Fareed Zakaria asks him a very simple question at the IPS Dialogue. The current generation of sinkies don't consider Indonesia or Malaysia a threat. So, what is the challenge coming from? Gay Loong siam and talk cock about rich family son, transhipping containers from Chennai and all other sorts of bullshit. Obviously, he could not articulate a direct answer on what the threat is. What a fucktard PM.
Dr Zakaria: When you look at the past of Singapore, you think about the things we’ve been talking about, politically, socially, economically, so much of it was formed and forged out of a sense of adversity, out of a sense this is a country that was not meant to be, there were forces against it, from Malaysia initially, the Indonesians launching Konfrontasi, the realities of the Cold War, the Soviets and the Chinese in Vietnam, and so much of the policy and the national coherence came from that. If you look at young Singaporeans today, they’ve grown up in one of the richest countries in the world, they don’t really believe that Malaysia is a threat, Indonesia is not a threat.
PM: How do you know all these?
Dr Zakaria: I had a conversation with one very articulate one last night at dinner and he mirrored what people say over and over again. First of all, it happens to be true that these threats have diminished in objective terms. How do you maintain the pressure and the sense of drive? I’m asking a question in a sense that every rich parent wonders about with his children.
PM: Every child thinks his father is rich and that is a problem for us. It’s a real challenge. The threats have changed but in fact threats have not disappeared. You may not think of them as existential threats in a sense that an army will come and invade you and take over you but can your cheese disappear? Yes. Can your lunch disappear? Yes. Can your business go somewhere very rapidly? It’s entirely possible and something which we worry about all the time. We are the second busiest port in the world; Shanghai is the busiest. They came from nowhere. Why are we the second busiest port? Not because we generate the business but because we are efficient and transhipment cargoes come to Singapore from very far away. They used to come from Chennai in India to Singapore to be transhipped in order to go to Europe, it makes no sense. Few hundred, few thousand miles to the east and back again but we can provide a service which obviously, nobody else more conveniently-placed can. Why can we do that? Because we are performing exceptionally and we need to keep on being able to do that, otherwise, somebody would move our cheese.
Dr Zakaria: When you look at the past of Singapore, you think about the things we’ve been talking about, politically, socially, economically, so much of it was formed and forged out of a sense of adversity, out of a sense this is a country that was not meant to be, there were forces against it, from Malaysia initially, the Indonesians launching Konfrontasi, the realities of the Cold War, the Soviets and the Chinese in Vietnam, and so much of the policy and the national coherence came from that. If you look at young Singaporeans today, they’ve grown up in one of the richest countries in the world, they don’t really believe that Malaysia is a threat, Indonesia is not a threat.
PM: How do you know all these?
Dr Zakaria: I had a conversation with one very articulate one last night at dinner and he mirrored what people say over and over again. First of all, it happens to be true that these threats have diminished in objective terms. How do you maintain the pressure and the sense of drive? I’m asking a question in a sense that every rich parent wonders about with his children.
PM: Every child thinks his father is rich and that is a problem for us. It’s a real challenge. The threats have changed but in fact threats have not disappeared. You may not think of them as existential threats in a sense that an army will come and invade you and take over you but can your cheese disappear? Yes. Can your lunch disappear? Yes. Can your business go somewhere very rapidly? It’s entirely possible and something which we worry about all the time. We are the second busiest port in the world; Shanghai is the busiest. They came from nowhere. Why are we the second busiest port? Not because we generate the business but because we are efficient and transhipment cargoes come to Singapore from very far away. They used to come from Chennai in India to Singapore to be transhipped in order to go to Europe, it makes no sense. Few hundred, few thousand miles to the east and back again but we can provide a service which obviously, nobody else more conveniently-placed can. Why can we do that? Because we are performing exceptionally and we need to keep on being able to do that, otherwise, somebody would move our cheese.
