Blank Doll speaks, encore.

The recent racial riots in Australia is deplorable, disgusting and it risks alienating support for its cause in aiding the world anti-terrorism act because it is being turned into a racial issue by the untutored demogogue.

This is why we should watch out for the coming generation and why we must prevent the same thing from happening in Singapore. A whole generation of wastrels, bent of wasting their lives away behind low-end service counters and part-time jobs, of uncivilized morals and values falsly typified as liberal and ultimately, an utter waste of state resources. THIS is why we don't have a welfare system, why we impose age sanctions so closely and why we tax demerit goods so severely. State intervention can be argued for in this case especially if the long term consequences of not having state intervention is a this farce called the youths of Australia. Small wonder Asians practically rule their universities.

When I spoke of action that Singapore must take, I do not mean war. There are more ways to build a great power than war. Most of Chinese territory won since the Tang Dynasty was not won by war, Russia did not expand solely by war and the United States has been a prime example of how an informal empire can be just as potent as a full-fledged one when waged with economics and military deterrence.

Firstly, I sincerely believe in the ASEAN polity. I believe it to be a great foundation for a region that can only make its mark upon the world as a whole. This is in part due to our proximity to the great Pacific powers of America and Japan, as well as our proximity to China and India.

South-East Asia bore suzerainty under China for most of pre-history with Vietnam fighting a nine hundred year struggle with Southern China, Yunnan being the greatest example. The states of South-East Asia then fell to the barbaric forces of the West. We were ravaged by a Great Depression that we would have had no part it were it not for the fact that we were fused to a world economy so inimical to our survival in no small part due to colonialism. Then we were torn apart by the Japanese, contributing to the rise of militant governments in South-East Asia that still cripple us today. The West tried to re-establish her hold over us once more, witness the war in Vietnam. Western ideology inundated us, replacing another that was given to us by China. Just a decade ago, it was the West once more who brought us down with the financial crisis.

I am not shifting the blame in its totality to the West or to any other nation. It is past the time for that. History is history. What must be illuminated is that for so long, we have always been at the mercy of forces beyond our control and this is because South-East Asia has always been more centrifugal in nature than anything else. We are so prone to splitting up into a myriad of kingdoms, fiefdoms and states. It is unacceptable and fatal to us as proven by history. We have so much potential but we have performed so disappointingly. Look at the East Indies, Burma, the Philippines For god's sake, the Philippines are still named after a Spanish monarch! What happened to all that promise that made South-East Asia so fertile for change and growth? It is still there but it is dying.

We need a common integral unit. We were defeated because we were not united, we were defeated because we have always held onto a system that could not thrive in modernity. We have not changed much after all these years.

We need a common defence policy. A shared nuclear arrangement, even if this means collaboration with another country. We need to establish a common market for goods and services. We need to establish a network of communication and bureaucracy so that all people of South-East Asia may be consolidated into one unit. Yes, I am speaking of South-East Asia as a unit in the same way Europe is a unit. Except we need to go beyond that.

This is difficult. Very difficult. It will take time. Alot of time. But it must happen. There is no other way out of this for South-East Asia. I am not saying that this will be essentially good for Singapore. Enough nations within our region deign to treat with us only because we have poured our energy into such diplomatic efforts and because we have striven to entrench the concept of collective security amongst the nations of South-East Asia.

Singapore can take the lead in benign leadership. We have so much to give and so much to learn from our fellow brothers. We are the last-born children of South-East Asia and it is time we contribute back to this region. Why should Singapore not take a greater role in the affairs of South-East Asia? Why should we not aid our neighbours and kin in their road towards progress? We have the capacity, we have the savoir-faire, we have the experience and the stability. All it takes is a citizenry who can look beyond its borders, beyond the inanity of our daily grind.

No, I am not advocating neo-colonialism or even war. You misunderstand me if you do not see that I mean an integrated South-East Asia where each country has a say, each country becomes a specialized component of a greater whole while at its heart is Singapore whose benign tutelage will, together with the esteemed leaders of our cherished neighbours, help shape the region into a true great power.

The century of the Pacific will truly have arrived when South-East Asia takes on this unique and important identity. Until then, we are merely waiting for our next imperial master and a promise will have been unfulfilled. The Singaporean Promise would have been unfulfilled.