Bilahari Kausikan - Would Singapore distance itself from what Bilahari said?

Singapore—Retired diplomat Bilahari Kausikan, who found himself in trouble concerning remarks he made on Friday (Oct 23) suggesting that Cambodia and Laos be expelled from the ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) has dismissed accusations that he is a foreign agent.

He made these remarks at a round table discussion organised by the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, saying, “To state things bluntly, I see Cambodia and Laos teetering precariously on the edge…They have some difficult choices to make. And if they should make wrong choices, they will confront ASEAN as a whole with difficult choices. We may have to cut loose the two to save the eight.”

Mr Bilahari emphasised this point further in a Facebook post on Oct 24, writing, “Not imminent or something ASEAN would do lightly or willingly, but if a limb turns gangrenous, amputation may be the only way to save a life.”

On Tuesday (Oct 26), an unsigned letter allegedly from former and current Cambodian diplomats was published in Fresh News, a Cambodian news site, calling Mr Bilahari a person who is “attention-seeking, inconsistent, and incoherent.”

The letter writers called out Mr Bilahari and ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute for pushing the notion that Cambodia is a puppet of China, and questioned whether this is the Singapore Government’s the official position.

“Bilahari and ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute should stop pretending as if they have the monopoly on knowledge and wisdom. [S]peaking of agency, which was the whole gist of Bilahari’s paper, one wonders for which power is he and ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute acting as ‘agents’ for?” the letter reads.

“What we find repulsive is his arrogant and condescending tone, not just about our country, Cambodia, and Laos, but even towards our current Asean leaders, a behaviour unbecoming of a former diplomat. He made a barrage of misleading and flawed claims that are intellectually deceitful and normatively detrimental to the region, especially Asean,” the letter writers added.

 Above is from Yahoo News.

Actually I did not want to waste time talking about Bilahari. He is passe, history, irrelevant.  Now that this piece of information is everywhere, let's ask a few questions about where he is coming from and his intent and motive. Hopefully this is not Singapore's position as it did not appear in the ST, I think. If it does, it may implicate Singapore as it already implicated ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute.

Why would this Bilahari be making such a strong view at this time when the evil Americans are gearing up to start a war with China, with lol Pompeo, Esper and a few others all out to smear and demonise China? Is this part of a coordinated American campaign or just a private individual's view, not related?

The position taken as if he is speaking with some authority in Asean, wanting Asean to sack Laos and Cambodia for being friendly to China, just like Singapore being friendly to the USA, and for letting China build a sea port in Cambodia as an act of a proxy while Singapore offering a military base for American warships as not a proxy, call for a lot of questioning of his intent and where he is coming from. 

It would be very unfortunate for an ex govt official to be making such a strong stand, coming out as someone with an agenda and with Singapore being thrust to the forefront of the American's anti China war conspiracy. Would the Singapore govt deem it necessary to dissociate with this man, that he is no longer with the govt and his view does not reflect the govt's thinking?

Bilahari and a few others were very vocal against China during the silly Aquino fake court case in the SC Sea island dispute. That event let to the unfortunate Terrex Incident and souring of relations between China and Singapore. Subsequently nothing more was heard from this gang of four. But it seems that Bilahari is the only one left standing and still spouting his anti China and pro American stand. The others have been made to hold their peace or silenced.

What do you think? Is this undiplomatic outlash good for Sino Singapore relations when a lot is at stake? Singapore is trying to latch on to the Chinese economic growth engine to drive its lethargic economy and cannot afford to have a loose cannon firing at China that could be misinterpreted as the govt's position. Singapore cannot afford to make the same mistake again and ended with another Terrex Incident and flung all its effort to reestablish trust with China into the longkang.

What do you think?

US destabilising South China Sea in attempt to turn it into an American pond

 The United States will deploy Coast Guard patrol ships in the western Pacific to counter what it described as “destabilizing and malign” activities in the region by China, the country’s top security adviser said on Friday.

The US Coast Guard was “strategically homeporting significantly enhanced Fast Response Cutters … in the western Pacific,” White House National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien said in a statement.

Describing the US as a Pacific power, the statement added that China’s “illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, and harassment of vessels operating in the exclusive economic zones of other countries in the Indo-Pacific threatens our sovereignty, as well as the sovereignty of our Pacific neighbors and endangers regional stability”.

 

The above is reported in the Al Jazeera news. The Asia Times also had this in his headlines, 'US Coast Guard churns South China Sea tensions'.

 

These news of the evil intent of the aggressive American adventurism in South China Sea is raising concern among Asean states.  Coast Guard ships are mainly for patrolling territorial waters equivalent to a police force, not the military or marines. The Americans deployed its Coast Guards to guard the territorial waters of mainland America and surrounding seas of its islands like Hawaii and Guam. 

 

To deploy American Coast Guards in the South China Sea is as good as signalling to the countries in the littoral states that the Americans are making a claim to the not only the islands in the South China Sea but the South China Sea as American territory.  This illegal and provocative behaviour of the evil Americans is dangerous as it stokes the fire of war in the South China Sea. Not only China would be provoked, the expansionist intention of the Americans would not be welcomed by the Asean states.  Any such moves by the Americans could mean war in the South China Sea.

 

The evil Americans are bent on starting a war in the South China Sea and turn the region into another war zone. This is all the American's doing, sailing warships and coast guard ships thousands of miles from American shores to the western Pacific, an area owned by China and some Asean states.

The evil Americans have dropped its mask of pretension. It is going to seize the South China Sea after failing to agitate the Asean states to fight China.  It is claiming territorial sovereignty of the South China Sea! The evil Americans are going to do it on their own, to confront China and Asean states, and China would have no choice but to fight the Americans to protect its territorial waters and islands.

The Americans are going to start WW3. The Americans are solely responsible for this massive war of destruction of the human kind. It is aggressive American provocation, provocation and provocation all the way.

 

PS. My Saturday contribution as I will out early in the morning and unable to post on Sat.

Too Much Pay Breeds Complacency and Incompetence

When was the super salary of ministers introduced?

That year, since that year, the pay was so good that they most probably began to think (I assume) of how to grow their cunningly-gotten through parliament windfall, that everyone of them was spending more time thinking, planning and executing to increase their instant wealth, instead of how to develop the country and the people (the only natural resource Singapore has).

The excuse used was the magic words: "Globalisation. So let the market forces dictate."

In other words, they don't have to do anything. Just let the market forces move accordingly.

What is "market forces"? They are basically manipulative people who have the capital and the cranium to think, plan, exploit and manipulate the markets to their advantages.

That means, let these people exploit and manipulate our markets, our labour forces, and our capital. So, just sit back and enjoy the instant riches acquired with a stroke of the pen through the parliament.

Now, with Covid-19 wrecking havocs to the economy, the labour market, stock market, travel market, all sorts of markets, these happy-go-lucky multi-millionaires suddenly woke up from their euphoric slumber to the horror that we need Singaporeans, not foreigners, to run our country. That we need local-born talents, not imported make-belief talents turned into instant new citizens, like the ones at MAS, DBS, and Temasek and expect them to be loyal to the country like the local-born.

It is a bit too late. (But first, get rid of CECA. Without getting rid of CECA, their hands are tied.) The smarter local-born birds have flown. Those who have not are planning to fly away too.

For example, all my three children are working overseas and are planning not to come back. They have bought REAL properties abroad which they can call their own, not the fake leasehold (long-term rental) HDB government flats sold under the fake "Home Ownership" scheme, that will end up ZERO VALUE at end of 99 years.

What are the basic requirements to live a happy and satisfying life?

1. A permanent and stable place to stay and raise your children.

2. A steady and good-paying job, not a two-year contract job.

3. No NS to interrupt with your job or your family life.

4. A variety of reasonably good and affordable food and clothing.

5. Freedom to possess what you own, not someone decide for you how to spend your savings and force you to donate your organs (unless you opt out) and force you to pay for insurance premiums for insurance policies that you do not want to buy.

6. Freedom to move around, to protest and to assemblies and freedom of speech.

7. Medical services and educational institutions that are easily reached and affordable.

Which country can provide you the above 7 basic conditions?

Think. 

SSO.

PS. Posted on behalf of SSO.

How Emperor Kangxi saved China from the hypocrisy and scourge of the European Christian faith.

      Five hundred years ago in 1455  Pope Romanus Pontifex claimed himself to be the representative of the Christian God, Jesus Christ and in doing so he claimed dominion over the entire world. He issued statements which gave European rulers the sanction to colonize all of the non-Christian world. He anointed the rulers and their representatives the plunderers and pirates as sanctified conquerors with legal and moral license to dispossess natives of their possessions. The Bulls gave Christian plunderers like Columbus, Cortez, Pizarro, Cook, Hudson and the rest both legal and moral license to plunder, dispossess, enslave and  murder  the natives. They were given ample faculty to to invade, search out, capture, vanquish and subdue all pagans. They were to convert all natives to Christianity and to kill those who could not  be converted.

The arrogance and tyranny of the Vatican assumed the entire world was under the jurisdiction of the Pope, a God's representative on earth. Any land not Christianized or not under the sovereignty of a Christian ruler could be possessed on behalf of God. All time and space was considered  empty until Christians arrived with God's truth and until then all lands and territories were considered Terra Nullius. Thus this set the precedent and the rules for all the aggressive and warmongering European powers to set out to conquer and terrorize all the non-Christian world. It was the catalyst for the 500 years curse of white Christian domination and terrorism of all non-Christian countries which continue non-stop to this day.

Under this self-assumed totalitarian  godly power the Pope of the Catholics in the Vatican, the power house or headquarters of all the Catholics sent missionaries to China with intent to convert The Middle Kingdom to the Catholic Christian faith. 

The Catholic priests sent to China during the reign of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty were known as Jesuits or Dominicans, two different orders of the same Catholic church. However, the Jesuits predominate in the Chinese court, the hall of power and rule in the Middle Kingdom.

Emperor Kangxi ascended the Dragon Throne at the age of seven and ruled China from 1661 to 1722. In the early decades of Emperor Kangxi's reign, the Jesuits played a large part in the imperial court. As the Jesuit priests had great knowledge of astronomy Emperor Kangxi made the Jesuits in-charge of the Imperial Observatory. Emperor Kangxi was introduced to western music. A Jesuit priest Thomas Pereira taught him how to play the harpsichord. Emperor Kangxi appointed Karel Slavicek as court musician. Emperor Kangxi was broadminded and was always opened to new ideas. He was later to found out that his broadmindedness was being made use of by the Pope and the Vatican to destroy Chinese culture or to deculturalize China and the Chinese people from Chinese culture in favour of Christian teachings and tenets.

The Vatican sent preachers or missionaries known as Jesuits or Dominicans to China to evangelize or propagate the Christian faith or Christianity. They always believe in starting to convert the ruler or king of the country first as once the king is converted the rest of his subjects and the whole country will easily follow suit. 

Some of the early Jesuit missionaries sent to China in 1705 were Ferdinand Verbiest and Karel Slavicek. In 1711 the Pope through "The Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples" sent Matteo Ripa to China to propagate the Christian religion. Matteo Ripa an Italian priest was also a painter and copper engraver at Qing Court. In Beijing Pope Clement X11opened a religious school, The Collegio Dei Cinesi" to help the propagation of Christianity in China. 

In 1723 Matteo Ripa returned to Naples, Italy with four young Chinese converted Christians. They were to be groomed to become Christian priests before sending them back to China later as missionaries. At the same time the Vatican opened a school in Naples to teach Chinese to Italians. It was the first Chinese institute and the first school of Sinology in Europe.

Emperor Kangxi was grateful to the Jesuits for their contributions and the many languages they could interprete. He made use of the service of Jean Francoils Gerbillon and Thomas Pereira as translators for the negotiations of the Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689 with Russia. Little did he know that the Jesuit priests were sabotaging China's interests and subbordinating China's interests to the Russians who were also Catholic christians. Thus China was to lose large chunks of territories to Russia under the treachery of these Jesuits who manipulated the Chinese Emperor Kangxi under subterfuge to accept the lobsided treaty in favour of the Christian Russians. The Jesuits did the same treason to China in subsequent treaties with Russia in later years in the 1830s to 1900s which resulted in China losing more than two or three million square miles of territories north of the Heilongjiang River and the Ussuri River to Russia.

The Jesuits intent to convert Emperor Kangxi to Christianity.

Emperor Kangxi was a very conservative and very highly cultured man steeped in the knowledge of Confucianism, Chinese culture and Chinese rites. But he was also fond of the Jesuits respectful and unobtrusive manner. The Jesuit priests could speak Chinese well and wore the silk robes of the elites, the mandarins.Thus under these pretensions the Jesuits were able to ingratiate with Emperor Kangxi and gained influence in the emperor's court.

The Chinese rites controversy and the attempted deculturalization of Emperor Kangxi by subterfuge.

Jesuits intent to convert Emperor Kangxi to Christianity.

In 1692, when Thomas Pereira requested tolerance for Christianity , Emperor Kangxi was willing to oblige and issued "The Edict of Toleration" which recognized Catholicism and barred attack on their churches and legalized their missions and the practice of Christianity by the Chinese people.

However, controversy soon arose over whether Chinese Christians could still be allowed to take part in traditional Confucian ceremonies and ancestor worship. The Jesuit priests were in favour of tolerance but the Dominican priests took a hardline stand against Chinese traditional rites. The Dominican position won the support of Pope Clement X1 who in 1705 sent Charles Thomas Maillard de Toiurnon as his representative to the Emperor Kangxi to communicate the ban on Chinese rites and worship. 

Through Maillard de Tournon the Pope insisted on sending his own representative to Beijing to oversee Jesuit missionaries in China. This was not allowed by Emperor Kangxi as he treated this as an overstep to hijack the Emperor's power and authority and an  infringement on China's sovereignty and dignity. Emperor Kangxi refused the Pope in the Vatican for his audacity to challenge the Emperor's authority to keep missionary activities in China under his own oversight and control.

However, in the Vatican, the Pope chose to defy Emperor Kangxi's order and authority. On 19th March,1715, Pope Clement X1 arrogantly and defiantly issued the Papal Bull  Ex illa die which officially condemned Chinese rites and religious practice and forbade converted Chinese Christians to carry out the traditional practice. This was tantamount to killing Chinese culture , an attempt to deculturalize the Chinese from their traditional customs and cultural practices. Armed with the Pope's Papal Bull Ex illa die the Jesuit and Dominican priests went around destroying Chinese families worshipping tablets and deities causing untold choas, quarrels and trouble among Chinese families and society.

This Pope and Vatican arrogance was too much for Emperor Kangxi to tolerate. Under the dictates of the Pope's Papal Bull Ex illa die even Emperor Kangxi was not allowed to pray and pay respects to his ancestors base on Chinese traditional rites and customs. Emperor Kangxi was flagbbergasted and deep offended. Henceforth Emperor Kangxi officially forbade Christian missions in China, as they were causing too much trouble.

Southernglory1

Friday, 30th October, 2020.

 

Bring Singaporean talents home - Vivian Balakrishnan

SINGAPORE: Having people well versed in digital skills is key to Singapore’s Smart Nation drive, and the country hopes to attract Singaporeans based overseas to return home to work on such projects, said Minister-in-charge of the Smart Nation Initiative Vivian Balakrishnan. 

This is on top of continued efforts to grow the local talent pool, he added. 

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Dr Balakrishnan noted that with the global shortage of tech talent, there are “hundreds” of Singaporeans who are working abroad in places such as the Silicon Valley in the United States, China and Southeast Asia. 

“So the first thing is wherever possible, bring our people back home … The second source is (to) grow our own people,” he said during an interview conducted as part of the CNA Leadership Summit 2020.   CNA

For many years, even today, we are still hearing this obsolete mantra of sending our small pool of talents overseas to compete with the rest of the world when they are badly needed back home. In those days when our currency was weak it made sense. Now the exchange rate is so low that earning foreign currency is losing money.  No need to mention about earning rupiahs or rupees or even ringgits. And to make matters worse, at the same time we are recruiting all the fake talents and con men to replace our real talents overseas and paying them in S$.  How ridiculous can national policies be to allow this transfusion of talents, good Singaporean talents being replaced by fake and funny foreign talents, a hollowing out of our Singaporean core!

Now Vivian is making a strange call, a little late, to bring back our talents from overseas. Well, as they said, it is late than never.  Look at the banking and IT sector, the academia and the Science Parks, how many third world fake foreign talents have been brought in, and indirectly how many of our talents have been forced out by these foreigners that now control these positions and industries and quietly and strategically make sure they hire more of their own kinds and keep Singaporeans out!

If Singapore continues with this stupidity of wanting the best of the world to replace Singaporeans, all the 3.5m Singaporean would be replaced as there are 7b people out there, enough talents to replace every Singaporean here.

So, is what Vivian is saying another politically correct statement for the ears of Singaporeans or just another PR exercise, not to be taken seriously, not to be pursue or implemented?  How real is this change of thinking and policy?

Have we had enough of the fake talents and wildlife? Is Singapore really thinking of wanting its Singaporeans back home to contribute to the country or just forget about them? Foreign talents, fake talents are aplenty and queuing up at the door? Is this another case of all talks and no action?