The empty talk of Singapore
By Daniel McCarthy
Wednesday, Sep 01, 2004,Page 8
The recent supplication of Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien
Loong (èû´) to Beijing comes as no surprise. Singapore has a
long and consistent tradition of suppressing human rights and
democracy among its own people in the interest of maintaining a
dictatorship and advancing commercial interests. It should be no
surprise that Singapore's leader would be willing to verbally
sacrifice Taiwan in order to curry favor with a companion
dictatorship that represents a major market. Anyone who reads the
Straits Times cannot mistake the continued anti-Taiwan, pro-China
tirade that Singapore's leading newspaper echoes.
But we can easily see that Lee's words are empty. He stated that no
European or Asian country would recognize an independent Taiwan.
How can he know this? Certainly he does not. He was only making the
statement to placate the frothy, emotional ultranationalism that
has reared its ugly head in Beijing these past few years. That part
of Lee's statement, and probably the rest as well, can be relegated
to the junkyard of political propaganda.
But if we look at the substance of the situation, we see that
Singapore has built facilities to service aircraft carriers,
obviously for US use. And Singapore has an agreement to provide
logistical support to the US military in times of conflict, without
regard to the identity of the other parties in the conflict.
Further, both Singapore and the US are basing equipment and
supplies in northern Australia for joint use in a Pacific conflict.
Singapore has tied its security completely to the US, so if the US
defends Taiwan, Singapore will follow.
Although we know that Singapore will help the US defend Taiwan if
fighting breaks out, it is nonetheless disappointing that
Singapore's freshly crowned prime minister does not have the
character to stand by the free and democratic people of Taiwan in
words as well as action.
