This week, Singapore welcomed the one day visit of the most
powerful man on Earth, the person that sanctioned the wars on
Afghanistan and Iraq for the most holy of reasons but strangely
enough, both wars failed in their objectives -- the first failed to
kill Osama, the second failed to unearth any chem-bio weapons. Both
of which turned out to be failed wars actually, as millions of
peace activist brothers around the world stated it would be BEFORE
the wars began.
It cannot be doubted that it is stupid to antagonise the US, the
reality is that Singapore is not France. But on the other hand, is
it so prudent to lavish so much support and attention to the
biggest bully on Earth? Practical diplomacy dictates that the weak,
in this case Singapore, must always get the backing of the strong
... but practical diplomacy also tells us that the strong is not
necessarily always trustworthy. Just go up north from Singapore and
ask the Vietnamese about how committed the US can be to saving a
country from the evil clutches of Communism. Or more recently, just
ask the Somalis how much US troops did for the country after a
couple of Ranger and Delta boys were whacked and a couple of Black
Hawks went down.
Singapore has no oil, no natural resources as our Sec 1 textbooks
have drummed into us, so the reality is that we cannot expect that
our gestures of goodwill like naming a orchid for the Bush and
sending troops to Iraq will be remembered in the event of a hostile
invasion of Singapore from our dearest and nearest neighbours.
Singapore ain't no Kuwait. Yep, we do have a large presence of US
MNCs in Singapore and a fairly large patriotic bunch of American
expats working here, as we can see from the great crowd gathered to
catch a glimpse of GI Bush, but rest assured that these people will
be the first to be evacuated out of Sg in the event of the
slightest tremor of conflict in Singapore. They owe the land
nothing, they're here to milk us so as we attract them here to milk
them. Yep we do haf a US naval base here, but if we remember WWII,
the Great British Empire also built Singapore into an impregnable
Fortress with a stupendous naval base but in the end, they were
bush-whacked by the Japs and the only action the Great Naval Base
saw was preparing the funeral rites for two British battleships.
Hard facts, harsh reality.
So, where does that leave the common Singaporean citizen? The
gahment may be playing the game of currying support from the main
man of the world at the moment but it should also draw the line
between support and obsession. We can be normal "fans" of the US
but to become a "groupie" of the US, worshipping a hypocritical
democracy, invites a greater level of hostile attention which may
not be offset by any significant gains. In short, to use economic
parlance (which then maybe the MIW can understand), the return of
investment or ROI of sending troops to Iraq is not significantly
greater in any strategic sense to not sending troops to Iraq. We
should just stick to Orchid-naming diplomacy, the ROI there maybe
significantly higher.
If we play this game wrongly, the people will be the ones to
suffer. The tremendous traffic jam along Stevens Road on Tuesday
night to ensure the security of the Greatest Warmonger on this
Earth could jolly well become a permanent reality. It would bode
well for Singapore to avoid riding along the arrogance of the US :
exploit them if possible but never be seen as cosy with them. a
reading of Machiavellian politics is essential here.
Bo Zheng Hu
23.10.03
www.thevoiddeck.org
