European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 17, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes tuesday november 17,1987 columns William 5afire . Destined to Lead information revolution Singapore Ever since inc Wall Surcel plunge demonstrated the financial world s interdependent 1. Asian opinion lenders have been viewing inc United slates with the same condescension As the brisk lilliputian saw big Lemuel Gulliver an amiable Clumsy giant whose profligacy is awful but whose strength could still prove useful. More astute asians like Lee Kuan Yew. Singapore s top Man for three dec Ades remember the prod Lions of Impe rial Japan and Are eager for inc United slates to remain a protective presence in Southeast Asia. He says his most fright ening thought is that Japan might one Day align itself with China or the soviet Union. Prime minister Lee runs a Light ship in his City slate of 2,5 million mainly chinese. Death sentence for drug traffickers is stamped in red on his entry cards. He keeps his air conditioned Oasis near the Equator squeaky clean he planes of Singapore s airline run on Lime and its stewardesses Are As advertised Beautiful Young women. The drawback is that efficiency is All order and stability arc placed above political Freedom. One example when the asian Wall Surcel journal refused to run a government diatribe complaining about some of its non sycophantic re porting. Lee diminished his country s stature in the free world by sharply restricting the newspaper s circulation. Until this son of harassment ends. American tourists and traders will know that this Island so Oilen described As a bastion of free Enterprise is More Bas Tion than free. Last week acc a strategic Friend of the ., came before the International her Ald Tribune s Centennial anniversary forum. Some of his perceptions Werc keen but his misreading of the future was even More instructive Lee woke up fellow asians with this question Why should americans be pay ing 7 percent of their on to keep Europe and Japan and the rest of the world secure that hits he Nail on the head. Unfortunately Lee s answer was Only to Sug Gest some More local Burden sharing. Here is a belter answer a herculean asian Effort is needed immediately to Anthony Lewis stimulate local consumption to open markets to . Exports to Stop the profitless Selling that delays loss of Export Market share and to Lake up the com Mon defense. The singaporean saw the White House congressional meetings on budget deficit reduction As ritualistic War danc ing on inc world stage with the world mapping their scats and saying my Money is at stake " with that Lee missed the Nail and hit his thumb. Instead of joining the world chorus for a Panacea of More american self taxation asian leaders should a Impre each other with the need to Cut huge asian Trade surpluses. For too Long America has been a thirsty sponge sopping up their exports and financing their Prosperity. Their continued abuse of the great sponge will surely Lead to world recession the . Can weather such cyclical dips but the wring ing oui will cause upheavals in Asia and the shakeout of surplus Niks. Leaders of one party or 1 a party Dumi democracies cannot comprehend the nature of genuine debate on policy. Americans cutting their deficit Are arguing about income redistribution through increased la Alion versus growth through reduced government share of National spending. That is no ritual War dance autocratic regimes and european elites will have to await a free society s Mode of decision making. Americans May have been great innovators of mass production the prime minister says but the japanese and in their turn the koreans and the taiwanese have caught up. There is nothing that is going to be revolutionary thai again is going to give the americans a 10 to 20-year Lead on  wrong. America will not balance its pay ments by competing against producers with a lower Standard of living rather America will leapfrog today s sure Tuniks into the coming information revolution. This goes far beyond making com Puter hardware. Tomorrow s software geniuses will change the Way people work relax travel and think inviting a burst of ingenuity that will affect civilization More profoundly than the last Cen Tury s Industrial revolution. What nations will be Best equipped to Lake inc Lead not the lands of the regimented or Asia s legions of technocrats this computer induced revolution will be powered by the creative minds that work Best in the climate of individual Diventi by Liberal education and political free Dom. A Swift generation later the Quick learners of the Pacific Basin will follow. No it to Dole has a problem of perceived insensitivity sen. Robert Dole is a formidable candidate for president sensible knowing in the ways of Washington a conservative who has no Lime for the fanta sies of reaganomics. He has shed the meanness of the past showing us instead a Man with compassion for the dependent and rejected in society. But when he formally announced his candidacy last week there was one sour note Small but irritating. In Iowa the first key state television advertising and protesters waving signs objected to his position on South Africa in particular his support for president Reagan s veto of economic sanctions last year. Dole was angry. There s not a racist Bone in my body he said. I am sure he Means that. But he has a problem Here a serious one. It is a problem of perceived insensitivity. Not just on sanctions but on a series of african issues Dole has lined up with the extreme right. He joined Jesse Helms in holding up the nomination of a new american ambassador to Mozambique As a Way of pricing the Reagan administration to Deal with Rena me the South african supported guerrillas who carry out mass murders in Mozambique. Last summer in a letter to a Kansas constituent Dole denounced the african National Congress of South Africa the outlawed anti apartheid Organiza lion. He said the Anc espouses neck lacing " the gruesome practice of killing suspected government spies in the Black townships by pulling burning tires around their  constituent sent me the letter. 1 wrote and asked Dole what the basis was for his statement could he please cite an official Anc document or statement that espoused neck lacing various spokesmen for Dole promised an answer to the question but did not provide one. Finally last week a spokesman produced a reply. But it did not cite an official Anc position urging neck lacing. The horror was in fact carried out by angry youths in the townships not by any Anc policy. There has been no Anc statement espousing neck lacing Winnie Mandela wife of the imprisoned canc Leader spoke once of liberating the country with our necklaces but she does not speak for the Anc. Oliver Tambo us president in an anti apartheid meeting in Zimbabwe in september called for an end to necklace killings. The Point of All this is not just that Dole made a rough accusation thai he could not Hack up. It is that he dealt with the Anc and the whole South african situation As a matter of cheap Demesne politics. He Why the South african government itself run toyed with approaches to the Anc. There can be no solution without  that reality there is the deeper truth of Rea Gan ism in South Africa. Black groups of which the Anc is the oldest were All peaceful for Many years. But they saw Blacks killed by the government Tor tured banned imprisoned moved from their Hymei by the millions. They had no Vole no voice. In the end my turned to guerrilla activity. To Ulk about Black protest and violence in South Africa without reference to what brought it on the Long history of official while violence and oppression is grotesque. How would Bob Dole feel if he and Othera like him were victims of a political system that deprived him of the most elementary rights for one reason Only his color Dole said recently in an interview that right wingers who Don t want the Republican party to grow so they kept out the Blacks and those kind of Folk probably Aren t going to be for  but he is showed Gross insensitivity to a problem that is tragic in playing for the support of that cil Remc right with what human terms and dangerous in International affairs. He does on Africa. _. More than any other Oiga Bizalion the Anc rep resents the aspirations of most of South Africa s  that statement was made by the economist. The conservative British weekly. Virtually everyone knowledgeable about South Africa agrees. That is Why Secretary of stale Shultz met Tambo this year. It is in today s Republican party the Radical right has enormous influence in choosing the nominee. But after being nominated it is necessary to be elected and to govern. Dole understands those realities Ai Well As any politician. But he is not practising that Wisdom when he alienates Blacks and others who care about Africa