A Nation Cheated selling
fast
Dr Chee Soon Juan's latest book A Nation
Cheated is selling fast even though a few bookstore chains
refuse to distribute it.
Borders, an American company, had previously indicated that it
didn't want to sell the book because of “cultural sensitivities”
whereas Times, a Government owned book chain, the MPH and Popular
bookstores have not responded to enquiries about
distribution.
Only Kinokuniya and Select Books, a small retail outlet at Tanglin
Shopping Centre, are carrying the book. And sales have been brisk.
Two weeks into the first order, Kinokuniya has already made a
second order.
So if you haven't already bought a
copy, get one today. Alternatively you can write to [email protected] This e-mail address is being protected from
spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to order a
copy.
We highlight here an excerpt from the book about Singapore being a
money-laundering hub of which organisations like the Transparency
International is taking note and the Tax Justice Network is
scrutinisng.
Former chief economist at
Morgan Stanley, Andy Xie, gave a little more
insight into another method of how Singapore creates wealth. Xie
had written an email to his colleagues that Singapore was not the
success story that everyone thinks it is, calling the city-state an
economic failure dependent on illicit money from Indonesia and
China, "Actually, Singapore's success came mostly from being the
money laundering center for corrupt Indonesian businessmen and
government officials.''
The 46 year-old economist born in Shanghai, with a PhD from
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, made the
observation after attending the International Monetary Fund and
World Bank annual meetings which was held in Singapore in September
2006. Xie added that "To sustain its economy, Singapore is building
casinos to attract corruption money from China." Morgan Stanley
very quickly relieved Xie of his position which he had held for
nine years.
Financial analyst and Singapore observer, Michael
Backman, whom Goh Chok Tong once lauded as "an expert in overseas
Chinese" in his 1998 National Day Rally speech, added that
"Singapore is working hard at making itself more attractive to
Chinese mainlanders, be they tourists or individuals, with funds to
park…Casinos are being set up. There has even been an influx of
mainland Chinese prostitutes into Singapore's quasilegal sex
industry."
These funds, according to observers that Backman
cites, are not always clean. One goes to the extent of saying,
"Singapore has truly become the global centre for parking
ill-gotten gains. The private banking teams are huge and in
practice ask almost no questions."
Another interviewee said that an acquaintance who
made US$13 million from deals in Indonesia was not enquired as to
how the money was obtained despite obviously working in a job that
would not have allowed such amounts to have been
earned.
"Russians, mainland Chinese and Indonesians are
pouring money into Singapore. High-end property has risen 30-50
percent in the last 18 months or so," another says. Singaporean
officials make all the right noises when it comes to monitoring
illicit funds. Through all this the Singapore Government remains
largely uncooperative when it comes to meeting international
expectations and obligations on money laundering.
In 2006, Merrill Lynch and Capgemini reported that
the number of "super-rich" Indonesians living in Singapore is a
staggering 18,000 (out of 55,000) whose wealth amounts to
approximately US$87 billion. Much of this wealth, complains the
Indonesian Government, has come from illegal activities in
Indonesia.
Indonesia has repeatedly proposed the signing of a memorandum of
understanding about cooperation with Singapore in handling money
laundering. The effort went unrequited until 2006. Whatever
information that the Indonesians needed to pursue the financial
suspects had to be solicited from the US.
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