Several firms on US Myanmar blacklist linked to Singapore
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Three companies with strong links to Singapore are among seven firms blacklisted by the United States under fresh sanctions against Myanmar after its deadly suppression of pro-democracy protests.
According to President George W. Bush's order the companies which are either based in or linked to Singapore are: Pavo Trading Pte Ltd, Air Bagan Holdings Pte Ltd and Htoo Wood Products Pte Ltd, which is also listed as being from Myanmar's main city, Yangon.
The sanctions were announced Friday and are designed to target organisations with ties to Myanmar's ruling junta in the hope it will pile more pressure on the regime.
"It's about time the US did something like this," said Dave Mathieson, a consultant on Myanmar to Human Rights Watch in Bangkok.
He said the sanctions "actually go after the money" of the junta, adding they also served as a "wake-up call" for Singapore.
Also named is Air Bagan Ltd of Myanmar, which last month made Singapore its second international destination. The airline's chairman, Tay Za, arrived on the first flight.
Tay Za has "very, very strong links to the junta," said Sean Turnell, an economics professor who specialises in Myanmar at Australia's Macquarie University.
Tay Za is not among 11 individuals named by Bush as senior regime officials in Myanmar who are also subject to the fresh sanctions.
The directory at a building in Singapore's central business district lists Air Bagan Holdings and the two other blacklisted Singapore-linked firms as operating from a suite on the 24th floor.
But the suite carries no sign and workers in neighbouring offices said they knew nothing about what type of company operates from there, although they have seen people coming and going on weekdays.
An opaque blue sticker covered the door and obscured the interior. Phone and email messages to Pavo Trading were not immediately returned.
"We can't really comment right now," said Zaw Nay Oo, Air Bagan's corporate affairs manager, who works from the airline's sales office in a city shopping plaza.
Government spokespersons in Singapore also could not be immediately reached for comment.
The website for Pavo Trading says it is a sister company of Htoo Group of Companies and was established in 1999.
"The company's main interest lies in export of timber and timber products from Myanmar," says the website.
It says the group's flagship company, Htoo Trading Co Ltd, is a logging firm established 17 years ago.
"Htoo Trading is run by Tay Za," said Debbie Stothard of the Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma, a human rights group.
Bush's executive order cuts off the designated officials and organisations -- and those acting on their behalf -- from the US financial system, the US Treasury Department said.
It means that "any assets these individuals and entities may have that are within US jurisdiction must be frozen, and US persons are prohibited from transacting or doing business with them," the department said.
Singapore is chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and has led regional criticism of the junta's crackdown last month, which killed at least 13 people. More than 3,000 were detained.
Observers say Singapore's tough words against the junta must be matched by economic action given the city-state's extensive links with the regime.
Human rights activists and other experts allege -- without providing direct evidence -- that junta funds have flowed into, or at least through Singapore, a regional financial centre.
Singapore strongly denies allegations that it allows banks based here to keep illicit funds on behalf of Myanmar's secretive generals.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told CNN television recently that the country does not take "dirty money" and does not condone money laundering.
The city-state was among the regional countries Bush praised Friday for their response to Myanmar's upheaval.
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Personally,i applaud this move against Singapore.
There's really nothing that ASEAN can do,based on the fact that its an useless Third World Organisation that Singapore has no reason to be in.Also,ASEAN(which should be called Association of Third World Nations) is soft and has no disciplinary altitude toward the members.
In Bold : Rubbish,dont believe Hsein Long's bullshit.The corrupt PAP allows dirty money to be stored in Singapore with a price of 20% cut. -
This fact helps to substantiate Dr. Chee Soon Juan's one-man peaceful placard protest to demand Singapore Government to come clean with the message " No deals No Gun to Burmish Junta".
He should not have been arrested. The law banning protest is anti-rule-of-law as without change there will be jungle law like supplying arms to junta to brutalize their people. -
let's hear what the parliment will say
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Huh...got evidence!
U Tay za, chairman of Bagan Air and CAAS CEO KC Lim toast at the launch of Air BaganÂ’s maiden flight to Singapore after its arrival at Changi International Airport on September 7. Pic: AFP -
Common sense will tell you that there are SG companies that do business with Burma and there are Burmese companies registered in SG to do business with Burma. Some are bona fide companies strictly commercial while others are proxies of junta and their relatives. Where money is concerned even Burmese will go against Burmese. Nothing unusal - its all human nature, never mind your religious belief or background. You see what I like about US is that they are brutally frank: every US currency note reminds you that: In (this dollar note) God We Trust.
Whether this gahmen has any commercial relationship is obvious. Where do we get granite when Indonesia decided not to sell us? -
In the Suharto Era, a certain government-linked company's MD was found to offer bribes to the Indonesian government. He was charged in court no doubt in UK but there was no commission of inquiry to look into whether this MD bribed the Indonesian government officers on his own or on proxy from his government-linked company.
If Singapore government wants to maintain its reputation it should not support drug lords or drug kings or government which uses the guns sold to them by government to brutalize their peaceful people like the monks.
A commission of inquiry should be set up to look into whether the government has links with such lords or criminals directly or indirectly. -
Let us all boycott Bagan Air
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go do a search before knee-jerk actions show how shallow some statements can be
the list had a Singapore company called International SOS as being 'linked to the Burmese Junta'
it's an emergency response organisation...
uhhh... it's proping up the Junta? -
I wonder ever since when was US happy with SG? Read some of their bloody contracts, some sanction SG like they do it to Iran, Iraq, etc.
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Surely Senior General Tan Shwe did not take a regular commercial flight into Singapore for his medical treatment ?Originally posted by the Bear:go do a search before knee-jerk actions show how shallow some statements can be
the list had a Singapore company called International SOS as being 'linked to the Burmese Junta'
it's an emergency response organisation...
uhhh... it's proping up the Junta?
Similarly, did the late PM Soe Win fly into Singapore by regular commercial flight to get his leukemia treatment in a Singapore hospital ?
If SOS is not present in Myanmar to prop up the Military Junta's medical condition, are they providing medical help to the general Myanmar population ?
PM LHL certainly made a case for himself and sounded generously humanitarian in his reply to a CNN interview for extending medical help to these junta hardliners.
Ironically, while showing a humanitarian face to the military despot in Myanmar, PM LHL remained muted in his humanitarian support towards Aung San Suu Kyi and the oppressed Myanmar Citizens. -
If the US did a Myanmar on the Singapore junta, I wonder if Singaporeans will blame the USA or the despots here. If that happens and the property and stock prices start crashing, will Singaporeans blame the US or the Singapore junta? We know that it will not affect people paying themselves millions from the public coffers... but when the sh!t hits the ceiling for the rest of the Singaporeans... who will they blame? Curious.Originally posted by ceecookie:"It's about time the US did something like this," said Dave Mathieson, a consultant on Myanmar to Human Rights Watch in Bangkok.
He said the sanctions "actually go after the money" of the junta, adding they also served as a "wake-up call" for Singapore. -
so, we're supposed to tell them to bugger off and die somewhere else?
sheesh! what planet are you on? -
Is that as far as your thinking/imagination leads you? *sigh*
That the only thing they can do is to go somewhere and die?
So what is it? You lack thinking skills or you lack imagination?
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seriously.. isn't that what they guy has told us to do?
not to allow the fella with leukemia to come here for treatment
isn't that telling the general to bugger off and die elsewhere?
NOW.. think about this...
if we were to deny a sick man treatment, we would be the same as the butchers, and we would lose a little bit more of our humanity...
and isn't the Burmese crackdown all about this? our humanity?Originally posted by AndrewPKYap:Is that as far as your thinking/imagination leads you? *sigh*
That the only thing they can do is to go somewhere and die?
So what is it? You lack thinking skills or you lack imagination? -
Maybe we should tell him to get his treatment at a hospital in Myanmar?Originally posted by the Bear:seriously.. isn't that what they guy has told us to do?
not to allow the fella with leukemia to come here for treatment
isn't that telling the general to bugger off and die elsewhere?
NOW.. think about this...
if we were to deny a sick man treatment, we would be the same as the butchers, and we would lose a little bit more of our humanity...
and isn't the Burmese crackdown all about this? our humanity?
He can then see for himself what sort of hospitals he has built for the people while putting the oil wealth of the country into his own pockets, thus enabling him to pay for treatment in Singapore. (I wonder if the Singapore government is using money from Singaporeans to treat him or using the money to treat him at a discount) -
uh huh.. why did they fly to singapore if they could?Originally posted by AndrewPKYap:Maybe we should tell him to get his treatment at a hospital in Myanmar?
He can then see for himself what sort of hospitals he has built for the people while putting the oil wealth of the country into his own pockets, thus enabling him to pay for treatment in Singapore. (I wonder if the Singapore government is using money from Singaporeans to treat him or using the money to treat him at a discount) -
Improve the hospitals in Myanmar if they cannot with the money that they stole... just like the annuity tax that the despots here are proposing... no money to pay annuity? Take less public money, scumbags...Originally posted by the Bear:uh huh.. why did they fly to singapore if they could? -
yah.. that's the thing we were trying to get them to do with engagement with the butchers...
like i said before.. it didn't work...
ASEAN was trying to change things without revolution which you guys have seen which will end with bloodshed...
and revolution didn't work either...
besides.. without hospitals at that time, what would you do? tell the dying general to bugger off and die somewhere else? -
Tell the general to stop taking public money, improve the hospitals in Myanmar to a standard where he can get treatment without having to go overseas (Mahathir did not have that problem) and yes, if he is not willing to improve the hospitals in Myanmar with the public money he takes, tell him don't go begging from other despots to help him.
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Frankly, if that chap has done the crime, he should not be hoping for any grace.
While the hippocratic oath provides for a tasty rebuttal, it is useless to quote as much when this chap is seeking treatment, but we know that hundreds of his countrymen have been ordered to their death by his peers. -
Singapore hopes that the sanctions against Burma fail.
Sorry, pro-democracy Burmese, try protesting again in twenty years time.
Singapore official dismisses need for Myanmar sanctions
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Southeast Asian nations should not impose economic sanctions on Myanmar despite the political upheaval there because such sanctions are not effective, Singapore's Second Minister for Finance Tharman Shanmugaratnam said on Tuesday.
A violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Myanmar last month sparked international outrage, inciting calls for action among Myanmar's neighbors.
But Shanmugaratnam said that satisfying as they might be, sanctions would not bring reconciliation.
"We don't think economic sanctions make sense, certainly not at this point," he said at a press briefing of finance ministers from key members of ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
"We should keep up external pressure, but the evidence so far has showed that economic sanctions have not worked in Myanmar."
The suppression of the Buddhist monk-led street protests in Myanmar last month killed 10 people, according to the military junta that rules Myanmar. Western governments say the toll was probably much higher.
The second finance minister expressed support for a visit to the country by U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari next month, aimed at jump-starting a dialogue between the government and the opposition. These efforts are a "key strategy," he said. -
of course it will not work, when some other despots are supporting them....
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and those despots know why it won't work, exactly why, but they have to continually fool the international community... to keep up appearances... and luckily we have Dr Chee Soon Juan to the rescue!
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Tharman must explain why sanctions didn't work and will not work.
...because there are pricks who don't support the sanction. -
see Cuba?Originally posted by googoomuck:Tharman must explain why sanctions didn't work and will not work.
...because there are pricks who don't support the sanction.