Missed Chance to See Saint, Singing in Class and MM more on Vietnam

Feeling so exhausted, I missed a once-in-lifetime opportunity, to see the “hugging Saint” from India.

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Because I was still not very sure where the Bukit Merah classroom is, I took a taxi as I’d done the previous week. The driver asked me if it was to the direction of Henderson Road. I said yes. We passed Henderson and went further. He asked if the place is on the left or right side of Jalan Bukit Merah. I said on the right. We went further. When he asked me if the building was a condo, I said no. We went further. By the time when he asked me if it was in “Bukit Merah Central,” I had started to suspect that we had already passed the place and asked him to get me off. Ha… we passed a few bus stops too many and I had to walk back.

In today’s workshop, I sang “Sekai no kuni kara kon’nichiwa,” the theme song of Expo ’70 in Osaka, a few times. It was for my Japanese lesson for my classmates.

To come back home, I walked a short distance from the classroom and found the Bukit Merah bus stop. To my surprise, Buses 5, 16, 123 and 851 were all there!

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At around 3 o’clock, I started to feel sleepy. I can’t beat sleepiness… When I finally woke up from this nap, it was almost 10 pm. Thus I missed my only chance to see the Saint.

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Now that I’ve finished my practicum, I should concentrate on the remaining tasks. Not many remain.

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Then [Prime Minister Pham Van Dong] turned to economic relations, with the astonishing news that Singapore could contribute to Vietnam’s reconstruction. When I gently remonstrated that we must get some return for our goods and services, he bluntly said Vietnam’s economy was not developed and the possibilities for trade were limited… [H]e said… Singapore had benefited from the Vietnam War, selling the Americans war material, hence it was our duty to help them. I was dumbfounded by this arrogant and belligerent attitude.

… I said the main war materials we supplied to US forces in Vietnam were POL (petrol, oil and lubricant) from American and British oil companies. The profits to Singapore were negligible. He looked sceptical. I said we were prepared to trade but not to give aid. He was not pleased. We parted civil but cold.

… [I]n 1990, in Davos for a World Economic Forum meeting, Vo Van Kiet, the first vice-chairman of the council of ministers of Vietnam, asked me to see me. He hoped we would set aside outstanding differences and cooperate. I regretted that so much time had been lost in their occupation of Cambodia since 1978. Until that conflict was resolved there could be no government-government ties… (p. 350)

In October 1991 Vietnam and all parties signed agreements in Paris for a comprehensive political settlement. A week later, Vo Van Kiet, now the prime minister, visited Singapore… As the dinner was breaking up, he rose and walked up to me, held my arms in a semi-communist embrace, and asked whether I would help Vietnam. I asked, how? By becoming their economic adviser. I was speechless. I had been the target of their virulent attacks since their occupation of Cambodia. I said… that I had no experience of a big country like Vietnam with a population of 60 million people, a country devastated by many years of war and working a communist system that had to be transformed into a market system. He persisted and followed up in two letters.

After an exchange of letters, I agreed to visit them, not as an adviser, but brainstorm ideas on their change to a free-market economy. It was a totally different relationship when I went to Hanoi in April 1992… I suggested that they study the process through which Taiwan and South Korea had transformed themselves from agricultural into newly industrialising economies. A good strategy, I said, would be to use South Vietnam, especially Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), as the dynamo to get growth going for the whole country… People in the south were familiar with a free-market economy and could easily revert to working the old system…

Kiet flew to Ho Chi Minh City from Hanoi for a final meeting with me. He asked me to return every year, saying I had been a real friend because I had given honest and sincere advice, although sometimes it was painful to hear… (pp. 351-352)

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♫ ３月30日の日曜日～（誰の歌やったかなぁ……。）