Monday, February 29, 2016

The Lee Family's Singapore Island, a place that looks modern but no human rights

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The tiny Singapore island, at the tip of the Malay Peninsula has to be the most enigmatic place that could ever be. On the one hand, anyone going there would be forgiven if he thought it is a modern city like any other. It has skyscrapers, good roads, modern shopping complexes, a great many millionaires, a modern airport and a modern sea port.

On the other hand, if he stayed long enough and spoke to the locals, he would find the other mysterious dark side of that island. It has no human rights at all! None at all! You might as well be living in North Korea. There is only one difference between North Korea and Singapore. You cannot escape from North Korea but you can from Singapore.

I am going to list here how the citizens of the island of Singapore live with no rights at all.

1. If the police arrest you, you have no right to a lawyer. You are allowed a lawyer only after you have confessed your crime to the police. The Singapore Criminal Procedure Code states that a criminal defendant is entitled to a lawyer only after the police have completed their investigation. What this means is that when the police arrest you, you have no right to a lawyer. You are not read your rights because you have none. The police interrogate you without any lawyer being present. The interrogation can take weeks or even months while you are held in indefinite custody where you are interrogated. With sufficient torture, primarily sleep deprivation and threats, sooner or later you will confess. At that precise moment, the police, conveniently, declare their investigations as completed. You are then politely told that you can look for a lawyer. By then of course, it is too late. You have already confessed. The court will use your confession and promptly find you guilty. Chapter closed. Off you go to the Lee family's prison.

2. Unlike as in other democracies, you have no right to silence. When the police arrest and interrogate you, you must answer. If you say that you would rather be silent, the court will treat that as an admission of guilt and you will once again be convicted.

3. Singapore's judges are carefully selected by the Lee Family who run the island for their loyalty to the regime. Whenever any political opponent is charged with offenses to destroy them, which happens routinely, the work is done by these judges who are required to convict and deliver stiff sentences. The purpose of these political trials is to destroy and remove opponents to their regime.

4. Although the Government of Singapore run by the Lee family will deny it, the truth is the entire island is at the beck and call of the Lee family, today run by the son of the late Lee Kuan Yew, Lee Hsien Loong. A word from him to any government department or any judge will mean the end of you, the end of your career, and the end of any meaningful life in his island. Therefor everyone who lives there understands that any attempt to openly question their authority will mean the end of you. As a result the people of the island willingly submit to their total authority without question, regardless of how unjust the rules under which they live.

5. The entire media in the island, including newspapers, television, radio are all owned and controlled by the state. No independent media is allowed to circulate in the island. The foreign newspapers who are allowed to sell there are required to post bonds of several hundreds of thousands of dollars to the state. This money is to ensure that in the event they criticize the government, they would have enough money to pay in court damages in defamation lawsuits, which usually runs in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, which the state will bring in their Kangaroo Courts.

6. Although the Constitution of Singapore allows freedom of speech, this is denied by this regime. Anyone hoping to make a public speech is required to apply for a police permit. If you do, it will be denied. And if you went ahead and spoke anyway, you will be charged for speaking without a permit and sent to prison. There is a spot called Speakers Corner. Even there permission is required before hand.

7. Although the Constitution allows freedom of assembly, this is denied by this regime. if you wish to peacefully protest in public, you are required to apply for a police permit from the regime. if you do, it will be denied. And if you went ahead and peacefully protested anyway, you will be arrested and sent to prison for protesting without a permit. You can do it is Speakers Corner, but again you require permission.

8. This regime denies granting passports to anyone they choose. As a result thousands of people who are seen to be critical of the government are unable to leave the island because they cannot get a passport. They are literally prisoners in their own island. This is a grave violation of a fundamental human right guaranteed by the United nations.

9. There are many articles written about the dire state under which the citizens of the island live and as a result many educated and discerning citizens are leaving for settlement abrioad, the rate of mass emigration which is one of the greatest per capita in the world. The population of the island being tiny, one would have thought this government would want to ensure their best educated would appreciate their country and remain. Apparently they don't seem to care much about the brain drain, which has resulted in almost all the top echelon of the educated opting to emigrate to the West, leaving behind only those who are ignorant of their rights or those lacking the necessary qualifications to emigrate. This constant and ever increasing brain drain is resulting in the quality of the ordinary Singaporean progressively diminishing.

10. To compensate the brain drain problem, the island brings in plane loads of immigrants from China but they are vastly inferior to the Singaporeans who have left or are leaving, mainly because none of them know any English, the working language in the island. Other than immigrants from Communist China or India, there are not many people from the West who would chose to come to the island due to its bad reputation for being another North Korea.

11. Even though many in the island know they live without any rights, one does not see any protest or dissension against this regime. This is because the ones who chose to stay are people who are literally willing to live as slaves as long as they can survive. This does not speak much to the quality of the people who live there, as no one with any self respect would willingly choose to put up with this nonsense.

12. Although anyone with any self respect would be ashamed to call such a place home, there are many foreign banks and financial institutions who employ foreigners to work in the island. Their situation is of course not the same as that of any local citizen. They are there to make money as they would do in for instance Dubai. They do not care if the island has any human rights or if the place is run by a donkey. As with the foreign banks, there are many foreign companies who have their headquarters there. It is the same for them as the foreign bankers. They too don't care how the place is run or anyone has any rights. They are foreigners and their countries are foreign, not Singapore.

Please distribute this article widely among your friends and connections. It is important that more and more people begin to see the dark side of Singapore or the real Singapore. We want to see the end of this regime and with the island being so heavily connected with China, it is likely that it will see a real collapse of its economy in the near future. Being so small even a minor change for the worse in the status quo, could mean a total collapse of the regime or at least a big step in that direction. You can help by spreading this news and distributing articles such as these. Once again thank you.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont (San Francisco) California USA
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com





Saturday, February 13, 2016

10 reasons why Singaporeans should refuse to serve National Service

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Yesterday, Singapore's state controlled newspaper the Straits Times had this report "NS Evader jailed 1 1/2 months, judge gives sentencing guidelines" Please see http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/courts-crime/ns-evader-jailed-112-months-judge-gives-sentencing-guidelines

Chow was jailed for 1½ months after an appeal by the prosecution against his original sentence of a $4,500 fine.
The young man (shown above ) is Brian Chow aged 25, the subject of the jailing. At the age of 14 he left the island for Australia and did not return till now. When he voluntarily returned, they arrested him, forced him to serve national service and sent him to jail for 1 1/2 months. The purpose of this report is very clear. The government is getting desperate. Most Singaporeans try to avoid service and many are finding ways to avoid it. For a tiny island with a tiny population this is simply devastating. The barracks are empty. And especially in the case of a predominantly ethnic Chinese island such as this because the Chinese race and the military are opposites, like dogs and cats, fire and water or mongoose and the snake. They simply detest anything military preferring to do business, count money or work in a bank with shirt sleeves, tie and spectacles.

The government realizing the  national service hole they are in, which is only getting deeper, have decided that they are now going to use strong arm tactics to frighten others to serve. No it will not work. Gradually the island will be depleted of its own citizens, students going abroad will not return, there are hardly any children being born and Singapore Chinese women are in hot pursuit of Caucasian men so that they can live abroad and have half Chinese children in the West instead.

If you have any self pride and dignity you should avoid national service  if you can for the following reasons:

1. You should not serve a dictatorship. Singapore is a dictatorship with Lee Kuan Yew's son the dictator. One has no respect for an island such as this. You would not want to serve Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany. He was a dictator too. Many Germans at the time left Germany because they did not want to serve Hitler's army. Similarly Lee Kuan Yew's son treats the island as if it belongs to him.

2. Singapore does not have the rule of law. The judges are corrupt and state appointees just as the judges of Papa Doc's Haiti. They simply pass verdicts that please the state, not justice.

3. Lee Kuan Yew's son is corrupt. He pays himself millions of your money. Tax payers money. Why would you want to serve an island with corrupt rulers such as these.

4. If you criticize Lee Kuan Yew's son, he will sue you in his Kangaroo Courts. Why should you serve an island where you have no right to speak openly.

5. Singapore does not have a Constitution. Every single constitutional right which you had such as freedom of speech, assembly, expression have all now been made criminal offenses. Why would you want to serve an island in which you live no better than a slave with no rights at all.

6. Lee Kuan Yew's son is lying to you when he says National Service is to protect the country. It is not so. Actually national service is to protect his interests. In order to pay himself millions, he needs people to work and provide labor for the companies that he owns and from which he profits. If there are no male citizens left in the island, he will not have enough labor to create wealth for himself. That is why he demands that you stay back and do national service.

7. Singapore national service is like indentured labor. Through demanding you serve 2 years of national service and another 10 years of reservists, you are literally imprisoned within the island for the best years of your life, forcing you to work in Singapore and support Lee Kuan Yew's son. You should free yourself from the bondage and leave Singapore now. If you stay, you not only have to do national service, you would be living as a slave in fear in obedience to Lee Kuan Yew's son.

8. The longer you live in Singapore, the more your brain is damaged. You become like a zombie in the voodoo culture. You obey like a slave and become unable to think or do anything for yourself. This is in fact the best  reason why you should leave. Most Singaporeans who leave Singapore do not succeed in the West. Their minds have become consumed with fear. Largely they are only capable of doing what they are told to do. In the West the ones who succeed are not Singaporeans brought up under Lee Kuan Yew or his son; instead they are Indians from India, Pakistanis, Filipinos, Arabs and even Mexicans even though many do not have a good education. What they lack in education, they have in confidence. For example a Mexican would have the courage to speak to an audience, while a Singaporean told to do this would probably soil his pants. Every other nationality are very different from the robotic zombie like product of Singapore. Because others have independent minds, they can think, question and are not afraid to have different viewpoints. This is why a Singaporean can never be a leader. He is only capable of obedience.

9. It is not too hard to avoid returning to Singapore once you are in the west. You can file for asylum and claim to be a conscientious objector or rely on religious grounds. Even though refusal to do national service is not a ground by itself for asylum, these other grounds are. I can assure you that no western country will force you to return to Singapore if you raise such a claim. In any case refusal to serve national service is not an extraditable offence. They cannot ever force you to return.

10. Today the world is global. You don't have to live in that tiny island with this silly dictator strutting around like a prize rooster and bullying everyone in his way.

11. With this case of Brian Chow it is now certain that if you ever return, you would not only have to do national service  but also be thrown in jail. All for what purpose? To serve a dictatorship with corrupt leaders and a corrupt judiciary? I think this case has sealed the fate of this dictatorship upon their national service laws. Now even those who may be even remotely contemplating serving will not because they know they will have to go to jail as well as do national service. We have to thank this Alice in Wonderland judge for doing this as he has struck the last nail in the national service coffin within which lies the dead national service law.

The Singapore government and Lee Kuan Yew's son are fuming with rage at me for trying to persuade even more people to abscond from service. And why should I not do that. I am sure they are thinking how they could stop me from writing. There is no doubt that there are many who may have been undecided on whether to serve who have decided not to after reading this blog.

So will Lee Kuan Yew's son sue me in California? Probably not. Because he knows his nonsense in Singapore is not going to work here.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont (near San Francisco) California USA
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Singapore national service dodger gets 1 1/2 months jail. Thereby creating even more national service dodgers!

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Once again the Singapore dictatorship shoots themselves in the foot! This time it is national service. The Singapore state controlled newspaper Straits Times reports today, Feb 11, 2016, "NS dodger gets 1 1/2 months jail after appeal by prosecution". See http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/courts-crime/ns-dodger-gets-112-months-jail-after-appeal-by-prosecution

It is the same old story. Young man had gone to Australia when he was 14. Refused to come back for national service. Finally did last year. Was arrested and convicted and sent to jail.

This is another instance of the absolutely idiotic policy of Singapore military, jailing national service evaders. Although on the face of it, it may not seem so silly, after all national service is the law and law breakers should be punished, the Singapore case is rather different.

A little background. Singapore is made up overwhelmingly of ethnic Chinese. And Singapore ethnic Chinese in culture and tradition hate anything military. They rather make money, do business or work in a bank in white shirt, tie and spectacles.

And in comes our little dictator, Lee Kuan Yew in 1959 and thinks he knows a little more than anyone else. Some way along the line, he decides that national service is best, so he introduces it. As with anything else, no one dared to question him, as with anything else he does.

So some time in 1968 he introduces mandatory national service. Every young man of 18 had to serve whether you like it or not. Of course there were exceptions for certain elite Chinese who did not want it. Exceptions were made as it when it suits him. But the general philosophy among all Chinese was to resist it at any cost, which meant, if they could send their kinds abroad they will, if they could pretend to be insane, they will, if they could pretend to be girls instead of boys they will. So a great many young men never served if they could.

My own son now lives in the United States. Some years ago I received a notice for him to return to Singapore to serve. I tore up the notice and deposited it in the garbage. He told me that he has no interest in ever returning to Singapore island nor to do their stupid national service.

Although the entire concept of national service in a Chinese society was a non starter to begin with, in the past when there were more babies being born, at least there were some men who did serve.

But for decades now many factors have contributed to the total collapse of their national service system. The main problem is the island having the lowest birth rate in the world, mainly because the island has lost all credibility among its people. The judiciary is corrupt and a branch of the government delivering government verdicts. There is no freedom of speech or expression and there is no free press. If you said anything they didn't like, you would be sued for defamation, jailed and bankrupted. As a result the people have been reduced to a life not dissimilar to North Korea. And who would want to serve a regime like that?

And the other main problem is the rise in education in the island and an increase in prosperity in some quarters.

English educated young men are increasingly travelling abroad and beginning to realize that living in a dictatorship like Singapore is simply disgusting. They don't see any need to give 2 years of their lives to a regime for which they have no respect.

And increasingly the local women are desperately looking for foreign husbands to move out of the island. Chinese Singapore men, they complain, not unexpectedly  are dull and boring, just as they are in all dictatorships. Does not matter if the man was a German Frenchman or a Walloon Belgian. As long as they can get out of this stupid island with a dictator prince Lee Kuan Yew's son strutting around like a prize rooster. As a result many children who were supposed to be born in Singapore are being born in the West, half Chinese half Walloon  or being taken away as infants.

In many cases it made no sense at all for someone to do national service but their bigoted one track mind in blinkers government insisted in punishment nevertheless. Can you imagine an infant who had been taken by his parents to live in Germany all his life, but suddenly finds that Singapore needs him to serve national service, in a country that he does not know and where he has no intention to live! So what does the Singapore military want? That he goes back to Singapore, serves 2 years in the army and immediately thereafter return permanently to Germany once again! What good does that do, for Singapore? What utter nonsense. Yet this boy if he ever returns would immediately be arrested, dragged to the courts like a common criminal and jailed.

This recent case published in the newspaper does an excellent job of destroying national service completely and once and for all and forcing even larger numbers living abroad never to return. Very successfully, this court verdict sends a chill down the spine of any young Singaporean abroad who was even remotely contemplating return to the island. Thanks to this verdict, which is a clear message to all Singapore young men living abroad, that they should never return  to the island ever again. And very successfully once again, this hare brained dictatorship has once again shot themselves in the foot, that is destroying the Singapore national service  system altogether.

If they thought jailing this young man from Australia is going to frighten others into returning, it has the complete reverse effect. Now even more young men will refuse to return to Singapore ever again, for fear of national service. Today for all intents and purposes the national service system in Singapore has collapsed. We can expect this government for lack of any options to discontinue the system and being forced to introduce a regular army, if they want an army at all. And since Singapore Chinese have no interest in the army, perhaps they should look for mercenaries. Perhaps some former Iraqi soldiers from Saddam Hussein's army!

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont (near San Francisco) California USA
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com




Monday, February 8, 2016

Singapore Lee Kuan Yew and Son's very successful 50 year behaviour training (like you would train a dog) of its citizens

Ladies and Gentlemen,

If there is one thing that Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew and Son have very successfully accomplished it is this. The successful instilling of fear in the entire small tiny population in the small tiny island, turning the people into a submissive, subservient, obedient and naïve society. There is a carrot for obedience and submission and a stick for opposition.

The average citizen goes through his entire life learning that the way to survive is to keep one's mouth and one's brain shut and simply obey. Those who showed any independence of spirit have been routinely and without exception destroyed. JB Jeyaretnam the opposition lawyer and politician was repeatedly sued, jailed and bankrupted. So was Chee Soon Juan. So was countless others. And each time they punish detractors and critics, the news is prominently displayed for days in the state controlled press with the deliberate intent of sending clear signals to everyone to behave or else.

In the end you have a nanny state where the state builds the housing and provides  accommodation for everyone. The state provides the jobs either directly or indirectly through government employment, government linked companies and foreign companies that the state attracts into the island. The state provides medical care with the state owned and run hospitals and education in state run schools.

Life can be very easy and uneventful provided you are not the sort to make waves. As long as you keep your mouth shut and obey, do as you are told, all your needs are actually taken care of.

But to enjoy any of these benefits, the underlying requirement is obedience to the state and the acceptance of their style of government.

But this is where the rub is. What is Singapore anyway?. It is an island that does not tolerate dissent. Even the slightest criticism  will result in your being targeted for punishment and discrimination. You wont gets the jobs you want, you wont get the housing you want, you wont get the schools you want and you wont get the medical care you want.

Singapore is a society which effectively has no constitution. There is no right to free expression, assembly or an independent media, which is state controlled.

In a society such as this, if that is where you want to live, you are placed in an intolerable position. In order to survive, you have to submit. And submit to what? You have to submit to a dictatorship in a state where you have literally no rights at all.

So what does one do if you refuse to live literally as a slave? One emigrates. This is why day after day the brain drain continues unabated. And there is nothing they can do about it. Now more than before the government comes up with propaganda and false information in their state controlled press that in fact this is not the case. In today's state controlled Straits Times it is reported "More Singapore docs trained abroad are coming home " please see http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/health/more-singapore-docs-trained-abroad-are-coming-home

This reports claims that more Singapore doctors in England are deciding to come home. This is a cleverly crafted half truth intended to make the abysmal state of the brain drain look good . There may be a handful of doctors who are retuning, but the truth is that no doctor in his right mind would want to live and bring up his family in a country where he nor his family have any rights. A Singaporean under this regime is literally brainwashed into becoming a helpless robot and no one wants this least of all doctors. The truth is that there are more Singapore doctors abroad than there are in Singapore and the numbers emigrating continue to increase.

In the last election nearly 70% actually voted for this dictatorship. But this 70% are the lower rungs of society, the unskilled and poorly educated classes who have no means of leaving the island. The 30 % who voted against them are the highly educated and skilled classes and it is these who are continuing to leave the island, the very ones this tiny island needs the most. And it is their departure that progressively turns the island into this society into one that is second rate and unskilled, as the best continue to leave, not wanting to live under a dictatorship.

In this blog I wrote an article headed "How to avoid national service" and it this article that has been overwhelmingly the most popular for a long time. Singapore's young men are refusing to do national service, they are leaving the island and refusing to return and the threats of imprisonment if they ever return is not making them submit. Singapore young national service deserters are growing in numbers all over the world and they are persuading others in similar circumstances to leave as well. As a result the Singapore army is so short of manpower that it is no longer effective and has become a security threat to the island in case of outside attack.

We have seen the nonsensical attempts of Lee Kuan Yew's son in recent days of trying to encourage young men and women to think critically. It appears he has begun to realize that his obedience training that he and his father has done, like you would train a dog with a stick and a bone, for 50 years has actually become too successful, actually turned the entire island into obedient robots and human robots are no good for any society in this modern age.

But what he fails to realize that you cannot turn submissive timid souls unable to think into thinking ones like you would turn a light switch. You cannot simply turn a subservient timid submissive society into a questioning one by simply waving a wand. It is not possible. It is too late. The damage has been done. The average Singaporean is only capable of obedience, not leadership.

I would encourage more people to leave the island if you can. I would also encourage more young men to leave for settlement abroad and if you can avoid doing national service in this dictatorship, you should do it.

I have been writing this blog for many years and have been an implacable thorn on the side of this regime. I suppose they misunderstood me too. Over the years while I lived in that island, they repeatedly brought up politically motivated cases to silence me. It didn't work. I then left the country. I suppose they thought that once I left I would simply turn quiet. But I didn't. When I started this blog many years ago, I had several people, presumably their agents writing to me to stop. But I know the law. I am protected by the American Constitution. They cant do anything to me here. And I will continue to write. This blog will continue.

How much my criticism has hurt this regime I do not know. But I know one thing. It has hurt them and it will continue to hurt them.

Singapore's population will continue to decline through the on going brain drain. The fertility rate of 1.2 which is the lowest in the world will continue to decline even further. The old age population will die off sooner than we think. The government would be compelled to bring in even more economic migrants for settlement only for them to leave once they see better prospects elsewhere.

After all there is nothing attractive of living in a dictatorship.

The prognosis is not good for this dictatorship. It is just as all dictatorships, where they put their interests above that of the nation.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com

Monday, February 1, 2016

Singapore's authoritarianism stifles any real progress

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Like the Central Asian "stans" like Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan or  the European republic of Belarus,  which all continue their lackluster existence, so too will Singapore continue to trudge along. But if you are thinking of any real progress which countries like the USA, Western democracies or Australia, this will never happen. The main impediment to any real progress is the dictatorial government.

It doesn't matter in Turkmenistan if President Berdimuhammedow is as corrupt as he wants. The people have to accept it. If they don't they are punished. Similarly in tiny Singapore island, it doesn't matter if Lee Kuan Yew's son pays himself several million dollars a year. Singaporeans have to accept it. If you call him corrupt, he will sue and bankrupt you.

Similarly in Turkmenistan, the entire judiciary is corrupt and deliver judgments pleasing to Berdimuhammedow. The people of Turkmenistan know their judiciary is corrupt. But if you publicly said it, you will be arrested and tortured. Same in Singapore. You know the Singaporean judiciary is corrupt. Yet you have to pretend they are independent. If you said otherwise, you will be arrested and bankrupted.

Just as in Turkmenistan, the entire country and all its wealth belongs to Berdimuhhamedow. But there is nothing you can do about it. You simply have to pretend as if nothing happened. Similarly in Singapore, the entire island, its judiciary and everyone in it, belongs to Lee Kuan Yew's son, the present Prime Minister. You know this. Yet there is nothing you can do about it. If you publicly complained you would be arrested and tortured.

But having said all this, you may be surprised to know that at the 2015 elections, no less than 70% of the island voted for this dictatorship. So what this means is that the vast majority are prepared to live under this regime without any rights.

But then the stifling fact is this. The vast majority of these people are with little education, consequently without any idea of what democracy means and therefore are quite prepared to live under any regime as long as they are left alone.

The ones who succeed in Singapore island, just as those who succeed in Berdimuhhamedow's Turkmenistan are the sycophants who sing praises to him. It is the crawlers who succeed because they are not a threat to the regime. Your real abilities do not matter. What is more important is your loyalty.

In Singapore too, this is how the game is played. To succeed you have to be seen as their supporter. You have to demonstrate that you are not a threat to them. So you join the government grassroots organizations just as they do in China through the Chinese Communist Party. Just as in China, your main interest in joining these grassroots organizations is for personal advantage, never mind the interest of anyone else.

As a result of this sick philosophy in Singapore island, you have an entire society of people eagerly  going around licking the boots of Lee Kuan Yew's son and his friends for the only purpose of hopefully being recognized and rewarded. Some even with high level positions and paid millions.  Bermuhammedow does it in Turkmenistan. Lee Kuan Yew's son does it in Singapore. You end up with an entire island of cynics and hypocrites. You can never get the best out of these people because they have lost respect for their leaders, their judiciary and their government just as the people of Turkmenistan.

Contrast democracies like USA, Canada, Australia and Western Europe. A Finn living in Finland, respects his country, respects his government, and respects his judiciary. Unlike in Singapore, a Finn does not live in fear of his government. He knows that the government is just and fair and he will be treated with justice. He does not have to crawl on all fours and lick his masters boots, like a Singaporean does.

A Finn does not join grassroots organizations in order to be recognized by their leaders. If he does it, he really wants to help his people. There is no hypocrisy in a Finn in his daily life, as there in Singaporeans.

You get much more productivity, ideas, innovation and enterprise out of a Finn because he loves what he is doing. He is himself and does not have to be anyone else, unlike a Singaporean who is like a willing puppet on a string, playing to his master's satisfaction. On the other hand you get only frustration and dissatisfaction among people like Singaporeans or Turkmens because they are ashamed of themselves and their lives which they live in fear of their government. Their main purpose of their lives is to please their political maters and never to be seen as confrontational. Like a dog, always willing to please, because otherwise you are in trouble. Lacking an education and the wherewithal to leave for settlement abroad, they live out their rotten lives.

And then of course there are those who realize their distasteful lives and have the means to leave for settlement abroad. This is the cream of society. Every year more than a thousand Singaporeans continue to leave for settlement abroad. Although this number may seem small, for a small island like Singapore with a tiny population, this number is crippling. Those that are already abroad work to bring over their siblings and friends. This brain drain will continue in increasing numbers.

The quality of the average citizen continues to decline and those that remain do only what is absolutely necessary since they have no happiness in the way they live. On the other hand you have thousands upon thousands of ordinary folks queuing up at the grassroots organizations centers applying to volunteer, all of whom outwardly claim altruistic motives but in reality they are waiting to be recognized by Lee Kuan Yew's son and the possible rewards that may follow. Serving in Lee Kuan Yew's son's grassroots organizations is like buying a lottery ticket. You never know Lee Kuan Yew's son may select you and you may become a millionaire.

This sort of hypocritical lives really does not bring out the best in anyone. With a workforce and a citizenry with a mentality such as this, you simply cannot compete with the free and democratic countries in the world. This negativity that is part of the entire climate of the island is insidious and like a growing rot decays and delays any real progress the island can ever hope to achieve.

Really the best for a country is to be free and democratic. Dictatorships are only good for the dictators like Lee Kuan Yew's son. They deliver no benefit to the people.

Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean by birth
US Citizen
Fremont, California USA
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com