Can’t agree more with our Foreign Affairs minister that the leaked comments S’porean diplomats and MM made abt neighbouring countries have to be seen in context.
Err what about giving us, and them, the context?
The funny thing is that once S’pore always assumed the US could not keep secrets. In the 1980s, the US approached S’pore and Brunei to secretly fund the “contras” fighting the pro-Soviet and Cuban government of Nicaragua. Congress had banned aid to the ‘contras”. Brunei obliged but S’pore said that it would not do so because the US could not keep secrets. S’pore was right. It became public knowledge that Brunei had funded the “contras” and that S’pore had refused, and its reason for so doing.
Update on 14 December 2010
The offending Oz articles
http://www.theage.com.au/world/top-singapore-officials-trash-the-neighbours-20101211-18thg.html
http://www.smh.com.au/world/big-fat-red-faces-for-singapore-leaders-20101211-18teg.html
http://www.smh.com.au/world/caught-in-political-sex-trap-20101211-18tee.html
Thoughts of a Cynical Investor 