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Monday, June 26, 2023 - 23:52 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

From Local To Global

Former Singapore Foreign Minister presents some rational analysis


Before diving back into The Greatest Game with Twilight Struggle: New Moon, it felt appropriate to give a little attention to the local minor (political) leagues; loyal readers of this blog will surely recall there being a much larger focus on Singaporean politics in its earlier years, before the American scene unleashed itself around 2015, and absolutely destroyed all competition (like how Netflix, YouTube and K-dramas etc. sunk Mediacorp, come to think of it). It might also be noted that I had unabashedly argued far more for opposition stands, and against the stance of The State's Times and the domestic media apparatus, in some part as I felt contrarian views had been unfairly suppressed (and oft poorly-represented), despite their merit. Strangely, for all the authoritarian tendencies that supposedly exist in Singapore (okay, they do), the social cost has somehow been far, far higher when denouncing the American establishment view. Like, how does that even work?

But on to the main course. Our Law and Foreign Ministers had become embroiled in what has become known as the Ridout Road Saga in May, in which an opposition party leader alleged that they had paid less than the fair market value for the rental of the two humongous colonial bungalows, naturally a sore point for many property-starved locals, and especially problematic since the Law Minister also happened to oversee the Singapore Land Authority, under whose auspices the rentals were performed. This being Singapore, there was of course no actual danger to the incumbent party, who could just stonewall the matter into Parliament (now awaiting resolution in the July session) while putting out a form reply in The State's Times (while banning dissenting publications, if need be)

Quite surely entirely circumstantially, both ministers involved had expoused perspectives somewhat divergent from the U.S. line as discussed here in early March, with Balakrishnan sticking to his guns about the coming (stormy) multipolarity (or, in other words, America not being the boss of us, or even an ally), alongside cozying up with Cuba, joint military drills with China, and a shared top-level defense hotline that had been quite conspiciously denied to Uncle Sam (although I'm quite sure we would be more than happy to pass some messages along, if need be). On the legal side, sentencing for possession of weed has been tripled to a maximum of 30 years from ten previously, which has us aligning a lot more closely with Team Red GOP in the States, by my reckoning... as usual, come to think of it.


Very naughty one you know
(Source: straitstimes.com)


This little hubbub about technicalities on statemen's residences deferred with, it was time for the biggest domestic political event of the year - our Presidential election. The 2011 edition had been covered here, and concluded with the incumbent party just barely managing to split the vote sufficiently; they then happened to adjust the qualifying rules to the extent that the 2017 edition was uncontested, to which their Deep State counterparts in the U.S. must have looked on in envy. It remains to be seen whether this year's event will require a vote, but their preferred candidate has already been proclaimed in The State's Times: esteemed Senior Minister, Tharman Shanmugaratnam - who will of course be resigning his PAP membership to contest, or not, without partisan affiliation.

This appears a canny strategic choice by the incumbent party, with Tharman one of the more-popular and respected fellows they had to offer, what more with a fairly illustrious career thus far, and the obligatory Kennedy School credential. I could not help but raise an eyebrow when his unpaid advertisement in the national broadsheet played up his "brushes with the law" as a selling point, though - I mean, this is Singapore! They lock you up for looking at chewing gum funny (after bringing it in)! And guess what was his conviction for? Leaking official secrets! Now just wait a minute there... they are plagiarizing from The Real West Wing Of Washington D.C., 2023 season, aren't they?

By the way, since the United States of America remains the torchbearer of democracy, it is my sincere hope that their coming election for POTUS will be treated impartially by actors such as their corporate media and judiciary. Alas, it feels like open bias is on show, with one candidate frequently described with phrases like "juvenile", which must surely unfairly emphasize his youthful vitality in contrast to his main contender (who certainly doesn't have the wits to turn this presentation around à la Reagan). More concerningly, the Feds then went and knowingly boosted his popularity with an indictment for retaining classified documents, which was obviously going to be seen as politically-motivated persecution, by most fair-minded citizens. This has seen him cop an 11-point swing from his nearest primary challenger in New Hampshire and retake the lead in national polling aggregates, which has to be regarded as a fix after he won despite supposedly being behind by double digits in much the same polls, back in 2016. Play fair, guys!


How about a unity ticket, for the healing to begin?
[N.B. And then everybody gets their charges dropped, eh?]
[N.N.B. For those who can't wait for the surely-super-entertaining debates to be broadcasted, there's a generative A.I. simulation on Twitch]
(Source: babylonbee.com)


As it is, with DeSantis pledging to purge the FBI in the extremely unlikely event that he gets elected, main Democratic Party challenger Robert F. Kennedy Jr. should really have a word or two with him, having lost both his father and his uncle to unexplained accidents, after they had expressed similar sentiments. Back home, all we're getting is our prospective favourite hoping that a sacrificial punching bag will be allowed, over impotent objections from an enervated opposition.



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