Singapore pulled off ‘understated, unacknowledged’ feat with Trump-Kim summit
US President Donald Trump and North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un shake hands after signing documents during a summit at the Capella Hotel on the resort island of Sentosa,
While things return to normal after the excitement and hope stirred by the North Korea-United States summit on June 12, I just want to say that it was a feat pulled off by “Singapore Inc” in the world of geopolitics.
Most pundits, immersed in the last 70 years of order steered by the West, continued to downplay the outcome of the summit with reference to their usual framework.
On the other hand, the Asian leaders, including Japan, noted emphatically the first step taken towards ending conflict, and seemed to strike an overall positive note.
And the South Koreans living here and those who visited just to witness this historic moment are similarly buoyed by the effort. A friend from Seoul could hardly believe it as she said: “What a great peaceful step!”
This event demonstrated how Singapore officials are “pragmatically geared towards finding the right answer or at least a workable solution”, as stated in the commentary, “Trump and Kim can learn a lot from Singapore” (June 12).
With this effort, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and team have shown their hands and hearts. Or perhaps, it is the Asean (Association of South-east Asian Nations) way — understated and unacknowledged by most quarters.
I look forward to the day when Asean will have a bigger role to play in recalibrating the tilt influenced by age-old western discourses.
