As we learnt today, the Singapore government has protested against Indonesia's decision to name a navy ship in honour of 2 soldiers who carried out the bombing of MacDonald House in 1965. While that's the right thing for the government to do, and many Singaporeans are understandably unhappy about the incident, the fact of the matter is that we can do nothing about it. We are a tiny red dot and Indonesia is a very big country.
Immediately after reading this piece of news, I was reminded of how some liberal-minded Singaporeans were calling for the removal of compulsory national service many years ago when I was still in university. The premise of that call was that we have excellent relations with our neighbouring countries, and thus we don't need a large standing army to defend ourselves against them. Unfortunately, over the years, more Singaporeans have come to subscribe to this flawed understanding of reality, including some opposition politicians hoping to score points against the PAP.
To me, this episode is just another reminder of a fundamental geopolitical fact: When you are a small country, you WILL be bullied. This means not only that we have to have a strong military as a means of deterrence, but also that we just have to be street-smart enough to deal with this reality, and at times, even to turn this weakness into an advantage. Protesting verbally is only 'for show', to maintain our 'face' and a modicum of respectability. If we want to get back at Indonesia, we have to think of something else. All is fair in foreign policy.
All I hope for now is that there are enough cunning and savvy people running our national strategy and foreign policy. At present, I'm not too hopeful.
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