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The prostitutes of globalisation

THERE AUSTRALIAN OUTCRY ON Singapore's anticipated hanging of an Australian of Vietnamese origin is expected. There was a similar outcry over Malaysia hanging two Australian Caucasians. There is no difference in the outcry. The Australians have found reasons for the media that the trials were unfair. But they make no such claim when Singaporeans, Malaysians, Thailand, Vietnamese citizens are hanged. Their attitude is they deserved it, and they were not 'our' citizens anyway. There is much wrong in the way death sentences are handed out in these two countries, and many have kept their date with the hangman innocent. So what is special about Western and Australian citizens hanged in Singapore and Malaysia? Nothing, only that these countries are the prostitutes of globalisation and should know their place. They should not upset on the West or Australia by hanging one of their citizens. Malaysia defied that, during Tun Mahathir's term as prime minister, by hanging two Australians and one Englishman. Singapore makes an issue once in a while, jailed an Englishman for breaking Singapore laws, sent an American home when he has sure of being convicted under drug laws and hung. The Australians are not interested if one of their citizens who is not Caucasian, and so he will be hung. As he should be. No country, not even a prostitute of globalisation, should be deterred against carrying out its laws. The death sentences for carrying minute amounts of drugs was put into the law books, in Singapore and Malaysia, at the West's insistence. It is now a problem in these countries, given their unfairness, that death sentences are carried out in secret, and the Malaysians know of it usually only after the fact. It a political issue here so it is kept hidden. In contrast, the Australian leaders are on the defensive that one of its citizens, a model, found with banner drugs in Indonesia, is in fact a Muslim.

Singapore, priggish at the best of times, now consider casinos, to attract the foreigner. Elaborate rules are drawn to keep the Singaporeans out. Singaporeans are warned not to enter these casinos except under very stringent rules that favour the rich and the powerful. Similar rules are in force in Malaysia, but there is a special room in Genting Highlands casino, for instance, for Malaysian cabinet ministers, sultans and Muslim highrollers - for whom, like the Muslim poor, gambling is banned in Islam - and kept hidden from the populace. But how many former and present cabinet ministers break it every time they enter the casino in Genting Highlands? The casinos, in Singapore and Malaysia, are for the foreigner, for whom facilities are built to which its own citizens are banned. Singapore is a rest-and-recreating centre for American troops who were then fighting in Vietnam in the 1960s, and is today host to about 2,000 troops of the island. mainly as insurance against Malaysia attacking the island republic. But both are kept on a tight leash by the West and Caucasian countries. The governments in both keep the citizens in the dark while its leaders take orders from the West, usually the United States. Especially in the war on terror. The governments of Singapore and Malaysia are with the United States, but most of the people are not. To stay in power, they believe they must. They warn of 'Muslim fundamentalists' on behalf of the United. And behave as prostitutes do. They expect to remain in power for all times. But so did Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. And look where they are now!

In Malaysia, facilities are built not for its citizens but for foreigners. Kuala Lumpur has become a poor example of a third rate European of American citizen so that the foreigner will crow about it. But it is neither, and the citizen is shortchanged. Singapore looks after its citizens better, but does not allow them to have their own mind. It treats its citizen like a pet dog, and does not allow him to go beyond an artificial limit. The result is predictable: it is monkey-see-monkey-do mentality at work. Executives are highly paid but do not think 'out of the box' - as the current Western trite phrase to describe what its leaders must do. Malaysian executives working in Singapore talk of discussions which flounder because the Singaporean executive believes in 'monkey-see-monkey-do' scheme of thinking. This is a phase, and this phase will last as long as modern Singapore paterfamilias, 83 year old Lee Kuan Yew, lives. The island does well economically, but it does not allow thinking to the contrary, and so the Singaporean is kept dark about the future. But the new dawn is already at hand. Particular groups of Singaporeans do not want to be part of the system, and bid their time when they can play a meaningful role outside of the People's Action Party. The laws are made to keep all except those from the People's Action Party out. The opposition is allowed space to exist only if it follows the PAP's guidelines. So the debates are artificial, just as it is in Malaysia, but the opposition, not known even by the PAP or UMNO in Malaysia, is active.

Singapore and Malaysia are two peas in a pod. They could not be separate even if they wanted to. The two countries are at odds with each other. They were once joined in Malaysia, but that experiment was unhappy, and Malaysia expelled the island republic after two unhappy years. Mr Lee Kuan Yew, then prime minister, did not want to leave Malaysia. But Singapore is lauded in Malaysia by most people for its laudable economic success. The Chinese in Malaysia sees Singapore's economic success to prove his worth in Malaysia, and the Malay in the republic bides his time while hoping he would be part of Malaysia some time in the future. But this hopes are dashed even before they are uttered. The Singaporean Chinese has contempt for the laid back, comparatively, Malaysian Chinese, who looks upon his Singapore compatriot as uncouth, uncivilised, and overbearing. The Singaporean Malay views his Malaysian Malay compatriot as a Malay backwoodsman. But eventually Singapore will be part of Malaysia. Singapore cannot live without water, which it gets from Johore. There is a campaign in Singapore about newater. It may or may not succeed. But its water agreements with Johore ends in 2061. The tough negotiations will begin then between a confident Malaysia and a diffident Singapore. All the leaders in Malaysia and Singapore would be dead and gone by that time. The new team will be forced to accede to Malaysia, but I suspect as a component of Johore, not Malaysia as it was between 1963 and 1965.

But both will be prostitutes of globalisationt, either as one or as two. The globalisation is to ensure the Western nations' control of the world. There is the downside, for which no serious consideration is made. Globalisation, in other words, is another form of colonialism. But globalisation has its naysayers. Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaeda, Saddam Hussein and others like them do not agree with globalisation as it is practiced now. Education has make people think, and people around the world see globalisation as one in which they could benefit. The United States is tearing its hair on jobs lost because of it. But it was the United States that set the trend of having its manufacturing facilities in the regions of the world where manufacturing costs are cheap. IBM computers will soon be Chinese. The nether regions of the world are becoming educated, and see why they cannot benefit from globalisation in its stated form, not as its prostitutes. They were manufacturing countries before globalisation. China in the 21st century is Japan in the 20th. The West is trying its best to stop it. But it cannot. China has forced prices down. It had upset prices worldwide, by offering good products at a cheaper price. Parker now has a manufacturing unit in China and sells pens for RM25 that would have cost ten times more if China was not a manufacturing country. The United States is worried that globalisation would go away from its control, politically and economically. But this problem is not with the prostitutes. They will provide the services to whoever is dominant.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@streamyx.com