Singapore. Civil disobedience

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Are not Singapore's democracy activists in opposition parties wasting their time once again trying to fight another general election, when Lee Kuan Yew owns and controls everything in the island? Shouldn't they by now have realised that it is a hopeless exercise? Shouldn't their efforts be directed instead to civil disobedience, to change the present system in which they know they will never succeed through the ballot box.

Lee Kuan Yew has managed to hijack the courts, the newspapers, the police and everything else to do exactly what he wants anytime. Which simply means that there is no way in Heaven that anyone from the opposition will ever win any elections, let alone forming the government. In fact Lee Kuan Yew himself has admitted just that, his words being something like "I have managed to fix the system in such a way that no opposition can ever form the government".

Dr. Chee Soon Juan continues disqualified from elections, numerous others have been banished and disqualified from returning, and fear is so completely and effectively entrenched in the minds of Singaporeans, so that nobody dares to do anything.

The Singapore Democrat speaks of going around the city meeting the people for support at the the elections. So do the other similarly minuscule opposition parties. I think it is simply a waste of time. They are simply not going to win any elections and even if they did, they would immediately be sued bankrupted and imprisoned. We all know that.

Civil disobedience is a powerful weapon and is the best use of their efforts in their present hopeless situation. You may not get many to do it, since it means tremendous suffering at the hands of Lee Kuan Yew and his son, but I am sure you can find a few. And I believe, even a few is enough as a catalyst for change.

It is already well known that Lee Kuan Yew and his son are unpopular both at home and abroad for being dictators. If a handful continue a sustained drive at civil disobedience, more will join, and the international media publishing the injustice of imprisoning innocent law abiding citizens worldwide will have adverse effect on trade and business, thereby weakening Lee and Company.

If you really thought about it, for anyone to argue that Singaporeans should not do anything that would adversely affect Singapore business is simply wrong. A quick look at South Africa reveals the ANC's political agitation against apartheid very badly affected business but in the end it was a price worth paying for freedom.

Since justice is on the side of the democracy activists, I cannot see how they can fail as the movement can only grow with time. This I think is a better strategy to bring about real democratic change in Singapore, because contesting the elections again can only result in nothing.

Gopalan Nair
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Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
Blog: http://singaporedissident.blogspot.com/

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