Ladies and Gentlemen,
Reading the article of the state controlled newspaper
Channelnewsasia of May 13, 2008 titled "The Professor and the very
bright student" you would be forgiven if you mistook it for a love
story of how 2 lovers met, rather than believe it or not, how the
Singapore government appointed the young Tamil Indian S Shanmugam
Minister for Law in the cabinet.
You must read this newspaper article to appreciate my point.
Internet edition of Channelnewsasia of may 13, 2008.
From the article, one thing is certain. This young man's entry into
politics, his joining a law firm, his being given law cases and
ultimately being appointed Minister for Law has all been
orchestrated and arranged by Professor Jayakumar the immediate past
Minister for Law, both Tamil Indians by the way.
Please don’t think even for one moment that this whole thing is
even remotely related to politics as one would ordinarily expect in
a democratic country. The tarpaulin covering on the outside claims
it to be a democracy. In the inside, it is no different from the
Soviet era Deutche Democratishe Republic or the DDR or East Germany
as it was called in the west.
The love story starts more than 2 decades ago when a young man
walked into Professor Jayakumar's constitutional law class at
National University of Singapore when the Professor immediately
noticed; or rather fell in love with the said young man. Nothing
short of love at first sight.
The article claims that as soon as the said young man, the present
Minister for Law walked into his constitutional law class, the
Professor immediately knew that that this was the man, or the
chosen one.
There was an unmistakable chemistry in the air. Had the young man
been a woman instead, it looks as if Jayakumar, the Professor would
have dropped everything and proposed on the spot!
Since the Professor had no doubt at all that this young man, S
Shanmugam was indeed the protégé, like the new found infant Dalai
Lama, when the strongman Lee Kuan Yew wanted a name for the future
Minister for Law, Mr. S Shanmugam, the new found love of the
professor, was immediately recommended.
There are even more touching passionate encounters in this long
love story.
Professor Jayakumar tearfully recalls during one private moment
between his new found love S Shanmugam and himself, when the
professor popped the question of marriage, no not marriage, but
whether S Shanmugam would join politics; the professor recalls with
great emotion and tears almost rolling down his cheeks that he
noticed his love, S Shanmugam nearly fell off the chair.
Although this is not mentioned, I am taken to understand from inner
circles, that the Professor immediately ran to cushion his beloved
from the fall thereby ensuring the young man was not hurt at
all.
Not even a scratch, thank God.
Even today, when Professor Jayakumar recalls that moment, he cannot
help tears welling in his eyes. The moment was extremely
passionate, which Jayakumar cherishes even till this day and swears
never to forget it until he is dead!
Imagine that. It seems when Jayakumar the Professor had asked the
question, the young man was surprised why he was chosen. In utter
surprise at the question, as was earlier mentioned, he nearly fell
off the chair and was rescued by the gallant Professor in the nick
of time at great danger to himself!
One thing is clear in the strange island of Singapore.
It appears this man S Shanmugam, had no intention of
joining politics at all!
It seems from the article that it was only with great difficulty in
persuasion that he was finally made to join politics. A
strange parliamentary democracy indeed where reluctant people are
coerced and threatened to enter politics and made to rule over
Singaporeans!
It seems the odd entry into politics of a reluctant candidate was
not only in S Shanmugam's case.
Surprisingly, even the Professor Jayakumar himself, the recent
Minister for Law was himself completely averse to politics.
In fact, he himself states that he joined politics with
great reluctance and did it as a duty to his
country.
If I could see Jayakuamr, I would tell him that he should have done
whatever he wanted and stop trying to imply that he is some kind of
a Godsend for all of us. It would have made no difference had it
been a donkey instead of him.
Coming back to the intimate private tryst between the lovers
Jayakumar and S Shanmugam, in their meeting of love, it appears
that the young man was wearing a hat and there was a ring in the
private room and when he was thus provoked with the question of
politics, this boy Shanmugam forthwith took off his hat and
gallantly threw it into the ring aforementioned. Why he did what he
did and did it mean anything, that is throwing his hat into the
ring, is a puzzle we will never know!
It seems that this new discovery S Shanmugam had told everyone in
the People's Action Party or Lee's party that his ambition had all
along been to become the best lawyer in Singapore. There is no
doubt when the members of the said party was thus informed,
immediately after he graduated as the best law student in Singapore
tutored under the passionate arms of none other than Professor
Jayakumar, he was immediately invited to join the largest law firm
in Singapore where the lawyers are all Lee's party members and
immediately given all the biggest cases, thereby making sure that
his ambition was achieved to the letter.
Jayakumar states that his love S Shanmugam was never too far out
his sight and he was arranging for this young man to become his
successor when he left the post of Minister for Law.
It seems, according to the Professor, there was a lot of talk and
private discussions behind closed doors as to whether it should be
this man who was to be anointed Minster for Law, but his love the
professor states unequivocally, he had no doubt whatsoever.
At the end of this story, the professor tearfully leaves his
position he held as Minister for 26 years only to hand that
position to his chosen love S Shanmugam.
I am not sure if Hollywood had gotten wind of this heartwarming
love story between professor and student, somewhat in the lines of
the Oscar winner Brobeck Mountain, but we will never
know.
And all this has happened in Lee Kuan Yew's definition of a First
World Democracy, none other than Singapore. If you are shocked, I
don’t blame you.
As I had said in the past, had it not been for his part the
professor and Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore strongman, it would have made
no difference if this S Shanmugam was wearing the Tamil sarong,
smoking a beedi, spitting betelnut all over the place and frying
the Indian pancake "thosay" and stall 231, Tekka Market in
Serangoon Road, Little India, Singapore, at $2 a piece.
By the way, you must read the Channelnewsasia article please.
Gopalan Nair
http://singaporedissident.blogspot.com/2008/05
The above piece gives us the answer as to why there are no real
political leaders in Singapore, why there is a leadership crisis in
Singapore, why Singapore can never advance any further under PAP
rule and why Singapore politics and Singapore society is dead in
general. And also why people are emigrating to other countries
instead of staying on in Singapore.
