Singaporean diplomats think the leaders of some close Asian allies are corrupt, incompetent or stupid, cables from Wikileaks revealed yesterday. Singaporean leaders also believe Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim had sex with a male aide in a honey trap set by his enemies, the cables said.
Confidential diplomatic notes given by the whistleblower Web site to Australia’s Fairfax media group contained unflattering assessments of key figures in Malaysia, Thailand, India and Japan.
“A lack of competent leadership is a real problem for Malaysia,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary Bilahari Kausikan reportedly told US Deputy Secretary of Defense for East Asia David Sedney in a cable dated September 2008.
As such, the situation in Malaysia “is confused and dangerous,” fueled by a “distinct possibility of racial conflict” that could see ethnic Chinese “flee” Malaysia and “overwhelm” Singapore, Bilahari was quoted as saying.
Another official, Peter Ho, reportedly described Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak as “an opportunist” who “would not hesitate” to be critical of Singapore if “it is expedient for him to do so.”
He said allegations linking Najib to the murder of a Mongolian woman in 2006, which Najib has strongly rejected, would continue to “haunt” his political fortunes.
As for Anwar, “The Australians said that Singapore’s intelligence services and [former prime minister] Lee Kuan Yew (李光耀) have told ONA [Office of National Assessments] in their exchanges that opposition leader Anwar ‘did indeed commit the acts for which he is currently indicted,’” the cable read.
Singapore’s conclusion was based on “technical intelligence,” which Fairfax said was likely to mean intercepted communications.
“ONA assessed, and their Singapore counterparts concurred, ‘it was a set-up job and he probably knew that, but walked into it anyway,’” the cable wrote.
The 63-year-old former deputy prime minister, has vehemently denied sodomizing his aide, 25-year-old Mohamad Saiful Bukhari Azlan, claiming he was the victim of a political conspiracy. He faces 20 years in prison if found guilty of sodomy.
Tian Chua, vice president of Anwar’s People’s Justice Party, dismissed the claims as “hearsay.”
“There is no doubt that this is a trumped-up charge,” he said. “If the claim is true ... it would have been relatively easy for the government to prove it.”
“We cannot depend on what the foreign intelligence officials say. The question is whether the government has evidence to convict Anwar in court,” Tian said.
Bilahari was also critical of the Thai government in 2008, labeling then prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra as “corrupt” along with “everyone else, including the opposition.” He said the Thai crown prince was “very erratic, and easily subject to influence,” and warned of continued instability in Thailand.
In a memo last year, Singaporean Ambassador at Large Tommy Koh — known for being mild-mannered and eloquent in public — was uncharacteristically blunt in his assessment of Japan and India.
“Koh described Japan as ‘the big fat loser’ in the context of improving ties between China and ASEAN,” a leaked cable detailing a meeting between him and US officials stated.
“He attributed the relative decline of Japan’s stature in the region to Japan’s ‘stupidity, bad leadership, and lack of vision,’” it said. “He was equally merciless towards India, describing his ‘stupid Indian friends’ as ‘half in, half out’ of ASEAN.”
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the