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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 September 18, 1998
THE NATIONAL WAGES COUNCIL will revise 1998 salary guidelines for the second time this year. Expect a cut in employers' contributions to the mandatory pension plan, the Central Provident Fund. Employers and workers each pay 20% of gross salary in CPF contributions, but businesses want a reduction in their payments. CPF funds are used for everything from car loans to medical expenses. Lower contributions are a de facto pay cut.Week of September 11, 1998
Foam parties are getting both revelers and conservatives in a lather. The latest craze in disco dancing takes place in ankle-high enclosures filled with soap suds. Undeterred by a recent month-long ban on the parties after under-age drinkers were found among the swimwear-clad patrons, promoters on the island resort of Sentosa are planning to hold parties in international waters aboard cruise ships and hope to franchise the fad across Asia.SOME 11,300 EMPLOYEES at 23 companies in Singapore have accepted pay cuts of up to 40% in recent months. Aimed at preventing permanent job losses, the cutbacks are part of a "flexible wage" system introduced by the government-linked National Trades Union Congress.
Week of August 28, 1998
MONEY IS BEHIND THE BITTERNESS
What prompted Singapore's Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew to bluntly tell neighboring countries to stop asking for financial help so frequently on Aug. 15? A recent briefing given to rank-and-file members of the People's Action Party offers clues. When Premiers Mahathir Mohamad and Goh Chok Tong met in January at a Johor resort, they discussed a loan that Malaysia needed to overcome a liquidity problem. By this account, Goh agreed to lend the money, but said Singapore authorities would need to present a rationale to the public for making the loan. They decided to link it to the water treaty - Malaysia supplies almost all of the island nation's needs - which was coming up for renewal. After Mahathir returned to Kuala Lumpur he evidently realized he would need more cash, and asked Singapore to release funds held in the Central Provident Fund accounts of Malaysians who had worked on the island. As the requested amounts gradually grew, Goh insisted that the loans be approved by the U.N. Mahathir rejected the demand and the deal fell through. At that point, the often testy relations between the two countries started their current downhill slide.Week of August 21, 1998
MALAYSIA'S NATIONAL ECONOMIC ACTION COUNCIL (NEAC) wants Singapore to close down the Central Limit Order Book (CLOB) - the system set up to trade over-the-counter foreign shares on the Stock Exchange of Singapore (SES). CLOB trades almost entirely in Malaysian shares -112 out of 130 of its listed companies are Malaysian. The NEAC says it allows "unbridled shorting" of Malaysian shares by foreigners and lacks accountability. The SES has refused the request.Week of August 14, 1998
SINGAPORE AIRLINES AND CHINA AIRLINES signed an agreement to form a strategic alliance, paving the way for SIA's acquisition of a stake in the Taiwan-based carrier within six months.ANALYSTS EXPECT PROFITS for Singapore's banks to plummet by up to 73% for the first half of the year. United Overseas Bank, the first to release interim results, reported a 35.4% drop.
Week of August 7, 1998
"OUR GROWTH MOMENTUM has slowed significantly. All economic sectors have been affected, except construction," Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong admitted. The economy could shrink by up to 3% in the second half of 1998 after posting 3.8% growth in the six months to June, analysts predicted the day after Lee spoke.MORE SINGAPOREANS are resorting to pawnshops. In the first half of the year alone, pawnbrokers did 20% more business than for the whole of 1997, the Straits Times says.
Week of July 31, 1998
The family of Suzan Picariello, a victim of last December's SilkAir crash, filed a $25 million suit in New York against Boeing, makers of the 737-300 that went down in Palembang, Indonesia. More than seven months after the incident, in which all 104 people aboard died, there is still no preliminary report. Boeing denies negligence.Week of July 24, 1998
Relations continue to deteriorate. Kuala Lumpur rejected Singapore's suggestion that the dispute over Malayan Railway land in Singapore be referred to the International Court of Justice. Malaysia says it is ready for bilateral talks, though.The captains of two foreign-flagged tankers that collided off Singapore last October received two- and three- month jail terms and maximum fines - a total of $41,000 - in the District Court. The collision caused the worst oil spill in Singapore's history, releasing 28,000 tons of crude off the island republic's coast.
Week of July 17, 1998
WASHINGTON The Institute of International Finance - a U.S.-based group of 285 private financial firms - is launching an investigation to determine how private lending bodies contributed to the Asian crisis and to propose guidelines for avoiding such mistakes in the future.Week of July 10, 1998
THE ECONOMIC CRISIS wiped $35.5 billion from the Stock Exchange - 35% of its capitalization - in the first half of 1998, the Business Times estimated.Week of July 3, 1998
WHILE ADMITTING THAT its economic expansion targets of 2.5% to 4.5% will not be met in 1998, the government still predicts Singapore will not sink into negative growth."IT WAS ALREADY BAD before. But now with the World Cup, business is down another 20%," moaned a Singapore taxi driver. The economic crisis and a drop in tourism, combined with the football tournament's televised 11:30 p.m. kickoff, has left the city-state's streets virtually abandoned.
Week of June 26, 1998
WORK WILL GO AHEAD on a new line of the underground rail system. The 13-km section will use driverless cars and serve the Marina district, being developed as the new downtown. Communications Minister Mah Bow Tan said the $1 billion project was not specifically an "off budget" stimulus measure for the economy, but no doubt the project will help."SINGAPOREAN WOMEN have to change their mindset that they cannot do jobs like these [construction work, bus drivers, maids]. In India, Indonesia and Thailand women are doing such work," deputy head of the National Trades Union Congress Yu-Foo Yee Shoon said. "We should not think that any job is below us. Any hard-earned money is sacred." In Singapore, 57% of laid-off workers are women.
Week of June 19, 1998
EL NI--O-LA NI--A A study by three world meteorological organizations forecast a weakening of El Niņo, and the entry of La Niņa, a cooling of eastern Pacific water temperatures, causing more rain to fall in the region. Expect the effect to be felt by December.A BRIDGE TOO MANY The recently opened Malaysia-Singapore Second Crossing is carrying less than 25% of its expected load. Company sources say even if traffic tripled the crossing could not break even. Linkedua (M) Berhad, the Malaysian operator, wants a government bailout. Linkedua is part of the debt-ridden Renong Group controlled by PM Mahathir Mohamad's ally Halim Saad. The low revenues are due to the recession and Singapore's decision to collect tolls at its end. The link is tied to Renong's development plans in Bandar Nusajaya township near the crossing. It bought the land years ago, before prices fell. Now, no one is interested. One bailout idea is to close the old causeway for some flimsy reason to force traffic to the new one.
Week of June 12, 1998
HAZE - AN ACCOUNTING The Environment and Economy Program of Southeast Asia and the World Wide Fund for Nature estimate the fires in Indonesia and the resulting haze across SoutheastAsia last year led to losses of $4.5 billion and affected 5 million hectares and 70 million people. The directors emphasized the calculations are conservative. They include lost resources and short-term health costs, as well as foregone tourism revenues, but they do not add in the loss of life or biodiversity or long-term damage such as health effects or reduced farm productivity. Estimates say the fires' costs exceeded the combined damages of the Exxon Valdez oil spill and India's Bhopal chemical disaster.Week of April 17, 1998
The U.S. Trade Representative's office criticized an "upsurge" in software piracy in Singapore. The report noted measures taken in recent years to protect copyrights, but criticized the government for not adequately addressing the problem. It added that the Lion City has used its interim status as a "developing country" to delay implementing a WTO agreement on intellectual property rights.Week of April 3, 1998
The stock exchange is planning to introduce an on-line system by year's end that will enable traders to buy and sell shares directly via the Internet. Unlike other Web-based trading plans that place orders through stockbrokerages, the new method will let investors effectively be their own brokers.Week of March 27, 1998
MALAYSIA-SINGAPORE Malaysia is studying a private proposal from Singapore to establish a free-trade zone near the new causeway linking the two countries. Kuala Lumpur's trade minister Rafidah Aziz is enthusiastic: "Our bilateral ties have always been good, at least on the private sector side. On the government side, it has always been good except that sometimes the little hiccups happen."Week of March 20, 1998
Investigators of the Dec. 19 SilkAir jet crash in Sumatra are considering the possibility of suicide as a cause of the accident which killed 104. Pilot Tsu Way Ming had a history of troublesome behavior and may have had disagreements with the co-pilot. The plane's voice and flight data recorders stopped functioning before the crash, leading to speculation they had been turned off intentionally.Week of March 6, 1998
The Internet website of the Social Development Unit (SDU), aimed at encouraging single professionals to meet and marry, received 136,000 hits since January. The SDU website - www.sdu.gov.sg - will be formally launched in April. It is aimed at singles who are too busy or shy to attend SDU-organized parties and other social functions.Week of February 20, 1998
Up to 70% of new housing starts are expected to be postponed this year amid a market glut and a grim economic outlook. The delays would cut the number of new private homes to fewer than 10,000 units but still leave a 20,000-unit oversupply, according to The Straits Times. Buyer enthusiasm has been hit by rising interest rates largely generated by the regional currency crisis.Week of February 13, 1998
"This is not a change in the ratings for Singapore. This is just a change in the outlook," Velvet Yoshinami, of Moody's Investors Services explained. Moody's Investors Service changed the outlook for its Aa1 foreign currency country ceilings for bonds and notes and for bank deposits to "stable" from "positive." The Aa1 ratings continue to be supported by the country's strong external financial position.Week of January 23, 1998
SILKAIR AFTERMATH The U.S. Federal Aviation Commission ordered immediate inspections of American Boeing 737s. The move comes after investigators into the Dec. 19 crash of a SilkAir 737 in Sumatra found that 26 fasteners were missing from the right-side rear horizontal stabilizer. SilkAir records show they were in place at regular maintenance checks.Week of January 16, 1998
The three-week search for the remains of SilkAir Flight 185, which crashed Dec. 19 in Sumatra's muddy Musi River en route from Jakarta to Singapore, ended Jan. 6. Salvage teams turned up enough evidence to identify only four victims out of 104 people onboard, but they did locate the flight data and cockpit voice recorders, which were sent to the U.S. for analysis.Week of January 9, 1998
TAIWAN-SINGAPORE Vice President Lien Chan will make a private visit to Singapore for a New Year holiday. Lien will meet with Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew, PM Goh Chok Tong and other government officials during his four-day "private vacation," Taipei newspapers reported.News from Singapore in 1997
News from Singapore in 1996
News from Singapore in 1995
