Singapore statesman Lee Kuan Yew considered
Myanmar's junta leaders "stupid" and "dense," according to
classified U.S. documents released this week by WikiLeaks.
The Singapore leader said dealing with Myanmar's military regime
was lke "talking to dead people," according to a confidential
briefing on a 2007 conversation between Lee and U.S. Ambassador
Patricia L. Herbold and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Thomas
Christensen released by WikiLeaks.
The 87-year-old Lee is known for his outspoken and blunt
assessments of world affrs, but avoids publicly insulting the
leadership of foreign countries. Lee was prime minister from 1959 to
1990 and remains a senior adviser to his son, current Prime Minister
Lee Hsien Loong.
A cable released by Wikileaks a couple of weeks earlier quotes
Lee calling North Korea's leaders "psychopathic tpes with a
'flabby old chap' for a leader who prances around stadiums seeking
adulation." The reference to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is
from a cable citing a May 2009 conversation between Lee and U.S.
Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg.
Lee has not commented on the releases, while Singapore's
government has dismissed them as "gossip" and cautioned against
taking them out of context.
In the most recently released cable, Lee said China had the most
influence over Myanmar's leadership of any foreign country and that
Beijing was worried the country would "blow up" and thus threaten
Chinese investments there.
"Lee expressed his scorn for the regime's leadership," the
leaked cable said. "He said he had given up on them a decade ago,
called them 'dense' and 'stupid' and said they had 'mismanaged' the
country's great natural resources."
Lee said India was engaging Myanmar's leadership in a bid to
minimize China's influence, but that "India lacked China's finer
grasp of how Burma worked," according to the cable.
Lee said a group of less 'obtuse' younger military officers could
take control and share power with democracy activists, "although
probably not with Aung San Suu Kyi, who was anathema to the
military."
After more than seven years under house arrest, pro-democracy
leader Suu Kyi was released Nov. 13, a week after Myanmar's first
election in 20 years, which were won overwhelmingly by a
pro-military party. Critics have slammed the polling as a sham aimed
at cementing military rule.
Singapore has questioned the veracity of some documents
purportedly leaked by Wikileaks and published by some Australian
newspapers. The reports quote Singapore diplomats as making
unflattering remarks about Malaysia, India, Japan and Thailand
during meetings with U.S. diplomats.
In a statement issued late Tuesday, Singapore's Foreign Ministry
said "what Singapore officials were alleged by WikiLeaks to have
said did not tally with our own records."
"One purported meeting (between Singapore and U.S. diplomats)
did not even take place," it said.
Singapore Foreign Affairs Minister George Yeo told reporters
earlier this week that, in any case, such cables were
interpretations of conversations by U.S. diplomats, and therefore
shouldn't be "over-interpreted."
"These are in the nature of cocktail talk," Yeo said. "It's
always out of context. It's gossip."
