This has been a good week for the ruling People’s Action Party – with the Opposition still licking its wounds as it tries to get back on track in the aftermath of the Raeesah Khan saga (far from over yet) and the less than stellar Parliamentary performance of PSP NCMP Leong Mun Wai.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong went to the United States and got a measure of the world audience that his father Lee Kuan Yew used to enjoy as a highly respected Asian leader with his much sought-after realpolitik insights. There are no higher-profile media places than Washington and New York. Whether or not PM Lee enjoys the same level of influence as LKY, I do not know. Is he a Beijing whisperer, meaning, does he have the ears of top Chinese leaders? Are they still interested, if at all they have ever been in the past, to have a “neutral” third-party channel of communication in times of crisis – useful for gauging and even conveying messages between the US and China? Hence, that Q and A question after PM Lee’s dialogue at the US Council on Foreign Relations (CFR): Are you a Beijing whisperer? He said No. He may still be because Beijing has nothing to lose in seeking Singapore’s services. We are friendly to both China and the US and are independent enough to see things through more balanced lenses. But we take what PM Lee said at face value.
Is he a Washington whisperer then? Why not? There is great merit in being able to influence key decision-makers and opinion-shapers of a world superpower whose policies, actions and views will ultimately affect us.
I have been to the State Department, the Pentagon and think tanks in the US. In all these three places, they were keenly interested in what Singapore had to say and what was happening here (the region). As retired Singapore diplomat Bilahari Kausikan once said, all this talk about the US pivoting back to Asia is absurd, the US has never left.
And so there was a good turnout at PM Lee’s dialogue at the CFR. I found his answers to the questions a credit to Singapore’s Foreign Affairs Ministry. His replies showed a sharp understanding of many complex international issues including on Ukraine, US-China relations, Taiwan, nuclear weapon proliferation, deglobalisation, world trade. Good show.
Back in Singapore, the debate on the White Paper on Women’s Development turned out to be a historic “woke” moment.
Some 40 MPs – government and Opposition – unanimously endorsed a road map setting out a whole-of-nation effort to ensure women get proper protection and every opportunity to fulfil their potential in society.
Ong Ye Kung delivered a heartfelt speech, using his own experience growing up in an extended family in a Lorong Chuan kampong and later as father to two daughters to make his point about not carrying biases from the past when interacting with women. The Health Minister’s elder daughter was a young girl when she learnt – and was shocked by – the concept of marriage dowries, the Straits Times reported. In response to her wife explaining the traditional stereotype of a woman marrying “out” of her family and into the groom’s, the older of Mr Ong’s two daughters asked: “So this is like a transaction – I will be sold?” Ong recalled trying to make things better by explaining that the money could flow both ways, and that in some cultures, it would be the bride’s family providing the dowry “in recognition that the husband will incur costs in taking care of the bride”.
Outdated past practices will gradually be phased out. But mindsets have to change too. Ong said: “Offences against women are clearly wrong, and the vast majority of us agree with that. Perhaps what is less obvious is the occasional insensitive remark that reflects an unconscious bias or stereotype. Understand and see things from a woman’s point of view. Stop mansplaining, using diminutives, or doing things in the presence of women that they feel embarrassed by.”
He received an ovation for his anti-mansplaining speech.
In summing up the debate, Minister for Communications and Information Josephine Teo went on overdrive mode to thank everyone for their contribution. Opposition MPs, including Workers’ Party’s Louis Chua, He Ting Ru and Gerald Giam, were mentioned in her Oscar-style thank you speech. She said the greatest contribution of the debate “is in upholding the values we hold dear as a society, and which will serve as our north star as we seek out the next milestones in women’s development”. (North star no less). These values are equality for men and women in all spheres.
She also got an ovation.
Not to be outdone, Manpower Minister Tan See Leng announced on April 7 that he has donated $1 million to start an endowment under the name of his late father, Tan Seow Chiap, to support women pursuing education and careers in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
He said: “In my personal capacity, I have had the privilege of knowing and working alongside many talented and capable women in the fields of medicine, pharmacy, clinical sciences, chemical engineering, science, amongst many other disciplines.”
Looks like the PAP is on a roll.
Liddat how, WP, PSP and SDP?
Tan Bah Bah, consulting editor of TheIndependent.Sg, is a former senior leader writer with The Straits Times. He was also managing editor of a local magazine publishing company.