Ladies and Gentlemen,
Singapore state controlled newspaper or propaganda sheet, whichever name you want to call it, the Straits Times online edition of August 11, 2010 has the story "SDN gives singles a push".
It is another hopeless effort on the part of a government to urge Singapore young men and women to get married, which they hitherto are stubbornly refusing to do in any meaningful numbers.
The birth rate in the island continues to decline, it's population rapidly shrinking, which would mean sooner than later, there are no Singaporeans left.
The million dollar ministers there whose job is to be on the good side of Lee Kuan Yew, rather than using their heads which they should be doing, simply do not get it.
They simply don't understand that the declining birth rate, the massive emigration rate and the universal political apathy and indifference of Singaporeans is because they are unhappy.
They don't appear to understand that an unhappy people would refuse to marry, not have children, leave the country, and completely decouple from their government.
And they don't appear to understand that to reverse these unfavorable trends, you have to make them happy. Any ten year old would have told you that. A happy people would marry, have children and make Singapore their home instead of trying to run away from Singapore as fast as they can.
This newspaper story refers once again to "marriage rates dipping over the last decade" and "singles will be urged once again not to leave it to fate to find that special partner".
Really I find these efforts hard to believe. Do they really think that anyone, including the super obedient compliant Singaporeans, would marry simply because the government wants them to!
And then there is even more astonishing stuff. It says "a new campaign will encourage people to be proactive about expanding their social circle- it's OK to do it though an agency- as well as moderate their expectations of Mr. or Miss Right".
Believe it or not, the Singapore government is asking people to get married regardless of whether you fancy the woman or man! What will they say next, go marry a one-eyed woman because Lee Kuan Yew wants you to do it!
There is even more rubbish in it. There is even going to be a televised dating program. I don't know what surprises they have in mind this time; perhaps you chose a woman on the screen, and meet her the next day at MacRitchie Park.
I remember last time, they had another similarly idiotic matrimonial exercise. This was about a year ago, when men and women were lined up at Singapore subway rail station platforms who would spend a few minutes with the opposite sex inside the arriving trains with the Minister Iswaran standing on the platform to persuade them to propose and fall in love instantly.
What was more shocking was that each man or woman was given only about 5 minutes to decide on his life partner! You could call it "Love at first sight on Singapore Rail", with the minster officiating as some sort of an instant matchmaker!
Obviously, it simply didn't work and like every other of these dictatorships harebrained ideas, was never heard of again.
And now this new nonsense.
The Singapore government has to understand, which I don't think they will, is this. Unless you permit citizen participation and dissenting voices in the island, Singaporeans are simply going to withdraw into their cocoons, where thy now are. They are not going to listen to you, not cooperate with you, not have babies, not marry and they will leave your island, and ultimately you will simply fail.
As long as you think you can talk down to your people and order them to do this and that and bully them into submission, you simply cannot earn their respect. And not earning their respect, you will have a disengaged population. And a disengaged population means that none of your policies would ever be successful. It is as simple as that.
And each time you write this nonsense in the Singapore press, Gopalan Nair and numerous other like minded Gopalan Nairs will criticize you, and Singaporeans will read it, and even more Singaporeans would decouple and completely refuse to have anything to do with you or your policies.
In the end, you will be left talking to yourself.
And no one will hear.
Gopalan Nair