Sunday, December 25, 2011
Singapore. A letter from a former Singaporean presently serving with the US Army in Afghanistan
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The following is an Email I received last month from a serving soldier, US Army Afghanistan. It is both tragic and ironic that a young man such as this, from no fault of his own, a model citizen anywhere in the world, serving his country USA proudly in time of war, is actually a criminal under Singapore law, liable to arrest and imprisonment if he ever steps foot in Singapore for being a national service deserter.
A stupid law. A stupid country.
I have stated his name and his Email address as he wrote to me. He did not express any objections to that.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
Disbarred from practicing law in Lee's Singapore, imprisoned and refused entry to the island for criticizing Singapore's judiciary in this blog (see blogpost May 29, 2008 Singapore. Judge Belinda Ang's Kangaroo Court)
Actively practicing law in California and in good standing at the California Bar.
Member in good standing as a lawyer in England and Wales (Barrister).
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.
Dear Sir,
NS DEFAULTER/DESERTER
rsmayhall@yahoo.com
November 30, 2011 9:40 AM
I hated typing the above subject line.. It made my stomach curl. The reason being, that I type this email from Balkh, Afghanistan, where I am serving my fourth combat tour as a Non-Commissioned Officer of the United States Army. I am no coward and my eight years of service have far exceeded anything demanded of a typical NS term.
I am an American Citizen born on Singaporean soil; to an American father and a Singaporean mother. I moved to the US as a toddler, but returned to S'pore at the age of eight when my parents underwent a very messy separation. I am a child of two nations. Both great in there own ways, but now I find myself only accepted by one. My crime? I answered a call to war. 9/11 struck me deeply on an intensely personal level.
At age twenty, I left Singapore to enlist as an American Soldier. I have trained, travelled and fought alongside some of the toughest warriors imaginable, against an enemy that is tenacious, devious and virtually undetectable.
....yet part of me still misses the home I left behind. Woodsville Primary, St Gabriel's Secondary and Lasalle SIA are all a part of me. I can still taste the food and picture the sights. I miss the family and many friends I had to leave behind. My fate is doubly ironic as I was once a (very) minor TV celebrity, hosting a few "Kid's Central" series as a teenager. Apparently, they still air from time to time though I'd never again be permitted to return.
My voluntary military contract ends in Mar 2012 and I will be pursuing a BS in International Relations, an interest that was sparked during my service as a liaison to the US Embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I have every intention of continuing to serve my chosen country. My only regret is that I was forced to chose at all.
In short, Sir, I understand your anguish...because it is my own.
Respectfully,
Staff Sergeant Mayhall, Randall Scott
US Army, Balkh, Afghanistan
The following is an Email I received last month from a serving soldier, US Army Afghanistan. It is both tragic and ironic that a young man such as this, from no fault of his own, a model citizen anywhere in the world, serving his country USA proudly in time of war, is actually a criminal under Singapore law, liable to arrest and imprisonment if he ever steps foot in Singapore for being a national service deserter.
A stupid law. A stupid country.
I have stated his name and his Email address as he wrote to me. He did not express any objections to that.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
Disbarred from practicing law in Lee's Singapore, imprisoned and refused entry to the island for criticizing Singapore's judiciary in this blog (see blogpost May 29, 2008 Singapore. Judge Belinda Ang's Kangaroo Court)
Actively practicing law in California and in good standing at the California Bar.
Member in good standing as a lawyer in England and Wales (Barrister).
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.
Dear Sir,
NS DEFAULTER/DESERTER
rsmayhall@yahoo.com
November 30, 2011 9:40 AM
I hated typing the above subject line.. It made my stomach curl. The reason being, that I type this email from Balkh, Afghanistan, where I am serving my fourth combat tour as a Non-Commissioned Officer of the United States Army. I am no coward and my eight years of service have far exceeded anything demanded of a typical NS term.
I am an American Citizen born on Singaporean soil; to an American father and a Singaporean mother. I moved to the US as a toddler, but returned to S'pore at the age of eight when my parents underwent a very messy separation. I am a child of two nations. Both great in there own ways, but now I find myself only accepted by one. My crime? I answered a call to war. 9/11 struck me deeply on an intensely personal level.
At age twenty, I left Singapore to enlist as an American Soldier. I have trained, travelled and fought alongside some of the toughest warriors imaginable, against an enemy that is tenacious, devious and virtually undetectable.
....yet part of me still misses the home I left behind. Woodsville Primary, St Gabriel's Secondary and Lasalle SIA are all a part of me. I can still taste the food and picture the sights. I miss the family and many friends I had to leave behind. My fate is doubly ironic as I was once a (very) minor TV celebrity, hosting a few "Kid's Central" series as a teenager. Apparently, they still air from time to time though I'd never again be permitted to return.
My voluntary military contract ends in Mar 2012 and I will be pursuing a BS in International Relations, an interest that was sparked during my service as a liaison to the US Embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I have every intention of continuing to serve my chosen country. My only regret is that I was forced to chose at all.
In short, Sir, I understand your anguish...because it is my own.
Respectfully,
Staff Sergeant Mayhall, Randall Scott
US Army, Balkh, Afghanistan
Singapore. An Email received from a reader
Dear Mr Nair,
I had just stumbled upon your blog yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed your posts.
The very last post I read, the one on An Unsingaporean Gopalan Nair, struck a very strong cord with me.
I am just a very insignificant Singaporean, with no great accomplishments to date. But yet, my little insights into the workings of education and housing ministries through the course of my work has left me with great bewilderment at the lack of compassion and lack of real depth of experience amongst our political leaders and policy makers. Sometimes, the solutions are apparent and they pretend they don't know because politically, it is not preferred. Other times, They don't even bother to brainstorm for solutions because they will just follow the precedent set earlier.
Being an earnest and fair-minded person, this has caused me much internal distress. From many moons past, as early as 1998 when I first returned to Singapore after my UK education, I have never gotten used to life in Singapore and the way the groupthink and adult Singaporeans ignore everything else except making money.
Seeking to engage anyone in talking about policies or politics would lead to icy stares and silence.
My own observations of what is happening around us and the need to be concerned has led to my family members chastising me on thinking about abandoning my motherland. All is not rosy abroad, they would remind me.
How I wish I could be the obedient girl that they so wish me to be. But try as I might, my mind refuses to be dumb and I am suffering because if it.
Married to one whom migration is an impossibilty and facing daily struggles to bring up my children, coupled with being a civil servant in name but not at heart, I am very much stuck where I am.
Nevertheless, the purpose of this letter is to tell you that you are not Unsingaporean. You are a true blue son of Singapore, just like those of the Fajar generation in the 50s.
We have sacrificed everything on the altar of economic success. But what you have been advocating is so true. Freedom of speech, an independent judiciary etc. To cite an example, the newspapers recently reported that a man who was unable to pay his rental arrears was locked in his flat as the officers believed the flat was empty. I can tell you that I know why it could have happened, being once their staff. But if I do talk, you can be sure that I will end up in a most pathetic state.
Yet the likes of Ms Tin Pei Ling, who may not be better than me intellectually, academically or in terms of capability are drawing a salary 3 times mine, just by being in the right camp and with the right connections.
I struggle on the periphery, not knowing how to shut up and listen, which I was told is my greatest weakness, but which I believe without which, I would lose myself.
Truly, we were meant to be the lighthouse of the east, but by not developing and helping indigenous Singaporeans take their place in society, we have robbed the sons and daughters of Singapore of their birthright.
Our pioneers would have sacrificed in vain to build a future for their posterity. If, knowing that the state of Singapore would be run like a dictatorship in 200 years, they would have set sail for another destination, not to Sir Stamford Raffles' British Colony which was supposed to be a land of opportunities.
When I think of my future in a Johor nursing home, my heart sinks. When I see trains, malls, parks swamped with Chinese immigrants, I feel displaced. I tear when I think of how much my parents sacrificed to bring me up, hoping and believing that I would have a chance to do well with a degree. But alas, I can't even provide for them as I have a small family to feed and I don't earn enough. If they get sick, our miserly medisave will be insufficient.
When we sell our flats, much of the profit gets put back in the CPF ad lost interest and CPF used. They take the cash component and convert it to CPF interest which would have accrued if we had not bought a flat.
Please keep writing, for perhaps enough true blue Singaporeans can live to tell the tale to those who love their country, those who have a shared history of once being a citizen of this former British Colony and had hoped to make it a brilliant country. Don't languish in jail, like some, who never get to tell the tale.
Be truthful, not vindictive, and I am sure the purpose with which you started your blog will be even more crystal clear as time passes.
best regards,
Miss L (35 years old)
(p.s. Appreciate it if you do not publish my letter with my real name as I can't afford to lose my job :( )
I had just stumbled upon your blog yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed your posts.
The very last post I read, the one on An Unsingaporean Gopalan Nair, struck a very strong cord with me.
I am just a very insignificant Singaporean, with no great accomplishments to date. But yet, my little insights into the workings of education and housing ministries through the course of my work has left me with great bewilderment at the lack of compassion and lack of real depth of experience amongst our political leaders and policy makers. Sometimes, the solutions are apparent and they pretend they don't know because politically, it is not preferred. Other times, They don't even bother to brainstorm for solutions because they will just follow the precedent set earlier.
Being an earnest and fair-minded person, this has caused me much internal distress. From many moons past, as early as 1998 when I first returned to Singapore after my UK education, I have never gotten used to life in Singapore and the way the groupthink and adult Singaporeans ignore everything else except making money.
Seeking to engage anyone in talking about policies or politics would lead to icy stares and silence.
My own observations of what is happening around us and the need to be concerned has led to my family members chastising me on thinking about abandoning my motherland. All is not rosy abroad, they would remind me.
How I wish I could be the obedient girl that they so wish me to be. But try as I might, my mind refuses to be dumb and I am suffering because if it.
Married to one whom migration is an impossibilty and facing daily struggles to bring up my children, coupled with being a civil servant in name but not at heart, I am very much stuck where I am.
Nevertheless, the purpose of this letter is to tell you that you are not Unsingaporean. You are a true blue son of Singapore, just like those of the Fajar generation in the 50s.
We have sacrificed everything on the altar of economic success. But what you have been advocating is so true. Freedom of speech, an independent judiciary etc. To cite an example, the newspapers recently reported that a man who was unable to pay his rental arrears was locked in his flat as the officers believed the flat was empty. I can tell you that I know why it could have happened, being once their staff. But if I do talk, you can be sure that I will end up in a most pathetic state.
Yet the likes of Ms Tin Pei Ling, who may not be better than me intellectually, academically or in terms of capability are drawing a salary 3 times mine, just by being in the right camp and with the right connections.
I struggle on the periphery, not knowing how to shut up and listen, which I was told is my greatest weakness, but which I believe without which, I would lose myself.
Truly, we were meant to be the lighthouse of the east, but by not developing and helping indigenous Singaporeans take their place in society, we have robbed the sons and daughters of Singapore of their birthright.
Our pioneers would have sacrificed in vain to build a future for their posterity. If, knowing that the state of Singapore would be run like a dictatorship in 200 years, they would have set sail for another destination, not to Sir Stamford Raffles' British Colony which was supposed to be a land of opportunities.
When I think of my future in a Johor nursing home, my heart sinks. When I see trains, malls, parks swamped with Chinese immigrants, I feel displaced. I tear when I think of how much my parents sacrificed to bring me up, hoping and believing that I would have a chance to do well with a degree. But alas, I can't even provide for them as I have a small family to feed and I don't earn enough. If they get sick, our miserly medisave will be insufficient.
When we sell our flats, much of the profit gets put back in the CPF ad lost interest and CPF used. They take the cash component and convert it to CPF interest which would have accrued if we had not bought a flat.
Please keep writing, for perhaps enough true blue Singaporeans can live to tell the tale to those who love their country, those who have a shared history of once being a citizen of this former British Colony and had hoped to make it a brilliant country. Don't languish in jail, like some, who never get to tell the tale.
Be truthful, not vindictive, and I am sure the purpose with which you started your blog will be even more crystal clear as time passes.
best regards,
Miss L (35 years old)
(p.s. Appreciate it if you do not publish my letter with my real name as I can't afford to lose my job :( )
Singapore. A climate change disaster
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I read today of Singapore's flooding once again. Several parts of Singapore were up to 1 feet underwater after rain including the prime shopping area of Orchard Road. It has already become an occurrence that happens almost every other day, if not daily. A few days ago, Singapore's state controlled newspapers reported of a new policy, which is just simply idiotic nonsense, not surprisingly, requiring new construction of buildings and beaches filled as land fills to be built a few inches higher.
This is Singapore's idiocy at it's highest. To put it in plain language, Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew knows that this time, even if Singaporeans have not done so, Mother Nature has got him by the neck.
You don't have to be a climate scientist to hear what I am about to say. And I am not one anyway.
With higher atmospheric temperature sea water level rises. And in a small island like Singapore which is not more than a few inches above sea level, this is a problem. A 10 year old by will tell you that.
Then there are tidal currents in the sea. When the Moon is aligned above Singapore, which it circles twice a day, gravitational pull of the Moon causes high tide, twice daily. Sometimes there are days when both the Sun and Moon are in line, then gravitational pull becomes even stronger, which means very high tides.
And since there are 2 high tides everyday, there is even the possibility of flooding twice a day, if it so happens that rain coincides with the tide.
Coming back to atmospheric temperature rises, higher temperature means the atmosphere has greater capacity to hold water vapour. So when it rains, it rains even harder, cats and dogs metaphorically speaking. In Singapore it is so hot and so humid that whenever it rains, it as if several Niagara Falls or Victoria Falls are by private agreement, all at once dumping the water over Singapore. Nowhere in the world does it rain so hard like it does in Singapore.
Each time there is high tide, and with rising sea level, the water from the sea rushes up the canals surrounding Singapore inland. With simultaneous massive waterfalls of rain, the rain water cannot be discharged. This is what causes floods. And as each day passes, sea level continues to rise not decline, the atmosphere continues to heat up higher and higher and the intensity of the rainfall continues to increase, more and more. It is a problem which is intensifying day by day and there is nothing, simply nothing that Lee Kuan Yew or anyone in the world can do.
Water in the volumes that pour down on Singapore simply cannot be displaced. You cannot keep it in an underground reservoir. You cannot hold it in an overheat tank. You cannot export it. You cannot send it out to sea. The volume is simply too large. Simply put, there is nothing you can do. When it comes, it will stay, and there is no 2 ways about it.
Coming to the stupidity that this man puts out to us, let us examine it. He says he is going to build on higher ground. But that only means that the water would rush to lower ground which would be flooded even worse. He says beach landfills would now be higher. But is that going to solve the problem of extensive low lying areas of Singapore which continue to be hit, and with his plan hit even worse?
Downtown Singapore and the Orchard Road Area are simply far too low in height and psychics simply tells us that water will find the lowest ground. Unless you demolish all the buildings in the Orchard Road Area and all the business high rise buildings in Raffles Place, relocate the entire population of Singapore and through landfill raise the entire island of Singapore about 5 feet and then rebuild once again, you are simply not going to solve the problem.
Mother Nature has got Lee Kuan Yew this time. All we have to do is to wait. As for me, I have no answers. There is no one in the world with answers. Vanuatu in the Pacific is sinking. The Maldives in the Indian Ocean is sinking. And now Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore is also sinking.
Finally this problem is not something which would have happened if we had democracy, because in democracies alternative views would have told you decades ago that the tyrant has got it wrong again, as all tyrants do always.
I am afraid the Titanic is sinking. If there are life boats left, board them. That is your only hope. Rearranging the proverbial deckchairs now is not going to do you any good.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
Disbarred from practicing law in Lee's Singapore, imprisoned and refused entry to the island for criticizing Singapore's judiciary in this blog (see blogpost May 29, 2008 Singapore. Judge Belinda Ang's Kangaroo Court)
Actively practicing law in California and in good standing at the California Bar.
Member in good standing as a lawyer in England and Wales (Barrister).
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.
I read today of Singapore's flooding once again. Several parts of Singapore were up to 1 feet underwater after rain including the prime shopping area of Orchard Road. It has already become an occurrence that happens almost every other day, if not daily. A few days ago, Singapore's state controlled newspapers reported of a new policy, which is just simply idiotic nonsense, not surprisingly, requiring new construction of buildings and beaches filled as land fills to be built a few inches higher.
This is Singapore's idiocy at it's highest. To put it in plain language, Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew knows that this time, even if Singaporeans have not done so, Mother Nature has got him by the neck.
You don't have to be a climate scientist to hear what I am about to say. And I am not one anyway.
With higher atmospheric temperature sea water level rises. And in a small island like Singapore which is not more than a few inches above sea level, this is a problem. A 10 year old by will tell you that.
Then there are tidal currents in the sea. When the Moon is aligned above Singapore, which it circles twice a day, gravitational pull of the Moon causes high tide, twice daily. Sometimes there are days when both the Sun and Moon are in line, then gravitational pull becomes even stronger, which means very high tides.
And since there are 2 high tides everyday, there is even the possibility of flooding twice a day, if it so happens that rain coincides with the tide.
Coming back to atmospheric temperature rises, higher temperature means the atmosphere has greater capacity to hold water vapour. So when it rains, it rains even harder, cats and dogs metaphorically speaking. In Singapore it is so hot and so humid that whenever it rains, it as if several Niagara Falls or Victoria Falls are by private agreement, all at once dumping the water over Singapore. Nowhere in the world does it rain so hard like it does in Singapore.
Each time there is high tide, and with rising sea level, the water from the sea rushes up the canals surrounding Singapore inland. With simultaneous massive waterfalls of rain, the rain water cannot be discharged. This is what causes floods. And as each day passes, sea level continues to rise not decline, the atmosphere continues to heat up higher and higher and the intensity of the rainfall continues to increase, more and more. It is a problem which is intensifying day by day and there is nothing, simply nothing that Lee Kuan Yew or anyone in the world can do.
Water in the volumes that pour down on Singapore simply cannot be displaced. You cannot keep it in an underground reservoir. You cannot hold it in an overheat tank. You cannot export it. You cannot send it out to sea. The volume is simply too large. Simply put, there is nothing you can do. When it comes, it will stay, and there is no 2 ways about it.
Coming to the stupidity that this man puts out to us, let us examine it. He says he is going to build on higher ground. But that only means that the water would rush to lower ground which would be flooded even worse. He says beach landfills would now be higher. But is that going to solve the problem of extensive low lying areas of Singapore which continue to be hit, and with his plan hit even worse?
Downtown Singapore and the Orchard Road Area are simply far too low in height and psychics simply tells us that water will find the lowest ground. Unless you demolish all the buildings in the Orchard Road Area and all the business high rise buildings in Raffles Place, relocate the entire population of Singapore and through landfill raise the entire island of Singapore about 5 feet and then rebuild once again, you are simply not going to solve the problem.
Mother Nature has got Lee Kuan Yew this time. All we have to do is to wait. As for me, I have no answers. There is no one in the world with answers. Vanuatu in the Pacific is sinking. The Maldives in the Indian Ocean is sinking. And now Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore is also sinking.
Finally this problem is not something which would have happened if we had democracy, because in democracies alternative views would have told you decades ago that the tyrant has got it wrong again, as all tyrants do always.
I am afraid the Titanic is sinking. If there are life boats left, board them. That is your only hope. Rearranging the proverbial deckchairs now is not going to do you any good.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
Disbarred from practicing law in Lee's Singapore, imprisoned and refused entry to the island for criticizing Singapore's judiciary in this blog (see blogpost May 29, 2008 Singapore. Judge Belinda Ang's Kangaroo Court)
Actively practicing law in California and in good standing at the California Bar.
Member in good standing as a lawyer in England and Wales (Barrister).
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.
Singapore. What is 89 year old Lee Kuan Yew doing for his $3.7 million "salary"
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In any other country that has laws, government ministers like anyone else may get a pension if anything upon retirement, and it is not supposed to be $3.7 million a year at any rate. In Singapore, it is not just a case of the government's open corruption in siphoning off state funds, which in any other country would have rendered them liable to arrest and a long term of imprisonment in light of the huge sums involved; they not only steal it while in office but continue stealing it while retired; which is what 89 year old Lee Kuan Yew is doing!
About a decade ago, he stepped down from his office of Prime Minister and handed it to his son, which meant that in any other country he is supposed to retire. Instead of that, Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's strongman, plucks out a position out of thin air, calling it Minister Mentor and appointing himself in that, and continues stealing $3.7 million a year for this post which he created himself!
Nowhere in the world is there such an idiotically sounding position as Minister Mentor, let alone a case where it justifies $3.7 million a year, in an island where 1/3 of the people are living at or below the starvation line and daily 2 people commit suicide without fail, by jumping out of their empty high rise apartments, because they have nothing to eat!
Although paying himself and every one of his ministers $3.7 million while he was in office is already a crime, it is an even greater crime taking that money after he is retired, which he is now.
Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew today is not only of no use to anyone, being 89 years of age, and spending most of his time in an out of hospital, he is an fact a huge embarrassment. An embarrassment because he is considered by everyone else except by his minions and cronies in Singapore not only as a thief but also as politician who had lacked that wisdom and foresight to understand that leaving Singapore, which he will do by kicking the bucket sooner than later given his age and health, in it's completely helpless situation without a clear system for change of leadership, is a clear heading for disaster. The way it is now, with all power concentrated in one man, himself, and noone else even daring a squeak, Iraq and Afghanistan today would be seen as peaceful and calm as Lake Placid not far from here, compared to Singapore.
An astute leader with even a rudimentary understanding of human nature would have known that merely building skyscrapers and bringing in hordes of foreigners and millionaire bank thieves from Indonesia would not ensure a smooth transition of leadership in a change of government. A legal system has to be in place where alternative leaders smoothly and seamlessly step into the shoes of the government which continues without upheaval and calamity.
Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew who continues to steal several millions of taxpayers money year after year and calling it a salary is not only a thief, he is also completely lacking in the knowledge of what it takes for peaceful political transition in government.
Unless the people of Singapore can manage to stop this ongoing theft before our very eyes, and do something to bring about a smooth transition of government this very minute, I fear not only that the people's coffers will suffer a serious financial loss, if not already, and with this old sick tyrant's death any minute now, you are going to have island wide upheaval and unrest, which would mean that Singapore as it is today is no more. My only hope is that the interregnum of chaos and upheaval which is inevitable would not also see bloodshed. I am as you know against violence but I fear the worst. Only time will tell.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
Disbarred from practicing law in Lee's Singapore, imprisoned and refused entry to the island for criticizing Singapore's judiciary in this blog (see blogpost May 29, 2008 Singapore. Judge Belinda Ang's Kangaroo Court)
Actively practicing law in California and in good standing at the California Bar.
Member in good standing as a lawyer in England and Wales (Barrister).
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.
In any other country that has laws, government ministers like anyone else may get a pension if anything upon retirement, and it is not supposed to be $3.7 million a year at any rate. In Singapore, it is not just a case of the government's open corruption in siphoning off state funds, which in any other country would have rendered them liable to arrest and a long term of imprisonment in light of the huge sums involved; they not only steal it while in office but continue stealing it while retired; which is what 89 year old Lee Kuan Yew is doing!
About a decade ago, he stepped down from his office of Prime Minister and handed it to his son, which meant that in any other country he is supposed to retire. Instead of that, Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's strongman, plucks out a position out of thin air, calling it Minister Mentor and appointing himself in that, and continues stealing $3.7 million a year for this post which he created himself!
Nowhere in the world is there such an idiotically sounding position as Minister Mentor, let alone a case where it justifies $3.7 million a year, in an island where 1/3 of the people are living at or below the starvation line and daily 2 people commit suicide without fail, by jumping out of their empty high rise apartments, because they have nothing to eat!
Although paying himself and every one of his ministers $3.7 million while he was in office is already a crime, it is an even greater crime taking that money after he is retired, which he is now.
Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew today is not only of no use to anyone, being 89 years of age, and spending most of his time in an out of hospital, he is an fact a huge embarrassment. An embarrassment because he is considered by everyone else except by his minions and cronies in Singapore not only as a thief but also as politician who had lacked that wisdom and foresight to understand that leaving Singapore, which he will do by kicking the bucket sooner than later given his age and health, in it's completely helpless situation without a clear system for change of leadership, is a clear heading for disaster. The way it is now, with all power concentrated in one man, himself, and noone else even daring a squeak, Iraq and Afghanistan today would be seen as peaceful and calm as Lake Placid not far from here, compared to Singapore.
An astute leader with even a rudimentary understanding of human nature would have known that merely building skyscrapers and bringing in hordes of foreigners and millionaire bank thieves from Indonesia would not ensure a smooth transition of leadership in a change of government. A legal system has to be in place where alternative leaders smoothly and seamlessly step into the shoes of the government which continues without upheaval and calamity.
Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew who continues to steal several millions of taxpayers money year after year and calling it a salary is not only a thief, he is also completely lacking in the knowledge of what it takes for peaceful political transition in government.
Unless the people of Singapore can manage to stop this ongoing theft before our very eyes, and do something to bring about a smooth transition of government this very minute, I fear not only that the people's coffers will suffer a serious financial loss, if not already, and with this old sick tyrant's death any minute now, you are going to have island wide upheaval and unrest, which would mean that Singapore as it is today is no more. My only hope is that the interregnum of chaos and upheaval which is inevitable would not also see bloodshed. I am as you know against violence but I fear the worst. Only time will tell.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
Disbarred from practicing law in Lee's Singapore, imprisoned and refused entry to the island for criticizing Singapore's judiciary in this blog (see blogpost May 29, 2008 Singapore. Judge Belinda Ang's Kangaroo Court)
Actively practicing law in California and in good standing at the California Bar.
Member in good standing as a lawyer in England and Wales (Barrister).
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.
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