Singapore Dollar loses value to an all time low. Could the reason be Lee Kuan Yew?

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Singapore's state controlled newspaper Straits Times of March 04, 2015 has the story 'Singdollar at 4 year low against Greenback" http://www.straitstimes.com/news/business/economy/story/singdollar-4-year-low-against-the-greenback-20150304



Of course the article attributes the decline to everything else other than the obvious reason, Lee Kuan Yew's impending death.

This is not at all surprising. Other news also relates to the island's poor performance in exports and manufacturing. A further look deeper into Singapore news would undoubtedly mention many more instances of poor business.

As I have said all along, the reason why Singapore is even functioning today is entirely because of Lee Kuan Yew, the island's dictator, not because of his clueless son who was placed in that position by his father nor anyone else who are nothing but handpicked scholars who simply do their bidding. If Lee Kuan Yew dies, then literally Singapore dies. The money will become worthless, the foreign businesses would pull out in the ensuing disorder and instability just as is the case in any other dictatorship around the world.

In Italy before Mussolini the trains were never on time. When he came, he did make them run on time. And after him for a long time, they reverted to the delays as before. But Italy is not Singapore. It is bigger and with more resources. Italy is in a position to recover, but Singapore with hardly 2 million locals if you don't count foreigners and recent immigrants in a tiny island simply cannot.

In the case of Singapore, what you see is artificial prosperity, created on the backs of foreign companies who are there for a quick return in a dictatorship and the Chinese millionaire bank frauds  who have parked their money there.

When the bad news really hits of Lee's passing, that's when the money will really, I mean really flow out. If his son is going to bully all his compliant citizens through defamation lawsuits in his Kangaroo Courts, it will not work. Already now the people are hitting back. We have had 3 young Hindu Indians who punched police officers at their religious festival, we have had Roy Ngerng calling Lee's son a thief stealing on an industrial scale, and graffiti artists and computer hackers attacking his government.

When Lee Kuan Yew dies, I expect all Hell to break lose. The pent anger under which the citizen lives will finally explode. When that happens you have total chaos. And when there is chaos, a tiny island reliant on foreign capital will simply disappear.

My advice to Singaporeans is to demand your CPF money right now, regardless of what age you are and transfer it into a stronger currency like the US dollar. You better do this now before your money turns into Chinese Hell notes, only good enough for burning at Chinese funerals.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont California USA
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/singapore.dissident

Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew is probably dead or in a coma

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Lee Kuan Yew has been in hospital for a whole month in mechanical ventilation and life support and in that entire period we have been told only twice about him. First after about 2 weeks later that he was admitted to hospital 2 weeks before, and second, about a week ago that he has got a little better! How much better or why how or what is not told.

And this paucity of information about a man who is revered like a God and for whom even a mild headache in the past would have been headline news in the state controlled media for a whole month, detailed with every single medical information you could think of!

So are you surprised why there is now almost silence? I am but at the same time, I am not. After all this is Singapore and a dictatorship. News is tightly controlled and you are told only what you need to know in their eyes. And this sort of silence in this case only means one thing. Either he is already dead or in a permanent coma.

Of course like in Communist China or North Korea, they need time to arrange the political succession. Members of the Singapore politburo headed by Lee's son have to sit down and decide who is to rule Singapore from now on. Will the son continue as the Prime Minister given his seat has become too hot now, after only recently suing Roy Ngerng for defamation in the Kangaroo Courts and setting the entire Internet ablaze in a fury, more and more people hacking his computer and scribbling anti government slogans on his housing apartments.

Maybe someone else should take over like the silly looking Chan Chun Sing who has now been making headline news for saying absolutely nothing. Perhaps even Tin Pei Ling would suit the bill for having admitted on camera that she had no clue about anything, most of all political and stamping her feet like a child on camera, and it appears the only thing she has done since 2011 was to have a baby, which naturally once again captured headline news.

Anyone one unfamiliar with Singaporean politics would be surprised to hear that they are arranging the leadership in Singapore! After all should not the people be deciding this? If you knew Singapore, you would know that it is a replica of todays Communist China or the Peoples Republic of China. Like in China where the Communist Party decides who should rule, similarly in Singapore it is the Peoples Action Party who would rule and rule forever. Although technically there are elections in Singapore unlike China, the results of any election is a forgone conclusion. PAP 10, opposition 0.

Although technically there are opposition parties, they have all been co-opted to the PAP. They are technically PAP's B team. If they cannot rule themselves, they will rule through proxy. and that is that.

I don't want to be going on a tangent for too long. My purpose was to tell you that either the man is dead or he is a irrecoverable coma. So if you feel that you have to do something about that, then perhaps you should.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont California USA
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/singapore.dissident

Every child in Singapore can be an American citizen

Ladies and Gentlemen,

If you want your child to be an American citizen it is easy. All he has to do is to be born in the USA.

Under American law, as long as a person is born in the USA he or she is an American citizen. His parents citizenship or Visa status is irrelevant. Even if the parents are illegally present in the USA, it does not affect the child's rights to citizenship.

This is particularly easy for Singapore citizens. Singapore passports do not require a visa for 90 days stay. But even if you stayed beyond 90 days, you will not be deported. There is no penalty for overstay, except that in future, you will not have visa free entry like other Singaporeans. However after a period of time, I cannot say how long, you may be granted a visa. After that you will have visa free entry like others.

So if you feel that visiting USA is more important than having an American citizen child, then don't do it because the overstay will certainly affect your future travel there. If not do it.

Coming to the child's status in Singapore, the authorities there may require you to relinquish the American nationality since it does not recognize dual nationality. However that is no problem Even if you did give up American citizenship for your child, he or she can always claim it back firstly because it was not his own decision and secondly because the laws relating to recovery of citizenship are very lenient. You always get it back if you reapply unless the purpose of relinquishing was for a criminal or treasonous purpose.

Once the child is born apply for US birth Certificate and passport. His US citizenship lasts forever. Remember Bruce Lee the Hong Kong actor. He was an American citizen. His mother travelled to the US to give birth to him. A piece of news you may want to know.

Of course you shouldn’t be so dumb as to tell the US Immigration at the port of entry of your purpose for entering the USA and normally they don't ask you this question. Just say you are coming for a holiday and going back.

Now for money. US is obliged to provide everyone medical treatment. So if you don't have money to pay for childbirth that is OK. You will of course get a bill which you can pay depending on your means.

Finally when the child is 18 he can recover his US passport and coma and live here. At the age of 21, he can also petition for his parents and brothers and sisters to come over. I don't want to make this too confusing but just to remember, the parents can come over immediately. His bothers and children will have to wait up to 10 years before they can come if petitioned by him, or a lesser time if petitioned by the parents who have now become permanent residents. This scenario applies regardless of the children being minors. So technically you may have a scenario where the parents would have to leave their infant children behind. I know the law sounds ridiculous but don't blame me. I didn't write the law.

Good Luck to you Americano.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont California USA
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/singapore.dissident

Lee Kuan Yew's son braces for island-wide protests while father struggles for dear life

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I have always been surprised why the people of the tiny island of Singapore have put up with so much indignity to their person and their self respect and treated no better than slaves, by this dictatorial government of Lee Kuan Yew and now his son, and yet have done nothing to resist and demand their dignity; choosing instead to remain obedient and take the beating.

You have an island where Lee Kuan Yew, even in his death bed now, and his son whom he placed as Prime Minister and every other Minister, toady and bootlicker that run around them, pay themselves, (I think steal is a much better word) no less than $3.7 million a year.

An island where every single Minister and official is connected to the Lee Kuan Yew family either through affinity or consanguinity and nepotism is the word for official appointments.

Where the moment you open your mouth to complain, slapped with a defamation lawsuit and bankrupted before their Kangaroo Courts.

I ask myself, why do they put up with this.

Have they not a single ounce of courage in their veins?

Although there is an overwhelming outrage and anger albeit mostly incognito in the Internet and there are increasing instances of hacking of government computers lately, writing anti government graffiti on walls and outpourings of other forms of anti government sentiment, demonstrably it has not yet reached the extent of island wide street protests as you would have expected in Hong Kong or Tahrir Square, Cairo.

Even though the government has arrested and jailed every single one of these brave human rights activists, it has not stopped them.

In fact it has only increased the number of anti government human rights instances.

There is no doubt that there is growing anger that is simmering under the surface which is only waiting for a catalyst, a spark, to ignite the explosive.

And I think that spark for the island wide street protests is about to happen any time now, which is the death of our breathing cadaver, Lee Kuan Yew,  now lying in a coma under life support at Singapore General Hospital.

A pathetic sight indeed of a man, now helpless at the mercy of his minders, who once strutted around his Singapore island chicken coop, bullying everyone in sight and sending Chia Thye Poh, his critic, to 31 years in prison! A man ugly in life and now ugly in death.

If there is one reason alone why the people would rise in indignation is the theft of taxpayers money that this half dead coot, his son the prime Minister and every one of their Ministers politicians friends and toadies pay themselves.

I don't have  to remind you that each of them pay themselves, steal is the better word, officially, $3.7 million dollars a year which they conveniently call a salary. Very conveniently.

Even this is not enough. In addition they take about 7 months bonus every year and directorship fees that runs into even more millions.

This my friend is a total wholesale theft of the country's assets. This alone should be reason enough for public street protests the moment Lee Kuan Yew kicks the bucket. The theft is so large, it would have put what Robert Mugabe or Mobutu of the Congo stole small change.

Then you have other equally compelling reasons. What about the denial of every basic human right. No free speech expression or nothing. Just life as slaves. This should be another glaring reason.

Then what about the denial of the right of Hindu Tamils to practice their religion. On February 3, 2015, during the Hindu Thaipusam festival, 3 Indians were charged when they wanted to play religious drums, a requirement under Tamil Hinduism which was denied. The drums were confiscated and the 3 assaulted by Chinese and Malay policemen at a Hindu religious festival!

Additionally the wife of one of the Hindu religious observers was assaulted and pushed to the ground resulting in her suffering extensive injuries. It was either Chinese or Malay police officers who assaulted these Hindu Indians, obviously a racially motivated hate crime. Indians would I predict protest against this racial discrimination and police brutality and denial of their right to practice their religion.

Malays should be protesting against the racial discrimination against them by the Chinese where  they are denied jobs and even thrown out of their jobs which are then given to the Chinese.

Lee Kuan Yew and his son have publicly also stated that the Malays of Singapore are good for nothing, undisciplined, stupid and not as smart as the ethnic Chinese of which the Lee family belongs. The Malays would clearly be protesting now against this Chinese aggression.

All in all, there are numerous cases crying out for justice and island wide street protests. If Singaporeans have sat quietly by so far, they may not be doing nothing any longer. They will be moved to action.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont, California USA
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/singapore.dissident

The problems for the Peoples Action Party after Lee Kuan Yew

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Both the local and throughout the international media are replete with the big Singapore news of the day, Lee Kuan Yew aged 91 or whichever is the correct number in the island's secretive state controlled news is seriously ill with pneumonia in hospital under life support. He has been there for 22 days!

You can take judicial notice of the fact that he is dying just by looking at any of his recent pictures. What you see is the image of a corpse, albeit a breathing one, at least up till now. Surely there is not long to go. If you are a betting man, you will win nothing betting on his demise. And that is that.

The question is what happens to his party PAP's Singapore island.

Throughout the 50 years of it's entire history, the island has been governed by one man, the now dying Lee himself. Although he handed over the reigns during the past 20 years or so, first to Goh Chock Tong, although his tenure was intended only as a seat warmer for the real intended beneficiary, Lee Kuan Yew's son, who as planned took over some 10 years ago.

But the style of government whether it was Goh Chock Tong or Lee's son, as at present, it was always the style of Lee himself.

And Lee Kuan Yew's style or the Singapore model of governance was the Stalinist style, which is, you- listen- to- me- or- else. Although there is the Constitution, the requirement of rule of law and free and fair elections, these were nothing but niceties to him, all thrown out the window. None of this existed in reality.

He used to warn workers not to strike or they will be jailed. Students were not allowed to agitate or else they would be expelled. Workers were not allowed to criticize him or else they would lose their jobs and so on. Since the people were all afraid to lose their jobs, their livelihoods and their savings through bankruptcy, they all obeyed. Therefore was calm and quiet and fear across the island for the last 50 years.

And this Kim Jong Un style of government was copied to the letter by first Goh Chock Tong and later by his son, whom he placed as Prime Minister. They too felt an entitlement to the right to warn the workers not to agitate or else; the students to behave or else, and as expected everyone behaved out of a mortal fear of life and limb. But there is one important point here. While his handpicked Stalins and Mugabes were strutting around bullying their poor citizens, Lee who first thought of this style of governance, was still alive. And that made the difference.

As there is no doubt that his Prime Minister son intends to continue threatening his citizens into submission like his father did, question is, will it work even when the father is dead, which by all account will happen either today or tomorrow?

I think not. I think it will not work. And this is why. Although his father is undoubtedly a dictator, he is a dictator whom many held with some respect and awe. After all, he fought the Communists in the 1950s, he cleared the slums, he built the government flats where the fast majority of the people live. So although the man is a dictator, he his a dictator who has achieved some undeniable success.

To put it another way, when Ronald Reagan was asked why he was going around supporting Latin American dictators like Samoza of Nicaragua, he said "Samoza may be a son of a bitch. But at least he is our son of a bitch." So in the dying Lee's case, he may have been a dictator, but he was a dictator who undoubtedly did some good work.

But what about his son? Who the Hell is he? Did he fight the Communists? Did he move the mountain? Or did he do anything for that matter? The answer unfortunately for him is Zero.

The people know that he is simply there because of his father, period. So after his father's death, if he goes strutting around like a prize rooster, telling workers not to agitate or be thrown in jail, will they listen? If he tells the students to be quiet or be punished, will they listen?

We may have listened to the man who fought the Communists and moved the mountains, but who the Hell is this stupid son of his to tell us how to live, how to spit and why we shouldn't make noise in HDB flats. He is simply a handpicked son, no more no less, lucky enough to be born to his father, placed there by his father, a man who has not even won a single real election, which were all rigged by his father. He simply has no merit whatsoever. And why should anyone listen to person like him pontificating over us?

I reckon this poor clueless son of his is going to have a hard time behaving like his father once he is gone. And the problem is not just with this son of his, but with the entire government.

Every single Minister, Member of Parliament were all handpicked highly paid minions with powers to order and insult any citizen to obey or be punished.

As I said, it may be one thing for Lee Kuan Yew to behave like that, it is quite another for these minions of his to do the same. I don't think the people would put up with it anymore once the father has gone.

And if the people don't listen, then what happens? Do they call out the riot police to round up all of you and throw you in the can? And will that solve the problem? I think not.

I think Lee Kuan Yew's death is going to be a catastrophe for Singapore which was entirely of his own making.

For all the wisdom and the foresight attributed to him, he failed to realize that that the Stalinist style of government, may have worked for one man, himself. But the circumstances that existed in the 1950s and 1960s do not exist now, with these handpicked minions who run around obeying orders or to be giving orders.

Lee's failure was the inability to realize that for a stable and peaceful society, there has to be leaders, I mean real leaders whom the people respect and whom they represent, and these leaders must be accepted by the people.

By simply deputizing scholars into instant Ministers with powers to order you around, as is what happens now, to terrorize their people,  is not the way to govern for 2 reasons.

Firstly these handpicked instant Ministers themselves, when Lee Kuan Yew is no longer there, would not have the confidence to be strutting around and giving orders and secondly the people will simply not listen to these characters who have no legitimacy whatsoever other than the sole qualification of having been selected by the erstwhile Lee.

To put it another way, why should I listen to someone simply because he has a double first honors from Cambridge?

Other than the ability to pass exams in school, what else can he do? Nothing, as far as I know. In fact I may have never even heard of this man before who is now telling me how to spit, how to walk and what I should think, just because he has a Cambridge degree.

I hope you see the point I am trying to make. This you-listen-to-me-or-else style of government by these politicians whom we had never heard before is simply not going to work. They have no legitimacy to be giving orders, they know it and I know it.

So then what? I suppose disobedience, protests, street protests, Malays protesting, Indians protesting, HDB tenants protesting, workers protesting, and simply chaos.

Civil society unfortunately does not exist in that island. There is no respect for the law (no rule of law), there is no respect for the elections (elections are rigged) and there is no respect for the civil service (they are not independent). Above all that there is no free speech, no right to assembly and you have a defamation of character regime dispensed by Kangaroo Courts.

The government's only way to stay in power in the post Lee Kuan Yew Singapore is repression, repression and more repression, simply because you have a system of government that the people simply cannot respect. And where there is repression, there is always resistance. That is the primordial  law of nature that holds true in dictatorial regimes.

Well what is the answer? Can you now introduce civil society in an instant? Can you introduce an independent judiciary and free and fair elections? You can but you cannot do this overnight. Singaporeans have been brainwashed to accept their slavish lives and to suddenly expect people to think with their heads will not happen.

Singapore is going to be a ship without a heading. I hope eventually it will find it's true bearings. But by that time, for a tiny island like that with a even tinier population, no bigger than that perhaps a Pacific island atoll, it is probably too late.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont, California USA
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/singapore.dissident

Singapore "strongman" Lee Kuan Yew hospitalized in ICU, severe pneumonia, on mechanical ventilation, unable to breath. Will the island survive after him

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The news everywhere now is about 91 year old Lee Kuan Yew, the "strongman", hardly strong now, physically I mean, autocrat dictator of Singapore island since 1959, who has been hospitalized since Feb 5, 2015 for severe pneumonia but we were never told till yesterday.

This sort of secrecy only happens in dictatorships around the world. For instance in North Korea, although Kim Jong Il had died quite some time ago, the people were only told much later, a phenomenon where news is state controlled like Singapore and North Korea.

According to the Singapore's state news agency, Straits Times, he is unable to breath anymore and is on Mechanical Ventilation, which means air is forced into his body through mechanical means, without which he will die obviously a painful procedure.

Personally I don't think he will last beyond a few more days. This is my personal opinion and not based on any scientific or medical evidence. The ability to live long depends not only on one's health but equally important is his personal convictions and conscience. Or put in another way, is he at peace with his Conscience. Here we have an old man whose hands are clearly bloody, who has for his own personal interest kept an innocent man in prison for more than 26 years, Chia Thye Poh, one of a litany of his political victims.

Many others have suffered greatly under his tyrannical rule, not least Lim Chin Siong, JB Jeyaretnam and Dr. Chee Soon Juan of the SDP. He and his family who run the island as his fiefdom are also the most corrupt politicians in the world paying themselves each $3.7 million a year of citizen's tax payers money. He simply takes it because no one has the courage to stand outside Parliament House and complain.

Conscience can be as punishing as the most life threatening of deceases. When a 91 year old physically feeble man such as this having to endure the constant reminder of all the terrible evil that he has done, it is usually too much for any man.  Hitler would not have lasted much beyond  taking his own life if he had not committed suicide, and neither would Lee Kuan Yew.

When he dies, I think you could safely say that it was no less his Conscience as much as his poor health that killed this ruthless, merciless dictator of Singapore and a curse upon the short history of the island.

Next question, what happens to Singapore when Lee Kuan Yew is gone? This is the problem with that tiny island. Lee Kuan Yew and his political party PAP has run the island since 1959. They have made it clear that only they are capable of this task and no other. As a result, they single-mindedly have destroyed any real opposition. Any opposition politician worth his salt has been systematically eliminated in the Kangaroo courts through defamation actions and criminal charges. Today except for Chee Soon Juan of the SDP who has himself been repeatedly jailed and bankrupted and impoverished, but still standing, there is no one else willing to claim opposition politics.

Today you have an completely surveilled  Stalinist island where the Singapore police, the Internal Security Department (state intelligence apparatus), grassroots organizations and both paid and unpaid informers keep an eye on every single resident in the island, their photos kept in files as the East German Agency STASI did, and where any oppositionist is monitored, harassed, victimized and persecuted. In this manner, every single resident is forced to vote for Lee's party under pain of reprisals.

The consequence of this is the dearth of political leaders, let alone anyone with any independent ideology to speak of. No one dares enter the arena because it is a sure path to defamation actions, criminal charges and bankruptcy for you and your entire extended family. Unless you are suicidal, it makes no sense to worry about opposition politics.

As a result of this sterile political atmosphere where only the ruling party holds a monopoly on politics, while the dissenting voices are not heard and not allowed to organize, there is in effect no real opposition capable of forming a government for a lack of opportunity and lack of expertise.

On the other hand we have the Internet. One look at it would convince you that  almost 99% of Singaporeans are anti establishment, anti Lee Kuan Yew and anti Lee Kuan Yew's son the Prime Minister and their political party.

Singaporeans all know that Lee Kuan Yew's son is just a clueless dummy who was placed there by his father. If you look at his tenure in the last 10 years, you see nothing original, the policies are exactly those of his father, meaning repression, repression and more repression. That is all he is  capable of. Nothing original.

Therefore I don't think I am wrong in saying that the average Singaporean to the last man has no respect at all for the son.

If they are still quiet, it is only because they are afraid of his father who is still alive, a person who they know wields great power, is capable of doing great harm even though he may be half dead.

When Lee Kuan Yew dies there becomes a vacuum. The question is who will fill that vacuum. It is quite clear that the Prime Minister does not instill any confidence in his people and is clearly  incapable of that role. If he cannot do it, who then?

In most democratic countries with the rule of law, you don't face this problem. There are many leaders of men, respected by their people with different political ideologies who can easily stand in any election and be lawfully voted into government.

This is not possible in Singapore for several reasons. Firstly there are no leaders in the real sense, because Lee Kuan Yew and his PAP have disallowed any real leadership to sprout in the island. For instance JB Jeyaretanm was a political leader but he was promptly destroyed the moment he became a threat to Lee. So has every other leader in the history of the island, all sued for defamation and charged in the Kangaroo Courts and promptly destroyed.

Of course Lee Kuan Yew's political party have politicians who have been running the island for many years as Lee's minions. But are any of them real leaders? No, none of them are leaders in the real sense. Singapore's PAP politicians are not leaders of men, but mere handpicked scholars who have been given political positions and told to govern the country. These political appointments are then published in the state controlled newspapers with orders that the people should henceforth obey these new "instant" politicians. I don't think this manner of selecting political leaders is much different from what it was in Stalinist East Germany or Communist China of today.

But there is one problem with this arrangement which China and Stalinist East Germany did not face. In china today there are no elections. Under the law, the Chinese Communist Party is the eternal  party to rule China and so it was in East Germany. Therefore in both these countries, one could not legally argue that there are no free and fair elections because there are supposed to be none.

It is different in Singapore. Singapore has a Constitution based on the British model. In it is required free and fair elections and the rule of law. So when Lee Kuan Yew denies the opposition a role in politics, it is constitutionally wrong. It is wrong in law. Singaporeans can therefore cry foul when they do this, which they cannot in East Germany or China. Unless Singapore officially abrogates the Constitution, which they cannot politically do, they have to continue this hypocrisy where they claim to act constitutionally but they are not, where they claim to have rule of law but they don't and where they claim to have human rights but they do not.

And this is the very reason why more and more Singaporeans are protesting against the denial of their rights to speak freely, to assembly freely, to have freedom of thought and the rule of law which the government finds more and more difficult to suppress.

If the political vacuum cannot be filled by Lee's son, then by whom? We have several other people in today's government who have all been placed in their positions of authority by Lee Kuan Yew and his son, none of whom can claim any worth on their own for leadership. We have the sleepy eyed sycophant and minion Teo Chee Hean made Deputy Prime Minister by Lee's son and several others who run around crawling and fawning at his feet. But if they are able to force their power over the people, it is only because of the fact of Lee Kuan Yew himself. It is as if their power is acquired vicariously through delegation from above. Without Lee Kuan Yew around, I don't think anyone is going to give any of these crawlers a second look.

Inevitably I think there will be a power struggle among Lee PAP members. As for the opposition there won't be any, since they don't have any power anyway. What this means is instability, with a situation where no one knows who is who and what is what. Somewhat like Libya or Iraq on a lesser scale without the fighting and the murders.

And the bad news is that Singapore relies almost entirely on foreign investment and foreign enterprises. And we all know that the moment there is instability, the first to abandon the island are the foreigners and their capital. With a run on foreign capital, there will be a run on the banks with Singaporeans taking their money and leaving on the first flight out. Among the Singaporeans to leave, I bet the first to leave would be Lee's bootlickers with their money, tons of it.

I checked the latest Singapore stock exchange results. It does not appear that stocks have fallen on the news of Lee Kuan Yew's hospitalization. I am sure that if the man is going to remain in hospital much longer in a semi-coma state as he is now, you can expect the stock exchange to dip and if his condition persists, to collapse entirely.

What is my advice to Singaporeans now? I seriously don't believe Lee Kuan Yew will last much longer. I think it will only be a few more days. He himself has said he does not not want to live too long as an invalid and has  asked the doctors to pull the plug if necessary. At his age, if he is himself determined to die, what hope does he have to live?

Singaporeans should take their money out now and make arrangements to emigrate before it is too late. Foreign companies in Singapore should do the same. You don't want to wait until you have lost everything and the Singapore dollar is worth no more than Monopoly Money.

Am I surprised with all this? None at all. History has shown that dictatorships have never lasted and never had a happy ending. Lee Kuan Yew may have built glass towers along the island's waterfront and made many foreigners and his personal entourage very rich. But for the vast majority of the average local Singaporean he has been a disaster and a nightmare. He has turned them into modern day slaves to enrich him and his family which is literally Singapore Inc. Rather than having built the island as the not-too-enlightened foreigners would like to say, he has in fact destroyed it. He has deliberately failed to leave behind a civil society and civil institutions that can enable the country to last beyond a government like the Western democracies have.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont, California USA
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/singapore.dissident

The next step in Singapore's political evolution. Street protests

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Yesterday, President Obama in the meeting with world leaders in tackling the curse of ISIS said one of the main causes is due to the lack of opportunities for dissent in totalitarian regimes. When people cannot change their governments through the ballot box, when dissent is crushed and when democracy is absent, that is when you see violence. What he said is equally applicable in Lee's Singapore.

Today Singaporeans have no means to dissent. There is no freedom of the press. It is not possible to print or disseminate newspapers where only state owned and controlled newspapers which contains only praise for the Lees is allowed. Additionally you cannot dissent through peaceful protests. That too is illegal.

To take its place came the Internet. It is strange that although the government is modelled to a large extent on Communist China's one party rule, for some reason they did not prohibit the Internet which has been to a large extent left alone.

Singaporeans denied the right to dissent in any other way, turned to the only avenue available to them, the Internet. Today I don't thing I am far off the mark when I say, 99% of the Internet is anti establishment. Over decades now, the Internet has become increasingly vocal in their criticism. Question is, what will happen next.

Singapore is not anything similar to the Middle Eastern countries where young people have no food, no education and hope, prime grounds for revolutions. Singapore does educate their young, and although there may not be as much hope as in the West, it is far better than being in Somalia or Yemen.

But hopelessness, lack of education and poverty are not the only causes for revolution, the reverse is also equally true. The more educated you are the more aware of your rights you become and the more likely you will stand up to repression. I think this is what is happening now in Singapore.

He is not only aware that he is denied his right to be free, the Singaporean is also aware that he has a right to freedom and democracy. He is very angry that his Prime Minister and his father are one of the most corrupt leaders if not the most in the world because each of them pay themselves $3.7 million a year of tax payer money.

Today the Singapore Internet is full of vitriol and hate directed to Lee Kuan Yew's son, the Prime Minister for suing people for defamation at the slightest criticism in his Kangaroo Courts, like his father, and denying any form of dissent whatsoever. But the people have not yet taken the next logical step which is peaceful protests and demonstrations. They have been content so far to show their anger only through the Internet.

But the years where the government has literally left the Internet alone has taken it's toll, has continued to embolden the citizenry. Twenty years ago, if you had uttered  the slightest of criticism anywhere, you would have been arrested immediately. But today the Internet, you could say is almost free. It seems as if the people are not afraid anymore in the Internet.

The emboldened Singaporean Internet critic will, I believe take the inevitable next step which are street protests. Being educated they know that it is not wrong to peacefully protest even if the government makes it wrong.

Although this next step will inevitably happen sooner or later, let me persuade you to make it sooner. There are crimes and there are "crimes" conveniently labeled for the Lees to continue their grip on power. Simply because Lee calls it a "crime" it does not become one. To stand at Raffles Place at lunch time holding up a banner that reads "Democracy" is not crime. You haven't hurt anyone and none suffers a loss. Therefore you simply cannot call that a crime. You know this, I know this and Lee knows this. As long as Singaporeans understand this, you will have no hesitation to take to the streets in peace, demanding change.

No dictator in the world gave you freedom because you asked for it. They gave you freedom because they could no longer deny it to you because you forced it. Through peaceful protests in Singapore, you can get your freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law, all of which is denied to you today.

You have seen how desperate the Lees have become lately and have literally run out of ideas to silence even the handful of known critics who have dared to come out in the open. Roy Ngerng the blogger has been sued but we haven't seen much traction on the case.

It must be a slap in the face for the Lees when Ngerng has suffered no financial loss so far nor will he as a result because of the huge outpouring of financial support he received to pay the Lees Kangaroo Court judgment, whatever it may be. In the end, Ngerng would merely be taking money from his appreciative donors and handing it over to the Lees.

A couple of days ago the editor of The Real Singapore blog, an ardent critic of Lee's dictatorship was arrested. I expect as in every other case of dissent these days, all they can do is to just give him a slap in the wrist and let him go. They know that if they did anymore, it may well open the Pandora's Box and consequent street protests, which has hitherto not happened in the island, something the government is terrified of. The situation for this government is precarious.

For some reason they don't seem to understand that Singapore is not Saddam Hussein's Iraq. You cannot continue to rule an island like Singapore through repression. There will be a backlash which you already see today in the Internet where 99% of it is anti-establishment.

This Singaporean dictatorship will be similarly helpless if you took to the streets peacefully, something they dread. If they are already afraid to come down hard on a single blogger, what do you thing they would do to 10, or 100 or a 1000 protesters? Lock all of them up and throw away the key? Absolutely not. When you do this, you have won and they have finally lost, no doubt about it.

The reader should read my argument, and if you agree act upon it. At the end of the day, the question simply is this. Do you love your country or you don't. If you do you cannot sit around and wait for the next elections. You have to do something now. And that something is peaceful street protests.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont California USA
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/singapore.dissident