President Bush in Singapore

i’m always quite awed by the level of protection that the President is entitled too – it is a grand show of prestige and privilege that the position well deserves. his motorcade alone consists of 35 separate vehicles; the extent that past Secret Service agents have been willing to go to take bullets for past Presidents is amazing; there is a certain implicit sense of honour and sacredness to everything which adds to the Presidential mystique.

So when Bush pays Singapore a visit, it’s hardly surprising that we go to zealous lengths in terms of security. Singapore’s obsession with security for foreign dignitaries was pretty well publicised during the IMF/WB meet – though the possible actual motives for the “security” remains implicitly clear for most Singaporeans. Nevertheless, the tight security we have provided is frequently a dampener for the more liberal and intimate culture of the Westerners we’re hosting.

I was slightly embarrassed when viewing the television footage of the President emerging from his plane. Notice how we never get to see what’s behind the camera – my guess is that due to our overzealous/paranoid/sycophantic/slavish devotion to his security, there were no crowds, no small children for the President to pat, and not much of a welcome. The gesture of waving to adoring crowds when stepping out of the plane should be natural, almost like a reflex action for him and perhaps most Presidents before him – but we removed the crowds and made him look like a fool.

This reveals a deep need for sensitivity and perhaps, common social sense among Singaporeans. We’re always so rigid and empirical and oftentimes we take into account every technical factor and leave out the human factor. While the US President admittedly needs security, what he equally needs as a politician is a show of public support and popularity. He’s just recently been made a lame duck halfway through his final term and doesn’t need any more unflattering aspersions cast on his popularity and ability in addition to the already rampant jokes about his level of intelligence. I think we pretty much screwed that part up.

And oh, in government things are never as simplistic as getting from A to B or “if you mean it, then do it”. The Republican administration would lose much of its support from its business and industry base if it ratifies the Kyoto Protocol. In any case, for any administration, the damage that the Protocol would bring to the US economy would be tremendous. Even the Democratic Clinton administration did not ratify the protocol to please its liberal base. Much is at stake here. Not everything can be done as easily as you think.