Singapore's blood money
Hanging drug couriers but investing with their suppliers
The money trail: the Myanmar Fund
THE Singapore government, in cooperation with Morgan Guaranty Trust
Company, is directly connected to key business ventures of drug
kingpin Lo through an investment group called the Myanmar Fund. The
fund, which provides investors "with long term capital appreciation
from direct or indirect investments in Myanmar (Burma)," is
registered as a tax-free fund in Jersey, Channel Islands, according
to documents provided to the Irish Stock Exchange.
Singapore's largest government-controlled financial institution -
the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) - is
listed in the documents along with Morgan Guaranty Trust Bank (a
J.P. Morgan subsidiary separate from the Trust Company) as a core
shareholder in the Myanmar Fund. A September 1996 GIC business
profile from the Registry of Companies and Businesses in Singapore
shows that high-level
Singaporean politicians are officers and directors of the GIC,
including senior minister Lee Kuan Yew; his son, deputy prime
minister Brig Gen Lee Hsien Loong; and finance minister Dr Richard
Hu. As a core shareholder, the GIC helps determine how the fund's
money is invested in Burma. Jean Tan, a spokesperson for the
Singaporean embassy in Washington, confirmed in a June interview
that the GIC holds a 21.5 percent share of the Myanmar Fund. As of
last November, this investment was worth $10 million, according to
the Singaporean government.
The Myanmar Fund owns 25 percent of an Asia World subsidiary, Asia
World Industries. In fact, the Myanmar Fund's 1997 first-quarter
report features two pictures of Asia World factories on its cover.
The Myanmar Fund has also heavily invested in a number of luxury
hotels in Burma, including Rangoon's Traders and Shangri-La. The
Asia World business profile describes the Traders and Shangri-La
hotels as major investment projects for Lo Hsing Han's company. It
says that the Shangri-La Hotel (and surrounding apartments and
offices) will be "the biggest of all" Asia World's investments,
with "$200 million...in appropriation of the project."
In an official press release last November, the Singapore
government stated that its investments in the Myanmar Fund were
"completely open and above board" and that its investments in both
the two luxury hotels and Asia World were "straightforward
investments in bona fide commercial projects." However, the fund's
operations are hardly straightforward and open. The operations of
the GIC itself are effectively a state secret. The government
company is not required to file annual reports or report to
parliament. It has no public accountability, even though it uses
public moneys for its investments. Furthermore, according to fund
documents, in late 1994 - only weeks after being listed on the
Irish Stock Exchange - the GIC's shares disappeared from the stock
exchange register and were re-registered under the name of Ince
& Co. The Singaporean government acknowledged in November that
Morgan Guaranty Trust Company is the custodian for the GIC
securities, and that Ince & Co. was set up by Morgan to hold
the shares in its custody.
Morgan Guaranty Trust Bank, investing yet other funds on behalf of
clients, is the largest core shareholder (followed by the GIC) of
the Myanmar Fund at 42 percent, according to a fund report. This
means that together, the Singaporean regime's GIC and Morgan
Guaranty Trust Bank have been in control of 63 percent of the
Myanmar Fund and its co-investments with the corporation chaired by
drug baron Lo Hsing Han. (The GIC shares re-listed as Ince & Co
have shifted hands once again. In a February document obtained by
The Nation, the fund reported transfer of the Ince & Co. shares
to another company, Hare & Co. In telephone interviews,
spokesmen for the Myanmar Fund, the GIC and Morgan Guaranty refused
to provide information about the identity or purpose of the new
custodial company.)
Dining with the devil
SINGAPORE'S dealings with Lo Hsing Han and Steven Law continue to
expand unabated. Singapore's GIC investment in the Myanmar Fund
increased by 4.3 percent in 1996. In Rangoon, the Traders Hotel
celebrated its official opening last November. At the opening
ceremony, attended by Singapore's Ambassador and graced with an
ap-pearance by Lo himself, the presiding SLORC minister publicly
thanked both Steven Law and the government of Singapore for paving
the road for a smooth business partnership. "I would like to extend
my sincere gratitude to the government of Singapore," he said,
"without whose support and encouragement there would be very few
Singaporean businessmen in our country."
Since then, ground has been broken on the construction of
Sinmardev, a new, $207 million industrial park and port on the
outskirts of Rangoon. A Singaporean consortium is the leader in a
joint venture with the SLORC, the Myanmar Fund, Lo's family company
and a slew of international shareholders. The Myanmar Fund holds a
10 percent interest in Sinmardev. Singaporean entrepreneur Albert
Hong, head of Sinmardev, described the project as the largest
foreign investment in Burma outside the energy field.
"Singapore is more involved with Lo than any other country, because
that's basically where Steven Law is functioning out of when he's
not in Burma," observes a US narcotics official.
Singapore's rulers continue to deny any wrongdoing in connection
with their relationship to Asia World. "It is fairly far-fetched,
trying to link the Singaporean government and drug traffickers,"
said embassy spokesperson Jean Tan.
"Nonsense," says Singapore's former solicitor general Francis Seow,
now a research fellow at the East Asian Legal Studies Program of
Harvard Law School. The former close associate of Lee Kuan Yew says
he knows "through personal experience" that Lee micro-manages every
aspect of Singaporean political, economic and social policy.
Dr Chee Soon Juan, secretary general of the Singapore Democratic
Party and a leader of Singapore's political opposition, was labeled
a traitor for raising the drug issue in Singapore. "Drug peddlers
are routinely hanged in Singapore for carrying heroin," wrote Chee,
in a rare and courageous act of public protest in response to a
documentary that aired on Australian television last year,
Singapore Sling. "And where are all these drugs coming from? Drug
lords like Lo Hsing Han are the big-time pushers aided by the SLORC
generals." "Is this not hypocrisy at its worst?" he asked.
"The Singapore government knows it's having dinner with the devil,
and sharing a very short spoon," says Seow. "And it is a terrible
double standard. Drug moneys are being laundered apparently by the
same drug lords who supply the heroin for which small-time drug
dealers are hanged. We are reaping profits as Burma's biggest
investor, but we're being paid with blood money."
http://www.singapore-window.org/1020naus.htm
