you can get status by marrying a local. This shouldn't be difficult especially since you are a young man.
One major downside of this is that no matter how long you stay aboard, you can never return to Singapore. If you do, you will arrested. You are in effect a lifelong fugitive from the island. Personally I don't think this is a big deal. You can go anywhere in the world even to Malaysia. In any case they can never forcibly get you to return.
It is encouraging to see more an more young men deciding to abscond from the island. I want to see the fall of this PAP one party fascist regime and the collapse of their national service policy would in some way precipitate that end.
It is a big adventure no doubt fraught with some risk to go and remain abroad to avoid national service. But I would encourage you to do it. The recent elections has made it abundantly clear that they are going to continue denying any semblance of democracy in the island, forever. So if you want to save yourself, go abroad and stay abroad. That way you not only save yourself, you are giving a solid blow to the solar plexus of the Lee regime, where it hurts.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean by birth
Fremont (San Francisco) California USA
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/singapore.dissident
An inescapable electoral triumph for Singapore's ruling PAP
Ladies and Gentlemen,
September 11, 2015, a day of infamy anywhere else but not Singapore's PAP. The party founded by Lee Kuan Yew more than 50 years ago, not only won, but did so overwhelmingly at 70% vote count. As they have done for the past entire history of modern Singapore, they will now rule with renewed gusto. And this is bad news for anyone who loves freedom, as they stand for pure undiluted fascism, no freedom of speech, expression, assembly or the rule of law.
But there is another side to it. Can it be that their huge victory can in fact turn out in the long run to defeat them? I think, this victory, instead of boon, could instead hurt Singapore and make the problems it now faces only progressively worse.
Take the question of the island's huge brain drain. As many as several thousands annually who leave the island for settlement abroad principally do so because there is no democracy. It may not be so bad for a large country to lose such numbers but Singapore is a small island. With a clear sign from the results of this election that there is no chance at all for any democracy, even more people are going to leave, gradually emptying the island population of anyone with a head on his shoulders. This would require the island government to bring in even more immigrants from Communist China, which they are already doing, to make up the numbers, literally changing it into a Communist Chinese city.
Then you have the conscript army. The vast majority of young men do not want to be enlisted. They see no reason why they have to waste 2 years of their lives in a useless pursuit, especially when they have no respect for a Fascist government such as this. To make matters worse, the island has the lowest birth rate in the world adding to the dearth of conscript soldiers. And then you have the fastest ageing population anywhere in Asia. Young men who go abroad for an education never return and I get countless Emails asking me how to avoid National Service. I can say with some confidence that the national service system has totally failed and unless they do something about it, it is impossible to get a Singapore Chinese into a uniform. They rather be counting money.
Take a look at the lawyers in Singapore. A glace through the Singapore Law Society's lawyer list has names which I have never heard before, Caucasian and other foreign names. They don't sound Singaporean at all. The truth is the numbers of law students entering the profession is so low and those leaving are so high that they have simply no choice but to admit unemployed lawyers from Europe and elsewhere to fill in the blanks. As for them, it makes no difference if they happen to be in North Korea. After all Singapore is not their home and they can leave whenever they want. You can imagine the quality of lawyering.
It is the same in every other profession. Singaporeans capable of leaving want nothing to do with this Fascist police state, with no civil liberties whatever. In the not too distant future, you can expect Singapore to be something like Dubai or Abu Dhabi. A few local elite, primarily the Lee family and their relatives, and the rest guest workers who serve them. Just like in Dubai, they will let you live and work and when they don't like you, either punish you or send you home and bring others to replace you.
I am doing my best to encourage Singaporeans to stand up and demand your democratic rights. With my agitation over the years, I can confidently say that my actions have persuaded many to leave and will continue to do so. I would hope that with this writing on the wall of the recent elections, at least some Singaporeans who love their country would hopefully see the need to engage in public demonstrations and protests to demand their rights before it is too late.
Gopalan Nair
A Singaporean by birth
Fremont (San Francisco) California USA
Attorney at Law
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/singapore.dissident
September 11, 2015, a day of infamy anywhere else but not Singapore's PAP. The party founded by Lee Kuan Yew more than 50 years ago, not only won, but did so overwhelmingly at 70% vote count. As they have done for the past entire history of modern Singapore, they will now rule with renewed gusto. And this is bad news for anyone who loves freedom, as they stand for pure undiluted fascism, no freedom of speech, expression, assembly or the rule of law.
But there is another side to it. Can it be that their huge victory can in fact turn out in the long run to defeat them? I think, this victory, instead of boon, could instead hurt Singapore and make the problems it now faces only progressively worse.
Take the question of the island's huge brain drain. As many as several thousands annually who leave the island for settlement abroad principally do so because there is no democracy. It may not be so bad for a large country to lose such numbers but Singapore is a small island. With a clear sign from the results of this election that there is no chance at all for any democracy, even more people are going to leave, gradually emptying the island population of anyone with a head on his shoulders. This would require the island government to bring in even more immigrants from Communist China, which they are already doing, to make up the numbers, literally changing it into a Communist Chinese city.
Then you have the conscript army. The vast majority of young men do not want to be enlisted. They see no reason why they have to waste 2 years of their lives in a useless pursuit, especially when they have no respect for a Fascist government such as this. To make matters worse, the island has the lowest birth rate in the world adding to the dearth of conscript soldiers. And then you have the fastest ageing population anywhere in Asia. Young men who go abroad for an education never return and I get countless Emails asking me how to avoid National Service. I can say with some confidence that the national service system has totally failed and unless they do something about it, it is impossible to get a Singapore Chinese into a uniform. They rather be counting money.
Take a look at the lawyers in Singapore. A glace through the Singapore Law Society's lawyer list has names which I have never heard before, Caucasian and other foreign names. They don't sound Singaporean at all. The truth is the numbers of law students entering the profession is so low and those leaving are so high that they have simply no choice but to admit unemployed lawyers from Europe and elsewhere to fill in the blanks. As for them, it makes no difference if they happen to be in North Korea. After all Singapore is not their home and they can leave whenever they want. You can imagine the quality of lawyering.
It is the same in every other profession. Singaporeans capable of leaving want nothing to do with this Fascist police state, with no civil liberties whatever. In the not too distant future, you can expect Singapore to be something like Dubai or Abu Dhabi. A few local elite, primarily the Lee family and their relatives, and the rest guest workers who serve them. Just like in Dubai, they will let you live and work and when they don't like you, either punish you or send you home and bring others to replace you.
I am doing my best to encourage Singaporeans to stand up and demand your democratic rights. With my agitation over the years, I can confidently say that my actions have persuaded many to leave and will continue to do so. I would hope that with this writing on the wall of the recent elections, at least some Singaporeans who love their country would hopefully see the need to engage in public demonstrations and protests to demand their rights before it is too late.
Gopalan Nair
A Singaporean by birth
Fremont (San Francisco) California USA
Attorney at Law
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/singapore.dissident
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