lcloo
Major
"Why does anyone care what the little Red Dot think? The vast majority of Singaporeans definitely don't.
The Western bloc likes to make Singapore significant, thinking that it will be the goat that leads ASEAN down the western path but to be honest, the rest of ASEAN also doesn't care what Singapore has to say. Take for instance the sanction against Russia for the Ukraine SMO - SG took the lead, nobody followed
We all know SG dances to the tune of the US while trying to not. It is harder now than in LKY time given how the economy is tied to the western financial system and it's defence equipment is largely US sourced. Breaking away from those chains will take a seismic shift and many many years of careful maneuvering.
Meantime, just ignore SG like the rest of ASEAN does."
That is very true.
I remember back in the 1970s/1980s, Singaparoe made it known that they were not rushing to recognise PRC as the representative of China due to the suspicions of neighboring countries, especially Indonesia and Malaysia, that Singapore might be pro-China because the main population of Singapore are ethnic Chinese. The untold potential threat to Singapore has always been the anti-communist Muslim majority countries like Malaysia and Indonesia, although on the surface everyone denied it, and cite improving good relationship.
Singapore waited until 1990 and became the last ASEAN country to establish diplomatic relationship and recognised PRC as the China.
The military bond with US was largedly to gain access to advance weapons and bring in USA as deterence to the dark and untold ambitions of neighbouring countries. Singapore's ruling PAP (People's Action Party) started as a Socialist political party, they were acused of being communists or communist supporters when they were part of Malaysia Federation.
Present day Singapore is trying to be neutral between China and USA but their 4 or 5 decades long bonding with USA has no doubt creating subtle bias in favour of USA, especially use of English and access to western media is prominent in Singapore.
The Western bloc likes to make Singapore significant, thinking that it will be the goat that leads ASEAN down the western path but to be honest, the rest of ASEAN also doesn't care what Singapore has to say. Take for instance the sanction against Russia for the Ukraine SMO - SG took the lead, nobody followed
We all know SG dances to the tune of the US while trying to not. It is harder now than in LKY time given how the economy is tied to the western financial system and it's defence equipment is largely US sourced. Breaking away from those chains will take a seismic shift and many many years of careful maneuvering.
Meantime, just ignore SG like the rest of ASEAN does.
"That is very true.
I remember back in the 1970s/1980s, Singaparoe made it known that they were not rushing to recognise PRC as the representative of China due to the suspicions of neighboring countries, especially Indonesia and Malaysia, that Singapore might be pro-China because the main population of Singapore are ethnic Chinese. The untold potential threat to Singapore has always been the anti-communist Muslim majority countries like Malaysia and Indonesia, although on the surface everyone denied it, and cite improving good relationship.
Singapore waited until 1990 and became the last ASEAN country to establish diplomatic relationship and recognised PRC as the China.
The military bond with US was largedly to gain access to advance weapons and bring in USA as deterence to the dark and untold ambitions of neighbouring countries. Singapore's ruling PAP (People's Action Party) started as a Socialist political party, they were acused of being communists or communist supporters when they were part of Malaysia Federation.
Present day Singapore is trying to be neutral between China and USA but their 4 or 5 decades long bonding with USA has no doubt creating subtle bias in favour of USA, especially use of English and access to western media is prominent in Singapore.
Last edited:
