LOL! What do I care the the names the honorable minister Agung Laksono calls us? At least he is not Agung WhyUdunno. That's good enough for me.
I read that they are going to act and that's all we want. As for our state to state relationship as usual mutual interests is the rule of the day. Let the ministers quarrel and our PM and their President be on friendly terms. Again this is life in international relations. All these comments I read with the ST piece were unnecessary and uncalled for. If anything they only serve to prove that Agung Laksono was spot on about us.
I am more worried how our ministers are performing under pressure. Doesn't look very good and these are the only ones we have. Sigh! The ones we protect from serious competition. How to be fit without the pressure of natural selection?
I think we must make plans and judiciously send out the signal that in future all options are on the table including imitating the Mossad. Look, let's not be like Irene Ng but get real to the realities of our neighborhood. We are an Israel of sorts. Our friends can turn into enemies over night. Our commitment to the SAF must be unwavering and we must always acquire the various forms of leverage because military and extra-legal options belongs to the last resort.
Update: 2:20pm
I am reading lots of people don't get the subtlety of sending only NEA head Andrew Tan to lead the team to Jakarta. Even Bertha Henson missed it. It is our gesture to the Indonesians that we trust them to do the right thing. It is face saving and its importance cannot be underestimated! Well I must refrain from being harsh on our people. In this instance they are clueless just as I am clueless about many things they are tuned into.
One redeeming grace of our leaders is that they are impressive fast learners.
Update: June 21 10:25am
Relax thum bo ok! Don't be so worked up.
I suppose it is entirely possible the Internet contains information not entirely flattering to that Indonesian minister Agung Laksono.
ReplyDeleteA simple Google search and clicking on "Angung Laksono Selingkuh" revealed:
https://www.google.com.sg/search?q=agung+laksono+selingkuh&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
Looks like that minister is quite a Romeo. I wonder if he has any time to discharge government duties he gets paid for.
Then again, I am reasonably certain this minister is rich and the KPK (Indonesian anti corruption agency) is rather interested in his monies...
Warm regards,
Get your AQI update and breakdown here.
ReplyDeletehttp://aqicn.org/city/singapore/south/
Thank you very much. Very useful information.
Delete"I am reading lots of people don't get the subtlety of sending only NEA head Andrew Tan to lead the team to Jakarta. Even Bertha Henson missed it. It is our gesture to the Indonesians that we trust them to do the right thing. It is face saving and its importance cannot be underestimated!"
ReplyDeleteYou're giving too much credit to the Sgp govt here, thinking in terms of n-dimensional chess. Andrew Tan is the outgoing NEA chief and his term expires 15-June. The only reason for sending him is VB wants to be seen "doing something". Notice that VB even announced in his FB page about Andrew's meeting at Jakarta today. Ordinarily, if you're really pushing diplomacy, you do no publicise this kind of info, particularly who is attending. This is to give room for the talks to work. In this case, not only is the meeting publicised, the person attending is announced and is no less the outgoing chief.
What message does this send, other than "wayang"?
If the talks fail, VB has nothing to lose. Andrew "failed". Andrew has nothing to lose - after all, he's out of here and someone else is cleaning the shit. The new NEA chief has nothing to lose - his predecessor failed. Anyway, what can Andrew do in Jakarta? Does anyone know him? Has he cultivated any diplomatic relations with the Indo all these years? If you're going to send someone, why not Tommy Koh?
In other words, this is utterly un-serious. No wonder Singaporeans are smart enough to see through all this.
In this typical fashion, VB is firing, before aiming. He's feeling the heat and when he does, he tends to make things worse. Whether its dealing with WP or with the Indo.