Many people thought that our message made by PM Lee and George
Yeo is to carry China's balls. To a certain extend, yes, it does
make such effects but our voicing is targeted at USA, not China nor
Taiwan.
When PM Lee says "We will not support Taiwan if the war broke off
due to Taiwan's independence move", what he meant to say is that
Singapore will not allow Uncle Sam to use our facilities here to
support Taiwan's defence against China. That is the clear message
we want to send to USA, not Taiwan or China.
Here again, we repeated similar thing in UN. The message is clear
again, Singapore does not wish to get involved in the Taiwan if it
is provoked by Taiwan's independence movement. However, I think
George Yeo overdoes it. There is no need to talk about Lee Teng
Hui. If only he got the guts to speak out the truth, talk straight,
Singapore is not going to allow US to use its base to support a war
in Taiwan Straits. Simple, precise and sweet.
Of course I am furious at the snobbish remarks the Taiwan foreign
minister has made. Regardless of size or strength, every member of
UN has its rights to speak in this international forum of what its
views are. Taiwan, technically speaking, is not even a recognised
nation, not even a member of UN; it means that it is not even "up
to par" to be comparable to a nation like Singapore. Why talk so
loud and rude?
As far as we are concerned, we stand proud as an independent
nation, despite the little size we have.
On the other hand, I think there is no necessity for George Yeo to
engage in such speech. Diplomatically, it is considered as
insensitive. We have already done one wrong. Two wrongs don't get
one right.
Goh Meng Seng
