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Web-only Exclusives
November 30, 2000

From Our Correspondent: Hirohito and the War
A conversation with biographer Herbert Bix

From Our Correspondent: A Rough Road Ahead
Bad news for the Philippines - and some others

From Our Correspondent: Making Enemies
Indonesia needs friends. So why is it picking fights?

Asiaweek Time Asia Now Asiaweek story

LETTERS AND COMMENT

"To report accurately
and fairly the affairs of Asia
in all spheres of human activity,
to see the world from an
Asian perspective, to be
Asia's voice in the world"
-- Mission Statement, 1975

Like a Family

I AM TIRED OF reading your reports pitting our Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and his Deputy Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in almost every issue. A case in point is when you even made a comparison on the books they were then reading. What relevance has that got with their ability to run the country? Surely an esteemed magazine of international repute like yours should have risen above such petty issues.

A recent case is your short take on the so-called differing viewpoints by Mahathir and Anwar with regard to the act of defiance of the Kedah state assemblymen on the chief minister issue.

Granted, Number One and Number Two may not have the same approach on some issues, but that does not mean they are always in disagreement, as you seem to imply in most of your dispatches about Malaysia.

Who knows? Maybe Mahathir is enjoying such side-shows because the "defiant assemblymen" apologized to him and as usual he emerged triumphant. As you well know, Mahathir thrives on crisis and after all is said and done, he will always win.

Mahathir and Anwar are like father and son. In the best of families, fathers and sons don't always agree. Nor do siblings nor even husbands and wives. But that does not make for a disharmonious family. All ayes will indeed be a boring household.

Idzan Ismail
Kuala Lumpur


Meaningful Debate

I APPLAUD THE RECENT proactive admittance of Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew's and Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's purchases of discounted private properties and their subsequent ploughing of these discounts back to the government in the form of unsolicited gifts. The ministers have since decided to donate the money to charity, after Prime Minister Goh Chock Tong returned the checks to them as he felt there were no improprieties involved [THE NATIONS, May 17].

Can we also ask all the other ministers, MPs and government officials to do likewise and put on record whether they had undertaken any such discounted purchases (and subsequent sales if applicable) during the last five years, so that we can know the extent of such practices within the government? It would be very much appreciated that such disclosures are made public in order that any suspicions within the minds of all Singaporeans be put to rest. Please note that this is not a witch-hunt, but to satisfy ourselves that such practices are not widely condoned within the government, especially during the last five years when property prices have risen astronomically. Besides, this will also make the upcoming debate in the Parliament on the SM's and DPM's discounted purchases more transparent, and such transparency of the ministers' and MPs' involvement in such transactions would make the debate more meaningful.

Jeffrey Ho
Singapore


Singapore as Teacher

IT IS MY HOPE that the SLORC generals will read your excellent interview with Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong [COVER STORY, May 3]. Aung San Suu Kyi points out in her interview [THE NATIONS, May 3] that the SLORC generals think they are developing the country because a few people are getting rich.

Economic development in Burma is obstructed because access (to the market and business opportunities) is based on relations, on nepotism or on whom you know. It is not based on the principle of meritocracy advocated by the Singapore PM. If the Singapore judicial system were in operation in Burma, Insein jail would be full of SLORC generals. It does not take a genius to figure out how the generals who earn $25 per month can afford to purchase million-dollar homes. The Singapore PM also cites the importance of investment in people and the need for a high savings rate to promote economic development. In Burma, SLORC has devastated the Burmese educational system and we have hospitals without doctors or medicine. And you cannot have a high savings rate when the annual inflation rate exceeds 40%.

Recently a Burmese friend who sold a plot of land in Rangoon came to America to invest the $1.5 million he received from a Singaporean investor. If Burma has outstanding investment potential, he would have invested his money at home. Singapore is one of the largest investors in Burma. These people should realize that their investment will not be successful without Burma adopting the main ingredients cited by Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong as responsible for Singapore's economic success.

Myint Thein
Dallas, Texas
U.S.A.


Counting Voters

YOUR "BUILDING BRIDGES" [EDITORIALS, April 26] stated: "Some of Mr. Patten's constituencies have 30 voters, others 200,000." Other than the predictable ire from Beijing, remarkably, there seems to have been no audible protest in Hong Kong (or elsewhere) at this manipulation in the eleventh hour before the handover.

Having been an unsuccessful electoral candidate himself, he well knows that such gerrymandering would neither be attempted nor tolerated in England. So it is inexplicable that he has been pleased to foist it on Hong Kong. There is no need for him to be a bull in the china shop.

Dr. S.L. Lim
Perth
Australia


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