Myanmar protests: will Singapore’s ‘truth telling’ make a difference as death toll rises?
- Foreign minister Vivian Balakrishnan’s tougher language on the killings has earned plaudits, though rights groups point out the island nation still has ties to the junta
- He has also raised hopes Asean will strengthen its response to the crisis, which he says could affect the bloc’s efforts to speak as a collective to powers such as the US
With few outside players having leverage over the reclusive ruling generals, who at the time had been in power for nearly two decades, attention turned to the wealthy city state due to its status as a key source of investments and technical assistance for Myanmar.
Rights groups had a litany of complaints: Singaporean banks – with their tough secrecy laws – were supposedly home to the generals’ shady offshore accounts; the island nation was giving them easy access to its world-class hospitals; and was, overall, all too happy for military rule to continue as it was good for business.
As Western nations moved to sanction the junta, Singaporean officials maintained that the country’s banking sector would only comply with “international agreements” – implying no action would be taken against Myanmar entities unless the United Nations moved to do so first.
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Dozens killed as Myanmar sees one of its worst days of crackdown since coup
The dim view taken by rights groups towards Singapore and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) was not helped by the grouping’s failure to demand accountability from Myanmar for the 2007 killing of protesters, though the group – under the city state’s leadership – collectively voiced “revulsion” when reports of the use of automatic weapons against unarmed civilians emerged.