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Singapore is responding
Banyan’s column in your July 29 issue makes a serious allegation: that Singapore’s Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) to be independent because he reports to the prime minister, who appoints his boss. This makes the process wrong. The CPIB the prime minister’s permission is not required for his investigations. They asked for approval before starting a formal investigation into the Minister of Transport, S. Iswaran, because a cabinet minister was involved. The prime minister agreed within a day of receiving the director CPIBreport.
The Prime Minister of Singapore has never been banned CPIB from anyone to check. But even if the Prime Minister does not agree CPIB investigations, under the constitution said the director of the CPIB he can continue with the investigations if he gets the approval of the president. This is a constitutional provision unique among Westminster-style democracies. There are also safeguards for the appointment or removal of a director CPIB which requires the approval of the president.
Regarding two ministers renting state-owned bungalows on Ridout Road, it was the Prime Minister himself who asked the CPIB to investigate the matter. He conducted a thorough investigation and found no evidence of crime or corruption. Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) agreed with the decision.
The leader of the opposition accepted the CPIB‘the discovery, saying in Parliament that he did not believe that anyone was making an accusation that the ministers were corrupt. When the CPIB complete his investigation of Mr. Iswaran, his findings will be submitted to the AGC, who will decide what to do with them. There is such a thing as CPIBBecause of his fearsome reputation for thoroughness, many Singaporeans do not doubt his ability to see any corruption case to its logical conclusion.
Here’s why The Economistcost that just because the CPIB reporting to the prime minister he cannot be independent strikes many Singaporeans as highly offensive and uninformed. Yes The Economist suggest that the head of Scotland Yard is not independent because he is appointed on the advice of the Home Secretary, in consultation with the mayor of London?
If indeed the CPIB how independent is The Economist wondering, how is it possible that Singapore has consistently ranked high in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index. In the latest 2022 index, Singapore was ranked fifth, behind only three Nordic countries and New Zealand, and ahead of all other Asian countries. Great Britain was ranked 18th.
The prime minister, as well as his successor, Lawrence Wong, the deputy prime minister, are as determined as ever to thoroughly investigate any case of corruption, whoever is involved. and obviously. Singaporeans and foreign investors can be sure of this.
TK Lim
High Commissioner of Singapore
London
Still in the office
The picture of working from home as a matter of different preferences and choices between companies and employees is fundamentally false (“The WFH presentation”, July 15). The evidence provided by online surveys, such as those mentioned in your article, represent the views and attitudes of employees who have already been digitized and are mostly in advanced and well-connected urban areas around the world.
On the other hand, where administrative data allows a more precise and detailed picture, it is immediately obvious that many companies and employees never had a choice whether to work from home or not no.
Limited broadband access, lack of management capabilities and the small size of many companies prevent most workers and companies from even considering working from home as a possibility, let alone fight for it. It would be healthy for management and public policy debates to keep a foot in the reality of most workers and employers. This reality is often a world away from the digital environment of the San Francisco Bay Area, where some scholars have declared the end of the workplace far too soon.
Professor Riccardo Crescenzi
Dr. David Rigo
Department of Geography
London School of Economics
Secretary of State
Your review of Calder Walton’s excellent book, “Spies”, confused a quote by Henry Stimson (“Hi, spy”, July 22). As I note in the forthcoming history of American intelligence, “Vigilance Is Not Enough”, Stimson did not say in 1929 that the reason for closing down America’s code-breaking agency was that “no gentlemen ‘reading each other’s mail’. He wrote that line 19 years later in his memoirs. However, his co-author, McGeorge Bundy, said he echoed Stimson’s views at the time.
Mark Lowenthal
Nitze International School of Advanced Studies
washington, DC
The well established party
Lexington’s comment that Abraham Lincoln was the only third-party presidential candidate needs clarification (July 22). By the time Lincoln was elected in 1860 the Republicans could hardly be called a third party because they had replaced the Whig Party, which dissolved in 1856, as the dominant party. the opposition of the Democrats. Although the Know Nothing party also opposed the Democrats, the Republicans consolidated their position by gaining a majority in the House of Representatives in 1858. Furthermore, in the presidential election of 1856 the the first presidential candidate of the Republicans, John Fremont, in second place with 33% of the vote.
Vincent Meng
Exton, Pennsylvania
The more things change…
I read your Technology Quarterly on in vitro fertilization (July 22) with great interest. I went through it IVF in 1989 and successfully transferred a frozen embryo at a clinic in Virginia. Reading your articles through tears, brought back all the vivid memories of hope, anticipation, pain and anguish. IVF can cause cycles. It was a roller coaster of emotions, time and money. Insurance did not cover any of the procedures at that time.
I was hoping to read how long IVF has progressed in recent years, but no. The process is still too expensive and not much has changed except that some clinics are willing to improve their skills in trying to give hope and expensive unproven supplements to women seeking their help. It is a shame to hear that today’s snake oil salesmen exist IVF.
Bonnie McIntyre
Billings, Montana
Market logic
Reading Buttonwood’s column on the mystery of gold prices (July 15) reminded me of a comment often attributed to Clem Sunter, a futurist, when he worked in the gold department at Anglo American: “The price of gold will go up , and the price of gold will go down, but not necessarily in that order.”
Michael Acott
Cape Town
