Singapore feeling its way forward in establishing a system that
works best for it, says PM Lee
By Aaron Low
SINGAPORE'S model of
governance is one that tries to achieve a balance between
delivering quality leadership and giving people the opportunity to
voice their dissatisfaction with government policies, said Prime
Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
It is a system that has worked well and one that has
not let the people of Singapore down, he
told a German newspaper.
'How do you keep a system which delivers an outstanding quality
of leadership and government, and yet at the same time, have free
play and the opportunity for people to say, 'I want this government, but
I do not like this policy or the
other'?'
The ideal system, he said, balances both. It delivers a good
government, while providing for aspirations to be fulfilled and
voices - the full range of them - to be articulated. 'This is the
ideal,' he said in an interview published in the Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung last week.
The newspaper wanted to know if Singapore would become 'even
more democratic' in future, as it had recently relaxed its rules on
public assemblies and was introducing changes to the political
system to enable more opposition voices in Parliament.
In his reply, Mr Lee said Singapore, like other countries, is
feeling its way forward in establishing a system that works best
for it. What would not work, he stressed, is to simply rely on the
simplistic approach that 'if you develop, you will need
democracy'.
For Singapore, Mr Lee said, having a good system is important,
but getting good people to run it is equally crucial. He rebutted
the suggestion that the system was unfair, saying that the
opposition had a fair chance
to compete and contest in general
elections.
In fact, he pointed out that in a small country like Singapore,
the ruling party would get booted out very quickly if it lost the
mandate of the people. 'It is for us to make sure that we continue
to merit their confidence and their support and deliver a good
government,' said Mr Lee, who is also secretary-general of the
People's Action Party.
The German newspaper also asked Mr Lee why there were
'no signs of dissatisfaction' with the
Government, despite the country facing one
of its worst recessions since independence. There were three
reasons for this, said Mr Lee.
The first is that many
workers see what the Government is doing to help them, such as
through training, which keeps them employable. Another reason is
the special measures like the Jobs Credit scheme, which helps
employers defray part of the wage bill of local workers. This has
helped companies keep workers rather than retrench them, he said.
'And thirdly, when there are problems, they are able to talk to us
and we respond and deal with these problems,' said Mr
Lee.
These measures have helped buffer the impact of the recession on
Singaporeans, preventing unemployment from shooting up. Said Mr
Lee: 'If you look at the people on
the streets and in the shops, life goes on. It is a serious
situation, but it is not a calamity.'
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/
Ladies and Gentlemen,
That's what the Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore dictatorship does all the
time. Hoodwink foreigners, particularly Westerners into thinking
Singapore is something what it is not. What
it is is this. It is a dictatorship, a one party state, with Lee
Kuan Yew and his family as the oligarchy in total control; where
the press is controlled entirely by them, where the courts abuse
the law at will to preserve the Lee family in power, and where
every organ of government is firmly in their control. In short, a
country where the people live in fear of the Lee Kuan Yew family,
completely at their mercy and whose lives are abandoned to their
whims.
What it is not is this. It is not a democracy.
Singapore has over the years successfully misled the Western world
into thinking it is a democracy. And to a large extent, so far,
they have managed it. With a state controlled press in Singapore,
who is there to refute the non stop good news that flows from
it? Any country that has a state controlled
press can very much get away with anything they say. But all this
is changing with the Internet. Today it is getting harder and
harder for dictatorships and totalitarian regimes around the world
to get away with lies. But despite this, despite the fact that the
west is now aware of what Singapore, Burma and other small minded
dictatorships in the region are, Lee Kuan Yew's son, the boy whom
his father placed as the Prime Minister is at it again.
Singapore's state controlled newspaper the Straits Times online
edition of July 23, 2009 has this story, "Striking a Balance,
Singapore feeling it's way forward in establishing a system that
works best for it, says PM Lee". This is an interview with the well
known German newspaper Frankfurter Allegmeine
Zeitung.
The state controlled
newspaper's title itself is completely
false. With 50 years continuous rule by this
man and his father Lee Kuan Yew, when every opposition political
candidate over the years has been either bankrupted or imprisoned
by them, the system “does work for them”, that is for him, his
father and his family. It certainly has not worked for the 4.5
million other ordinary people who live in fear of him lest they say
something he does not like.
As we go on with this completely misleading article, every single
line of it is false and a lie. In the first sentence he says it is
"a system which achieves a balance of quality leadership" and
"which gives the people an opportunity to voice their grievances".
If it a quality leadership, then why is that almost half the
population live below the poverty line in their government owned
HDB flats or cubicles, many without even being able to afford 3
meals a day, no electricity or water and many going hungry? Why is
there massive unemployment? Why does every Singaporean almost to
the man, if they could, leave Singapore for settlement abroad? Why
are no children being born and why does 2 out of 3 students who go
abroad never return?
And if the people are "given an opportunity to voice their
grievances" then why is Dr. Chee Soon Juan repeatedly jailed,
bankrupted and impoverished by the corrupt courts for doing just
that "voicing his grievance". And why is there no dissent at all
from the entire population, because they have all been subdued and
silenced from even the slightest criticism, lest they end up like
Dr. Chee Soon Juan. Why was I sent to jail for 3 months last year
for doing just that in this blog, criticizing? And if people are
allowed to criticize, can he or his father explain why they have
both between them monopolized the office of Prime Minster in the
country and winning every single election since 1959?
In the next line, Lee's son tells the Frankfurter Allegmeine
Zeitung, "It is a system that has worked well and not let the
people of Singapore down". Instead of telling Frankfurter
Allegmeine Zeitung, he should tell that to the miserable wretches
who live in the 1 and 2 room flats and the millions of others who
have lost their jobs and unable to find any other. He should say
that to the thousands of young people who are coming out of the
schools with no jobs and no prospects. He should tell that to the
millions of other Singaporeans whose jobs have been taken away by
foreigners. Without the benefit of a minimum wage, he should tell
that to the thousands of man and women who earn less that $500 or
less. He should tell that to the growing numbers who have made
their homes in the void decks of the government owned flats. He
should tell that to the man who was so upset he set one of his
politicians alight on paint thinner.
The next paragraph is so blatantly false, it seems as if he has no
respect whatsoever for the intelligence of Frankfurter Allegmeine
Zeitung. He says, believe it or not, "How do you keep a system
which delivers outstanding quality of leadership and government and
yet (allow) the people to say, I want this government but not this
policy or the other". My dear Lee Kuan Yew's son, you are presuming
too much. How can you say you deliver
"outstanding quality of leadership" when the truth is, your entire
government is literally falling apart, and it will with your
father's impending demise. And what makes you think the people want
your government but not a particular policy or other? What makes
you think that? If you ask me, I think to the last man every
Singaporean wants your entire family out. But there is nothing they
can do since you will put them in jail if they say
so.
Further down it is alleged (we do not know if this is true, keeping
in mind this is a state controlled press) that Frankfurter
Allegmeine Zeitung had asked if Singapore will become more
democratic? I am not sure whether the German newspaper was being a
bit sarcastic or whether they really believed there was any
democracy in Singapore. If the German newspaper Frankfurter Zeitung
did not know, there is no democracy at all. Protests are disallowed
entirely throughout the island except for a small patch of ground
no bigger than a football field, where even there plain clothes
police will harass and threaten anyone found in it.
Next Lee's son says every country has to devise a system that works
for them. Sure, Burma has devised a system that works very well for
the military junta and the Lee family in Singapore has similarly
devised a system that works very well for them. Not for any other
Singaporeans. Then he says, that simply because you are developed
does not mean you should have democracy. Wait a minute, dear son.
What makes you think only developed countries should have
democracy? Should it not be a universal right for everyone, as
along as you are a human?
He then puts out another shameless blatant lie that "the opposition
had a fair chance to compete and contest in elections"! Tell me
son, did the late JB Jeyaretnam get a fair chance? Did Dr. Chee
Soon Juan? Did Chia Thye Poh? Did Francis Seow? Did Tang Liang
Hong? Come on boy who are you kidding? The Germans are not as
stupid as you think.
Then he says the reasons why the people have not organized a
revolution and rebellion against him is because the government
helps them through training. The truth is there is no re-training
at all, and no one who has been re-trained has ever got any job
because there are none.
Another reason he says is that employers have been given money
towards employees’ salaries. The truth is that money is only given
to government linked or government supportive companies and none of
that money has ever gone to any worker; it is pocketed by the
employers. And thirdly, he says when people have problems they can
talk to the government. It is true that unemployed and miserable
Singaporeans can form a line outside one of the son's members of
parliament and beg for help. They might get a bag of rice and a
couple of hundred dollars but this in no way helps any Singaporean
who is in a bind.
Unemployment he says has not shot up. If you count those who earn
less than $500.00 per month wages, an amount way below the poverty
line, almost half the people of Singapore live in poverty, not much
different from Communist China or India. Then he says look at the
people in the shops shopping as evidence of the people's
wealth.
This is the lowest of the
low, a dastardly and shameful lie.
Yes in any country that is jam packed like Singapore with 4.5
million people living one on top of the other; you will see some
people in shopping malls. But Frankfurter Allegmeine Zeitung has to
be warned these shoppers are just 5% of the population of the
island. The rest 95% live in their cramped government owned flats
hardly surviving.
Please Frankfurter Allegmeine Zeitung, go on a tour of the HDB
flats and ask the miserable creatures ensconced in them. Lee's son
is just pulling wool over your eyes because he thinks, you, being a
foreigner would not know.
Gopalan Nair
http://singaporedissident.blogspot.com/2009/07/lee-kuan-yew
