How to Let It Go and get 'them' to get Going Home!

A matter of histories, not history?
(Don't let it go)

On May 3, I blogged about an interview with ballet doyen Goh Lay Kuan. That was her take on certain events during a turbulent time in Singapore's modern history. This ST Forum writer below provides another perspective and version of events (May 16):

Controversial issues, by definition, harbour different accounts. I'm glad Mr De Souza stepped up to share his account. I wonder if Ms Goh will respond? I hope so.

I believe one such opportunity was missed when Dr Goh Keng Swee died in May 2010. I was editing ST's Forum pages then in the 1980s and it was the time of the Great MRT Debate. Dr Goh was the proponent of an all-bus system in the planning of Singapore's future public mass transport needs. Dr Yeo Ning Yeo, who is still alive, was the proponent of a mixed MRT/bus system -- what exists today. If my memory serves me right, both men -- in a rare show of open debate -- wrote to ST Forum to press their case before the newspaper's readers!

What I wish could have happened is that both men, after so many years, revisited their decisions -- ideally in an open forum. Would Dr Goh still insist that an all-bus system could have worked in today's Singapore? Will Dr Yeo review his own decision and offer his own take on the woes plaguing the MRT set-up these days?

I am sure there are many other issues (the ones that still have "no closure") where -- once the involved movers and shakers have died -- the story stays incomplete.
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The Great (Sand) Wall of China? (aka What A Difference A Year Makes)
(ST, May 16)

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Let It Go!

ST ran this story (May 16) about how Myanmar handled its chairmanship duties at the recent ASEAN summit superbly, despite pressure from China to have any reference to the South China Sea dispute omitted from the joint statement, as occurred in 2012 when Cambodia held the chair (Phnom Penh even refused to issue a joint statement):

 
It was this paragraph in the story that caught my eye:

Hmm, let it go! How apt. Why can't those protagonists quarrelling over specks of rocks in the South China Sea let it go?? Those three words also got me humming the song from the Walt Disney movie Frozen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0MK7qz13bU

Did you know there's even a Hokkien version?...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYpQxegxFEg

So, dear envoys... pack these three handy words into your diplomatic bag: Let It Go!
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Memo to ASEAN: How to get China off your back (and let it go) 

But, really, the tune to play to get the Chinese sailors to pack up and leave the South China Sea alone is this one: Going Home by Kenny G. Why? Check out this amazing story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/11/world/asia/china-says-goodbye-in-the-key-of-g-kenny-g.html?_r=0

And so, in awed tribute to that great Pied Piper, Kenny G, here's Going Home:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vO2KwsrMcCI