Now that the 193-nation U.N. General Assembly had voted to
accept the de facto recognition of a sovereign Palestinian state, I think it's time for a change in Singapore. I believe
it’s time for Singapore
to do the same and accept Palestine as a state.
Yes, that is correct. Singapore
is one of the handful of states who has thus far refused to recognize Palestine as a sovereign
state. In case anyone is wondering, the vote recognizing the Palestinian state
had 138 votes in favor, nine against and 41 abstentions. In short, despite the
best efforts of Israel and
the U.S, the world was overwhelming in favor of recognizing Palestine . However in the latest vote in the
U.N, Singapore
abstained from voting.
I find that to be ridiculously stupid. Yes, I read the Singapore government’s position that such a recognition will not help achieve peace in
the region but that argument will only hold water if there is some peace talks
to help thing along. There isn’t. In fact, Singapore ’s
argument sounds downright stupid when you consider that Israel and
Hamas just traded rocket fire for a week.
So Israel
got whipped in the vote, as expected. The U.N. was always going to vote to
accept Palestine and by abstaining, Singapore found itself not only against most of
the world, but also almost alone in South-East Asia .
Is there a good reason for that? Frankly, the answer is no.
Our good relation to Israel
and the U.S notwithstanding, there was no need for Singapore to find itself on the
wrong end of such an overwhelming vote. Singapore
should just recognize Palestine
as a sovereign state. God knows, the rest of the world already do.
2 comments:
By the way, it is the present government of Singapore and not the people of Singapore
I never understood why people keep saying this. The Singapore government was elected by the people of Singapore. That means their actions reflect on all Singaporeans. That’s democracy. Singaporeans can’t say, “Yes, the majority of Singaporeans elected this government but their actions has nothing to do with the people of Singapore.” Democracy means, for better or worse, the people owns part of the government.
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