S'PORE FOREIGN POLICY: TIME FOR THARMAN TO RULE THE ROOST AFTER LHL FAILED GAMBIT?

After our APCs were seize by China after PM was brown-nosing the US over TPP (Trump hates it) and over the South China Sea, now Trump has made life even harder for him personally and for S’pore.

“I don’t know why we have to be bound by a One China policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade.”

— Donald J. Trump, the president-elect, on Fox News defending his recent phone call with Taiwan’s president. Mr. Trump’s suggestion that the One China policycould be used as a bargaining chip could risk a backlash by Beijing.

(NYT Dealbook)

China is royally annoyed with Trump (see http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-38286645) over his words and actions over Taiwan, so I’m sure Ah Loong is juz sitting down and keeping his mouth shut hoping that China might forget his comments on TPP and the rule of law in South China, both rods the Obama regime used to beat-up China.

And given that he was “All the Way for Hilary” and was a Obama pet (remember the state dinner?), he’s also hoping that Trump would forget S’pore’s support for the TPP and that Trump had singled out S’pore (albeit unfairly) for stealing US jobs.

Well he can forget it. I’m sure both sides will with glee squeeze his balls, telling him “If you are not with us, you are against us”. And if he sides with the US, remember that S’poreans who invest (think Temasek with its holdings in three out of the four major banks) or do biz in China are watching what China is doing to Lotte and K-pop performers after China got angry with Korea. Better sell CapitaLand.

Here’s my constructive, nation-building suggestions:

— Donate the nine APCs to China. It’s not as though, we’ll be getting them back, any time soon.

— Don’t allow those Poseidon aircraft to use S’pore as a base from which to watch, track Chinese subs leaving their base on Hainan.

— And give Trump Inc a casino licence (make it two).

Seriously, PM should be asking himself why S’pore still sends SAF soldiers and reservists to train in Taiwan. Now that we got the Outback to train in, we don’t send 20,000 men a year to Taiwan. So why bother sending 3,000 and upsetting China?

Doesn’t sound logical does it? Especially as the Taiwanese and Chinese are nowadays rowing over almost everything especially whether Taiwan is part of China. When LKY was pal to the leaders of both, these leaders accepted that Taiwan was part of China. They rowed over who was the legitimate govt of China.

Times have changed but PM, MFA, Mindef etc still live in that past.

Auto pilot isit? Too busy looking at daily bank statements and monthly CPF statements?

And is he really as smart as this ang moh puts it

For every prime minister like Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore, who can provide off-the-cuff a detailed and sophisticated tour d’horizon of the Asia-Pacific region, there is a boorish novice like Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.

PJ CrowleyFormer US Assistant Secretary of State in a BBC article

Or is he a juz pet monkey of the hegemon?

Whatever, S’pore (and S’poreans) will be in for a tough time with the hegemony and a wannabe hegemon upset with him.

Time to resign and let the Indians rule the roost here*? After all Tharman is another pet monkey of the West, while he hasn’t offended China.