Hypocrisy, Self-Interest, And Bullies In A Fragile World – Darren Mak
“This is hypocrisy, I freely admit that…there is no other explanation” -Mr. Bilahari on the different treatment of refugees
Since Russia invaded Ukraine more than two weeks ago, what felt like the decade of disasters had another one added to its list. As the world was just beginning to recover from a pandemic that would forever mark history books, Russian President Putin launched a ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine.
It was not Russia’s first invasion into another country, but one of such scale and ferocity that it shocked even experts and analysts. To try to make sense of it all, we spoke with Mr. Bilahari Kausikan, who has extensive experience as a diplomat and once served as Singapore’s ambassador to Russia.
Mr. Bilahari joins us again in the studio
As a diplomat himself, he is no doubt keenly aware of the many conflicts that continue to plague many countries around the world. Living in the 21st century with the internet and social media, images of war and suffering have become a fact of life. Here in Singapore, where such realities feel distant and almost unreal, some could not help but wonder – what was so special about this one?
The coup in Myanmar last year didn’t garner much outcry, nor did the previous time Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, nor when it invaded Georgia in 2008, nor for the ongoing crises with Syria and Palestine. Notwithstanding these are millions of human lives ruined by conflict, what’s so special about this one?
What about all these other conflicts? Picture credits: Statista
To Mr. Bilahari, it truly is a matter of size and scale. Russian involvement in Ukraine is not new, with the Russo-Ukrainian war tracing back to 2014 and the annexation of Crimea. International reactions then, as with other conflicts, were nowhere nearly as strong as this time round. But the sheer scale of this invasion is difficult to find comparison with – more than a decade of war in Syria has led to a tragic 6.6 million refugees; 3 weeks of the invasion of Ukraine has produced 2.5 million. Yet it does not erase the fact that these refugees have been met with vastly different attitudes, particularly in Europe.
Even though it is not unheard of that neighbouring countries are more receptive of refugees – Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey have together accepted more than 5 million refugees from neighbouring Syria, the fact remains that Europe has by and large accepted Ukrainian refugees a lot more readily than those of other backgrounds. To this discrepancy, Mr. Bilahari had a strong word: ‘hypocrisy’. But, he cautions, even this generosity will also eventually taper down as the inevitable logistics and resource strain of refugees begin to weigh down on their host countries. The world does not run solely on good intentions.
Is it inevitable? Picture credits: ABC, Al Jazeera English
Even with good intentions, we should always be clear minded that countries act in self-interest, and not only on the basis of values. Mr. Bilahari pointed out the abstention of India and China on the UN resolution against Russia, for example. India is the world’s most populous democracy, yet it did not vote with the rest of the ‘free world’ – its territorial disputes with China and Soviet era arsenal require a strategic ally in Russia. On the other hand, China has a long standing and firm insistence on respecting sovereign territorial integrity due to its many territorial disputes with other countries but has to balance it with its friendship with Russia.
Even Singapore, in our official stance on the conflict and actions against Russia, has explicitly recognized that this is because international rule of law is vital for our continued existence as a sovereign state. Sympathies aside, it is in our best interest that the world does not operate on the basis of ‘might makes right’.
Decades of history repeating itself in a month. Picture credits: Financial Times
Unfortunately, though, sympathies are in short supply in the new cycle of the social media age. The constant bombardment of bad news, particularly in the past 3 years, has numbed people as we go from one catastrophe to the other. Once upon a time, the outrage was on the crisis in Palestine, then Syria, then the Rohingya, then Xinjiang, then Myanmar, then Afghanistan, and now Ukraine. And sprinkled on top is the incessant Covid related bad news.
Over time, people’s sympathies for conflict and destruction get numbed as the information overload actually prevents people from feeling the depth of fellow humans’ suffering. Add to this the invigorated information pillar of warfare, and you get a toxic mix of misinformation playing on people’s inability to empathize with the suffering playing out on the world stage.
In 3 weeks, Ukraine has added 10% to this number. Picture credits: Amnesty International
While Singaporeans may think that all these conflicts are far removed from our reality, the interconnected nature of the country means that we are never actually that insulated from them. The internet you access from your flat in Toa Payoh is the same internet that trolls use to spread misinformation. Since the commencement of the invasion, misinformation on it has already made their rounds in the online world. International fact-checkers try their best to debunk such efforts by providing proof, but they are always going to be playing catch up. I have personally seen a few of such tactics and posts and honestly, they were not even particularly convincing.
But when you are apathetic to the truth, it does not take much to sway you one way or the other. This does not even only apply to the current conflict, as much as it is the most prominent at the moment. In an ever more polarizing world, keep in mind that there are rarely good guys and bad guys in international relations, no matter how hard they try to shape the narrative otherwise. And here in Singapore, it is in our interest to firmly reject international bullies.
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