So there's been a Coup in Thailand.
Very interesting.
What fuels the Asian fascination with totalitarian, authoritarian rulers?
Is the population density of Asian countries so high to the point of making these societies so incredibly susceptible to chaos and anarchy, thus leading the masses of Chinese and Indochinese and Koreans and Japanese to yearn for an iron fist in those that rule over them?
I read somewhere that this chap by the name of Lucien Pye did a study on the cultural roots of authoritarianism, but I couldn't find his works in the libraries.
In other news, the Supreme Lord Benefactor of Temasekii Singapurus, the MMperor Leeus Deus, has gone and stirred up a hornet's nest by commenting about how Malayland and Indonland always treat their ethnic Chinese populations like dirt, and how Chinese Communist Singapurus must always be on its guard lest it become yet another subjugated ethnic Chinese enclave under the Malay-Indonesian-Dayak-Muslim heel.
That statement was totally uncalled for; it was made without the slightest provocation from the leaders of both Malayland and Indonland. It's not as if there was a Habbibie banging on about a "small puny red dot" that would be swamped by Muslim hordes or a Madhatter Mahathir raving about cutting off the Island's water supply. Quite the opposite; this new Bambung fellow seems quite decent and Badawi hasnt been saying much except about how he looks forward to working with Singapurus.
So why the heck did Our Supreme Lord Benefactor go and say that?
Admittedly, he may be right after all (in fact what he says seems really to be the case in Malayland and Indonland, witness the Bumiputra laws and anti-Chinese racial riots and laws in each country respectively), and Malyaland and Indonland are indeed screwed up countries in other ways as well (ie the motherfucking eco-terrorist farmers in Sumatra who keep burning their jungles and sending tonnes of ash over Malayland and Singapurus).
But to come out in public and say that kind of thing in that kind of way is the hallmark of a stupid, tactless, and insensitive goon, not what one would expect from a highly respected and self-vaunted statesman, much less the so-called "Kissinger of South-East Asia".
The big irony here is that he's the same person who regularly hits out at the West and Human Rights bodies for their criticism of Singapurus, saying that they should not be interfering in Singapurus' internal affairs, and that Singapurus has its own "Special Circumstances".
In that bloody case, why the heck is he himself interfering in Malayland's and Indonland's internal affairs, and not giving a shit about their own "Special Circumstances"?
One should also recall the Supreme Lord Benefactor's propensity for sueing people into oblivion for making "Irresponsible remarks that reflect badly on his reputation".
So why the heck is he going on with such irresponsible statements that tarnish the reputations of entire sovereign states?
That's fucking blatant hypocrisy if you ask me.
Unless he has other, more Machevellian, plans up his sleeves.
It could be that he's trying to open up a "second front" within these two countries, so that in the (plausible) event of war, he would be able to count on the discontented Chinese minorities within Malayland and Indonland to launch a guerilla campaign against the Malayland and Indonland Armed Forces, thus allowing the Singapurus Imperial Guard to gain the upper hand in such a conflict.
Even if this is indeed the case, I still think it's a stupid move (not to mention that its a highly immoral one), because there would be nothing to stop the rulers of these two Muslim giants from conducting their own campaign of inciting racial hatred within Singapurus' population. Singapurus' own Muslims have also been getting quite a bit of unfair treatment from the primarily Chinese PAP government, in very subtle ways. Its just that the PAP is alot better at concealing its distrust of Malay-Muslims than UMNO is at hiding both it's flagrant favouritism towards Malays and it's contempt for Malaysian Chinese. Making this kind of statement would only invite Malayland and Indonland to retaliate in kind.
And if Malayland and Indonland were to indeed seize the statements as an excuse for launching their own campaign of racial hatred against the Island, Singapurus would be most definitely worse off than either of them. Malayland and Indonland can afford to have a few cities worth of racial riots. Not so the single city of the city-state.
In all, the Supreme Lord Benefactor has shown himself to be both short-sighted and flagrantly hypocritical.
Not that anyone on the Island is going to notice, or if they do, they'll come out in full support of their beloved Supreme Lord Benefactor. And even if they don't the newspapers wont print their views. Like how the papers are projecting the outcry in Malayland as a "LIVELY DEBATE over MM's Remarks". It looks more like a damn bloody heated furore to me.
Oh well. Such is the way things are. At least I'm not in Somalia or somewhere like that.
