Saturday, February 16, 2013

Singapore. Lee suffers "mini stroke" and hospitalized. Are foreign investors pulling out.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore government must be feeling the jitters now that Lee Kuan Yew, the 90 year old dictator of Singapore has been hospitalized after suffering a "mini stroke". Please see the Wall Street Journal article of Feb 16, 2013, "Lee Kuan Yew hospitalized" http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323478004578307820419905486.html 

Foreign investors upon whom Lee's tiny island dictatorship depends on to survive are not stupid.

They are fully aware of what Singapore is; a tiny one party police state which denies the people fundamental rights, which has a docile subservient judiciary which will do what he says, where there is no minimum wage laws and government controlled trade unions where workers have no rights, an island which is 100% stable, which therefore makes investment very attractive.

They also know that Singapore is what it is today, just as General Pinochet's Chile was it was then entirely because the people had no voice. But they also know what happens in dictatorships around the world when the one man who is responsible to hold it all together, the dictator is gone. The country descends into chaos because there is none else to keep it together.

This is the problem with Singapore. Singapore is Lee Kuan Yew and Lee Kuan Yew is Singapore as the Nile is Egypt and Egypt is the Nile. His son, Lee Hsien Loong is so unpopular; he does not instill confidence even among his own party elites, let alone the people. He is seen, both locally and abroad no more than his father’s son.

To make matters worse, there has been a series of set backs for the Lee Kuan Yew government lately. Last month, they lost a by election with the largest margin in history, almost everyday there are floods island wide with global warming for which they have no answers, the underground system breaking down daily is now discovered to be a Lemon, water has been seeping into underground tunnels after heavy flooding and yesterday 4,000 people came out in a rare protest against government threats to increase immigration even further to a population of 6.9 million.

To top it all, the dictator has been hospitalized today with a "mini stroke". And we all know that this is usually the precursor to the knock out blow of a real stroke, finishing the man off.

I am not sure if there is already activity in the island's financial sector of investors pulling their money out, but I won't be surprised if it has already started. Remember, in 2010 just because I had written a hoax in this blog of Lee suffering a massive heart attack, the Singapore stock market actually fell slightly and only recovered after I had made it known that it was a hoax a few hours later.

Since this time it is the real thing, Lee Kuan Yew has actually suffered a "mini stroke", I expect the discerning investor to begin pulling his money out to be safe. Once the flood of  foreign investment out of Singapore is made known, even more people will start repatriating their money, migration to the West will become a flood, and the Singapore dollar will indeed totally collapse.

If I was a betting man, I would say the time has come to pack up and leave the sinking ship. The SS Singapore is already listing 20% to starboard and has begun to take on water below the water line. This is not the time to be playing musical chairs like the Titanic. The time is now to pack and leave. The total sinking is not far off. Remember the man has already had the first "mini stroke". The next one would likely knock him off. And at that time, you don't want to be caught with your pants down!

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont, California, USA
Tel: 510 491 4375

4 comments:

Jason said...

Mr Nair

I don't think you are a very credible person. Your previous posts of "doom and gloom" about Singapore clearly didn't happened. You are as accurate as one of those back street "end of days" preachers !

Not sure what is your motive here but I lived in SG and worked for more than 5 years and it's one of the best places I ever lived ! as compared to the US now where we have events like columbine shooting, sandy hook massacre..etc. If you were to ask most Americans about the brand of "Freedom and democracy" you preach so fervently about United states and the security and freedom in SG. They would have chosen SG.

If you don't mind me saying, I think that they only reason you are so bitter about the SG government isn't because of democracy issues ( not that I disagree with you about Lee Kwan Yew) but rather of your past experience of being victimised by the Governement. Please don't be personal and demonised the whole of Singapore and Singaporeans . Let them decide their future themselves if you don't have any credible and good solutions to offer other than your usual rants.

PS; I am a pro-democracy American but if given a choice , I would like and raise a family in SG rather than US.

Just my 2 cents
Jason freemount
Govalie, Austin Texas

Chan Li Ming said...

To Jason Feemount
I am sure you can raise your family in Singapore. You have worked here for 5 years. You would be welcome as a FT. Give it a try. It is a world of difference saying you would from a distance.
And maybe you can trade your's and your family's US citizenship with that of my Singapore citizenship.
Maybe you Americans need a dose of PAP style dictatorship.

Gopalan Nair said...

To Jason who said

"I don't think you are a very credible person. Your previous posts of "doom and gloom" about Singapore clearly didn't happened. You are as accurate as one of those back street "end of days" preachers !"

True when I wrote the hoax about Lee's death, the gloom did not happen, but then he did not die. What I say here is what most people know would happen when dictators either die or are overthrown. The country goes into chaos. History proves this.

"Not sure what is your motive here but I lived in SG and worked for more than 5 years and it's one of the best places I ever lived ! as compared to the US now where we have events like columbine shooting, sandy hook massacre..etc. If you were to ask most Americans about the brand of "Freedom and democracy" you preach so fervently about United states and the security and freedom in SG. They would have chosen SG."

As to Columbine shootings and Sandy Hook, I am not sure if you know what the second amendment of the US Constitution is. It gives a right to own firearms. We can argue until the cows come home whether it should or can be amended, but that is a fact. As to your claim that most Americans would want to live in a society like Singapore your opinion is as good as mine. I disagree completely. To most Amercians Singapore is run by a bunch of clowns. So I am not going to waste my time arguing. As to your belief that Singpaore is a safe place now, it would depend on whether you agree with what is written in Singapore's state controlled press. You may even want to ask the old Chinese woman who was held up at knife point at Block 12, Bedok Avenue North in the elevator last week at 2 pm and robbed of her handbag and jewellery she was wearing. At least this sort of thing does not happen where I live in Fremont California.

"you don't mind me saying, I think that they only reason you are so bitter about the SG government isn't because of democracy issues ( not that I disagree with you about Lee Kwan Yew) but rather of your past experience of being victimised by the Governement. Please don't be personal and demonised the whole of Singapore and Singaporeans . Let them decide their future themselves if you don't have any credible and good solutions to offer other than your usual rants."

You are entitled to think that I am writing all this is because I am bitter. That is up to you. But I am writing this because it gives me a great oppurtunity to expose the one party police state to Singaporeans and the rest of the world. My intention is to increse the opposition on the ground in Singapore against the one party dictatorship so as to speed up the fall of that tin pot dictatorship. It is a worthwhile cause and allows me to interfere in domestic politics there and influence domestic opinion even though I am stationed beyond the seas through the Internet. As for my interest in that island, surely I am better qualified than if I wrote about Congo DRC about which I know much less. It is an honorable cause in which I am succeeding, as shown by your interest in it. I take credit in the increase in votes for the opposition in the recent by elections, in the mounting brain drain to the West and the abysmally low birth rate. People there are increasingly becoming aware of their human rights and slowly and slowly beginning to demand it. For all this I take credit being the result of my work here.

As to your desire to want to raise a family in Singapore, surely it is up to you. I am also told that Saudi Arabia is the safest place in the world because they chop the hands off of thieves. You might want to relocate there since it is the safest int he world.

I am also told that Nazi Germany, was very safe because they would shoot you if you misbehaved. Pity you were not alive then, since it would have been the perfect place for you. Perfectly safe.

Anonymous said...

Haha, Mr Nair, I salute you for your dare to stand against the regime of the Lees and their associates. This Jason Freemount is nothing but an asleep person who knows next to nothing about what true human desire for freedom is, and wants to be ruled by a dictator and his family and associates. If he gives up his citizenship in the USA to become a Singaporean citizen, I bet that his story would be a totally different one.