Do you think it is ever right for one country to become involved in the internal affairs of another?

In an ideal world, countries should live as you would with your neighbours, in peace with one another and most of all refraining from being nosy. This is certainly a trait; you and I would appreciate from our next door HDB or condo dwellers. However, should the usually happy and normal family one day, be invaded by one other dastardly neighbour, who start committing the most heinous of acts like rape, pillaging and general destruction, would you think to yourself : “Hmmmmm.......is it right for me to become involved in my neighbour’s “internal affairs” ????

Surely not!!! I hope. As rightly quoted, by Mr Mahbubani, the world and specifically the US and the EU to a greater extent, being immediate neighbours, I quote, “...failed to take moral responsibility for their actions....” referring to both cases of Iraq and Yugoslavia. I however, find it ironic that Mr Mahbubani should refer to these powerful countries’ “actions.” For the case of Yugoslavia, it was instead a case of non-action and if there were any at all, these were far too weak and indecisive. This resulted in unchecked “ethnic cleansing” and genocide that till today, remains a deep black patch in our recent history. Countless Bosnian victims including 3,500 children perished under Serbian sniper fire. Over 200,000 Muslim civilians had been systematically murdered. More than 20,000 were missing and feared dead, while 2,000,000 had become refugees. It was, according to former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke, "the greatest failure of the West since the 1930s." I understand that the then “Snr” US President George Bush, failed to take action, and it was his successor, Bill Clinton, who mobilised Nato, to finally stop, the key perpetrator, Slobodan Milosevic.

While not fully relevant, it is not the totally the case of dastardly neighbours for Yugoslavia, but perhaps the grandfather of our neighbouring household that perpetrates evil acts against his own family. One should still take moral action, although, it is the neighbour’s own internal affairs. In the political landscape of the world, a country can seek help and bring attention of wrongs committed to the United Nations and the Security Council who are basically the equivalent of our neighbourhood police. They are tasked to maintain the peace and security in the neighbourhood, i.e. world. But in a less than perfect world, we know the police are not perfect (even Mas Selamat can escape).

This brings us to the case of Iraq. We have a situation where a country or neighbour, has failed to behave. The father of this family has killed many of his own children, whom he decided he did not like. The then president of Iraq from 1979 until 2003 had gained international notoriety for torturing and murdering thousands of his own people. Hussein believed he must rule with an iron fist to keep his country, which is divided by ethnicity and religion, intact. However, his actions showed that he was a tyrannical despot who stopped at nothing to punish those who opposed him, even using deadly and outlawed chemical weapons against Kurdish rebels. Then in 1990, he ordered the invasion of Kuwait. This time the, US acted swiftly in concert, in the world’s first Gulf War and Saddam was beaten back. In more recent history, Iraq was invaded by US and UK forces on now an apparent lack of evidence. This is a case of accusing an evil neighbour of keeping and planning to use a dangerous “long rifle” that is prohibited and against the law. The only “sight” of this “long rifle” have in fact been Saddam’s pool stick that always remain draped, since he dropped the hobby. However, one of the more powerful police officers then decide that they needed to bring him to justice claiming that the pool stick is actually a potential murder weapon that is actually a rifle. With Saddam eliminated, the saga of Iraq continues, and the police officers are still unable to bring peace to this household, where Saddam in fact has many wives(i.e.the Sunnis and the Shiites) holding differing views of who among them should be in charge of the Saddam household.

The conclusion is that the world must react fast to blatant crimes against humanity, slow against weak and politically motivated evidences. For Myanmar, this is a case of a “mixed bag.” The head of this neighbour’s household, runs the family with an iron hand, but with rich natural resources that aid in self sufficiency, they are still surviving although the majority of the western part of the neighbourhood does not have any relationship with them. Their immediate neighbours however, like Singapore as a part of Asean continue to persuade, interact and hope that Myanmar will change.