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Web-only Exclusives November 30, 2000 From Our Correspondent: Hirohito and the War A conversation with biographer Herbert Bix From Our Correspondent: A Rough Road Ahead Bad news for the Philippines - and some others From Our Correspondent: Making Enemies Indonesia needs friends. So why is it picking fights? |
Week of April 5, 1996
THANK YOU, IHT
What did Premier Goh Chok Tong, Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew and his son, Deputy Premier Lee Hsien Loong do with the $674,000 they received from the International Herald Tribune? They gave it to five community organizations. The IHT paid the sum after a court found it guilty of libelously alleging "dynastic politics" are practiced in Singapore.Week of March 22, 1996
ARCHIVAL EVIDENCE
Hayashi Hirofumi, researching archives in London, has found evidence that Japanese troops under Gen. Yamashita Tomoyuki killed at least 5,000 "anti-Japanese" Chinese residents of Singapore between Feb. 18 and Feb. 23, 1942. The killings have been known; the new evidence is the strongest linking responsibility through the Japanese chain of command.Week of March 15, 1996
GIVEAWAY IN SINGAPORE
Packed with concessions, Singapore's budget is the kind that would help any government at election time. Shortly after Finance Minister Richard Hu unveiled the plan, the Singapore Democratic Party and the Singapore Malay National Association jointly charged the government with "giving out enough to win votes" rather than being genuinely concerned about the working and middle classes. The budget is filled with financial breaks: top bracket income taxes were cut from 30% to 28%; public housing residents will get rebates of two to three months' rent and up to $106 back on utility charges. It will also "top up" citizen's Central Provident Fund holdings, adding up to $350 to each person's account. The plan looks after businesses, too: the corporate tax rate will be cut from 27% to 26%. PM Goh Chok Tong has until April 1997 to hold general elections, but said last month he intends to conduct them after the current budget session which ends March 21.Week of March 8, 1996
INTERNET IN COURT
It is most likely the first Internet-related legal action in Singapore. David Tan Yeow Hee is suing Chan Tuck Ying for impersonating him in a Singapore on-line discussion group. The messages posted by Chan in Tan's name implied he was a sexual deviant. Chan's verbal apology is not enough: Tan wants a public statement and a monetary payment for damages.Week of March 1, 1996
REGIONAL COOPERATION
When it comes to currency, things look better. "Repo" pacts -- repurchase agreements between countries to help defend their currencies from attack by speculators -- are becoming more common in Asia. When, near the end of the Lunar New Year, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore announced they had reached a deal on dollar-yen trading, it was seen as a mutual-interest pact to support the dollar by buying U.S. currency when necessary. If Tokyo, for example, finds its yen becoming too strong, the three countries will now pool resources to buy dollars, secretly, to stop a slide in the yen vs. dollar rate. In November, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand signed a similar agreement for their currencies. In December, Hong Kong and the Philippines signed a bilateral deal. China joined the list in early February. Until now, critics said the agreements did not have much significance; most of those countries' central banks do not have sufficient buying power to make a large enough difference in international money markets. But with Japan's entry into the field -- this is the first time Japan has signed a repo pact -- it is possible that real stabilizing power can be brought to bear if currency trading in yen becomes uncomfortably volatile.SAFE SINGAPORE
With crime down 0.7% to a ten-year low, police in Singapore say the rise in murders (51 last year, 48 in 1994) is due to foreigners in the city-state killing each other more frequently. Car theft is up by about 4%, too, but the overall crime rate declined for the seventh straight year. However, "We must not be complacent," Police Commissioner Tee Tua Ba warns.Week of Feburary 23, 1996
POWERING DOWN
Because of its poor return on equity -- 7.6% -- the plan to publicly list Singapore Power will be postponed for this year. The public utility's profits are minimal be-cause of its low rates. For an acceptable ROE, around 11%, it will have to raise the price it charges users by 12%-14%. Those increases are scheduled to be phased in over the next three or four years.Week of Feburary 9, 1996
CREDIT CRAZINESS
It has banned the advertising of incentives. It has threatened and pleaded with banks to stop luring customers. It has tried just about everything, but the Monetary Authority of Singapore cannot get consumers to stop running up record amounts of credit card debt. For the last quarter of 1995, the amount card users were rolling over was up 17% to $581.3 million.Week of Feburary 2, 1996
LONGER LINE
Expecting it to break even by 2003, Singapore is starting work on a 20-km extension to its Mass Rapid Transit network. The $3.5-billion project will run from the World Trade Center in the south to Punggol in the northeast. Passengers on the new line will be paying slightly higher fares to make it economically viable as soon as possible.Week of January 26, 1996
WHAT'S IN A NAME?
Back up. Singapore was not made a "developed country" on Jan. 1 by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. It only removed Singapore from its "developing country" list, it did not promote it. Singapore won the clarification, fearing competition from low cost "developing" nations if it is grouped with wealthier "developed" countries.Week of January 12, 1996
PHONING AHEAD
Chinese and Singaporean companies have invested $800 million to start a consortium that includes Japanese and Thai corporations in a plan to start up a new mobile phone system. The Asia Pacific Mobile Telecommunications Satellite Ltd. project will handle satellite-routed calls from anywhere, not just urban centers, and should be on-line by 1998.NOT OVER YET
Price Waterhouse, the firm liquidating Baring Futures (Singapore), has gotten a court order to force six BFS managers to discuss any of the firm's undisclosed assets. If they refuse, the court could issue a warrant for their arrest. Nick Leeson, meanwhile, has decided not to appeal his six-and-a-half year sentence for his role in the $1.3 billion trading fiasco.Week of January 5, 1996
RENEWAL OF TIES
After a nine-month hiatus following the execution of domestic helper Flor Contemplacion, Singapore and the Philippines have agreed to exchange ambassadors. Singapore also agreed to allow Manila to participate in the investigation of the death of a Filipino maid, Angelina Palaming, 28, who fell nine floors, holding a four-year-old child, on Dec. 7 in Singapore.News from Singapore in 1995
