King Naresuan vs LKY

The second part of this trilogy movie was out. I went to watch it. Finally for the first successful time in Thailand, I watched a Thai movie with English subtitles available. The King, still a prince then, was of righteous and virtuous royalty. Being sabotage many times over by new King of Hongsawadee (Burma’s strong city), the big bully who continually waged war on all other small cities, he managed to sway some small cities over to his side. To wage an unfair war on Hongsawadee, an army of 500,000 to a small strength of 30,000. He was intelligent as hell with his war strategies and knocked the life out of many the enemy whose only strategy was headstrong stubborn attacks. Thus eventually, he gained the independence for Autthaya (the stronger city in Thailand back then), away from the crutches of a higher control - freedom. The final scene was that of the King, who was passed down a secret weapon, a rifle well over the height of a man. And from across a wide river, he shot the general on the opposite force dead. It stirred something in me, that I am proud to live in this land. The history of Thailand is rich and original, and I felt for the bravery of the past wars. I will eagerly await part III, to learn the full history of Thailand and how her provinces came to be as now. There is identity in Thailand, there is the courage to be proud of. There is the language that only Thailand speaks, originality again. Part III will only be out in December, to coincide with the King’s birthday. Such loyalty in Thailand, such unconditional love for the King.

Now… Singapore… what culture, what history? Singapore is but a mongrel of cultures. We have no originality and no rich history. No bravery and only the war that Japan came was more like a takeover then a fight. And it took the Americans to defeat Japan on the other side of the world leading to a natural surrender on Singapore. The only thing we have is money and now we throw at other peoples’ faces. The Anti-Singapore sentiments grow stronger in Thailand each day. Yesterday I read in the news that there was a group of protesters demonstrating against the use of Thailand for Singapore’s Air Force training northeast. They carried the signs that read “Singapore Get OUT”, “Thailand is not for Rent”. They burnt the Singapore flag and stepped on it. They made a voodoo doll of Lee Hsien Long and burnt it. And the Thailand papers reported that in Singapore, the remains of an elderly woman were found. She died alone. Her foot bones were found on the two sides of the toilet. The rest of her bones were found in the toilet bowl. So what I wrote about the Singapore Dream II is but coming true.

Ok… the only thing I proud for Singapore… our language. That one got abit originality, but again it’s a mongrel of languages. There was a show called Windtalkers, where American soldiers spoke in code and the enemy could not understand. If Singapore got war, no foreign enemy will be able to decipher what we say. We do not need any encryption technology, we are Cocktalkers.

So, if we were to make patriotic movie about the history of Singapore for the people, I am afraid it would only meant failure. Or the government could pass a rule to force all to watch or be thrown in jail, which will be success. There will be no substance, and the ending scene of the Singapore Movie would probably be that with a background of PAP logos, of LKY shouting some famous hokkien mother versus on some ah-bengs who stuck chewing gum on his new found MRT toy.