tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8081742307252789733.post6784064283882278362..comments2024-02-14T04:53:18.295-08:00Comments on Singapore Dissident: Lee Kuan Yew's foreign talent policy destroys Singapore.Gopalan Nairhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15399145588654603667noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8081742307252789733.post-47940258607411699282010-12-27T00:38:24.184-08:002010-12-27T00:38:24.184-08:00Be interresting to see what happens when foreigner...Be interresting to see what happens when foreigners outnumber Singaporeans , even legally.How can a government represent a minority of residents in a country , this will become a problem in quite a few countries. There has to be careful thought in the future about citizens and residents .Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8081742307252789733.post-19936276648189679412009-11-09T06:04:27.794-08:002009-11-09T06:04:27.794-08:00Dear Mr Gopalan,
I do not know if you are right ...Dear Mr Gopalan, <br /><br />I do not know if you are right about Dubai.<br /><br />But I think you are absolutely on the dot with what you said about Singapore and Singaporeans.<br /><br />Please keep on your good work with exposing the evil deeds of the rich-to-hell ministers.<br /><br />Have a healthy and happy life,<br />Emigrated SingaporeanAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8081742307252789733.post-75278930998668076242009-11-09T03:37:06.958-08:002009-11-09T03:37:06.958-08:00"But biting the hand which fed you is just no...<b><i>"But biting the hand which fed you is just not right at all..."</i></b><br /><br />I must say I'm puzzled by Ron's accusation. Exactly what's not right?<br /><br />Surely it is the worker bees of Singapore that are tirelessly collecting the honey to feed the Queen and her drones, is it not? We are paying royally - indeed through the nose - for the dubious honour of pandering to Lee Kuan Yew & Co's every whim, however mad. With obscene wages, pensions, self-assessed performance bonuses, global jaunts and never less than first class all the way in any endeavour, it costs us roughly in the region of $200m per year just to keep these pampered poodles in the style to which they've become accustomed. As such, exactly WHO is doing the feeding, Ron?<br /><br />In return for our largesse what do we, the natives, receive? The opportunity to run on a never-ending treadmill till the day you drop dead from exhaustion in old age. The chance to compete with cheap imported labour to scrape the bottom of the wages barrel. The advantage of being conscripted followed by 30 more years of career-damaging service. No welfare or medical care that you didn't pay for unless you beg for help from your oh-so-superior MP on your bended knees. The pleasure of pressing your nose up against the glass to watch regional fat cats and assorted lowlife flaunt their ill-gotten gains before you return to your ever more costly 99-year lease concrete shoe boxes in the sky. The joy of being given the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of paying to have the lift stop on your floor (but only if you voted for them)... Need I really go on?<br /><br />Are we not entitled to demand value for our money? A modicum of humility and gratitude from the MPs who suck at the teat of Singapore Inc.? Where would Lee & Co be without us? They squandered over $100b of our reserves and astonishingly, amazingly, magically, shamelessly, that happened all by itself and no one was to blame. No one took responsibility. Move along now folks and avert your eyes, it never happened.<br /><br />So tell us Ron, precisely who is biting who's hand?mycroftnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8081742307252789733.post-485279185077920982009-11-08T19:54:53.022-08:002009-11-08T19:54:53.022-08:00you should really visit Dubai before you comment o...you should really visit Dubai before you comment on it.<br /><br />citizens are happy from the oil money? come on, how many actually get to see those riches?<br /><br />Behind the gleaming facades of skyscrapers there lies much discontent, poverty and unhappiness at the wealthy. Do your research as a good lawyer should before using it as an example.Marknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8081742307252789733.post-20229747686936635532009-11-08T19:14:42.941-08:002009-11-08T19:14:42.941-08:00Ron,
Being critical of the policies does not equa...Ron,<br /><br />Being critical of the policies does not equate to biting the feeding hand. Great progress has been made in human rights, environments, and many other areas through activism.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8081742307252789733.post-31747427752548822122009-11-08T18:52:01.203-08:002009-11-08T18:52:01.203-08:00Ron says:
"a child who disagrees with his mot...Ron says:<br />"a child who disagrees with his mother on an issue"<br /><br />Let me guess - Ron is an ethnic Chinese, and the ideal compliant citizen that would fit in well in China (or Chingapore).<br /><br />Mao Zedong's regime (1949-1975): 40 - 70 million people died under Mao<br /><br />Rural purges, 1946-49: 2-5M deaths<br />Urban purges, 1950-57: 1M<br />Great Leap Forward: 20-43M<br />Cultural Revolution: 2-7M<br />Labor Camps: 20M<br />Tibet: 0.6-1.2M<br />TOTAL: 44.5 to 72M<br /><br />Ron would think this is okay?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8081742307252789733.post-19413847652668444032009-11-08T12:30:39.947-08:002009-11-08T12:30:39.947-08:00To Ron,
Frankly, I fail to understand how critici...To Ron,<br /><br />Frankly, I fail to understand how criticizing a dictatorial government that denies it's people the freedoms they deserve is tantamount to biting the hand that fed me!<br /><br />Don't Singaporeans pay taxes? And since they do, are they not allowed to question policies that affect them? It appears, you not only want to take their taxes, but submit as well! <br /><br />As for Raffles Institutiion, I would have received a much better education in a school outside Singapore. Thank god, I came out of the mental conditioning by going abroad. Had I not left, I am sure I would be using the same arguments that you do.Gopalan Nairhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15399145588654603667noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8081742307252789733.post-66473327854019692102009-11-08T10:01:20.518-08:002009-11-08T10:01:20.518-08:00That's laying it on the line stark and simple,...That's laying it on the line stark and simple, Gopalan. Really, Singapore's wounds are all self-inflicted by a tiny handful of self-serving shits (sorry, that's the only word that best describes them). <br /><br />Recent global events have cruelly exposed its obsolescent top-down command economy (with decision-making confined to a tiny handful of the priesthood) as a text-book example of a single point of failure waiting to happen. There is the complete lack of civil society. The people are made to walk an abyss with no safety net beneath. Mercy is conspicuous by its absence. Greed is good. This is the excellence that PAP loves to brag about?<br /><br />I read Goh's condescending speech that implicitly laid the blame for Singapore's problems on Singaporeans with nary so much as a single <i>mea culpa</i> for his own damned party's part in the affair, with a disgust I usually reserve for when I accidentally step in something nasty like vomit. You only have to ask ONE question to destroy his entire patronising lecture: "On whose watch has all this crap you bitch about happened, Mr. holier-than-thou Goh"? He and his cronies <b><i>ARE</i></b> the problem as many have pointed out time and again.<br /><br />It was all of 16 years ago that WIRED magazine sent the father of cyberpunk science fiction to write a report on the Singapore utopia. William Gibson came, clocked the phony, too-perfect theme park false facade, noted with a shiver the all too evident signs of a police state, felt the unspoken fear, and hurriedly got the hell out because the oppressive sense of silent menace bothered him badly. He left behind the parting gift of a deadly, immortal, perfect metaphor: <b><i>Disneyland with the Death Penalty</i></b>.<br /><br />It took Gibson, a complete stranger, less than one week to sum up the dystopia that Goh is trying to sell us as a paradise that just needs a few million more imported bodies to become even more wonderful. When will the native-born endangered species wake up and notice that the water in the saucepan they are sitting in is steadily reaching a boil?mycroftnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8081742307252789733.post-25933185389001673962009-11-08T02:39:27.512-08:002009-11-08T02:39:27.512-08:00Well said Mr Nair, This is the first time anyone&#...Well said Mr Nair, This is the first time anyone's addressed the problem of racism in Singapore (that I've read). The plight of the minorities in Singapore is a well camouflaged thorn in the side of a country (oops 'city') that could have been paradise. Just to provide an example, during my days in Stinkapoo, I could never land a decent job due to the no. 1 job assessment criteria - 'bilingual' preferred! Literally, 'bilingual' refers to the ability to articulate in two languages. In typical sinkaporean fashion, however, bilingual means to speak Ingeris and Mandalin. Since I'm not one of the privileged, I spent many a day contemplating unemployment and many a dollar on public transport on the way to job interviews destined to go nowhere. I've heard that it's not essential that you're bilingual these days, as long as you're not singaporean, it will do for most employers. What goes around comes around.<br />On a more personal note, Love your blog, Please take good care and keep up the great work. You never know the 66% might just wake up from their ERS stupor and topple the People's Anal Party!<br />All the best.<br />NateNatenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8081742307252789733.post-89705823599221979902009-11-08T01:40:17.486-08:002009-11-08T01:40:17.486-08:00Seriously it is good that people like you continue...Seriously it is good that people like you continue to rant on such a portal because nothing that you apparently believe in and champion will ever take root, not because of the fallacy of your claims, but because of the manner in which you make your claims.<br /><br />You want a social safety net for all Singaporeans. You want more of this and that, but are you certain that the resultant effects will be better than what it is today? Even if you are, and im sure you are, how many out there would agree with you? Democracy needs a majority view, apparently your view constitutes that of the minority group.<br /><br />You were yourself a product of Singapore. Lack of education in Singapore? You emerged out of it a fine lawyer, extremely questioning of your own society. A student of Raffles Institution, tell me if that has done that more harm that good for you.<br /><br />Perhaps we do need more democracy, and that will definitely eventually come about with the growing numbers of highly exposed and educated people the system itself has produced.<br /><br />I admire your courage in pointing out your views on the political system in Singapore, some of which i agree with. But biting the hand which fed you is just not right at all. It is akin to a child who disagrees with his mother on an issue which will do the child good and seek to sow discord. Go ahead, do that to your parents.Ronnoreply@blogger.com