Sunday, October 10, 2010

Information is the cancer that destroys totalitarian Singapore.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

One thing is sure. Today's totalitarian government of Singapore run by Lee Kuan Yew and his family is going to fall. And the reason for it is the free flow of Information.

Singapore today can be described as an illogical dysfunctional place. The people are English educated who have access to all sorts of information, including such ideas of freedom and democracy which are obviously more attractive than living under a dictatorship. But Lee Kuan Yew and his family, because they want to retain power tells the citizens otherwise; that democracy is bad and living under a despot is good, an idea that simply cannot sell.

And while the educational level continues to rise and increasing numbers are exposed to life in the West where people are free to live without fear of authority, Lee Kuan Yew continues to carry on in the only way he knows, which is to persecute and punish his detractors and censor the local press in the hope that they are intimidated enough to accept a life under his dictates. It is a plan that has not worked and as time goes on, the disenchantment would cut across the whole of the educated class at which point, the government will simply collapse.

You can already the see the signs of the rot. Massive brain drain, insufficient childbirth, progressively poor quality of migrants from Communist China who can't speak English to run an English speaking government. The supply of Malaysian Chinese who in the past were the main source of English speaking migrants has run out. There are none left.

Had Lee Kuan Yew been running the shop this way in Communist China, he would have had some success.

Although Liu Xiaobo, the PRC national had won the Nobel Prize, because China controls the entire media as well as the Internet, it appears not many Chinese even heard of him, let alone his winning the Nobel Prize.

For another example of the total control that China has, consider my imprisonment for 3 months in Singapore in 2008 for criticizing the Singapore Judge Belinda Ang Saw Ean. I shared my prison cell with 2 other inmates one of whom was a Chinese national from the Peoples Republic of China. On the issue of the Chinese government arresting and torturing Falungong practitioners, his views were that the Chinese government was doing the right thing because all these Falungong members were good for nothing and were faking their claims, a stance which was exactly what the Chinese government was saying. This man was successfully kept out of any outside information by the Chinese communist government.

My point is this. If the Lee Kuan Yew government wants to continue to impose a repressive society in Singapore where the people have no choice in the matter, with a case of My Way or the Highway, then they have to do what Peoples Republic of China, North Korea and Cuba do. First close the borders and prevent people from leaving. Second control the Internet making sure like China that no adverse information enters the island. If they did these 2 things, the Lee Kuan Yew family may hope to limp along a little longer.

But at the same time, these measures are a double edged sword. If you close the borders, it would encourage even more to leave. And those leaving like they are today, would be the brightest and most able citizens whom Singapore needs the most.

But if Lee Kuan Yew continues the way he does, it is only a matter of time that the yearning for freedom will spread like a cancer right across each and every educated person, leaving behind only those without any skills whatsoever. And like the cancer, it will spread and eventually strangle the life out of this dictatorship which we have today.

The concept of freedom and democracy are far more attractive than repression and bondage. The Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and Cuba have proved this. The only countries remaining standing are Communist China and North Korea, but because of their peculiar circumstances they have managed to hold out so far. How much more for them is also anybody's guess. But one thing is certain, even they would eventually collapse. Dictatorship and fascism stand no chance at all before democracy and freedom.

I know Lee Kuan Yew knows this too. But if he were to change, it would be the end of him and his ill gotten gains. He is waist high in a bog and can't extricate himself.

Gopalan Nair
39737 Paseo Padre Parkway, Suite A1
Fremont, CA 94538, USA
Tel: 510 657 6107
Fax: 510 657 6914
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Blog: http://singaporedissident.blogspot.com/

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

To understand the depth of Singapore politics, read this ...

http://www.singsupplies.com/showthread.php?t=77190

Anonymous said...

Well written piece that should be mandatory reading for the PAP loyalists.

If they are true Singaporean patriots, they must ask themselves, what happens to You, the Party and most importantly, the Country, when the Lee Dynasty is no longer in power.

Do the right thing and act.

(In Australia, the party got rid of Kevin Rudd, and the world did not end.)

Anonymous said...

In Britain, the Conservative Party replaced Margaret Thatcher as leader with John Major, and the world did not end.

PAP loyalists, you must do the right thing as act for the good of the country.

With the Empress out of the way the Dynasty is adrift and cannot think for itself.