Preview

Free Corruption Singapore

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
7367 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Free Corruption Singapore
A Dynamic Game of Risk Control:
A New Perspective on Singapore’s National Integrity System

By Tan Tay Keong

Corruption Control in Singapore

During the country’s formative years in the 1950s and 1960s, corruption was rampant in Singapore. Syndicated corruption was rampant among police officers, public health inspectors, customs officials, and school administrators. Corruption was a way of life in the city during the British colonial rule and the Japanese occupation.

In his Annual Report in 1950, the Commissioner of Police revealed a worsening of the corruption problem in the post-war period and that graft was rife in government departments in Singapore.” In the 1950s, the Anti-Corruption Branch (a section of the Criminal Investigation Department) was too weak to tackle the extensive bribery, extortion, and protection rackets. By the late fifties, corruption was such a scourge that the People’s Action Party (PAP) made stamping out graft a major tenet of its party platform, the white shirts of PAP candidates symbolizing the party’s commitment to clean government. The PAP won the 1959 general elections and has been in power in Singapore ever since. In his memoirs, long-time Prime Minister and now Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew recalled the widespread graft which infested the bureaucracy in the early years after Singapore’s independence:

Corruption used to be organized on a large scale in certain areas. In 1971 the CPIB [Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau] broke up a syndicate of over 250 mobile squad policemen who received payments ranging from S$5 to S$10 per month from lorry owners whose vehicles they recognized by the addresses painted on the side of the lorries. Those owners who refused to pay would be constantly harassed by having summonses issued against them.

Customs officers would receive bribes to speed up the checking of vehicles smuggling in prohibited goods. Personnel in the Central Supplies Office (the government’s



Bibliography: Alatas, Syed Hussein. Corruption and the Destiny of Asia, Selangor Darul Ehsan (Malaysia): Prentice Hall and Simon & Schuster, 1999. Carlo di Florio, Opacity in the World’s Capital Markets, PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2003. Hong Kong Legislative Council Secretariat, “Process of Appointment of Senior Members of Government in Selected Countries”, 2002: . Klitgaard, Robert. “Internal and External Corruption in the Philippines’ Tax System”, Case C15-86-674T, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1985. Lee Kuan Yew, From Third World to First: The Singapore Story: 1965-2000, Singapore: Times Media Private Limited, 2000. Quah, Jon S. T. “Administrative and Legal Measures for Combating Bureaucratic Corruption in Singapore”, Department of Political Science, University of Singapore, Occasional Paper No. 34, 1978. Rafique-Rahman, A. T. “Legal and Administrative Measures Against Bureaucratic Corruption in Asia”, in Ledivina V. Carino, ed. Bureaucratic Corruption in Asia: Causes, Consequences, and Controls, Queson City: JMC Press, 1986, pp. 147-52. Root, Hilton L. Small Countries, Big Lessons: Governance and the Rise of East Asia, New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Backman Michael and Charlotte Butle. “Corruption the business practice that dare not speak its name strategy”, Ch.1, Big in Asia; strategies for business success, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003…

    • 1070 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Seyf, A. 2001. Corruption and development: a study of conflict. Development in Practice 11: 597605.…

    • 2095 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    There are many unsolved problem in Tanzania , but the issue of upsurge of corruption is troubling. The notion of the fight against corruption in Tanzania can be traced from the colonial era whereby during the the colonial time several legislations was enacted to combat the corrupt practises which existed then. Among other things legislations enacted to combat corruption include the penal code of 1938[2] , the second peanl code of 1945 and prevention of corruption ordinance (PCO) of 1958…

    • 1567 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Frequently when individuals receive great power they tend to act on their own personal immoral needs, and abandon individuals they serve for. Nowadays corruption has been ingrained deeply within society. Corruption is a cancerous agent that once introduced, no matter the medicine or treatment given, it will spread and until it takes a firm hold.…

    • 144 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Bibliography: Ahmad N. (2002). Corruption and Government Regulations : An Empirical Analysis. The Bangladesh Development Studies , Vol. 28, No. 4 pp. 29-51.…

    • 1551 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Singapore Inc Case

    • 942 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Before Singapore began to attract foreign-investments, their first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew laid a foundation that circled around the importance of education, strong work-ethic and discipline. This focus was highlighted in three main pillars of efficient government, economic stability and a strong workforce in this case.…

    • 942 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    My research will be based on Political, Economic, and Social Organization of Singapore—an industrialist city-state. Even though Singapore 's history dates from the 11th century, the island was little known to the West until the 19th century. Singapore is one of the World 's largest ports, because the city of Singapore has become a major port, with trade exceeding that of Malaya 's, Malacca and Penang combined. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the advent of steamships launched an era of prosperity for Singapore as transit trade expanded throughout Southeast Asia (Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, 2010). Singapore is a very multicultural country, but education through social studies has brought the country into a social cohesive unit (Ho, 2009).…

    • 2130 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Lee, Kuan Yew. The Singapore Story: memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew. Singapore: Singapore Press Holdings, 2000.…

    • 1697 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Singapore MACRO environment

    • 3126 Words
    • 13 Pages

    Dominance of government-controlled companies exists in the local economy. However, in spite of its powerful position, the Singapore government has maintained a clean, corruption-free image. Conflicts within the leadership in Singapore are rare. The mode of decision making is by consensus, and the leadership style is collective.…

    • 3126 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Democracy in Singapore

    • 3487 Words
    • 14 Pages

    Bibliography: Singh, Bilveer. 2007. Politics and Governance in Singapore: An Introduction. Singapore: McGraw-Hill Education (Asia)…

    • 3487 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    –Hong Kong. Independent Commission Against Corruption, 《Annual report on the activities of the Independent Commission Against Corruption for 1980》(Hong Kong : The Commission,1980)…

    • 3407 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    singapore

    • 389 Words
    • 2 Pages

    During Lee Kuan Yew's term as prime minister from 1959 to 1990, his administration curbed unemployment, raised the standard of living and implemented a large-scale public housing programme. The country's economic infrastructure was developed, racial tension was eliminated and an independent national defence system was created. Singapore evolved from a developing nation to first world status towards the end of the 20th century.[2]…

    • 389 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    One area that has been identified to critically play a major role in the attempt to redeem the battered economies of Asia is graft and corruption. In fact, analysts and observers outside of Asia such as the United Nations (UN) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) affirmed that eliminating graft and corruption is one of the issues that Asian countries should address if they really mean business.…

    • 1194 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Graft and corruption in the Philippines has long been a topic of concern for those interested in improving the conditions in the area. The corruption of government officials and the failure of governmental leaders to use their position of power wisely has led to ongoing financial hardship throughout the nation and restricted its economic growth and cultural development.…

    • 2954 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    John Keynes

    • 6792 Words
    • 28 Pages

    References: Anti-Corruption Law (No. 55/2005/QH11) passed by the National Assembly on 29/11/2005 Asia Development Bank, 2011. Overview of Civil Society organisation: Viet Nam. BBC News, 2006. Vietnam Ministry hit by scandal. 4 April 2006. Bertelsmann Foundation, 2010. Transformation Index (BTI) 2010. http://www.bertelsmann-transformationindex.de/en/bti/country-reports/laendergutachten/asia-andoceania/vietnam/ CECODES, Embassy of Finland, 2008. ANTI-CORRUPTION IN VIETNAM: THE SITUATION AFTER TWO YEARS OF IMPLEMENTATION OF THE LAW http://www.finland.org.vn/public/download.aspx?ID=38961&G UID=%7B96721A6B-F87E-4B53-9342-5FDACC26B097%7D CECODES, the Viet Nam Fatherland Front (VFF), and UNDP Vietnam, 2011. The Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI). http://www.papi.vn/about-papi Chêne, M., 2008. Drafting a national anti-corruption strategy for Vietnam. U4 Expert Answer. http://www.u4.no/publications/drafting-a-national-anticorruption-strategy-for-vietnam/ DFID and Embassy of Finland, 2008. Forms of Engagement between State Agencies & Civil Society Organizations in Vietnam VUFONGO Resource Center, Embassy of Denmark, Embassy of Sweden and the World Bank in Vietnam, 2011. Recognizing and reducing corruption risks in Land Management in Vietnam. http://www.business-anticorruption.com/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/Recognizing_and_ Reducing_Corruption_Risks_in_Land-English.pdf Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), 2008. Borderlines. http://www.eia-international.org/borderlines-2 Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), 2011. Crossroads: The Illicit Timber Trace between Laos and Vietnam. http://www.redd-monitor.org/wordpress/wpcontent/uploads/2011/08/EIA-Crossroads-report-FINAL-low1.pdf Freedom House, 2010. Countries at the crossroads – Vietnam. http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=140&editio n=9&ccrpage=43&ccrcountry=206…

    • 6792 Words
    • 28 Pages
    Good Essays