Cambodia has taken the reins for ASEAN leadership for 2022, a year that will be defined by its handling of the Myanmar crisis, as well as foreign engagement in an increasingly multipolar world order, says a researcher.
Riko Watanabe
Above is the title of an article in the CNA by a Japanese researcher questioning the ability of Cambodia as Asean Chairman. From the title that he phrased you can see where he is coming from and acting as if he or Japan knows best for Asean. Why is Cambodia not up to the task? What is the task of Asean, what is the platform and purpose of Asean?
Obviously from the angle of the Japanese and the Americans, two warmongering countries always thinking and acting as if they are superpowers and have the right to interfere into other countries' domestic affairs, not just influencing, even to the extent of threats and wars, Asean must be like them, poke its fingers into other countries domestic affairs, in this case Myanmar. And Cambodia's diplomatic and consulting approach, without trying to meddle into Myanmar's domestic affairs, without dictating to Myanmar, is unacceptable.
To the Japanese and Americans, Asean must act and behave like a gangster, telling other countries what to do, to do according to their beliefs and warmongering culture, to become like them.
Is this what Asean is all about? Asean was formed with certain principles of non interference in another country's domestic affairs, does not want to be dragged into a conflict by the big powers, to live peacefully with its neighbours, cooperation and peaceful coexistence, not acting like a gangster to demand and dictate to one another. The culture of Asean is to accept one another despite the differences in culture, religion, history and political system.
However, some Asean states are so influence by the warmongering and trouble making Americans and Japanese and think that it is right to mess around with the affairs of other Asean neighbours, telling Asean states what they should do, what they can or cannot do, according to their own fancies, thinking that they are better than their neighbours.
When Asean starts to behave like cocks, and forget about the principles of peaceful coexistence of its founding members, not to allow big powers to interfere and mess around in Asean, then Asean is destined to breakup as the political system and culture of every Asean state is different and in many ways opposite to the others, eg communist states, Islamic states, kingdoms, secular states etc etc. For Asean states to want to impose their values on fellow Asean states is mischievous and a joke when many Asean states are as messy and undemocratic as they pretend to be otherwise.
Asean is best to retain its original identity and way of doing things, without acting cocky like the Americans or allowing the Americans or Japanese to tell them what to do, what is expected of them to be accepted by the warmongers and international terrorists and gangsters.
Asean should stay neutral, and find common grounds among its members to live and cooperate in economic growth and development. Stop being a cock and being told to act like a cock to please the Americans or Japanese. Live quietly and peacefully among its neighbours, consulting with each other instead of arrogating themselves as the paragon of all virtues and looking down on its neighbours. By the look of it, some Asean leaders are already behaving haughtily and abrasively against Myanmar as if they are white gods, they are superior to Myanmar's leaders.
Can you believe that? People living in glass houses must not go around throwing stones.
Or should we ask, do the Japanese think so highly of themselves that they are the best to chair Asean? They invaded practically every Asean country in WW2 and massacred many Asean natives and robbed the treasures of Asean countries.
The Japanese has absolutely NO MORAL STANDING to tell any other Asian countries what to do.
ReplyDeleteThe aggressive, violent, brutal and deadly atrocities carried out by the Japanese 77 years ago against the Asian people are still vividly clear in our hearts and minds. And in all these 77 years, the Japanese political leaders have shown no remorse, repentance and regret for what they have done against Asia.
Until and unless the Japanese leaders and politicians begin to take full responsibility of their atrocious crimes against humanity in Asia, to show to the world that Japan is a responsible country, their irresponsible attitude,
behaviour, character and incorrigible criminal nature must be understood and condemned by all humanity.
The Japanese are walking around acting so innocently as if nothing had happened in WW2. Just because they erased everything from their history book, they did not want their young to know, it does not mean that the rest of the world did not know.
ReplyDeleteThe Americans hated them like hell for Pear Harbour bombing, killing so many Americans and destroying the reputation of the American Navy. That is why the Americans would forever keep the Japanese as their colony, all the American military bases in Japan are there to keep a lease on the Japanese, not allow to do mischief unless approved by the Americans.
And the Japanese are still bickering and wanting to quarrel with Russia, China and Korea over island claims when all the islands of Japan, including the main islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, etc are controlled by the Americans.
What a joke, a colony of the Americans but pretending to be independent.
The White curse is stirring up trouble in ASEAN big time now. According to reports by Brian Berlectic from 'The New Atlas' website, Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand and suspectingly Malaysia have been targeted, with USA supported and funded fake NGOs, on the pretext of promoting and upholding human rights, but are in reality instigating protest in these countries.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Brian, the Thai Government is bearing down on such NGOs by getting in place a law requiring such NGOs to disclose their source of funding or be closed down, which such NGOs are going to protest for sure. If the Thai Government does crack down on those protest, accusations of human right's abuse will surface and sanctions will follow. Such is the modus operandi of the White curse.
Myanmar is also Bearing down on such fake NGOs and more protest is expected. Cambodia knows their close ties with China will bring them trouble next. Whether Malaysia knows or not that they are next in line, albeit with weak leaders, is the question. When Mahathir was in power the USA could not do much, but with weak leaders running the country, it is ripe for the picking.
Thailand and Myanmar are taking a leaf from what the Chinese Government did in Hong Kong. Let those rats surface, watch them closely, identify them, get the evidence and get rid of them in one fell swoop. It is no use cracking down too early, as those rats will just go underground and resurface later. The Chinese saying is that to get rid of grass you have to get at the roots. Dig them up as well. Other countries are learning from the Chinese experience.
The USA does not tolerate foreign intervention in their internal affairs, for example the accusation that Russia interfered in the 2016 US presidential election. Why should other countries tolerate USA intervention into their domestic affairs by USA funded NGOs masquerading as aid agencies and human rights watchdog. Countries are waking up.
Countries that have lately turn the tables by recognising China and dumping Taiwan like the Solomon Island and Equatorial Guinea will of course face trouble. That is again the modus operandi of the USA. The USA talks so much about countries having the right to choose their affiliation in the conflict in Eastern Europe, but does not walk the talk when it comes to other countries making their choice freely. Even allies like Germany are not spared.
The USA, long known to be funding fake NGOs for the purpose of inciting unrest, which has so much focus on human rights, have now focused their attention on ASEAN, after doing much harm to the Middle East, with 'Arab Spring' coming to mind.
Cambodia's leader Hun Sun is a strong leader, having been the PM since 1985. The USA hates strong leaders like Hun Sun, Lee Senior and Mahathir for example.
ReplyDeleteHun Sun is an ally of China, and may not find it convenient to sell out Myanmar, knowing he and his country is next to be ripe for a regime change and he is not oblivious of what he is seeing. The USA and it's attack dogs are stringing up the narratives to put Cambodia in poor light, in order to soften Cambodia's standing and start their propaganda campaign against Hun Sun.
Myanmar is also at one time a close ally of China, which has been pried apart discreetly since the rise of Aung San Suu Kyi's party to power. The Military is largely still with China, the public being brainwashed for a regime change by the USA funded NGOs masquerading a aid agencies and human rights protector. Myanmar is already being sanctioned, so fermenting unrest is the only avenue left for the USA. They obviously wanted someone less amiable to Myanmar to Chair the AGEAN leadership, so he can be manipulated just to please the USA, as the poles have now realised.
@ ASEAN for & against
ReplyDeleteCambodia's PM inherited the Chairmanship of ASEAN from Sul Bolkiah of Brunei. Nothing different is going to happen...they'll just be discussing the economic repair required to fix the damage from COVID-19, and continue the tongue-waggling-do-nothing on Myanmar...which is good, IMO cos the Burmese people got the govt they deserve...and no one should interfere with this "natural process".
Myanmar is a shithole country with a rapidly collapsing economy, BUT there's alot of money being made in the black and grey markets on the quiet because money always grows where it is treated BEST.
2 Nobel Laureates Max Planck, physicist; and Richard Thaler, behavioral economist said exactly the same thing: Science advances one funeral at a time. There are parallels to this in the realms of culture and its "emergent child" the political economy (politics)
Observe our own cultural experiences. Notice how Singaporean culture AND its politics have changed since the demise of LKY and the Old Guards. The change is slow so on a day to day basis it is not perceptible. So culture, society and politics can also be said to advance one funeral at a time. Old ideas die with the brains that hold those "old ideas".
Old ideas which remain relevant tend to "stick" and propagate. We see this in religion. For e.g.: Christianity is ~2000 years old. However today's Christianity is radically different from what it was in the beginning, and even in the last 20 years or so the changes have been vast. For e.g. LBGTQ people are gradually being accepted in the "younger" churches, there are more women in the clergy, whilst the old Christians were "communalists", today's Mega Churches are strong defenders of profit-seeking CAPITALISM....so much so that many of them have become "distributors" for Multilevel Marketing "enterprises" (Ponzi schemes)
The point I'm getting to is that ASEAN, UN all kinds of alliances, pacs and regional trading blocks are decreasing in influence and power because the world is becoming more decentralised, disrupted by tech and de-materialised.
** De-materialisation** is the disruptive process where physical things and processes lose their "thing-ness" and are replaced by vastly cheaper (marginal cost = ZERO) and faster electronically networked versions. E.g: postal mail becomes email, the physical telephone becomes comms apps like FaceTime, WhatsApp, Skype, Signal, Telegram etc...such that messaging, video, and voice are near ZERO COST now. Newspapers, movie theatres, record stores, brick-and-mortar stores, and now money have all been dematerialized. As we move into the metaverse, more AI and robotics, the disruption from dematrialisation will just become FASTER.
The combination of these massively disruptive forces, which tend to become VERY CHEAP because of scalability and network effects (Metcalf's Law, The Lindy Effect) will become MAJOR HEADACHES for sovereign govts and these large political and trading blocks and pacs.
Govts of course will "fight back" using the same disruptive ideas with massive data mining and surveillance and the introduction of sovereign digital currencies and stupid laws which people will break on the quiet...because every human has a limit to how far you can push them.
Technology and society have reflexive relationship...aka feedback loop. Changes in either affect each other...so: tech and disruption changes behaviour, which changes culture, which changes society finally emerging in POLITICS
Too many crazy, out-of-touch oldies are running the world. Anyone over 40 should retire or die 🤪.
Let the internet, gaming, TikTok, and social media youngsters take over. So what if they're entitled snowflakes? Personally, I don't care. 😂
There was supposed to be some agreements between the five nuclear powers not to fight a nuclear war.
ReplyDeleteIf Chinese or Russian leaders take this seriously, they are making a big mistake. The USA can never be trusted in words or agreements. Where it suits them, they just ignore words and agreements unilaterally.
Not fighting a nuclear war does not mean not upgrading their nuclear capability and China and Russia must never let their guards down under a false sense of security.
The USA can never, ever be trusted on anything. They are a curse upon mankind.
PM Lee & many other ASEAN countries have been against the Burmese generals and remain so till today.
ReplyDeleteNever mind, we still welcome lots more Burmese to work in S'pore.
PS: More & more Burmese are now working in Singapore's air-con offices as engineers, IT, technical admin, backoffice admin.
WSG
Japan is now like the walking dead, totally controlled by the USA. Japan was such a rising star and an economic power in the 1990's and early 2000, ready to challenge the USA. It became a country in perpetual stagnation since 2008, with zero growth in it's GDP.
ReplyDeleteWithout all those stimulations for the economy over the decades, Japan would have been sliding into utter ruin and using banana money they printed during WW2
It is surprising that the Japanese, that used to be a proud and dignified race, that does not tolerate shame by committing 'Hara Kiri', has now been reduced to such a weak and obedient attack dog, being reared by the USA to confront China.
With so many American bases in Japan, and American soldiers, the Japanese just cannot do anything about it anymore. Forever a protectorate of the American Empire.
ReplyDeleteLife is too short to be and stay miserable even for one day.
ReplyDeleteWhy are Sinkies so stupid to allow themselves to be put in such a miserable state of limbo for so many years?
And things are not improving but only getting from bad to worse as each and every year.advances. Why?
The answer is :
INDOCTRINATION - similar to dog training - obedience training.
With 61% of voters thinking that they cannot do without the Papies screwdriver, how then can the miserable conditions be removed?
ReplyDeleteEvery four to five years, when the General Elections come, the generals in the Papies camp will have a great erection and cum and cum and cum, and screw and screw and screw.
The voters will again cry father cry mother infinitum......
The same familiar cycle goes on and on and on......
All that is needed to tip the scale of balance in favour of a new elected government to replace the Papies is 12% of the 61% of the screwed-up and screw-loose Sinkies.
ReplyDeleteBanking, investment, cryptocurrency and money-laundering scams are on the rise through the social platforms, sms and emails. Most of these scams originated from countries that produced large numbers of IT professionals who have difficulties in finding jobs. They either move to and operate in cities like Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo, Seoul, HK and Bangkok, or operate from small independent off-shore islands such as the Caymans, Mauritius and Fiji islands where the laws are not strict nor reciprocal.
ReplyDeleteContinues from above:
ReplyDeleteOn Corruption and Scams
However, the biggest scams are from government-sponsored, government-linked, government-supported or government leaders associated individuals and organisations.
Also from big pharmaceutical companies, cyber security companies, and big social platforms companies.
Most worrying of all are those from sovereign wealth funds run by family members of government leaders.
On Scams and Corruptions
ReplyDeleteScams and corruptions are not new in the history of man-unkind. They have been in existence since time immemorial.
God has created Men and Women to be both gullible and giles-ful, to be both decent and deceitful, to be both champions and cheats, and to be both generous and greedy.
With the advant of the internet, banking, investment, cryptocurrency and money-laundering scams are on the rise. These are mostly done through the social media platforms, the sms and the emails.
Most of these scams originated from countries that produced large numbers of IT professionals who have difficulties in finding jobs in their own countries. India has the largest pool of jobless IT specialists and professionals, followed by the USA, Russia and China.
The scammers either move out of their own home country to operate in metropolitan cities such as Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo, Seoul, Hongkong and Bangkok, or operate from small independent off-shore islands such as the Caymans, Mauritius and Fiji islands where the laws are not strictly applied or enforced, and are not reciprocal with any other countries. They are the safe havens of corrupted leaders, white-collar criminals and big scammers.
The biggest scams are planned and executed by government-sponsored, government-linked, government-supported or government leaders-associated individuals and organisations.
Legitimate big and well-known pharmaceutical companies, giant food-producing companies, big cyber-security companies, and big social media platform companies are also joining the biggest scams bullet train of the century.
However, the most worrying of all these scams and corruptions are those from the sovereign wealth funds organisations run by family members of government leaders. These organisations have the power, clout, money and means to employ the best crooked lawyers and to coerce and bribe the most honest judges and government officials to help them exploit the existing laws, both local and international, and get away with murder at any time, at any place. These organisations are usually from dictatorship, communist or monarchy countries.
In most countries, the police and the law enforcers are heavily involved behind closed doors, in the dark corners, under the tables or shielded by the legal iron curtain erected by cunning corrupted leaders. And in most cases, the very highest chieftains are also on the take.
So, in the final analysis, no leaders can claim that his/her country has no corruption. If anyone does, he/she must be the very pinnacle of corruption symbol himself/herself.
Think deeply in the presence of mind.
A-non-y-mouse.
YOU CAN’T CHEAT AN HONEST MAN ===> make these words into a poster to hang up, print it on a card to keep in your wallet/ phone. Inscribe it into your SOUL.
ReplyDeleteScams only work because the “victims” themselves are GREEDY and want “something for nothing”. Or they are just too darn lazy to VERIFY suspicious claims.
Scammers don’t play on “logic”. They are expert at manipulating EMOTION.
People who fall prey to scammers usually deserve what they get , because they allowed their emotions (fear and greed) to dictate their choices.
That’s said, it is good to get scammed because if one takes it the “right way”, EXPERIENCE (painful 🥵) is a great teacher!
@ 1034
ReplyDelete>> Not found in western democracies like the US and Europe? <<
The internet exists everywhere. So the idea of "country" no longer applies. (I like this type of world, as you know!)
How do you know the scammer is not some 14 yr old kid (boy or girl) with good coding skills, and a decent knowledge of networks and telecoms?
The "illegal" internet provides many "opportunities". In fact, I can show you how anyone with decent coding skills, and who can find their way around the various DarkNet forums can (theoretically) become a millionaire + in less than a month.
I can show you. But I won't. 😝