From
www.news.com.au
SIA shifts suspect directors
By ERIC ELLIS
26 July 2001
SINGAPORE Airlines has made a subtle but telling power shift to its
board of directors that seems designed to assuage regulatory concerns
about its bid to win Air New Zealand and Ansett Airlines.
As criticism mounts about the connections between Singapore's government
and the island's premier companies, as they diversify into more rigorous
regulatory environments, three directors with close government links
have quietly resigned.
Gone from the SIA board are Moses Lee, the permanent secretary of
Singapore s Health Ministry, Major-General Raymund Ng, the recent former
head of Singapore's Air Force, and former head of Singapore's secret
police Tjong Yik Min.
Their departure will go some way towards advancing Singapore's claims to
Canberra and Wellington that government and business are not connected
here, despite the ownership of strategic operations by government
investments companies.
The military man Major-General Ng and internal security apparatchik Mr
Tjong seem the most telling departures.
The executive president of Singapore Press Holdings, Singapore's
near-monopoly print media company, Mr Tjong is also the chairman of
Singapore's aviation regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority of
Singapore.
The CAAS has been a bidder to manage Sydney Airport and owns a stake in
the company that manages Auckland Airport. Sydney and Auckland are the
main hubs of Air New Zealand and Ansett, the two Singapore Airlines
targets.
Mr Tjong has been criticised by foreign analysts for sitting on both
boards simultaneously, given that SIA monopolises Singapore's aviation
sector.
Singapore Airlines public relations officer Innes Willox has denied Mr
Tjong had any conflict of interest but some analysts have argued there
would be very few matters before either board that would not affect the
other.
Mr Tjong is one of Singapore's more controversial figures, a former
schoolmate of Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and a long-time head
of the Internal Security Department, which has frequently used its
state-sanctioned powers of arrest and detention without trial to round
up local dissidents.
A career civil servant, he joined both the SIA and CAAS boards, as well
as that of SPH, without previous experience in aviation or publishing.
It is quite common in Singapore for civil servants and parliamentarians
to sit on the boards of big government-owned companies such as SIA and
Singapore Telecommunications, both now bidding for strategic Australian
assets.
The management and board of SIA is littered with ex-Singapore military
personnel. Air force chief Major-General Ng was also a director of the
aviation regulator.
However, as so-called Singapore Inc companies push offshore there is a
move under way on the island to open up the notoriously cosseted
business world.
[ 26 July 2001: Message edited by: Picard ]
[ 26 July 2001: Message edited by: Picard ]