Foreign minister slams Singapore (CHAO AH BENG)


HARSH LANGUAGE: Mark Chen used a rude colloquialism to blast hisSingaporean counterpart for criticizing TaiwanBy Melody ChenSTAFF REPORTERTuesday, Sep 28, 2004,Page 3Minister of Foreign Affairs Mark Chen (陳唐山) yesterday blasted SingaporeForeign Minister George Yeo (楊榮文) for telling the UN that actions byTaiwan's independence groups could lead to war with China."Singapore holds China's lam pa (爛疤) with its hands, if I may use theseugly words," a fuming Chen said.In the Hoklo language (also known as Taiwanese), lam pa means "testicles";saying that someone holds another's lam pa means that he is fawning overthat person.Chen was speaking during a meeting with a pro-independence group which hadrequested that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs change the name of Taiwan'srepresentative office in Japan to better express Taiwan's sovereignty.Chen lamented Taiwan's status in the international community, saying "evena tiny garden country like Singapore, which only has 3 million people, cancriticize us.""Singapore is a country only as big as a piece of snot," he added.The minister, who returned from the US yesterday, was clearly irritated byYeo's speech in the 59th session of the UN General Assembly in New Yorklast Friday.Yeo told the General Assembly that "the push towards independence bycertain groups in Taiwan is most dangerous because it will lead to warwith mainland China and drag in other countries ... At stake is thestability of the entire Asia-Pacific region."Taiwan's 12th bid to join the UN failed earlier this month.
Quoting Yeo\'s statement to the pro-independence group yesterday, Chen said\ people in Taiwan need to persevere if they want to survive.\\ "Where is justice in the world? This world has no justice," Chen said.\ "When [Singaporean Prime Minister] Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) visited us two\ months ago, we treated him very well. He came under tremendous pressure\ [from China] after the trip."\\ China\'s pressure influenced Singapore to make the speech in the UN, but\ "Yeo\'s remarks went too far," the minister complained.\\ But Chen said Yeo had done at least one good thing by delivering the UN\ speech.\\ "Yeo mentioned that some people in Taiwan want independence," Chen said.\ "Many countries probably didn\'t know there are people in Taiwan desiring\ independence before Yeo talked about it."\\ Thanks to Yeo\'s statement, these countries would now "realize our\ ambition" to achieve independence, he said.\\ The independence group had appealed to Chen to change the name of the\ Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Japan by replacing\ the word "Taipei" with "Taiwan." The group said the name downgraded the\ country\'s status as a state. It asked the ministry to negotiate with the\ Japanese government about the name change as soon as possible.\\ "I think the group made the right appeal," Chen said. "Many of us are not\ clear what our national title is. Even I, as foreign minister, often\ forget the names of our overseas representative offices. This is\ ridiculous."\\ Chen was referring to the various names Taiwan\'s overseas representative\ offices have been forced to adopt to prevent political pressure from China\ being applied on those countries.\\ Meanwhile, the minister also said that the arrest of Donald Keyser, the\ former US deputy assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific affairs,\ would not affect Taipei-Washington relations. Chen stressed that Taiwan\ wanted to maintain good ties with the US.\\ "Taiwan has no reason to steal classified information from the US," he\ said.\\Copyright © 1999-2004 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved.\\",1]
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Quoting Yeo's statement to the pro-independence group yesterday, Chen saidpeople in Taiwan need to persevere if they want to survive."Where is justice in the world? This world has no justice," Chen said."When [Singaporean Prime Minister] Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) visited us twomonths ago, we treated him very well. He came under tremendous pressure[from China] after the trip."China's pressure influenced Singapore to make the speech in the UN, but"Yeo's remarks went too far," the minister complained.But Chen said Yeo had done at least one good thing by delivering the UNspeech."Yeo mentioned that some people in Taiwan want independence," Chen said."Many countries probably didn't know there are people in Taiwan desiringindependence before Yeo talked about it."Thanks to Yeo's statement, these countries would now "realize ourambition" to achieve independence, he said.The independence group had appealed to Chen to change the name of theTaipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Japan by replacingthe word "Taipei" with "Taiwan." The group said the name downgraded thecountry's status as a state. It asked the ministry to negotiate with theJapanese government about the name change as soon as possible."I think the group made the right appeal," Chen said. "Many of us are notclear what our national title is. Even I, as foreign minister, oftenforget the names of our overseas representative offices. This isridiculous."Chen was referring to the various names Taiwan's overseas representativeoffices have been forced to adopt to prevent political pressure from Chinabeing applied on those countries.Meanwhile, the minister also said that the arrest of Donald Keyser, theformer US deputy assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific affairs,would not affect Taipei-Washington relations. Chen stressed that Taiwanwanted to maintain good ties with the US."Taiwan has no reason to steal classified information from the US," hesaid.