Murky Murdoch praises S’pore’s highly paid ministers – it sux to think you need a crook to tell you that

The mass media of Singapore will only tell you half stories. As always. It tells you how Rupert Murdoch praises Singapore’s “transparent and non-corrupt” govt is due to the highly paid ministers scheme.

Singapore as clean a society as you can find anywhere, says Murdoch

The attack on Mr Rupert Murdoch might have dominated newspaper headlines yesterday but it was the media mogul’s unexpected mention of Singapore as an example of an “open and clear society” which has sparked off a belated buzz online and in the international media.

During the hearing on the phone hacking scandal that has shuttered the News of the World, Mr Murdoch was asked by British Member of Parliament Damian Collins where the limits of legitimate investigative journalism lie.

The 80-year-old’s answer thrust the Republic into the spotlight – which included reports in The New York Times and on CNBC – on a scandal unfolding halfway around the globe: “When The Daily Telegraph bought a series of stolen documents of all the expenses of MPs, it caused a huge outcry, one which I feel has not been properly addressed.

“I think there is an answer to it, and we ought to look at them as open and clear as a society in the world, which is Singapore – where every minister gets at least a million dollars a year and the Prime Minister a lot more and there is no temptation and it is as clean a society as you find anywhere.”

Mr Murdoch’s response was a dig at a scandal in the United Kingdom last year where several MPs were found to have inflated their expenses.

What the media downplays is that Murdoch himself is the centre of a scandal.

Rupert Murdoch: scandal questions ‘difficult to answer’

James Murdoch repeatedly declined to provide information about News of the World employees who might have participated in phone hacking on grounds that disclosure would prejudice police inquiries.

“Detailed questions about the evidence we have passed to the police … are difficult for me to answer,” he explained.

With threats of criminal charges hanging in the air, the Murdochs and other witnesses examined by the Commons select committees were conscious that evidence could be used in other investigations.

So let’s get this straight. The Murdochs (themselves crooks who hacked phone lines) are calling the Brit MPs, who are questioning about the phone hacking scandal, crooks. And they are saying that to prevent such crooked guys in the govt, we need to have a system like Singapore where the ministers are highly paid.

Why does the Singapore media play down the fact that Murdoch is walking on murky ground himself? It looks like the media wants to highlight that a world personality praises the high pay scheme of ministers in Singapore, but does not want to highlight it comes from the mouth of a world crook.

Singapore is Complicit in Corruption -

Very unfortunately, the saying that it takes a crook to catch a crook rings true in this case. Murdoch, the crook, is able to see another crook – the system he so praises.

I have mentioned a few times in this blog before. Singapore is harbouring international criminals from Indonesia, providing them a safe haven for their ill-gotten funds, amounting to billions. Singapore also refuses to extradite them to Indonesia, citing that we don’t have an extradition treaty with Indonesia.

Aw…come off it! Even if we don’t have an extradition treaty, it won’t hurt kicking those scumbags and their ill-gotten money back to Indonesia! Problem is those scumbags and their ill-gotten billions come together and Singapore wants to hold that money! See this link for reference – Singapore Complicit in Laundering Ill-gotten Funds

I have also mentioned that Singapore appears to have allowed $$$ from the junta of Burma to be laundered here. Our squeaky clean image under scrutiny

So what’s all this stuff that Singapore is clean and white and not corrupt and what not? Is not Singapore’s image now tainted, seen as being complicit in money laundering?

The highly paid ministers scheme didn’t stop corruption from entering our shores, did it?

So what does this tell? That it takes a crook, Murky Murdoch, to know another crook – a system where the leaders are paid highly, yet don’t deliver a transparent govt.

>Our Bad Foreign Relations with Indonesia

>Disclaimer -

This post is about politics. Specifically, Singapore’s foreign relations with Indonesia. It is not an election campaign post.

Introduction -

We have been reminded since independence by the PAPpies that we are surrounded by hostile people who are bent on taking over our tiny nation. So time and time again, we hear of the Big Bad Wolf out there trying to eat us up.

>Singapore Complicit in Laundering Ill-gotten Funds

>The PAPpy prides itself for being uncorrupted. But there are many cases where Singapore’s non-transparent policies (especially when it comes to $$$, no thanks to PAPpy), where suspicious funds are left “uninvestigated”. This includes our ties with the Junta. However, in this post, I would like to take a look at the ill-gotten funds of the corrupt Indonesian tycoons.

Note that while PAPpy not only has prided itself that Singapore is uncorrupted, it also alleges that our neighbours are corrupt. Yet, when our neighbour (Indonesia) makes an effort to bring the corrupted parties to justice, it is Singapore (courtesy of PAPy of course), that blocks that! That’s because if Singapore assists Indonesia, all that ill-gotten funds (could it be in the sum of billions?), will flow out of Singapore. What hypocrisy!

RI, S’pore extradition deal unclear after leaders meet

Leaders of Indonesia and Singapore, the two leading economies in Southeast Asia, have focused on increasing economic cooperation and boosting growth, but seemingly sidelined crucial talks about an agreement on extradition when they met recently.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong met this week in Singapore in an informal retreat planned late last year to discuss ways to boost investment and strengthen ties.

Although the plan had been for the agenda to discuss all pressing bilateral issues, an anticipated agreement on extradition sought by Jakarta to bring home corrupt fugitives seeking asylum in Singapore was left out of the talks, Antara news agency reported.

Such an agreement could bring home billions of US dollars lost to graft when Indonesian corruption fugitives fled to Singapore after the 1997 regional financial meltdown.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said Thursday the main focus of the discussion was economic issues, but he could not confirm whether the leaders had touched on the extradition agreement.

In 2007, an agreement on defense was signed by the two governments but later annulled by Indonesian lawmakers who rejected a term that allowed Singapore’s armed forces to conduct exercises on Indonesian soil in return for Indonesia being allowed to force the return of Indonesian criminals in Singapore.

Kemal Azis Stamboel, chairman of House of Representatives’ Commission I overseeing defense and foreign affairs, said the current commission (2009-2014) shared the same position on the agreement as their predecessors.

He said any extradition deal made with Singapore must be reciprocal, where both countries would be allowed to extradite criminal suspects – and that such an agreement should not have to be brokered with an offer to allow a foreign military access to Indonesian territory.

The extradition agreement has become a priority for Jakarta because Singapore has been used as a safe haven for Indonesian corrupt fugitives to escape to with their illegal assets.

A failure to agree to such a deal could strain relations with close neighbor, especially given that China agreed to an extradition agreement in 2009 and negotiations for the implementation of a similar deal with Australia are ongoing.

Reports have shown there is more money derived from corruption in Indonesia in Singapore than in Australia or China.

Some sources say that Singapore would only agree to a reciprocal agreement on extradition that excluded cases from the time of the 1998 financial crisis because it involved a huge amount of money and extracting it all could upset financial markets in Singapore.

During Monday’s talks on bilateral economic cooperation, both leaders agreed to increase investment and trade cooperation by working to fulfill the potential of Indonesia’s free trade zones of Batam, Bintan, and Karimun.

Singapore is Indonesia’s fourth-largest trading partner. Bilateral trade stood at US$25 billion in 2009 and Singapore’s investment in Indonesia was $4.5 billion in the same year.

Note how Singapore wants to benefit from the corrupted, ill-gotten gains! Shouldn’t we stop accusing our neighbours of being corrupt, when our own leaders are complicit in such crimes?

In what appears to be a retaliation, it is small wonder that Indonesia is quite unforgiving towards Singapore parties – Temasek Loses Final Indonesia Antitrust Breach Appeal (Update2)

The issue of extradition has been around for years. Here is an article I wrote in Mar 2007. More on our Leaders’ “We are right, others are wrong” mentality

Extradition of Corrupt Indonesian Businessmen –

Again, let me use this example because you already know the background and it saves me time explaining a fresh case. In my opinion, while the Genting issue can be considered a boo-boo, which could be laughed off, this matter is so serious, it is no longer a laughing matter.

Singapore has time and again claimed that we are corrupt free. At the same time, we have implicated that others around us are not. That itself is rubbing other parties the wrong way. What is more detrimental is Singapore’s image on the world stage.

It must be remembered that if we want to be first class world standard, the world will watch us if we do have first class world standards or not. So on one hand, we are hard against corruption when we judge others. But on the other hand, we benefit from the corruption of the very neighbours we tick off – by allowing those corrupted funds to be parked safely here!

In the eyes of the world, this is nothing but utter hypocrisy!

Would this current status be good for Singapore’s image, in its pursuit for first world standards?

Again, in my opinion, why this terriblly unforgivable disastrous mistake happened, is due to the attitude of PAP-trained men that “we are right, others are wrong”! The government in Singapore is so high-handed that it feels it has the right to tell Jakarta to clean up its judiciary, before the extradition. Singapore thinks that it is not wrong to hold the corrupt money here! But that is not how the world sees it. If we want to be recognized as first in world standards, we have to have first world standards. There is no two ways about that.

It is also interesting to note that Indonesia decided to ban the import of sand to Singapore. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to conclude that was yet another retaliation from Indonesia.

Bottom line is that PAPpy just cannot let the ill-gotten funds go. This is as bad as allowing money laundering, or worse, complicit to such a crime.

Who is PAPpy to claim that Singapore’s leaders are now above board and are not corrupted?