I beleive so too.Originally posted by SilverPal:The political arena in asia today is one of economics,shifting loyalties and changing powers. I feel that Barry has his reasons for the whole Japan issue considering that Harry allowed he to respond in this manner. Since we are not prevy to inside information and high level assumptions and deductions, we would never understand the actual reason why barry supports the jap seat in un.
From my rudimentary understanding of politics, I believe the worse thing to do is for our leaders to take sides and strongly support any 1 power. Although this will earn us immense short term benefits, they might not buy us long term goodwill once the powers shift or when we want to conduct commerce with the very country we refused to support.
Being a small country, we have to play both sides of the court and seem to be supporting progress, harmony and commerce. It is of course a great benefit if we can also be perceived as a matured voice of reason in the din of childish bickering. The important word is 'seem' because we may not be.
Even though I may disagree with many policies and action taken by the ruling class, I have to go with Barry on this one.
In one fell swoop, he ensured that China had nothing to say about this issue.One rare moment of brilliance from an otherwise lackadaiscal performance in international affairs.Originally posted by foxtrout8:Mr Lee is being pragmatic in his support of Japan's bid for a permanent seat. I see no fault in it. He also made a gentle but clear comment that Asians are uncomfortable with Japan's action towards historic-irresponsibility. He also brought up Germany as a role model in this case. I dont know how China would react but on how China should reaction, in my opinion, is to say nothing or at least dont be in a position to condemm Singapore. Why?
.....
All these, the interest of China.
if Singaporean are unhappy can they show it ? cannot demostrate and all the news will be censored.Originally posted by iveco:Anyone saw today's TNP? LHL says he agrees that Japan should become a permanent memebr of the UN, but feels concerned about its wartime past. Accordint to the report, many Singaporeans also do not feel comfortable with Koizumi's Yasukuni visits.
Personally, I prefer India to be a permanent member of the UN. Why India? Note that I am no Bollywood beng, but I think India is one of the largest emerging economies around, and a nuclear power to boot. This makes it a major player in South Asia.
Who cares about LKY,he is supposed to die by now,if not for him,our lives wont be so miserable!!!Originally posted by SMAPLionHeart:Didn't you see? The university head has just presented LKY an award..don't think he's gonna be happy..
Yup,i think LHL has done the right thing.Mainland China has reacted over-sensitive recent years,a little thing against their "will" only kpkb.It is time to let them know she dont owned the whole god damn world.Originally posted by LazerLordz:I think in essence, we have our own right to support whoever we like, and not let the big powers control us.It seems like we are trying to move away from dependancy on China, as the recent episodes have shown that she is volatile.
If we let the fear of China dictate our foreign policy, we have become their lackey.I'm behind LHL on this one..think about it, it's not about taking Japan's side on the WW2 issue, it's letting the world know that we are sovereign.
There is a message here to be told..
Political sensitivity aside,Originally posted by drawer:Yup,i think LHL has done the right thing.Mainland China has reacted over-sensitive recent years,a little thing against their "will" only kpkb.It is time to let them know she dont owned the whole god damn world.
yup...me also agree wif ya......look around u.....mostly japs factories......Originally posted by NuLife:Political sensitivity aside,
I am Against Japan in Security Council 101 Percent.
If Japan is allowed in the UN council,
they will continue to think that they can play around
anyway they like in handling their war time history.
I think Japan recent actions showed that they
are more politically provocative than china.
Its also in US interest and political game to start such provacation
against China. All bcos of US's own fear.
The only reason LHL/spore support japan for UN seat
is bcos spore econonmy still very depend on japan's mnc investments here.
It is to be expected that Japan will re-arm itself one way or another for self-defence or revival of Japanese imperialism. Once the non-war constitution was removed or dismantled all it takes is for one of their aspiring politicians to take the route of reviving their particular nationalism.Originally posted by boy in blues:http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/apr2005/japa1-a25.shtml
World Socialist Website
published by the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI)
Behind China-Japan tensions
Washington fuels Japanese militarism
Part One
By Peter Symonds
25 April 2005
Use this version to print | Send this link by email | Email the author
The following is part one of a two-part series. The concluding part will be published tomorrow.
In the extensive media coverage of the current tensions between Japan and China, the insidious and deeply destabilising role of the Bush administration has been virtually ignored. Yet Washington has been insistently pressing Japan to rearm and play a more “active” role in North East Asia—the basic issues that have repeatedly sparked fears, protests and frictions not only with China, but throughout the region.
The Bush administration’s backing has encouraged Tokyo to take an uncompromising and antagonistic stance towards the latest anti-Japanese protests in China. The White House immediately lined up with the Japanese government by criticising Beijing’s failure to “prevent violence” and bring the demonstrations under control. US spokesmen remained silent on the provocative actions of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi who deliberately added more fuel to the fire.
In the midst of the demonstrations, the Koizumi government authorised a new school history text that whitewashes the crimes of Japanese imperialism in the 1930s and 1940s and then gave the green light for Japanese companies to drill for oil in an area of the East China Sea contested by Beijing. To cap it off, Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura went to Beijing to demand an apology and compensation for damage caused to Japanese property in the course of the protests.
Koizumi was well aware that these actions would provoke an angry response. But by stirring up fears and prejudice against China, he is pursuing a definite political strategy: to turn the widespread alienation and hostility in Japan over deteriorating living standards in a right-wing nationalist direction and thereby create a social base for his reactionary policies. Allowing for the obvious differences between the two countries, the agendas and methods of Koizumi and Bush are strikingly similar. Each is preying on fear and ignorance to garner support for an aggressive assertion of national interests abroad, and a savage onslaught on the social position and democratic rights of working people at home.The above-stated report merely confirms that the Japanese behaviour is one towards reviving their nationalism as a race not because of outside influences or events. Even if there is no misunderstanding of events or ignorance among Japanese younger generations, even if China does not blame the Japanese about their latter's textbook rewriting to mull over their war crimes committed in WWII, Japan will sooner or later create some issues to give excuses or justifications to re-arm themselves.
KoizumiÂ’s reaction to the Chinese demonstrations is not an isolated event. Last September, the Japanese prime minister provocatively boarded a coast guard vessel and sailed close to the Russian-held Kurile Islands off the northern tip of Hokkaido. He used the occasion to reiterate TokyoÂ’s demand for the return of the islands that were seized by Soviet forces in the final days of World War II. KoizumiÂ’s stunt provoked criticisms in Moscow, complicated negotiations over the issue and contributed to delays in a visit by Russian president Vladimir Putin to Tokyo, mooted for February.Japan will as a race continue to use their economic powers and alliance with USA to re-establish itself as a country with military might to control the seas and the air routes plus all the off-shore islands. They will continue to use their economic might to check on China's modernisation.
In November, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) government reacted to the intrusion of a Chinese submarine into Japanese territorial waters off the Okinawa Islands in a belligerent fashion. The Japanese military was ordered to intercept the vessel and force it to surface. Even after it had fled the area, Japanese maritime patrol planes tracked the submarine for hours. While the Japanese navy has previously been involved in clashes with North Korean ships, the incident marked the first occasion that a Chinese vessel had been set upon. The government, backed by the media, seized on the intrusion to demand an apology from Beijing and to whip up fears in Japan about the dangers of a Chinese military threat.Why not? Japan will want to control its seas and air spaces around the Japanese seas. Can anyone go near enough these areas to pose a threat to them? Not likely. China does not possess a powerful navy to surround or blockade Japanese seas and air spaces.
In February this year, a diplomatic row blew up over Japan’s claims to several South Korean islets lying between the two countries. The dispute erupted when the assembly in the Shimane Prefecture in Japan passed an ordinance to establish February 22 as “Takeshima Day” provoking an angry reaction in South Korea. Takeshima is the Japanese name for the islands known as Dokdo by South Koreans. The following day, Japan’s ambassador to South Korea reiterated Japan’s claim to the islands, making clear that the prefecture had Tokyo’s backing. These barren, uninhabited rocks have a symbolic significance for Koreans as their incorporation into Japan in 1905 was a step towards Japan’s full colonisation of Korea in 1910.
The media has focussed on the recent protests in China, but there have also been angry anti-Japanese demonstrations in South Korea. The ambassador’s remarks triggered South Korean demands for a Japanese apology, headlines accusing Japan of a new invasion and protests in Seoul during which Japanese flags were burnt. Renewed demonstrations erupted this month over the latest Japanese school textbooks, which, among the other affronts to South Korea, included a photograph of the disputed islands with a caption reading “illegally occupied by South Korea”.The Japanese are interested in developing alliances with USA to assert its powers over other countries in the East. Whether Bush has a plan to use Japan as a bulwart against a rising China is immaterial. Japan will over time assume greater power with the help of USA. East Asia will have to ally themselves to fit Japanese overall plan to revive its nationalism. This will be the beginning of more problems in the East. China is not a belligerent power or super-power. It has no ambition of the kind practised by Japan. China can do well be remaining steadfast in modernisation and building its goodwill without over-exposing itself in militarism. However China must continue to equip its military powers including nuclear ones to pose a good counter defence against Japanese aggressive intent as a race.
Even a decade ago, the actions of the Koizumi government would have been beyond the pale in official circles. Tokyo’s limited and grudging expressions of regret for the actions of the imperial armies in Asia in the 1930s and 1940s have always stopped short of an open acknowledgement of Japanese war crimes. At the same time, postwar governments have generally been careful to present Japan as having turned a new leaf. The symbols of Japanese militarism were shunned, publicly at least, and efforts were made to normalise relations with the country’s neighbours—including China and South Korea.
The installation of Koizumi as prime minister in April 2001, however, marked a sharp turn. For all the media hype about his personal style, he has longstanding connections to the LDP’s hawkish Fukada faction, which has consistently pushed for increased military spending, opposed Japan’s recognition of China in 1972 and sought to eliminate the so-called pacifist clause from the Japanese constitution. From the outset, Koizumi brazenly appealed to right-wing nationalism, openly breaking previous political taboos—most notably by visiting the controversial Yasukuni Shrine that houses memorials to Japan’s war-dead, including a number of convicted war criminals.
KoizumiÂ’s stance, at home and in the region, is due in no small measure to the support he has received from the Bush administration. For the past five years, the White House has actively pursued a strategy of forging close military ties with Japan, pressing it to end the constitutional limitations on its armed forces and to take a more aggressive international posture, particularly in relation to China. These objectives dovetail, for the present, with the ambitions of Koizumi and the most right-wing sections of the Japanese ruling elite, who have been seeking a means of clearing away the legal and political obstacles to the assertion of Japanese imperialist interests.
balls to them.We are a sovereign nation and we make our own independent decisions.while we are friendly with them and will accomodate their interests where possible as a good ally would,we make our own decisions on who we support and how we conduct ourselves in the world.Originally posted by goaler:wao.. the other time he went taiwan already create a big hoo-ha...
now he still want to support japan to bid for UN perm seat?
why can't he see? China is a rising dragon... and japan is a setting sun country....
why he still want to offend China?
if we poke nose into their business of course they buay song. usa kpkb sg cane michael fay you song or not ?Originally posted by drawer:Yup,i think LHL has done the right thing.Mainland China has reacted over-sensitive recent years,a little thing against their "will" only kpkb.It is time to let them know she dont owned the whole god damn world.