Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Not All Flies Are Treated Equal

“There are those who say we should not open our windows, because open windows let in flies,” Deng Xiaoping once proclaimed in defence of his reformist vision, adding, "If you open the window for fresh air, you have to expect some flies to blow in."

Deng's context for the quote was that as China pursues growing wealth, increasing per capita incomes, and rising living standards for her people, it will also expect environmental degradation and a host of social ills including political unrest, increased crime, and a fraying social safety net.

Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam seemed to be defending not the nation, but a select coterie of the rich and ostentatious when he paraphrased Deng thus: "if we leave our windows open, you get insects flying in. Some would have a lot of bling and colour, but that’s what happens when your windows are open." It would seem, unlike Deng, Tharman welcomes those insects with open arms. Never mind if some of them are fleeing the dragnet of the  International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which has a cache of 2.5 million files threatening the secrets of more than 120,000 offshore companies and trusts, exposing hidden dealings of politicians, con men and the mega-rich the world over.

The secret records obtained by ICIJ provide facts and figures — cash transfers, incorporation dates, links between companies and individuals — that illustrate how offshore financial secrecy has spread aggressively around the globe to offshore hideaways like British Virgin Islands, the Cook Islands and (...drum roll...) Singapore.

Offshore patrons identified in the documents include Indonesian billionaires with ties to the late dictator Suharto who enriched a circle of elites during his decades in power. Thai official and former cabinet minister for Prime Minister Yingluck, Nalinee “Joy” Taveesin, who used Singapore-based TrustNet to set up a secret company.  And there's Maria Imelda Marcos Manotoc, eldest daughter of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, and beneficiary of a British Virgin Islands (BVI) trust which may or may not be part of the estimated $5 billion her father amassed through corruption.

When the state media initially reported on Chinese national Ma Chi's spectacular traffic accident, they dwelt mostly on his $3 million condominium in the East Coast, $400,000 BMW and the fact the speeding Ferrari was a $1.8 million limited edition car. Not how the  "tall, capable, young and handsome tycoon who arrived from Sichuan province a few years ago" made his money. Tharman may promise to "try our best to keep a culture that is not one based on excesses but is one based on responsibility” but that sounds awfully like locking the barn door after the horse has bolted.

20 comments:

  1. but daft singaporeans have faith in the baldie .

    cock a doodle ... any cock shits will do

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  2. Does the ICIJ knows anything about lhlhc pte ltd? It shares same office address as GIC.

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  3. how often you stay up at 1.00 am (SG time ?) in the morning to write your pieces ?

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  4. If DPM Tharman does not defend the wealthy and powerful lot, how is he to ensure that his own family, wealth, safety and wellbeing will be secured? The Ministers are paid millions per year and if they remain in the Cabinet for two terms and more, imagine the fortunes they possessed.

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  5. Opening windows? A more apropriate analogy would be a prostitute. Open arms and legs for quick easy money. Quicker, faster, better, more money. With it comes the bling and colour of HIV, VD, crap, etc. That's what happens.

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  6. With money they feel happy.

    No money no honey and no talk.

    Got money die happy.

    No money live in misery.

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    Replies
    1. No money, no talk no honey.
      Then all rythme nicely.

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    2. In the 70s/80s, crooks jailed in Indonesian and/or wanted by the police there, took up residency in Singapore. Today, no one knows their dirty stories.

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  7. Yep, the Swiss basically can't take American clients anymore, because the IRS will be on them like flies on garbage. So the US money is headed eastward. Cyprus could have retained some of it, but now that's gone to Singapore too.
    So yeah, keep the garbage coming in. Mosquitoes for the locals, flies for the foreigners. Somebody has to do the blood and money sucking. PAP is the best party for that. They openly admit that they want to have their cake and eat it.

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  8. Well said regarding the young handsome chinese tycoon. Our government basically look at people with glasses make of $$$. It doesnt matter if you cheat and stole the money they will tell Singaporean they have no way to acertain how these Fts obtain their wealth. But super normal common sense tells us how can a Chinese salary man make a few millions......yet our immigration does not have any idea.....wat crap is this?? Perhaps it is just lame excuses they use to let these people in. This is akeen to a prostitute selling the body but denying the act.

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  9. Clean money, soiled and dirty money are all money lah.
    The crooks that possess the money are crooks, but, the money itself is not the crooks.

    Reasonable?

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  10. Conflict of Interest, is not so COI, when taking paychecks from MOE and foreign private schools.

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    1. .. both at the same time... Unless MOE is a private corporation, and the foreign private schools are a Singapore private institution.

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  11. At least the Swiss populace had it good while it lasted: they have zero inflation, their companies (employing Swiss workers) sold the stoopid tax evaders watches and everything else made in CH, ski resorts (manned by Swuiss, not like your gambling dens with its pinoys and prc callgirls) did roaring businesses, and Lake Geneva was never polluted (unlike your wonderful Kallang River with its PET bottles). When your 3rd gen leeders opened your door in 2004, you basically had a shaft up your bon bon. You guys cannot even keep your income at the level of the EP pass holders and the DBS (pinoy shop) and Citibank (Bangalore haven) would not hire your NTU IT grads until the general politely request they stop the discriminating advertisements (no mention made on whether they can continue the actual practice of preferring their own countrymen). As usual, the student has outdone the master, ...

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  12. If you know that you or family cannot stay in power forever, what will you do? Con more money before it is too late lah. Sg may have a replay of Marcos soon. We will all be counting shoes soon.

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  13. same old same old
    http://www.corporationwiki.com/California/Santa-Monica/tolaram-incorporated-4708142.aspx

    Panwell 100% PRC meh?
    http://www.corporationwiki.com/California/Woodland-Hills/li-shang-shih/40405477.aspx

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    1. buy local companies lor
      http://www.gmg.sg/our_story.html

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  14. Ma Chi - The man who has money to burn, make an ash of himself.

    He made Deng proud though -- "To get rich is to be glorious." Unfortunately, he forgot the Confucius teaching -- "The fly which rests on toilet seat gets pissed off".

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  15. //"If you open the window for fresh air, you have to expect some flies to blow in."//

    Me only know that when all the windows and doors are widely open, it led to plenty of blow jobs and undoing of flies, from Paris to Parking Lot to Professors' couch.

    That's why I find it strange that PAP wants to further open its back door to 6.9m people. It would totally satisfy STB's "shiok' campaign to fulfill the foreigners' wet dreams of "Your Singapore (haven)".

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  16. Quite a fresh air coming from DPM Tharman, particularly to quote Deng.

    "There are those who say we should not open our windows, because open windows let in flies and other insects & they want the windows to stay closed, so we all expire from lack of air. But we say, 'Open the windows, breathe the fresh air and at the same time fight the flies and the insects."

    But I think people are more concerned with cases eg. a big shot fly like Mukesh Ambani may one day happen in Singapore. After all, we have seen how MPs can chope hawker tables and car park slots for themselves, $2 unexplained AIM account, and rich doctor with all the means to get an innocent driver to stand in for his speeding charges etc...what else is not possible from billionaires to evade taxes and god-knows-what-else for their own pleasures and security?

    Mr Mukesh maybe right to insist that the state has the duty to provide him with z-security guards. But when child rapes, let alone common mortals are not protected, why should a billionaire gets his palace priority? Of course, had Mr Mukesh been a Singapore PR here, such threat would not be a concern at all. Since we have faith in our NS men providing us safety, guarding assets and havens from insects, flies to gnats. Unless of course, if you happened to be the unfortunate taxi driver who got bashed at Suntec city, or dead victim of a Romanian hit-n-run episodes, you would be outraged too if this place is filled with underground insects and slowly turning it into an infested swampland. And when that happens, you can bet whether it is a white cat, blue cat or red cat, as long as it catches mice, it will be seen as a good cat.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/04/22/outrage-in-india-as-a-billionaire-receives-special-police-protection-but-rapes-continue/

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