Stop the Bashing

Category: Political Issues

Article: Let's all Bash Singapore

From Straits Times 10/2/07

Singapore, the smallest country in ASEAN, but also one of the more successful and richer countries amongst its much larger counterparts, has been receiving much bombarding from its neighbours (than before) in the past few months. Dr. Mahathir, former ex-prime minister, rather notorious for his comments on Singapore, recently said on Thai national television that, ‘you'll get nowhere with them (Singapore) either being nice or being tough, they only think of themselves.' Now he has said it himself. We are not here to be pushed around by our neighbours just because of our size, and on being nice, I do not recall instances where they have treated us friendlily.

For the past 40 years or so, Singapore has stood firm on its foreign policy of making friends with all who wish us no harm and sparing no one who entertains the thought of harming us. Because we are smaller, yet richer and more successful of the region, we seem to have committed a fault of being what we are today, often becoming a political punching bag of the leaders in the region at ASEAN meetings. What they are trying to do is distract the people in their own country from the own issues present there by finding faults with Singapore and how we only think about ourselves. Some of the recent examples will be the Thailand telecommunications controversy about Singapore spying on them, and Indonesia bringing in the sand ban on Singapore as a sort of blackmail.

Being such close regional counterparts, I do not think that maintaining such ill relationships with each other does any good for both Singapore and the other countries. Being such a small country, we still depend much on resources on foreign countries, as we are not self-sustainable yet in necessities like water and food. Something such as a trade embargo on Singapore by ASEAN countries can effectively affect us in many ways such as economy. As for the other countries like Thailand, I do not feel that accusing us for what we have or have not done will help their situation in any way. What they should be doing, or perhaps we, is to work together to improve the whole economy and relationship of the whole region so that we can prosper together. Wanting Singapore to slow down so that our neighbours appear less poor should not be the way to go.

However, I do think that some self reflection on our part is needed as well. Has our attitude caused the strained ties with our neighbours as well?

Our economic achievements for the past 40 years have been evident and recognised. However I do not think that the coarse way we have carried ourselves in other countries has shown us fit to be from a developed country. Also, the “kiasu” behaviour does not aid the situation either. From the forums, someone has even commented that our social skills have gone backwards.

Bashing Singapore has not caused any progress, but will only cause the region to fall apart.