WhirledView

Singapore Then and Now

by Patricia H. Kushlis

Last summer the Santa Fe Opera staged the World Premiere of Somerset Maugham’s “The Letter,” a compelling short story set in Singapore. Or mostly set in Singapore because this tale of murder on a rubber plantation begins, well, on a rubber plantation somewhere in the then British colony of Malaysia before the action moves south to the city of Singapore at the base of the tri-ethnic Malaysian peninsula. I meant to write about the opera much earlier – not to critique it because I’m not a music critic – but simply as I saw it from an audience point of view as well as to put it in a Southeast Asian context since I spent portions of my Foreign Service career serving in the region. (Photo top left of Patricia Racette (Leslie Crosbie)and Robert Maddalena (Howard Joyce) in court in Singapore in "The Letter" at the Santa Fe Opera 2009. Photo by Ken Howard courtesy of the Santa Fe Opera.)

But then other things intervened – including a month long trip to East Asia. As it turned out my trip included two segments of several days each in Singapore – a predominately Chinese city which has – ever since I’ve known it beginning with my first visit in 1973 – been on Southeast Asia’s economic cutting edge. This is not to say, that Singapore is a model democracy.

A Model Democracy Singapore is not.

Nevertheless, I think the autocratic rule of the aging Lee Kuan Yew, incorrigible Minister Mentor since 1991, has moderated some under the prime ministership of his son Goh Chok Tong and for what it's worth, the city has a new parliament building. However, this city-state on the Singapore Straits has done a lot right over the years for the economic betterment of many of its peoples although the Gini coefficient of rich to poor is even larger than in the US and may be at an all time high. This is because of Singapore’s frenetic construction boom and the need to import unskilled labor to provide the needed brawn. Yet Singapore is light years away from the sleepy provincial colonial capital of the days when Maugham wiled away his time on the veranda of the venerable Raffles Hotel spinning his sultry, but far from sleepy, Southeast Asian tales.

East Asian Impressions: Take One

By Patricia H. Kushlis

I just returned from nearly a month in East Asia.  My trip included Shanghai, Singapore, several places in Laos along the Mekong River from north of Luang Prabrang to the Cambodian border,  and Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City. at the Mekong's mouth.  This was my first trip back to the region since a three week tour of China in 2004 and one of Vietnam and Cambodia in 2003. This is also why I haven’t posted much on WhirledView since I left the US on October 18.

The good news is that East Asia – with the exception of Japan – is coming out of recession far faster than predicted and the turn-around is led by China.  Much is due to the Chinese government’s domestic pump-priming financed out of its huge reserves.  But the latest numbers indicate that Chinese private sector growth is also increasing and that the country is set for 8-9 percent growth for 2009. (Photo left:  Shanghai, Pu Dong, by PHKushlis 10-23-09)

The annual APEC (Asia and Pacific Economic Council) Summit took place in Singapore over the November 14-16 weekend.  In reality, APEC began the weekend before: delegates were being welcomed at the airport when we arrived there on November 4 with special passport control lines reserved for them.

Ministerial meetings began last week:  Hillary Clinton, for instance, was photographed having coffee at Starbucks in Suntec City, one of two major APEC meeting sites, on November 11.  The Chinese president had already arrived in Singapore, Russia’s President Dmitri Medvedev is making his first visit to Singapore and the November 12 edition of The Straits Times (Singapore) was rife with speculation about where the various leaders would be, or were already, staying.  Given the wealth of luxury hotels in the city, there are more than enough to go around.  Obama, for instance, was rumored for the Shangrila. (Photo above right  "Singapore Welcomes You" by PHKushlis 11-11-09)

 China’s Soft Power Diplomacy: Playing the Panda Card

 But the news that dominated the front page of The Straits Times the day I left was the present of a young panda pair to the Singapore Zoo from the Chinese leadership to the Singaporeans.  China’s president who had already arrived, presumably bore the new bears message. The black and white furry “gifts,” however, do not come without strings – including a healthy price tag for the Singaporeans and the promise to repatriate any future panda off-spring to China.

 What I had not known, however, about this cuddly form of diplomacy is that the Chinese only offer pandas to countries with which they have especially good relations.  According to the newspaper whose reporter did some homework, the Chinese first used panda diplomacy in the Seventh Century and Singapore will be only the seventh country to be offered a panda pair.  Earlier recent recipients were the US, Australia, Japan, Thailand, Austria and Taiwan.

Clearly then, Chinese-Taiwanese relations are on an up-swing. Not only did Taiwan receive a panda pair, but it is now possible to fly directly from Shanghai to Taiwan – something that shaves off hours and relieves much needless aggravation.  What is also interesting is the countries not on the panda-receipt list.  Think about it.   (Photo above left of young panda pair at Chengdu Panda Preserve by PHKushlis 2004)            

From APEC to ASEAN

Barack Obama is scheduled to devote November 15 to APEC meetings as well as one multilateral with ASEAN heads of state before departing for Shanghai.  He arrived for the conclusion of the dinner on November 14.

This is the first time an American President has ever met with ASEAN counterparts – as incredible as that may seem given Asia’s economic and security importance to the US.  One supposedly controversial aspect of this particular meeting is that the Burmese president will be in the group of 10 and US policy towards the junta has been to shun engagement of any sort until Kurt Campbell, Assistant Secretary for East Asian Affairs in the State Department, visited Rangoon last week where he met with less august levels of the ruling clique as well as Aung San Suu Kui still under house arrest.  The Obama administration has – following its predecessors lead – continued to press for her release.  Whether they will succeed where others have failed is an open question.

Because of the Ft. Hood killings, Obama cut his Asian trip a little short.  Because of the recent change in Japanese governments and the new government’s decidedly less pro-American stance towards the US and the US base on Okinawa, Obama spent nearly two days in Tokyo meeting with the new prime minister Yukio Hatoyama and others.  The discussion with Hatoyama focused on security, not economic, issues. His major speech on US-Asian relations was also delivered there.  Whether or not the latest fracas between North and South Korea was mentioned was not indicated - and no reporters asked the question in the press briefing thereafter. But certainly recognition of and concern for the plight of Japanese who have been abducted by the North Koreans was because several of the families of the abductees were in the audience for Obama's speech at Suntory Hall.

Obama More Popular than the US - Latest Pew Poll

The most recent Pew public opinion survey of Chinese, Japanese and South Koreans indicates that Obama is more popular in Asia than is the US.  I don’t know whether this is true or not.  Clearly, Obama is far more popular among many people who live outside the US than his predecessor.  This is true from what I heard during my travels - albeit totally unscientifically.   But the degree of differentiation between reactions to the President and the US as a whole among Asians as also reflected in the Pew survey is beyond my level of competency.  The troubles with the US economy may be a major factor influencing the poll results. So too would be the way the US is portrayed in the various national media.

The George W. Bush administration had developed a good relationship with the Chinese – but pretty much ignored everyone else so Obama and the rest of his administration need to keep the Chinese relationship on track while fence-mending with the others.  There was no coincidence then that Hillary Clinton's first foreign trip abroad as Secretary of State was to Asia.  Thus far, it seems, they’re off to a good start. And the Asians like it.

       

Terrorism in the Philippines - No Easy Answers

By Patricia H. Kushlis

The New York Times’  article “Curbed in Island Towns, Islamists in Philippines Take to Forests” published on September 26, 2009 by Norimitsu Onishi reporting from Lamitan, a small Christian enclave on the largely Muslim island of Basilan, is just additional evidence that not much has changed since the Bush administration sent 600 US troops, $100 million in military and counter-terrorism assistance and $55 million in economic and social assistance to the southern Philippines in 2002 to help the Philippine government eliminate Abu Sayyaf, a lethal band of Islamist kidnap-for-ransom extortionists, based in this mostly Muslim part of the country.

Although this kidnap-for-ransom crew of perhaps no more than 20 no longer operates freely in the main towns, Abu Sayyaf has not closed up shop or put down its guns.  Far from it: the fighters have just moved to the hills.

Since 2002, the US government has provided the Philippines with $1.6 billion in military and economic aid of which $400 million from USAID has gone to the Muslim provinces, the poorest parts of Mindanao, in the Philippines.

The Obama administration has also just extended the stay of 600 US “elite counter-insurgency troops” in the southern Philippines to continue to deal with the problem - to the consternation of Filipino left-leaning politicians and news media.   

The fact that the US and Philippine defense agreement permits American soldiers to be in the country only to support the Philippine military but not engage in combat, is, in my view, sensible. The US military’s role is to provide intelligence, training and technology to Filipino counterparts. 

But even so is this working?  Can it work?  And if not, why not?  What are the impediments?  What would make the difference? 

Why is there still a problem?

Soto Ayam: an Epic Soup and Easy to Make

By Patricia Lee Sharpe

Java has its own version of the Indian epic known as the Mahabharata and its own ways of telling the story. All or parts are usually presented during night long puppet shows, sometimes via shadow puppets made of leather, sometimes via stick puppets, but always manipulated and narrated by masterful dalangs backed up by singers and a gamelan ensemble. Typically the Javanese versions also feature interludes of repartee thanks to a supplementary cast of beloved ignoble characters, who inject comic relief as the inexorable cosmic tragedy unfolds. Think Shakespeare, as in Romeo and Juliet, where puns and lewd humor serve the same purpose.

It's hard to envision Romeo dealing with a plate of slippery spaghetti much less Arjuna spilling soup on his dhoti, but the comic characters are allowed all the crude human functions like eating and drinking, etc., etc. And the audience certainly needs sustenance. So today I'm presenting, as my last salute to Farmers' Market vegetable soups, a version of soto ayam madura, which is to say chicken soup Madura style. Madura is a large island hovering in a broad bay just off the city of Surabaya in East Java, but some version of soto ayam is available wherever street food is offered in Sumatra as well as Java.

Join me in Indonesia. It's dusk at last. Strings of little electric lights are suddenly asparkle, to keep the gathering darkness at bay, with the help of the oil lamps standing on many tables and shop counters. The equatorial air is cooling, at last, and a hint of a breeze makes the evening even more refreshing, so the street is thronged with people shopping or strolling, like you. You pass food vendors selling boiled crabs or chicken satay or morsels of rice wrapped in banana leaves---or beer, realize you are hungry and slide into a bench facing a table laid with plastic or old fashioned oilcloth. A huge bowl, a cheap Chinese export, is plunked down in front of you, usually with a mouth-stretching stainless steel spoon, occasionally with a porcelain scoop. An island that's really a chicken leg or breast rises from a steaming lake of savory broth that barely covers a generous serving of rice and vegetables. In case the spicing doesn't burn enough, you may choose among bottles and shakers full of red stuff to make the meal as mouth-tingling as you like. Slurp! Slurp! Delicious!

Soto ayam also makes for a fun dinner at home. So here's how, with one caveat. Adjust all amounts to feed the gang you expect at the table:

Cut a chicken into serving-sized pieces, load it in a big pot and cover it with plenty of water. Throw in a piece of ginger half the size of your thumb and three fat cloves of garlic roughly chopped. Follow up with a tablespoon each of ground coriander and cumin plus a teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper. To make a richer broth, I also add a large onion, two carrots and three stalks of celery, all chopped. Sometimes I throw in six whole cloves. Simmer. When the chicken is done, still moist but not bloody inside, which could be within 30 minutes or less, remove the pieces you'll be serving, leaving the neck and back and tail and heart and gizzard in the broth while you boil it down for a more intense flavor. Once you are satisfied with the broth, turn off the heat, strain the broth and return it and chicken to the pot for reheating just before serving.

Meanwhile, you will have set your rice to cooking, and you have chopped up lots of green onions and a pile of fresh coriander. Now slice a lime or two into eighths. Finally, steam some green beans and some smallish cabbage wedges. While these are still a bit crunchy, add a few handfuls of bean sprouts to the steamer. All will be ready to serve in a minute or so.

Yes, you may add or substitute any other vegetables you happen to like as much or better. Home cooking needs to be free and creative. Personalized, not slavish. If you want something pure and absolutely authentic, find a restaurant or take a trip to Indonesia, which isn't a bad idea, actually, though a bit more expensive.

To serve: empty the reheated broth and chicken into a large bowl or tureen, which you'll set in the middle of the table. Arrange the vegetables, hot from the steamer, on a platter, and put the chopped coriander, the chopped green onions and the lime segments into little bowls for easy passing around. Finally, provide a bowl of sambal olek, which is a paste of red chilis - no vinegar, no onions, nothing but chili. This is the only exotic ingredient, and these days it's available in most grocery stores.

Now the fun begins. Everyone starts with an empty soup dish and fills it up with chicken, broth, rice, vegetables and condiments in any old order. Boarding house reach is a plus, when it comes skewering slabs of chicken or ladling hot chicken broth. This, naturally, leads to near collisions and much laughter - definitely an ice breaker, a wonderful comic interlude in the terrible seriousness of life and love.

Squeeze some lime over the combo. Stir in some sambal olek. As I said before: Slurp! Slurp!

Should there, by some miracle, be any leftovers, the solution is simple: dump everything (except the limes) into a pot for reheating the next day. I'd debone the chicken at this point, but it's hardly necessary.

Photos of Indonesian stick puppets by Patricia Lee Sharpe.

Why Barbara Tuchman’s 1973 Speech on US Foreign Policy Remains Relevant Today

By Patricia H. Kushlis

On January 30, 1973, Barbara Tuchman gave a speech in honor of John (Jack) Service, one of America’s most experienced State Department China-hands. Service had years earlier lost his career – along with several colleagues – because of their accurate reports from the ground in 1940s China.

Their crime?

Service, Ambassador Clarence Gauss, Counselor George Atcheson and other China specialists in the war torn country at the time – or on the China Desk at the State Department - had the temerity to report to Washington higher ups that Chiang Kai-shek was losing the war and Mao Zedung and the Communists were going to take over the vast country.

For their candor, careers were lost, reputations destroyed and these hapless messengers persecuted at home. They were, in Tuchman’s words “hounded because able and honest performance of their profession collided with the hysterics of the cold war manipulated by a man so absolutely without principles as to be sinister like the man without a shadow.”

In response to an earlier post here on WhirledView, a friend told me about and then sent me a copy of Tuchman’s speech. I’m not going to repeat it in its entirety – it was her speech after all. But it's clear that many of her observations remain relevant today.

I’ve summarized them below in regular type face. Mine follow in italics.

• Foreign Service Officers are employed to advise policy-makers of actual conditions on which to base a realistic policy. Let’s get real: the State Department still needs skilled professional political and economic reporting officers in its embassies overseas and its bureaus in Foggy Bottom. Gaining such expertise does not happen overnight it demands a variety of skills gained on the job, through academic study and in specialized State Department training: twenty years with the Department and in service overseas is more like it.

• The expert reports are too often ignored because policy is formed by preconceptions and long implanted biases. The mental fix of President McKinley got this country into an ill-conceived and bloody war of oppression in 1898 in the Philippines because of his ignorance of the country and its people especially his failure to take into account the tenacity of the indigenous Filipino resistance. President Roosevelt’s favor of the progressive discounted and discouraged US Embassy Moscow reporting in the 1930s of the Stalinist purges. Right on both counts.

A Tribute to Corazon Aquino – The Philippines Most Unlikely President

By Patricia H. Kushlis

Corazon C. Aquino (1933-2009) was never supposed to be President of the Philippines but she was - from 1986 to 1992. Her candidacy for the country’s highest office – through an election she and her supporters challenged as fraudulent – ultimately broke the back of the seemingly entrenched and generally despised dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos who had been in power since 1965.

This unassuming, attractive, petite, gentle but determined American-educated woman will always be remembered by what came to be known as “People Power” and its symbols: the brilliant yellow color she often wore and Aquino’s own special L-shaped hand sign (which stood for "Laban" or "fight" in Filipino.) The EDSA Revolution as it was also called - named after the major artery where the large anti-Marcos demonstrations were centered - turned into a huge popular outpouring of support – from the left, the poor, the Roman Catholic Church and its leader Jaime Cardinal Sin, the Makati business elite, cultural figures and, of course, academics and students. They came out en masse– especially Manila’s middle classes - when the call came.

The Roman Catholic Church's Moral Authority

The Church’s pulpits and Veritas, its influential alternative radio station, had summoned Filipinos into Manila's streets that February thereby providing the moral force behind the growing opposition to an increasingly unpopular regime. Marcos was already losing power. He had been since at least 1983 when he allegedly instigated the murder of (Ninoy) Benigno Aquino, Cory’s husband, on the tarmac at Manila’s international airport as he stepped off the plane from political exile in the US. Ninoy Aquino became the martyr the revolution needed to galvanize the opposition.