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Saturday, October 06, 2007

what you won't read on our straits times.

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Singapore, a friend indeed to Burma junta


Eric Ellis

1 October 2007

The Sydney Morning Herald

C 2007 Copyright John Fairfax Holdings Limited. www.smh.com.au

[http://www.smh.com.au]



The island-state may have much to lose if Burma's generals don't retain

control, writes Eric Ellis.



SINGAPORE is not just skilled at mandatory executions of drug traffickers,

running an excellent airport and selling cameras on Orchard Road. It also

does a very useful trade keeping Burma's military rulers and their cronies

afloat.



Much attention is focused on China and its hosting of the Olympic Games next

year as a diplomatic trigger point for placing pressure on Burma's junta.

But there is a group of government businessmen-technocrats in Singapore who

will also be closely - and perhaps nervously - monitoring the brutality in

Rangoon. Were they so inclined, their influence could go a long way to

limiting the misery being inflicted on Burma's 54 million people.



Collectively known as Singapore Inc, they gather around the $150 billion

state-owned investment house Temasek Holdings, controlled by Singapore's

long-ruling Lee family. With an estimated $3 billion invested in Burma (and

more than $20 billion in Australia), Singapore Inc companies have been some

of the biggest investors in and supporters of Burma's military junta - this

while its Government, on the rare times it is asked, gently suggests a

softly-softly diplomatic approach toward the junta.



When it comes to Burma, Singapore pockets the high morals it likes to wave

at the West.



Singapore's one-time head of foreign trade said, as his country was building

links with Burma in the mid-1990s: "While the other countries are ignoring

it, it's a good time for us to go in. You get better deals, and you're more

appreciated. Singapore's position is not to judge them and take a judgmental

moral high ground."



But by providing Burma's pariah junta with crucial material and equipment

mostly denied by Western sanctions Singapore has helped keep the military

government and its cronies afloat for 20 years, indeed since the last time

the generals killed the citizens they are supposed to protect with

industrial efficiency and brutality, as now.



Without the support from Singapore, Burma's junta would be greatly weakened

and perhaps even fail. But after two decades of profitable business with the

generals and their cronies, that is about the last thing Singapore Inc is

likely to do. There's too much money to be made.



From hotels, airlines, military equipment and training, crowd control

equipment and sophisticated telecommunications monitoring devices, Singapore

is a crucial manager and supplier to the junta, and Burma's economy.



It is impossible to spend any meaningful time in Burma and not make the

junta richer, via contracts with Singapore suppliers to the tourism

industry. Singapore's hospitals also keep its leaders alive - the

74-year-old strongman Than Shwe has been receiving treatment for intestinal

cancer in a government hospital in Singapore, in a ward heavily protected by

Singapore security.



Much of Singapore's activity in Burma has been documented by an analyst

working in Australia's Office of National Assessments. Andrew Selth is

recognised as a leading authority on Burma's military. Now a research fellow

at Queensland's Griffith University, Selth has written extensively for years

on how close Singapore Inc is to the junta.



Often writing as "William Ashton" in Jane's Intelligence Review, Selth has

described how Singapore has sent guns, rockets, armoured personnel carriers

and grenade launchers to the junta, some of it trans-shipped from stocks

seized by Israel from Palestinians in southern Lebanon.



Singaporean companies have provided computers and communications equipment

for Burma's defence ministry and army, while upgrading the junta's ability

to communicate with regional commanders - so crucial as protesters take to

the streets of 20 cities in Burma. The sheer scale of the protests is

causing logistical headaches for the Tatmadaw, as Burma's military is known.



"Singapore cares little about human rights, in particular the plight of the

ethnic and religious minorities in Burma," Selth writes. "Having developed

one of the region's most advanced armed forces and defence industrial

support bases, Singapore is in a good position to offer Burma a number of

inducements which other ASEAN [Association of South-East Asian Nations]

countries would find hard to match."



Selth says Singapore also provided the equipment for a "cyber war centre" to

monitor dissident activity, while training Burma's secret police, whose sole

job appears to be ensuring democracy groups are crushed.



Monitoring dissidents is an area where Singapore has expertise. After almost

five decades in power, the Lee family-controlled People's Action Party ranks

behind only the communists of China, Cuba and North Korea in leadership

longevity.



"This centre is reported to be closely involved in the monitoring and

recording of foreign and domestic telecommunications, including the

satellite telephone conversations of Burmese opposition groups," Selth

writes.



Singaporean government companies, such as the arms supplier Singapore

Technologies, dominate the communications and military sector in Singapore.

Selth writes: "It is highly unlikely that any of these arms shipments to

Burma could have been made without the knowledge and support of the

Singapore Government." He notes that Singapore's ambassadors to Burma have

included a former senior Singapore Armed Forces officer and a past director

of Singapore's defence-oriented Joint Intelligence Directorate. "It is

curious that Singapore chose to assign someone with a military background to

this new member of ASEAN and not one of its many capable professional

diplomats."



Selth writes that after Burma's 1988 crackdown, in which 3000 democracy

protesters were killed, "the first country to come to the regime's rescue

was in fact Singapore".



In an interview with the chief executive officer of Singapore Technologies,

Peter Seah, at his office in Singapore, the Herald asked about the model of

an armoured personnel carrier made by his company that sat on his office

table. Seah said his company sold the vehicles "only to allies". Did that

include Burma, given Singapore helped sponsor the military regime into

ASEAN? Seah was not specific: "We only sell to allies and we make sure they

are responsible." He did not say how. For its part, Temasek does not respond

to questions about its activities in Burma.



A Singaporean diplomat to Burma, Matthew Sim, wrote a handbook for

Singaporean businesspeople, Myanmar on My Mind. It is full of tips for doing

business in Burma, although odd given Singapore's contempt for corruption

and lawbreakers. "A little money goes a long way in greasing the wheels of

productivity," he writes.



A chapter headed Committing Manslaughter When Driving describes the

appropriate action for a Singaporean if they accidentally kill a pedestrian

in Burma. "Firstly, the international businessman could give the family of

the deceased some money as compensation and dissuade them from pressing

charges. Secondly, he could pay a Myanmar citizen to take the blame by

declaring that he was the driver in the fatal accident. An international

businessman should not make the mistake of trying to argue his case in a

court of law when it comes to a fatal accident, even if he is in the right.

He highly probably will spend time in jail regretting it. It is a sad and

hard world. The facts of life can be ugly."



Describing Singapore's usefulness to Burma, Sim says "many successful

Myanmar businessmen have opened shell companies" in Singapore "with little

or no staff, used to keep funds overseas". The companies are used to keep

business deals outside the control of Burma's central bank, enabling

Singaporeans and others to make transactions with Burma in Singapore, he

says.



Sim may be referring to junta cronies such as Tay Za and the druglord Lo

Hsing Han. Lo is an ethnic Chinese, from Burma's traditionally

Chinese-populated and opium-rich Kokang region in the country's east,

bordering China. Lo controls a heroin empire and one of Burma's biggest

companies, Asia World, which the US Drug Enforcement Agency describes as a

front for his drug trafficking. Asia World controls toll roads, industrial

parks and trading companies.



Singapore is the Lo family's window to the world, a base for controlling

several companies. Lo's son Steven, who has been denied a visa to the US

because of his drug links, is married to a Singaporean, Cecilia Ng. The two

reportedly control a Singapore-based trading house, Kokang Singapore Pty

Ltd. The couple transit Singapore at will. A former US assistant secretary

of state for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement

Affairs, Robert Gelbard, has said half of Singapore's investment in Burma

has been "tied to the family of narco-trafficker Lo Hsing Han".



Tay Zar, who is linked romantically to a daughter of Than Shwe, is also well

known in Singapore. His fleet of Ferrari, Lexus and Mercedes cars was

shipped to Burma from Singapore. When on the island, he likes to stay at the

tacky Meritus Mandarin hotel on Orchard Road, close to the hospitals

favoured by his senior military patrons from Burma.



Tay Za was featured in the Singaporean media last year toasting the launch

of his new airline, Air Bagan, with the head of Singapore's aviation

authority. Dissident groups say the trade-off for Tay Za's government

business contracts in Burma is to fund junta leaders' medical trips to

Singapore.



So when the Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, vows to impose financial

sanctions on Burma's regime, as he did this week, perhaps he should be

calling Singapore's bankers rather than Australia's.

Friday, October 05, 2007

i love this place









----joraffe----







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