HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam regretted that some contents of the remarks made by Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the 18th Shangri-La Dialogue and on his Facebook page did not objectively reflect the historical truth, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Lê Thị Thu Hằng has said.
She made the statement in response to reporters’ queries on Tuesday about the Singaporean Prime Minister's speech at the dialogue and the information posted on his personal website on May 31 saying Việt Nam had “invaded” and “occupied” Cambodia.
Việt Nam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs had discussed the issue with its Singaporean counterpart, she said.
The contribution and sacrifice of Việt Nam in the joint efforts with Cambodian people to end the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime had been widely recognised, Hằng said.
On November 16, 2018, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) issued a verdict on the crimes against humanity committed by the Khmer Rouge.
The ruling reflected the objective historical truth, enforcing justice and ensuring fair restitution for victims, and was welcomed by the international community and the United Nations, she said.
The recent accomplishments of ASEAN are the result of joint efforts by all member nations throughout the history of the association, the spokesperson said, adding that each member was deeply aware of the importance of strengthening intra-bloc solidarity based on mutual respect and common principles.
As an active and responsible member of ASEAN, Việt Nam will continue working with other members to build a strong community with a central role in the region, the spokesperson said. —VNS
https://vietnamnews.vn/politics-laws/520904/viet-nam-issues-statement-on-singapore-pms-speech-at-shangri-la-dialogue.html#bp7Rq44qD6YAvWR9.97
A real fucking coward this Pinky is.
Hwah Pinky 拍拍屁股 went on break liao, leaving his ministers to clean up the mess he created..........
Pengsan Lee
Pinky Lee
Terrex Lee
Fukushima Lee
Dishonourable Lee
Catwalk Lee
Pork Soup Lee
Mai Hum Lee
Invasion Lee
TruLee a loser of a Lee-der!
Cambodia's Hun Sen says Singapore supported genocide
PHNOM PENH/HANOI (Reuters) - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has accused Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of supporting genocide because of comments Lee made about Vietnam's 1978 invasion of Cambodia which ended Pol Pot's genocidal "killing fields"regime.
In the remarks, which have stirred Cold War animosity and drawn a strong response from Vietnam, Lee referred to the Vietnamese action to oust Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime and install a new government as an "invasion" and "occupation", terms to which both Vietnam and Cambodia object.
Lee made the comments in a tribute to Thailand's former prime minister, General Prem Tinsulanonda, who died last month.
Prem had been leader at a time when Singapore, Thailand, and other Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries opposed Vietnam's invasion and occupation of Cambodia, Lee said.
"General Prem was resolute in not accepting this fait accompli, and worked with ASEAN partners to oppose the Vietnamese occupation in international forums," Lee said in comments posted on his Facebook page.
"This prevented the military invasion and regime change from being legitimized. It protected the security of other Southeast Asia countries, and decisively shaped the course of the region."
In a strongly worded Facebook post late on Thursday, Hun Sen said he deeply regretted Lee's remarks and accused him of supporting the Khmer Rouge genocide.
The Vietnamese invasion and 10-year occupation of Cambodia ended Pol Pot's regime, which devastated the Southeast Asian country for more than three years, from 1975 to early 1979, and led to the deaths of almost a quarter of the population.
Southeast Asia was deeply riven by Cold War hostility at the time. Singapore and Thailand were part of the then six-member, pro-Western ASEAN, set up in the 1960s partly to block the spread of communism.
Cambodia's Khmer Rouge were backed by China while Vietnam was supported by China's communist foe, the Soviet Union.
'INSULT'
Hun Sen was a junior member of the Khmer Rouge but fled to Vietnam when the group split. He returned with the Vietnamese army that intervened in late 1978 to oust Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge and rose to power in a government set up by Vietnam.
Hun Sen said Lee's comments were an "insult to the sacrifice of the Vietnamese military volunteers who helped to liberate Cambodia".
Lee made similar comments at a security forum in Singapore on the weekend, noting how Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia had posed a serious threat to non-communist countries in the region.
On Tuesday, Vietnam's foreign ministry said it had raised the issue of Lee's comments with Singapore.
"Vietnam finds it regrettable that certain elements of the speech did not view history under an objective lens, causing negative impact on the public opinion," spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang said in a statement.
The Singaporean Embassy in Phnom Penh did not respond to a request for comment. A spokeswoman for Lee had no immediate comment.
Through the 1980s, Singapore along with other ASEAN and Western countries recognized a three-faction "coalition government" in exile, which included the Khmer Rouge. The factions battled Vietnamese forces in Cambodia from sanctuaries on the Thai border.
Vietnam withdrew its forces from Cambodia in late 1989, paving the way for a 1991 treaty that officially ended the war. Vietnam joined ASEAN in 1995 and Cambodia joined in 1999.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cambodia-singapore-vietnam/cambodias-hun-sen-says-singapore-supported-genocide-idUSKCN1T80QE
HD version of the blur 阿斗
China supported Pol Pot Khmer, while the USSR supported Vietnam. Evidently it was a proxy war fought between 2 commie countries. Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines together with the US were only interested in containing the spread of communism; they were hardly sympathetic to the brutality of the Khmer Rouge unleashed against its own people.
God knows why Loong was so insensitive on the topic of Vietnam vs Cambodia.
Really eat too full got nothing better to do and wanted to show off his "keen" sense of history by writing a lengthy dumbass condolence. When a person isn't that smart, it's best to keep the message short and simple!
Pinky will probably kick forward some minion from his media team to shoulder the blame left right centre, then say it's an honest mistake so let's move on. :)
Lee Hsien Loong Disrespectful of Khmer Rouge victims
On 31 May 2019, on his Facebook page, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong described about his letter to Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to express condolences on the passing of former Thai PM and President of the Privy Council, General Prem Tinsulanonda. He wrote, “His leadership also benefited the region. His time as PM coincided with the ASEAN members (then five of us) coming together to oppose Vietnam’s invasion of Cambodia and the Cambodian government that replaced the Khmer Rouge. Thailand was on the frontline, facing Vietnamese forces across its border with Cambodia…This prevented the military invasion and regime change from being legitimised. It protected the security of other Southeast Asia countries, and decisively shaped the course of the region.”
What is striking is his view in denouncing the regime change that toppled the Khmer Rouge and denying legitimacy of the new Cambodian government that saved lives of the remaining four million Cambodians with support from the Vietnamese forces.
This is nothing but being disrespectful to the Khmer Rouge victims and those who sacrificed their lives in deposing the genocidal regime of Khmer Rouge.
His view inherited from his father former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew who was resolutely against the Vietnamese intervention. Singapore regarded Vietnam as mini hegemon who was the proxy of the Soviet Union in their endeavour to impose communism to the region.
To put the fact straight, not only that Singapore has never denounced auto-genocide conducted by the Pol Pot regime, Singapore even recognised the rogue state and killing machine, provided military assistance, and mobilised international community to deny legitimacy of Heng Samrin’s regime and to deny any humanitarian assistance to survivors of the Khmer Rouge.
Singapore recognised the Pol Pot regime as legitimate and established diplomatic relations on 6 May 1976. Singapore invited Ieng Sary, the then deputy prime minister in charge of foreign affairs of Democratic Kampuchea for an official visit from 21 to 24 March 1977. Ieng Sary was received by President Sheares, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, Foreign Minister Rajaratnam and Culture Minister Jek Yeun Thong.
Singapore was the first Southeast Asian country that offered to provide military assistance to guerrilla forces to fight against Heng Samrin’s regime.
American, Singaporean, Malaysian and Thai officials held regular meetings in Bangkok to coordinate the Cambodian aid program, Lee Kuan Yew wrote in his book, “From Third World to First: The Singapore Story 1965-2000.” He said the Singapore representative “estimated that the United States dispensed a total of about $150 million in covert and overt aid to the non-Communist groups, Singapore $55 million, Malaysia $10 million and Thailand a few million in training, ammunition, food and operational funds.” But Lee Kuan Yew said those amounts were dwarfed by aid from China, which had long had antagonistic relations with Vietnam and sought to prevent Hanoi from turning Cambodia into a satellite state. Beijing spent “some $100 million” to support the non-Communist forces fighting alongside the Khmer Rouge to expel the Vietnamese, he wrote, and “10 times that amount on the Khmer Rouge.”
In Bangkok, the Americans provided the “coalition” with battle plans, uniforms, money and satellite intelligence; arms came direct from China and from the west, via Singapore.
In justifying Singapore’s stance in recognising Democratic Kampuchea, the then second deputy prime minister Rajaratnam wrote in a letter dated 30 July 1980 that, “The stakes are far higher than the number of skulls the Vietnamese have dug up and displayed to fuel moral outrage against the Khmer Rouge’s past…The obsession with Pol Pot’s past, to the relative exclusion of the possible decimation of a whole people through Vietnamese aggression and the destabilisation of the ASEAN region, is not a manifestation of the moral sense as an evasion of it.”
Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew tried to block humanitarian assistance to survivors of the Khmer Rouge. On 21 November 1979, he was quoted as saying that, “How does that help the outcome? How does it guarantee that food gets through to the Cambodians and not to just those Cambodians that Heng Samrin and his Vietnamese installers or backers consider worthy of survival? Are they prepared to let the Cambodian people die in order to force the world to recognise the Heng Samrin regime? Let’s put it to the test.”
He was quoted on 1 October 1981 criticising Vietnam’s intervention that, “There will be colonies in Asia after the white man has gone. There is one now in Kampuchea. It is a Vietnamese colony. Laos is another Vietnamese colony.”
Such position was also announced by minister of state Yeo Cheow Tong at the 41st United Nations General Assembly session on “the situation in Kampuchea” on 20 October 1986, who quoted Elizabeth Becker’s book that wrote, “Each year that control has produced humiliating orders from the Vietnamese overlords. Although Kampuchea does not produce enough rice to feed its own population, it is required to send rice and fish to Vietnam. Vietnamese is becoming the second language in government offices. The number of new Vietnamese settlers rises each year, following the pattern set hundreds of years ago when the Vietnamese settled what is now southern Vietnam. First come the Vietnamese equivalent of carpet baggers, petty merchants who now inhabit entire quarters of Phnom Penh. Then come the farmers and fishermen. The farmers settled in the disputed territory near the Vietnamese-Cambodian border, further blurring the divide. The fishermen moved up the waterways and are now clustered as far west as the Great Lake. If the pattern holds, the next group to settle will be demobilised Vietnamese soldiers who are given land in return for pacifying Cambodia.”
Whatever the arguments, the moral ground seen from the perspective of the Khmer Rouge survivors is nothing but unacceptable. What moral ground that is more important than Cambodian lives? What sovereignty is for if the population is annihilated? When one who never care about the genocide but suddenly try to prove themselves that they care for sovereignty of Cambodia, those people, in fact, forgot the sensible humanity when they ignored the killing of Cambodian people a while ago. That does not give them any credit as they claimed to have either when they tried so hard to punish the survivors and those who sacrificed blood to remove the genocidal regime.
What Singapore cared is only its own selective peace or that of the old five ASEAN members that Singapore tends to mention quite often recently by ignoring the other half of Southeast Asia which was put into bloodshed in those war times.
After all these forty years, the gut to mention about Singapore’s bravery in denying the toppling of Pol Pot’s regime is nothing but a complete disrespect to lives and souls of Cambodian peoples. The comment made by Lee Hsien Loong touched deeply on Cambodian wound by stirring the memory when the self-acclaimed high moral Singaporean government has never denounced auto-genocide conducted by the Khmer Rouge. Cambodian people can forgive but we can never forget our difficult times and we know clearly who were our friends in need. Singapore was not one of those. These Singaporean leaders should be invited to visit Toul Sleng Genocide Museum Archives, which were registered by UNESCO as Memory of the World International Register on 9 August 2010. Also, they can come to visit Cheung Ek mass graves and killing field if they still think that genocide was a fabrication.
Lee Hsien Loong’s comment reignited pain of Cambodian people and questioned moral responsibility and sensibility of a statesman towards millions of lives of Cambodian peoples. Singapore’s exclusive and selective peace and exceptionalism is despicable and Singapore should learn to acknowledge the other country’s existence and desire for peace just as much as its own. Singapore’s leaders should start to learn to acknowledge that ASEAN is now ten and not five as they often nostalgically recite. And Cambodia is among those ten, in case Singapore forgets.
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50610173/lee-hsien-loong-disrespectful-of-khmer-rouge-victims/
Minister, lawmaker lash out at Singaporean Prime Minister over Vietnamese invasion
Defence Minister General Tea Banh and a CPP lawmaker have lashed out at Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong for accusing the Vietnamese troops of invading Cambodia to topple the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979.
In his letter posted on his official Facebook page on May 31 and sent to Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, Mr Lee expressed his condolences on the passing of former Thai prime minister and President of the Privy Council, General Prem Tinsulanonda.
In the letter, Mr Lee said that he and Gen Prem opposed Vietnamese invasion and denied legitimacy to Heng Samrin’s government in the 1980s.
“His leadership also benefited the region. His time as PM coincided with the ASEAN members (then five of us) coming together to oppose Vietnam’s invasion of Cambodia and the Cambodian government that replaced the Khmer Rouge.” Mr Lee said.
“Thailand was on the frontline, facing Vietnamese forces across its border with Cambodia. General Prem was resolute in not accepting this fait accompli, and worked with ASEAN partners to oppose the Vietnamese occupation in international forums,” Mr Lee said. “This prevented the military invasion and regime change from being legitimised. It protected the security of other Southeast Asia countries, and decisively shaped the course of the region.”
In respond, Gen Banh brought up the issue with his counterpart, Singapore’s Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen while attending the 18th Asia Security Summit’s IISS Shangri-La Dialogue 2019 in Singapore last weekend.
Speaking to reporters upon his arrival at Phnom Penh International Airport on Monday night, Gen Banh said that he has asked Mr Ng Eng Hen to inform Mr Lee to make correction on his remark.
“His [Mr Lee’s] remark was not true and not reflective of the history,” Gen Banh said. “It is not true at all because he said that Vietnamese troops invaded Cambodia. We want him to make a correction.”
“We cannot accept what he said. We have already clarified that Vietnamese volunteer troops came to liberate our people,” Gen Banh said. “We still consider that they came to save our people’s lives. It has been enormously meaningful for us.”
With Mr Lee’s letter on screenshot posted on his Facebook on Friday, CPP lawmaker Hun Many said that people should not forget the atrocities and crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge.
“Whether it was a realist geopolitical or national interest perspective of the moment, one should not overlook nor forget the atrocities and crimes against humanity, especially the genocide committed by the Khmer Rouge regime.” Mr Many said.
“By the same token, the world should not forget how much Cambodians suffered then. Within the timespan of 3 years 8 months and 20 days and because the world turned the blind eyes on us “Khmer” that close to 3 million innocent victims died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge,” he said.
“While everyone was playing politics, Cambodians prayed that it did not matter who and from where the help would come from, but we wanted to be saved from the Genocidal regime of the Khmer Rouge. The help came in form of the CPP with the assistance of our neighboring country, Vietnam,” Mr Many said.
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50610795/minister-lawmaker-lash-out-at-singaporean-prime-minister-over-vietnamese-invasion
Senior Cambridge Wrangler should have just stuck to a career in Mathematics in the very first place, plain and simple.
Wonder which goondu helped craft this epic FB post for the dishonourable son. Did Pinky even read and vet what was written before putting it up?
Ironically the world's highest paid lee-der is also among the most inept and unsavvy of politicians. Keep up with the "good work" LHL, and Singapore is surely on its way to becoming an eternal embarrassment on the international stage.
Well fucking done Pinky for antagonizing two countries at once..........now the whole world knows our prime minister is a dumbass who just can't keep his mouth shut when he's supposed to.