LKY LHL PAP building Singapore military to "contain China" for US interests

US builds an Asian tiger cub in Singapore

Asia Times
July 20, 2001
STRATFOR.COM's Global Intelligence Update

Summary:

SINGAPORE, better known for its electronics industry and financial services than its defense posture, is steadily modernizing its armed forces with the help of the United States to secure expanding economic interests in the Asia-Pacific region. As part of Washington's efforts to contain China through new military allies, Singapore will transition from a small, inert power to one of the principal military players in the Asia Pacific.

Analysis:

Singapore, a city-state of 3.2 million people that likes to think of itself as the Switzerland of Asia, has outlined plans to acquire dozens of new attack helicopters, fighter aircraft, warships and other long-range land, sea and air capabilities. These new tools will help round out a steady military build-up begun in the mid-1990s to help Singapore actively ensure regional stability.

Singapore is the Asian region's third-largest financial center, after Japan and Hong Kong. It has carved itself out a small but lucrative niche in the semiconductor manufacturing industry, producing 8 percent of the world market in 1999. Singapore is also known for its stable political environment and strong legal system. Moreover, unlike Switzerland, it has the vast opportunities of an emerging Asia on its doorstep.

But the modernizing of Singapore's armed forces is transforming it into a key link in the security chain that the United States is building around China. Within the decade, Singapore will evolve from a relatively neutral participant to a major regional player - a development reminiscent of its days as a British military fortress during World War II. Washington will not look solely to Singapore to keep Beijing in military isolation, but the tiny nation will once again play a vital role in regional security affairs.

Like Israel, Singapore lacks strategic depth and is outnumbered by potentially hostile neighbors. Its defense strategy, therefore, is two-fold: Build an offensive-minded security force that can strike at potential enemies before they harm Singapore, and seek the support and protection of the United States.

Singapore, which spends US$4 billion per year on defense, is well positioned to acquire the weapons and technologies it needs. The arsenal it is building will allow it to destroy enemies on the ground, pre-emptively seize strategic territory, prevent rising piracy and intervene quickly and effectively in Indonesia, Malaysia and other likely trouble spots in the contested South China Sea.

On July 10, Singapore announced that it is seeking bids for up to two dozen cutting-edge fighter jets, at an estimated value of $2 billion, to replace its aging fleet of A-5 Skyhawks. The deal would be signed in 2004 and Singapore is looking closely at Boeing's F-15 Eagle and Lockheed Martin's F-16 Fighting Falcon, according to Bloomberg.com. The US Department of Defense this month also made Singapore eligible for an additional 12 Boeing-built AH-64 Apache attack helicopters and related components at an estimated cost of $617 million. Singapore currently has eight of the tank-busting choppers.

In April, Singapore commissioned the RSS Persistence and the RSS Endeavor, the last of four amphibious attack vessels being built to replace Singapore's old County-class Landing Ship Tanks and Victory class corvettes. The new amphibious ships, which can displace 6,000 tons and command a range of 5,000 nautical miles, are outfitted with state-of-the-art communications and other automated tools that allow Singapore to operate effectively alongside the United States and other advanced militaries.

On land, the first indigenously designed All Terrain Tracked Carrier (ATTC) was delivered to Singapore's army in May. The ATTC "can transport troops and equipment over soft muddy ground and difficult terrain impassable to other vehicles", making it useful in a number of combat support and service missions, Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Tony Tan Keng Yam said on March 8.

In tandem with its weapons purchases, Singapore is unfolding a "total defense" strategy that includes alliances with like-minded nations. So far this year, Singapore has conducted an anti-submarine warfare exercise with India, dispatched soldiers to participate in the United Nations peacekeeping mission in East Timor, sent airmen to Canada for an air warfare exercise and hosted a 16-nation mine-countermeasures exercise - the largest in its history.

Perhaps most significantly, Singapore this year also allowed a US aircraft carrier, the USS Kitty Hawk, to dock for the first time at a new base designed for the large flat-tops. The navy has increasingly used Singapore as a repair base for its smaller, Pacific-based ships since it was kicked out of its Subic Bay base in the Philippines in the early 1990s. Navy officials have been pressing for permission to build a dry dock in Singapore to repair aircraft carriers.

The Kitty Hawk's March 22 visit to Changi Naval Base is telling. Though Singapore's strategy pays homage first to national survival, it also dovetails with US efforts to contain China. The Kitty Hawk's visit came immediately before an American spy plane was downed in the South China Sea, leading to a stand-off between Washington and Beijing. Chinese leaders almost certainly viewed the port visit as heralding yet another US naval "base" in the region, this time with direct access to the South China Sea. But Singapore does indeed appear to be becoming a de facto US base.

Singapore is not Washington's only potential ally in its quest to contain China. Australia already has taken its place in the anti-China security chain; Adelaide earlier this month called on the US Navy to help fix technical problems with its Collins-class submarine development program.

Japan is also slowly taking on a greater security role at Washington's urging. Navy officials tell Stratfor that Washington has its sights on other potential allies - for instance, raising the prospect of a return to Subic Bay and seeking ties to other players, such as Thailand and Indonesia.

Though small, Singapore will play a sizeable part in the US strategy. Boasting an increasingly modern and highly capable fighting force, working to better integrate its forces with those of the United States, Australia and other regional militaries, and located at one of the world's most strategic chokepoints - both economically and militarily - it will emerge later this decade as a front-line outpost in the escalating military confrontation between the United States and China.

RH:

1. If you have been reading blogs and internet articles, you would know that LKY was only a junior member of the PAP led by the charismatic leader LIM Chin Siong. Then the 2-timing, unscrupulous, vindictive and venomous election-cheat called LIE Kuan Yew went to the British PM Harold MacMillan and begged MacMillan to make him [LIE KY] PM of Singapore in return for LIE serving British interests willingly and wholeheartedly. So MacMillan got the ISA Council to arrest the entire LIM Chin Siong majority faction in the PAP so that LIE KY could take over LIM's position and PAP party. Thus, LIE KY's entire political career began with an unscrupulous 2-timing cheat of LIM's party and position.

2. The first election LIE cheated was the Referendum to Join Malaysia. THERE WAS NO OPTION NOT TO JOIN! There were only options on HOW to join! Thus, LIE cheated the people of Singapore from the very beginning. Later, in 1997, LIE was to be caught cheating in elections again by my acquaintance, Mr David DUCLOS [read my blog below]. Thus, LIE is a charlatan, a fake, a 2-timer who never hesitates to cheat and lie his way to power and to attain power by serving foreign colonial interests.

3. Even before that, LIE KY served Japanese interests during WW2. He wrote that he became a Japanese collaborator "to live and eat better". Unlike many other patriotic young men, LIE never even thought of going into the jungles to fight the invaders. Nor even to put up passive resistance against the invaders. Instead, he chose to work for them, thus helping their war efforts against the British and Americans, by translating their secret telegrams and war communications. LIE has no scruples.

4. After Singapore progressed economically, like Hongkong, mostly by LIE KY copying Hongkong assiduously, from the Hongkong high-rise public housing [copied by the HDB and admitted by LIE that he took the idea of high-rise public flats from Hongkong], to Hongkong financial centre, to even the Hongkong MTR [LIE was offered a metro system by the Russians long ago but did not and could not think things through and did not see the value of a metro until after Hongkong had built its own, after which LIE lured their engineers and builders to build his MRT], LIE began to bend over forwards to the mighty Americans, trying very hard to turn his tiny island into an American outpost and fortress, as the above article proves.

5. In fact, if the Americans had not taken a perverted interest in me, LIE would have left me alone like he did for so many decades. Once the Americans got interested in me, LIE seized the opportunity to blowjob the Americans by lavishing men and money into an obscene entertainment comprised largely of physical and mental and psychological torture, plus also, for American prurient interests, a kind of Torture By Television, in which my entire family and relatives and I are televised 24/7 for the amusement of the Americans and the world, ALL SO THAT LIE KY WOULD BE ABLE TO RUB SHOULDERS WITH CLINTON, BUSH, BLAIR, ETC, AND TO BASK IN THE SPOTLIGHT. A PUBLICITY STUNT LIKE NO OTHER. THE AMERICANS LAPPED IT ALL UP AND KEPT EGGING HIM ON TO WORSE AND WORSE EXCESSES OF TORTURE AND HUMILIATION, WITHOUT EVEN ONCE OBJECTING HE WAS GOING TOO FAR. THUS, THE AMERICANS, BRITISH AND OTHERS ARE COMPLICIT BY KEEPING QUIET. I WOULD HAVE DIED IF I HAD NOT FOUGHT BACK. I KNEW WHAT I HAD TO DO AND DID IT. AND WILL KEEP DOING IT. THIS WAY, I KEEP MY SANITY, HEALTH, IMMUNITY HIGH AND MY MORALE.

6. Now that LIE is blowjobbing the Americans, since the British are no longer a world power, as President Putin reminded, even sending his ill-begotten son to MIT, [not the albino, and no, not the autistic. Those 2 duds are hardly mentionable in polite society], LIE KY is spending BILLIONS AND BILLIONS TO SERVE AMERICAN MILITARY INTERESTS. TO ENCIRCLE CHINA. TO BUILD THE CHANGI NAVAL BASE COSTING BILLIONS, SPECIALLY FOR AMERICAN WARSHIPS. GIVING AMERICANS AIRBASES IN SINGAPORE IN ADDITION TO CHANGI NAVAL BASE. GIVING AMERICAN MILITARY BASES IN SINGAPORE FOR COMMUNICATIONS, ESPIONAGE ON THE REGION AND CHINA, AS WELL AS PROVIDING CHINESE TRANSLATORS FOR CHINA MESSAGES, AS WELL AS MALAY TRANSLATIONS OF MALAYSIA AND INDONESIA MESSAGES. The LIEs have also been busily stitching together a regional alliance of ASEAN countries against China. This is mostly through military cooperation of the various air forces and navies, etc, in joint wargames and training so that the alliance can work better against China once the Americans give the word.

7. We Singapore taxpayers are paying billions so that LIE can serve American interests in encircling China. Today's Straits Times did a blowjob in trying to frighten the Americans into taking more interest in the coming ASEAN meet by saying that China will gain if the Americans don't come. Ha, ha, ha. The Americans are not that stupid. If they have decided that Singapore and ASEAN are irrelevant, they won't waste their time hobnobbing with dictator LIE, so this can be considered a failed blowjob by LIE, who have looked so much forward to blowjobbing Bush again.

8. In 2005, LIE HL even begged the US to accept his Singapore taxpayers cheque for US$3 BILLION, ostensibly for "nuclear cover" a very vague term that does not mean anything, nor was there a formal agreement or contract. Just US$3 billion straight into the American banks. With this money, to be given regularly, every other year or so, the US would be happy to keep the LIEs in power forever. Of course, we all know that Singapore has atom bombs and the neighbours don't. So the "nuclear cover" was another LIE. Just to blowjob the Americans and keep them happy and orgasmically satisfied with the LIEs.

9. The LIEs are also paying multi billions for overpriced arms from the US, including training, etc. All these are not for Singapore's defence but to keep the Americans satisfied orgasmaically, with typical LIE blowjobs. The LIEs even blowjob the Americans to the extent of using their Singapore prisons for the abducted American CIA abductees' torture and imprisonment in Singapore jails [renditions].

10. Meanwhile, our tiny number of eligible aged poor have just had their hard-to-apply-for welfare monthly cheques upped from S$260 to S$290, not enough for 3 meals a day so most of them skip one meal a day. And meanwhile, the LIEs get not only $3 million a year but another few million in pension and other board of directors fees.

11. Sheesh. It makes you wonder if there is justice in this world. Perhaps not in this world but certainly the next.
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RH: MY ACQUAINTANCE, A FORMER POLICE INSPECTOR, AND HIS LAWYER FRIEND, EYEWITNESSED LEE KUAN YEW RIGGING THE 1997 CHENG SAN GRC ELECTION. READ MORE AT MY BLOG ENTITLED "I CAME, I SAW, I SOLVED IT" :

http://i-came-i-saw-i-solved-it.blogspot.com/

READ ALSO MARTYN SEE's INTERVIEW WITH ME AT:

http://singaporerebel.blogspot.com/

MY ARCHIVE OF WORKS AT:

http://i-came-i-saw-i-wrote-it.blogspot.com/