For the uninitiated: The United States government is going into shutdown.

This is a first in nearly five years, after senators failed to reach a compromise to keep the lights on.

An effort to keep the government open for one month was rejected in a vote on Jan. 19 after Republicans failed to address Democratic concerns about young undocumented immigrants.

Amid all the doom and gloom, Bilahari Kausikan, Singapore's Ambassador-at-Large and also part-time international affairs public educator, wrote a lengthy Facebook post to help Singaporeans get a sense of perspective about what's going on.

Using his trademark direct and acerbic style, he tells Singaporeans in 425 words to stay calm and learn from history.

Here's a summary of what he wrote:

1. US government shutdowns are no big deal

Its not a good thing, but it is not a big deal either. It is the consequence of increasingly intense partisanship in the US and political grandstanding by both Democrats and Republicans. It is a structural feature of US politics as it has evolved.

The nett impact of all the shutdowns I can remember has been almost zero. The US is still here; the US is still a powerful and creative economy, the US military is still dominant.

There have been important structural changes to the world order which have changed the strategic equation and will continue to do so. But these changes have not been due to shutdowns and the political dysfunctionalities that caused them.

2. Liberal western media and commentators are playing into the hands of Chinese and Russian propaganda

I expect that the liberal western media and commentators will soon start wringing their wrists in feigned outrage and despair, blaming Trump; pontificating on how this all rebounds to China’s benefit.

Their hatred of Trump blinds them to the fact that they are aiding and abetting (mostly unwittingly) the propaganda apparatus of the CCP (and Russia) in diminishing America. Well, it was Lenin who pointed out that there could be useful idiots.

Stay calm, folks, even if our own media apes the western media as it is wont to do from time to time. We have seen this movie before.

3. We are moving back to what is the historical norm

We often forget that the period of absolute US dominance and the so-called ‘liberal international order’ was actually rather short: from 1991 to circa 2003.

Prior to that the US shared global power with the USSR and there were two global economic systems. In the mid-1970s, as the US wound down in Indochina, commentators were already seeing the emergence of ‘multipolarity’ in East Asia.

Those earlier prognostications were premature. But we are moving from what in the longue duree of history can be seen as an exceptional period, back to what is the historical norm.

4. Singapore survived and prospered in earlier times of "strategic flux" and will do so again

We survived and prospered during earlier periods of strategic flux; we will do so again. There will be a prolonged period of uncertainty as we move towards a new equilibrium, but the risks affect everybody. China as well as the US and its friends and allies.

And there is a whole lot more history left to play out. There is nothing ever inevitable about any country’s rise or decline.

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You can read his full Facebook post below:

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