Alien Policy

Okay, so maybe you current-affairs or debater types may have known this all along, but here's a link on Singapore's strong ties with Myanmar (or Burma, which is its rightful indigenous name).

It seems the good Myanmar PM visted Singapore recently, which I didn't hear much about in the local press. Are we ashamed of our ties to Myanmar? If so, then why do our local lords insist on associating themselves with warlords, druglords and other unpleasant overlords? It really beats common sense. What are we hoping to do? Sell them our ST-manufactured mines? Buy some of their top-quality pot?

This is foreign policy that is truly foreign--that is, so foreign that it appears local citizenry have no say in it. Don't want drugs pushed to your kids on the street? Sorry, we're still trading with Myanmar. Unwilling to join the Coalition of the Willing? Sorry, but we're willing.

Perhaps foreign policy is no longer a valid phrase, then, since it is apparently divorced from local opinion. Why not re-name it Alien Policy, therefore? It would be more truthful and less hypocritical.