Ladies and Gentlemen,
I was reading the article "Clearing the Air on NS dodgers" in Singapore's state controlled newspaper Straits Times of May 1, 2017 http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/clearing-the-air-on-ns-dodgers. The Singapore government has decided that punishments meted out in the past were unduly lenient and because the birth rate continues to fall, severe stress is placed on the Singapore Army to maintain its numbers. Therefore they have decided that the best way to solve this problem is to heighten punishments, obviously because they believe that severe punishments would therefore persuade anyone thinking of defaulting to think twice.
Although for a handful few, this may be the reason not to abscond, I think for the vast majority it will have the reverse effect. It will give them a reason never to return to Singapore whereas if the punishment was lighter, they could still return to do their National Service and make amends with the government.
The main reason why the new strong arm tactics will not work is the fact that failure to do national service is not an extraditable offence. Singapore cannot force a national service defaulter living in a foreign country to return to Singapore through the extradition process used in criminal cases, that is, the arrest and removal of the defaulter by the foreign government to Singapore. As long as national service offense continues to be non-extraditable, the defaulter can stay as long as he wants abroad and remain safe. The only thing he cannot do is to return to Singapore. And in most cases, there is no great hardship to the defaulter in staying away. He can travel to every country in the world, as along as he doesn't step foot in Singapore.
Extradition laws are primarily a 2 way process. If there is an extradition law in force, both the foreign country and Singapore have to agree to make it an extraditable crime. Since many foreign countries that do have national service are unlikely to have their defaulters seek refuge in Singapore of all places, there is no benefit to them in signing extradition treaties with Singapore for national service. And even if there was such a treaty, it is not a question of simply arresting the defaulter and sending him home. He has a right to challenge his extradition in the foreign court and he could raise a long list of defenses why he should not serve, such as the lack of rule of law in Singapore, the lack of democracy, the lack of free speech and expression and so on. In the end even if there was an extradition law, it may turn out to be far more embarrassing to Singapore to even try to bring a man back. But all this is moot, since at present there is no extradition laws in place for national service.
In most cases of national service default, the defaulter usually has no incentive to return anyway, punishment or no punishment. In most cases, they are usually the children of foreigners who were temporarily working in Singapore. Since there are no strong ties to Singapore anyway, it is not hardship at all for them to continue living abroad.
How would a child of an English father and a Singapore Chinese mother who worked temporarily in Singapore island and left for England with the boy, who by the way has lived in Singapore only temporarily, be persuaded to return to Singapore just because he happened to be a Singapore citizen. Threatening him with long prison sentences is not going to make any difference at all since he is not intending to return to Singapore anyway.
And this threat of punishment will in effect have the opposite effect of actually increasing the numbers of defaulters, since it will tend to convince them never to return thereby causing the state to lose a valuable pool of citizens since the ones who have lived abroad have much greater skills and qualities than those who have never left Singapore. On the other hand, if punishments are lenient, many could even have a change of heart and return to work and live in Singapore, whereas that would be mostly unlikely when faced with the prospect of harsh punishments and long jail terms.
On the whole Singapore island national service policy has been a total failure. There is an inbuilt fault in the system. It is difficult for any intelligent young man to be persuaded to like Singapore national service where you live as if you were a slave, with no freedom of speech, expression or assembly, the rule of law or a free press. It is very hard for a Singaporean young man to be patriotic when the leaders are unashamedly corrupt to the tune of millions. The Singapore Prime Minister and his Ministers all pay themselves millions of dollars each year which they call salaries. How anyone could call an income of $3 million which is the Prime Ministers' salary beats me.
In the end, if the Singaporean ministers thought that beefing up the punishments for avoiding national service would discourage defaulters, I am sorry to say it will have the opposite effect. Thanks to the new laws of enhanced punishments, more defaulters will simply stay away.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont San Francisco California
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Sunday, April 30, 2017
Wednesday, April 5, 2017
It's a bad idea to illtreat your own citizens. The Singapore one party police state should know this by now.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Ever since the full independence of Singapore first from British and then from Malaysia, it has been a one party authoritarian dictatorship. Today there is no free press, no right to free speech, assembly or association and the judiciary are bunch of Kangaroos carrying out their leaders dictates. Naturally the intention of these dictators was of course that if you remove all critics, silence the opposition, you can continue to rule as corruptly as you want forever.
But it usually doesn't turn out that way. For every action there is a reaction. For every attempt to silence dissent, there are similar numbers acting against you. In the end common sense would always win. No one likes a repressive government. The people would retaliate and the state will slowly unravel. It may take some time but it will always happen. This is exactly what is happening to the one party authoritarian dictatorship of Singapore island today.
Singapore is too tiny to be able to withstand a sustained depressed economy. For a tiny island, if you do not have vibrant economic growth, you don't have the buffer that larger countries have to avoid collapse. Any major fluctuation will be the end.
In the 1980s the Lee Kuan Yew one party government of Singapore began their campaign to silence me. I had joined the opposition Workers Party and openly proclaimed my opposition to the regime. This is not ordinarily done. Most people in that island are afraid to openly state their opposition. And the Lee administration had to make sure that others will not be emboldened to do what I did. So they had to publicly destroy me through trumped up criminal charges and law professional discipline.
Not wanting to give the Lee administration the pleasure of abusing my rights, I chose to leave Singapore permanently for the United States. The effect of their actions actually backfired. Many lawyers were outraged by the abuse of legal process employed in this case. They could also witness the abuse of law against JB Jeyaretnam, the famous Lee opponent and more recently Chee Soon Juan. As a result of the indignation of anyone with common sense, and a sense of decency and fair mindedness, many lawyers and other professional left Singapore in disgust. In fact these actions intended to silence me and others has resulted and in fact continues to the be cause of one of the highest levels of brain drain in the world from the island of Singapore. The attacks against me has hurt the one party state in Singapore far more damage than it has cause any of us.
The one party authoritarian city state of Singapore I am sure were taken aback and surprised that I refused to crawl and submit in the face of their repression. Their experience in most cases had been that anyone who faced trumped up charges simply rolled over and crawled. Instead of pleading guilty to their trumped up charges to their utter surprise, I defended my self against every charge every time, and this put them to even more embarrassment in the eyes of their citizens who could clearly see the drawn out battle between them to unjustly punish me and my determination to resist at any cost.
The fact that I now live in California allows me to continue to criticize the Singapore government and invariably continue to hurt this regime. Reading this blog, even more Singaporeans leave the island, those already settled in the West continue to persuade others to join them. The end result is that the very best and brightest, since you need skills to settle abroad, leave the island leaving behind only those inferior and incapable of leaving Singapore island. My attacks against the Singapore administration has in fact resulted in the reduction in quality of the residents in Singapore island since those remaining behind are far inferior to those who have left. Because so many highly educated Singaporeans leave with no one to do the jobs, the administration is forced to bring in plane loads of Chinese national every year to fill the blanks. These new immigrants are given instant citizenship and made to feel Singaporean when in fact they are neither Singaporean or anywhere similar. For them it really doesn't matter if a donkey is the President since after all they are only there for a few more dollars. In 2015 elections 70% of the citizens in Singapore voted for this one party police state dictatorship. Since no one with any self respect or any intelligence would do that, it proves that the quality of citizens has so much declined that you have now citizens who really don't mind how they live.
There are many other ways in which this decay in the government is manifested. For the last decade you have seen economic growth either stagnant or a mere 1% or 2%. Why is it today so low as compared to the double digit growth numbers we had seen in the past. It is the same for the same reason. When you abuse your citizens' rights you get a bad reputation. And when you get a bad reputation, many countries with a sense of moral responsibly don't want to have anything to do with you. Many Scandinavian countries, bastions of freedom and democracy are fully aware of the repressive style of government in that city state and in fact some countries given a choice would prefer not to trade with Singapore at all. This explains partly why the economy continues to decline and hovers at the 1% or 2% growth rate maximum. And I take pride in continuing to make known to the world through these writings what Singapore really is and which has an adverse long standing effect on that Singaporean economy.
Another consequence of the repression is that today the island of Singapore has the lowest birth rate in the world. This happens to be major worry for these dictators who know that the rapid extinction of the Singaporean race through the lowest birth rate in the world and a very large elderly and dying population, would not bode well for Singapore. Without Singaporeans, they know that Singapore will be over. But despite all sorts of persuasion by dictators through tax incentives, large cash payments for childbirth and extended paid vacations for mothers, showing porn on state TV, instead of the birth rate rising, it is in fact falling and fast heading to near zero birthrate! Yes I take credit for this too, since it is the dissemination of the facts of the deplorable state of human rights in the island that has created the present dire situation and I intend to continue to write to expose this regime. I don't intend to stop.
Today the island struggles economically to survive thanks to my writings and the various efforts of other opposition advocates who result in exposing this administration for what it is.
I have been writing to encourage Singaporeans who have been persecuted for their political beliefs to seek a new life abroad in the West. Since I myself had obtained asylum in the US, I am a strong example for others to follows. I have been the contributory cause of many who have applied for asylum abroad. Recently we have had Amos Yee Pang Sang, a young man who had insulted religion with bad language in the island and has been granted asylum in the US. I know that he was encouraged to do this by reading my blogs. At present I am representing 3 other Singaporeans who have all applied for asylum in the US and all have told me that it was my blogs that made them do it. Han Hui Hui, a young woman who was repeatedly harassed victimized and persecuted has recently left for an unknown West European country for asylum. My blogs had an effect on her actions too. These are the people I know, whereas there are many others who have left Singapore on account of reading my blogs whom I do not know.
So on balance, if you ask who is hurt more out of this, me or the Singapore government, I can assure you that the Singapore government is hurt far more and will continue to hurt from the pages of these blogs. It is true that my writings have not created a revolution in the island but victory need not necessarily come out a revolution, it can also come from a slow and steady attrition to a steady downward slope towards eventual collapse.
I will continue to write exposing this regime. In the end, if given a choice of who you want to deal with, a democracy like Australia or New Zealand or a banana republic like Singapore, I think more countries slowly over the years would realize that it is morally comforting to and also economically safer to be dealing with democracies with the rule of law rather than to deal with banana republics which denies the rights of their citizens through corrupt state compliant Kangaroo courts.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont San Francisco California
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Ever since the full independence of Singapore first from British and then from Malaysia, it has been a one party authoritarian dictatorship. Today there is no free press, no right to free speech, assembly or association and the judiciary are bunch of Kangaroos carrying out their leaders dictates. Naturally the intention of these dictators was of course that if you remove all critics, silence the opposition, you can continue to rule as corruptly as you want forever.
But it usually doesn't turn out that way. For every action there is a reaction. For every attempt to silence dissent, there are similar numbers acting against you. In the end common sense would always win. No one likes a repressive government. The people would retaliate and the state will slowly unravel. It may take some time but it will always happen. This is exactly what is happening to the one party authoritarian dictatorship of Singapore island today.
Singapore is too tiny to be able to withstand a sustained depressed economy. For a tiny island, if you do not have vibrant economic growth, you don't have the buffer that larger countries have to avoid collapse. Any major fluctuation will be the end.
In the 1980s the Lee Kuan Yew one party government of Singapore began their campaign to silence me. I had joined the opposition Workers Party and openly proclaimed my opposition to the regime. This is not ordinarily done. Most people in that island are afraid to openly state their opposition. And the Lee administration had to make sure that others will not be emboldened to do what I did. So they had to publicly destroy me through trumped up criminal charges and law professional discipline.
Not wanting to give the Lee administration the pleasure of abusing my rights, I chose to leave Singapore permanently for the United States. The effect of their actions actually backfired. Many lawyers were outraged by the abuse of legal process employed in this case. They could also witness the abuse of law against JB Jeyaretnam, the famous Lee opponent and more recently Chee Soon Juan. As a result of the indignation of anyone with common sense, and a sense of decency and fair mindedness, many lawyers and other professional left Singapore in disgust. In fact these actions intended to silence me and others has resulted and in fact continues to the be cause of one of the highest levels of brain drain in the world from the island of Singapore. The attacks against me has hurt the one party state in Singapore far more damage than it has cause any of us.
The one party authoritarian city state of Singapore I am sure were taken aback and surprised that I refused to crawl and submit in the face of their repression. Their experience in most cases had been that anyone who faced trumped up charges simply rolled over and crawled. Instead of pleading guilty to their trumped up charges to their utter surprise, I defended my self against every charge every time, and this put them to even more embarrassment in the eyes of their citizens who could clearly see the drawn out battle between them to unjustly punish me and my determination to resist at any cost.
The fact that I now live in California allows me to continue to criticize the Singapore government and invariably continue to hurt this regime. Reading this blog, even more Singaporeans leave the island, those already settled in the West continue to persuade others to join them. The end result is that the very best and brightest, since you need skills to settle abroad, leave the island leaving behind only those inferior and incapable of leaving Singapore island. My attacks against the Singapore administration has in fact resulted in the reduction in quality of the residents in Singapore island since those remaining behind are far inferior to those who have left. Because so many highly educated Singaporeans leave with no one to do the jobs, the administration is forced to bring in plane loads of Chinese national every year to fill the blanks. These new immigrants are given instant citizenship and made to feel Singaporean when in fact they are neither Singaporean or anywhere similar. For them it really doesn't matter if a donkey is the President since after all they are only there for a few more dollars. In 2015 elections 70% of the citizens in Singapore voted for this one party police state dictatorship. Since no one with any self respect or any intelligence would do that, it proves that the quality of citizens has so much declined that you have now citizens who really don't mind how they live.
There are many other ways in which this decay in the government is manifested. For the last decade you have seen economic growth either stagnant or a mere 1% or 2%. Why is it today so low as compared to the double digit growth numbers we had seen in the past. It is the same for the same reason. When you abuse your citizens' rights you get a bad reputation. And when you get a bad reputation, many countries with a sense of moral responsibly don't want to have anything to do with you. Many Scandinavian countries, bastions of freedom and democracy are fully aware of the repressive style of government in that city state and in fact some countries given a choice would prefer not to trade with Singapore at all. This explains partly why the economy continues to decline and hovers at the 1% or 2% growth rate maximum. And I take pride in continuing to make known to the world through these writings what Singapore really is and which has an adverse long standing effect on that Singaporean economy.
Another consequence of the repression is that today the island of Singapore has the lowest birth rate in the world. This happens to be major worry for these dictators who know that the rapid extinction of the Singaporean race through the lowest birth rate in the world and a very large elderly and dying population, would not bode well for Singapore. Without Singaporeans, they know that Singapore will be over. But despite all sorts of persuasion by dictators through tax incentives, large cash payments for childbirth and extended paid vacations for mothers, showing porn on state TV, instead of the birth rate rising, it is in fact falling and fast heading to near zero birthrate! Yes I take credit for this too, since it is the dissemination of the facts of the deplorable state of human rights in the island that has created the present dire situation and I intend to continue to write to expose this regime. I don't intend to stop.
Today the island struggles economically to survive thanks to my writings and the various efforts of other opposition advocates who result in exposing this administration for what it is.
I have been writing to encourage Singaporeans who have been persecuted for their political beliefs to seek a new life abroad in the West. Since I myself had obtained asylum in the US, I am a strong example for others to follows. I have been the contributory cause of many who have applied for asylum abroad. Recently we have had Amos Yee Pang Sang, a young man who had insulted religion with bad language in the island and has been granted asylum in the US. I know that he was encouraged to do this by reading my blogs. At present I am representing 3 other Singaporeans who have all applied for asylum in the US and all have told me that it was my blogs that made them do it. Han Hui Hui, a young woman who was repeatedly harassed victimized and persecuted has recently left for an unknown West European country for asylum. My blogs had an effect on her actions too. These are the people I know, whereas there are many others who have left Singapore on account of reading my blogs whom I do not know.
So on balance, if you ask who is hurt more out of this, me or the Singapore government, I can assure you that the Singapore government is hurt far more and will continue to hurt from the pages of these blogs. It is true that my writings have not created a revolution in the island but victory need not necessarily come out a revolution, it can also come from a slow and steady attrition to a steady downward slope towards eventual collapse.
I will continue to write exposing this regime. In the end, if given a choice of who you want to deal with, a democracy like Australia or New Zealand or a banana republic like Singapore, I think more countries slowly over the years would realize that it is morally comforting to and also economically safer to be dealing with democracies with the rule of law rather than to deal with banana republics which denies the rights of their citizens through corrupt state compliant Kangaroo courts.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont San Francisco California
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Sunday, April 2, 2017
The mechanics behind why Amos Yee Pang Sang Singaporean hate speech proponent remains detained. His prospects are turning into suspect.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
My name is Gopalan Nair. My expertise in US Immigration law is as follows. I have been practicing US immigration law from my Fremont (San Francisco) California office for more than 20 years. My specialty is immigration including asylum and removal proceedings. My law firm is Gopalan Nair Attorneys at Law at 39737 Paseo Padre Parkway, Suite A2, Fremont, CA 94538. My phone number is 510 491 8525.
Most asylum applicants who apply for asylum from within the United States after having been admitted at a port of entry are not detained. Amos Yee Pang Sang's case is an aberration. Perhaps he was wrongly advised. Most asylum applicants if coming in through a US port of entry have visitors visas as was the case with Amos Yee Pang Sang. If Yee had informed the immigration officers at Chicago Airport that he was merely coming for a visit in accordance with his visitor visa (Visa Waiver) status, he should have been allowed to enter.
It is true that it is not entirely honest for a traveler seeking admission at a port of entry to say that he is coming for a visit when his real intention is to apply for asylum but since the law allows for this and since people can change their minds, there is really nothing wrong to do this. In any case, this is what is routinely done. At present I am representing 3 asylum cases from Singapore. 2 came in last year and one this year. 2 are all working with work permits while waiting for their asylum. They were not detained.
But since Yee had himself admitted to the airport that he is in fact coming to apply for asylum when his visa status is visitor, this is a violation of his visa status which requires the immigration to detain him until the end of the proceedings.
In the past when someone obtained an asylum grant in custody, even if the Dept. of Homeland Security stated a desire to appeal, he is usually let out and if the appeal is granted, he should then be apprehended and removed. As you can see this practice is flawed and open to universal abuse since someone who was granted asylum will never be found in this huge United States, in the event the government succeeds in their appeal. Unless he himself voluntarily surrenders himself, the government would find it impossible to remove an alien who had lost in the government appeal. He could have moved anywhere in the 50 states. He would be able to stay in the US for the rest of his life, although illegal.
President Trump realizes this loophole and now demands that even those granted asylum, if detained, remain detained until the government's appeal is over. In the even that the government succeeds at the Board of Immigration Appeals, Yee will continue detained until Yee's appeal to the Court of Appeal is heard (that is if Yee wants to appeal).
There is a remedy for those who are held for extensive periods in custody awaiting a decision known as Rodriguez bond hearings (Rodriguez vs Robbins). Usually those being detained are entitled to request release on bond every six months on the ground that it is patently unjust to detain a man for extended periods while waiting for hearings or decisions. This problem can be overcome if the case is heard expeditiously and no grave prejudice is suffered by the inmate due to the delay.
I think therefore Yee is not going to be released until the outcome of the appeal of the government before the Board of Immigration Appeals, Falls Church Virginia.
Coming to the case, I think that Yee is going to lose his case for several reasons. If you read Judge Cole's decision, a great deal of his decision was based on background information on Singapore, that is, it is a one party state, it has no free press, no right to free protest, the courts are biased and so on. And using this background material, the judge tried to connect Yee's case to these background facts and therefore decides, Yee was persecuted after all. One such reasoning, trying to stretch the facts to fit the outcome you want is when he referred to Yee's video of "Lee Kuan Yew is finally dead". The judge says that since nearly all that video is a criticism of Lee Kuan Yew and since only a fraction was about insulting Christianity, therefore the prosecution for religious hate is unwarranted!
There is an adage that goes like this, "Give a dog a bad name and hang him". This is exactly what Judge Cole and Yee's attorney are doing here. Paint Singapore very black as a heartless bloodthirsty regime and conveniently claim therefore that Yee was persecuted after all.
No one can deny that Singapore is a dictatorship. We all know that. But the question here is not whether Singapore is a dictatorship but whether they have unjustly persecuted Yee. From these facts it cannot be said that he was persecuted. He was rightly charged and convicted for hate speech, an offense under Singapore law which stands up to international scrutiny as a just law in a multiracial and multi religious society.
The judge fails to see that first, Yee was never charged with anything political and second even if 0.1% of the video is about religious hatred, Singapore law still makes it an offense to promote religious hate and he still becomes guilty regardless of the fact that 99% of the video is about Lee Kuan Yew.
There is one part where Grossman, Yee's lawyer argues that Yee has been selectively prosecuted unlike others like Calvin Cheng and Jason Neo. If she knew the true facts and yet argues these 2 cases as evidence of selected persecution, she is not being entirely honest. Both Calvin Cheng and Jason Neo, who had made disparaging remarks about other races and religions, when challenged, immediately and unconditionally apologized and undertook never to do it again. Since then they have never again insulted any other race or religion.
Yee on the other hand claims he has a right to insult others and their religions and has sworn that he intends to continue doing it. In such a case did he expect to have been let off like Calvin Cheng or Jason Neo? Yee is almost a professional religious hater which he does using the utmost of vulgarities obscenities and profanities. He has said he is determined to continue insulting Islam and Christianity repeatedly using the words "F............ing". Did he expect Singapore courts to allow him to continue in this manner? Of course not. There was nothing wrong in not prosecuting Calvin Cheng and Jason Neo. But Yee deserved prosecution.
Moreover it is necessary for his own safety not to release him. It is publicly well known even in the Muslim community in the US that he has insulted Islam and is determined to continue doing so. The Muslims in Singapore have been a very tolerant lot so far to have left Yee alone, but to release him to the society in the US, a gun carrying society, can mean his murder. On that score as well, he should not be released for his own good until the appeal is heard.
I am sure the Department of Homeland Security understands the situation in Singapore better now and some of the absurd arguments made in in this case in court. I have a strong feeling that he will not be released during the pendency of the appeal, the government's appeal will be allowed and he will be retuned to Singapore.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont San Francisco California
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
My name is Gopalan Nair. My expertise in US Immigration law is as follows. I have been practicing US immigration law from my Fremont (San Francisco) California office for more than 20 years. My specialty is immigration including asylum and removal proceedings. My law firm is Gopalan Nair Attorneys at Law at 39737 Paseo Padre Parkway, Suite A2, Fremont, CA 94538. My phone number is 510 491 8525.
Most asylum applicants who apply for asylum from within the United States after having been admitted at a port of entry are not detained. Amos Yee Pang Sang's case is an aberration. Perhaps he was wrongly advised. Most asylum applicants if coming in through a US port of entry have visitors visas as was the case with Amos Yee Pang Sang. If Yee had informed the immigration officers at Chicago Airport that he was merely coming for a visit in accordance with his visitor visa (Visa Waiver) status, he should have been allowed to enter.
It is true that it is not entirely honest for a traveler seeking admission at a port of entry to say that he is coming for a visit when his real intention is to apply for asylum but since the law allows for this and since people can change their minds, there is really nothing wrong to do this. In any case, this is what is routinely done. At present I am representing 3 asylum cases from Singapore. 2 came in last year and one this year. 2 are all working with work permits while waiting for their asylum. They were not detained.
But since Yee had himself admitted to the airport that he is in fact coming to apply for asylum when his visa status is visitor, this is a violation of his visa status which requires the immigration to detain him until the end of the proceedings.
In the past when someone obtained an asylum grant in custody, even if the Dept. of Homeland Security stated a desire to appeal, he is usually let out and if the appeal is granted, he should then be apprehended and removed. As you can see this practice is flawed and open to universal abuse since someone who was granted asylum will never be found in this huge United States, in the event the government succeeds in their appeal. Unless he himself voluntarily surrenders himself, the government would find it impossible to remove an alien who had lost in the government appeal. He could have moved anywhere in the 50 states. He would be able to stay in the US for the rest of his life, although illegal.
President Trump realizes this loophole and now demands that even those granted asylum, if detained, remain detained until the government's appeal is over. In the even that the government succeeds at the Board of Immigration Appeals, Yee will continue detained until Yee's appeal to the Court of Appeal is heard (that is if Yee wants to appeal).
There is a remedy for those who are held for extensive periods in custody awaiting a decision known as Rodriguez bond hearings (Rodriguez vs Robbins). Usually those being detained are entitled to request release on bond every six months on the ground that it is patently unjust to detain a man for extended periods while waiting for hearings or decisions. This problem can be overcome if the case is heard expeditiously and no grave prejudice is suffered by the inmate due to the delay.
I think therefore Yee is not going to be released until the outcome of the appeal of the government before the Board of Immigration Appeals, Falls Church Virginia.
Coming to the case, I think that Yee is going to lose his case for several reasons. If you read Judge Cole's decision, a great deal of his decision was based on background information on Singapore, that is, it is a one party state, it has no free press, no right to free protest, the courts are biased and so on. And using this background material, the judge tried to connect Yee's case to these background facts and therefore decides, Yee was persecuted after all. One such reasoning, trying to stretch the facts to fit the outcome you want is when he referred to Yee's video of "Lee Kuan Yew is finally dead". The judge says that since nearly all that video is a criticism of Lee Kuan Yew and since only a fraction was about insulting Christianity, therefore the prosecution for religious hate is unwarranted!
There is an adage that goes like this, "Give a dog a bad name and hang him". This is exactly what Judge Cole and Yee's attorney are doing here. Paint Singapore very black as a heartless bloodthirsty regime and conveniently claim therefore that Yee was persecuted after all.
No one can deny that Singapore is a dictatorship. We all know that. But the question here is not whether Singapore is a dictatorship but whether they have unjustly persecuted Yee. From these facts it cannot be said that he was persecuted. He was rightly charged and convicted for hate speech, an offense under Singapore law which stands up to international scrutiny as a just law in a multiracial and multi religious society.
The judge fails to see that first, Yee was never charged with anything political and second even if 0.1% of the video is about religious hatred, Singapore law still makes it an offense to promote religious hate and he still becomes guilty regardless of the fact that 99% of the video is about Lee Kuan Yew.
There is one part where Grossman, Yee's lawyer argues that Yee has been selectively prosecuted unlike others like Calvin Cheng and Jason Neo. If she knew the true facts and yet argues these 2 cases as evidence of selected persecution, she is not being entirely honest. Both Calvin Cheng and Jason Neo, who had made disparaging remarks about other races and religions, when challenged, immediately and unconditionally apologized and undertook never to do it again. Since then they have never again insulted any other race or religion.
Yee on the other hand claims he has a right to insult others and their religions and has sworn that he intends to continue doing it. In such a case did he expect to have been let off like Calvin Cheng or Jason Neo? Yee is almost a professional religious hater which he does using the utmost of vulgarities obscenities and profanities. He has said he is determined to continue insulting Islam and Christianity repeatedly using the words "F............ing". Did he expect Singapore courts to allow him to continue in this manner? Of course not. There was nothing wrong in not prosecuting Calvin Cheng and Jason Neo. But Yee deserved prosecution.
Moreover it is necessary for his own safety not to release him. It is publicly well known even in the Muslim community in the US that he has insulted Islam and is determined to continue doing so. The Muslims in Singapore have been a very tolerant lot so far to have left Yee alone, but to release him to the society in the US, a gun carrying society, can mean his murder. On that score as well, he should not be released for his own good until the appeal is heard.
I am sure the Department of Homeland Security understands the situation in Singapore better now and some of the absurd arguments made in in this case in court. I have a strong feeling that he will not be released during the pendency of the appeal, the government's appeal will be allowed and he will be retuned to Singapore.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont San Francisco California
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Saturday, April 1, 2017
Singapore's world's lowest birthrate takes another beating with 2 more Zika virus infections. The Singaporean native polulation is disappearing.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The one party state authoritarian Singapore island government's main and principle worry for decades has been it shrinking population. Looking at Singapore island's unique situation, the problem is indeed worrying. Singapore is a small island at the tip of the Malay peninsula, a mere 27 miles across and 16 miles north to south. A mere 1/3 the size of New York city. It has no natural resources.
It has a predominantly ethnic Chinese population mainly because through a form of ethnic cleansing, by denying employment opportunities and other forms of racial discrimination, the native Malay and Indian populations have progressively shrunk to negligible numbers. Although even as recent as 10 years ago, the Singapore native population was about 3 million, which has shrunk to a mere 1 million or less today largely due to a progressively declining birth rate, while it has brought in a thumping 4 million foreigners and given most of them instant citizenship, mostly Communist Chinese nationals from China.
Today the island's birth rate has dropped to a mere 0.8 percent, the lowest in the world. A world record. What this means is that most women are either not married or have no children at all. Today you will be hard-pressed to find a child anywhere in Singapore. Please see CIA world fact book https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sn.html. It is becoming an island without children.
And this fact is alarming also because the government has gone out of it's way to plead to the people to have more children but they simply refuse. They are adamant and have made it very clear that as long as they live in the island of Singapore, they will not have any children regardless of what the government wishes.
To make matters worse, Singapore has discovered 2 more local women infected with the Zika virus. If they are pregnant, their unborn children would be born as imbeciles with shrunken heads. The government has kept secret the numbers of such children born as they control the entire island's media but there are rumors spreading that there are many such children already born in Singapore with mental handicap and shrunken heads and this is already one reason why they have managed to receive the world record of the lowest fertility rate in the world. With the latest news of another 2 women being infected with Zika virus, this means that even the handful of women even contemplating childbirth is going to stop. The 0.82 lowest fertility rate in the world is likely to become even lower to perhaps 0.5 or 0.4. Singapore is not going to get any new world records for this since they already have the world record now. See http://www.foxnews.com/health/2017/03/30/singapore-confirms-two-new-cases-zika-virus.html
The local island population has steadily declined over the last decade. About 10 years ago, the island had 3 million native Singaporeans. Today the native Singaporean population has shrunk to less than a million while the state has brought in 4 million mainly Chinese from Communist China to take the slack. But because a Communist Chinese and a local native Chinese are both Chinese, you won't be able to tell the difference. Singapore today is no longer Singapore. It is a Chinese city comprising Chinese from China masquerading as Singapore.
One can imagine why Singapore women do not want any babies. For one thing, they live miserable lives. Even on the world happiness index, Singapore has almost got another record for being the most miserable sad people in the world. They are sad because they don't have any freedoms. This is a one party police state. All newspapers are owned and controlled by the state as is the case in North Korea. All judges are carefully selected and ordered to do what the state wants. One of their primary duties is to use the law to punish political opponents. There is a long list of political opponents in history of Singapore destroyed by these Kangaroo judges, starting with Chia Thye Poh, political opponent, jailed for 31 years; JB Jeyaretnam, political opponent, repeatedly sued for millions of dollars, bankrupted and jailed, he eventually died in 2008, whom many believe was due to the hardships he endured at the hands of the police state; Chee Soon Juan, political opponent, former university lecturer, repeatedly sued, jailed and bankrupted and fired from his job, now reduced to earning a living on the streets of the island selling the books that he wrote, impoverished.
When a state does this sort of thing to its own people, the general population will be unhappy even if it was not happening to them. So this unhappiness leads to people not wanting to have any children to have to suffer the indignities and hardships that they have to endure.
They are unhappy also because it is impossible for anyone to be their natural self. Because the state security apparatus is always watching everyone to report on any criticism of the state, one has to always be careful as to what one says or does for fear that it may be reported to the ISD men, state security. What is happening in the island is exactly what is happening in North Korea although on a lesser scale. Everyone knows that if you are found out to be a critic of the government, you stand to lose your job, you stand to be sued and impoverished. This life of hypocrisy that one ahs to live makes it unpleasant and therefore not conducive to bringing up children. Having to live such a life forces Singapore women not to have any children.
The extreme corruption is also another factor that prevents Singaporean women to have children. It is well known that the Prime Minister like his father the former Prime Minister pay themselves official salaries of several millions a year. In order to have the support of his ministers, he pays them similarly several millions dollars every year. This is wholesale corruption anyway you look at it. But the people are powerless to do or say anything because the enforcers of the Prime Minister, his Kangaroo judges would sue you, destroy you and drive you to the street. As a result Singaporeans are at a loss to do anything, they become depressed and the women do not wish to have any children.
Singapore has one of the world's greatest income divide. The rich earn millions and the poor a mere fraction of what the rich earn. And with this financial suffering they suffer even greater uncertainty as there is no unemployment insurance, no welfare, no guarantee of medical insurance. Moreover there is no job security and you can be hired or fired anytime. Under these circumstances only a cruel, reckless, heartless woman would want to have babies since the children suffer would unimaginable suffering if the parent loses his job. Under these circumstances naturally no woman wants to have any babies.
If the death knell has rung for the extinction of the Singaporean race, there are 2 other factors. The rate of brain drain to the west of the highly educated skilled and talented is one of the highest in the world, perhaps another world record. Even though the island population is so tiny, the numbers of Singaporeans living in Australia has got so large that there is a highly visible Singapore community there. Those there are encouraging other Singaporeans to join them which is causing the brain drain to increase even further. You see the same pattern with the Singaporeans in Canada, New Zealand, USA Germany, Sweden and Egypt.
The last time the state controlled media in Singapore reported on this problem of a declining and the foreseeable extinction of the Singaporean race in Singapore was many months ago, but since then they have not reported on the problem anymore. Like an ostrich they bury their heads in the sand and simply ignore the fact that the problem is getting worse, understandably so, since they don't have any answers. They have tried everything to encourage childbirth, even broadcasting pornography at late night TV in the hope that Singapore couples would first watch the pornography and then go and have sex! Event that didn't work! As a result it appears the Singapore government have given up and resigned themselves to the fact that the island will no longer have any true Singaporeans!
These figures would be alarming for any country, small or large. Can you imagine how worrying it is for an island today which is so tiny, it has no more than a mere 1 million true Singaporeans!
There are dire consequences as a result of the soon extinction of the Singaporean people. The corrupt political leaders who earn millions naturally would want to stay behind to secure their ill gotten gains and the source. So they are not going to go anywhere. But with the precipitated decline and near extinction of the Singaporean race, they would have no choice but to bring in greater and greater numbers of Chinese from China to do the jobs for these corrupt politicians. This would mean the character and identity of what is Singapore would completely change. It would become difficult for these corrupt Singaporeans politicians to control these masses of imported Chinese from China. With the lackluster economy of the island at present, and with an uncontrollable population of Communist Chinese in Singapore, I think it is a recipe for disaster and doom.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
Fremont, San Francisco California
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
The one party state authoritarian Singapore island government's main and principle worry for decades has been it shrinking population. Looking at Singapore island's unique situation, the problem is indeed worrying. Singapore is a small island at the tip of the Malay peninsula, a mere 27 miles across and 16 miles north to south. A mere 1/3 the size of New York city. It has no natural resources.
It has a predominantly ethnic Chinese population mainly because through a form of ethnic cleansing, by denying employment opportunities and other forms of racial discrimination, the native Malay and Indian populations have progressively shrunk to negligible numbers. Although even as recent as 10 years ago, the Singapore native population was about 3 million, which has shrunk to a mere 1 million or less today largely due to a progressively declining birth rate, while it has brought in a thumping 4 million foreigners and given most of them instant citizenship, mostly Communist Chinese nationals from China.
Today the island's birth rate has dropped to a mere 0.8 percent, the lowest in the world. A world record. What this means is that most women are either not married or have no children at all. Today you will be hard-pressed to find a child anywhere in Singapore. Please see CIA world fact book https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sn.html. It is becoming an island without children.
And this fact is alarming also because the government has gone out of it's way to plead to the people to have more children but they simply refuse. They are adamant and have made it very clear that as long as they live in the island of Singapore, they will not have any children regardless of what the government wishes.
To make matters worse, Singapore has discovered 2 more local women infected with the Zika virus. If they are pregnant, their unborn children would be born as imbeciles with shrunken heads. The government has kept secret the numbers of such children born as they control the entire island's media but there are rumors spreading that there are many such children already born in Singapore with mental handicap and shrunken heads and this is already one reason why they have managed to receive the world record of the lowest fertility rate in the world. With the latest news of another 2 women being infected with Zika virus, this means that even the handful of women even contemplating childbirth is going to stop. The 0.82 lowest fertility rate in the world is likely to become even lower to perhaps 0.5 or 0.4. Singapore is not going to get any new world records for this since they already have the world record now. See http://www.foxnews.com/health/2017/03/30/singapore-confirms-two-new-cases-zika-virus.html
The local island population has steadily declined over the last decade. About 10 years ago, the island had 3 million native Singaporeans. Today the native Singaporean population has shrunk to less than a million while the state has brought in 4 million mainly Chinese from Communist China to take the slack. But because a Communist Chinese and a local native Chinese are both Chinese, you won't be able to tell the difference. Singapore today is no longer Singapore. It is a Chinese city comprising Chinese from China masquerading as Singapore.
One can imagine why Singapore women do not want any babies. For one thing, they live miserable lives. Even on the world happiness index, Singapore has almost got another record for being the most miserable sad people in the world. They are sad because they don't have any freedoms. This is a one party police state. All newspapers are owned and controlled by the state as is the case in North Korea. All judges are carefully selected and ordered to do what the state wants. One of their primary duties is to use the law to punish political opponents. There is a long list of political opponents in history of Singapore destroyed by these Kangaroo judges, starting with Chia Thye Poh, political opponent, jailed for 31 years; JB Jeyaretnam, political opponent, repeatedly sued for millions of dollars, bankrupted and jailed, he eventually died in 2008, whom many believe was due to the hardships he endured at the hands of the police state; Chee Soon Juan, political opponent, former university lecturer, repeatedly sued, jailed and bankrupted and fired from his job, now reduced to earning a living on the streets of the island selling the books that he wrote, impoverished.
When a state does this sort of thing to its own people, the general population will be unhappy even if it was not happening to them. So this unhappiness leads to people not wanting to have any children to have to suffer the indignities and hardships that they have to endure.
They are unhappy also because it is impossible for anyone to be their natural self. Because the state security apparatus is always watching everyone to report on any criticism of the state, one has to always be careful as to what one says or does for fear that it may be reported to the ISD men, state security. What is happening in the island is exactly what is happening in North Korea although on a lesser scale. Everyone knows that if you are found out to be a critic of the government, you stand to lose your job, you stand to be sued and impoverished. This life of hypocrisy that one ahs to live makes it unpleasant and therefore not conducive to bringing up children. Having to live such a life forces Singapore women not to have any children.
The extreme corruption is also another factor that prevents Singaporean women to have children. It is well known that the Prime Minister like his father the former Prime Minister pay themselves official salaries of several millions a year. In order to have the support of his ministers, he pays them similarly several millions dollars every year. This is wholesale corruption anyway you look at it. But the people are powerless to do or say anything because the enforcers of the Prime Minister, his Kangaroo judges would sue you, destroy you and drive you to the street. As a result Singaporeans are at a loss to do anything, they become depressed and the women do not wish to have any children.
Singapore has one of the world's greatest income divide. The rich earn millions and the poor a mere fraction of what the rich earn. And with this financial suffering they suffer even greater uncertainty as there is no unemployment insurance, no welfare, no guarantee of medical insurance. Moreover there is no job security and you can be hired or fired anytime. Under these circumstances only a cruel, reckless, heartless woman would want to have babies since the children suffer would unimaginable suffering if the parent loses his job. Under these circumstances naturally no woman wants to have any babies.
If the death knell has rung for the extinction of the Singaporean race, there are 2 other factors. The rate of brain drain to the west of the highly educated skilled and talented is one of the highest in the world, perhaps another world record. Even though the island population is so tiny, the numbers of Singaporeans living in Australia has got so large that there is a highly visible Singapore community there. Those there are encouraging other Singaporeans to join them which is causing the brain drain to increase even further. You see the same pattern with the Singaporeans in Canada, New Zealand, USA Germany, Sweden and Egypt.
The last time the state controlled media in Singapore reported on this problem of a declining and the foreseeable extinction of the Singaporean race in Singapore was many months ago, but since then they have not reported on the problem anymore. Like an ostrich they bury their heads in the sand and simply ignore the fact that the problem is getting worse, understandably so, since they don't have any answers. They have tried everything to encourage childbirth, even broadcasting pornography at late night TV in the hope that Singapore couples would first watch the pornography and then go and have sex! Event that didn't work! As a result it appears the Singapore government have given up and resigned themselves to the fact that the island will no longer have any true Singaporeans!
These figures would be alarming for any country, small or large. Can you imagine how worrying it is for an island today which is so tiny, it has no more than a mere 1 million true Singaporeans!
There are dire consequences as a result of the soon extinction of the Singaporean people. The corrupt political leaders who earn millions naturally would want to stay behind to secure their ill gotten gains and the source. So they are not going to go anywhere. But with the precipitated decline and near extinction of the Singaporean race, they would have no choice but to bring in greater and greater numbers of Chinese from China to do the jobs for these corrupt politicians. This would mean the character and identity of what is Singapore would completely change. It would become difficult for these corrupt Singaporeans politicians to control these masses of imported Chinese from China. With the lackluster economy of the island at present, and with an uncontrollable population of Communist Chinese in Singapore, I think it is a recipe for disaster and doom.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
Fremont, San Francisco California
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
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