‘Singapore diplomat called India stupid’

SINGAPORE: A top Singaporean diplomat described India as “stupid” , saying the country was “half in, half out” of the ASEAN grouping, according to leaked US cables.

The whistle-blower website WikiLeaks released several US State Department cables that contained controversial comments by senior Singaporean foreign affairs officials on India and other Asian allies like Malaysia, Thailand and Japan. The cables containing comments made during Singaporean diplomats’ meetings with senior US officials such as deputy secretary of defence for East Asia David Sedney between 2008 and last year were exclusively leaked to Australia’s Fairfax Media Group.

In one of the cables, Singapore’s Ambassador at large Tommy Koh called Japan “the big fat loser” in the context of improving ties between China and ASEAN.

According to Australian newspapers which carried the contents of the cables, Koh attributed the relative decline of Japan’s position in the region to its “stupidity , bad leadership and lack of vision.”

Koh was “equally merciless towards India, describing his ‘stupid Indian friends’ as ‘half in, half out’ of ASEAN,” a leaked cable said.

ASEAN — the Association of South East Asian Nations in which India has an observer status — is made up of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar , the Philippines , Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The leaked cables also contained comments from former permanent secretary at Singapore’s Foreign Affairs Ministry Peter Ho and permanent secretary Bilahari Kausikan on the political situation and leadership in Malaysia and Thailand.

Pak news agency editor sacked for fake Wiki report

Siddique Sajid, editor of Pakistan’s Online news agency, has been sacked after it published a fake WikiLeaks report that New Delhi allegedly played a role in destabilizing the country’s Balochistan province. Online editor-in-chief Mohsin J Baig, soon upon his return from Turkey where he had accompanied PM Yousaf Raza Gillani during his official visit there, had ordered an enquiry into the fake WikiLeaks story. PTI