The unthinking bananas can only parrot the western narrative

CNA Insider - China's chequebook diplomacy in Cambodia a double-edged sword creating resentment By Desmond Ng and Elizabeth Zachariah

Tensions rise as locals worry about the threat of Chinese-owned businesses and enclaves to their livelihood, homes and rights, as the programme Insight discovers.

SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia: Billions of dollars have been flowing from China into Cambodia, turning parts of the once war-stricken country into modern cities. The economy is booming, jobs have been created and the market values of land have gone up.

All of these should make tuk-tuk driver Ngieb Rem a happy man. Instead, he finds himself working harder than before in port city Sihanoukville, as an influx of Chinese tourists has driven out many local and Western holidaymakers.

“We can earn about the same amount, but we’d spend longer hours,” complained the 38-year-old. “They’d surely ride with their own people (Chinese-run tuk-tuk). They won’t ride with us.”

Transformed by Chinese investment, the pace of development in Cambodia has left many locals like him reeling from shock and anger in several ways, as the programme Insight discovers. (Watch the episode here.)

A country that had once struggled to keep up with its Southeast Asian neighbours is now one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. But has it truly prospered from China’s money?

Or will the investments trap it in a debt that would turn it into a client state? (The authors must be thinking this last sentence is a very clever statement to make.  A politically correct statement and music to the westerners. Sooo clever, sooo intellectual! To me totally lack or orignality, just like unthinking parrots of the West.)

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/cnainsider/china-chequebook-diplomacy-cambodia-investments-resentment-debt-11311662

The first thing that came to mind when I read this article in CNA is this, is this article necessary, what is the intent or agenda of this article? Why would our jornalists be writing this kind of article that badmouthed China instead of talking about the benefits that Chinese money is bringing to help the development of poor and developing countries? The thinking process is western, banana like, that everything China did is bad. This is the western narrative to smear anything the Chinese do and our silly bananas just swallowed hook, line and sinker, thinking, oops, they cannot think, that this how to view Chinese investments, they called it FDI, that is being courted by every country. Without the Chinese contributing to their FDI, they were be trapped in their poverty trap, no money, no know how to uplift their economies and the lives of their people.

The West have been writing barrage of articles to smear Chinese development in Africa in the same vein, bad. China has poured in billions and trillions of good money into Africa unlike the colonialists that went there to conquer and loot the countries. The white colonialists simply took everything from the African countries and also Asian countries like the IndoChinese countries and countries in Southeast Asia, includingSingapore. But the westerners and the bananas never say anything bad about the exploitation of the white colonialists.

China is now seen as a first mover in Africa and taking advantage of this move to gain influence in Africa by investing in infrastructure development. Why is China the first mover and not the Europeans that were there colonising the continent for the last few centuries? Why the colonialists did not have first mover advantage to gain influence in Africa. Because they were there to exploit the Africans and after taking all they wanted, they left the African countries like the skin of squeezed oranges. China only moved into Africa recently, and into Cambodia, Laos and Vietnem to invest, not to conquer and to loot.

Hey bananas, can you tell the difference between colonialism, conquest and looting vis a vis foreign direct investment, FDI, invited by the countries that needed the money and know how to build their countries left in a pathetic state after centuries of colonialism, exploitation and wars?

The only light in this article is that Singaporeans can write if given a chance, but are not given the opportunity to write about Singapore but about other countries. And Singapore news and interests are written by foreigners in our editorial pages. We give foreigners the right to write about us and to influence our people's thinking with foreign agenda and the end result is how bananas think like in the above article.

Why aren't our local journalists, shit, I am using a bad word, I mean Singaporean journalists, be given a bigger role in writing about Singaporean affairs, not about dogs and pets and hawker foods, or children formula milk powder,but serious political and economic issues in our main media? Use the talent of our journalists expeditiously to foster good relations with our neighbours not to parrot the western narratives.

It is in the interest of Singapore to stop badmouthing China to please the West or to speak and think like the West to smear China. It is for our own good to shut up and go quietly doing our things and not being busybody unless Singapore wants to make an enemy out of China. In that case, keep doing this kind of things and have more anti China articles written by the West and our very own bananas in our main media, written or visual.

When are the bananas going to grow up and remove the colonial yoke and western coloured lenses and start to think for themselves.

PS. The more Singapore media publish this kind of anti China articles, the more would China distance itself from Singapore. The latest report by CNN on why Singapore is buying the F35s is the American way to undermine Singapore's position vis a vis China and the USA. Singapore is cooked.