Singapore No. 1 again in world ranking on government effectiveness

Singapore edged out Denmark, Finland, Switzerland and Norway, which were ranked second to fifth, respectively. ST PHOTO: GIN TAY

Jean Iau

MAY 15, 2024

SINGAPORE Singapore has topped a ranking that tracks the effectiveness of more than 100 governments around the world for the second consecutive year.

It edged out Denmark, Finland, Switzerland and Norway – which ranked second to fifth, respectively – in the fourth edition of the Chandler Good Government Index (CGGI) released on May 15. South Korea (20th) is the only other Asian country in the top 20.

Iswaran - Corruption charges - Jan 2024 and Mar 2024

Iswaran gets 8 new charges of obtaining S$19,000 in valuables such as whisky, Brompton bike from construction firm boss

Iswaran pleaded not guilty to the new charges. He now faces 35 charges in all.

US intel shows China's army had missiles filled with water instead of fuel in a corruption scandal that led to Xi's military purge: Bloomberg

Matthew Loh

Jan 8, 2024

Chinese soldiers atop mobile rocket launchers in a parade in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 2019 to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

• US intelligence said China's military purge stemmed from serious equipment issues, Bloomberg reported.
• Examples of these included missiles that had been filled with water instead of fuel, the report said.
• The problems are a blow to Xi Jinping's focus on the Rocket Force, China's main nuclear arm.

Ties with federal government improved under PM Anwar, says Johor Sultan

Johor ruler Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar with Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Feb 8, 2023.
(Photo: Facebook/Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar)

23 Mar 2023 

JOHOR BAHRU: Johor ruler Sultan Ibrahim Ibni Almarhum Sultan Iskandar said the state government’s relationship with the federal government has improved under Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

Sultan Ibrahim said that he has been getting along well with the Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman, who leads the unity government.

“We have worked very well together. I would say it’s better than any other previous prime ministers,” Sultan Ibrahim was quoted as saying by The Star on Thursday (Mar 23). 

Commentary: Anti-corruption sweep exposes a disturbing truth in Malaysia

With former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin and others caught in the widening anti-corruption net, Anwar Ibrahim might have the momentum to push through political funding law reform, says CNA’s Leslie Lopez.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has made battling corruption the central plank of his reform government.
But there are gripes over delays on pushing ahead with law to regulate political funding. (Photo: Facebook/Anwar Ibrahim)

Leslie Lopez

21 Mar 2023 

KUALA LUMPUR: Before taking over as Malaysian Prime Minister in November last year, Anwar Ibrahim often told his closest advisors that reforms to regulate political funding would be a priority. But it appears taming widespread corruption in government and politics must take precedence.

Recent charges brought against former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin and several leaders of his Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) party over governance breaches in a COVID-19 stimulus programme that was introduced in November 2020 to jumpstart the economy show that state capture remains a huge problem and little has been learnt from the debacle surrounding 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

Muhyiddin has been slapped with seven separate charges that involved the abuse of power, mounting to RM237.5 million (US$53 million), and money laundering, totalling RM195 million. 

Senior counsel questions handling of Keppel bribery case as other lawyers weigh in; Indranee to address matter in Parliament

A view of the Brani, Keppel and Tanjong Pagar container terminals in Singapore on Aug 19, 2022. Reuters

February 2, 2023


SINGAPORE — A senior counsel has questioned the decision by Singapore authorities not to prosecute six former senior management staff members of Keppel Offshore & Marine for a US$55 million (S$73 million) bribery case involving Brazilian oil giant Petrobras.

However, other lawyers who weighed in on the subject, while acknowledging the lack of clarity and how it might appear questionable to the public, suggested that the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) might have reason not to divulge certain legally protected information.

Singapore ranked 5th least corrupt country in 2022

While Singapore was ranked fifth on the Corruption Perceptions Index, this was its lowest ranking in five years

File photo of skyline buildings of the Central Business District in Singapore on Nov 16, 2022.
(Photo: CNA/Hanidah Amin)

31 Jan 2023 

SINGAPORE: Singapore was ranked as the fifth least corrupt country in the world in 2022, according to anti-corruption body Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI).

However, it was also the lowest ranking in five years for Singapore, which placed third in 2018 and 2020, and fourth in 2019 and 2021. It remains the only Asian country to be in the top 10.

The index ranks 180 countries and territories around the world by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, , scoring on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). [Singapore scored 83 pts.]

Separation of powers, rule of law fundamental principles but need to ‘look at what works’: Shanmugam

By NG JUN SEN

OCTOBER 05, 2021

• The Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act was passed into law after an almost 11-hour debate
• The debate saw Workers’ Party MPs moot amendments to the law, including a key push for judicial review by the courts
• Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said he agreed with the party on the principles but exceptions need to be made in some situations
• Most of the party's proposals were rejected except for one
• 11 parliamentarians voted against the Bill and two Nominated MPs abstained from voting

SINGAPORE — Singapore will not be where it is today if the People’s Action Party (PAP) Government did not uphold the fundamental principles of separation of powers and the rule of law, but it is necessary to “get out of this colonisation of our minds... (and) look at what works”, Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said.

Mr Shanmugam was responding on Monday (Oct 4) to the Workers’ Party (WP) as he wrapped up a marathon debate on the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act, or Fica. The debate started around 12.30pm and ended almost 11 hours later.

In that time, Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh and several fellow WP Members of Parliament (MPs) spoke at length on the opposition party’s key proposal: For judicial oversight of the new law.

Mr Shanmugam said that the PAP Government agrees with WP on the importance of the principles but it differs on where exceptions need to be made.

China’s ‘charming towns’ plan turns into a nightmare for investors, amid legal crackdown

Initiative was to dot the countryside with themed villages, like Crayfish Town, Poetry Town, Fairyland Town, and Happy Town

Collapse of a funding company has seen senior executives detained by police, and thousands of investors scrambling for answers

He Huifeng


2 May, 2019



An artist's impression of the Crayfish Town, created by JC Group. Photo: Handout

The Mueller report is 448 pages long. You need to know these 7 key things.

19 April, 2019

The special counsel, Mr Robert Mueller, produced a report of more than 400 pages that painted a deeply unflattering picture of US President Donald Trump but stopped short of accusing him of criminal wrongdoing. Here are seven takeaways.

News analysis: A ‘new Malaysia’ but same old racial, religious divide

By Faris Mokhtar in Kuala Lumpur

11 December, 2018


KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) government, which swept into power in May through a significant swing in the Malay vote, should be under no illusion that the Malay voters bought into its progressive ideology, analysts told TODAY.

If there were ever any doubt, the 50,000-strong turnout for last weekend's rally at the historic Dataran Merdeka (Independence Square) sent a loud and clear message: Malay rights and Islam’s status as the national religion must remain enshrined in the country’s Constitution.

As it becomes increasingly clear that the groundswell of support for PH during the elections had largely stemmed from voter dissatisfaction with corruption in the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) government, the opposition United Malays National Organisation (Umno) and Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) are now ready to pounce and play the race and religion cards to win over the hearts and minds of the majority Malay population, the analysts said.

[Ok. So BN's corruption not an issue anymore?]

The $247 trillion global debt bomb

By Robert J. Samuelson

Columnist

July 15, 2018

[Note date]

The untold story of the world economy — so far at least — is the potentially explosive interaction between the spreading trade war and the overhang of global debt, estimated at a staggering $247 trillion. That’s “trillion” with a “t.” The numbers are so large as to be almost incomprehensible.

Malaysia won't let foreigners buy units in Johor's Forest City: Mahathir

27 August, 2018

TODAY


KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia will not allow foreigners to buy residential units in the US$100 billion (S$134 billion) Forest City project in its southern state of Johor bordering Singapore, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Monday (Aug 27).

The project has faced uncertainty since Tun Mahathir's coalition scored a shock victory at the May 9 General Election, as developer Country Garden Holdings looks to revive faltering demand for a city planned to be home to 700,000 people.

"One thing is certain, that city that is going to be built cannot be sold to foreigners," Dr Mahathir told a news conference in Kuala Lumpur.

"We are not going to give visas for people to come and live here," he added. "Our objection is because it was built for foreigners, not built for Malaysians. Most Malaysians are unable to buy those flats."

1MDB: Malaysia's extraordinary financial scandal

3 July 2018

CHANNELNEWSASIA


KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's extraordinary 1MDB corruption scandal allegedly saw billions stolen from the country's sovereign wealth fund and spent on everything from Hollywood films to handbags.

Former Prime Minister Najib Razak was arrested Tuesday in the 1MDB graft probe set up by his successor, which has engulfed the ex-leader and his cronies since his shock loss at elections in May.

Here is a look back at the saga:

WHAT IS 1MDB?

1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) is a state investment fund which Najib launched in 2009 shortly after becoming prime minister.

Its portfolio has included power plants and other energy assets in Malaysia and the Middle East, and real estate in Kuala Lumpur.

The fund was closely overseen by Najib.

Racial Politics in Malaysia

The Big Read: Voters not swayed by racial politics in Malaysian GE, but how long will that last?

By Kenneth Cheng, EILEEN NG and FARIS MOKHTAR in Kuala Lumpur 

13 May, 2018


KUALA LUMPUR — For years, the issue of race has dominated Malaysian politics, with Malays —particularly those in the rural areas — tending to vote for the United Malays National Organisation (Umno) and its Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which have long positioned themselves as the defender of Malay rights and supremacy.

But this week’s historic polls have turned things on their head.

Up in arms over the escalating cost of living, a burdensome Goods and Services Tax (GST) and an out-of-touch government mired in corruption scandals, the crucial Malay vote bank looked past race to end BN’s six-decade rule of the country.

[It's not that they looked past race that is remarkable. It is that it took them so long to overlook corruption before it was untenable.]

Sink Cities

[Two stories on "sinking cities" - Jakarta and Bangkok.

The challenges for either is considerable. But for Jakarta, "a city that can't deliver basic services is a failed city,... On top of conventional issues like flooding and urbanization [there's] climate change, tipping the scale. And at this rate, people will be fighting in the streets for increasingly limited resources like clean water and safe living spaces."

Bangkok has similar problems. Drawing of ground water has led to subsistence and "The wet places will become wetter, and the dry places will become drier,... What we used to call a one-in-a-hundred-year event is happening more frequently."]

Lim Siong Guan’s lecture on the Rise and Fall of Empires sounds like a complaint about today’s youth

[A cheeky poke at Lim Siong Guan's lecture.]

What can a British general teach us about Singapore's future?

By Sulaiman Daud

September 14, 2017

Born in 1897, Lt. General Sir John Bagot Glubb is most famous for serving as the commanding officer of the Arab Legion – another name for the army of the Kingdom of Jordan in the 1940s. Having fought in World War 1, he also saw action in World War 2 and the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

Aside from commanding armies, Glubb also dabbled in writing. One of his essays, The Fate of Empires and Search for Survival, caught the eye of former top civil servant Lim Siong Guan.

Lim is best known for serving as the former head of the Civil Service, and Group President of the GIC.

Lim chose to speak about the lessons one could learn from that essay for a Singaporean context, during a lecture he gave at the Institute of Policy Studies’ Nathan Lecture, quoting Glubb’s analysis on the seven stages of the rise and fall of great nations, which we summarised below:

Why China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ plan is doomed to fail

Eerie similarities with Japanese scheme 20 years ago suggests a future of white elephants, wasted money and corruption on a scale never seen before

By Tom Holland

6 Aug 2016
South China Morning Post

Facing a deep slowdown after years of investment-fuelled growth that culminated in a huge property and stock market bubble, the leaders of Asia’s largest economy come up with a cunning plan. By launching an initiative to fund and construct infrastructure projects across Asia, they will kill four birds with one stone.

They will generate enough demand abroad to keep their excess steel mills, cement plants and construction companies in business, so preserving jobs at home. They will tie neighbouring countries more closely into their own economic orbit, so enhancing both their hard and soft power around the region. They will further their long term plan to promote their own currency as an international alternative to the US dollar. And to finance it all, they will set up a new multi-lateral infrastructure bank, which will undermine the influence of the existing Washington-based institutions, with all their tedious insistence on transparency and best practice, by making more “culturally sensitive” soft loans. [i.e. bribes] The result will be the regional hegemony they regard as their right as Asia’s leading economic and political power.

Chinese deals in Malaysia under scrutiny

May 7, 2017

China's growing involvement in Malaysia has been praised and panned in recent years. The Sunday Times looks at how its widening presence is drawing increasing attention in the first of a two-part series. Tomorrow, why the promise of new ports in Malaysia with help from China may not materialise.

Shannon Teoh Malaysia Bureau Chief and
Trinna Leong Malaysia Correspondent In Kuala Lumpur

The slew of projects and investments by China's state-owned enterprises and their soft loans have been a major talking point in Malaysia since 2015, when they helped prop up state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), which was burdened by huge debts.

China's deep financial involvement in Malaysia came under fresh scrutiny last week with the collapse of the Bandar Malaysia township deal.

Red-handed: China province admits faking economic data

January 18, 2017

BEIJING — A Chinese official has admitted his province falsified its economic data for years, state media said on Wednesday (Jan 18), as the country prepares to release its national growth estimates for 2016.

The announcement by the governor of the northeastern province of Liaoning partially confirms long-held suspicions among overseas investors that the world’s second largest economy has been cooking the books.

China’s GDP figures are a closely watched measure of economic growth in the country, which affect business and financial decisions around the globe.