Friday, September 26, 2008

Singapore - a clean state?

It looks as though our recent blogs (here and here) on Transparency International, remarking on how TI has just ranked Singapore as the world's fourth "cleanest" country, have been noticed in that Asian country. This is from an opposition Singaporean political party, the Singapore Democratic Party, which, like many other organisations, doesn't exactly have an easy ride. See this, from the Committee to Protect Journalists, for example:)

State control of the media in Singapore is so complete that few dare challenge the system and there is no longer much need for the ruling party to arrest or harass journalists. even foreign correspondents have learned to be cautious when reporting on singapore, since the government has frequently hauled the international press into court to face lengthy and expensive libel suits. The ruling People's Action Party (PAP) controls most local media . . (continues in the same vein for some time.)

(Or try a more recent example, here)

We said this about Singapore:

one of the world's most toxic, and fast-growing, tax havens, hoovering up dirty money from all around the world.

And the Singapore Democrats, who hadn't come across us before, had this to say about us:

The Tax Justice Network, or TJN, is a not-for-profit group focused on the role of taxation and the harmful impacts of tax evasion and tax havens. The Network opposes "all the mechanisms that enable owners and controllers of wealth to escape their responsibilities to the societies on which they and their wealth depend."

The PAP (the ruling party in Singapore, which has 82 of 84 seats in parliament) won't like them.

There's something else it won't like about the Network. TJN is working with TI to create a new Financial Transparency Index. It recommends an alternative methodology that looks at a more comprehensive definition of corruption, one that takes into consideration money-laundering and tax evasion.

. . .
Of course you'll not see this issue raised in our press.

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