I have stayed in Singapore for over six years. One thing one tends to notice very quickly about Singaporeans is that they behave very differently in private compared when they are in public. And they behave very differently when they are outside Singapore.

The other thing is that Singaporeans generally are opinion-less, their government decides everything for them. Over the years, their style of governance has hardly evolved from a 'What's in it for us?' mentality.

A recent squabble with Indonesia was over the Indonesian request to sign anti-smuggling and anti-money laundering treaties targeting Indonesians who hoard their ill-gotten gains in Singapore. The Singapore government refused to entertain this on the pretext that it was a 'free port'.

That gives us an idea of how Singapore is run.

Remember the days when the human traffic flow between Malaysia and Singapore was in Singapore's favour? Malaysia did not enact one single rule or regulation to stem Malaysian cash outflow. But just observe the slew of rules Singapore has introduced now that the flow is in the reverse.

With Singapore, we do not have to contort ourselves backwards; the language that Singapore appreciates and understands is 'What's in it for us?'

That should be the foundation and basis for all collaboration with this 'tiny red dot' as one Indonesian politician puts it.