Now Trump trumps summit

There was an oft-quoted saying much beloved of our pioneer leaders in the days of yore that went something like this: “When 2 elephants make love, the grass suffers”.  This was an admonition that Singapore being a tiny spit of an island was vulnerable to big power play and would suffer from their machinations however benign they might seem.  Singapore civil servants in 2018 can be forgiven for feeling a mite the same way. In this case, the 2 elephants did not exactly make love. They only threaten not to make love. Last week, North Korea, peeved at joint military drills by the South and the US, warned that the June 12 love-fest in sunny Singapore may not happen if the enemy indulged in such indecent foreplay. Not to be outdone, President Trump told the world that “there’s a very substantial chance…it (the summit) won’t work out”, but not before adding “That doesn’t mean it won’t work out over a period of time… but it may not work out for June 12. But there’s a good chance that we’ll have the meeting”. Huh??? Now is it on or is it off, Mr Trump?  To which he replied unequivocally - “It’ll be determined pretty soon”.  

Now I can visualise Singapore bureaucrats bellowing: “How soon is soon? June 12 is pretty soon you know!” Mr Trump may not be aware but a summit does not materialise out of thin air. Security for him and Kim Jong Un, probably the two most popular men in the world, must be arranged. The summit venue too must be booked. It cannot be Mt Everest or Bukit Timah Hill. The last I heard, it was down to an F-1 race between Shangri-La and Marina Bay Sands. Then there’re also the hordes of international journalists to handle - most not half as compliant as our Straits Times and Zaobao chaps. So don’t begrudge our civil servants. Their $ not so easy to earn ok!          

  

Western myth and smearing of the Chinese Civilisation

The Chinese and the Chinese Civilisation have been the victims of western smear campaign and disinformation for more than two centuries to the point that even today many silly bananas hate and despise the Chinese and Chinese Civilisation and themselves without knowing the truth. Just view some of  the sick and silly comments of Singaporeans bananas in CNA onlines and some websites and you will know why and wondering how sick are the minds of these bananas.

As for the westerners, it is understandable as they were brought up with a diet of western history of dominance and the rest of the world are inepts and less civilised and less able than them. Some western historians and academics may harbour such negative thoughts of the Chinese Civilisation out of ignorance of Chinese history and culture, some out of their cultural bias, and some out of plain stupidity.

I will briefly explained the stereotyping of the Chinese Civilisation and try to dismiss their negative perception and interpretation and understanding of the Chinese Civilisation. To them the Chinese and Civilisation are backward and well below the intelligence of the West. This is not all. They have been passing the myth that the Chinese are aggressive and belligerent people and have been a warring state and harbour the ambition of wanting to conquer and rule the world. They have been spreading this lie and fear to nations of the world that many believe in this lie within thinking. They have been drumming this into the subconsciousness of the people of the world, especially those that read Chinese history and Civilisation written by the West.

The ingenuity, talent and industry of the Chinese need no further elaboration if one is to look at China in the last 40 years. After being conquered and ruled by foreigners for more than 400 years, being victims of invasion, aggression, wars and foreign powers plundering and looting the wealth of a once rich and advanced civilisation, China was in ruins by the late 19th Centuries till 40 years ago, ie the late 1970s. Given the opportunity to manage their own country and destiny, the Chinese people rose to right all the wrongs and all the negative perceptions of the Chinese people and Civilisation.

Some of you may be wondering why I said China was ruled by foreigners for more than 400 years. The western scholars could not tell the difference between the Han Chinese and the minority tribes in China. The Mongols and the Manchus were not Han Chinese but minority tribes of China, numbering only a few millions, a small fraction of the Han Chinese population. These were martial tribes with ambitions to conquer and rule over China and the Han Chinese. The Mongols even rode west to conquer Europe and the Middle East.

Be very clear, the Mongols and Manchus were not Han Chinese. The Han Chinese as a Civilisation has long given up wars and conquests. They have turned themselves into farmers and tradesmen, craftsmen and enjoying the arts and culture. The Chinese culture puts soldiering as among the lowest of the profession to be admired. No good sons would want to be a soldier and even if they were soldiers, their ranks in the hierarchy of the dynasties were lower than the administrative service officials. The warring DNAs of the Chinese Civilisation were long gone, lost by the 13th Century. That was the key reason why small minorities like the Mongols and the Manchus were able to conquer and rule China with populations of hundreds of millions. The Chinese have lost the desire to conduct war and soldiering was not a desired profession.

The Japanese read this very well and thought they could rule a peasant and artisan China and Chinese Civilisation. When the West invaded China under the rule of the Manchus, the Chinese Civilisation were suppressed to a hapless people. And the only soldiers were the Manchus and their Chinese conscripts. Even the Manchus by then were worn out, decadent and weak militarily.

Since the conquest and rule of China by the Mongols, 1279-1368 and Manchus in 1644-1911, the only Chinese dynasty in between was the Ming Dynasty. The Ming was famous for the Expedition of Admiral Cheng Ho, not of conquest. They too weakened and were conquered by the Manchus that ruled China for nearly 300 years.  The weakened Qing Dynasty was succeeded by the invasion of the western colonial powers and Japan.

Thus, since the 13th Century, the China and Chinese Empire were not really Chinese except for the Ming Dynasty, a rather peaceful and non expansionist Empire that even withdrawn from the world after the last voyage of Cheng Ho. They destroyed all their naval ships and became isolationist.

The expansionist and belligerent warmongering Chinese Empires were non Chinese, ie the Mongols and the Manchus. Where is the evidence or facts to call the Chinese as expansionist empire builders that sought to conquer and rule its neighbours and the world.

This myth about the Chinese and a warlike Chinese Civilisation is a western lie, a western fabrication to smear the Chinese Civilisation and to instil fear in the countries around China and the world, to demonise China. At the least, it is also due to western ignorance or deliberate distortion of history.

China and the Chinese Civilisation have never been a threat to the rest of the world since the 13th Century. Even today, China is not threatening any country. The island disputes in the South China Sea was a renewed and strong China reclaiming what were rightly Chinas, nothing more nothing less. China today still lost a lot of territories seized by the invading countries when it was weak and not taking them back. The act of taking back the territories seized by the invading countries cannot be seen as being expansionist or aggressive. These territories should return to their rightful owners, China.

China was a victim of foreigners since the 13th Century except a short spell under the Ming Dynasty. And during these 7 hundred years, China and the Chinese Civilisation were not a player in world affairs, so how can China be aggressive and expansionist? The white lie that China/Chinese Civilisation are aggressive and expansionist needs to be scrapped from the skulls of the unthinking. It was the Mongols and the Manchus that were expansionist and martial in their nature.

Where did the western colonialists get the idea that China is going to be a hegemon again? Why hype about a possible hegemon but acquisced at the behest of an existing evil Empire? Where did the rest of the world get this negative thought about China and the Chinese Civilisation as a hostile country or Civilisation? When did the simple minded unthinking bananas got this idea as well? From reading western myth, lies, and smear campaigns written by westerners to demonise China and the Chinese Civilisation of course.

Know your history and know the truth and save yourself from living under other people's lies and being made a fool of yourself and your Civilisation.

PS. An expansionist and aggressive warlike nation and Civilisation would not be so easily conquered and ruled by foreigners and invaders, for more than 400 years. If you want to know what is expansionist and aggressive, look at the records of colonialism, imperialism and the evil Empire maintaining more than 1,000 military bases across the world.

Can 1MDB drag Singapore down as well

The infamous 1MDB scandal played a big role in bringing down Najib and his corrupt regime. As many of the transactions of 1MDB went through Singapore, with several banks involved, could Singapore be implicated and this cancer spread to take its toll on the Singapore govt as well?
 
There is a post in thestatestimesreview titled ‘Did Najib accept Singapore’s High Speed Rail project to hide 1MDB funds?’ that speculated Singapore’s involvement in this scandal. It is highly speculative and controversial of course. It is just a point of view put forth by thestatestimereview, and the author admitted that it is just a possibility, not a fact. Shanmugam would call this serious allegation.
 
Here are a few paragraphs of the article,
 
‘Following Lee Hsien Loong’s embarrassing 30-mins meeting with newly-elected Malaysian PM Mahathir Mohamad, the High Speed Rail project along with other bilateral deals with Singapore are now back on the negotiation stage. Sending a message to Lee Hsien Loong, the Malaysia’s Economic Affairs Minister announced an hour after Lee Hsien Loong was sent out the doors of the PM’s Putrajaya building, that all bilateral deals signed by former Malaysia PM Najib Razak has to be re-looked at.
For good reason.
 
In exchange for hiding his stolen 1MDB funds in Singapore, former Malaysian PM Najib Razak clinched a deal with Lee Hsien Loong to extend Malaysia’s High Speed Rail (HSR) project to Singapore? Entirely plausible.
 
For a start, Malaysia does not need to extend it’s domestic HSR to Singapore in the first place. There is little economic benefits for Malaysia to link Kuala Lumpur and Johor to Singapore, which has only proven to worsen the rising cost of living of Malaysians. So why is the HSR extended to Singapore then?
 
Based off United States’s investigation, Singapore played the major role helping Najib Razak hide his stolen billions. The funds transacted through 5 Singapore banks, including Temasek Holdings-owned DBS and Standard Chartered….’

The suggestions in the article are good for reading and would make a good fictional story on political conspiracy and torrid business deals. Whether there is any element of truth in this episode only time will tell. If it turns out to be true, things would look very embarrassing as Mahathir would have no reason to hide anything if he comes to know about it. He would proudly tell the whole world the whole truth and nothing but the truth, this time with all honesty, as he has all the reasons to do so.
 
And if it does happen, the fall out may be tough to ignore. One govt has fallen because of 1MDB. Would it bring down another? Until proven, this is only an allegation and there is nothing more to it. It is not fake news as fake news would claim that it is true and want the readers to believe that it is true. The article said it is ‘entirely plausible’. So just leave it as that and wait for the story to unfold. No need to jump into conclusion.

The Mahathir Dilemma

After half a century since he wrote the Malay Dilemma, today Mahathir is faced with a new dilemma. Everyone knows that he has an axe to grind against Singapore. Now he also has an axe to grind against Chinese investments in Malaysia, deals that were signed by his foe, Najib Razak. He has so many reasons to pick on these projects and to tear them to pieces unless he could renegotiate new terms to his benefits. Oops, I mean to Malaysia’s benefits.
 
Now, why would these two axes become a dilemma to Mahathir? The Singapore axe is simple to understand. He cannot tahan Singapore’s success and be better than Malaysia, putting personalities aside. He had done many things in the past to cripple Singapore’s progress, like the crooked bridge, not selling sand and water to Singapore even when water is falling free from the sky, and sand dredging from Malaysian rivers would have served dual purposes beneficial to Malaysia. No deal if things benefit Singapore even if Malaysia stands to benefit as well.
 
Now look at what China is doing in Malaysia. The grand plan is to make Malaysia the new transportation hub to replace Singapore, his arch enemy. Malacca or Port Klang would be developed to replace Singapore and become the most important and busiest port in this part of the world. Would that be nice?
 
But the Chinese plan was negotiated by Najib and all the benefits and credit would go to Najib as well. Killing the plan would be good to Singapore as the net effect would be to kill off the competition from Port Klang and Malacca as the alternatives to Singapore. But not killing the plan would mean he has to go along with it, with Najib’s initiative to court Chinese investments, sanctioning the work of Najib. Though this would make Malaysia a new trade and transportation hub as part of the Belt and Road Initiative, he could not gain anything from it. People would say it was all the contribution of Najib.
 
There is also the HSR to Singapore. Mahathir may also want to drop this project as it would benefit Singapore more than Malaysia, allowing Singapore to be in the link of the BRI. To him, just like selling water and sand to Singapore, as long as it benefits Singapore, it is no go.
 
The Mahathir Dilemma is to support the Chinese BRI that would have transformed Malacca or Port Klang as the biggest and busiest port in the region, to replace Singapore, or to kill it and let Singapore to continue as the transportation hub in the region, with Malaysia playing second fiddle. This way, his action would actually benefit Singapore instead of killing Singapore. What would he choose, to kill the BRI and Chinese investments, or to kill Singapore?
 
This could be the making of his new book, The Mahathir Dilemma.
 
Mahathir has many other dilemmas to deal with and to write about. What about his pro bumi Malay Malaysia and his new Malaysian Malaysia slogan?

Singapore severely constrained by space – Lawrence Wong

Singapore constrained by space? I thought I heard many wise men and wise women talking about Singapore big enough to accommodate 6.9m people, some said 10m, some said 15m and some said even more. Now we only have a miserable 5.6m and Lawrence Wong is saying in Parliament that Singapore is severely constrained by space, so cannot anyhow extend the lease of HDB flats. Who is telling the truth, who is spreading fake news, who is lying? Or all of them are telling the truth?
 
When Lawrence Wong said Singapore is constrained by space, what was his basis? Based on 5.6m, 10m or 15m?
 
The extention of HDB lease after the expiry of 99 years is a complex problem. There is a big problem of not enough land for public housing in the future for our children and grandchildren. He went on to say ‘The govt must grapple with these questions, study the matter and do the responsible thing.’ What responsible thing? Like bringing in more foreigners to increase the population to 6.9m, to 10m or more?
 
What action is responsible and what is irresponsible? What action would lead to a severely constraint in space for public housing? And who is the irresponsible one to cause this severely constrained problem for Singaporeans?
 
Can this problem be avoided? Is it so difficult to prevent this problem?
 
I am now so confused? Really ah, got severely constrained space problem ah? How can that be when so many wise men and wise women are advocating a population of 6.9m, 10m or 15m or more? Who is talking rubbish?
 
How convinced and convicted is Lawrence Wong about the problem of severe constraint in space? If he believes what he is saying, should not he be telling Parliament to stop the influx of more foreigners into the country immediately and also telling those that are peddling for 10m or 20m population to have their heads checked? Or he does not believe in what he was saying, so say say only. No need to take any action because it is not true?
 
What is the truth?