President Duterte – A new hand of cards

Under Aquino, Philippines did well economically, shrugging off the Sick Man of Asia title with decent economic growth rate. It could have been better if he has chosen a path for economic growth than to align with the two bankrupt powers in the USA and Japan. Both countries count offer aids to the Philippines, but not the kind for economic growth, aids in the form of more military hardware for war, to booster the fire in the belly of masochists in the Pinoys. Yes, Philippines is going to claim Chinese islands at all costs, even if to fight a war with China. Never mind if trade slowed to a trickle, never mind if bananas went back and returned to the Philippines.  The chest thumping in the South China Sea islands, the acquisition of out of shelf life antique warships to sail around the islands are big ego booster. The hungry can go hungry, the economic, well, never mind.

Duterte has arrived at the scene, clean and free of options. He has so far towed a neutral line between politics and economics with economics take a stronger precedent. Duterte has the same choice as Aquino, American and Japanese weapons to go to war, or economic aids, finance and development to rebuild the Philippines, to go for higher economic growth to benefit the people of the Philippines and the country. China has the cash and the knowhow and the big market to drive the Filipino economy to greater height, to rebuild a new infrastructure that is badly needed, to link up the country with highways and super trains.

The politics of the South China Sea cannot be resolved in the foreseeable future and is best to go to the negotiating table while the two countries build on improving economic ties and cooperation to improve the lives of the Pinoys. Or would politics still be the dominant force in Filipino politics at the expense of economics? China could pour in billions into the Pinoy economy and only good can come out of it.

On the contrary, Duterte can join the American and Japanese alliance that could lead to nought but the possibility of warfare that the Pinoys would pay dearly. The Americans and the Japanese are broke and can only offer the rejects of their military arsenal, the mothball hardware or hardware destined for the museum to the Pinoys. Would these be good enough, would these improve the lives of the  Pinoys and their economy?

At stake is the modernization of the Philippines, the rebuilding of a whole country to become a jewel in Asean. Which way would Duterte choose? He is new and has the liberty to choose with the mandate as the new President of the Philippines. His victory is testimony to what the ordinary Pinoys want, a better life, a peaceful life, not war and political rhetoric and libido.

Perfect gentlemen police force

I read this report of a drunk Japanese man slapping three policemen while being held at an MRT station office.  It is so unreal, so unbelieveable. Let me quote from the Straits Times,

‘At about 11.25pm, he slapped a policeman once each on his right and left cheeks. Ten minutes later, he slapped another officer's right cheek once. Takeshi then stood up, fell backwards and hit his head on a bed frame.

The officers helped him up and sat him on a chair. They saw that he was bleeding at the back of his head and used a bandage to apply pressure on his wound to stop the bleeding. When a policeman tried to ask him about his condition, Takeshi suddenly slapped the third officer's face several times.’

From the above quotes different people would have different opinions on the conduct of the policemen being slapped by a drunk. I would like to take a positive viewpoint on this, that the policemen were absolute gentlemen, that they would not hurt a drunk and would even turn the other cheek. This is how civilized and sensitive our police officers have become, and Singaporeans too, even being slapped they would not retaliate. This is a different kind of utopia.

Foreigners are absolutely safe in the hands of our policemen, and would not be subject to bashing like in some countries. Normally, such incidents would see the culprit being given a few blows by the police as it is very unnatural for anyone being beaten and not reacting, but not in Singapore.

The Singaporeans are exceptional even if they are policemen. They are so gentle, caring and sensitive towards offenders. Handle with extreme care and sensitivity must be the hallmark of our police force.

Singapore is infamous for its citizens, particularly the taxi drivers, to be beaten up by foreigners.  Such incidents are so common. So being beaten up by foreigners is fair game. It is in their mentality. Some may call this a kind of sickness, a people losing its pride or right of self defence, and would not defend itself even being beaten. This is quite like the times when China was the Sick man of Asia that you see in the movies when the Chinese were hapless and bullied by the foreigners in their own country.  

Look at this from another angle, the situation is different in Singapore. We are a powerful little state that punches above our weight.  It is perhaps the ultimate state of being civilized, being well mannered, not timid for sure.  Singaporeans knew it is wrong to hit back, in this case a drunkard.

So the court did the justice for the policemen by finding the Japanese drunk $6,000. Some may say so that the rich can spend some money and go around beating up Singaporeans including policemen. As a civilized people, a law abiding people, Singaporeans would not take the law into their own hands. They would rather the court punishes the culprit legally, than to break the law.

Singapore is indeed a very civilized place with very civilized Singaporeans. Did anyone say it is a past time of foreigners to beat up Singaporeans?  Just ignore this rubbish thinking. Singaporeans are a very fine specimen of the human race, polite, well mannered and non violent creatures and have a very high tolerance for being beaten. It is an exquisite character trait that is very rare in human beans.

What do you think?

PS. The incident was posted in the HardwareZone.com and the bloggers there were laughing themselves crazy. Some fuming in disbelief.

Obama visiting Vietnam – Time to reminisce Nam

The Obama visit to Vietnam is getting a lot of attention in his last days in the White House. And many war veterans are taking the opportunity to reminisce their exploits in this tropical jungle in their youth as 18 and 19 year old draftees, sent to kill Vietcongs in the hot tropical jungle.

The main concern of most Americans is the remains of Americans, dead or alive, in Vietnam. They have no interest in what they did to that country and the number of Vietnamese killed and maimed. They are not interested in the number of Vietnamese children still alive and still falling victims to Agent Orange.  Like in the Middle East, those were war collaterals. But in Vietnam, they were more, enemies, to be killed at all costs. The carpet bombings by B52s over the Plain of Jars, over the expanse of the jungle and country were testimonies of the savage hate for the country and its people, the Vietcongs.

Those were the glorious days of American fire power demonstrated in its full ferocity, not giving the VCs any chance of survivor.  Let me quote a Nam veteran in Chuck Hagel, ex Defence Secretary, ‘It still haunts us. That terrible waste of lives and the lessons we learnt there, the terrible lessons that still hang over us.’ Yes, the terrible lessons still hang over the US, but no lesson learnt. If the Americans have learnt anything, they would not be agitating and starting wars and fighting wars all over the planet. The victims in the Middle East are just as devastated as the victims in the Vietnam War. And there will be more victims if the Americans continue with their pivot to Asia to start more wars.

And what is there to regret about? To John McCain, it was the lack of acknowledgement for the boys and their good works in Vietnam, killing VCs and dying for the country, the USA.  He said, ‘The lack of a welcome home is still a national shame. You had…draftees who did their duties and were…spat upon by their fellow citizenry when they returned.’ Why? Why were they spat on by fellow Americans? Because they were sent into other people’s country and homes to kill them. The same soldiers returning from the Middle East and Afghanistan would also share the same fate. You are invaders, aggressors, killers, murderers of innocent people who have nothing to do with you Americans.

Yes, it is not right to shun the draftees. They were innocent young men who did not know what they were doing. They were sent by the orders of the evil regime in Washington, to kill equally innocent people they did not know and did not want to cause them harm, had nothing to do with the Americans and their lives.  The young draftees, the war veterans, deserved to be honoured even if they did the killing and destruction of the lives and homes of innocent people far far away.  They did not know what the hell was going on, they did not know why they had to kill innocent people.

Would the Obama visit bring a closure to the Vietnam War, like the dropping of atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki? John McCain is still reminiscing his war in Vietnam, as a POW. ‘To this day, I’ll get up real early sometimes and go down to the Vietnam Memorial just as the sun is coming up…It is always a great experience for me to think and remember.’

The real leader is a dead man

This phrase came out in one of the comments in the blog. The first impression is that the reader was referring to China or North Korea where the big names were Mao Zedong and Kim Il Sung. These two names are so big in the two countries that Deng Xiaoping and Kim Jung Il and Kim Jung Un paled in comparison.  Though dead many years ago, they are still revered leaders to their people, legendary heroes, folk heroes.

In this case, the blogger was referring to Singapore. The real leader of Singapore is still Lee Kuan Yew.  Singapore just celebrated in a big way, with spontaneous ground up cries to revere Lee Kuan Yew. The initiatives came from the people, more than 100 celebrations, I heard, were organized by the people, ground up initiative, to show their love for their leader, like he is still alive.

To many of the supporters, the leader is still alive, never left, so no need to jump up from the grave.  To many Singaporeans there is and always will be one leader. No one could come near him as a leader, no one is seen as a leader in the same light. Singapore is Lee Kuan Yew and Lee Kuan Yew is Singapore.

In this sense, yes, the real leader of Singapore is Lee Kuan Yew. People still look up to him for leadership, for direction, for solutions and answers when things go wrong.  Lee Kuan Yew is still the leader of Singapore, like him, hate him, it doesn’t change anything.

If this is the case, when would Singapore have another real leader? Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

Small countries punching above their weights?

Sometimes people are made to believe in fiction. Sometimes, after believing in fiction for too long they think fiction is the truth. This mantra of small countries punching above its weight is something Singaporeans were told to believe, ie, Singapore is a small country but can punch above its weight. In some circumstances this is true, like when people messed up their finances and come begging for money and we have the money to throw. When people want to build a monument and we have the money to help them pay for it, we throw money around thinking that we are some rich philanthropists and people are admiring at us, at the amount of money we can throw. When there are big white elephants that no one dares to touch, we would go out to buy them at a handsome price, like buying a piece of fake art at an auction to show people we have the money, we are rich.

In situations when national interests are at stake, no amount of money can buy glory, no amount of money can a small country get what it wants.  I have been writing about this, that the ability to punch above one’s weight is because the other parties allowed the small country to do so. Or the small country is like the proverbial little rat standing on the head of a lion and shouting at everyone, thinking it is really powerful.

This mantra of punching above our weight is now put to test by the Indonesians. Among the haze affected countries, we have been shouting the loudest. We finally have the gut to want to pull the culprit corporations to court. This is the right thing to do, except that when the jurisdiction is transboundary, when the parties are not inside this island but in other countries, you need to measure how much power or authority you have to bring the culprits to justice. You cannot simply send a legal letter to someone and demand that he appears in your office, in your courts, in your country. Oops, you can, but whether he would appear is another issue.

If you want to punch above your weight you better know who you are dealing with. The Indonesians are furious and are reviewing all agreements with Singapore, haze related and others.  This is like the Indonesians are tearing every agreement they have signed with us, or are going to tear them if they are not happy with them. And they are doing it unilaterally. They do not need to consult us and they are not going to consult us. They would only tell us what they have decided and what they want to do. 

The Indonesians are telling Singapore to shut up and haze is their problem and they will deal with it the way they like it. They are saying it is none of Singapore’s business even though the haze will affect the way of life, the economy and the health of Singaporeans. Now Singapore is put in a spot. What is Singapore going to do or can do with this snub? Now is the time to mean business, to see if Singapore can really punch above its weight with a neighbouring giant.

This is a new drama that is unfolding. When a giant flexes its muscles, the small countries better take notice.  Now to bring an Indonesian corporation to task, to appear in our courts, is going to be a very sensitive and touchy issue.