Mr. Lee Kuan Yew is fond of depicting his Island Republic as a besieged State. By his neighbours.
This is his excuse for not 'allowing' an opposition. 'Allowing' is his word, not ours.
Oppositions should not be allowed or not by some autocrat. It is the peoples right. To have a system which checks and balances. By extension, this is also his excuse for stifling dissent, for non-freedom of the press and for curbing Singapore citizens right to free speech and free assembly.
We know a nation which indeed was, and to some extent, still is, a besieged State. That would be Israel, not Singapore. They have fought numerous wars with their neighbours. When they started, they could do no trade with their neighbours whose only intent was to wipe them off the map.
A far cry from Singapore. There has never even been a skirmish with its neighbours. Singapore enjoys robust trade relations with its 'besiegers'. None of its neighbours has ever threatened to wipe Singapore 'off the map'.
Yet Mr.Lee continues to pretend, including in his newest book, that he was the Prime Minister of Israel, rather than Singapore.
His reasons for this are completely self-serving. With his fear-mongering, he would perpetuate PAP rule in Singapore. Stifling any attempt for the opposition to grow. Hounding, harrasing and bankrupting his opponents. Turning the Fourth Estate into his fawning, gollum-like creature. Curbing his citizens freedoms; freedoms that are theirs by right.
Israel, despite its genuinely precarious situation, has a Free Press. They have robust, genuinely free elections, with not two but many parties offering candidates. And winning. They have freedom of assembly, and no Israeli Parliement would dare to meddle with an Israeli's right to free speech.
Singaporeans too should be Free.
And not continue to be held hostage by the self-serving lies of an ageing paranoiac.
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