China is pressuring / heckling / threatening Singapore for our stand on the South China Sea issues. Apparently they are not happy with us advocating for a world where small and large countries abide by a “rules-based international order” (in reference to The Hague Tribunal's South China Sea Ruling).
So now China is getting real angsty with Singapore, a country whose geographical size and population is easily dwarfed several times over by any one of China’s cities by spreading patently false news about Singapore's actions in NAM and even threatening economic sanctions.
We can reasonably infer three things about Singapore from China's reaction.
(1) Singapore's oversized influence on the world stage
What we say and do as a country carries significant
clout/influence on the world stage despite of our tiny size. China is aware of keenly this and wants to mitigate the impact/fallout from our stand on the South China
Sea issue.
(2) Singapore will not succumb to external pressures that are prejudice to her interests
Our stance on the issue may have been
surprising/unexpected/shocking to China. After all, they are such a huge
country with one of the world’s largest economy.
Their surrogate’s reactions tell
us what is in their minds. China, as the BIG country, had fully expected Singapore, the
TINY country, to be compliant with China’s wishes/whims. The last thing
they expected was for Singapore to have its own strong stand/opinion on the issue.
I think they forget that Singapore has been (and still is)
through that sort of pressure (both political and economic) before from her neighbors over various issues. Just think Water Supply and
Trans-boundary Haze and how Singapore was harassed over these issues.
And Singapore has never caved in or done anything that would
be prejudicial to her interests. Even when the US pressured Singapore over the
Michael Fay incident, we did not give in to their demands. (ok, we did give them a bit of face by reducing the number of cane strokes that Fay received. But the sentence was still carried out.)
(3) Singapore's Leaders have Balls of Steel the necessary courage to stand up to bullying tactics
Our leaders have the moral courage to take a
principled stand, which is consistent with international law, to protect
Singapore’s long term interests. We do not cave in to short term political or
economic threats to us.
So yeah, China, you can go suck it.
Thailand Terror Threats
Just today (11 Oct), the Thai Police announced that there
was an armed group was plotting car bomb attacks in a province near Bangkok. I hope that nothing of the sort happens and the Thais will be able to handle this threat quickly.
I also fervently pray/hope that nothing similar will ever happen in Singapore. And even if it does, that Singaporeans will stand united and strong as one and not falter in the face of terror threats.
Look at the Govt's preparation for terror attacks vis a vis SG Secure movement, the SAF's Army Deployment Force (ADF) and the SPF's Emergency Response Team.
US Presidential Elections
The US Presidential elections have, in my opinion, devolved
into a reality show. What is truly horrifying is that Trump, a serial liar to
the nth degree, with his disturbing stance on nuclear weapons use (seriously, Trump
actually can ask why nuclear weapons should not be used??), can be taken
seriously by US voters as a candidate for the highest office in the States.
We are already seeing some signs of this sort of populist politicians coming into our own elections (read the 'loony fringe' politician-wannabes like HHH, Roy Ng etc). Lets just hope that our own elections do not go down the path of the US elections.
And in other news
The Govt is looking at:
(1) Measures to mitigate the fall from
a Recession, just in case it happens.
(2) Changing the Elected Presidency to strengthen
the two-key protection of our national reserves.
(3) Refining the CPF scheme,
to better meet the changing retirement needs of Singaporeans
(4) building and
strengthening our ties with India, Australia and Norway
(5) Contributing
Temasek Rice seeds – a naturally bred rice stain which is hardy and able to
withstand extreme weather conditions such as floods and drought - into the
Svalbard Global Seed Vault, the world's largest secure seed storage facility.
(6) Fighting the Aedes mosquito to prevent the Zika & Dengue viruses from
spreading.
(7) Building up our National Taps to harden Singapore's water supply for the future.
It is true that the Govt has the advantage of ministries to help with the work
but the Ministers are the ones that have to set the direction and lead their respective
Ministries. The Civil Service cannot, and should not be, the ones who set policy and direction. That is the purview of the elected govt.
However, when we look at our largest group of elected Opposition MPs in Parliament, we really have to wonder what the heck is going on with them.
The Workers Party with the largest
group of Opposition MPs in Parliament, 6 elected MPs and 3 NCMPs, is still
grappling with resolving AHPETC/AHTC accounting issues after more than 3 years
now.
Maybe that's why LTK wants to have 20 Opposition MPs. Even with 9 MPs, WP is still so ineffective/
inefficient that they need at least 20 to function properly.
And yet WP wants to take over the PAP and lead the Govt when they, all 6 MPs and 3 NCMPs, cannot even resolve their self-created accounting issues.
You can't even handle a Town Council and yet you dare to dream of leading the Govt?
Seriously… WTF lah.
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