Now, it is Lee's turn to decry perfidy

In his interview with the latest Time magazine, Singapore's Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew is quoted as saying that "(t) he day before yesterday, I was an old friend of China; today I'm a new eneny. It's volatile."

Believe it or not: it is now old Harry's turn to decry perfidy.

Is that new? Doesn't the cover of the Time magazine advertise Lee as " the man who saw it all"? I would have thought that only 'losers' or 'those who are on the wrong side of history' like Chin Peng, Abdullah C.D. and Rashid Maidin decry perfidy of the 'winners' like the British Empire.

Younger American friends really need to study area history more seriously in greater details by cross-checking what Lee have told them with other old men and women in the region. There are always two sides in historical narratives and discourses. Also, human history has never simply moved 'forward' and 'upward' on an absolutely straight and unbroken line from earth to heaven as Manicheans, Christian and Islamic fundamentalists or Francis Fukuyama believe.

Measured in one man's life time, history is usually full of ironical twists and dialectical turns as well as random ups and downs. So, tomorrow, Lee may again become China's friend. He knows what China knows he knows.