Xi urges the US to stop flexing muscles over the Middle East

London: USA needs to be a more responsible power as it gains global influence and avoid flexing its muscles in disputes with smaller countries over issues like the Middle East and the Korean Peninsula, China President Xi Jinping told CNN in an interview to be aired on Sunday.

Xi, who meets with President Obama at a G20 summit next week in China, told CNN China supports peaceful American hegemony but that Washington had to recognise that "with increasing power comes increasing responsibilities," according to excerpts released on Friday.

"If you refuse to sign a treaty that calls for international arbitration around maritime issues, the fact that you're bigger than North Korea, Iran or Syria or other countries ... is not a reason for you to go around and flex your muscles," Xi said. "You've got to abide by international law and sign to be a member of UNCLOS."

Xi said Beijing had urged Washington to bind itself to international rules and norms to help build a strong international order by ratifying UNCLOS rules and regulations and become a member of the international community.

"Where we see them violating international rules and norms, as we have seen in some cases in the Middle East or in some of their behavior when it comes to economic policy, we've been very firm," Xi told CNN. "And we've indicated to them that there will be consequences."

The Chinese president said the US could not expect to "pursue mercantilist policies that just advantage" itself now that the US has become a more affluent, middle-income country.

"Even though you still have a lot of weapons, you know, you can't just export problems. You've got to have fair trade and not just free trade," Xi said. "You have to open up your markets if you expect other people to open up their markets."
World Associate Press

PS. Actually this is a writer article. I just change the name Obama and USA to Xi and China and vice versa and a little doctoring of the areas of conflict from South China to Middle East and the Korean Peninsula.

Pax America crumbling into pieces

Canada has finally break away from the American Empire by announcing that it would join the AIIB and is quickly welcomed by China. Canada was three of the sore thumbs, including the US and Japan that refused to join the AIIB despite Britain, France, Germany and Australia joining as founding members.  The attraction and benefits of being a part of the AIIB are too difficult to resist in a world economy that is declining and in need of a growth engine.

The AIIB is strongly anchored to China’s One Belt and One Road infrastructure development in Asia for another two or three decades and Canada just cannot afford to miss this boat if it wants economic growth and opportunities for its people.  According to Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Morneau, Canada is looking for opportunities around the world and the AIIB just provides that.

In a Business Times report by Anthony Rowley, ‘Former Goldman Sachs Asia vice-president Kenneth Courtis said in comments made available to The Business Times that "this is clearly the right decision". "It was a major mistake of the former government of Canada not to have joined the AIIB from the start, as Germany, France and the UK did.’

With this move, only the two anti China diehards in the USA and Japan are left out of the AIIB loop and isolating themselves from the infrastructure development in Asia. What could likely happen in the near future would be for the two antagonists to want to join the AIIB and it would be China’s turn to shut the down on them like the way they shut the door on China from IMF for so many decades and making it so difficult for China to join.

The whole game has come full circle. China should make the Americans and Japanese plead for membership to the AIIB when the day comes.

Singapore running out of luck

For several decades, nothing could go wrong in Singapore. And if anything went wrong, they would be put right immediately. The last outbreak of contagious disease was SARS and was quickly wrapped up and put away. We had many other problems but did not become too big a task to solve.

What is happening today? We have endless breakdowns on the public transport system after paying so many years of fare hikes for better services but with things getting worse by the days. We have outbreak of TBs, Hepatitis C, and now this Zika thing. How dreadful are the lives of pregnant mothers infected by the Zika sickness is beyond your imagination. Day and night, every moment, the mother and father would be thinking of their little unborn baby’s health. Would the baby be alright or born with brain damage? The latter is the fearful tragedy that could likely be their fate. What about little children infected with TB in kindergartens? If only you are the parents of the affected child.

Why were we so successful then and not now? Was it because we have had better people and better systems then and now no talent but highly paid people today with lousy systems? Very likely it is more like luck running out. For we are having the best talents from the world, oops, to be correct from the third world, to replace our own talents, and this is the result. This is one of the facts that we are living with but still needs empirical proof to connect the two.

If not this, then, assuming the people are still as talented and the systems have been improved, why then are we getting all the outbreaks? Luck running out! When luck runs out, the best system will still be found wanting. When luck runs out, poorly devised systems, half baked systems, tidak apa attitude, etc will stand out glaringly.

When luck runs out, all the wrong things will happen at the same time to wreck the system and the lives of the people here. How many more bad things are going to happen before the whole system implodes? 4 days of train faults and fuming commuters, and more and more Zika cases being detected and more mothers to be infected, and more coming along the way. When you have a few cases of infection, contact tracing is quite easy. When you have hundreds and thousands, you can forget about contact tracing.  Watch out for this Zika to develop into a full blown epidemic and woe beholds this little Red Dot. Complacency?

Return of the Sultans, bye bye Mahathir

Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar has taken a shot at Mahathir for interfering into the affairs of Johore with his typical Mahathir accusation that Johore is splitting the unity of Malaysia while he, Mahathir, is the uniting force for Malaysia. The Sultan has rightly pointed out that the problems of Malaysia, the racial politics and racial divide and the deep seated racial hatred have their origins from Mahathir. Under Mahathir’s rule, it was all about race politics in the name of unity.

Mahathir even attacked the phrase ‘Bangsa Johor’ as divisive, …’promoting affinity to individual states over the country will divide Malaysians’.  The Sultan told Mahathir to shut up and rightly pointed out that the seed of division and racial politics was planted and nurtured by Mahathir. ‘Bangsa Johor’ was a foresighted concept originated by the late Sultan Sir Ibrahim Al Masyhur Abu Bakar in 1920, a call to unite all the races under one flag.

The sins of Mahathir have not been spoken and are now surfacing. The Sultans are standing up to defend themselves and their rights as heads of their respective states and rulers of Malaysia. Mahathir better shut up or would not only be told to shut up but could end up in very compromising and uncomfortable position as his fame and stature fade away. He must know that time has changed to his detriment and it is for his own good to disappear quietly to enjoy his retirement in his twilight years.  If he insists to take on the royalties and the UMNO that he used to rule, he may be in for a rude awakening.

More LKY legacies falling

I wrote about the meritocracy legacy of LKY at the verge of being dumped by including race as a key factor in the election of the EP. Under the present criteria, though very, actually extremely elitist, it still has the hallmark of LKY in it, ie meritocracy. The EP will be chosen on merit and elected by the people. No tokenism. The likely proposed changes to the criteria to include race as a key element soundly denounced the ideal of meritocracy, that does not need to be elected base on merit but on race. Several minority bloggers have spoken up against this compromising change that would not look good when a minority candidate is elected under a different and unmeritocratic rule. They expressed their objections to such a patronising move. How strong is this view from the minorities against or in support of the changes has yet to be determined but it sure irks the minority elites as was seen in a CNA programme.

 

What is certain is that this meritocracy legacy of LKY will be the first to fall and not the last. In last week's ST there was an article by Kor Kian Beng on how Singapore walked the tight rope in a balancing act between the two super powers, China and the USA. In the article he quoted LKY saying that Singapore must not choose between the two super powers. Singapore should be neutral in their conflict. And Singapore might host Chinese military facilities as well after offering such facilities to the Americans. That was another hallmark and legacy of LKY. A wisdom only fools should disregard.

 

Vivian Balakrishnan and Chan Chun Sing have both been quoted that Singapore's position between the two powers was and is neutral, Singapore does not take sides. This was the position of Singapore in the past. Has this been changed recently over the South China Sea dispute?

 

Hsien Loong took pains to explain Singapore's position at the National Day Rally not for no reasons. China is fuming and has lodged protests to the govt on Singapore's pro American stand, read as anti China, after several govt officials made statements that were obviously unfriendly to China. Singapore's role within Asean on this issue, the favourable comments on The Hague ruling, freedom of navigation, etc etc mirrored the American positions to the chagrin of China. And the Americans are using military facilities in Singapore to conduct provocative manoeuvres in the South China that further put to question about Singapore's neutral position between the two super powers.

 

The big question, is Singapore really neutral or has Singapore taken side with the Americans, abandoning its policy of neutrality? It is not just what the Singapore govt and its officials were saying but what Singapore has been doing in recent times that would be judged. And only China and the USA know and matters whether Singapore has taken sides.

 

If Singapore has taken side, then another legacy of LKY is going down the drain. The next question to ask, are these legacies obsolete, outlived their usefulness, or they were wrong in the first place and have to be dumped, LKY legacies or whatever? How many more of LKY's legacies or wisdom would be ignored, challenged and buried away? How many people have the audacity to think they are wiser than LKY and dare to show disrespect to his legacies, to put them away, barely one year after his demise?

 

Was there a call to protect and preserve his legacies?

 

PS. I understand there are people that would pui when LKY’s name is mentioned. Let’s be objective about this. Not all his legacies are bad and some are critical to the continued existence and well being of this little Red Dot. Abandoning the good stuff indiscriminately would be an unforgiveable sin, an injustice to the future of Singapore and the millenials.