China wary of U.S. military moves in Asia-Pacific

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta is likely to face sharp questions when he arrives in Beijing for talks with China’s defense minister.

As Defense Secretary Leon Panetta visits Beijing this week, the U.S. is forging closer defense ties to countries near China and renewing its focus in the South Pacific.

September 16, 2012

Los Angeles Times (USA)

WASHINGTON — When a senior U.S. general met in Beijing recently with Lt. Gen. Cai Yingting, the deputy chief of China's armed forces, Cai forcefully objected to America's expanding military presence in Asia and the Pacific, describing it as an effort to encircle his country.

"Why are you containing us?" Cai demanded, according to a U.S. official who was present and described the incident in return for anonymity.

The U.S. general denied seeking to contain China, but it's easy to see why officials in Beijing might get that impression.

The Obama administration is forging closer defense ties to countries near China, including India, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia and Singapore; repositioning troops, planes and ships; and stepping up aid in the South Pacific to offset attention from Beijing.

Asean trading link goes live in September

Wednesday, Aug. 29 2012
JEREMY GRANT
SINGAPORE — Financial Times

A share-trading system linking key markets in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) is expected to go live next month after regulators approved the launch of a first stage of the project linking the Singapore and Malaysian bourses.

The project, known as the “Asean Trading Link,” is part of a vision by Asean policy makers to unite the capital markets of the 10-member bloc, which has an economy bigger than India’s.

Asean’s capital markets regulators have agreed on a “road map” for integration of the region’s capital markets by 2015. This would ultimately allow the creation of Asean “as an investable asset class,” according to the Singapore Exchange, one of the link’s main backers.

Singapore cops arrest Cambodian women working in nightspots

38 foreigners arrested in joint police-NEA operation

18 August 2012
Channel News Asia (Singapore)

SINGAPORE: The police have arrested 38 female foreigners for employment and immigration offences in a six-hour joint operation against errant entertainment outlets.

The suspects, aged between 17 and 34 years, are from China, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand.

Police said on Saturday that the operation started at about 10pm on Friday and involved 70 officers from the police and the National Environment Agency.

One Dispute Does Not Define Asean, China Ties

Phua Mei Pin - Straits Times | August 14, 2012

Singapore - Disputes between China and some Asean member countries over territories in the South China Sea do not define relations between Asean and China, said Singapore's Foreign Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam, Monday.

He also said it was in both their interests to strengthen cooperation, citing in particular the massive trade between them.

"The (territorial) claims are not the totality of Asean-China interactions, simply one part of many," he said.

China, for instance, is Asean's top trading partner, with total trade reaching US$230 billion in 2010. At the same time, Asean is China's third largest trading partner, he noted.

"It is clearly in Asean's and China's interests to maintain and strengthen cooperation for mutual benefit," he said in Parliament.

He was replying to questions about the regional grouping's unprecedented failure last month to issue a joint communique after the 45th Asean Ministerial Meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

នាយ កើតស្វាយ រាយការណ៏តាមហ្វេសប៊ុកមកថា៖ តោហ៊ា គ្រាន់បើហើយ

នាយ កើតស្វាយ រាយការណ៏តាមហ្វេសប៊ុកមកថា៖ តោហ៊ានិយាយឮក្រតៗ គ្រាន់ជាងមុន និងអាចអង្គុយ បានយូរ ជាងមុនតែមិនទាន់ បឺតក្បាល និងឲ្យទឹក មាន់បាននៅឡើយទេ។

Xok An

មន្រ្តីទីស្តីការ គណៈរដ្ឋមន្រ្តី បញ្ជាក់ពី ភាពល្អប្រសើរ នូវសុខភាពរបស់ លោកឧបនាយក រដ្ឋមន្រ្តី សុខ អាន

Friday, 20 July 2012
ដោយ៖ ស៊ន សុភក្រ្ត
DAP-News

សុខ អាន មានជំងឺ ក្រពះ និងលើសឈាម

ភ្នំពេញ៖ ក្រោយពីមាន ការរិះគន់ និងការបក ស្រាយខុសការពិត ផ្សេងៗគ្នា ទាក់ទងនឹង ស្ថានភាព ជំងឺរបស់ លោកឧបនាយករដ្ឋមន្រ្តី សុខ អាន រដ្ឋមន្រ្តី ទទួលបន្ទុក ទីស្តីការគណៈរដ្ឋមន្រ្តី តាមបណ្តាញ សារព័ត៌មាន និងតាមប្រព័ន្ធ ទំនាក់ទំនង សង្គមហៅថា ហ្វេសប៊ុក រួចមក មន្រ្តីទីស្តីការ គណៈរដ្ឋមន្រ្តី បានចេញមក អះអាងនិងបញ្ជាក់យ៉ាងច្បាស់ ពីភាពធូស្រាល នូវសុខភាព របស់លោក ឧបនាយករដ្ឋមន្រ្តី ជៀសវាងកុំឲ្យមាន ការភ័ន្តច្រឡំ និងការលើក ឡើងផ្តេសផ្តាស ពីជនអគតិ មួយចំនួន ។

លោក ស្វាយ ស៊ីថា រដ្ឋលេខាធិការ និងជាប្រធាន អង្គភាពព័ត៌មាន និងប្រតិកម្មរហ័ស របស់ទីស្តីគណៈរដ្ឋមន្ត្រី កាលពីថ្ងៃទី១៩កក្កដា ឆ្នាំ២០១២ បានបញ្ជាក់នៅ ក្នុងគេហទំព័រ ហ្វេសប៊ុក របស់លោកថា ឥឡូវលោកបាន ត្រឡប់មកធ្វើការវិញ ហើយក្រោយពេល ដែលជំងឺរបស់លោក បានជាសះស្បើយនោះ ។

លោកបានបញ្ជាក់ទៀតថា មុនពេលលោក ត្រឡប់មក ប្រទេសកម្ពុជាវិញ ក្រោយទៅសម្រាក ព្យាបាលជំងឺនៅ ប្រទេសសឹង្ហបុរី លោកបានជួបជាមួយ លោកឧបនាយករដ្ឋមន្ត្រី សុខ អាន ២ដង។

លោក ស្វាយ ស៊ីថា បានបន្តថា លោកឧបនាយករដ្ឋមន្ត្រី សុខ អាន មានសុខភាពល្អ ប្រសើរឡើងវិញហើយ ដោយអាចនិយាយបានឮជាងមុន និងអាចអង្គុយ បានយូរជាងមុន ។

Cambodia gambles on development

Jul 3, 2012
By Muhammad Cohen
Asia Times Online

One key motivation for both was to change their international reputations. To get what they wanted, both countries decided to give foreign investors a lot of what they demanded. Both allow full foreign ownership of casinos, lengthy lease and license terms, and low gaming taxes, compared with nearly 40% in Macau.

PHNOM PENH and MACAU - Since its casino resorts opened in 2010, Singapore has stood out as a shining example for global gaming companies. Everyone wants to imitate its success.

But few places can match Singapore as a destination for international tourism and investment. Rather than trying to copy the Lion City, many aspiring gaming centers would do well to consider the Naga alternative, based on the casino in Cambodia.

Singapore's example has been compelling. The country held an open tender for its two casino licenses starting in 2005, inspiring a fierce competition between most of the world's leading gaming companies.

Sea row won’t make agenda [: Duck Shot]

Cambodia’s Defence Minister Tea Banh (left) and his Singaporean counterpart Ng Eng Hen walk past an honour guard yesterday prior to a meeting in Phnom Penh. Photo by Pha Lina

Thursday, 19 April 2012
Vong Sokheng
The Phnom Penh Post

Following a closed-door meeting, the defence ministers of Cambodia and Singapore announced yesterday that the controversial South China Sea dispute would not be placed on the agenda at next week’s ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting.

Speaking to reporters after the session with his Singaporean counterpart, Cambodian Defence Minister Tea Banh recognised the importance of resolving the prickly dispute, describing it as a “key issue”, but said that it would not be a topic of discussion at the defence leaders’ summit, which begins next Tuesday in Siem Reap.

“The defence ministers of ASEAN have no obligation to raise [the issue] for discussion,” Tea Banh said.

Singaporean Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen looked to other nations to take primary responsibility for resolving the dispute, which he said was “complex” and required “patience”.

[Singapore] Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen visits Cambodia

Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen (left) calling on Cambodian Prime Minister His Excellency Hun Sen (right) at the Cambodian Cabinet Office of Council of Ministers.

18 April 2012
Channel News Asia

SINGAPORE: Singapore Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen is in Cambodia for an introductory visit.

He called on Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Dr Ng also met his Cambodian counterpart General Tea Banh.

Both men discussed a wide range of defence and security issues and reaffirmed the warm and friendly bilateral defence relationship between Cambodia and Singapore.

ASEAN must continue to pay attention to community-building efforts: Shanmugam

Singapore's Foreign Minister K Shanmugam

01 April 2012
By S Ramesh
Channel News Asia (Singapore)

SINGAPORE: Singapore's Foreign Minister, K Shanmugam, said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) must continue to pay strong attention to community-building efforts.

He said this in an email interview with Channel NewsAsia, ahead of the ASEAN Summit in Cambodia, which starts on Tuesday.

When ASEAN leaders gather in Cambodia for their 20th summit, achieving the Community Vision by 2015 will be very much on their minds.

Mr Shanmugam, wants to see discussions focused on implementing economic agreements and speeding up integration, particularly for more recent initiatives like the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity (MPAC).

Ad Campaign of the Day: Promoting Secret Sex in Singapore [-No, we are not promoting this for Cambodia since people cannot afford cars yet!]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leH7z2HuDYU

Feb 24, 2012
John Metcalfe
TheAtlanticCities.com

Singapore has a problem: It's a tiny nation with a gargantuan sexual appetite.

With 5.4 million people packed onto an island measuring just 270 square miles, Singapore ranks as the third-densest country on earth. All that seething humanity, bumping flesh on the sidewalks and stacked like warm cordwood in skyscrapers, makes it difficult for a loving couple to just wander off and find someplace to... you know, make more Singaporeans.

Inspired by that lack of privacy, one condom company has built a novel, naughty advertising campaign. “Discover a range of products that help you get better at getting away with it,” is the new slogan of the Okamoto Freedom Project, put on by Japanese condom manufacturer Okamoto – and boy, do the residents of this 100 percent urban nation seem to love it.

View: Singapore Has the Cleanest Gov’t Money Can Buy

Illustration by Bloomberg View

Jan 24, 2012
By the Editors
Bloomberg Editorials

Take Cambodia, which ranked at the bottom of a recent regional Transparency International corruption survey. Its government workers pad their paltry, sporadic pay by demanding bribes for everything from birth certificates to school grades. One oft-cited International Monetary Fund working paper argues that paying civil servants twice the wages of manufacturing workers is associated with a reduction in corruption. In Cambodia, civil servants make less than half what a garment worker makes.

Singapore’s prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, isn’t often taken publicly to task. But when you make S$3.1 million ($2.4 million) annually to run a country, people tend to expect results. When they don’t get them, the aggrieved masses turn to that lowest-of-common-denominator gripes: Hey, how much are we paying this guy?

Lots compared with, say, Barack Obama, who as U.S. president gets $400,000 a year. Lee’s compensation will fall 36 percent, and that of Singapore’s president will drop 51 percent, to S$1.54 million. The cuts were based on the recommendations of an advisory committee formed three weeks after last May’s elections, when opposition party candidates made hay with the pay issue -- and the ruling People’s Action Party won with the narrowest margin since independence in 1965.

Such still-fat paychecks may give pause. Yet let’s applaud Singapore for what it’s trying to achieve by paying top salaries to leaders and ministers: attracting the best and brightest to public service and reducing the temptation to engage in graft. Done properly, such initiatives can make government more efficient and economies more vibrant. Transparency International has ranked Singapore among the world’s top five least-corrupt governments since 2001, and according to Worldwide Governance Indicators, an index supported by the World Bank, it has also been among the best governed.

Police question filmmaker again over political forum

Jan 21, 2012
Today Online (Singapore)

SINGAPORE - Filmmaker Martyn See was again questioned by the police yesterday about a forum held last year by political group Singaporeans For Democracy (SFD).

The Sept 24 forum, which the SFP described as a private event, featured Malaysian Member of Parliament (MP) Tian Chua, Cambodian MP Mu Sochua, ex-Internal Security Act detainee Vincent Cheng and blogger Alex Au.

In a statement yesterday, SFD executive director James Gomez claimed that Mr See was told by a police officer that getting a foreigner to talk at a private forum may tantamount to an offence if it is done without any clearance. Said Dr Gomez: "During the first round of questioning, the investigations focused on establishing whether inviting participants through a Facebook events page and email for a private forum was a public activity.

Singapore Ministers Face Steep Pay Cuts

Lee Hsien Loong

1/4/2012

(RTTNews) - Ministers and other lawmakers in Singapore face massive pay cuts in line with recommendations made by a committee established last year to review political salaries in wake of public anger over their high salaries.

As per the recommendations of the government-appointed Committee to Review Ministerial Salaries, the prime minister's annual salary is to be slashed by 36% and the president's by 51%. As well, the annual salaries of new ministers would be slashed by 31% to S$1.1 million from S$1.58 million, and the yearly wages of other elected lawmakers by 3% to S$192,500.

Despite the 36% cut, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong would be paid S$2.2 million ($1.7m) annually, which would still make him one of the highest paid political leaders in the world. President Tony Tan may see his annual salary reduced to S$1.5 million if the 51% cut is enforced.

Who defines ‘democracy’?

“We define democracy, not sitting down, but standing up!” - Mu Sochua

October 18, 2011
By Teo Soh Lung
The Online Citizen

It was interesting to watch the video put up by TOC on the closed door forum organised by Singaporeans for Democracy on 24 September 2011 at Public House. The topic was ‘LKY: liberal democracy will do us in. Will it?’

The forum featured among others, eminent Cambodian Opposition MP, Ms Mu Sochua. The forum was supposed to have been held at a training room at The Verge but had to shift to the Public House when the landlord disallowed the organisers to hold the event there.

I find Ms Socha’s conversation with the audience most fascinating. She could not understand why the audience of so called “democrats” failed to stay at the Verge to demand for their rights but instead moved peacefully to Public House. One by one, they started to find reasons as to why they did so. One said if they stayed, it would have been an illegal assembly. Another added that they would have been arrested. Yet another proudly announced that the law states that even one person can constitute an illegal assembly.

S'pore, Cambodia in training tie-up [-Will the training stop Hun Xen's sponsored land-grabbings and evictions?]

08 September 2011
By Ambiga Raju
Channel News Asia (Singapore)

SINGAPORE: Singapore has been conducting a multi-agency training programme for Cambodian government officials in land management, urban planning and building control.

The programme, which began last month in Phnom Penh, is the first such initiative between the two countries and is supported by Temasek Foundation with S$265,000.

It has introduced Singapore's land management and urban planning systems to about 140 Cambodian officials.

They will then share what they have learnt with about 1,000 officials across provinces and municipalities in Cambodia.

Singapore cultivates India as counter-weight to China in South-East Asia (Wikileaks)

Tue, 09/06/2011
Submitted by Prashant Duggal
RTN (India)

Singapore consciously cultivates its relationship with India as a way to counter-balance China's growing influence in South East Asia, according to a cable written by American ambassador to the city-state, Franklin Lavin in 2004.

According to Lavin's reading of the country's new "India fever", Singapore does not want China to dominate South East Asia and would rather have India as a counter-force to balance out the dragon.

For this purpose, Singapore is taking several actions to deepen its economic, military and political ties to India.

"The Government of Singapore is sending a concerted message that India is both wanted and needed in Southeast Asia to balance the rising influence of China and to further expand regional economic prosperity.

Pirates steal sand from Cambodia

Editor's Note: The following text is from GlobalPost, which provides excellent coverage of world news – important, moving and just odd.

August 24th, 2011

By Patrick Winn, GlobalPost

Where once there was seabed, hotels, a casino and airport rise off Singapore's coast.

But as the tiny island city-state dumps sand on its shores, expanding its territory already by one-fifth, there are increasing claims that Singapore is illegally buying up soil through corrupt channels in Cambodia.

The latest to push these claims is the Associated Press, which reports that foreign vessels were spotted dredging up Cambodian sand for apparent export. The dredging, largely banned in 2009 for eating up Cambodian territory, appears to persist.

An AP reporter tracked or spotted vessels registered in Hong Kong, Vietnam and China dredging in Cambodia. Locals in one coastal province "joked about going to Singapore and planting a Cambodian flag there," according to the report.

Sand pirates in Cambodia

Tons of sand illegally dredged out to expand wealthier nations' coastlines

August 23, 2011
Patrick Winn
Global Post

Where once there was seabed, hotels, a casino and airport rise off Singapore's coast.

But as the tiny island city-state dumps sand on its shores, expanding its territory already by one-fifth, there are increasing claims that Singapore is illegally buying up soil through corrupt channels in Cambodia.

The latest to push these claims is the Associated Press, which reports that foreign vessels were spotted dredging up Cambodian sand for apparent export. The dredging, largely banned in 2009 for eating up Cambodian territory, appears to persist.

An AP reporter tracked or spotted vessels registered in Hong Kong, Vietnam and China dredging in Cambodia. Locals in one coastal province "joked about going to Singapore and planting a Cambodian flag there," according to the report.

Sand for sale; environment ravaged

CPP land thief and now sand thief Ly Yong Phat (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

Saturday, Aug. 20, 2011
By DENIS D. GRAY
Associated Press

KOH KONG, Cambodia -- Round a bend in Cambodia's Tatai River and the virtual silence of a tropical idyll turns suddenly into an industrial nightmare.

Lush jungle hills give way to a flotilla of dredgers operating 24 hours a day, scooping up sand and piling it onto ocean-bound barges. The churned-up waters and fuel discharges, villagers say, have decimated the fish so vital to their livelihoods. Riverbanks are beginning to collapse, and the din and pollution are killing a promising ecotourism industry.

What is bad news for the poor, remote Tatai community is great tidings for Singapore, the wealthy city-state that is expanding its territory by reclaiming land from the sea. Sand from nearby countries is the prime landfill and also essential building material for Singapore's spectacular skyline.

As more countries ban its export to curb environmental damage - entire Indonesian islands have been all but wiped off the map - suppliers to Singapore scour the region for what still can be obtained, legally or not. Cambodia, a poor country where corruption is rife and laws are often flouted, is now the No. 1 source.

Survey: Singapore ruling party losing credibility

Jul 09, 2011

“A lot of the authoritarian atmosphere is the result of that one man’s mentality.”

SINGAPORE (AP) — Fewer Singaporeans consider the ruling People’s Action Party to be credible after the party’s worst election results since independence, a survey showed Friday.

About 73 percent of those polled agreed or strongly agreed that the PAP is a credible party, down from 87 percent in 2006, according to a survey by the Institute of Policy Studies, a think-tank within the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.

“The political consciousness of Singaporeans has changed very radically,” said Chua Beng Huat, a sociology professor at NUS. “The PAP will probably continue to be the dominant party for the next twenty years, but we’re moving toward a more normal, democratic culture.”