Excerpts from Reuters:
SINGAPORE, March 13 (Reuters) – Myanmar’s Prime Minister Thein Sein will visit Singapore and Indonesia next week, just after regional group ASEAN urged its military junta to be inclusive in elections and to free political prisoners.
Thein Sein’s itinerary has not been made public, but Singapore’s Botanic Gardens said it would host an “Orchid Naming Ceremony” for Thein Sein on Wednesday, as part of his official visit to Singapore and Indonesia, a spokeswoman told Reuters. Myanmar ruling junta’s newspaper New Light of Myanmar reported on Friday that Thein Sein, the number four in its hierarchy, would visit the two countries “in the near future”.
—-
“The naming of an orchid after PM Thein Sein could be worse than watering a poison ivy,” said Soe Aung, a spokesman for Bangkok-based Forum for Democracy in Myanmar.
Read full report on Reuters.
Who is Thein Sein? See Altsean-Burma and The Myanmar Times.
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The nice thing about having an Orchid called Thein Sein is that you can burn it without going to jail.
To smallvice585,
If someone sees you burning a Thein Sein orchid, the police will soon be knocking on your door. However, if you are beaten up in a busy MRT station, the police will say they can’t do anything and advise you to “move on”.
I suspect this is part of the whole ‘soft power’ engagement. But it sickens me to have this idiot walk through Botanic Gardens.
I pity the orchid and hope it doesn’t display in the orchid garden for tourists to spit on.
speechless and dumbfounded, most burmese left opression and surpresssion, only to be what I don’t know. they left a condition for a good condition!
what a pity. i pity the orchid !
I can understand if our govt wants to be diplomatic with foreign leaders.
But the gesture of naming a local orchid hybrid after a member of the
ruthless dictatorship is overboard.
What’s next? To invite Gen Than Shwe or Mugabe and give them with
the nation’s highest award for oppression to their own citizens?
How dare Singapore government discredit the peaceful nature of flower by associating our flower with foreigner “murderers” due to economic interest ? By doing so, our government has increased the face of wrath of nature. Didn’t we have lightning strike on Merlion ?
Name of Orchid ? Junta Orchid ? Oppressor Orchid ? Killer Orchid ?
There is something severely wrong with our decision makers receiving million dollar salaries.
10 Years Prison for burning Orchids
What an irony to name such a beautiful flower like the orchid after a
human brute from the Burmese Junta !
What a damn shame for S’pore to honour such a man !
Wouldn’t it make more sense to name the orchid after Ms Au San Suu Kyi ?
What the hell is our people in Botanical Gardens thinking ?
unless the idea came from our own despotic leadership.
Perhaps to make our orchids world famous,
we need to name more of them after infamous people.
It does seem to TOC readers that to do this seems to be giving a diplomatic courtesy to the junta leader beyond what is expected of normal diplomacy.
However, let us try to understand why our leaders made this decision. We surely cannot assume they are plain stupid and have not considered the implications of doing so. If so, what could be the other factors at play here that encouraged them to do so?
If you want to oppose the decision, it is important to consider and understand what the government thinks instead on focussing on what is obvious to all.
Here are some concerns they might have and some have already pointed them out:
1) Self-interest. We trade with Burma and from a purely selfish basis we want to be on as good terms with them as possible.
2) Soft power engagement. We hope that by establishing friendly terms with them the Myanmar govt will be more pliant and receptive to our suggestions in the future. This might turn out to help the burmese more in the long run.
Ultimately, while the military junta might be immoral and unjust, the way for us to deal with it has to be wise and balanced. In this case, perhaps some might feel the naming is going too far, but others might not. We have a right to complain, but the government has the right to make the decision.
Just about a month ago, a group of us saw off a Burmese at the airport. He had been working in S’pore for 14 years and never had any trouble with the law. He was one of those who helped us build some of our infrastructure such as the Circle Line.
He then took part in the Orchard Road protest against the Burmese brutal crackdown in 2007. He wasn’t part of any group. Just an ordinary Burmese who wanted to show his solidarity with his suffering fellow citizens.
The S’pore govt decided not to renew his work permit and asked him to leave S’pore. He has now received asylum status from some NGOs in Jakarta, the last I heard.
And here we are, rolling out the red carpet for one of those who belong to the murderous regime, what is effectively a band of murderers.
Here is what our PM said of the regime in June 2007:
“”We should not, because of Myanmar, forsake the cooperation, the relationship, the mutual exchange and enrichment which is waiting to take place and I believe that this message has had some effect.”
– International Herald Tribune
What “cooperation”?
What “relationship”?
What “mutual exchange”?
What “effect”?
Naming an orchid after a murderer is just plain nauseating.
I wish my government had more backbone and not prostitute itself and my country to criminals like these brutes.
Shame on the PAP government who honour tyrant to suppress its citizens.
It seems that this country Singapore is cursed
by its’ very own inhabitants everyday.
Is this the beginning of the End ?
“Asesina Ano Thein Sein” would be fitting. Means murderous ******* Thein Sein in Spanish.
Sure, let him name the orchid but name it after Nobel laurette, Aung San Suu Kyi.
Do we name an orchid ater PM Thein Sein because we sell mines, guns , bombs and other deadly forms of munitions that maim and mangle the bodies of some poor minority group members?
As a Sing person I say we can do without the profits. We want to love our fellow human beings.
Our garmen is so greedy it has to all it can to sell its arms and it is most profitable.
I am ashamed.
Seems like an act of deflowering………
As a rich country in ASEAN, Singapore government, should not have good relationship with Junta government if Singapore government respects human right and ordinary Myanmar citizens.
Dear Ordinary Singapore citizens,
Please ask your government administration, not to support Junta. Supporting Junta is really dangerous for ordinary Myanmar citizens.
From the Heart of Myanmar Citizens!
This isn’t even an issue to start with.
*-*
By endorsing Junta Leader, with the naming of our orchid after him, is telling the whole world that Singapore and Junta are birds of the same feather. Dr Chee Soon Juan has already cautioned Singapore towards moving in similar direction and he was threw into prison. Now, we are beginning to see some truth in his words and the lights are getting clearer. Don’t we?
What an insult to the orchid!
#12
“Soft power engagement. We hope that by establishing friendly terms with them the Myanmar govt will be more pliant and receptive to our suggestions in the future. This might turn out to help the burmese more in the long run.”
Surely you jest!
wkc 24,
It is a part of our FP. Soft power has its place in the toolkit of all states’ diplomacy.
Even the Great Powers do it. But I still personally find it abhorrent, while understanding that on a realist, Morgenthau-istic pov, it is a logical tool.
“2) Soft power engagement. We hope that by establishing friendly terms with them the Myanmar govt will be more pliant and receptive to our suggestions in the future. This might turn out to help the burmese more in the long run.”
Every country without moral to consider can say this easily too, don’t they ? So what’s stopping other country then ?
Opppsss.. someone collude with the Japanese as japanese translator in WW2, and did they say something like “at least I’m indirectly helping the people when I work with the japanese !” !
Oppsss… we may just have a exchange programme here. How about inviting the oldman to Burma and name the Burma’s orchid as Leechid ?
Maybe name the Orchid as OMD (Orchid of Mass Destruction) as it symbolize selling Singapore-made weapons and ammunition to the junta military.
Friends, take it easy…
Think of it, the cost of naming a flower after a person versus the benefits that our country can get…
stock price of ST Engineering depends on this.
@ 26 Daniel,
All the different category of weapons we export to the Burmese Junta
should be named after our orchids.
It will be a good brand name for weapons designed and manufactured in S’pore and our govt can claim to the world they are exporting orchids.
@ 12 Joshua,
You can try to understand how this damned govt thinks but not me.
It does not matter any more.
Friends, take it easy…
Think of it, the cost of naming a flower after a person versus the benefits that our country can get…
Stock price of ST Engineering depends on this, so is our NODEX and GDP, and the civil servants’ salaries.
“Think of it, the cost of naming a flower after a person versus the benefits that our country can get…”
The decision and karma we make in the past and present will come back to haunt us in the future. When the oldman dies, it is payback’s time for Singapore.
Burma doesn’t have the money to buy our increasingly expensive weapon systems. Why should we aim for them when we can sell to the Brits and Indians.
#32
Brits and Indians are in the space-age technology, where are we?
Burma can still afford low quality products and stone-age weapons.
“Burma doesn’t have the money to buy our increasingly expensive weapon systems. Why should we aim for them when we can sell to the Brits and Indians.”
Burma doesn’t have money ? Are you talking about junta or the people of Burma ? It is the junta that buy the weapons to destroy the people of Burma. Junta confiscate the wealth of Burma for themselves, don’t they ?
“Why should we aim for them when we can sell to the Brits and Indians.”
When did business has limit ? Singapore can sell to Brits and Indians if they want it, no one stopping them anyway.
Of course, selling to Junta means higher premium profit since other countries may not want to do business with junta openly. Opps… We may even need Junta to help out if our oldman call for army during freak election… Remember our SAF never have experience of killing innocent people but Junta does.
34 Daniel,
If you think Burma are in the big leagues of defence procurements at the moment, you are sorely mistaken. What everyone has been selling to them has been nothing more than simple weaponry that is hardly the sole premise of any nation.
And your point about suppressing the citizenry, do you really believe that this will happen here? C’mon, take a reality check and look at the overriding national interest of Singapore and you will realise that sustaining a projected reputation ranks higher than metaphorical ideology.
There will be no use of the army in Singapore, because that is tantamount to contravention of the Constitution and smells like an illegal coup, which will never be tolerated. Never.
“’mon, take a reality check and look at the overriding national interest of Singapore and you will realise that sustaining a projected reputation ranks higher than metaphorical ideology.”
Reality check ? Who expect Singapore to lose unprecedented billions… and not even LKY ? So what cannot be happen to Singapore ? It is beyond our control ?
If other countries doing it, should our government follow it ? If other country suppressing the citizen, should our government do the same. Monkey see, monkey do ?
Never say never because many of the things that we thought will never appear, appear before our eyes in Singapore, didn’t we ?
36 Daniel,
“Never say never because many of the things that we thought will never appear, appear before our eyes in Singapore, didn’t we ?”
Well, they didn’t surprise me…
wherever he walks, plants die. whenever he speaks, the air is poisoned.
whatever he touches, it rusts and rots.
Hello “Youngman” (7).
I’m an old man. What’s wrong with inviting Mugabe or Gen Than Shwe? Are they obnoxious people.? You know them well or you had been influenced by BBC broadcasts or Ex -President Bush speeches.?
The Burmese are intelligent people. They elected their government. If the government turns out to be no good, then they must find ways to get rid of them even if they have to lay down their lives by so doing. No one else can help the Burmese. A small pocket of demonstrations here and there does not indicate that the Burmese government is all bad. (Or else China is the greatest evil country on earth because of demonstrations by the tibetan people)
Gen Thein Sein must have done something good for Singapore. So i do not think there is any thing wrong to name an orchid after him.
As Singaporeans we must always remember that other people’s enemies are not necessarily our enemies. If we ever take such a stand we’ll never have anyone as our friend.Let’s take Malaysia as the first example. Even as the closest neighbours they have perpetually threatened to cut off water supplies to our country. They refused to sell sand to Singapore when we need sand for our development. They need our tourist dollars. But when our people visit the country.our people get mugged. Take Indonesia. as another example. During the 2004 tsunami we poured millions to help them. They too have stopped the sale of sand even they need the money for their poor. I’m sure our country is waiting to have our orchids named after some Malaysians or Indonesians
Can’t believe I’m reading this.
No wonder LKY sanctions the use of any brute force on his own citizens should there be a freak election result.
@ 39, hello old man, I am also old lah.
How do you know Thein Sein has done something good for S’pore ? Same applies to you, do you know him or did our political leaders personally told you so ? Or was it strictly a personal relationship between Thein Sein and some of our leaders ?
By your reasoning the Burmese are intelligent people and have elected their govt, then the North Koreans must have elected Kim’s govt also and the same can be said of the Iraqis when Sadam was alive. So the perception of Myanmar Junta by the entire world is wrong by your logic. Have you forgotten that Aung San Suu Kyi who was elected is still under house arrest ? Why don’t you ask George Yeo for an honest answer? You know who is George Yeo right ?
Again by your reasoning, the small pockets of demonstrations does not indicate the burmese govt is all bad, then the same applies to the North Korean govt under Kim and also the Iraqi govt under Sadam when he was alive. In fact the latter govts must be even better because I don’t think there was ever any kind of demonstration in the first place.
So you are implying no demonstration = good govt
You should take note that eventhough the US is not well liked, the truth is, S’pore owes its security in this part of the world to them. Again ask George Yeo why we offer them to set up base in S’pore.
Just remember that there are certain values worth upholding, because the citizens of the world may feel S’pore is not worth protecting when the crunch comes. And I believe the incumbent US President takes public opinion seriously.
As for muggings that you have mentioned, do take note that Malaysian citizens are victims also. Criminals target only those who are indiscreet and give themselves away as being wealthy. Why don’t you ask the Malaysians themselves ? By the way, did any past or present Malaysian PM threatened to cut our water supply ? Or were such threats made by politicians trying to score points? Think lah, as a fellow old man I know a few statements from opportunistic politicians do not represent the govt and its people.
And the issue of not being able to buy sand, it is all about price lah !
Make a good offer where the supplier cannnot refuse. Isn’t it about buying and selling ? Afterall it is our neighbours soil right ? By the way did Mah B T personally grumble to you and told you how unreasonable our neighbours have been ? Frankly I am not surprise we do not have friends in this region, go and figure this out. The clue my fellow old man , lies with how this govt treats its own ctizens. Have a nice day and good health.
Joshua Wong wrote: 2) Soft power engagement. We hope that by establishing friendly terms with them the Myanmar govt will be more pliant and receptive to our suggestions in the future. This might turn out to help the burmese more in the long run.
WE AS A NATION MAY ENGAGE IN SOFT POWER WITH THE BURMESE GOV WITHOUT THE NEED TO NAME PLANTS AFTER THESE PEOPLE WHO COMMITTED CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY.
WHAT ARE OUR LEADERS THINKING? WHAT ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS HAVE THEY MADE BEFORE COMING TO THIS DECISION?
WILL FUTURE LEADERS, US, UK…. VISIT THE BOTANIC GARDEN AFTER THIS? HUMAN RIGHT ACTIVISTS MAY REMIND THEM OF THIS PLACE.
BUT couldn’t they name the orchid AFTER the politically oppressed have been freed and allowed to engage in fair elections? Or perhaps, it’s a congratulatory patting of backs by like minded folks?
Cos to me, the brilliance of LKY’s PAP system has always left me in awe. Hitler, Stalin, Kim Jong Il and THAN SHWE- these guys are SMALL TIME. They use bullets and prisons. They incur the wrath of public relations nightmare. All MM Lee does is use the law. It’s legal. It’s fair. And there’s nothing the opposition can do about it. Same bullshit objective – different smell.
KILLER ORCHID !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We must impose economic sanctions on the orchid. No fertilizer or watering for the orchid. The orchid must be left to fend for itself until it repents.
The Nyanmar Junta may repay Singapore by having City, Building, River, mountain, nature reserves and whatever name after Singapore Leaders and the relationships/friendships will be stronger for the benefits of both countries.
Not bad, right ?
ya, no hum welcoming this leader from up north leh.
Last time Thaksin also very much welcomed. ;)
“BO-TANIC GARDEN” should be renamed as SA-TANIC GARDEN then because it will harbour the symbol of destruction in the form of Killer orchid , all for the sake of economic interest. Should avoid this garden as it bring bad omen and fengshui…. It is sick to know that there is a killer symbol in the land of Singapore. But then what’s new … Singapore has become SINgapore thank to the greedy and immoral government.
Hi @39.
Thanks for your response.
You have brought into this discussion, Iraq and N. Korea and two politicians. I do not know these two countries well. As such i am in no position to comment on their political systems. Neither do i know much about the two politicians except that they are our ministers. As such i am not privy to their thoughts.
You may be right that Thein Sein had an orchid plant named after him because of close relationship. But i doubt it . I want to believe that it was because he did something good for Singapore.
On the sale of sand to Singapore, our two neighbours banned their export. Thus the issue of cost is not in the equation.
On the supply of water to Singapore, you are right that there are politicians who will seize such opportunities for political gain. But there is also the possibility that these people are being used to make such threats on their leaders behalf. But being at the end of the stick, you can be sure that these are not joking matters. In politics there is an addage that there are no permanent friends nor permanent enemies. We should therefore not be too worried over this issue
I get the impression that as a senior citizen you are still not being treated well by the current government. Well election is coming . Exercise your rights! Have a good day
A PSC scholar who is affiliated to MFA told me that he had to join the Singapore delegation to Kim Jong Ill’s birthday celebrations in 2005 as part of his scholarship’s summer internship program.