SINGAPORE SAYS WIKILEAKS REPORTS MUST NOT BE TAKEN OUT OF CONTEXT

SINGAPORE, Dec 13 (Bernama) -- Singapore said the latest leaked reports by
whistleblower Wikileaks implicating the republic's Foreign Affairs Ministry's
officials should not be taken out of context.

"Any communication must not be taken out of context," Foreign Affairs Minister
George Yeo was quoted by local media as saying to reporters who asked him on
private comments made by his senior ministry officials on foreign leaders in the
region.

One of the reports published by Wikileaks Sunday was on comments by Singapore
leaders who believed that Malaysia's former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim
had sex with a male aide in an entrapment set by his enemies.

The report contained in a US State Department cable dated November 2008 and
given by the whistleblower to Australia's Fairfax media group detailed
intelligence gathered by Australian and Singaporean intelligence on Anwar's
case.

Yeo was also quoted as saying it was best that the confidentiality of diplomatic
communication be respected, adding: "There will be more coming out in the future
and 'you said this about me and I said this about you' and it goes on.

"That is what certain individuals said about others. There could be a diversity
of views. As I said, they probably said things about me which I may not agree
with.

"But that is fine, that is to be expected. If you want to hear everything which
others say behind your back, and take offence at it, you will be a very unhappy
person."

Yeo added that diplomatic relations could not be done "on the basis that there
is a camera in the room recording everything", and that when that happened, "we
lose something".

He also said that sometimes it was in the nature of "cocktail talk" where
"people say things in a blunt forthright way, and we should not divorce, even if
true, what is said from the context".
-- BERNAMA