Bilahari: Tony’s crudity says it all
Kausikan v Pua, Round III: In caustic posting, diplomat warns against politicians’ impossible dreams
(Free Malaysia Today) – Singapore’s ambassador-at-large, Bilahari Kausikan, in another caustic response to remarks by DAP politician Tony Pua, said today that Pua’s crudity and incoherence “speaks for itself more tellingly than anything I could have written”.
Kausikan’s Facebook posting today was the second exchange after a 3,000-word political commentary about Malaysia last week sparked off an angry response from Pua. On Friday, Pua said Bilahari had cemented Singapore’s reputation as the “mercenary prick” of South-East Asia.
Kausikan, a retired senior diplomat, holds the rank of ambassador-at-large and policy adviser at the Singapore foreign ministry and is currently a Fellow of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
He said on Facebook today that his article had elicited “a rather rude but not entirely coherent response from a DAP politician, one Tony Pua” and noted attacks by others in the DAP “less colourfully but not more coherently”.
He said he had not responded more robustly, although “not generally a gentle person” but because “I thought that Mr Pua’s crudity speaks for itself more tellingly than anything I could have written”.
“If it makes Mr Pua feel better to call me and Singapore names, I understand. But it will not change reality,” Kausikan remarked.
He posted a link to a Facebook posting by Malaysian pro-Barisan blogger Lim See San, and said “Pua’s behaviour fits into a pattern” which he described as “a symptom of a sub-conscious admission that their hopes are futile. In effect, he illustrates my point”.
