July 23, 2001

Hit-and-run scapegoats in Burma.

By Eric Ellis

WHY take the rap when you kill someone if you can pay someone else to take it for you?

That's the advice doled out to Singapore's businessmen operating in Asia's pariah nation, Burma, in a new business guide book recently published by a respected Singapore diplomat and trade adviser.

The book, Myanmar On My Mind, by Matthew Sim, has been published by Times Publishing, a division of the Singapore government-connected Fraser and Neave group, a big Singapore beverage company with interests in Burma, or Myanmar, as it is known in the region.

The book makes stunning reading, particularly as its audience is a country that famously attributes much of its success to being the Asian economy least tolerant of corruption.

Singapore has strict laws governing corruption. One cabinet minister took his own life after being suspected of kickbacks, including corrupt practices, while abroad.

The Sim book recommends effective methods of bribing Burmese government officials, money-laundering, procuring prostitutes and avoiding prosecution in fatal traffic accidents.

The author was commercial secretary of Singapore's embassy in Rangoon from 1995 to 1997, where he helped make Singapore Burma's second biggest trading partner and investor.

Before arriving in Rangoon, Australian-educated Mr Sim was a career officer at the Singapore Government's Trade Development Board with the task of overseeing the promotion of Singapore's exportable services and products to the world.

He is now a lecturer in international business at a Singapore polytechnic.

Under the chapter heading, Committing Manslaughter When Driving, Mr Sim asks what an international businessman does when he has accidentally killed a pedestrian, before describing two ways of avoiding prosecution if Burmese throw themselves in front of a car.

Firstly, the international businessman could give the family of the deceased some money as compensation and dissuade them from pressing charges.

Secondly, he could pay a Myanmar citizen to take the blame by declaring that he was the driver in the fatal accident.

An international businessman should not make the mistake of trying to argue his case in a court of law when it comes to a fatal accident, even if he is in the right.

"He highly probable (sic) that he will spend time in jail regretting it. It is a sad and hard world. The facts of life can be ugly," it says.

Described by one local reviewer as a critical step in this knowledge-based economy, Mr Sim's guide seems to open a window into Singapore's pragmatic corporate practices in Burma.

In his book, Mr Sim also has a message for those battling Burma's notorious official corruption, which has helped make it Asia's most desperate country. His advice? Go along with it.

A little money goes a long way in greasing the wheels of productivity, he writes.

And Mr Sim pulls no PC punches when it comes to prostitution. "I have always said that women have their cosmetics while men have their money," he writes.

"With money, men who are old, fat and ugly can be instantaneously transformed into desirable creatures sought by young pretty women everywhere."

He then goes into considerable detail on discreet methods of obtaining paid sex.

Mr Sim also advises on effective ways of bribing. One important factor to keep in mind is that gifts (for VIPs) must be easily re-saleable for cash, and the amount should reflect their rank.