LKY blocked Thatcher's proposal on resettling Viet refugees
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Released after 30 years of mandatory suppression, the Downing Street papers reveal the extent of the then British prime minister's aversion to granting asylum to 10,000 boat people at the United Nations' request.
The Iron Lady warned her ministers of ''riots in the streets'' and hatched a plan to have then Australian prime minister Malcolm Fraser jointly purchase an island in Indonesia or the Philippines - ''not only as a staging post but as a place of settlement'' for them all, the papers said.
The plan for a refugee colony was blocked by Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, who was concerned it could become a ''rival entrepreneurial city''.
The former Liberal prime minister was unable to recall the proposal yesterday but he noted Britain's reluctance to assist the resettlement effort. ''I've got absolutely no recollection of it. I've got a fairly good memory for what happened at the time,'' Mr Fraser said. ''The British were not involved in taking a large number of Vietnamese refugees. We were, Canada was, America was and France took a great many.''
Australia eventually became home to about 220,000 Vietnamese refugees. Canada took a few more, the US more than a million, and France about 90,000.
''One of the problems was a lot of the people fleeing Vietnam were doing so in boats that … were totally unsuitable for survival at sea,'' Mr Fraser said.
''Therefore, it was essential to try and establish centres they could get to without making the journey longer than it had to be.''
Malaysia had initially pushed boats back out to sea and many refugees were believed to have drowned.
''As a result of diplomacy, they agreed to establish holding centres. That was on the understanding that we, and other refugee recipient countries, were going to take a very large number so they weren't all going to be left as a problem for Malaysia,'' he said.
A similar global effort was needed now, Mr Fraser said. Repeated Opposition criticism of the Government's border protection policies perpetuated a myth, he said.
''It's obviously nonsense. Politicians would be surprised how much support a political party would get if it truly stated the case for asylum seekers and refugees and explained the circumstances from which they are fleeing.
''It shows a lot of courage to leave everything you know behind to try to get a better future for your family.''
The Fraser government's liberal attitude to Vietnamese refugees met no political opposition.
Footnote: The Vietnamese refugees were entrepreneurial Saigon's ethnic Chinese who were escaping ethnic cleansing after the victorious, ethnic-conscious, ethnic-sensitive northern communist army of Hanoi moved south to unit the country.
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More of our Singapore resident goon's crackpot racial ideas at work.
Singaporeans must suffer for his racist policies.
Turn society into a big mess.
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hey, i like lky, at least he saved our jobs
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At least he did save Singapore in the past, I mean come on, if there was really such an island, we might still be a 3rd world country.
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Originally posted by 2cansam:
hey, i like lky, at least he saved our jobs
At least he did save Singapore in the past, I mean come on, if there was really such an island, we might still be a 3rd world country.
All just PAP propaganda.
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Malaysia was quite clever to push those refugees away though
Dun have to spend any resource on them
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Originally posted by ztreyier:
All just PAP propaganda.
this is aussie paper... PAP not so far reaching -
Originally posted by Agenda:
At least he did save Singapore in the past, I mean come on, if there was really such an island, we might still be a 3rd world country.
How is creating an island safe-haven for refugees be saving Singapore? Think Singaporean, think!
There are 195 countries in the world. Back to the 70s and suppose half of them are communist states, there would still be around 100 non-communist states, competing on global scale - for food, resource, raw material and investment. Would plus or minus 1 country, makes any difference?
If we use your logic, today there are 1.2 billions non-communism Chinese and 1 billion non-socialism Indian, and not forgeting 200 millions Indonesian, all raising, rivalling Singapore, does it mean we are doomed?
These Chinese-Vietnamese were resettled in Europe, Australia and the US. THEY DID NOT DISAPPEARED INTO THIN AIR. With or without the island, they are still entreprenuers. Only that they are not competing near us. And so doing, also also not adding value to this region but to the regions of Australia, Europe and US.Remember what LKY said about attracting talent into Singapore? If they are not here in Singapore competing with us, they will be overseas competing with us.
Same logic. If the Chinese-Vietnamese were not on a nearby island competing with Singapore, they were on greater nations of US, Europe and Australia.UK, COMPETING WITH US FROM THERE!
The yellow man will not extend his hand to help his fellow yellow man.
BUT the white man can and will extend his hand to help the yellow man.
Think Singaporean! Think! -
damn it..... if not for him i might be banging some cute guai guai vietnamese mei mei already..