From The Age:
MALAYSIA’S ”dangerous” decline is fuelled by incompetent politicians, Thailand is dogged by corruption and a ”very erratic” crown prince, Japan is a ”big fat loser” and India is ”stupid”.
So say some of Singapore’s highest-ranking officials, according to leaked US State Department cables that are likely to spark intense political controversy in the region.
The cables, leaked exclusively to The Sunday Age by WikiLeaks, detail the content of separate meetings between senior US officials and Singapore’s foreign affairs chiefs Peter Ho, Bilahari Kausikan and Tommy Koh.
The trio, who at the time of the 2008 and 2009 cables occupied some of the most senior positions in Singapore’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, all give US officials damning assessments of Malaysia.
…
In his September 2008 meeting with Mr Sedney, Mr Kausikan savages Thailand’s political elite, labelling Thaksin Shinawatra as ”corrupt” along with ”everyone else, including the opposition”.
Mr Kausikan is also critical of Thaksin’s relationship with the Thai crown prince, stating that Thaksin ”made a mistake in pursuing a relationship with the crown prince by paying off the crown prince’s gambling debts”.
”Kausikan said the crown prince was ‘very erratic, and easily subject to influence’,” the cable states, while also saying that Mr Kausikan warned of continued instability in Thailand. …