I guess by penning this post, I might suddenly become liable for all sorts of things... Definition, libel and even charges under the ISO or the crime of treason if I happen to say anything wrong/uncovered in the eyes of those in power. I won't even bother mentioning whose dynasty this is. ERM.. Oops I think that implied a degree of autocracy..*wince.. I don't wanna get sued*
But as a Singaporean, and one who loves her country and believes strongly that loyalty to her country does not equate to blind loyalty to the government, I must say that I'm rather, to put it mildly and least-offensively, disappointed with the actions of our DPM and PM-to-be with regards to the Taiwan-China issue. One wonders why he had to make the visit to Taiwan personally and be so openly pro-Taiwan-independence. when it is obvious that those actions are not going to be in Singapore's best interests. Being a personal acquaintance of several Taiwanese, I understand that perhaps independence for Taiwan might be a big deal to some, but unfortunately in the long run for Singapore(and no offence to my dear friends), it might be more prudent to either remain on the Chinese side or just keep out of the issue, obviously because of the economic and political clout that China potentially has. Even Big Brother America has had to give way to his Chinese brother in recent years, what more a small little resourceless island like ours? This is not to say that I think Singapore has no right to take free stands in international issues; I'm just saying what every good history student knows and what every politician/diplomat needs to know imo - that there is no real free stand in international politics, it's all about interests and power in the end. (Just go and study the whole Cold War thing, you'll see what I mean.) And I find that this is especially true for a small nation like us who is heavily dependent on trade and commerce to flourish.
Since it's not such a good move, why did the man do it then? Surely it was not just straight out of his whim and fancy. Well, I have with me the ''official'' reasons from the Straits Times Interactive, namely the article titled 'S'pore must rethink its Taiwan links ' by Yan Xuetong of International Relations Research Institute at Tsinghua University ( Phew.. Okie I have done my citation.. if anything goes wrong, go look up the author of that article and not this one..)
In the article, which I concede is of a Chinese origin, it is implied that the visit was not just for the observation of the realities of the situation between the Straits but also to build DPM's political legitimacy in preparation for his role as PM of Singapore. I think that there's nothing wrong in trying to get ready for his new position, but his actions of open support for Taiwanese independence were uncalled for, especially when he had already been warned by China beforehand. (And once again, remember that there is no real free stand in international politics.. I would rather not be so out-spoken if it's going to cause my people problems in the future.) I think the worst incident in this whole issue is the fact that after it was so openly known that he had made the trip to Taiwan, he had to aggravate matters by coming up with excuses (no offence but I think in layman's terms they would be called lame) like his visit was a personal and private one. I'm sure that anyone who has lied to anyone else in their lifetime would know that the worst thing you can do when you want to cover up something ugly is to tell a lie that contradicts what you have already done. Well, I suppose a friend of mine is right that the lame excuse given to the China authorities might not have been DPM's personal idea but the work of a bunch of civil servants who know not what they are doing. (And there you have it, another problematic issue that awaits discovery.)
Perhaps some of you reading this may think I'm just anti-establishment or something, but I assure you I'm trying to be objective here. And to prove it to you guys, this next point is about how the Taiwanese side should be partly responsible for our problems. Okie maybe they are not legally liable, but to a certain degree they are kind of morally liable. I do think that the Taiwan administration, namely the government led by Ah Bian, has been adopting this "diplomatic offensives" (phrase first used by Yazhou Zhoukan in HK) stance in the Straits problem and that to some extent, DPM was an unfortunate victim of that stance used against China. Taiwanese media's playing up the visit may have increased awareness and antagonism on the Chinese side. And what is so wrong abt these Taiwanese actions? Well, sure they have their own political agendas but that does not give them the right to attempt to use others as a sort of weapon to achieve their aims. To use a rather crude and maybe not too appropriate analogy, it's like when two guys C and T have a problem with each other. S is a nice girl who is on good terms with both of them, but maybe a little closer to C than T. I think it would be terribly unbecoming (and not to mention totally ungentlemanly) of T to snatch S to his side and parade to C that "S is now my good friend and not yours ha ". But then this is also international politics and therefore while Taiwan may have a role to play in this, I do believe that our national education messages contain this line called "No one owes Singapore a living" and therefore the onus is ultimately on ourselves to be prudent in our dealings with our friends in the world.
On the bright side, I doubt if China would severely react to this incident (such as severing ties with us or something) unless anyone provokes them further. This is because I think they recognise that we are still of some help to them in furthering their economic developments. Plus it would make them look like a sore loser if they openly flare up at us and I doubt that is what they want to portray to the world now that they are in the process of opening up their trade. But as the ambassador of China to Singapore has already said, ''Let those who tied knot untie it'', I guess it would greatly help if DPM could do something to regain China's confidence in our bilateral relations.
Wow. This is such a long entry haha.. I haven't written such a long one in such a long time.. Anyway, I do think we are facing a trend now - cranking, nepoltism and just bad leadership. Just look at the likes of Bush - the guy who claims to be the reluntant warrior now then he needs to gather votes from people who finally realized that he's being pointless. And he was the very same guy who went ahead with an invasion of Iraq accusing them of hiding chemical weapons which to this day no one has found. (Not to mention the media has also cleverly played down that fact until recently.) It's ironic isn't it? The invader calling the invaded the invader?
And to my utter disgust, it has been brought to my attention recently in my personal experiences that even in cases of student governments, horrible incidents of cronyism and favoritism happen frequently. Of course I have known all along ( and have learnt to come to terms with) that student governments are mostly popularity contests. It's hardly about talent or attitudes, despite what they may say, it's usually about how many people one knows or how good one is at licking his superiors' boots or worst still, one's physical qualities (those are the sort that I personally scorn very much). I was appalled to learn of the haphazard management of a certain committee who has squandered away every single cent from the funds left to them by their predecessors and despite that, cannot manage to organize one event properly without exhorting further funds from their people. I have heard, particularly, of the pompous speeches made by their leader which did not aid the situation but only served to antagonize the only people who were present to complete the work at hand. And worst worst worst still, and I emphaise that I detest cronynism very much, the key positions in which the holder must have real abilities were occupied by none other than the closest friends of the leader. And of course, since birds of a feather flock together, the entire organisation was decayed thru and thru.
That one bunch aside, another incident irked me even more. A pleasant, capable and responsible young lady was going to be denied her rightful place in her commitee just becoz of a biased B***H of a teacher who refuses to see the folly of her ways. This young lady has definitely gone beyond the call of her duties and helped out even those who were the most undeserving, even to the detriment of her health, just to ensure that all goes well with her school operations. Yet, at this crucial moment, she is betrayed by the very establishment which she has served faithfully for two whole years. I wonder how in this time and age, when one constantly witnesses such betrayals between people, can one believe that there is honour in all dealings with our fellow human beings. I really wonder.
To compound matters, this teacher has gone on to select a group of puppets who basically can't get anything done without external assistance as her com members. Basically her criteria must have been how controllable they all are. I sincerely wish her and her puppets all the best in their future endeavours and hopefully by the time they are done with that school, the school would still be there.
Bleah. In a rage.
