Crying Wolf Over Spying

A Kadir Jasin

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HAVING been born at the beginning of the Cold War and raised on the diet of ideological warfare and entertained by the “Black and White Spies” comic strip, I am not going insane over the allegation that Singapore spied on us.

During the Cold War, spying and counter spying were as familiar and as certain as the orbit of sun and the moon. So I am not terribly excited by the Assange and Snowden revelations either.

Nations, big and small, spy on each other all the time. Espionage is big business and it makes governments felt important. At the very least they gather information about each other. Information and intelligence gathering is part and parcel of effective government.

Black and White Spies. Remembering Mad Magazine

A few weeks after Anwar Ibrahim was released from prison in 2004, an elderly American professor came to Kuala Lumpur “to update” the psychological profile of the opposition leader for the US government. I was among the many people he met because he was told that I knew Anwar well. I can’t claim to know Anwar well although I “worked” with him from the time he joined Umno in 1982 until he was sacked from the party in 1998.

What the professor did was intelligence gathering. I was done in the open. Very much like diplomats, including ours, who hold cocktail parties for journalists and others who are deemed to have information.

Every leader and every strategic agency should know and be forewarned that they could be spied upon.

I did not choke upon reading news that Singapore spied on us. Naughty, naughty Singapore! But I would choke if I am told that we do not spy on anybody. What’s the use of having so many political officers at our embassies, high commissions and missions abroad if not for information and intelligence gathering?

Spying on Friends and Allies

WHAT the world leaders are today up in arms against is being told that they are being spied upon, not by enemies like during the Cold War, but by friends and allies, and the methods these sly friends and allies use.

The US, perhaps the number one rouge and the biggest peeping Tom of all, spied on European leaders. Australia spied on Indonesia and Singapore spied on us. So what?

In fact, we are a fool if we don’t do the same. Every nation spies on its neighbour. The difference is a good spy does not get caught. Or in the present case we did not know we were being spied on until tipped off by Snowden and foreign newspapers.

In the case of Singapore, its biggest intelligence gathering mission in Malaysia took place openly in 2009 when its supreme leader, Lee Kuan Yew, travelled the whole length of the Peninsula to meet leaders on both sides of the political chasm - with the Prime Minister’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, thrown in for good measure.

LKY was impressed with Rosmah

Soon after (Tun) Abdullah Ahmad Badawi became Prime Minister in 2003, I told him about the need for Malaysia to have world-class intelligence gathering mechanism, including in the economic area.

But both Abdullah and his successor, Mohd Najib Abdul Razak, are great admirers of Singapore and are golfing buddies of Singapore leaders. Officially and privately they visited Singapore regularly. Only a foolish government leader would believe that he or she is free from being spied upon.

Golfing buddies don't spy on each other

Bear in mind that on the darker side of diplomacy, blackmail is a very useful tool. The juicier the stuff the better!

I have written volumes over the years about Singapore’s reliance of intelligence - be it political, military or economic – for its survival and for jingoistic reasons. I wrote about its defence doctrine and military strategy that mimicked the Israelis defence doctrine and of its purchases of sophisticated defence systems from the US and Israel.

I had written volumes about Singapore being the listening post for the US and Israel in this corner of the globe.

So don’t blame Singapore if we let ourselves be caught off guard or, worse still, caught with our pants down, which in some cases could be literal.

The Wisma Putra had summoned the Singapore High Commissioner, Ong Keng Yong. Now what? Are we not going to recall our High Commission to Singapore? We should if we are serious and have testicular gumption.

Or our top leaders do not want to be mired in this controversy because they are too close to Singapore leaders and are relying on the republic to prop up the IDR.

The Spectre of Pulau Batu Putih

INSTEAD of going crazy over the alleged spying by Singapore, we should do likewise or even more. Apparently we did not or we did, we were so good that neither Snowden nor Assange knew about it.

Still remember we lost Pulau Batu Puteh to Singapore in the International Court of Justice arbitration in 2008? 

Who Lost Pulau Batu Puteh? So near yet so far

We lost the island either because we failed in our information and intelligence gathering or, as being alleged by some quarters, because some of our own people had sold us out - a very serious allegation indeed.

We are facing Singapore again. This time not in The Hague but in Singapore and in accordance with Singapore laws over the huge development charges the Singapore government is demanding for the development of land given to us in lieu of the Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) land that we returned to the republic.

If the same team that lost the Pulau Batu Puteh is assigned to represent us at the arbitration, we could end up losing more than our temper over the spying allegation. Khazanah may end up paying a huge amount of fee to the Singapore government to develop our land.

This is as good as Khazanah funding or subsidizing the 40% stake that its Singapore counterpart, Temasek Holdings, holds in the development.

So, Singapore lovers beware. No point crying wolf when our flock of sheep had been eaten and our chicken coop may soon be raided.

Wallahuaklam.