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Talking tough may win polls, but not when engaging Obama

YOURSAY | ‘This approach is futile especially those without ‘firepower’.’

Obama cancels meeting with Philippines’ Duterte after insult

SusahKes: While I do not endorse the words Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte used, but Barack Obama and human rights? Or is it more of Hollywood's rights for the current US president?

He hardly raises a whimper at the way minorities are being treated in Middle East countries. But he has no qualms about sending his own people to jail over toilet issues. Go figure.

Thana55: Yes, what rule of law is Obama is talking about? There are glaring violations of the rule of law in Malaysia, but he talks political-speak to garner Najib Abdul Razak's favours.

Duterte’s rebuttal is fitting. Enough of being politically correct and supporting illegal and oppressive regimes.

Sleepy: Showing toughness via rudeness may win elections locally, but internationally this approach is futile especially those without ‘firepower’, both defensively and economically.

Wira: Duterte thinks he can wipe out the drug menace in the Philippines by getting vigilantes out to do the killings. I think he is gravely wrong.

He should know unless the drug lords and their supply chain, which are sustained by corrupt officials, are cut and brought to justice, killing thousands of addicts and runners is not going to solve the drug problem there.

He should shoot corrupt officials instead, starting with those from his own party and government.

Anonymous 2353391441138772: So if you think you cannot handle anything by legal means, you will resort to illegal means?

No president is there for life. He will one day be removed, and when that happens people will be waiting and he will surely be spending the rest of his life in prison.

Oscar Kilo: China is using its economic, political and military power to subdue Southeast Asia. If Malaysia falls into China's trap, Malaysia will lose most of its oil and gas fields and fishing grounds in its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) off Sarawak and Sabah.

Najib has already put Malaysia at China's mercy due to China's alleged bailing out of 1MDB. Malaysia is now indebted to China, and owes China big time.

Jesse: Obama is now a lame duck president, and will be gone by Jan 20. The US is still playing big brother in a part of the world that has moved on. Let the region sort out its problems.

Their interference over many decades including the Vietnam War had caused untold misery, and the problems they are causing in the Middle East and Afghanistan so many years after invading Iraq.

Anonymous_40f4: Duterte should be commended for being frank and bold. When Obama can visit the world's biggest kleptocracy twice and play golf with Malaysian Official 1 (MO1) who allegedly stole billions in public money, Obama should be condemned.

Obama is all talk, talk and talk, that’s why China denied him the red carpet welcome like it did for all other leaders.

To redeem himself he should not meet with MO1 who is already in Laos, his tongue wagging and his propaganda machinery in tow.

Tony Soprano: It would not be presidential in the 21st century for the leader of a powerful nation to retaliate by bullying a weak and defenseless ally. Cancelling meetings is sufficient for now.

Remember the things Dr Mahathir Mohamad used to say on a daily basis about the US and its people? He was essentially ignored as unworthy of attention. Even the Japanese laughed at him and his Look East fetish behind his back.

I will say, Duterte is lucky he's not in the 19th century. Around 1850 or so, some coastal Indonesian village destroyed a US flag. The US president then sent a frigate and bombed the hell out of the village.

Spinnot: "An arbitration court in The Hague in July invalidated China’s vast territorial claims...". First, the ad hoc tribunal was not a court. Secondly, it has made no ruling on the so-called "China's vast territorial claims".

The Philippine case was filed under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), a treaty which does not have jurisdiction to determine territorial sovereignty of offshore islands.

The case was about maritime rights, not territorial sovereignty, though it indirectly encroaches into sovereignty status of the South China Sea islands, which was one of the grounds used by China to argue against the jurisdiction of the tribunal.

China has also made a declaration under Article 298 of UNCLOS when signing the treaty to opt out of the settlement procedure involving such disputes.

OMG!: Spinnot, China's Nine-Dash line contravenes UNCLOS. And now the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague has determined that it had the jurisdiction to look into this case and that China has no historical basis to claim it or the insular features there.

The Hague also said that they go by the historical sizes of the islands and not the recent build-up through dredging by China.

Historically, China was a continental kingdom, not a maritime one, and did not pay much attention to the oceans.

Indeed, after a burst of seafaring exploration during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), China’s emperors largely shut their empire off from the seas. As a consequence, cartographic proof of China's claims is scarce.

China has acted like the neighborhood bully, militarising the rocky isles and threatening its neighbours. It could lead to bloodshed, in some unforeseen way.

The real problem is, a communist dictatorship, cunningly adapted free markets to rise, now it's slowing down. Endgame time?

Cogito Ergo Sum: If Duterte had said it to MO1, he would have been charged under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) with revealing state secrets.


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