Vivian Balakrishnan goes to Jakarta

In normal times this wouldn't be noteworthy but these aren't normal times. Actually I kinda appreciate him sharing this pic with us.

I had called him an under performing minister. Good for him it is the opinion of his PM which mattered.

I hope he gets to see Pres Yudhoyono. That would be their leader being magnanimous to us never mind that the fires is their fault. Then we know after initial missteps we are now dancing around this right and will get results in due course.

Online I read some Singaporeans talk like we are some big and powerful country. That's a mistake. We must always be very clear what we want and put in effort to work towards only one objective when we take on a task. In this instance is stop the haze. Once done, how do we stop in from recurring. I think we need more leverage however hard that is to achieve because our relations with Indonesia will have its ups and downs.

Early this morning I read this but didn't have time to post it. All the best VB.

Update: 10:15pm

Frank constructive meeting is just a meeting where we both disagree amicably. The Indonesians will do as they please. They will host us as visitors and that is just basic manners. No meeting with the senior guy Agung WhyUdonno. He is the one calling the shots. Again another abang attitude. I was wishful but prepared to be disappointed and I was also realistic that we need to invest in leverage. Indonesia is just potentially a mortal threat to us. We have enjoyed and benefited from a good relationship but what if things turn sour? It's the end for us? Then why we even bother about the future. We can't even manage to team up with Malaysia to work on Indonesia. It is just one disappointment after another. Our leaders saw it coming already. That's why Shanmugam advised us to be stoic. 

My thoughts have always been why fight the sovereign. We have enough stake in each other and ASEAN to keep us going. There a bigger threats and opportunities before the entire grouping. So let's deal with the egregious business people dispatching a couple of monkeys to warn the rest. We cannot have this haze year after year. There must be a way to do this right.