Singapore. Let us not be under any illusions.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Let us not be under any illusions. Please be forewarned. Lee has said this more than once. If there is a freak election, he will deploy the army to keep himself in power. By the way, to those uninitiated in Singaporean affairs, a "freak" election in Lee's eyes is one in which he lost. Although he has not said so, it can be implied by his language that he will not hesitate to stuff the ballot boxes to make sure he wins, if that is necessary.

I say this now, because there is a lot of talk in the Internet suggesting that the people should vote for the opposition in the next elections, since we can now see, with the salary increases for the Ministers, how bad the present government is. Please, do not raise your hopes. Even if all of you vote the opposition, the PAP will still retain power. That is what is written. That is what will be done. Bad news.

There is good news for the WP, SDA and Sylvia Lim. They will all be returned as MPs in the next election. They are Lee's chosen opposition. They serve Lee's purpose of showing the world, window dressing, that Singapore has an opposition. They on their part will ask harmless questions. They will be promptly defeated in their arguments by the 82 PAP yes-men MPs. Syvia Lim will make some more profound lectures on the Singapore Penal Code. At the end, the WP, SDA and Cynthia Lim will go home after a hard day's speaking. The sun will rise again tomorrow and Lee Kuan Yew and his son will still take their salaries of $10 million. And it will be back to square one again. This is the boring truth.

The only way is to change Singapore, where the power belongs to you, is to follow what Dr. Chee's says. You have to protest. You have to show Lee and the world that you will not tolerate the absence of freedom of speech, you demand the right to expression, you demand the right to peaceful protest, you demand an independent media, you demand your rights.

Unless you do this, Lee will continue to treat you as if you were irrelevant. If you are happy to live that way, neither I nor anyone else can quarrel with that.

Gopalan Nair
39737 Paseo Padre Parkway, Suite A1
Fremont, CA 94538, USA
Tel: 510 657 6107
Fax: 510 657 6914
Email: gopalnair@us-immigrationlaw.com