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Alexander Dumas's avatar

Asia Sentinel, to its credit, has been publishing quite a few articles on the matter of money-laundering into Singapore by "foreign nationals". We're told that somehow these crooks managed to bring in billions of Singapore dollars virtually undetected, that they bought huge landed properties and luxury jewelry undetected. That no one grassed them up. How is this possible in a near-totalitarian, one-party surveillance state as Singapore? That not even the Monetary Authority of Singapore, with its all-knowing boast, was caught unawares?

It's good to know the Singapore PAP autocratic regime is finally going to pull itself out of self-complacency and plug all the holes (good luck with that!) in its financial system to stop money-laundering, scamming and all associated nefarious activities related to money and wealth illegally gained or illegally transferred into Singapore real estate, bank accounts and others.

But to plug these holes, the Lee Hsien Loong regime must be completely honest with itself, for once, and say that these criminals were aided and abetted by Singapore locals in positions in organization that would facilitate such illegal movements of money. It must, at last, admit, for once, that Singapore, and Singaporeans, are not incorruptible. What has just happened does suggest structural weaknesses of Singapore society and the system of governance in Singapore, which is now fully exposed to criticisms as much as suggestions that the PAP state has failed in aspects of its financial system, that its reputation of being a regional financial hub is now underlined in red. Above all, the PAP state must ask how its financial surveillance authorities, such as MAS, singularly failed in its jurisdiction and who is to be held accountable for this severely embarrassing and monumental screw-up.

At the other end, no stone must be left unturned to find those culprits, locals and or foreigners, who helped these ten crooks in their criminal activities and then covered it all up. Also, is this activity the first in Singapore or have there been others, of whatever scale, that the PAP regime and its surveillance authorities have swept under the rug? We know the Singapore media is state-controlled, that the likes of SPH Holdings and their editors are clients of their state patrons, that freedom of the press in Singapore is as farcical as Singapore elections, its claims to being "democratic", and its pliant judicial system.

Action, not more mealy-mouth political propaganda by its ministers, must be at the forefront of getting to the kernel of truth -- now that Singapore has had a big kick in the groin in this matter, and be seen around the world as a haven for criminal activity and financial fraud. I suggest this is merely the tip of an iceberg. How big is the iceberg?

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Alexander Dumas's avatar

Yeah, you too, fella. Keep frabricating facts.

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