Ladies and Gentlemen,
If you were to say within Singapore island that the Prime Minister and his father Lee Kuan Yew are guilty of nepotism, you will not only be sued for defamation of character, you will also surely be found guilty by his Kangaroo courts and made to pay a great deal of money, if you have it. If you don't they will send you to jail. Unlike anywhere else in the world, in Singapore this result is certain. You can bet on it.
But as anyone can see from these facts, the Prime Minister were it not for the fact that his father is none other than Lee Kuan Yew, the 90 year old Singaporean strongman, would probably be quietly pushing a pen at the third floor offices of the Bank of China along Battery Road or even working at the Department of Mother Vehicles along Maxwell Road checking automobile license plates. I don't think a man such as this would have aspired or capable to any higher level.
He was born in 1952 when his father was already a successful politician in the British colony at a time when the Empire was unraveling. He went to school in the island, a nondescript boy who quietly went through his classes without much noise. In 1971 when he finished 12th grade, his father was already the Prime Minister for some years.
He started doing his national service this year. After 2 years he went to England on a government scholarship, naturally at government expense to study at an English University, where he never stood out as anyone with any independent ideas or any leadership qualities worth mentioning. He wasn't the president of the Save the Eagles Club, or The Flat Earth Society or even The Association to Rescue Unwed Mothers!
He appeared to be a person who would rather be left alone or someone who wondered what all the fuss was about in the world anyway. He completed his education, without anyone knowing or any fuss, and quietly returned to the coattails of his father the Prime Minister of Singapore.
He the rejoined the army, no doubt on his father's advice, and in world record time, a span of no more than 12 years, from 1971 to 1983, was promoted to Brigadier General. Henceforth the government and everyone else was ordered to address him as Brigadier General Lee or BG Lee for short. The idea of course was to make him look important.
For a Brigadier General, during this entire time, he never saw any active service, never served in the Congo against the rebels, and spent most of his time pushing paper. He was probably the most boring Brigadier General in the world! I recall that when a newspaper reporter had written that he was a very bad shot and could not shoot straight, the reporter was punished and removed from his post.
Then in 1984 he stands for elections in a constituency where either the votes were rigged and the ballot boxes stuffed or because the residents were all threatened by his father of dire consequences, he breezed through the elections. After this, in just 3 years his father makes him a Minister in 1987 and in 2004 when the incumbent Prime Minister, Goh Chock Tong was asked to step down, this man is sworn in as Prime Minister.
Beside his dull boring life dictated by his dull boring mind, anyone who took a look at him is not going to think otherwise. His entire life has been lived just as the son of his father going to school and passing exams. He doesn't appear in nothing else at all. I think if he was honest, he would have just one line in his resume, "Lee Hsien Loong, son of my father".
And this is why it must enrage anyone with any sense of pride and dignity to have to live in an island and be thrust upon with a man such as this as Prime Minister, let alone having to listen to his speeches in the state controlled press, on how to live. It is perfectly acceptable to be told by President Obama or David Cameron or some other leader of any real nation how things should be because they are leaders in their own right.
Obama became President not because his father was the USA's dictator, but because he had leadership, and was able to get his peoples support through hotly fought bitter elections. Such leaders deserve respect for none other reason than they are leaders. As for the Singapore Prime Minister, his only qualification is being his father's son.
Which is why many leave the island of Singapore. They simply don't allow you to tell these handpicked ministers who they actually are, because if you do, they will sue you and send you to jail. Rather than waste time and effort challenging meritless leaders such as these, better to just pack up and clear out.
These are not leaders. They are cowardly bullies, because they would sue you if you spoke.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont, California USA
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email; nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
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