The thinkings behind Singapore’s relation with China

I posted an article a few weeks ago on Singapore China relations but somehow it went missing. I am not going to repost it for good reasons. The gist of that article was about top Singaporean diplomats commenting on China trying to divide Asean countries on the issue of South China Sea island dispute. This had riled China and there was protest as expected from China. One of the diplomat corrected himself that it was a personal view, not the official view of the Singapore govt.

In the Today paper on 19 May, the same issue was raised in Bilahari Kausikan’s speech as Singapore’s Ambassador at Large at a policy forum in Tokyo. The views expressed, I am not sure if it is Singapore’s official position or a personal view, more likely to be the former. The title of the speech was ‘Multiracial Singapore must resist being characterized as Chinese country – Standing up to – and getting along with – China’.

I am not going to repeat what Bilahari said in the speech, you can read it at tdy.sg/standupchina.  What I would like to point out is the choice of words used in the speech to describe Singapore China relations vis a vis Singapore USA relations, a kind of reading between the lines. The expressions or words used would give a good impression of the weightage and thinking behind the officials of the Singapore govt. I stand corrected, but presuming that the speech is official and a representative of the govt’s stand.

Take the first example used by Bilahari in describing Vietnam’s relationship with China in his conversation with a senior Vietnamese official. ‘Every Vietnamese leader, he replied, must be able to stand up to China and get along with China, and if anyone think this cannot be done at the same time, he does not deserve to be a leader… The two Asean members who currently seem to have forgotten this basic lesson of South east Asian history, Cambodia and the Philippines, may well come to regret it.’

Bilahari was referring to Cambodia that is too close to China and the Philippines that is too confrontational to China. What is the right position is to stand up to China and at the same time to get along with China, like Singapore, the ability to punch above its weight, to deal with a big power like China. This is like being able to criticize China for its intent to divide Asean and at the same time happily going to China to seek economic cooperation.  A win win formula.

Bilahari posed the question whether China is a friend and what does that mean.  He added, ‘Chinese friendship can sometimes be as overwhelming as Chinese enmity. The United States is certainly a friend. But it can be a very intrusive friend, too often unable to resist the temptation to whip the heathen along the path of righteousness.’  The key words here are that the Americans are friends, and Americans are righteous.  As for China, it is a big question mark. American righteousness? Hmmmm, I smell bananas.

He also commented, ‘It was never very realistic to expect China to passively be a “responsible stakeholder” in an order it had little say in establishing. This phrase is the favourite used by the Americans to tag on China despite the evil and wicked wars the irresponsible Americans have been conducting everywhere and none by China.

Ok, let me move on. Bilahari harped on the point that China ‘constantly refers to Singapore as a “Chinese country” who should therefore “understand” China better and hints at undefined but vast rewards if we should “explain” China to other Asean countries.  It is good to note that all countries, particularly the Americans too have been doing the same, ie, expecting other countries to “explain” American’s position. Is there anything unusual by singling out China other than the “Chinese country” part?

He went on to say Singapore politely and firmly told the Chinese we are not a Chinese country and we would not ‘obey’ what the Chinese meant as explain and understanding.  And here is the key to his thinking, ‘If we were ever foolish enough to accept their characterization and do their bidding, the multiracial meritocratic compact on which independent Singapore rests would be at least severely strained if not broken.’ Read this last sentence very carefully as it reveals a lot of the thinkings of the ‘We’ Bilahari is referring to.

His other choice words to describe Singapore China relations are ‘Chinese seductions’. You make your own conclusion on the use of these words and phrases to describe Singapore China relations as against Singapore US and Japan relations with words like ‘our partners’.

In his concluding paragraph Bilahari disclosed that the Americans and Europeans too made attempts to influence the internal dynamics of Singapore. The most important difference is that the Americans and Europeans and Japanese are friends, partners. In the case of China, the word ‘friend’ is a big ‘what’?

The fact that the whole speech is now deemed fit to be published in the main media says a lot. In the previous case that led to China protesting about the ‘dividing Asean countries’, to reprint the whole article again, is like making an official statement, that Singapore would stand up to China, we are not a ‘Chinese country’ but we also want to have good relations with China and be able to say what we want to say.

When would China cut off Singapore’s participation in the OBOR and other projects in China to tell Singapore that Singapore can go stand up to China for as much as it wants and to punch above its weight?

ISIS is an American’ally on steroids’

The deceit of the American regime in creating the ISIS to perpetuate wars and disorder in the Middle East has finally been exposed by Putin. Putin cheekily but seriously proposed to the Americans for joint strikes against their ‘ally on steroids’ ISIS and expectedly this was rejected by the Americans. How could the American destroy this beast they so cleverly nurtured to be the destructive power they needed to keep the Arabs forever in conflict, forever killing each other and their countries forever in ruins, and needing to pay for all the food and weapons in their war torn countries? And sad to say, many Arab leaders and countries are part of the willing pawns to fuel the neverending conflict in the region and in their own countries.

ISIS will not be destroyed by the Americans. The Americans are fully behind them, supporting, feeding, financing and arming them to create chaos in the Middle East. Read what this author has to say about the Americans and their ISIS.  We know Hillary Clinton is the mother of ISIS, but hear this. Joachim Hagopian is a West Point graduate and former US Army officer. He has written a manuscript based on his unique military experience entitled “Don’t Let The Bastards Getcha Down.”  He now concentrates on his writing and has a blog site athttp://empireexposed.blogspot.co.id/

‘Putin’s air strikes in Syria are doing what Obama’s fake efforts never could, actually killing terrorists and forcing 3000 of them to run for shelter back to their support bases in Turkey. In the first week alone Russian air strikes destroyed 40% of Islamic jihadists’ infrastructure. The highly touted buffer zone that US-NATO-Turkey insist on maintaining in Syria is no less than their cover to ensure that ISIS’ supply line from Turkey remains open and protected. But Syrian and Kurdish forces with Russian air support are closing in on even cutting off the buffer zone that in effect will leave a bruised and battered ISIS forces under siege. In a feeble attempt to save face earlier this month while Putin was eradicating Obama’s terrorists, Obama continued to defiantly keep his Islamic State-Al Nusra supply line open in Syria by airdropping yet 50 more tons of arms to the very enemy he is supposed to be fighting against for over a year now. The world is waking up and now onto the traitor president – Barack Hussein Obama.’

The only saving grace from the ISIS devil is that some ISIS members really hate the Americans and would kill Americans when they could. Not all ISIS members are traitors to their cause and would willingly die for the Americans and do their biddings. The Americans are happy as long as the problem with ISIS is localised in the Middle East, Arabs killing Arabs, Muslims killing Muslims. The fear is when ISIS spreads out to other parts of the world, to Europe and the US homeland. For as long as the ISIS remains where they are, they are a very useful American tool for chaos and destruction.

The phrase ‘ally on steroids’ is coined by Joachim Hagopian. There are many righteous Americans like Joachim that are writing furiously about the evil and wickedness of the American regime but the main stream media refused to give them the space to tell the Americans and the world the truth.

Hate quitters?

Let me quote a paragraph from BK’s article in the TRE titled ‘Race and Patriotism’. ‘In 2002, Goh Chok Tong had called young Singaporeans with no sense of belonging and only too willing to go abroad as ‘quitters’. “These people are fair-weather Singaporeans … I call them quitters,” he said. In 2008, PM Lee HL had revealed that 25% of top ‘A’ level students who had gone abroad to study never returned. There are 212,000 Singaporeans abroad as of 2014 vs 157,800 in 2004.’

Quitters are fair weather Singaporeans who left to go abroad? ‘I call them quitters’, in other words undesirables or something unworthy. Now we have 2 million of these undesirables, unworthies here, and we are bringing in more, at least 20,000 annually and give them jobs, good jobs, even as political leaders. We even encouraged other countries' quitters to be here by offering scholarships and jobs and all kinds of perks.

Is there a change of heart? Are quitters now the darlings of Singapore, that we are opening our legs to welcome the quitters from everywhere, good, bad, shitty, never mind, quitters are good, foreign quitters are better. We love quitters? So would we be welcoming our own quitters home? Or would we be throwing the book at them when they returned, some to go behind bars?

What is what? We scolded our Singaporeans who went abroad and kissed the foreigners’ arses for coming here? There is a saying in the US, spoken by the native Americans, ‘White men speak with fork tongues’.

Japan expecting an apology from Obama

Obama’s visit to Hiroshima is raising expectations in Japan that the American President should offer an apology to the victims of the atomic bombs.  More 140,000 were killed in Hiroshima and 70,000 in Nagasaki. No American President has apologized. What for?

‘We would definitely like an apology to people who lost their lives, those who lost loved ones, parents who lost their children.’  Terumi Tanaka was only 13 and survived the bomb.

Compare what happened to Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Rape of Nankin, just this incident alone caused more than 300,000 deaths, more than the combined death in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So what is so big deal about Hiroshima and Nagasaki? The total death as a result of the Japanese Invasion of China and South East Asia came to many millions. There was no provocation but simply an act of aggression to conquer and control people and countries by the Japanese.

In the case of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the atomic bombs were brought down on the Japanese as a response to their invasion and killings of millions of innocent Asians and South East Asians, including Americans sleeping in Hawaii, the Australians, New Zealanders and British prisoners of wars.  And the massacres of Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese, Indians, Singaporeans, Filipinos, Indonesians etc etc.

Why should the American President have to apologise for a miniscule act that the Japanese brought it upon themselves by slaughtering millions of Asians and Southeast Asians, Europeans, Australians, and of course the innocent Americans, thousands of them and the sneak attack in Pearl Harbour?

There is absolutely no reason for the Americans to apologise to the Japanese. It is the Japanese that should be apologizing to the Americans for the sneaky attacks at Pearl Harbour and the invasion of China, Korea and Southeast Asian countries.  Did the Japanese sincerely apologise to the victims of their invasions, the tens of millions of innocent people that died in their hands, that were brutalized by them, the comfort women forced to be sex slaves?

11 year old student commit suicide – So sad

Read this in the TRE.  ‘According to the Lianhe Zaobao, an 11-year old boy had committed suicide by jumping off a block at 470A Fernvale Link yesterday (18 May). … the boy’s mother was seen crying next to the his body while his father apologised continuously. It is unclear why the suicide took place but the boy was supposed to go to school to collect his exam papers so that his parents can acknowledge his results and sign it.’

We are hearing more and more of such tragic stories of our young being stressed out and even committing suicide. We had Benjamin Lim, now this 11 year old, likely to be related to the stressful education system.

My advice to parents, please treasure your children. They are here for you to enjoy them, to share your love, joy, pain and unhappiness and whatever together. Love them and treat them well. Not every child will score straight As or do exceptionally well in school. A child is gifted in many ways, not just academically. Enjoy them, nurture them and look at their good sides and their blessings.

A child needs a lot of tender loving care and support from the parents and adults, including teachers in schools. The child is in the care of parents and teachers to grow up to be responsible and healthy adults, not just to score in examinations. They need to know that they are being loved and wanted by their families, precious to their families for what they are. And anyone that has no feelings or empathies for chlldren should not be teachers.  The MOE must get rid of them from the system.

Do not take it out on the children. Do not mistreat children, do not leave them in the lurch, in the hands of beasts when they are in trouble when they are  doing badly in examinations or socially. It is in such times that they really need the parents and the teachers. The last thing is for the parents and teachers to desert them like they are outcasts, lepers, to be left on their own in times of need when help and love are what they need most.

This 11 year old child and Benjamin would still be around if parents and teachers are there to give them a helping them in their hours of darkness and despair. Love your children, love the children. The last thing, do not treat every child as a hopeless case, a hardcore criminal. Only evil, wicked and irresponsible beasts would do that to hapless and defenceless children.


Do not let this incident and Benjamin Lim to happen again. Parents, adults, teachers, police officers, you better take note.  Young innocent lives are at stake. Do not be the cause of tragedies of young lives. Do not take it out on young children. Do not abuse your authority. Do not be irresponsible.