State of race relations in Singapore - Not Good Judging by Wee Nam Kee Chicken Rice experience

It was a Saturday night and the outdoor tables at Wee Nam Kee chicken rice at Thomson Road were almost full. There were only 2 spaces with elbow room, first, to share with a Chinese couple, the second, to share with a neat young Indian man. I chose the latter.

Before taking my order, the middle-aged waitress (a weathered Chinese lady) beckoned to me. She pointed to the table with the Chinese couple, and threw me a knowing side glance to the Indian man opposite me.

Gee auntie, I'm just sharing a table with an Indian man!

She look quite miffed when I waved away her concern.

Expect Some Brickbats - LKY interview with Tom Plate

Tom Plate recently interviewed Lee Kuan Yew on a wide range of topics (see transcript of full interview). One excerpt, the one on Malaysia Singapore relations, made me think "Here we go again!". So expect some brickbats from my erstwhile countrymen on this comment:

"Q: Who will come after you? Who would come after you?

Lee: There are assets here to be captured, right?

Q: Some unnamed bad regime?

Lee: When [Malaysia] kicked us out [in 1965], the expectation was that we would fail and we will go back on their terms, not on the terms we agreed with them under the British. Our problems are not just between states, this is a problem between races and religions and civilizations. We are a standing indictment of all the things that they can be doing differently. They have got all the resources. If they would just educate the Chinese and Indians, use them and treat them as their citizens, they can equal us and even do better than us and we would be happy to rejoin them."

The second part that caught my attention were the words he used to characterise the military junta in Burma. No mincing words here!

Q: (blah blah) With regard to Myanmar -- and I realize anyone's guess is as good as anyone else's -- but did you see that it's plausible to ask China, as it did at the Six-Party Talks, in some way to work skillfully and work behind the scenes to assume a role in moving Myanmar forward out of the Middle Ages and maybe into the real world?

Lee: I'm not sure the Chinese have got that power. And in Myanmar, these are rather dumb generals when it comes to the economy.

Q: They are!

Lee: How they can so mismanage the economy and reach this stage when the country has so many natural resources?

Q: It's a gift!

Lee: It's stupid. So I'm not sure. The Chinese, they've tried, and, in fact, we have tried to talk them out of isolation. I tried through a general called Khin Nyunt. He's the most intelligent of the lot. I sold him the idea, or at least he bought the idea, that the way for them to go forward was to get out of uniform and do it like Suharto, form a party -- Golkar -- and then take over as a civilian party. But halfway through, Suharto fell. So, it ended up as the wrong advice, they back-tracked. Then they chucked Kyin Nyunt out.

Q: Timing is everything!

Lee: Meanwhile, I had advised several of our hoteliers to set up hotels there. They have sunk in millions of dollars there and now, their hotels are empty. But, you know, you've got really economically dumb people in charge. Why they believe they can keep their country cut off from the world like this indefinitely, I cannot understand. And you know, you need medicines -- they smuggle in from Thailand. It doesn't make sense.

We will see how it is, but whatever it is, I do not believe that they can survive indefinitely. Look, the day they decided to close down the government in Yangon and go into this Pyinmana, or whatever the place is called where there's nothing and they are putting up expensive buildings for themselves and a golf course -- and the top general had a lavish wedding for his daughter which was then out on YouTube -- the daughter was like a Christmas tree! Flaunting these excesses must push a hungry and impoverished people to revolt. But what will happen, I don't know because the army has got to be part of the solution. If the army is dissolved, the country has got nothing to govern itself because they have dismantled all administrative instruments.