TR EMERITUS

The Malaysian Insider, 10 January 2010 Arsonists failed to set fire to Taiping’s historic All Saints’ Church and the Convent School last night, making it the fifth church and first Christian school attack linked to the controversial ‘Allah’ ruling that has riled many Muslims. Police confirmed both incidents, saying Molotov cocktails were lobbed at the church and school but the petrol bombs did not explode. Chinese daily Nanyang Siang Pau also sent out a news alert reporting police confirmation that a Baptist church in Durian Daun, Malacca was splashed with black paint. The country’s first Anglican church is also the first outside Klang Valley to be attacked since Friday. The church in Jalan Taming Sari was built in 1886 and is considered one of Malaysia’s precious heritage sites with its humble timber facade. Church officials said the petrol bomb found at the convent school was probably meant for the St Louis Church next door. The convent school, renamed SMK Convent Taiping, started in 1899 but moved to its present location in Convent Lane in 1938. Perak police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Pahlawan Zulkifli Abdullah said that it was suspected that both cases were just acts of mischief by opportunists taking advantage of the other incidents of church attacks in Kuala Lumpur. “We suspect that the incidents have no link to the other attacks on churches regarding the Allah issue. These were probably just mischievous acts by opportunists. “However, we are not taking this matter lightly and we will be investigating both cases for arson. The perpetrators will be punished,” he said. In the incident at the All Saints Church, the caretaker of the premises lodged a report with the police upon discovering two broken bottles just outside the wall of the church at about 7.30am this morning. DCP Zulkifli said the caretaker had also discovered black marks on the wall, leading to the belief that it was a case of attempted arson. In the other incident, the security guard of SM Convent Taiping had found a similar broken bottle just outside the school premises. Police suspect that the bottle had been flung at the school at about 3.30am this morning. “In both incidents however, no damages were recorded. Our forensic experts are presently investigating to see if both were attempted arson cases,” said DCP Zulkifli, adding that so far, the police had no suspects. Meanwhile, he warned the public against repeating such attempts and said that the police would spare no mercy towards those involved in such criminal acts. “We are also heightening our patrols across the state at all churches and mosques. We will be keeping a close eye on the situation,” he said. Police have stepped up patols at most houses of worship in the country but appealed to church authorities to hire their own security guards due to a lack of policemen.   The heightened alert came after the Dec 31 High Court ruling that allowed Catholic weekly Herald to use “Allah” to describe the Christian God in its Bahasa Malaysia section. Muslim groups then organised protest for Friday when the church attacks began. The first and worst hit was the Metro Tabernacle in Desa Melawati which had its office gutted in the early hours of Friday. The government has given RM500,000 to rebuild the church, which is part of the Assemblies of God church. The Life Chapel in Section 17 Petaling Jaya suffered scorch marks in another attack, similar to that seen in the Lutheran Good Shepherd Church in the city’s old town quarter. Another Molotov cocktail attack failed at the Catholic Assumption Church in Jalan Templar in Petaling Jaya. Some churches cancelled services on Friday while others have started vigils to pray for safety and peace. The Metro Tabernacle church had its Sunday service at the MCA headquarters today.  Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent Ms Yenny Young, the widow of Mr Tong Kok Wai who died in double hit-and-run accident last month, has engaged the services of prominent criminal lawyer Subhas Anandan. Mr Tong was knocked down by a vehicle belonging to the Romanian embassy. The prime suspect Dr Silviu Ionescu has since returned to Romania and said he will not be returning to Singapore. Mr Subhas Anandan told The Sunday Times and he was doing pro bono and he "will work with his colleagues at KhattarWong to explore the possibility of securing compensation." He was quick to emphasize that diplomatic immunity could prove a 'complication' in this case as the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which both Singapore and Romania are party to, provides legal protection to a diplomatic mission and its members in a host country. In an earlier email interview with The Temasek Review, Ms Young said she had not ruled out suing the Romanian government for compensation. A staff from the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs contacted Ms Young this week to offer its condolences for the accident. However Ms Young had not received any offer of help from the Romanian embassy in Singapore yet. The accident sparked an outcry in Singapore prompting many to wonder if diplomatic immunity is an excuse for foreigners to be let off the hook for committing crimes in Singapore. An online petition set up to lobby the Romanian government to provide ex-gratias payment to the families of the victims has garnered more than 3,000 signatures so far. Despite all the evidence implicating him as the driver, Dr Silviu was allowed to leave Singapore three days after the accident. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not apply for a waiver of his diplomatic immunity either. Nearly a month after the accident, the Singapore police is still "investigating" the matter and the identity of the driver remains unknown. Dr Silviu had repeatedly denied that he caused the accident. He has since been recalled from his post in Singapore and the matter is now in the hands of Romania's Prosecutor Office. According to a report by Romanian online news daily Click!, the investigations can take "several months if not years" due to the bureaucratic red-tape involved. For the mourning Ms Young and her family, it will means a protracted court case which will well deplete their limited resources and time.   Copyright © 2009 – 2010 The Temasek Review (If you are going to reproduce this article on your blog or forum, please provide a link back to ours) Related articles: 1. Romanian court: Investigation of Dr Silviu Ionescu will take several years 2. Dr Silviu Ionescu whisked away to secret location by Romanian Foreign Intelligence Service 3. Dr Silviu Ionescu: I will not return to Singapore 4. Email interview with Yenny Young, wife of Mr Tong Kok Wai 5. Dr Silviu Ionescu: fact remains that I was not in the car at the time of the accident 6. Investigating or procrastinating: Dr Silviu Ionescu still holidaying in Romania 7. George Yeo on Romanian embassy car crash: What happened is “very bad” 8. Online petition calls on Romanian govt to make ex gratias payment 9. Dr Silviu Ionescu: I took cab to notify car theft 10. Eye witness saw driver quarreling with a young girl in the car 11. Dr Silviu Ionescu: I have no connection with the case 12. Dr Silviu Ionescu flagged taxi at Sungei Kadut 13. From Romania with love: The Great Singapore escape of Dr Silviu Ionescu 14. Singapore police has not ruled out Dr Silviu Ionescu as a suspect in its investigations 15. Romanian diplomat suspected to be driver of Audi in hit and run accident at Bukit Panjang  Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent Singapore's Government Investment Corp. (GIC) faces potential losses of more than SGD$1 billion dollars in another failed overseas investment, this time in an upscale apartment complex in New York - Stuyvesant Town. The sprawling Manhattan apartment complex known as Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town was acquired for $5.4 billion in 2006 by Tishman Speyer Properties and a unit of BlackRock Inc. According to a Wall Street Journal report in September 2009, Singapore's GIC owns a $575 million mezzanine loan backed by the property, and about $100 million to $200 million in equity which amounts to roughly SGD$1 billion dollars or more. On 8 January 2010, Tishman Speyer and BlackRock Inc released an official statement saying that "they wouldn’t make a full scheduled debt payment to senior lenders on Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village." (read report here) CWCapital, the special servicer acting on behalf of the lenders is expected to issue a notice of default over the payment which amounts to $16 million dollars. GIC risks having its entire investment wiped out unless it buys up more senior debt. As usual, GIC has declined to comment on the matter which was not reported in the Singapore media. Though GIC proclaimed itself to be a global investment management company established in 1981 to manage Singapore's foreign reserves",  its primary source of funds come from Singapore taxpayers. It is not a private equity company, but a sovereign wealth fund owned by the Ministry of Finance. The Chairman of GIC is a former Prime Minister of Singapore who currently holds the position of "Minister Mentor" - Lee Kuan Yew. His daughter-in-law Ho Ching heads the other sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings. His son is the present Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong. Still, the potential $1 billion loss pales in comparison to the losses it suffered in the fiscal year ended March 2009 - estimated at around $59 billion Singapore dollars by Wall Street Journal. (read article here) GIC is the world’s fourth largest sovereign fund in terms of money managed, according to Deutsche Bank, with high-profile investments in Western financial institutions like Citigroup and UBS. Though he is a lawyer by training and has little experience in the finance industry, MM Lee was appointed as a "special advisor" by Citigroup in 2006. He has since relinquished the position. Despite losing billions of dollars, MM Lee remains in charge of GIC and nobody knows its exact losses to this day. There is no opposition in Parliament to check on the ruling party to hold it accountable to the people. Singapore's Elected President is supposed to safeguard the nation's reserves. However when former President Ong Teng Cheong tried to find out the real figures, he was told by the Accountant General that it would take 52-man years to produce the list of assets held by the Government. In the corporate sector, CEOs who lost so as much money will probably be sacked immediately. In Singapore, nobody has stepped forward to assume responsibility for the losses. In a famous interview with Channel News Asia on 4 April 2007, MM Lee warned that the Singapore economy would be in jeopardy if it does not pay top dollar for top people. "So for the average family earning S$1,500-S$3,000, we are talking of astronomical figures but for people like me in government, to deal with the money which we have accumulated by the sweat of our brow over the last 40 years, you have to pay the market rate or the man will up stakes and join Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers or Goldman Sachs and you would have an incompetent man and you would have lost money by the billions...........If you are going to quarrel about S$46 million – up or down another S$10 to S$20 million – I say you don't have a sense of proportion." Singaporeans really have no sense of "proportion" of the losses suffered by their two sovereign wealth funds so far.  Read More →