As reported in Vanity Fair.
And this is what the families of the Chinese victims say
Officially the Chinese government is still demanding the Malaysia side cough up the data from the satellites conveniently forgetting that they were not Malaysian assets to begin with.
We are indeed caught between a rock and a hard place. To the north we have in the words of my late father who warned me about the "wild hearted" Chinese after seeing how the Communists dragged my grandfather away and to the south we have the savage Indonesians.
Chinese public opinion is vengeful and unrestrained. They will wait patiently for revenge as I believe that is what they are planning to do with Japan eventually for World War II atrocities. This is utter madness.
Today I see close up what my late father had warned me about the Chinese.
Malaysia is paying a heavy price for their bumbling incompetence. Dr. Goh was right that we should have no patience with stupidity. The price is simply too high.
Without the American restraint, it is a matter of time Asian nations are at each other throats since face here is regarded more highly than life. Forget about economic imperatives. When they are proud and rich they will forget and stupidly believe they could bully others and win.
Update: March 26 9:50 am
The Malaysians are more composed and restrained. We can all understand why indirect evidence that the plane crashed isn't good enough. After all this is about life and death. However we wished we cannot expect people to be rational and we have to engage them emotionally. But the manner the Chinese had behaved was inexcusable and unbecoming of a great power aspirant.
Update: March 26: 10:05 am
I just received in my mail William Pesek's scathing commentary on Bloomberg over China's behavior over Flight 370.
I agree! China is a brute. Here is my response to that email.
You know how I have always felt about the Chinese, what I had learnt from my late father about them.
Peaceful rise of China? People should grow up and stop being in denial. If ever they are truly able, they will teach Japan a lesson by repaying them with Nanking. Just hope I am no longer alive to see that day! But more likely a civilization based on the Guojian mentality of getting its revenge will more likely destroy itself. Throughout history until the Enlightenment the Chinese can be seen as the least worst. Of course relatively speaking, least worse always look good. Unfortunately for them we live in a post Enlightenment society. Unless they can ideologically succeed where we just came from in the last 200 years or so, China can forget about being a great power. It doesn't have the bedrock to build on. Ancient China has class. Modern China is a brute.
Update: March 28 8:50 pm
The Chinese chose to provide more evidence to my thesis. Shame on them. This is so unbecoming of a rising power. See Malayisakini. Meanwhile they must bear in mind how the HongKongers dislike them and why the youths in Taiwan have occupied the legislature protesting basically against the Chinese. Don't we all know how the Africans also hate them. You see, their habits at home are exported overseas and they are brutal and self serving. If they oppress their own people they will do the same everywhere as long as they have the means to project power.
China must change its cultural DNA or it will become a prisoner of history like it was for millennial. Their best hope for achieving this is in the underground church which they persecute. It is a huge act of faith to suggest this because it truly feels hopeless.
Imagine - beyond any reasonable doubt!!
ReplyDeleteGod have mercy!!
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-03-24/malaysia-airlines-says-beyond-any-reasonable-doubt-plane-lost-and-anyone-board-survi
I would have to say that menace has no colour, no gender, no creed and no race. Whatever happened during those six to eight hours - someone has to account for it. It is easier to say move on, nothing to see here. The devil's greatest weapon is to cause a disbelief in its presence - or direct the menace to someone. Pray, the truth will unravel.
ReplyDeleteHaven't you notice, their choice words these days is "unprecedented".
ReplyDeleteIn other words, they can be excused for performing badly as there is no history in such instance, and therefore understandable, as if is an escape clause.
Richard Quest of CNN has been a very effective spokesman they deployed publicly.
PR and spinmeister aside, this is a serious crisis that involved 200+ human lives.
They started out flippant, unprofessional, un-sharing to making sight jokes at press conference which was their downfall. Speed is the utmost importance and they have insisted on their snail pace in responding. Even Najib won't dare to take Q&A after a solemn statement and on few occasions he showed up. Who wants to deal with the loud and wailing PRCs under such strenuous conditions? The victims are probably stirring up their emotions for judging by the words spoken, I believe there will e a major Insurance claim or Court cases for damages later on. MAS probably can't wait to ship the family off to Australia to identify the debris/bodies (if any) now in case more chaos at embassy, street or hotels. On their part too, they still have alot to answer for.
Now u know
ReplyDeletethe rise of china wont come with peace
interesting future ahead
They are spunky and as the old one says, more hard driving and assertive.
DeleteWe are advised to embrace and assimilate them. We are going the dinosaurs way.
I can see a lot of hatred at china. The danger of assigning such to a particular race or country is that one may lose objectivity and let down his or her guard against the evil forces that are so actively in motion. I for one enjoy history (both written and rewritten) - and one of the interesting observation is that in every era, there is always a "villain" and it wears a different face - just that it is another human who displays inhuman instincts. Let China grow in maturity - an interesting piece I read is that as China learns to move towards democracy, the so-called bastions of democracy are becoming more Orwillian-feared structures. Be very careful of the Prince of Lies
ReplyDeleteWhoever benefited from the numerous intelligence information gathered during the long time gap between the disappearance of the plane and the finding of the seemingly true debris in the Indian Ocean by the Aussie (apparently from a US military satellite taken several days earlier - Sam Bateman article in today's Straits Times) is either "blessed" by God or has a greater hand in the whole script.
ReplyDeleteThey are just creating all this fuzz for better compensation
ReplyDeleteHi Peng You, there's an excellent article in the NYT that echoes some of the same sentiment you have. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/22/world/asia/as-malaysia-balks-over-missing-flight-china-finds-limits-to-its-powers.html
ReplyDelete"In some ways, the complaints reinforce a belief that many Chinese have long held: that their political culture is superior to those of Southeast Asian nations. In that worldview, Southeast Asia has throughout history been a less-developed region that looked up to China and tried to both appease and imitate it."
Reminds me of China protecting Melaka against the Siam centuries ago
I am not sure if the majority of the passengers on that "still missing" plane were of some other nationality. I suggest taking a step back and ponder over that. Some are indeed having a field day hitting at the Chinese. The latter deserves a re-awakening of where they stand and hopefully learns from this episode.
ReplyDeleteI would argue with the latest comment - PeiYou, you have done a nice job sharing news and views. But I hope you will restrain your hard-headed words - in this instance about PRC. I note you may hoard anger at the Chinese - but don't remember you are also a Chinese. But back to what I advocate, menace has no race, colour or creed. And like the previous case of the boy who died of drug abuse in Jakarta, let's be respectful of those who lost their lives not so much through their own acts but rather the "sins" of society. We should address the culprits and the sinful society of which so many are innocently thrown into their and its path and remain discerning and avoid passing judgment rashly. The first conclusion can well be with the devil's aid. Let's share, learn and improve and you will gain respect and have caring blog friends. I know you will always say this is a private blog but it is accessible easily to all. It is good to hear out each other's view but let's be sensitive. I would again like to say words can cut deeper than the sword.
ReplyDelete