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Chosun Ilbo, 23 March 2010 North Korea's worst concentration camp is a reeducation center where women who escaped to China are subjected to the most brutal treatment, NGO Good Friends said Monday. The Jeungsan Reeducation Center in South Pyongan Province has a reputation for cruelty and the saying goes that even healthy people leave as cripples. The facility was turned into a reeducation center after the regime revised the criminal law in 2004. Before the law was revised, North Korea had four kinds of detention centers -- reeducation, education, confinement and labor training camps in descending order of severity. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il himself is said to have turned the center into a kind of "Papillon" prison island, giving instructions that every prisoner's year there should feel like 10. The camp has since 1999 been used to detain female defectors. The North tightened controls for fear of regime collapse amid the famine of the 1990s, which sent many fleeing hunger and starvation. China regularly cooperated in the atrocity by sending refugees back to the North. Short of space at political camps, the regime started to put women in the Jeungsan camp. Hundreds of female inmates reportedly suffer malnutrition there, and two or three die every day. Their bodies are wrapped in plastic and buried in mass graves. One former inmate who was detained there in 2004 said that other inmates who saw mass graves with piles of human bones and bodies came away with permanent psychological scars. A former official of the Ministry of Public Security who defected said, "The Jeungsan Reeducation Center is notorious because many more inmates die there than at any other concentration camp due to the unbearably hard labor and malnutrition." Jeungsan consists of 10 divisions, each of which is made up of seven to 10 groups. Each group normally has 40 to 50 inmates. A relatively healthy inmate is chosen as a capo who controls other inmates under the supervision of security guards. Those caught attempting to escape or committing infractions there are not publicly executed as at other political prison camps but are tortured or killed out of sight. - Chosun Ilbo  Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent Temasek Holdings is fast becoming the "private Asian investment vehicle" which it aspires itself to be though it is funded in one way or another by Singapore taxpayers. After embarrassing flops in Australia (ABC learning), Thailand (Shin Corp) and USA (Merill Lynch), Temasek Holdings is now setting sights further on the mines in Africa and Mongolia. According to a Bloomberg report today, Temasek will working together with "strategic" partners to seek opportunities in Africa and Mongolia. Temasek's managing director of investments Nagi Hamiyeh told Bloomberg: "We’re fairly bullish about investing in mining. We are opportunistic and whenever we see opportunity, we will make sure we invest.” Temasek has indeed made many "opportunistic" investments in recent years under the charge of its CEO Ho Ching who is incidentally the wife of Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and daughter-in-law of PAP strongman Lee Kuan Yew. Ho graduated with a Bachelor in Engineering from the National University of Singapore and went on to obtain a Master's degree from Stanford University. On January 23, 2006, former Thai Prime Minister Thakshin Shinawatra's family sold its 49.6 percent stake in Shin Corp to nominees of Temasek Holdings, triggering massive protests from the Thais and precipitating a military coup eventually which led to his ouster. Fortune magazine remarked later in the year that Ho Ching had made "a spectacular misjudgment" in the purchase of Shin Corp shares. Since then, Shin shares have fallen 43% since the deal was signed. Between 2007 and 2008, Temasek Holdings paid some S$600 million dollars in Australia childcare group ABC Learning only to see it collapsed dramatically a year later. A charity Mission Australia ended up paying a token $1 each for several of the 29 ABC Learning centres owned by Temasek. Temasek's greatest "long-term" investment flop came from the sale of its entire stake in Bank of America less than two years after purchasing its subsidiary Merrill Lynch. David Faber from CNBC minced no words on Temasek's whooping US$4.6 billion loss: “A $4.6 billion loss on a $5.9 billion dollar investment. TPG lost $2 billion really quickly on Washington Mutual, but this one guys, is right up up there, as one of the worst investment during this period for one single investment fund.” (Watch the video here) Following a string of catastrophic losses, Ho was supposed to step down in February 2009 in favor of former BHP-Bilton CEO Chip Goodyear only to see the latter being squeezed out half a year later and Ho resuming her position due to "strategic differences". When quizzed by his own party MPs in Parliament on the exact reasons behind Goodyear's sudden departure, Finance Minister Tharman said that it would not serve any "strategic purpose" to reveal the truth. After suffering a 31 percent decline in its portfolio last year, Temasek is flexing its muscles for another "strategic long-term investment" again. Singaporeans better start praying hard that Temasek's latest African adventure did not end up becoming another "strategic flop" generating "negative wealth" for the national reserves.   Related articles: >> Temasek and our unanswered questions >> Temasek suffered heavy loss from sale of Chartered Semiconductor >> Singaporean worried about Temasek raising funds via placement of bonds >> Mystery of Temasek's succession plan >> Temasek's big blunder as BOA rebounds >> George Yeo to Dr Chee: Temasek has done well >> China’s Sovereign Fund earns $USD 10 billion dollars for ‘doing nothing’ by Eugene Yeo >> Temasek Outperforms? by Edmund Khor >> More accountability for Singapore’s SWFs by Fang Zhi Yuan  Read More →

By Hurr Riyahi In 1960, both the South Korean and Singapore economies were emerging out of the post  WWII turbulent 1950s. Singaporeans had an average income of US$450 about four times ahead of that of South Korea (US$110). In 2009, the average income of Singaporeans (US$34,760) remain higher than that of South Korea (US$21,530). However the gap has narrowed much closer and within a matter of time average incomes of South Koreans will exceed that of Singaporeans. That is because of the development path that South Korean economy took instead of the one charted for Singapore by PAP. In 1960, the gap between South Korean economy and Singapore economy was around US$320 billion. Today that gap has more than doubled to about US$750 billion. (Source: World Bank)  Singaporeans, who love to repeat the economic success story that PAP teach them, should spend a moment to look at the success story of South Koreans who were behind them but are now far ahead in the race. There are many similarities between the economic stories of Singapore and South Korea. Both economies embarked on a massive economic program between 1960s-1980s. They were both fondly referred to as the Asian Tigers along with a few other economies due to the rapid rate their economies were growing. Both Singapore and South Korea were together during late 1980s onwards were referred to as newly industrialized countries (NICs) to indicate they have evolved from being developing countries. However the start of the story for South Korea was more dismal than Singapore due to the devastation of WWII and subsequent Korean War. The Miracle on the Han River as described of South Korean economic success was constantly at risk due to the hostility of North Korea. Both South Korean and Singapore had the same long term economic vision initially. They both tried to grow by attracting foreign direct investments in labour intensive manufacturing induries by luring MNCs with cheap and efficient labour.  However as one can see from the chart earlier, a significant gap started to wedge between Singaporean economy and South Korean economy starting from the 1980s which only grew bigger at a fast rate also subsequently. South Korea managed its long term economic vision from the 1980s far better than how PAP did with Singapore economy. The South Korea story is not without mistakes. However what is important is that today South Korea is part of OECD which is recognised as the grouping for developed economies. Singapore is still not part of OECD and most economists who use OECD membership as an indicator still refuse to accept Singapore as a developed economy and instead refer to it as a newly industrialized economy. South Korea is also the current chair of the G-20 major economies and it will be the first country in Asia to host the G-20 summit in Seoul on November 2010. Singapore is also not a member of G-20. There is no single person or single economic strategy of South Korea that can explain its ability to start behind Singapore in 1960 and leap far ahead to where it is today. However one main fundamental difference between Singapore and South Korea is that the former is an autocracy while the latter is full democracy. There are numerous factors that promoted South Korea’s big leap forward and in each one can find that it will not have been possible if not for its full democracy. Singaporeans should go and read history of South Korea’s economy and see how their economic strategies were developed, private sector enterprise was promoted, labour markets were structured etc. As mentioned earlier South Korea did make tons of mistakes and it did pay heavily in the last fifty years but what one must look at is how it came out of it and where it is today. The reason why it was able to bounce back stronger and move forward better again will not have been possible if not for its full democracy. It was not one man’s decisions. It also was not one party’s decisions. It also wasn’t the decisions of civil servants. Singaporeans love mocking South Korea’s democracy and often symbolize it with labour strikes and riots. What they fail to realize is that the South Korea democracy is far beyond what their news channel show them and it has been a key factor behind South Korea leapfrogging Singapore’s economic success.  Read More →