Further Excerpts from much anticipated 2020 live feed interview……

Q: Biden is now the President of the USA. Do you see a restoration of sanity to the domestic and foreign policy of the US. This is especially interesting as when Trump was elected. You actually cautioned Singapore not to be a vocal ally of the US and if possible disengage from the American alliance completely. This was quite a radical recommendation then and do you see anything that would alter your recommendations todays? Sorry for the messy questions. I am trying to pile in some common threads from many of your loyal readers.

A: Don’t worry about the mess Kompf. I can understand if many are now hopeful that the US can play the role that its always expected to play in foreign affairs. Yes Trump has bowed out and what seems to be a steadier and thoughtful leader is certainly assuming the helm. But the mentality that put Trump into the white house in November 2016 is still very much alive and never doubt that they are a social political force to be reckoned with. To me this category of voters have always been there and its a fallacy to assume that Trump groomed them. As all he really did was to render hate speech, bigotry and good olde racism kosher. I want to be clear here. Trump is merely the platform for voter aspiration. He was not a catalyst or cause anymore than Adolf Hitler was a clever hypnosist that mesmerised a whole nation. Infact a lot of people don’t know that the Nazi party was democratically elected just like Trump. So this has to be very problematic Kompf in any and every way you see it. Because let me tell you plainly what the faculty of political science in NUS or the Lee Kuan Yew School will never dare to tell – when you have so many ill informed and uneducatedj Americans who don’t ever read anything longer than what’s written at the back of a chewing gum wrapper and think that Mount Rushmore is the tallest mountain in the world and have absolutely no interest whatsoever to travel beyond the state line of Nebraska to discover the greater world or for that matter connect with others who may be different fron them that’s got to be very problematic to the whole democratic process. Because for democracy to work well. The citizenry need to be reasonably well informed to make good decisions. They dont necessarily have to know how to make a rocket, but they should at least know that Turkey is a also a country besides just a bird that is served up during thanks giving. The problem with the US is there’s simply too many Americans who don’t have the basic elementary skill sets to make an informed decision to vote well and since their ranks are multiplying. They are likely to continue to exert a gravity on not only the political agenda, but this cachet of voters will also color the tenor of the political narrative as well. So to me it’s doubtful that Biden will have a completely free hand in scripting the domestic and foreign narrative of the US. For me. The anti China stance will still be a mainstay feature of US foreign policy. It may be less red neck in its posturing and brinkmanship, but it will still be strategically driven as it was during the Obama Administration to ensure US economic and military primacy. So much so, I expect the TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership) to be resurrected from the dead again. I even expect a much more muscular military presence in both the Pacific and Indian Ocean, conceivably this could even lead to a military alliance with India. In summary I don’t see many foreign set pieces changing under Biden, like I said the tenor would be less full frontal and garish but substantively it’s the same goals – keep China and Russia in a steel box!