On Greece: Let calm, clear decision making rule from here on

THE European Commission announced on Tuesday that Greece has "in principle" agreed on the final technical details of its new 85 billion euro (S$133.2 billion) bailout with its creditors. With the deal virtually done, the Greek government is increasingly besieged by critics inside and outside the ruling Syriza party; a general election is anticipated this autumn, the second in less than a year.

In seeking to frame the demands of the bailout package, many opponents - including former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis - have condemned it as a "new Versailles Treaty that is haunting Europe". This refers to the infamous 1919 accord, criticised at the time by some economists such as John Maynard Keynes; the treaty, agreed upon at the end of the First World War, had provisions that included German payment of reparations to certain allied countries, especially France.

The emotive use of the Versailles Treaty analogy is calculated to play upon popular Greek resentment of the austerity measures the country has adopted in recent years at the insistence of creditors (the International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank and the European Commission). Mr Varoufakis has even asserted that Athens has signed up to a deal that "reads like a document committing to paper Greece's Terms of Surrender", and has asked the key question of whether the Greek economy stands any chance of economic recovery under these terms.