The Day the Music Died at the Shangri-La

America held center stage at the recent security forum, but its muscular call to action raised doubts and concerns.

- Warren Fernandez

The mood music seemed incongruous. On stage, US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth was thumping his chest, declaring how the United States was rebuilding its military, restoring a warrior ethos and re-establishing deterrence.

Warning darkly of a gathering threat to the region, he said: "There's no reason to sugar-coat it. The threat China poses is real. And it could be imminent."

China, he added, sought to assert hegemonic control over its neighbors, harasses them, steals their technology, and attacks critical infrastructure. It was training and rehearsing for the "real deal," to be ready and able to seize Taiwan.

It could have been a Make America Great Again (Maga) rally in the American heartland.

But here we were in the ballroom of the Shangri-La hotel in Singapore on May 31, for the annual dialogue of defence ministers and national security chiefs.

How "incredibly fortunate" the world was, Mr Hegseth gushed, to have in US President Donald Trump a leader who was both "a peace seeker and a strong leader".

Then came the clanger: a maladroit invoking of Singapore's founding prime minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew. Like Mr Lee, the US President was also a pragmatist, ready to challenge old ways, and "grounded in common sense and the national interests," he said.

That did not go down well.

In the stillness of the vast ballroom, I was reminded of the immortal words of Don McLean's 1970s hit song, American Pie: "Bye-bye, Miss American Pie. Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry. And them good ol' boys were drinking whiskey and rye, singing, 'This will be the day that I die."

The lyrics of the plaintive masterpiece, which bemoans the loss of innocence and simpler times, resonated. It was indeed, in a totally different setting, the day the music died.