Trade wars Inside the mind of Kim Jong Un

Mahathir’s unfinished business

MCI(P) 096/08/2017 FebruaryApril - May - MCI(P)March 2018 096/08/2017 2018 INDEPENDENT • INSIDER • INSIGHTS ON ASIA

ASIANS TO WATCH They are the new stars in business, in public and social sectors and the arts and sports; they are changing lives for the better; they are making their presence felt on the world stage. And there’s the promise of more to come. These are the 50 Asians to watch this year, and beyond.

Letter from the Editor-in-Chief People who are redefining our lives

Dear Readers,

he world is changing, and so too are the people who are shaping it. Entrepreneurs, technopreneurs, and other young business leaders chasing that elusive first million Thave been disrupting industries across the world, and reshaping societies and lives in the process. Many are new faces; some older ones have reinvented themselves. Similarly, in other spheres – from sports to the arts to politics – some new players are emerging, seeking to forge ahead and make a difference, for themselves, as well as their communities. We asked our correspondents in our bureaus across Asia to identify and profile the 50 people in Asia that you need to know, those you should watch this year, and beyond. Read about them in our special report this issue, helmed by our Deputy Foreign Editor Tan Dawn Wei. Meanwhile, the coming weeks could mark some of the most defining moments of the year. Pyongyang’s game plan in agreeing to talks with South Korea, and thereafter with the United States, remains a bit of a mystery. Nor is it clear that its professed commitment to denuclearisation is more than a ploy. In Seoul, ST South Korea Correspondent Chang May Choon has been following North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s moves since he began his peace overtures earlier this year. Through conversations with several observers, she tries to unravel what could be on his mind as he prepares for his summits with South Korean leader Moon Jae In, and later, possibly with US President Donald Trump, in her report. In Malaysia, the long-awaited elections have been called on May 9. Ahead of the polls, our Executive Editor Sumiko Tan met Malaysia’s former prime minister and current opposition chief Mahathir Mohamad over lunch. Read her interview on what drives him, and how he retains his youthful vigour, and follow our coverage of the upcoming elections on straitstimes.com. Closer to home, one of the most significant developments has been regional company Grab taking over American rival Uber’s South-east Asian business. ST Transport Correspondent Christopher Tan shares his view on the upcoming disruption. Also, an eight-day public hearing by the Select Committee on deliberate online falsehoods drew to a close in Singapore, after hearing from around 70 speakers. Read our report on highlights of the discussions and likely recommendations that could emerge. I hope you enjoy this issue of the ST Asia Report, which showcases some of the best work of our growing network of seasoned correspondents around Asia and the world. Our aim is to give you independent, insider insights into the news from Asia, which we have been covering from Singapore since 1845. To enjoy more ST premium content, do sign up for a two-week free trial at readsph. com/starweekly.

Best regards

Warren Fernandez Editor-in-Chief The Straits Times & SPH’s English, Malay and Tamil Media Group

1 Trade wars Inside the mind of Kim Jong Un

Mahathir’s unfinished business

MCI(P) 096/08/2017 FebruaryApril - May - MCI(P)March 2018 096/08/2017 2018 INDEPENDENT • INSIDER • INSIGHTS ON ASIA Contents ASIANS TO WATCH They are the new stars in business, in public and social sectors and the arts and sports; they are changing lives for the better; they are making their presence felt on the world stage. And there’s the promise of more to come. These are 3 Asia’s rising stars the 50 Asians to watch this year, and beyond.

Asia Report 10 Kim Jong Un – a master chess player in diplomacy? April – May 2018 11 Men to Watch Warren Fernandez Editor-in-Chief, The Straits Times 13 Grab-Uber: A deal which will disrupt more than the ride-hailing & SPH’s English, Malay and Tamil industry Media (EMTM) Group Sumiko Tan 15 Stage set for prolonged US-China battle on trade Managing Editor, EMTM & Executive Editor, The Straits Times 18 All the President’s men Tan Ooi Boon Senior Vice-President Helping citizens to keep it real online & (Business Development), EMTM 20 Gambits threaten rule-based order Paul Jacob Associate Editor, The Straits Times Eugene Leow 21 Keeping it real in Singapore Head, Digital Strategy, EMTM Irene Ngoo 24 Should tech companies be more tightly regulated? Vice-President (Editorial Projects Unit) EMTM 26 My relationship with Facebook: It’s complicated Zakir Hussain Foreign Editor 28 Asia’s growth hubs Shefali Rekhi Asia News Network Editor, The Straits Times & 31 Mahathir’s unfinished business Editor, ST Asia Report 34 Yen for daikou Copy Desk Jack Hee 36 Asean’s philanthropists Chief Sub-editor, The Straits Times

Design Peter Williams Head, Visual, EMTM & Art Editor, The Straits Times Chng Choon Hiong Cover photo illustration Marlone Rubio Executive Artist Anil Kumar Graphic Artist

Circulation Eric Ng Head, Circulation Marketing Tommy Ong Senior Manager (Circulation) We welcome your feedback and views Letters can be sent to Reach out to us: [email protected] For advertising enquiries: Sharon Lim Ling Senior Manager Published by (Business Development) The Straits Times, Singapore Press Holdings (SPH)

[email protected] Printed by Circulation & subscription: Markono Print Media Pte Ltd Delia Gan Executive All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or [email protected] in part without written permission from the publisher. 2 Asia’s rising stars

the Japanese government clerk who beat Faye, with the help of her parents to Tan Dawn the rain, winds and defending champion combat child trafficking and sexual Wei Kenyan Geoffrey Kirui to win the exploitation. Deputy Foreign Boston Marathon on April 16 this year. In the last five years, the teen activist Editor With no sponsor and no coach to has grown her non-profit organisation, back him up, the 31-year-old amateur opening its first shelter for girls her age runner became the first Asian to win in 2016 and launching rehabilitation and Across the continent, the coveted race since South Korea’s vocational training programmes. Lee Bong Ju in 2001. Her efforts earned her a spot in the disruptors and Disrupting order on this side of the top 3 of the International Children’s entrepreneurs are world is Anthony Tan, the 34-year-old Peace Prize final last November. redefining the way co-founder of Grab. The ride-hailing While all eyes will now be on what application company was the brainchild North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will we live of this Malaysian scion of the Tan Chong do and say at the upcoming talks with motoring empire. US President Donald Trump, Mr Kim’s Acting on the complaints of a friend younger sister Yo Jong should take some he number set was 50, but about the unpleasant experiences of credit for getting the two foes to the arriving at this list of Asians riding taxis in Malaysia, Mr Tan decided negotiating table. to watch was no easy task. to develop a taxi-booking mobile app The elusive 30-year-old was Across the continent, as his Harvard Business School project. dispatched as a crucial envoy by her there is certainly no In 2012, he launched the My Teksi brother to the Pyeongchang Winter Tshortage of disruptors and entrepreneurs app in Malaysia, which, in the six years Olympics, where she was warmly redefining the way we pay, buy or since, has grown into a US$6 billion welcomed, bearing a message of travel; nor sportsmen and sportswomen (S$7.8 billion) business renamed Grab, reconciliation. defying pundits, gaining upset wins and serving more than 150 cities in eight North Korean watchers say she is setting records. countries in the region. now the most powerful woman in the On the political scene, fresh faces In March, it took over Uber’s South- secretive state, and will no doubt shape have emerged on the world stage, as east Asia operations, expanding into the significant policies of her country in have old hands given greater power. food delivery, mobile payments and the critical days to come. Social activism thrives in the region other forms of transport. There’s no question that the world despite iron-fisted authorities. At 15, Indonesian Faye Simanjuntak will be hearing more of Ms Kim and Innovation, derring-do and conviction is already battling issues that many the rest of the Asians on this list, as they are characteristics that streak across shudder to think about. When she was take their endeavours to greater heights. these 50 names, such as Yuki Kawauchi, 11, she started a help group, Rumah Watch this space.

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BUSINESS four days by sea to Jakarta as he could Budi Gunadi Sadikin, 53 not afford a plane ticket. Indonesian Pres- Anthony Tan, 36 To cover the cost of his study, he ident Joko Widodo He is the co-found- worked long hours at an Internet cafe. recently appointed er and CEO of Grab, He later worked as a game developer Mr Budi as chief and the grandson of and software developer, before starting executive of state the founder of Tan Tokopedia in 2009. The start-up was an mining holding com- Chong Motor, one of online marketplace that allowed small pany Inalum - which Malaysia’s largest au- owns coal, nickel tomobile distributors. retailers and large brands to sell to local consumers. mines and aluminium He started a taxi- mines - and set him on major acquisi- hailing app called In 2014, it received a US$100 million investment from Softbank and Sequoia tion drives. MyTeksi in Kuala Lumpur which evolved The ex-banker has held various senior Capital. Last year, it got a US$1.1 into Grab. It moved to Singapore in 2014 positions in foreign and domestic banks. billion injection from Alibaba, the first after receiving US$10 million (S$13.2 He was CEO of Bank Mandiri, which was Indonesian start-up investment by Mr million) in funding from Vertex Ventures. then the country’s largest bank. Jack Ma. It also expanded to other countries such Mr Budi is now negotiating to acquire as the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia a majority stake in Freeport Indonesia, and Vietnam. Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, 47 which operates the Grasberg mine, the Last year, he secured US$2.5 billion She is South-east world’s largest gold mine. If he succeeds, from Softbank, Didi Chuxing and Asia’s first self-made his company will be South-east Asia’s Toyota, the largest venture fund raising female billionaire. largest mining company. in South-east Asia. Grab is valued at She traded in com- over US$6 billion, and has over 3.5 modities and invest- Robbie Antonio, 41 million daily rides. ed in real estate be- In less than two fore setting up Vietjet years, Mr Antonio Raja Hamzah Abidin, 31; Jo Jo Air, the country’s steered a company Kong, 27; Rachel Lau, 32; and first budget airline, into becoming the Lionel Leong, 31 in 2011. It is known for its publicity Philippines’ first stunts using bikini-clad flight attendants. “unicorn” - a term Vietjet, which went public in February for start-ups valued last year, is venturing further across Asia at more than US$1 and beyond. Its first flights to India will billion. start in July and it plans to head to He is CEO of Revolution Precrafted, California to cater to the Vietnamese a provider of prefabricated homes which population there. She reportedly intends was set up in December 2015. Today, it to turn 60 per cent of the carrier’s flights has US$2.1 billion worth of projects in into international routes. the pipeline. The four Malaysian scions founded It recently inked a US$3.2 billion two-year-old venture capital firm RHL Nadiem Makarim, 33 deal to provide Dubai-based property Ventures. Mr Makarim’s developer Seven Tides with high-end, Ms Lau is the daughter of the late bane turned out to prefabricated condominium apartments Lau Boon Ann, non-executive director be a boon when he and hotel villas. of Top Glove, while Mr Leong is the son returned to Jakarta Revolution plans to open 20 offices, of the founder of real estate developer after graduating from mostly in South-east Asia. Mah Sing Group. Mr Raja Hamzah’s Harvard Business father is prominent politician Raja Nong School and found the Sophie Kim, 35 Chik Raja Zainal Abidin. Ms Kong is city’s motorcycle-taxi She set up food delivery start-up the daughter of Mr Kong Hon Kong, service somewhat Market Kurly, which founder of bereavement care provider haphazard. has revolutionalised Nirvana Asia. He saw an opportunity to develop the way organic RHL Ventures has invested in big an app for the booking of two-wheeled produce is sold and start-ups including popular dating cabs or “ojeks”. The Go-Jek app was app Coffee Meets Bagel, and has delivered in South launched in January 2015. It later a partnership with South Korean Korea - by 7am if expanded into food delivery, and conglomerate Hanwha Investment. ordered before 11pm provided house-cleaning and massage the previous day. William services. The e-commerce platform raked in 50 Tanuwijaya, 36 The money soon came in - US$550 billion won (S$61.5 million) in sales last After graduating million in 2016; US$1.2 billion from year - up from 17.3 billion won in 2016. from high school in Tencent Holdings last year; US$1.2 Ms Kim, a Wellesley College graduate, North Sumatra in billion from Google, Temasek Holdings had worked in the United States, Hong 1999, Mr Tanuwijaya and China’s Meituan-Dianping this year. Kong and Singapore (Temasek Holdings) moved to Jakarta to He aims to take his start-up public before returning to Seoul to start The study. He travelled in the next few years. Farmers in 2015.

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The firm, which attracted 17 billion its China operations. DJI is now the won in investments for Market Kurly in After gaining a firm foothold in benchmark in both 2016, is seeking fresh funds to go public China, Ms Liu is taking aggressive steps consumer and profes- and expand overseas. to expand Didi’s business globally. Last sional drones and has year, it joined hands with Softbank, a 70 per cent share Kim Bom, 39 a Japanese telecom and Internet of the global market. Mr Kim found- conglomerate, to inject US$2 billion It is credited with ed Coupang, South into Grab. pushing drone-flying Korea’s answer to - once a complicated, Amazon, promising Wang Wei, 47 DIY hobby - into the mainstream with personalised service Shunfeng, or fa- machines that can be flown out of the and 24-hour deliver- vourable winds in box. ies. The Harvard Busi- English, has proven Mr Wang was No. 76 on Forbes’ ness School dropout to be a talismanic Richest People in Tech List last year with is also the youngest person on Forbes’ name for the logis- a net worth of about US$3.2 billion. South Korea’s 50 Richest list, with a net tics firm started by This also makes him Asia’s youngest worth of US$950 million. Mr Wang . tech billionaire. He started Coupang in 2010 and From a one-van since then, it has become the fastest- outfit started in 1993, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, 39 growing e-commerce site in the country, SF Express has become China’s largest Mr Sharma invest- with a valuation of more than US$5 private logistics firm. ed US$2 million to billion. Although still operating at a loss, Despite the industry’s commodity launch mobile wallet it has managed to secure over US$1.8 nature and slim margins, Mr Wang’s Paytm in 2011. billion in investments from around the business smarts - such as identifying world, including Goldman Sachs and the country’s e-commerce boom early When Indian Japan’s Softbank. - have kept SF Express ahead of the Prime Minister Nar- competition. endra Modi demone- Lee Seung Gun, 36 Today, it runs a cargo airline with tised high-value cur- Since Mr Lee 41 aircraft, and plans to build Asia’s rency notes in 2016, introduced mon- first freight airport in Hubei province. Paytm was the biggest beneficiary. The ey-transfer app Toss It is also China’s first firm to receive a lack of cash in the system saw people in South Korea in domestic drone operator licence, which turning to digital payment methods. 2015, it has become allows it to conduct drone deliveries in Paytm, with its full-page newspaper a hit for simplifying pilot zones nationwide. advertisements at the time, was the the tedious process most visible. of transferring mon- Steven Lam Hoi-Yuen, 31 The company, which has over 250 ey online from five Mr Lam founded million electronic wallets, went from passwords and 37 clicks to just three Hong Kong-based recording 2.5 million transactions a day steps. start-up GoGoVan in before demonetisation, to over seven It now has 12 million users and hit 2013 with Mr Nick million transactions a day. US$12 billion worth of transactions Tang and Mr Reeve The company is now valued at last year. Mr Lee, who was a dentist Kwan, with an initial US$9.4 billion. before founding fintech start-up Viva capital of HK$20,000 Republica, is now eyeing expansion into (S$3,300). Ritesh Agarwal, 24 South-east Asia. It is the first Hong Mr Agarwal Last year, the company managed to Kong start-up to be valued at more dropped out of col- raise US$48 million from Paypal and than US$1 billion. This follows a rare lege at 17 and trav- other Silicon Valley venture capital firms. cross-border merger with 58 Suyun, the elled across India. He freight business of mainland Chinese realised there was a Jean Liu, 40 online classifieds giant 58 Home. This dearth of affordable Ms Liu, the daugh- created Asia’s biggest online platform good-quality hotels. ter of Lenovo found- in the intra-city logistics and freight The son of a er Liu Chuanzhi, business. businessman father joined China’s largest GoGoVan operates in markets and a housewife started Oyo Rooms ride-hailing platform including Singapore, China, Taiwan, in 2013 at 19, with a single hotel in Didi Chuxing in July South Korea and India. It plans to Gurgaon, Delhi’s satellite city. Oyo 2014 after a 12-year expand further into China and South- career as an invest- east Asia, with a Hong Kong listing in Rooms gives branding to budget hotels ment banker with the next one to two years. and provides amenities such as toiletries Goldman Sachs. in exchange for a percentage of the By February 2015, she successfully Frank Wang Tao, 37 revenue. engineered a takeover of one of its Inspired by a childhood comic book Within two years, Oyo Rooms had biggest rivals Kuaidi Dache and became of a red helicopter that could trail its expanded to over 200 cities, offering president of the start-up. owner, Mr Wang enrolled in a helicopter 70,000 rooms in its network. It now has The following year, she forced Uber flight control course in Hong Kong and a booking value of US$100 million in out of the Chinese market and took over later set-up Da-Jiang Innovations (DJI). the quarter ended June 2017. 5 Cover Story

Bhavish Aggarwal, 32 and set about building a water purifier that and sings on TV and on stage. He rides Ankit Bhati, 31 uses solar energy, and later set up Saora his bicycle across Manila’s streets and The college mates Industries, which produces solar-pow- invites the homeless to his dinner table. co-founded OlaCabs ered water filtration devices. His inno- A native of Manila and a banker’s in India in December vation and social activism have won him son, with Chinese forebears on his 2010. awards and recognition, including from mother’s side, Cardinal Tagle initially Despite competi- Prime Minister Najib Razak. planned a career in medicine before tion from Uber, Ola being recruited to religious vocation has built a presence Faye Simanjuntak, 15 by a Jesuit friend. in over 110 cities “Being a kid is His relative youth perhaps dimin- with one million my super power,” ished his chances to become Pope. driver partners. The Indian taxi aggre- Faye would often say, gator offers a host of services, including according to people Kris Aquino, 47, and Wi-Fi and music, and clocks as many as who know her. Imee Marcos, 62 a billion rides annually. Indeed, she has In March this year, the two partners never let her youth, decided to launch Ola in Australia in their nor her familial first overseas expansion. Speculation of ties - she is the a merger between Uber and Ola has grand-daughter of senior Indonesian been rife in the Indian media. Both have minister Luhut Pandjaitan - stop her backing by investor SoftBank. from doing what she feels convicted to do. Tan Min-Liang, 40 Ms Faye started a non-profit organ- As the chief exec- isation, Rumah Faye, in 2013, when The Aquino and Marcos families have utive and founder of she was just 11, to prevent, rescue and had a bitter political feud that spans Razer, Mr Tan heads rehabilitate victims of trafficking. Last decades in the Philippines. Their duel one of the most suc- November, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate for political supremacy had cost former cessful gaming pe- Desmond Tutu named Faye as one of the senator Benigno Aquino his life, and the ripheral brands in the top three finalists for the International late strongman Ferdinand Marcos the world. His products Children’s Peace Prize for her efforts. presidency. Now, their heirs are con- like mice, keyboards tinuing that battle. and headphones are Leni Robredo, 52 Ilocos Norte Governor Imee Marcos, used by everyday gamers and profes- As head of the 62, has said she will run for senator next sionals with millions at stake. main opposition par- year, to regain the seat vacated by her In recent years, Razer has bought ty in the Philippines, brother, Mr Ferdinand Marcos Jr. over famed audio-visual firm THX, and Vice-President Leni Ms Kris Aquino, 47, Mr Aquino’s launched its first smartphone, the Razer Robredo is vying to youngest daughter, has eschewed poli- Phone. It went public in Hong Kong last replace President tics, but the celebrity has used her fame November, raising $688 million. Rodrigo Duterte to sway voters into supporting her fam- He also wants to set up a unified when he steps down ily’s political vehicle, the Liberal Party. e-payment system for Singapore. His in 2022. Min Min, 29 next focus lies in growing the company But she must first overcome a chal- lenge from her rival, former senator Fer- Tensions can run within South-East Asia, after spending dinand Marcos Jr, son and namesake of high around foreign years expanding it in the United States the late dictator, who is contesting her journalists in Myan- and Europe. election as vice-president via a manual mar’s Rakhine state. recount of votes. That will not be settled Mr Min Min, an eth- PUBLIC AND SOCIAL for another six months. nic Rakhine, has been Mr Duterte has refused to appoint Ms targeted by such vitri- SECTORS Robredo to a Cabinet post, a courtesy ol too. He co-found- Ganesh Muren, 26 traditionally accorded the vice-presi- ed Root Investigative Agency, which has The Malaysia dent. He has accused her of conniving helped shine a light on local corruption, based social entre- with his critics to unseat him. drug trafficking and religious bigotry. In prenueur’s journey 2016, a bomb exploded outside his home into his current Cardinal Luis Tagle, 60 and office in Sittwe. Root, a donor-fund- work started on a The lead con- ed agency which runs a website and pub- visit to India, when tender from Asia for lishes a monthly magazine, now runs on he saw how people the papacy in 2013, a staff of about 10 headed by him. But had no choice but Manila’s social me- the most difficult thing about his job, he to drink dirty water. dia-savvy and char- tells The Straits Times, is recruiting good He looked closer to home and found, ismatic archbishop journalists. to his surprise, a community of about is considered a “rock 100 Orang Asli families with no proper star” in the College Netiwit Chotipatpaisal, 21 water supply in their village, near Kuala of Cardinals. A speaker at the upcoming Oslo Lumpur. He delivers inspiring, light-hearted Freedom Forum, Mr Netiwit Chotipat- The mechanical engineering student liturgies on Facebook, and preaches paisal’s path to activism stretches back 6 Cover Story to his high school for gender equality in the country, given Ms Yoshida is today outspoken about years when he first her strong career track record. the challenges that women continue to called for reform in face in the workplace. Thai education. Last Kim Yo Jong, 31 She told a news conference last year: year, the 21-year- She was North “The issues of maternity or sexual har- old caused a stir, by Korean leader Kim rassment, long hours of work, all these publicly denouncing Jong Un’s secret are not codified. It is the office culture an act of prostration weapon, unleashed that dictates what can or cannot be during a university upon the world at the done. Empowerment must come from ceremony. As a result, he was discharged Pyeongchang Winter the heart of the leadership, the leaders from the prestigious presidency of the Olympics in February, must set the tone.” student council at Chulalongkorn Uni- where she successful- versity, where he was studying politi- ly softened the war- Liu He, 66 cal science. For his speech at the Oslo mongering posture of her country. Economic master- forum, an annual conference devoted The younger sister of the Supreme mind Liu He is the to human rights advocacy, Mr Netiwit Leader stole the limelight during her architect of Chinese will touch on democracy, education and three-day charm offensive at the recent President Xi Jin- military conscription. Games, as the media went into overdrive. ping’s supply-side At home, Ms Kim runs the state prop- structural reform Parit Wacharasindhu, 25 aganda machine. to reduce industrial and Thanathorn Already considered one of the most over-capacity and Juangroongruangkit, 39 powerful women in the reclusive state, she move from debt-driven investment and will help shape the upcoming crucial talks export-led growth to slower but bet- with South Korea and the United States. ter-quality, consumption-driven growth. He did this while just a member of the Shinjiro Koizumi, 37 Chinese Communist Party’s Central The son of for- Committee and a vice-minister in the mer prime minister National Development and Reform Junichiro Koizumi Commission. entered politics only He joined the powerful 25-member in 2009, but has cast Politburo and was made vice-premier. This well-connected duo is considered himself as a political Mr Liu will now drive China’s eco- to be among the freshest faces to emerge reformer with inter- nomic reform from the front as the in Thai politics since the May 2014 coup. est in such bread- country tackles challenges like an ageing Both have political aspirations and come and-butter issues as population and growing trade friction from wealthy and influential families. Mr childcare and agriculture. with the West. Parit, the nephew of Thailand’s former He was the key flagbearer for the ruling prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, went to Liberal Democratic Party in rallies for a Wang Qishan, 69 the prestigious Eton College and Oxford snap election last year, receiving rock star China’s new Vice- University and graduated in Philosophy, treatment from Hokkaido to Okinawa. President is best Politics and Economics. Mr Thanathorn, He told the Sankei Shimbun last year: known for the effec- heir to the auto-making giant Thai Sum- tive anti-corruption mit Group, rallied over land rights during “I want to be a politician whom people campaign that he ran his university years. Now, both are push- can rely on and trust. I want people to in the past five years . ing ahead with their liberal agendas of want to participate in the creation of the But before that, as reform and look ready to stand in next future that I envision for this country.” Vice-Premier, he had year’s general election. Haruno Yoshida, 52 a strong role in the Kang Kyung Wha, 62 Ms Haruno Yoshi- financial and economic policy-making South Korea’s da is a rarity in pa- of the world’s second-largest economy. first woman foreign triarchal Japan – a Crucially, he has led China’s trade minister Kang Kyung woman who has shat- talks with the United States under then Wha stands out as tered glass ceilings. President Hu Jintao. an alpha female in The chief execu- A trusted ally with experience dealing a male-dominated tive officer of British with the US is what President Xi Jinping society, building an telecommunications needs as he faces the threat of a trade illustrious career giant BT Japan is also war with the US. carving out many the first female exec- firsts. The former utive to be appointed to the board of Asad Raza, 24 broadcast journalist-turned-national the powerful Keidanren business lobby Pakistani Asad assembly interpreter is one of a rare in 2015, breaking a history of 70 years Raza always knew he few deemed capable enough to enter the as an all-boys club. wanted to become a Foreign Ministry mid-career, working Last year, she was the only Japanese researcher one day her way up to become the first South to be named on Fortune Magazine’s list and do something Korean woman to assume a senior po- of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders. good for the world. sition at the United Nations, dealing The single mother, who overcame For his final-year with human rights and humanitarian a serious bout of illness in her 20s, project at university, issues. There are hopes that the working climbed the corporate ladder by cutting he decided to focus mother of three can break new ground her teeth at foreign firms. on Parkinson’s disease, developing a

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data-driven management system that sive CV, with stints Cambodian architect would delay the onset of the crippling in Singapore’s Les Hun Chansan. disease. Amis and Den- But this is the That endeavour eventually led him to mark’s Noma, named beginning, he adds. create a healthcare start-up, Neurostic, World’s Best Restau- “How it ends, de- which has since branched into creating rant four times. Yet, pends on me, the new low-cost prosthetics for amputees in his he ended up settling generation.” home country of Pakistan, as well as in Kolej Damansara His seven-year-old Afghanistan, Iran and Syria. Utama, teaching mo- firm, Re-Edge Archi- With healthcare under-resourced in lecular gastronomy. tecture + Design, has been dotting the South Asia, Mr Asad wants to be a mar- So impressed were the college owners capital with notable landmarks like ket leader in providing wearable and that they decided to give him his own Noro Mall and Lumiere Hotel. restaurant, Dewakan, in 2015. Since implantable medical devices in the de- He was named Cambodia Real Estate then, the chef has subtly re-educated veloping world, as well as provide sound Personality of the Year at the Cambodia tastebuds and turned his fellow Malay- diagnosis, monitoring and rehabilitation Property Awards in March. sians into locavores. of those with Parkinson’s Disease. Joey Alexander, 14 Mattie Do, 37 Rakitha Malewana, 22 Born in Bali, Horror films can When he was 15, Alexandar was the also educate audi- Mr Malewana started youngest jazz musi- ences about class getting into medical cian to be nominat- and gender divides, and molecular biol- ed at the Grammy something Ms Mattie ogy, and his research Awards when his Do has done as Laos’ would later lead him 2015 debut album first woman feature to develop a revolu- My Favorite Things film director. tionary nano-vaccine garnered two nomi- Born in Los Ange- for HIV in 2015. nations. les, she went to Vientiane in 2010 to The young Sri Lankan scientist first He was also a Grammy nominee last take care of her retired father. While there, the former make-up artist pro- started working with people living with year, and is the first Indonesian musician duced two horror movies with strong HIV or AIDS in 2011, when he began to be listed on Billboard, the weekly female leads – a rarity in the local scene. visiting slums to teach maths, science chart of 200 top-selling albums in the She is working on her third, a science and English to the children of people United States. At six, he learnt to play the piano fiction thriller. who were HIV-positive. “I think the best thing about making In 2012, the young scientist started with the help of a mini electronic key- board given to him by his father. films in Laos is that I get to define and a non-profit organisation, Hamzter Id- create our very own Lao style,” she says. eanerd Sri Lanka, which aims to foster Come June, he will be headlining the innovation among school children and en- Rochester International Jazz Festival, one of the world’s largest. Jerwin Ancajas, 26 courage them to pursue scientific research. He has been Brian Imanuel, 18 hailed as “the next ARTS, CULTURE Better known by Manny Pacquiao”, AND SPORTS his rapper moniker a comparison the Rich Brian, the Chi- International Box- Shila Amzah, 28 nese-Indonesian from ing Federation jun- The singer-song- Jakarta has gone ior bantamweight writer is the first from rising YouTube champion baulks at Malaysian recording personality to a sing- embracing. artist to break into er-songwriter and re- “The next Manny Pacquiao has not the Chinese music cord producer on the been born yet,” he said in his typical market. She became US music scene. aw-shucks manner. an overnight sensation The teen, who learnt English from But it is hard not to draw a com- after winning a reality watching YouTube videos, was intro- parison. Both are southpaws, with a TV singing competi- duced to hip-hop in 2012. His 2016 preternatural killer instinct inside the tion, Asian Wave, in China in 2012. debut single Dat $tick propelled him ring. Both were born into deep poverty She moved to China and learnt both onto the world stage and its official mu- in the war-torn southern island of Min- Mandarin and Cantonese in order to sic video has been viewed more than danao. Like Pacquiao, he was raised by embrace her newfound popularity in 90 million times on YouTube. a single parent. the country. His debut album Amen, released in In February, Ancajas knocked out She has since amassed more than February, has since reached No. 1 on Mexican challenger Israel Gonzalez in a 2.3 million fans on Weibo. As a Muslim Apple’s iTunes hip-hop charts, making rousing match. America was impressed. woman, she also tries to promote reli- him the first Asian artist to achieve that. gious inclusiveness in China. Taopiphop “Tao” Hun Chansan, 38 Limjittrakorn, 29 Darren Teoh, 36 Phnom Penh is a rapidly developing A year ago, he was For someone who has travelled across capital city with both delightful and arrested and fined continents to hone his craft, the decision monstrous buildings. 5,000 baht (S$210) to open a haute cuisine restaurant using “Any other city would go through for selling his home- only local produce is a surprising one. the same phase, you have to have the brewed lager. Then The Malaysian chef has an impres- good and the bad at the same time,” says the tour guide and

8 Cover Story three friends turned to crowdfunding marathons by one person – 25 of them. returning to Taiwan. to keep their Taopiphop Bar Project Known as the “citizen runner”, the The 34-year-old, who draws her de- alive, and now he sells his brew in a government clerk has neither coach nor constructionist style from street culture, shabby-chic bar in Bangkok. sponsor and practises in between his visual arts and tattoo art, is seen as one He has been relentless in calling out full-time job. He is aiming to clock 100 of the most exciting experimental fash- what he describes as unfair competition, marathons under 2hr 20 min before the ion designers to emerge from Taiwan in high entry barriers and cronyism in Thai- 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He has already recent years. land’s 180 billion baht beer industry. done four this year, and won them all. He is planning, among other things, Mithali Raj, 35 to campaign for an amendment to the Sota Fujii, 15 India’s wom- en cricket captain 1950 Liquor Act to allow small manu- He took Japan by turned pro at 17, facturers to enter the business. storm last year when but it took another he won a record 29 17 years before she consecutive profes- Rasmee Wayrana, 34 came to public atten- sional wins in shogi, The singer-song- tion when she led the or Japanese chess. writer is trans- women’s team to the forming the image Fujii started play- ICC World Cup final in Britain last year. ing shogi at five af- of traditional Thai Her team lost to the British team, but ter his grandmother countryside music her batting skills brought her to national bought him an introductory game set. called Mor Lam by attention. She is the highest run-scorer At 14, the Aichi Prefecture native infusing it with blues, in women’s international cricket with became the youngest shogi player to rock, pop and African over 6,000 runs. influences. turn pro. The unassuming high school student Born into a Tamil family, she started “Traditionally, Mor Lam was a coun- playing cricket at the age of 10 after tryside style of music, so it was often is also the youngest to achieve the rank of sixth dan – pros are ranked between her parents signed her up for a cricket looked down on by some urban people,” fourth and ninth dans, with ninth the camp in Hyderabad. says Rasmee, whose songs have won over highest. urban audiences at home and in Europe. Last year, he toppled one of the Martina Veloso, 18 In 2016, she won national-level game’s legendary masters Yoshiharu Shooting stars are awards for best female singer of the Habu, 47, in a showdown dubbed “God often described as year, best album and best song. versus Genius”. short-lived trails of “It is very rewarding to see that Mor light, yet the Singa- Lam is appreciated as a part of the cul- Yuzuru Hanyu, 23 pore Sports School tural heritage of Thailand.” Already seen as a alumna promises to living legend despite be anything but. Han Kwang Song, 19 his young age, the Armed with a The North Korean Japanese figure skat- steely focus and caused a stir during er has won legions of cheery personality, the football transfer fans across the world she won two gold medals, in the 10m season earlier this with his spellbinding, air rifle and the 50m rifle prone, and set year, when big names emotional choreogra- a new Commonwealth Games record in like Juventus, Liver- phy on ice and boy- both events this month. pool and Tottenham ish manga-worthy looks. Her upward trajectory began in 2014 Hotspur tried to sign Dubbed the “Ice Prince”, he has bro- when she won the ISSF World Cup in him. ken world record after world record, and Germany by beating a 2008 Olympic He made history by being the first at the recent Pyeongchang Games, be- champion and 2010 European champion. North Korean to play in top-tier Italian came the first man to win back-to-back She has set her sights on making football, Serie A. While on loan to Serie Winter Olympic gold medals in figure history again by firing the Republic to B’s Perugia, he scored seven goals in skating in 66 years. its first Olympic shooting medal at the 19 games. The Sendai native has vowed to help 2020 Tokyo Olympics.  At 19, he is already a star striker with lift the spirits of the disaster-stricken Tohoku region. He was skating at his Italian club Cagliari, which has extended hometown rink when the tremors hit By Tan Dawn Wei, Claire Huang, David his contract until 2022. in March 2011. Lee and Lester Hio in Singapore, Shannon Last year, he burst into tears after the Teoh and Trinna Leong in Kuala Lumpur, North Korean authorities purportedly Jenn Lee, 34 Francis Chan and Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja blocked him from giving an interview By her own ad- in Jakarta, Raul Dancel in Manila, Tan Hui on Italian TV. mission, she did Yee and Jitsiree Thongnoi in Bangkok, not enjoy school Chang May Choon in Seoul, Walter Sim in Yuki Kawauchi, 31 and did poorly. She Tokyo, Goh Sui Noi and Lim Yan Liang in He beat defending loved clothes but did Beijing, Chong Koh Ping in Shanghai, and Nirmala Ganapathy in New Delhi champion Geoffrey not know one could Kirui of Kenya in make a career out 2hr 15min 54sec at Photos: AFP, Reuters, AP, ST, Bloomberg, Bloomberg of fashion until she News, ZB, The Star Publication, Joeyalexandermusic.com, the Boston Marathon found the London Instagram.com/Brianimanuel/File, The Phnom Penh Post, this year, but it is no College of Fashion. Mattie Do, Prachatai, Rasmee Wayrana, Alberto Lingria, Getty Images North America, Japan News-Yomiuri, Jenn Lee, fluke. The seasoned During her five years in London, she Ians (Cricket), Arhl Ventures, Revolution Precrafted, Apple, marathoner holds a interned with designer Felicity Brown Www.facebook.com/Rumahfaye2014, Kris Aquino/Facebook, at Alexander McQueen and, after grad- Philippine Daily Inquirer, Courtesy of Rasmee Wayrana, number of world re- Parit Wacharasindhu, BCCJ, Gsea.org, Npas.nalanda.sch.lk, cords, such as the most sub 2hr 12min uating in 2011, went to Berlin before The Korean Herald, Skechers Sundown Festival,

9 Regional Watch

Chang May Choon South Korea Correspondent Kim Jong Un – a master chess player in diplomacy?

The “mad” leader Kim is one of the world’s youngest leaders and the third in his family to rule of North Korea North Korea with an iron fist. Said to be shows his guile brutal and ruthless, he swiftly purged his father’s loyalists and embarked on by steering the widespread economic reforms and reclusive state into nuclear development. “Kim Jong Un is very confident a series of meetings about regime survival. His political with world leaders, foundation is strong domestically and no one can challenge him. Now he all designed to give wants to deal with foreign affairs and his government normalise relations with the US,” Dr Park told The Straits Times. legitimacy Declaring the completion of North Korea’s nuclear programme – even ith several deftly though experts say it is still missing calculated moves, some critical final-stage tests – is the North Korean lead- first step towards a path of dialogue er Kim Jong Un has with the US and other members of the got the major pow- stalled six-party denuclearisation talks. Wers exactly where he wants them. They are South Korea, Japan, China Since declaring his country’s nuclear and Russia. programme complete last November, he “He needs to justify that he’s has launched a charm offensive. stopping all these tests because the To woo Seoul, he sent his sister to the programme is complete and not because Winter Olympics hosted by the South. of external pressure,” said Dr Park. He also made his first trip out of the Dr Graham Ong-Webb, research country and met Chinese President Xi fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School Jinping. He even offered to denuclearise, of International Studies in Singapore, to draw the United States into dialogue. told ST that Mr Kim is seeking to With each step, he is turning “achieve complete consolidation of out to be more of the “shrewd his power” by becoming the first and mature” politician praised North Korean leader to meet a by Russian President Vladimir sitting US president. Putin than the “madman on a He added: “Mr Kim Jong Un suicide mission” described by US clearly understands the power President Donald Trump. But what of perception, and knows that made the young leader confident optically, this will be seen as a his grand plan would work? meeting of equals in the eyes of And what is his end goal in this his own people... (It is) extremely

round of high-stakes diplomacy? ST ILLUSTRATION valuable because it affirms their Experts say Mr Kim is seeking to identity as a sovereign nation. consolidate his power on the global policy to pursue both nuclear and “In meeting with the current leader stage and normalise ties with the US, economic development, and that global of the world’s incumbent superpower, North Korea’s long-time foe. security could be undermined if the Mr Kim achieves the double effect of He wants to gain concessions to give world is cornered into accepting North strengthening his national authority and his regime some breathing space amid Korea’s status as a nuclear weapons state. establishing North Korea as a ‘normal’ choking economic sanctions imposed Dr Park Jee Kwang of the Sejong country.” by the United Nations over the past Institute think-tank believes Mr Kim Dr Ong-Webb believes Mr Kim two years. has matured since assuming control in pushed hard on missile tests and then But the experts also warn that the December 2011 to become a strong and swung equally hard towards dialogue denuclearisation card is likely a bluff. powerful leader capable of negotiating and denuclearisation to “entice the North Korea, they say, will never with the US. egotistical businessman in President compromise its dual-track Byungjin At age 34, the Swiss-educated Mr Trump, in the run-up to the mid-term

10 Regional Watch elections, to take no chances in using territory to interact with other heads ‘crazy’ or ‘unpredictable’ as the world his office to close the deal”. of state. Now that Mr Kim has cleared portrays him, and certainly very mature. But he warned that promises to President Xi, he will clear President This is not a game, but a very well denuclearise could be nothing but a Moon before clearing President Trump. planned long-term strategy that he bluff as Mr Kim “cannot run away from He is also likely to clear (Japanese) has been implementing since he took the Byungjin policy he has advanced”. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in June. power,” she told ST, adding that it would “He knows that the way the US-led “This recognition, no matter how not be a surprise if Mr Kim also meets military and security architecture of mild, makes regime change a difficult Mr Putin. North-east Asia is set up, North Korea’s option, especially if Mr Kim conveys But in this game of high-stakes national security can be secured only that he’s solely in charge of his country chess, a checkmate move is nowhere by its nuclear weapons. Yet, at the same and holds all the cards on his side.” in sight just yet. Mr Trump, who revels in time, he must deliver on his country’s Dr Ong-Webb sees Mr Kim as a keeping his opponents guessing, remains economic development... I venture that “great chess player” who knows the a wild card. he is counting on leveraging China’s weaknesses, impulses and constraints Uncertainty clouded the US-North growing economic and military power of his opponents, and is creating options Korea summit after Mr Trump’s sudden to unlock the current grip of sanctions if for himself by playing up to both China decision to replace his former secretary the US will not give them (North Korea) and the US. of state, the dovish Rex Tillerson, with any respite.” “He knows he must give up some the more hawkish Mike Pompeo. In this context, Mr Kim’s visit to ground to gain advantages elsewhere. Mr Trump said last Thursday that China late last month – ahead of his The optics of his visit were clear – to pay meetings were being set up between upcoming April 27 summit with South respect and tribute to President Xi. He him and Mr Kim and that the US would Korean President Moon Jae In and a understands the Asian approach to in- approach the talks respectfully. May or June meeting with Mr Trump – is ternational relationships is hierarchical. Dr Ong-Webb said Mr Kim “has taken no coincidence. “He has telegraphed that he puts the lead in this geopolitical dance”, but China-North Korea ties have been China ahead of the US. Yet, he is no there is nothing to stop Mr Trump from rocky since Mr Kim assumed power. sentimentalist either. For the sake of changing his mind about the meeting. Beijing, despite being Pyongyang’s long-term survival and even economic Dr Hwang, however, said the chal- biggest ally and economic lifeline, growth, we cannot rule out that he will lenge for the US is not Mr Trump’s un- disapproves of the regime’s missile and go for the best of deals presented by predictability, but what it means for the nuclear tests and joined in UN efforts either great power.” world to accept what North Korea is to tighten sanctions on North Korea. Dr Balbina Hwang, visiting professor seeking – not just regime survival, but Dr Ong-Webb said Mr Kim “took a at Georgetown University, said Mr recognition as a nuclear weapons state. gamble” in proposing his first meeting Kim has “taken full advantage” of the “That is the greatest global security with Mr Xi, and the “smart move” political developments in the region, threat, not North Korea’s nuclear helped to consolidate his position as including the timing of the Winter arsenal, and what the world should the “recognised and respected head of Olympics, to balance all his options with really be concerned about,” she added. state”, and secure his country. the member states of the six-party talks . “Sovereign recognition only truly “Kim Jong Un is indeed very shrewd happens when a leader leaves his and competent, not at all ‘irrational’, [email protected]  Men to Watch Here’s a look at some key officials who will have a say in talks between the US and North Korea

Return of the neocon s Americans were turning Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy, against the US military in- providing Mr McCarthy with political tervention in Vietnam and momentum to finish in second place in President Lyndon B. John- the New Hampshire primary. son’s handling of the war He failed to win the Democratic Ain South-east Asia, Eugene McCarthy, presidential nomination, and Republican JOHN BOLTON US national security adviser a lawmaker from Minnesota running Richard Nixon ended up winning the on an anti-war platform, decided to race to the White House in 1968. But Fast forward 50 years, when the challenge LBJ in the 1968 Democratic there is no doubt that if the anti-war presidential candidate, who during the primaries. McCarthy had been sitting in the Oval Republican primaries and the general Though he was initially given little Office in 1969, one decision that he election had blasted former president chance of winning, the 1968 Tet Offensive would not have made would be to George W. Bush and all the other galvanised opposition to the war and its nominate the pro-war Mr Bundy as his architects of another disastrous US chief architects, including then National national security adviser. military intervention, this time in Iraq,

11 Regional Watch

is now sitting in the Oval Office. That is Mr Bundy to that post in 1969. Mr Kim happens to be the same the same Candidate Trump who pledged It is true that Mr Bolton was one of North Korean leader that President to bring to an end the costly American the few neocons who refrained from Trump is scheduled to meet in the interventions in the Middle East, and in bashing Candidate Trump during the coming weeks and with whom he particular, not to experiment anymore presidential campaign while praising is supposedly expected to fashion with “regime change” and “nation him non-stop on Fox News, which is a peaceful diplomatic resolution to building” in the Middle East. apparently one of President Trump’s the current nuclear crisis. That would It was not surprising, therefore, that main sources of information when it seem to be quite difficult if Mr Trump most of the former policymakers and comes to global affairs (forget those lone seriously considers the ideas that his conservative intellectuals (commonly and boring intelligence briefs). new national security adviser has known as the neoconservatives, or In fact, the President has noted proposed about bombing and “ending” “neocons” for short) who played a several times that he was “eyeing” Pyongyang ASAP. central role in the planning and the the moustached and toupee-wearing A lawyer by profession and a regular execution of the Iraq War and the commentator for a job in his commentator on Fox News cable strategy of remaking Iraq into a liberal administration although he also told television who has been active for and democratic entity, stood up in firm aides that Mr Bolton did not look several decades in Republican politics, opposition to Candidate Trump when the way presidential national security and at some point even planned to run he was running for president and after advisers look in the movies. for the party’s presidential nomination, he entered the White House. Nevertheless, the announcement that Mr Bolton has been considered a “super- But it was a bit surprising that President Trump would replace Mr H.R. hawk”. He has been inclined to favour President Trump announced recently McMaster with Mr Bolton – coming only military solutions, preferably through that he was nominating to serve as his a few days after the President replaced unilateral American action, over the new national security adviser one of the Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with pursuit of diplomacy and multilateral leading neocons, an ardent supporter of CIA director Mike Pompeo – has left strategy, when dealing with national and cheerleader for the Iraq War, who diplomats in Washington and other security challenges. has been calling for bombing rogue world capitals puzzled: how will the Mr Bolton – who served as ambas- regimes and doing regime change in White House now handle most of the sador to the United Nations under the Middle East and elsewhere, and major foreign policy issues, especially President Bush, saying in 1994 that advocating a more interventionist US when the new national security adviser “if the UN building in New York lost military policy in that region. seems to disagree with his boss on some 10 storeys, it wouldn’t make a bit of Indeed, President Trump nominating of these issues. difference” – insists that Washington John Bolton as national security adviser Most recently in an op-ed in TheWall should take a tough and uncompro- – the man who had made the case Street Journal, Mr Bolton described mising stand when confronting global at home and abroad that then Iraqi North Korea as an “imminent threat” adversaries such as China and Russia, President Saddam Hussein possessed and advocated a pre-emptive strike and rogue regimes like North Korea weapons of mass destruction and against Pyongyang. And he proposed and Iran, very much in the same way who predicted that the US role in the that “ending” the regime was the that it had dealt with the now-deceased aftermath of regime change in Iraq only kind of diplomacy the Trump Saddam and the late Libyan dictator would be “fairly minimal” – would be administration should employ in dealing Muammar Gaddafi.  akin to President McCarthy nominating with Mr Kim Jong Un. – Leon Hadar, The Business Times Pyongyang’s peace negotiator RI SON GWON, Chairman of North Korea’s orth Korea’s announce- including the dispatch of the Committee for Peaceful ment of its willingness delegation to Pyeongchang Reunification to revive an inter-Korean Olympic Games, would be hotline earlier this year timely communicated to the Mr Ri is known as the was delivered by a man South,” Mr Ri said on North right-hand man of Mr Kim Nviewed as one of the regime’s key mil- Korea’s state-run broadcaster Yong Chul, another top North itary negotiators. Korean Central Television. Korean military official who is On Jan 3, Mr Ri Son Gwon, The senior colonel of the North Korean allegedly responsible for the sinking of chairman of North Korea’s Committee military has often represented his country, the South Korean naval ship Cheonan for Peaceful Reunification, spoke on having participated in inter-Korean in 2010 and the bombing of a South behalf of leader Kim Jong Un, saying military talks during the liberal Roh Moo Korean island near a disputed maritime that North Korea would reopen its Hyun administration and when tensions border that followed. communication channel at the truce gradually escalated in the following years. Media reports in the past have village of Panmunjom, in response to Seoul’s proposal for high-level talks. He has been sighted at 27 meetings held underlined Mr Ri’s fiery temper The Committee for Peaceful Reuni- between the two Koreas since 2004. displayed at inter-Korean meetings. fication is a North Korean organisation After Mr Kim rose to power in 2011, Within the first 10 minutes of a South- handling inter-Korean affairs. Mr Ri was appointed director of the North meeting in February 2011, Mr Ri “(Kim) gave instructions to open the policy department of North Korea’s now- reportedly shouted, “We are completely Panmunjom liaison channel between defunct National Defence Commission irrelevant with the Cheonan warship the North and the South from 3 pm (NDC). The NDC was later replaced by incident”, before bolting out of the (North Korean time) on Jan 3, so that the State Affairs Commission, which is meeting room.  the issues related to the opening of talks, chaired by Mr Kim. – The Korea Herald/Asia News Network

12 Business Buzz

Christopher Tan Senior Transport Correspondent

Grab-Uber: A deal which will disrupt more than the ride-hailing industry

merican ride-hailing com- in the last five years, Uber needs to Its sale of the regional business to pany Uber’s sale of its retreat to focus on markets where it Grab - which neither party has officially South-east Asian business enjoys dominance. confirmed - is similar to its pull-out from to arch rival Grab should In South-east Asia, it is evident that China in 2016, and Russia last year. not come as a complete Uber does not have that sturdy foothold. In the fast-evolving ride-hailing Asurprise. Grab does. In fact, Uber has openly market, players not only have to contend In a world which has seen a admitted to incurring “hefty losses” in with competition from each other, they proliferation of ride-hailing providers the region. have to continue to claw market share away from traditional ride providers - namely, taxis. This is a money-draining exercise. REGIONAL PROBE Hence companies have to target resources at markets where they have The Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia have said that they will a fighting chance. It is better to flourish look into whether Uber Technologies’ move to sell its South-east Asian business to ride-hailing rival Grab hinders competition, in say, 50 markets, than continue to be days after Singapore began a probe into the deal on similar an also ran in 100. concerns. It is not dissimilar to American car The expanded scrutiny of the deal in South-east Asia companies’ apparent disinterest in the could pose a major hurdle to the US firm’s attempt to improve South-east Asian region - even if it is profitability by exiting its loss-making regional operation. a very sizeable market. They prefer In a rare move, Singapore proposed in March interim to concentrate in markets where they measures to require Uber and Grab to maintain their pre- already have reasonable penetration. Or transaction independent pricing until it completes a review of which are too big to ignore, like China. the deal, saying it had “reasonable grounds” to suspect that Uber’s sale will of course strengthen competition had been infringed. “The Grab-Uber acquisition is likely to have a far-reaching Grab’s position in the ride-hailing impact on the riding public and the transportation services. As arena. It will allow Grab - a Malaysian such, the PCC is looking at the deal closely,” company co-founded by Anthony Tan, the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) a scion of the motor-and-property Tan said in a statement. Chong family - to compete with other Malaysia has also said that it will monitor ride-hailing giants. Grab for possible anti-competitive behaviour. The biggest of them is currently - Reuters 13 Business Buzz

China’s Didi Chuxing, which has already TAXIS & CARPOOL CARPOOL TAXIS surpassed Uber in market value. It will CARS & CARS only be a matter of time before Didi - GrabShare uberPOOL JustGrab A car-pooling A car-pooling uberFLASH which bought out Uber’s China business A two-in-one service for riders service for riders A two-in-one two years ago, and which is currently a service that lets who are going the who are going the service that lets riders book the same way same way riders book the substantial shareholder in Grab - moves nearest taxi or nearest taxi or southwards in its quest for growth. private-hire car. GrabHitch Uber Commute private-hire car. India’s Ola is also a hefty player As at March 2018, A car-pooling A car-pooling Uber is said to Grab has 2.6 service for drivers service for drivers have about 14,000 which is at Grab’s doorstep. million taxi and to pick up riders to pick up riders cars under its Meanwhile, the Uber-Grab deal private-hire car who are going the who are going the rental car has a few implications for Singapore’s drivers in same way same way subsidiary Lion South-east Asia City Rentals taxi industry. Grab already has allied itself with all cab operators except Taxi partners Taxi partner in Singapore in Singapore ComfortDelGro. The leading taxi SMRT Taxi ComfortDelGro player had chosen to go to bed with Trans-Cab (whose eet size is Uber instead. Premier about 13,000 taxis) Prime Taxi ComfortDelGro now appears to have HDT picked the wrong horse. Uber, in this (whose combined case, is akin to a suitor who was wooing eet size is nearly 10,000 taxis) two parties at the same time. And it has SPECIAL succeeded on both fronts. SERVICES For commuters and drivers in What would a combined Uber and Singapore, the deal paves the way for Grab look like? If there is one thing uberEATS FINTECH commuters (and competition Uber’s food delivery two well-matched rivals who will now platform compete - on more or less equal footing Grab Financial authorities) in Singapore fear, it is A ntech platform the merger of the two ride-hailing Competitors - for their patronage. It would be the for Grab to offer giants. Since 2013, commuters Deliveroo first time too, as ComfortDelGro’s sheer nancial services Foodpanda such as loans, have beneted from an Honestbee size had for the longest time given it a insurance and stranglehold of the market. extravagant, venture capital war credit scoring between the two, enjoying uerE That is, if ComfortDelGro does not systems discounted rides and innovative Uber’s pet-friendly pull out of its deal to buy a majority private-hire car Partners features such as carpool as a service stake in Uber’s Lion City Rentals. Credit Saison Chubb result. But all this could come to It would be interesting how the and end, some fear. Here’s an uerASSIS Competition Commission of Singapore Uber’s senior- and raay aggregation and comparison of disabled-friendly - which had been deliberating on the An e-wallet that their many offerings: private-hire car lets riders pay for service ComfortDelGro-Uber deal - now views rides and in-store the Uber-Grab deal. purchases The next several months will be Competitors interesting indeed, as Grab - with an Nets, EZ-Link, enlarged regional footprint - redraws its Alipay BUSES BIKES battle plans. If this start-up can elbow raoach raycle A service that lets South-east Asia’s rst bike-sharing out Uber, it can do bigger things. riders book a marketplace unites bike and e-scooter Besides the Competition Commission, minivan or coach sharing services on one platform for up to the Land Transport Authority is also 40 people Partners watching the development closely, to TEXT: oBike, Anywheel, Gbikes, Popscoot ensure that commuters and drivers are JACQUELYN CHEOK raShuttle SOURCE: A bus pool and van Competitors not worse off. COMPILED BY pool service ofo, Mobike The implications extend beyond THE BUSINESS TIMES the point-to-point transport industry. Card companies such as EZ Link and Nets should also be worried, as Grab’s GrabPay mobile payment platform eye on this ambitious disruptor, indeed. makes sense. grows in coverage. For a start, it would be prudent for Looking ahead, there will be more Ditto food delivery players. As well EZ Link and Nets to consider an alliance consolidation in the ride-hailing sphere. as the emerging fintech industry, which of their own. After all, there is far too There will be more mergers, acquisitions Grab has already dipped its toes into. much duplication in what they both and alliances ahead. And they may not Armed with powerful data garnered currently offer. necessarily be confined to deals between in the five years it has been a ride- Whichever way the cards fall, there ride-hailing firms. hailing rival to Uber, Grab is poised to is one clear winner in an Uber-Grab In the end, there will likely be far be a serious contender in the financial transaction: Softbank. The Japanese fewer players than there are today. services arena. Its two-week-old venture group is a sizeable backer of both Grab Those remaining will of course, see their with Japan’s Credit Saison to provide and Uber. It also has stakes in Didi and fortunes improve. For despite all the micro loans is just a start. Ola. penetration that these apps companies In the words of a Grab insider, “our As a financial backer, it will naturally have thus far, there is little sign that new businesses will be 100 times larger prefer a consolidated state rather than a they are making serious money, if at all. than ride-hailing”. fragmented one. Hence Grab’s purchase Financial institutions should keep an of Uber’s South-east Asian business [email protected] 

14 Trade Watch

Vikram Khanna Associate Editor Stage set for prolonged US-China battle on trade What US trade “The state’s role in the economy has increased, as the Chinese government RAE: IN NERS hawks are has continued to pursue and expand effectively seeking industrial policies that promote, guide and support domestic industries while US$462.6b is an overhaul of simultaneously and actively seeking to Value of goods bought by US from China China’s state-led impede, disadvantage and harm their for- eign counterparts,” the report points out. economic model Value of goods In addition, the report elaborates on bought by a long list of other malpractices, includ- US$115.6b China from US ing “massive subsidies; severe excess he tit-for-tat tariffs that we capacity; investment restrictions; ‘se- are witnessing between the US trade deficit cure and controllable’ ICT (infocomm US$347b with China United States and China are technology) policies; overly broad and not merely unpleasant trade discriminatory cyber-security restric- measures. They are the early Value of China-made tions; data transfer restrictions; serious electrical machinery Tsalvos in the battle for industrial dom- problems with intellectual property US$129b bought by US inance that could play out for a long rights enforcement; export restraints; time. unique national standards; troubling ag- After imposing two rounds of tar- Value of soya beans ricultural policies that block US market US$14b China buys from US iffs – first on steel and aluminium and access; restrictions on services market then on US$50 billion (S$66 billion) access and inadequate transparency”. T: 201 figures worth of Chinese goods, US President Donald Trump has raised the ante by proposing tariffs on another REASONS FOR US$100 billion of Chinese UNILATERAL exports. To see where the US ACTION is coming from, it’s in- It takes particular aim at China’s structive to read the grand strategy for industrial upgrad- report of the US Trade ing that was announced in 2015, Representative (USTR) called “Made in China 2025”, on China’s World Trade which targets 10 advanced man- Organisation (WTO) ufacturing industries with the aim compliance, which was of making them occupy the highest released in January. The parts of global production chains. report has all the finger- These industries are: information prints of the China hawks technology; numerical control tools in the Trump administra- and robotics; aerospace equipment; ocean engineering and high-tech tion who are mastermind- ships; railway equipment, ener- ing the evolving hardline gy-saving and new energy vehicles; policies towards China, namely power equipment, new materials; US Trade Representative Robert medicine and medical devices and Lighthizer and Mr Trump’s top agricultural machinery. trade adviser Peter Navarro, who The report says these industries wrote a book entitled Death By are to be built “at the expense of, China. and to the detriment of, foreign in- Running to 161 pages, the USTR dustries and their technologies through report is a sweeping indictment of a multistep process over 10 years”. The China’s trade and industrial policies. eventual goal, it suggests, is “to replace It claims that while these policies were foreign products with Chinese compa- never particularly fair for the 17 years nies’ products in the China market that China has been a member of the through a variety of fair and unfair WTO, since the change in China’s lead- means, including through the extrac- ership in 2013, they have gotten worse. tion of foreign technologies”.

ST ILLUSTRATION: MANUEL A FRANCISCO 15 Trade Watch

A US-China trade war would affect not just businesses in the two countries Winners and losers but also many others. A look at some of the winners and losers.

LOSERS

WHISKEY U.S. CARMAKERS Whiskey accounted for nearly 70 per • China announced plans cent of the total US spirits exported to impose tariffs on most to China last year and is the only passenger vehicles. spirit on which China plans to impose more tariffs. • That would have a signicant impact on America’s car industry – including major car manufacturers General Motors (right) and Ford Motor, and electric carmaker Tesla, which depends on China for 17 per cent of its revenue.

U.S. AGRICULTURE CHINESE PIG BOEING AND U.S. AIRCRAFT U.S. GENERIC AND CHEMICALS FARMERS MANUFACTURING DRUGMAKERS • DowDuPont’s Soya beans are • The Chinese list of goods Though the US agriculture unit could mostly crushed that will be hit with a 25 per tariffs target be affected by China’s and fed to pigs cent tariff also includes Chinese drug move to impose tariffs in China. The aircraft up to 45 tonnes in makers, American on US soya beans. soya tariffs weight – a move that would pharmaceutical • Same goes for grain could ultimately affect some older Boeing companies that make traders Archer Daniels drive up costs narrow-body models. generics such as Mylan NV (right) would Midland and Bunge, for pig farmers • The company already saw its have to pay more for raw ingredients, and seeds and and meat prices shares fall as a result, along such as insulin used by diabetics and agrochemical ‹rm for 1.3 billion with fellow manufacturing the anti-allergic-reaction drug Monsanto. Chinese. company 3M. epinephrine.

JAPANESE COMPANIES TAIWANESE COMPANIES U.S. TECH MAJORS • Many have sourced production in • Many Taiwanese tech hardware • China’s position as China, and many Chinese-made tech ‹rms, a pillar of the island’s an assembly hub for exports, such as smartphones, economy, manufacture in China electronic devices contain Japanese parts. and export to the US. The prime makes it the biggest • Panasonic, the key battery supplier example is Hon Hai Precision consumer of to Tesla, has seen its share price fall Industry, also known as Foxconn, semiconductors. US in tandem with the US carmaker’s. which assembles iPhones for chipmakers such as • Beijing’s retaliatory tariffs could Apple. Intel Corp and Nvidia also hurt Japanese trading houses • Taiwanese ‹rms also sell Corp in particular have such as Marubeni Corp that export precision parts to Chinese seen their shares tumble. grain to China through their electronics developers, whose • Tech giant Apple and Lenovo would also face American subsidiaries. products are bound for the US. higher supply costs.

WINNERS

U.S. MEAT COMPANIES PALM OIL COMPANIES SOUTH AMERICAN FARMERS The prospect of a drop in prices of soya Rising soya oil prices in China, Brazil and Argentina are the main beans – a key feedstock – following higher which relies heavily on soya bean competitors to US growers in the Chinese tariffs is a boost for meat imports, will make palm oil a market for soya beans and corn. companies such as processor Tyson Foods cheaper, more attractive option. and meat exporter Hormel Foods Corp.

U.S. METALWORKS The latest round of proposed US tariffs target several specic categories of steel and aluminum made in China. That is on top of duties announced last month, meaning that some forms of those products will face a 50 per cent fee to reach the US.

Sources: REUTERS, BLOOMBERG, AFP, VOICE OF AMERICA, JAPAN TIMES PHOTOS: REUTERS, BLOOMBERG, AFP STRAITS TIMES GRAPHICS

16 Trade Watch

March April May

March 8 March 22 March 23 April 2 April 3 April 4 May 11 May 15 US sets import US suspends US tariffs on China imposes US proposes 25 per China End of public Hearing in tariffs of 25 per steel and steel and tariffs of up to cent tariffs on responds with comment US on cent on steel and aluminium tariffs aluminium 25 per cent on US$50 billion worth similar duties period in US proposed 10 per cent on for six countries take effect 128 US imports, of Chinese imports; for 106 on affected tariffs aluminium; and the worth US$3 list targets 1,300 products products

IEINE Canada and European Union billion Chinese products Mexico exempted until May 1

Elaborating on the weaknesses of the 25 per cent taxes on US$50 billion in There will likely be a flood of them. WTO dispute settlement mechanism, goods... it’s very hard not to affect US While US business groups are broadly the report strongly hints at the need for consumers and workers.” in agreement that some of China’s trade unilateral action against China. Companies outside the US and China practices are unfair, they have problems It claims that the WTO rules “were will also feel the impact. Many of the with the Trump administration’s use of not formulated with a state-led econ- products targeted by the US are made tariffs as a remedy. omy in mind”, and can deal only with in production chains. “good faith disputes”. It adds that the While the final products are shipped LONG AND problem is complicated by China’s “in- out of China, they often contain com- complete rule of law”, including through ponents from other countries. All the DIFFICULT TALKS government officials’ “abuse of admin- companies involved in these chains Several have already complained istrative processes” – suggesting that would be hit by the tariffs – including about the potential unintended conse- even if China were to commit to abide American companies. quences in terms of the impact on costs by WTO rules, administrators get away So while the US tariffs aim to hit and jobs. They include the US Chamber with ignoring these commitments. higher-end areas of Chinese industry, of Commerce, the US-China Business Thus, it says that besides taking its they will cause collateral damage to Council, the National Association of disputes with China to the WTO, the US American companies and consumers Manufacturers, the Information Tech- will also use “other needed mechanisms, as well – and to companies elsewhere. nology Industry Council, the National including mechanisms available under However, some economists speculate Retail Federation and the agricultural US trade law”. that countries such as Malaysia, Singa- lobby group, Farmers for Free Trade. “The United States is determined pore and Thailand could also benefit as Republicans in Congress, whose con- to use every tool available to address some supply chains from China migrate stituents will be among the victims of harmful Chinese policies and practices, to South-east Asia. the tariffs and of China’s retaliation, regardless of whether they are directly China’s retaliation over the US tariffs may also join the protests. disciplined by WTO rules,” it says. has been stronger than most observers China does not face political or busi- And so it is that the US has invoked expected. ness opposition. First of all, it is more Section 301 of its 1974 Trade Act to uni- It started cautiously. In response to the victim than the perpetrator of the laterally impose tariffs on China. the March 23 tariffs on steel and al- tariff battle. Nor are Chinese Commu- The latest rounds of US tariffs are uminium, it imposed tariffs on US$3 nist Party leaders or Chinese companies targeted at 1,300 categories of US$50 billion worth of imports from 128 cat- likely to protest against the defensive billion worth of mostly high-end Chi- egories of US goods, including pork, actions China is taking. nese goods, including flat screen TVs, wine, nuts, fruit While the tariff brinkmanship contin- ues, both the Trump administration and medical devices, aircraft parts, batteries, and stainless steel pipes. But then, on Chinese officials have indicated a will- machinery and high-tech components Wednesday, in response to the Section and uranium. The US also plans to re- ingness to negotiate. The negotiations 301 tariffs, it hit harder. In a barbed strict Chinese investments in technology are likely to be drawn out and difficult. quip, China’s government pointed out and has lodged a complaint at the WTO If the USTR report is any guide, the “it’s only polite to reciprocate” and then on China’s technology licensing policies. US is seeking no less than an overhaul of promptly targeted US$50 billion worth China has also dragged the US to the China’s state-led economic model. This of 106 categories of US goods, including WTO over the Section 301 tariffs. is unlikely to happen. It is also too late to soya beans, cars, chemicals, beef, cigars While Chinese-made consumer check China’s strength in several areas, and whisky. goods such as clothing, toys and shoes such as artificial intelligence, robotics, Many of China’s tariffs will hit US have, so far, been excluded from the railway technologies and supply chain tariffs, this does not mean US consumers states with big concentrations of Repub- coordination. won’t be affected. lican supporters, including farm states, However, the pressure on Beijing to as well as the Midwest and parts of the make concessions will be intense, espe- SUPPLY CHAIN south. California – a big wine and fruit cially on issues such as state subsidies, producer – and Washington state (where government procurement and policies IMPACT Boeing is based) will also be hit. on technology transfer – about which As Mr Rod Hunter, partner of law China is taking a risk. As the country some of China’s trade partners other firm Baker & McKenzie, pointed out in with the trade surplus, it has more to than the US have also raised objections. an e-mail: “US manufacturers handle lose if there is a trade war – but it is In the end, the chances are that we the processes they are efficient at and likely counting on a negotiated truce, will not see a trade war. buy from those making components with the US forced to soften its position, What we will more likely see is pro- more efficiently. If you put taxes on in part, by domestic political pressure. longed tension in the trade and broader inputs for US manufacturers, then it This is a fair bet. The Section 301 economic relationship between the US will ultimately make US products more US tariffs will not go into effect until and China that will only gradually ease as expensive. A lot of US manufacturers at least June. Meanwhile, there will be China moves closer to a market economy. will look at this list and see input costs a public consultation period; companies going up. If the administration imposes have until May 22 to file objections. [email protected]  17 China Focus

Lim Yan Liang China Correspondent KEY PORTFOLIOS All the President’s men The close of China’s annual political season saw a major reorganisation of the central

government that will assist President Xi Yang Xiaodu, 64, Wei Fenghe, 64, Yi Gang, 60, Zhao Kezhi, 64, Jinping in the next five years. Here’s a look at director of National Defence Minister governor of the People’s Minister of Public Supervision Commission • Among the rst in the top Bank of China (PBOC) Security all the important faces to know: • Formerly the Minister for military brass to declare • A protege and long-time • A Xi loyalist, China’s new Supervision and deputy allegiance to Mr Xi when he deputy of his predecessor police chief was former secretary of the party’s took of ce in 2012, the Zhou Xiaochuan, China’s party boss in Guizhou and fearsome anti-corruption former missile force rst new central bank chief Hebei, where he oversaw TOP TIER watchdog under Mr Wang commander has been in 15 years is a the beginnings of the Qishan, Mr Yang heads the instrumental in carrying out US-educated economist Xiong’an New Area new super-agency that Mr Xi’s reorganisation of the who takes over an marked to eventually take brings the various People’s Liberation Army empowered PBOC that was over some of the capital’s anti-corruption into a more streamlined last week granted more functions. Also a state departments under one ghting force. General Wei is control over laws and councillor, Mr Zhao roof and is charged with likely to help Mr Xi deepen regulations for the banking oversees an extensive Wang Qishan, 69, Li Keqiang, 62, Li Zhanshu, 67, investigating both party military reforms, which and insurance sectors. The state surveillance system Vice-President Premier chairman of members and civil includes greater integration former professor takes over and has said he will wield • The man behind • A one-time National servants. As its rst of the various services at a time when the PBOC’s technology such as big Mr Xi’s thumping rival to Mr Xi, the People’s director, he is tasked with through a higher training policies have a growing data and facial anti-graft campaign former Henan and Congress institutionalising China’s tempo and more combat impact on the world’s recognition to crack which has claimed Liaoning party boss • Mr Xi’s chief of anti-graft campaigns. realistic drills. markets. down on crime. countless high-pro le who rose up through staff and key adviser, scalps – like former security the Communist Youth the No. 3 in China’s chief Zhou Yongkang – League (CYL) has seen the leadership hierarchy has been a Mr Wang’s appointment as responsibilities of the premiership xture at important meetings with Wang Yi, 64, Foreign Minister Vice-President will likely reshape a shrink on his watch. An economist by foreign leaders, such as at the • A seasoned diplomat who has served as ambassador to Japan and headed China’s Taiwan previously ceremonial of ce. His training, Mr Li is still nominal head of Xi-Trump summit, and has also Affairs Of ce, Mr Wang not only retained his foreign minister post but was also promoted to state experience in xing commerce government and exerts in‰uence over served as Mr Xi’s personal emissary councillor, China’s top diplomatic job. This is a sign that Beijing is boosting its foreign affairs problems, which he accrued when he economic policy, but the appointment to Russia. A long-time ally of Mr Xi, apparatus, once a second-tier of ce, just as perception of China as a threat is gaining ground. was vice-premier, means the Xi of Mr Wang and top economic aide Liu their friendship stretches back con dant is likely to play a lead role He means he enters his second term three decades to when the two in managing United States-China with less direct power over government men were party secretaries of relations, especially as the threat of a affairs. neighbouring counties in the trade war looms. industrial province of Hebei. EXPANDED RESPONSIBILITIES Guo Shuqing, 61, head of China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission Li Ganjie, 53, Newly elected Considered a reform-minded Vice-Premiers Ecological • VICE-PREMIERS Environment Minister bureaucrat, the former top banker and (from left) Hu deputy central bank governor heads the Chunhua, Han • An environment new super agency created through the Zheng, Sun protection of cial for 18 merger of China’s banking and insurance Chunlan and Liu years, Mr Li heads the regulators. Mr Guo is expected to lead a He taking an expanded ministry with sustained crackdown on risks in China’s oath to the a mandate now covering nance sector, such as shadow banking Constitution at areas such as air, water and risky investment and lending the seventh and soil protection, practices by both banks and insurers. plenary session which were previously of the National divided among different Lu Hao, 50, Natural Resources Minister People's ministries. With Congress on environment protection • A rising political star, the former March 19. now a political priority, Heilongjiang governor who became CYL he will oversee a rst secretary at 41 now heads the ministry with expanded ministry that combines agencies powers to implement previously in charge of land, resources, and enforce environment maritime protection and surveying. Mr Lu protection policies. will be watched for how his new ministry oversees land use and urban planning amid greater competition for land, as well as allocation of rights over water resources, grasslands and forests.

Hu Chunhua, 54, Vice-Premier Han Zheng, 63, Executive Sun Chunlan, 67, Vice-Premier Liu He, 66, Vice-Premier Luo Shugang, 62, • Once seen as a potential Vice-Premier • The only woman occupying a • The Harvard-educated Minister of Culture and Tourism successor to Mr Xi, Mr Hu’s • The former Shanghai party boss top government position, Ms Sun economist who represented China • A senior propaganda of cial, political prospects dimmed after is rst among equals on the next is a former party boss of the at Davos last year serves as Mr Xi’s Mr Luo was appointed to this Mr Xi declined to promote the rung of the leadership, as the only politically important Tianjin. Ms top economic adviser, and is a newly-created ministry that merges the former Guangdong party chief to vice-premier who also sits on the Sun heads the Chinese close con dant having grown up in Ministry of Culture and the National the elite Politburo Standing elite seven-man PSC. Trained in Communist Party’s (CCP) United the same elite circles in Beijing. Mr Tourism Administration at a time when Committee (PSC), the top echelon economics, Mr Han will run the Front Work Department, the organ Liu double-hats as director of the China sees tourism and culture working of political power in China. But his State Council, or Cabinet, together in charge of spreading the CCP’s General Of ce serving the CCP’s in tandem to enhance its soft power and age and appointment as with Mr Li Keqiang. He is also in‰uence abroad, which includes Leading Group for Financial and global in‰uence. The ideologue is vice-premier means Mr Hu, a Hu likely to have a diplomatic role, as getting Chinese students Economic Affairs, the highest body expected to strengthen China’s overseas Jintao protege (no relation) who he was Mr Xi’s envoy to the Winter overseas to uphold the party line coordinating China’s economic links at a time when its soft power is also rose up through the CYL, may Olympics in South Korea. and limiting Taiwan’s space on the matters, putting him at the heart taking on a sharper point. yet be groomed for higher of ce. international stage. of Mr Xi’s inner circle.

18 China Focus

KEY PORTFOLIOS

Yang Xiaodu, 64, Wei Fenghe, 64, Yi Gang, 60, Zhao Kezhi, 64, director of National Defence Minister governor of the People’s Minister of Public Supervision Commission • Among the rst in the top Bank of China (PBOC) Security • Formerly the Minister for military brass to declare • A protege and long-time • A Xi loyalist, China’s new Supervision and deputy allegiance to Mr Xi when he deputy of his predecessor police chief was former secretary of the party’s took of ce in 2012, the Zhou Xiaochuan, China’s party boss in Guizhou and fearsome anti-corruption former missile force rst new central bank chief Hebei, where he oversaw TOP TIER watchdog under Mr Wang commander has been in 15 years is a the beginnings of the Qishan, Mr Yang heads the instrumental in carrying out US-educated economist Xiong’an New Area new super-agency that Mr Xi’s reorganisation of the who takes over an marked to eventually take brings the various People’s Liberation Army empowered PBOC that was over some of the capital’s anti-corruption into a more streamlined last week granted more functions. Also a state departments under one ghting force. General Wei is control over laws and councillor, Mr Zhao roof and is charged with likely to help Mr Xi deepen regulations for the banking oversees an extensive Wang Qishan, 69, Li Keqiang, 62, Li Zhanshu, 67, investigating both party military reforms, which and insurance sectors. The state surveillance system Vice-President Premier chairman of members and civil includes greater integration former professor takes over and has said he will wield • The man behind • A one-time National servants. As its rst of the various services at a time when the PBOC’s technology such as big Mr Xi’s thumping rival to Mr Xi, the People’s director, he is tasked with through a higher training policies have a growing data and facial anti-graft campaign former Henan and Congress institutionalising China’s tempo and more combat impact on the world’s recognition to crack which has claimed Liaoning party boss • Mr Xi’s chief of anti-graft campaigns. realistic drills. markets. down on crime. countless high-pro le who rose up through staff and key adviser, scalps – like former security the Communist Youth the No. 3 in China’s chief Zhou Yongkang – League (CYL) has seen the leadership hierarchy has been a Mr Wang’s appointment as responsibilities of the premiership xture at important meetings with Wang Yi, 64, Foreign Minister Vice-President will likely reshape a shrink on his watch. An economist by foreign leaders, such as at the • A seasoned diplomat who has served as ambassador to Japan and headed China’s Taiwan previously ceremonial of ce. His training, Mr Li is still nominal head of Xi-Trump summit, and has also Affairs Of ce, Mr Wang not only retained his foreign minister post but was also promoted to state experience in xing commerce government and exerts in‰uence over served as Mr Xi’s personal emissary councillor, China’s top diplomatic job. This is a sign that Beijing is boosting its foreign affairs problems, which he accrued when he economic policy, but the appointment to Russia. A long-time ally of Mr Xi, apparatus, once a second-tier of ce, just as perception of China as a threat is gaining ground. was vice-premier, means the Xi of Mr Wang and top economic aide Liu their friendship stretches back con dant is likely to play a lead role He means he enters his second term three decades to when the two in managing United States-China with less direct power over government men were party secretaries of relations, especially as the threat of a affairs. neighbouring counties in the trade war looms. industrial province of Hebei. EXPANDED RESPONSIBILITIES Guo Shuqing, 61, head of China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission Li Ganjie, 53, Newly elected Considered a reform-minded Vice-Premiers Ecological • VICE-PREMIERS Environment Minister bureaucrat, the former top banker and (from left) Hu deputy central bank governor heads the Chunhua, Han • An environment new super agency created through the Zheng, Sun protection of cial for 18 merger of China’s banking and insurance Chunlan and Liu years, Mr Li heads the regulators. Mr Guo is expected to lead a He taking an expanded ministry with sustained crackdown on risks in China’s oath to the a mandate now covering nance sector, such as shadow banking Constitution at areas such as air, water and risky investment and lending the seventh and soil protection, practices by both banks and insurers. plenary session which were previously of the National divided among different Lu Hao, 50, Natural Resources Minister People's ministries. With Congress on environment protection • A rising political star, the former March 19. now a political priority, Heilongjiang governor who became CYL he will oversee a rst secretary at 41 now heads the ministry with expanded ministry that combines agencies powers to implement previously in charge of land, resources, and enforce environment maritime protection and surveying. Mr Lu protection policies. will be watched for how his new ministry oversees land use and urban planning amid greater competition for land, as well as allocation of rights over water resources, grasslands and forests.

Hu Chunhua, 54, Vice-Premier Han Zheng, 63, Executive Sun Chunlan, 67, Vice-Premier Liu He, 66, Vice-Premier Luo Shugang, 62, • Once seen as a potential Vice-Premier • The only woman occupying a • The Harvard-educated Minister of Culture and Tourism successor to Mr Xi, Mr Hu’s • The former Shanghai party boss top government position, Ms Sun economist who represented China • A senior propaganda of cial, political prospects dimmed after is rst among equals on the next is a former party boss of the at Davos last year serves as Mr Xi’s Mr Luo was appointed to this Mr Xi declined to promote the rung of the leadership, as the only politically important Tianjin. Ms top economic adviser, and is a newly-created ministry that merges the former Guangdong party chief to vice-premier who also sits on the Sun heads the Chinese close con dant having grown up in Ministry of Culture and the National the elite Politburo Standing elite seven-man PSC. Trained in Communist Party’s (CCP) United the same elite circles in Beijing. Mr Tourism Administration at a time when Committee (PSC), the top echelon economics, Mr Han will run the Front Work Department, the organ Liu double-hats as director of the China sees tourism and culture working of political power in China. But his State Council, or Cabinet, together in charge of spreading the CCP’s General Of ce serving the CCP’s PHOTOS: REUTERS, in tandem to enhance its soft power and age and appointment as with Mr Li Keqiang. He is also in‰uence abroad, which includes Leading Group for Financial and global in‰uence. The ideologue is vice-premier means Mr Hu, a Hu likely to have a diplomatic role, as getting Chinese students Economic Affairs, the highest body BLOOMBERG, expected to strengthen China’s overseas Jintao protege (no relation) who he was Mr Xi’s envoy to the Winter overseas to uphold the party line coordinating China’s economic EPA-EFE, links at a time when its soft power is also rose up through the CYL, may Olympics in South Korea. and limiting Taiwan’s space on the matters, putting him at the heart XINHUA taking on a sharper point. yet be groomed for higher of ce. international stage. of Mr Xi’s inner circle.

19 Perspective Helping citizens to keep it real online

ntense debates arose during the operations of the past, fake news is The harm of fake news is accentuated public hearings of the Select being leveraged determinedly now for by news filter bubbles which echo the Committee on Deliberate Online political purposes because the results beliefs of the like-minded and exert Falsehoods on whether new laws are often spectacular, as witnessed polarising effects. Tech giants also play are needed to deal with a scourge during the 2016 American presidential a part in influencing people in the Ithat has been put on steroids by the election and the Brexit referendum. way they covertly calibrate algorithms online world. Despite the pervasiveness to rank content before pushing it of fake news, activists maintain that ex- Old remedies are insufficient at targeted users. In the Cambridge isting legislation suffices because they for new ills; yet strong Analytica scandal, misappropriated fear overreaching laws might be abused. prescriptions might have data of Facebook users was used for Others, however, pointed to the untram- unintended results, like microtargeting purposes – individualised melled power of giant tech firms who curbing news reporting and streaming of dubious messages to have contributed to the hyper speed fair comment. Striking the right influence the unsuspecting. Such at which fake news travels. Their lack balance for the nation is the practices must be reined in; tech giants of transparency over how they oper- challenge facing the committee. have to own up to the role they are ate – from the algorithms that promote playing in shaping democratic processes stories to the organisations that pay for and outcomes, however inadvertent. content to be produced and played up Here, half of those surveyed by Reach, New laws alone won’t solve the – not to mention the shocking recent a government feedback unit, identified problems created by disinformation revelations about misuse of users’ data, WhatsApp and Facebook as the main campaigns. Other avenues worth do not inspire confidence that relying sources of bogus news. This circulates exploring include media literacy; fact- on self-policing will produce results. widely because it evokes suspicion, checking mechanisms; Web extensions Old remedies are insufficient for new fear and anger. The truth might sound to flag what is real, fake or satire; and ills; yet strong prescriptions might have bland in comparison, especially when an independent body for objective unintended results, like curbing news presented in officialese and jargon, as judgments when the truth is not black reporting and fair comment. Striking well as when there is inordinate delay in or white. Ultimately, citizens must be the right balance for the nation is the fashioning a response. Not surprisingly, empowered with information – and challenge facing the committee. facts take about six times longer to reach sceptical minds – to check the spread A tactic of black propaganda people, according to one study. of false claims.  Gambits threaten rule-based order his has been a challenging potential impact of the tariffs. companies to transfer technologies, and and frenetic month for The tariffs on Chinese goods - the inadequate protection of intellectual global trade. Earlier this list of which will be published by mid- property rights. month, American President April - are not due to take effect until Thus, since the tariffs were Donald Trump announced June. Prior to that, a public consultation announced, US officials have indicated Timport tariffs of 25 per cent on steel will be held, during which there will that they are “cautiously hopeful” of and 10 per cent on aluminium in the almost certainly be pushback. Large reaching mutually satisfactory trade name of national security, initially on sections of US industry would stand to arrangements with China. This is by all countries. Then on March 22, Mr lose from the tariffs, as well as from no means assured, but hopefully, what Trump called for tariffs on US$60 bil- the potential retaliation by China. These threatened to be a potentially disastrous lion (S$79 billion) worth of Chinese would include much of the organised trade war just a week ago, might turn goods, in addition to tighter restrictions retail sector as well as the information out to be a resolvable trade skirmish. on inward investment from China. Bei- technology industry and agricultural What is worrying is that the World jing promptly responded that it would, interests. Trade Organisation (WTO) has been if necessary, retaliate. largely reduced to the role of a spectator To some extent, and at least so far, What is worrying is that the in the ongoing trade drama. By invoking the protectionist threats have been World Trade Organisation (WTO) national security as the rationale for more bark than bite. For example, soon has been largely reduced to the the metal tariffs, Mr Trump was able after announcing the metal tariffs, Mr role of a spectator in the ongoing to bypass the WTO (as well as the US Trump allowed several countries to be trade drama. Congress). The tariffs on China were exempted - first, Canada and Mexico based on Section 301 of the US Trade (with whom the US is renegotiating the Meanwhile, US and Chinese trade Act of 1974, which permits unilateral North American Free Trade Agreement); officials are engaged in talks. The action by the US. The move violates and later, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chinese, who have long favoured the spirit, if not the letter, of WTO the European Union and South Korea. a negotiated solution, have already rules. So even though we may avoid Given that collectively these countries indicated a willingness to be flexible. the prospect of a trade war, for now, account for more than two-thirds of Issues which the US and many of we are witnessing threats to the rules- US imports of steel and aluminium, China’s other trade partners attach based system that governs world trade. the exemptions significantly dilute the high priority to include requiring foreign That shouldn’t be taken lightly.  20 Public Hearing of the Select Committee on deliberate online falsehoods. PHOTO: GOV.SG Keeping it real in Singapore A high-level parliamentary committee examines how the Republic could thwart deliberate online falsehoods hree months after Singa- findings to Parliament. pore’s Parliament voted A number of clues on what to expect unanimously to form a from the committee’s report were Select Committee to study revealed during the public hearing the issue of deliberate on- phase, with committee members Tline falsehoods, the panel completed showing their thinking through the the public hearings phase of its work questions they asked and the themes on March 29. they focused on. Over eight days, the committee heard Here’s a look at five recommendations from 65 speakers in public hearings that that could emerge from the fake news lasted 50 hours. It also considered 170 Select Committee, compiled by our written submissions. It will reconvene political writers Tham Yuen-C, Ng Jun in May to deliberate on a report of its Sen and Seow Bei Yi. 

Defining fake news Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam key question asked of the K. Shanmugam stressed said courts have no Select Committee had to do several times that the difficulty identifying what is false and what is true. with how deliberate online committee was not dealing PHOTO: GOV.SG Afalsehoods would be defined. with opinions, no matter During the exchanges, committee how irresponsible, as long members gave a hint of what factors as they are based on a Lawyers and law academics could be considered in defining it: substratum of facts. generally agreed that it was the deliberate intent of the person or A few said that any new laws to possible to define a deliberate organisation spreading the information; counter deliberate online falsehoods online falsehood. that it appears on an online platform; must be clear in their definitions, On this, Mr Shanmugam said that it is demonstrably false; and has Other witnesses suggested that the falsehoods are already defined in a significant impact, such as affecting Government should not be the sole various places in Singapore’s current national security or racial and religious definer of truth, with some saying that laws, and the courts have “no difficulty harmony. independent bodies should define it identifying what is false and what is Home Affairs and Law Minister instead. true”.

21 Insight

Enacting new legislation Setting up he issue of legislation was Any legislation to counter mentioned every day deliberate online falsehoods fact-checking during hearings. should not be broad and sweeping, said SPH editor- mechanisms Several commit- in-chief Warren Fernandez. T PHOTO: GOV.SG tee members, such as Law and Home Affairs Minister aving a fact-checking mech- K. Shanmugam, MP Edwin too sweeping and broad, anism was a popular sug- Tong and Nominated MP and does not punish those gestion at the Select Com- Chia Yong Yong said several who inadvertently share Hmittee hearings, and could times that they personally felt falsehoods or crimp the ability be among the measures to be recom- new legislation was necessary. of journalists to do their job. mended. This was also the sentiment of Several activists and content produc- While the end goal is Singapore Management University ers running alternative news websites to help people verify School of Law dean Goh Yihan, who strongly objected to new legislation, information, witness- said that the current legislative tools suggesting that it will be used to cur- es proposed differ- “run up against limitations - of scope, tail free speech and stifle legitimate ent ways to do this, speed and adaptability”. dissenting views. including having a Many recommendations during But some speakers made a distinction fact-checking ser- the hearings involved some kind of between deliberate online falsehoods vice, setting up inde- mechanism that can quickly remove and free speech. pendent fact-checking or prevent access to online falsehoods, National University of Singapore organisations or support- whether by compelling people or (NUS) law professor Thio Li-ann, an ing fact-checking networks expert in constitutional law, said untruths technology platforms such as Facebook online. and Twitter to remove the illegal content - designed to mislead people, manipulate Singapore Press Committee or blocking them. election results and turn groups against member Senior Holdings and broad- Some who supported the idea one another - harm society and undermine Minister of a new law also said it should be democracy, and belong to a category of caster Channel of State for NewsAsia (CNA) said Communications carefully calibrated, so that it is not speech that does not warrant protection. and Information they were willing to Janil Puthucheary form a fact-checking asked if an alliance, which could independent fact- include not only media checking body Regulating tech companies would be able companies and indus- to respond fast t several points over the Facebook Asia-Pacific vice- try practitioners, but enough. PHOTO: eight-day hearings, president of public policy also other interested GOV.SG Simon Milner admitted that the committee it did wrong in withholding parties. For such an showed a gro- information about the data alliance to be seen as A breach. PHOTO: GOV.SG tesque cartoon of male, a trusted arbiter of truth, it should sit ethnic minority migrants independently from government bodies abusing a semi-nude white policing by the tech firms and commercial entities, they said. woman and killing her baby was insufficient. A concern raised by the committee - accompanied by a Twitter As self-regulation appears was whether fact-checking services hashtag “#DeportallMuslims”. to be lacking, several speakers would be able to address serious It was an image seemingly tell Insight that the committee falsehoods that have national security created to inflame anti-immigrant is likely to deliberate on ways to or public health implications. sentiments around the world. But during regulate social media platforms, which a British parliamentary hearing, a Twit- in recent years have become very Senior Minister of State for ter executive said the tech giant would dominant forums carrying a great deal Communications and Information Janil not remove the image as “it was not in of citizen discourse. Puthucheary, a committee member, breach of its hateful conduct policy”. These rules could force tech firms to asked if an independent fact-checking In Singapore, representatives of tech take more active steps, such as flagging body could respond fast enough, giants Google, Facebook and Twitter disputed content, strengthening their suggesting that a take-down may be a could not answer when Law and Home detection of falsehoods, deprioritising necessary first step in such instances. Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam used unreliable online news sources and this same example to show that self- removing fake accounts.

Enhancing media literacy ncluding media literacy as part of measures to counter disinformation, said be falsehoods deliberately sown; no a multi-pronged approach to coun- Mr Benjamin Ang, a senior fellow at the legislation can, and will, put an end to ter the spread of online falsehoods S. Rajaratnam School of International such activity”. Iwas a recurring call by academics, Studies, who was a witness at the This is why “our first line of defence students and civil society alike. hearings. has to be a population of media-savvy The building of such literacy, and Singapore Management University individuals”, he said, adding that it urging against the sharing of information law don Eugene Tan noted in his written would be “too late” to rely on the without checks, could form long-term submission that “there will always authorities to step in each time.

22 Insight

Disinformation in action

Foreign and local experts at the Select Committee for Deliberate Online Falsehoods Latvia brought up examples of deliberate falsehoods and disinformation they have come • Latvia is a target of across in their countries and the region. Lester Hio looks at eight countries Russian-sponsored disinformation, due to its mentioned during the hearing, where disinformation has been and is in action. history and proximity. • Russian propaganda targets Russian-speakers France Germany in Latvia, downplaying its • The French presidential • In 2016, a 13-year old girl growing economy and election last year was hit named Lisa of Russian descent playing up its structural by falsehoods spread claimed she was abducted and problems such as high during the election raped by three men of Middle social inequality and poor campaign. Eastern appearance in Berlin. healthcare. • Eventual presidential • Russian media accused winner Emmanuel Macron German police of not taking was the target of fake action, and featured emotional news articles which interviews with family and accused him of harbouring secret offshore accounts. community. • These rumours circulated hours before a televised • While the Berlin police issued debate with his opponent Marine Le Pen, complete a statement after interviewing with falsi„ed documents posted online. the victim that there was • In January, Mr Macron said he would present new neither abduction nor rape, legislation to „ght the spread of fake news. and that the girl had retracted her initial story and had actually spent the night at a friend’s place instead, Russian-language media continued to report on the story without giving equal play to the Berlin police’s response. • This led to activists accusing the authorities of a cover-up, resulting in hundreds of ethnic Russians and anti-migrant activists holding protests against Germany. Ukraine • Russian-led disinformation campaigns make up most of the „ght United States against falsehoods in Ukraine, as the Kremlin • The term “fake news” gained seeks to consolidate its prominence during the 2016 control over the country. United States presidential election, popularised by eventual • Russian media, such as presidential winner Donald Trump. RT and Sputnik, have carried out long, sustained • The election has since been disinformation campaigns discovered to have suspected in Ukraine for years, Russian involvement, which especially after Russian Mr Trump allegedly worked with to military incursions in 2014. sway the campaign in his favour. • The election also saw the use of online botnets – automated accounts run by computers – to Malaysia spread rumours and false news • A data „rm which uses reports discrediting the pro„ling to send unique candidates. messages, which could Indonesia include disinformation, to • A fake news factory, Saracen, voters might be at play in charged its clients tens of Malaysia. millions of rupiah to publish and • Cambridge Analytica, spread fake news and even hate which also worked with speech against others. Mr Donald Trump during • It is thought to be involved in the 2016 United States spreading rumours against election, might have former Jakarta governor been hired by people Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, involved in the upcoming which included attacks general elections, said Dr on his Chinese ancestry Shashi Jayakumar of the and Christian religion. S. Rajaratnam School of Current Indonesian International Studies. president Joko Widodo is • The „rm can send also an ongoing target. targeted ads to users South Africa • Online fake news based on survey • Sophisticated botnets on Twitter were used to in‡uence factories continue to behaviour and online the results of the election of a new leader for the African ‡ourish in Indonesia pro„les, including National Congress last December. based on the lucrative content which might be • These accounts were created to impersonate genuine nature of the trade, false or fake. Twitter users in order to seem more legitimate. They with one estimate shared same names with Twitter users, but replaced suggesting that a lower-case “Ls” with “1s” and “Os” with numerical zeros. single popular post on Saracen could • While they did not appear in large numbers, this serves bring in 100 million as a warning of future tactics in the upcoming presidential rupiah ($9,500). election in 2019, said defence and disinformation analyst Ben Nimmo.

23 World Watch

Simon Johnson For The Straits Times Should tech companies be more tightly regulated?

Facebook currently looks like a special case

n the wake of recent high-pro- tential spillover effects: bank failures can file tech scares, such as a fatal- bring down the whole economy. That is ity involving an Uber self-driv- why safety nets, such as deposit insur- ing car and Facebook’s alleged ance, have been put in place. But the mishandling of users’ personal existence of deposit insurance creates Idata, stricter regulation of the industry room for abuse, in the form of excessive – along the lines of, say, the financial risk-taking, because bank executives get sector – has become the policy question the upside if things goes well, and any du jour. Stock market values for leading potential losses are imposed on the insur- tech companies are down – or perhaps ance fund. Preventing abuse and encour- just becoming more volatile – in the aging appropriate caution requires rules, light of such concerns. and the US Federal Deposit Insurance Obviously, rules regarding motor Corporation is one of the world’s best vehicles need to be examined carefully. examples of how to make these work. ST ILLUSTRATION: MANUEL A FRANCISCO In the United States, this is generally a The world of high technology – state-level decision, though the federal computer hardware, software, and ple, are very strong in specific activities. National Transportation Safety Board digital services – is very different. There But they do not exhibit the kind of mo- has a very good reputation for its is plenty of competition for hardware. nopoly pricing behaviour that triggers investigations and often changes how If one firm gets into trouble, it will anti-trust action by the government. And we think about best practices. The not bring down the system. Of course, it is not clear what other kind of regu- NTSB is investigating the Uber crash some policymakers like to favour lation would be helpful to customers. and previously assessed a fatality “national champions” vis-à-vis involving a Tesla vehicle. international competitors, A MAJOR STEP As for Facebook, press but this raises issues that reports suggest that the com- are different from regulating FORWARD pany may have made some behaviour. The European Union is considering egregious mistakes. One hopes Amazon is a powerful and more regulation of digital firms, and we will learn more about the rising company, spanning mul- insisting on greater care for the handling details of its decision-making tiple activities – now including of data may make sense. But the EU also Give the on data privacy when its chair- grocery stores and the deliv- substantially missed out on the round man and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, ery of fresh food. But it has of digital entrepreneurship that began testifies before Congress, as he plenty of competitors in in the 1990s, and it is not generally at has agreed to do. this area, and existing the forefront of this sector currently – But responding with rules and regula- so few people in the US are rushing to of tighter regulation at the tions (such as those follow its example. federal level seems pre- covering how food To avoid misunderstanding, let me mature, even for these is handled) seem be clear: not everything is going well specific activities – let sufficient. with regard to US government policy in Gift alone for the broader Other digi- this area. In particular, the impending tech sector. tal-based com- repeal of the “net neutrality” rule by the PER PEC IVE Finance is regulated panies, such as Federal Communications Commission S T GET TO KNOW YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD UP CLOSE. FIND OUT WHAT’S AT STAKE AND WHY IT MATTERS. because of major po- Google and Ap- (FCC) appears to be a major step toward

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. PHOTO: REUTERS 24 Grab a copy at all good bookstores and www.stpressbooks.com.sg World Watch

loal Social edia favouring large incumbents and away new regulation – just the application from making it easy for digital startups of existing regulations. The principles Facebook remains the most popular to prosper quickly. Andy Lippman of the applied by securities regulators since the social network worldwide, as of January MIT Media Lab has a very good video 1930s remain sensible: protect investors 2018, ranked by number of active users explainer on this issue, which should and require sufficient disclosure of all (in millions) be required viewing for policymakers the risks involved in an investment. million (and voters). The same is true of self-driving Facebook 2,167 Facebook currently looks like a cars. There were 40,000 road fatalities YouTube 1,500 special case, in the sense that network in 2016 in the US, and more than one WhatsApp 1,300 effects mean millions of people will stick million worldwide, according to the FB Messenger 1,300 with this service, regardless of how they latest World Health Organisation data. WeChat 980 are treated. And there may have been As in all previous years, human error QQ 843 some misunderstanding or (allegedly) of various kinds was responsible for Instagram 800 miscommunication regarding how most of these deaths. Reducing road Tumblr** 794 their personal data would be treated. fatalities is an important goal, and the QZone 568 Facebook faces understandable political growing engagement of tech companies Sina Weibo 376 pressure to change its practices, but what (and competition with the established Twitter 330 it really needs is new competitors that auto companies) should be welcomed, Baidu Tieba* 300 prove they can be profitable while Skype* 300 in the interest of improving road safety. putting privacy first. LinkedIn** 260 NOTE: *Platforms have Here, too, existing regulatory principles, Viber* 260 not published Cryptocurrencies reflect a growing and the agencies that apply and enforce updated user figures overlap between finance and tech. them, should be given an opportunity Snapchat** 255 in the past 12 months, Reddit 250 figures may be out of It would not be a surprise if the US to prove themselves. PROJECT LINE 203 date and less reliable. Securities and Exchange Commission SYNDICATE. Pinterest 200 **These platforms do determined that a great deal of recent yy 117 not publish MAU data, money-raising activity (known as Initial user figures from The writer is a professor at MIT’s Sloan Telegram* 100 third-party reports. Coin Offerings) in this industry actually School of Management and the co- VKontakte 97 amounts to the issuance of securities, author of White House Burning: The BBM* 63 Sources: WE ARE SOCIAL, which would trigger the application of Founding Fathers, Our National Debt, Kakaotalk 49 DIGITAL IN 2018 IN SOUTHEAST ASIA various rules and requirements. But and Why It Matters to You  STRAITS TIMES GRAPHICS such a decision would not amount to

Give the Gift of PERS PECT IVE GET TO KNOW YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD UP CLOSE. FIND OUT WHAT’S AT STAKE AND WHY IT MATTERS.

Grab a copy at all good bookstores and www.stpressbooks.com.sg 25 Thinking Aloud

Chua Mui Hoong Opinion Editor My relationship with Facebook: It’s complicated

Taking to Facebook on Facebook fast for the rest of Lent.” to announce Then the irony of taking an intention to to Facebook to announce my intention to withdraw withdraw from it from it – which would com- pel me to check feverish- ly to see what my friends have a love-hate relationship with thought of the decision – Facebook. If there was a status struck me. update for Facebook, it would I deleted that post. In- read: It’s complicated. stead, I went to settings, I’ve been on Facebook for clicked on general account Iyears, and come to love it. I check it settings, picked manage ac- frequently for work reasons, to read count, and hit Deactivate. what others are posting and commenting I couldn’t bring myself on. As Opinion editor, I use it to promote to #deleteFacebook. I could and share commentaries published in only deactivate it. Like I The Straits Times. I use Messenger to said, it’s complicated. There harangue contributors, asking them might be some co-depend- to write for The Straits Times. I’m ency going on. sometimes able to identify topics that Deactivating my Face- whet their interests, by looking at what book account was an act of they have been posting. pique, a gesture of annoy- I obsessively click through on my ance at the social media gi- Facebook friends’ many, interesting ant for the way it has acted. articles. I selectively Like, Feel Sad or It has certainly been less Love them. I count the number of times than upfront about the fact friends Like my post, Comment on it, that it had let third-party or Share it. apps access users’ data and When I’m feeling lonesome, it gives users’ friends list, without me a sense of community and connection with others. Never mind if I’m in a foul their permission. mood that day; on Facebook I can post When it found out that cheery updates, engage people I have such data, from 270,000 never met in serious conversations or users who took part in bantering ones, and then feel better. an initial survey in 2014, Facebook can be an emotional crutch, had been passed on to and I, of all people, who work, eat, live data analytics company and breathe news and information, Cambridge Analytica (CA), should know. it requested that CA delete Then, last Wednesday, I sat in my the data. CA said Okay. This ST ILLUSTRATION: MIEL office Toast Box cafe, and slowly scrolled was in 2015. Facebook through my list of Facebook apps, and didn’t check if it had done so, and kept the British and Singapore Parliaments, deleted them one by one. After about mum about it. and likely, the United States Congress is 30 minutes, I had only removed about Until March 2018, when a whistle- next. The US Federal Trade Commission 50 of them. I hadn’t even known I had blower went to the media with the story. (FTC) is investigating if Facebook given permission to these apps to reside CA reportedly used some of those violated an earlier promise to get users’ on my Facebook account, let alone to data to build a database of 50 million consent before harvesting their data. mine my account for my personal data, profiles of voters and used it to help its As a Facebook user, I’ve often found and my friends’ data. client, Mr Donald Trump, win the 2016 it sneaky when it comes to privacy By Wednesday evening, as more United States presidential campaign, so issues. information about Cambridge Analytica the stakes are high. Many of us will take some care to broke, I had enough. I started drafting a The social media giant is now in hot set privacy settings when we first set Facebook post that said: “Fed Up. Going soup. Its executives have been grilled in up an account, or once we get the hang

26 Thinking Aloud of using it. I’ve certainly gone into and what you click through to see, are are not privacy-friendly in its privacy Facebook to specify who can see what all potential goldmines. centre and does not provide sufficient information, or who can post items to As we now know, that initial 270,000 information about it when users register,’ my timeline, and even who can send me users’ data became 50 million users, as said Mr Heiko Duenkel, litigation policy friend requests. the app trawled their contacts. This is officer at the VZVB.” A few years ago, I was puzzled as to not so surprising, when you consider The report added: “The Federal why those settings did not appear to be that if each person has just 200 contacts, Cartel Office, in an interim update on respected. Then I read in the news that that 270,000 users will have 54 million an investigation into Facebook, said in Facebook was changing default settings contacts in all. December that it objected to the way without telling users! What profile can it build of those the company gains access to third-party In 2011, it was taken to task by the 50 million users? CA itself admitted data when an account is opened. FTC over its privacy settings policy and recently that it had “5,000 data points “This includes tapping information was asked to get user consent for certain on over 230 million American voters”, from its own WhatsApp and Instagram changes to privacy settings. or almost the entire US population. products – as well as how it tracks which At that time, a news report high- Capturing so many data points translate sites its users access. lighted FTC’s description of Facebook’s to a very high level of granularity in “One concern highlighted by the “deceptive and unfair practices”: “For figuring out what makes a person tick consumer rights group was that, in example, it said Facebook promised – and selling that information en masse Facebook’s app for smartphones, a users that it would not share personal to advertisers. service was pre-activated that revealed information with advertisers, but it did. the user’s location to the person he was Also, the company had failed to warn Many netizens are willing chatting to. users that it was changing its website in to trade some privacy “Also, in the privacy settings, ticks December 2009 so that certain informa- for the convenience and were already placed in boxes that tion that users had designated as private, connections of being on allowed search engines to link to the such as their ‘Friends List’, would be social media networks. But user’s timeline, meaning that anyone made public.” that relationship with the would be able quickly and easily to find As part of that investigation and a user’s profile. subsequent settlement, Facebook was social media platform must be based on trust. ‘The judges ruled that all five of the also forced to subject itself to 20 years default settings on Facebook that VZVB of independent audits. complained about are invalid,’ the group So, one would think Facebook would I wouldn’t mind so much if advertisers said in a statement, adding that several have learnt to take data privacy much targeted me to sell things like handbags. other of Facebook’s terms of use were more seriously right? For example, At one phase, I was clicking through found to be illegal.” surely the privacy settings you set are many handbag ads, and I was quite This was just a month ago. It does cast in stone? pleased to see more such ads popping up not look like Facebook’s track record on Unfortunately, no. Because there on my feed. I enjoyed watching videos user privacy has substantively improved. are settings, and there are settings, and from crowdfunded stores promising the Many netizens are willing to trade smartphone apps and Facebook apps world’s best office laptop handbag for some privacy for the convenience and are so smart, most of us have no clue women, or a smart travel jacket with connections of being on social media what permission we are giving them pockets for all your devices. networks. But that relationship with the and what liberties they are taking with But I would hate for my personal data social media platform must be based our personal information when we to be sold to people who want to get into on trust. download an app. my brain to influence my vote or my Platforms have to show they are After all, Facebook is just a platform ideas, or to manipulate me into joining trustworthy custodians of data. After on which thousands of apps ride. Smart a protest, an organisation or a riot. all, data is their gold. They should developers are designing fun, interactive Personal agency is very important, be treasuring it, protecting it, and games and quizzes that lure you into especially in an age of social media harvesting it for only the highest yields, taking part. For example, I’m a sucker for nudges and algorithm-defined news not hawking it like some tawdry ware psychological quizzes. What mythological that pull us along predefined paths. I and handing it over lock, stock and Greek goddess do I take after? What would like to think I can remain an barrel to any third-party app. colour appeals to me naturally? What autonomous person with my own views does my profile picture say about my Facebook has to evolve from sociability/ physical age/ sociopathic and preferences, and not be some rag being sneaky to being responsible. Its tendencies? I often while away minutes doll jerked here and there by some sneakiness may have sprung from its before bed doing these quizzes. master-puppeteer. roots as an undergrad jock page to rate Until last Wednesday when I started Apart from the US, Facebook is also girls. But these days, with over two looking at app permissions, I hadn’t facing the heat in Germany for consent billion users and US$40 billion (S$52.6 realised that answering those quizzes issues. billion) in annual revenue from selling also meant I had inadvertently let them Reuters reported last month : “The those data, it has to grow up. take up permanent residency in my Federation of German Consumer Or- Deactivating Facebook means I’m account, and permitted them to trawl ganisations (VZVB) said that Facebook’s taking time out from my relationship. my data and even my friends’. default settings and some of its terms of But a part of me hopes the frat boy In fact, it looks like a lot more service were in breach of consumer law, grows up real fast and learns not to take than lists of names, workplaces, and and that the court had found parts of its users for granted. birthdates are being harvested. Location the consent to data usage to be invalid. data, likes, dislikes, what you search for, ‘Facebook hides default settings that [email protected] 

27 Regional Focus Asia’s growth hubs Several countries in Asia are focusing on developing growth zones that will create thousands of jobs, develop areas into metropolises and encourage investments. Here’s an overview of some of them:

The 100ha Nongsa Digital Park is slightly larger than Singapore Botanic Gardens. PHOTO: NONGSA DIGITAL PARK Batam tech park aims to be ‘digital bridge’

by Infinite Studios, a Singapore- beginning, a pilot project of our further based integrated media entertainment efforts to achieve Indonesia’s digital Arlina and creative services company, and economy potential,” she told 350 guests Arshad developed by its parent, Citramas at the launch ceremony. “A journey of a Regional Group. thousand miles begins with a first step, Correspondent The foreign ministers of Indonesia and this is a good step.” and Singapore said it was an example of Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian new multimillion-dollar how both neighbours can work together Balakrishnan said the park shows how technology park in Batam through the private sector for mutual both neighbours can work together was launched in March, benefit. with the private sector for a “win-win and it aims to bring dig- Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno outcome”. He said: “We are happy to ital entrepreneurs from Marsudi said it was “a concrete follow- encourage more mutually beneficial Athe region together in an environment up” to discussions between President projects with Batam. A thriving, where its developers hope they can Joko Widodo and Prime Minister confident, creative digital hub in Batam “work, live and play”. Lee Hsien Loong at their retreat last will be good for Indonesia, good for The 100ha Nongsa Digital Park, September to develop Batam as a Singapore, and good for our region.” slightly larger than Singapore’s Botanic “digital bridge” between Singapore and The park is expected to rake in more Gardens, is Batam’s first large-scale many of Indonesia’s fast-growing cities. than US$500 million (S$659 million) in commercial project. It was mooted “This Nongsa Digital Park is a potential investments, its senior director

28 Marco Bardelli said in a statement. So far, three of nine office blocks Digital Free Trade Zone have been completed in the first phase, which will create some 1,500 jobs. There in Sepang, Malaysia are plans for pathways for eco-friendly and Cainiao Network, Alibaba’s logistics electric bicycles and buggies, and more arm. This facility will only begin retail and food and beverage outlets. Trinna operations in 2020. Four main tenants now occupy Leong Both facilities hope to halve border two office blocks. One is Glints, a Malaysia clearance and handling times for cargo recruitment platform which helps to Correspondent to three hours. build engineering teams for companies DFTZ has been touted by Malaysian in Singapore and Indonesia. More than alaysia and the world’s officials and Alibaba as a platform that 30 Indonesian developers and software largest retailer Alibaba will propel small and medium-sized engineers currently work out of a 150 sq launched a regional enterprises, particularly in Asia, on to m open-plan office space in a two-storey logistics hub in Novem- the online marketplace. Alibaba has set bungalow overlooking a lake. Said its ber, aimed at small and up a similar hub in Hangzhou, China. chief executive Oswald Yeo, 25: “We can Mmedium-sized businesses. The DTFZ comprises eFulfilment help our Singapore client companies “We want to redefine global trade... and satellite service hubs while the tap a regional and cost-effective tech I look forward to the rebirth of the eServices platform serves as a virtual talent pool.” new Silk Road,” said Malaysian Prime zone, making it easier for customers’ Ms Ho Semun, executive director Minister Najib Razak at the launch of clearance, warehousing and logistics. of Singapore IT industry association the Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ), It also allows global market players SGTech, said: “There is interest from alongside Alibaba founder Jack Ma. to source from Malaysia’s producers and local companies in the Nongsa Digital “With DFTZ, small businesses can sellers, making the country a regional Park but work is still in progress.” use the digital way to sell and buy fulfilment hub for global brands. A spokesman for Singapore’s things. They can also buy global and The government hopes that the DTFZ Economic Development Board said the sell global,” said Mr Ma in his speech. will see the involvement of over 9,000 park “provides a valuable digital bridge The first phase of DFTZ is a SMEs by the end of 2018. across the region”. warehousing facility close to Kuala Estimates suggest it could also create Singapore companies are able Lumpur’s international airport to be 60,000 jobs and double SME exports to to further their opportunities and operated by national courier, POS RM162.9 billion (S$55.2 billion) by 2025. expand into Indonesia’s market, while Malaysia. The former cargo terminal - Additional information from The Indonesian and regional companies are has already been transformed into a Star/Asia News Network.  able to co-create new solutions, test new full-fledged warehouse with sorting, ideas and be involved in joint digital shelving and pick-pack facilities that projects in the region, she said. deploy automated guidance vehicles. “The park serves to support The facility will initially serve companies, not just in the e-commerce Lazada, the region’s largest online retail sector, but also other sectors that mall. Alibaba holds an 83 per cent stake require digital talent, as they grow their in Lazada after injecting US$2 billion businesses,” she added. (S$2.7 billion) in investments into the Mr Lukita Dinarsyah Tuwo, chairman Singapore-based startup. of the Batam Indonesia Free Zone Datuk Seri Najib and Mr Ma, who Authority, said the authorities are was made digital economy adviser to looking into carving the park into the the Malaysian government in November island’s first special economic zone, with 2016, also held a groundbreaking Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak with more tax allowances and tax holidays. ceremony for the zone’s second phase, a Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, looking at a model of the Digital Free Trade Zone at its 24ha new facility to be jointly developed launch in Sepang, in November. [email protected]  by Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad PHOTO: BERNAMA

Myanmar plans massive Yangon development

Shenzhen city did for China. director in NYDC. The massive industrialisation effort Mr Yeo, the chairman of Hong Kong- will cover an area over twice the size headquartered Kerry Logistics, told The Tan Hui Yee of Singapore, lying west of the river by Straits Times that he has known Mr Serge Indochina Myanmar’s commercial capital. It will Pun since the 1990s and was invited by Bureau Chief contain homes, factories, power plants him to sit on the NYDC board. and water treatment plants. Yangon, Mr Yeo said, has developed ingapore’s former foreign Its development will be driven by much of late, but “the city needs much minister George Yeo has the New Yangon Development Co better infrastructure”. been tapped to help lead (NYDC), which is fully owned by the “Like Shanghai and Suzhou, new the development of a Yan- Yangon region government but will have space has to be opened up so that the old gon city extension billed to Myanmar tycoon Serge Pun as its chief city can be refurbished and renewed.” Sspur growth for Myanmar, just like what executive. Mr Yeo is an independent Given its massive size, governmental 29 Regional Focus

control is important. “It has to be government-owned like new Pudong or Suzhou new district or JTC. It is big and has to be managed as a town or city,” he said. Jurong Town Corporation, currently known as JTC Corporation, created Singapore’s first industrial township in Jurong, and later went on to develop other industrial and business facilities across the island. Pudong New Area in Shanghai and Cars slow to a crawl in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city. FILE PHOTO: TAN HUI YEE Suzhou new district are industrial and business zones created by China. region chief minister Phyo Min Thein companies would not bid for projects Plans to develop the area south-west said it would rely on public-private in the New Yangon development while of Yangon had been made for years, but partnerships to provide financing. he heads NYDC. were dogged by controversy. While at least US$1.5 billion (S$2 Mr Yeo, meanwhile, said at the launch: The previous government initially billion) would be needed to fulfil this “It is natural that in the development of awarded an exclusive development plan, the regional government will New Yangon, NYDC will scour the world contract to a firm with Chinese ties, provide capital of just US$7 million, for ideas and learn from the experience but had to launch a new tender after reported state media outlet The of other countries, of countries nearby a public outcry. While three other Global New Light of Myanmar. The and those farther away. companies were later pronounced development is expected to create some “We have to be both idealistic and as winners, the National League for two million jobs. practical. If we are not idealistic, we will Democracy government reviewed the Mr Serge Pun has vast interests in not develop New Yangon well for the project once it came into power in 2016. Myanmar’s real estate, aviation and long term. But we must also be practical When launching the New Yangon financial sectors, and is the chairman in order to draw in investors quickly development over the weekend, Yangon of Yoma Bank. He has vowed that his and create good jobs.” 

Xiongan holds out promise for firms

An aerial view By Fu Jing of construction workers working to o the south of Beijing, Xion- build the gan New Area is taking Citizen Service Center of shape not only to offload Xiongan non-capital functions from New Area Beijing but also to become in Xiongan, Ta “world-class water and forest city”. Hebei Province of China. The new city in Hebei province will be PHOTO: larger than London, which covers about GETTY IMAGES 1,500 square kilometers. Essentially, Xiongan New Area is a strategy to reduce congestion in the Chinese capital and create a new high- tech economic engine for China. Xiongan will be different compared to in water treatment, environmental According to the vision plan, the Shenzhen or Pudong New Area, China’s protection and ecological conservation. new city will restrict the population to two leading high-tech and economic There are plans to build a world-class 5 million with modern living conditions. powerhouses in the south and east. university in Xiongan. This is a visionary It will attract the best brains from across Unlike the 1980s or 1990s when idea but not easy to realise. Cambridge, the world. Shenzhen and Pudong New Area were Oxford and Harvard could provide Work has already started on a high- opened up to the outside world, China expertise while Peking University and speed railway linking Beijing and Xiongan, today is a full member of the World Trade Tsinghua University could also lend a where the authorities have plans to build Organisation, so foreign investors can no helping hand. Asia’s biggest railway station. Dozens of longer enjoy preferential policies such as Moreover, Xiongan will consistently China’s leading high-tech companies have tax breaks and low-cost land. Besides, need large amounts of capital, and the agreed to set up representative offices in Chinese investors have become much Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank the core district while many construction more competitive and technologically has said financing China’s projects will projects are in full swing. advanced. not be its priority. This leaves space As a new “Silicon Valley” in the Still, there are lots of opportunities for other commercial and multilateral making, Xiongan holds out a lot of for foreign investors as China further financial institutions to invest in the new promise for foreign investors in the years opens up to the outside world. For area, either through proposals to build to come. But given China’s four decades example, to build Xiongan into a a financial district or through financial of opening-up and reform, foreign modern, eco-friendly city, European services such as loans. investors must realise the conditions in countries could offer their experiences – China Daily/Asia News Network  30 Lunch with Sumiko

Sumiko Tan Executive Editor

At 92, Malaysia’s Mahathir’s former prime minister is fighting the unfinished strangest electoral business battle of his life

un Dr Mahathir Mohamad food-loving Singaporeans eats very little. will find hard to stomach – He has ordered spaghetti stop eating once something beef bolognese but is tastes delicious. full after several small “Once you are fat, to Tmouthfuls. “This is too much for me,” become thin again is very he murmurs 30 minutes into our meal, difficult. This is the advice from moving the plate, still heaped with my mother,” he says. “She told pasta, to one side. me that when the food is nice, He barely touches his decaf latte, stop. too. The swirly heart-shaped “When I studied medicine, I pattern on the foam is realised how good that advice undisturbed. was. When you overeat, the We’re at The Loaf, a stomach expands, and if you chain of bakery-cafes do that too often, it becomes he owns. very big. His people have “And if you don’t eat enough, chosen the branch in you feel hungry. So you eat a lot. Cyberjaya to meet. And then it keeps on growing.” The cafe is on the He has managed to train ground floor of a shopping himself to eat very little. “I’m centre and surrounded by very disciplined in many ways. shops selling socks, sports At first it was very difficult, but gear and brooches imported after some time it was easy. You from South Korea. learn to curb your feelings.” It feels surreal to be meeting In fact, he is turned off by the Malaysia’s longest-serving prime sight of a paunch. “That is one minister in such a mundane thing that I don’t like to see. setting. Every time I meet a fat man, I A waiter had told me earlier that poke a finger and tell him, ‘Cut “Tun”, which is how most people down on your food.’” address him, has bread, tomato I ask about rumours that he has had slices and sugarless lemonade stem cell or placenta treatments. He whenever he visits. I’m expecting laughs. He has heard those stories. him to order this spartan combination “No. No injections of any kind. No but he opts for spaghetti instead. stem cells. Nothing. Nothing.” “I don’t eat much,” he says when I tell him I’ve heard he looks have been a source T 92 turning 93 in July, Dr eats simply. “Usually, every of marvel and speculation Mahathir is fighting what item on the menu I divide by for years. must surely be the final two, share with somebody else.” Up close, I am struck by how clear his electoral battle of his life. Breakfast for him is a slice of bread. eyes are, how much hair he still has and It is also his strangest. Lunch is whatever the cook at home how full his face is. When he walks, his AIn 1981 when he was 56, the Kedah- prepares. He has two spoonfuls of rice posture is straight and his gait is steady. born, Singapore-trained medical doctor at night. He is genial, polite and very soft- became Malaysia’s fourth prime “I haven’t had to change my spoken, but you sense nothing escapes minister. He first became an Umno measurements for 31 years. Same his eagle eyes. His answers are sharp Member of Parliament in 1964. trousers I can still wear.” and to the point. He was PM for 22 years and is It’s not just his measurements that He is often asked the secret to credited with transforming Malaysia have remained constant. His youthful staying young. His answer is something into a modern, thriving economy,

31 Lunch with Sumiko

pushing more Malays to be professionals and championing Asian values. But he has detractors who say he weakened the judiciary, used the Internal Security Act too freely, promoted cronyism and did not do enough to stop corruption in government. His tenure was also marked by the sensational case of Anwar Ibrahim, his deputy prime minister who was jailed for sodomy. When he retired in 2003, Dr Mahathir didn’t quite go gently into the night. He fell out with his chosen successor Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad (right) and opposition leader Wan Abdullah Badawi and backed Datuk Seri Azizah look on as a video clip of Anwar Ibrahim is played during a rally near Kuala Lumpur. Najib Razak, who became PM in 2009. Dr Mahathir has said he will pass the premiership to Anwar, who will be released from jail in In 2015, he became a fierce critic June, after two years at most. PHOTO: REUTERS of Mr Najib after the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) saga the past. We have to learn to forget it, PM has intimidated those who support broke. He quit Umno and formed the although off and on it crops up. But the opposition. Malaysian United Indigenous Party generally he has accepted.” On his part, Mr Najib has come out (PPBM) to fight Mr Najib. On his part, he says of Anwar: “I strongly to defend Malaysia’s debt. PPBM is a member of the opposition don’t care about the past, about what He has highlighted positive reports alliance called Pakatan Harapan (PH). he did and all that. by credit rating agencies, and how It includes the Parti Keadilan Rakyat “To me, it is nothing compared with other developed countries have higher (PKR) party of Anwar, who is back what Najib is doing. Both of us agree debt-to-gross domestic product levels in jail on sodomy charges, and the that what Najib is doing is so terrible compared with Malaysia’s 51 per cent. Democratic Action Party (DAP), whom that we need to forget our past.” He has also accused PH of Dr Mahathir once railed against as He also highlights, as he has done irresponsible promises in its recently Chinese chauvinists. before, that Anwar is in jail this time released election manifesto. PH named him chairman of the “not because of me, he was put there Abolishing highway tolls and the alliance. In January, it said he would by Najib”. goods and services tax (GST) will see be its prime ministerial candidate He describes the opposition as being the country incur a debt of RM383 should the opposition win the upcoming “very” united and says he has been billion (S$128.6 billion). election. surprised by how they have accepted Dr Mahathir appears to share some Dr Mahathir has said he will pass him, especially its leaders. common ground with Mr Najib on this, the premiership to Anwar, who will be “It was unthinkable at one time but I saying he has told his “very socialistic” released from jail in June, after two think they are quite sincere because we coalition partners that they can’t just years at most. have the same goal – get rid of Najib.” “give things to people”. The turn of events has been nothing That said, his biggest challenge has But he maintains the GST is not short of bizarre. been explaining to his Umno base why necessary. “We never depended on Does it feel weird to be in the he has joined forces with the opposition the GST before and yet the country opposition, I ask. parties. developed very well, and we didn’t even “Yes, it’s very weird,” he says. “The “They couldn’t understand. For borrow money.” very people who used to call me names example, I used to condemn DAP and When I ask how he would describe – and I used to call them names – now now I am together with DAP... his feelings towards Mr Najib, his reply they are working with me.” And, he “I explain, but die-hard Umno is “I am terribly disappointed”. says, they chose him to be their leader. followers just cannot accept DAP.” He adds that he owes his own rise “It is a strange kind of acceptance, you Some friends now avoid him for fear in Umno and becoming prime minister see, but I got to get on well with them.” of repercussions in their businesses. to Mr Najib’s late father, Malaysia’s He shares that Anwar and his family While he understands where they are second prime minister, Tun Abdul Razak took a long time before they agreed to coming from, he is disappointed they Hussein. work with him. are “so easily frightened”. “I was very grateful to the father, and “It was very difficult for him first The opposition has other challenges, the father left a legacy which we are to accept me as the chairman of the like funding, and whether PH will be proud of because he concentrated on opposition, and then when my name allowed to be formally registered in developing the rural areas... So I thought was also put up for prime minister. It time for the election. Otherwise, the the son would be like that, but I was took a long time for him to decide, but opposition will have to contest under grossly disappointed.” eventually he realised, and people told individual party flags which he thinks Up to the last general election in him, there’s no way you can put anybody could lead to confusion. 2013, he supported Mr Najib. else and win over Malay support.” He brings up Mr Najib’s name no “I campaigned for him. I even went Pragmatism, I suppose, rules in fewer than 20 times during the course of on the stage to say that your choice is politics, even if it means gritting your our 90-minute meal. He seems genuinely between Anwar and Najib. Do you like teeth and sleeping with former enemies. convinced that the way the government Anwar? So I campaigned hard for him He puts a smooth – some might say has run up debt to cover its spending and regained the state of Kedah for him. unbelievable – gloss on things. will ruin Malaysia and make it “become But when I hear about the 1MDB, that “Whatever difference we have is like Greece”. He also complains that the is something I cannot accept.”

32 Lunch with Sumiko

IS schedule in the run-up doing. Is power important to you, I ask. “I’m angry because of the things he to the election has been “Power is important because with does, which I feel is destroying this punishing. it, you can do a lot of things,” he says. country.” He travels up and “When I was prime minister, I knew His wife, Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd down the country for I had power. There were things that Ali, 91, is often by his side. He says Hevents, continues to blog and is active nobody could do and they came to me. they quarrelled quite a lot in their on Facebook. He writes out his posts I said, ‘Well, this is a good thing, you early days. But being a person who and they are uploaded for him. Before can do it.’ “doesn’t succumb to emotion much”, he our lunch, he had filmed a Facebook “So that is what power is meant for. evaluated the situation and concluded Live session where he gave a policy talk Not to enrich yourself. Not to bully that tolerance was key to a happy on education. people and that kind of thing. I don’t marriage. “In the end, I had to put up Most of his night events start late. think that was right.” with the things that she does, as much “Malay audience, they come out His critics, I think, would have a view as she has to accept my way of doing after 9pm. on this. things.” “They always make me the last Does he have any regrets of that I wonder who his closest friends speaker, which means sometimes I’ll period when he had that power? He are. He says there is “a person who is be speaking at about 12.” says that working with the opposition quite unknown, not a politician, but In February, he was hospitalised for a has opened his eyes to their “grouses” he gives me a lot of information about chest infection. This has been practically about him. what’s happening on the ground”. He cured, but he has a chronic cough which is comfortable with him and treats him stems from a bout of pneumonia in WHAT POWER like a confidant. 1999. MEANS TO HIM Is he an old friend? “Well, he’s not so He believes he has the most support Power is important because old,” he says, amused at the question. from Malaysians who had lived through with it, you can do a lot of “I don’t find people my age anymore the 1980s and 1990s when he was things. When I was prime for friends, you see.” PM and who saw how the country minister, I knew I had power. Singapore does not appear to figure progressed. “They knew what happened. much in his mind and he doesn’t They can make comparisons.” There were things that mention it until I raise it. As to where he will contest, he claims nobody could do and they He talks with fondness about his he has not made up his mind, although came to me. I said, ‘Well, classmates from the King Edward VII pundits say it will likely be in Langkawi. this is a good thing, you can College of Medicine, but also remembers Wherever he says he will contest, do it.’ So that is what power how there was a distance then between “Najib comes along with a lot of gifts”, is meant for. Not to enrich big-city Singapore and kampung-bred he laughs. “People are grateful to me. yourself. Not to bully people students from Malaysia. They say because you come here, then and that kind of thing. He also hasn’t forgotten how, as we are getting all this.” a student taking a taxi to the female More seriously, his decision will be “There were occasions when I was hostel, the driver drove him to the based on winning. perhaps a bit harsh on people, and I kitchen there because he was Malay. “I cannot afford to lose. I will have could have asserted more authority “Some things hurt me, but that to choose the best constituency where over the police, for example. But I just doesn’t mean that I hold any grudge I could win.” couldn’t insist on things.” against Singapore. But I have to maintain He sees Johor as the main He repeats the well-used example of Malaysia’s position. Of course Singapore battleground because it is an important how he had told the police chief not to has done extremely well. And I believe Umno stronghold. The opposition will use handcuffs when arresting Anwar. that we can do just as well. We have the have difficulty breaking into that state, “But they had their SOP, and that meant same kind of people.” he admits. wearing balaclava and breaking doors We’ve come to the end of the meal. He rates the opposition’s chances as and holding guns. It gave me a very Shannon Teoh, The Straits Times’ “50-50”. Most observers say it is much bad image... The public thinks I asked Malaysia bureau chief who was also at less than that, given PH’s antagonistic them to do those things. But it was not the lunch, and I thank him for his time. factions and the high possibility of my decision.’’ He is gracious and thanks us, too. three-cornered fights. He spends the next 15 minutes with An online poll in December found ITH so much going the crowd outside. that Mr Najib’s integrity and the 1MDB on in this late stage He wears a bemused smile as they scandal – issues Dr Mahathir has been of his life, I am curi- jostle to pose for photos with him. banging on about – were the least of the ous what makes him Some, including a TV personality respondents’ concerns, at 3 per cent and happy. His answer passing by, pledge their support in the 2 per cent respectively. Wsurprises me. “It is when I am among election. You sense he is realistic about the friends who have the same views as His energy doesn’t flag. Over the next opposition’s chances. “If we fail, well, myself. I feel happy then.” few days, I see on his Facebook page we have to accept it,” he says. “But I’ll His family, of course, also gives him that he has kept up a packed schedule. be very sad indeed.” happiness, he says. Dr Mahathir is geared up for battle If the people cannot replace Mr Najib, He has seven children and 18 and as he says at lunch: “For the next “they must learn that they should care grandchildren. 100 days, they have already drawn up for the country more than just personal Might his anger with Mr Najib be my programme.” gains”. something that is eating away at him? It I wonder if the desire for power again can’t be healthy, I think to myself. “No, [email protected]  is the motivation behind what he is it’s not that kind of anger,” he corrects. Twitter @STsumikotan 33 Field Notes

Tor Ching Li For The Straits Times

A group of women taking training to be part-time “miko” or Shinto priestess for Nishinomiya Shrine’s New Year events. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

WHAT IT COSTS Yen for daikou An apology via phone or mail: From especially on Friday and weekend nights 10,000 yen Side-job culture – have made it a popular moonlighting (S$120) gains traction in option for salarymen looking to earn some extra pocket money. For an apology in person: Japan as anything If they worked for a daikou driver From from the quirky to service provider, they could earn 20,000 yen the creative is game between 1,000 yen and 1,500 yen (S$12 to S$18) an hour on their shift. For divorce notice delivery for outsourcing In recent years, this service has grown with one witness: more popular, partly because of the proliferation of smartphone applications 3,000 yen hat do you do if that link daikou drivers with users. you’re driving to a Mr Kenji Miyake, 28, who works For divorce notice delivery party but would like as a salesman for a printing firm, has with two witnesses: to have a tipple? In been daikou driving on the side for six Japan, you call a dai- months. “The tips you get from your 5,000 yen Wkou driver to take you home in your car. usually drunk client if you get along For temple/shrine visit with prayers Daikou means “replacement” or with them well are a welcome bonus, and collection of amulet: “outsourcing”, and these drivers and sometimes I make some handy usually hang around popular pubbing contacts,” he said. 5,800 yen or clubbing areas to offer their services. The daikou market has flourished in (5,000 yen for the visit and 800 yen The peak demand times for recent years, with a growing range of for the amulet) replacement drivers – late at night and tasks being outsourced and more people

34 Field Notes

offering their labour via apps or online platforms. Nowadays, anything is up for daikou. From the surprising – paying respects at a relative’s grave, going on pilgrimage, apologising to someone you’ve offended, prison visits – to the mundane, such as dog-walking, doing housework, queueing up for a popular restaurant, securing a prime spot for cherry-blossom viewing. “Long working hours leading to a lack of personal time and the stress of double-income families has fuelled demand for daikou services, while job insecurity, a slow rise in pay and a lack of job satisfaction have made the idea of having a side job more common,” said Dr Natsuko Hagiwara, a sociology professor at Rikkyo University. A survey of 1,600 workers aged 25 to 39 conducted this year by One Japan, an organisation that aims to promote corporate work-style innovation, found three out of four employees interested Part-time workers or ‘bees’ are trained to shop and deliver groceries to clients. in a side job. Among them, 80 per cent PHOTO: HONEYBEE were working for major conglomerates with a staff size of over 10,000, such as manufacturers and banks. Respondents said their reasons for moonlighting include a desire to hone their skills, increase their take-home income, widen their network and a disillusionment in employment for life at large corporations. In recent years, major conglomerates from Sony and Sharp to Toshiba have found themselves in turmoil, shaking the belief that there is job security in working for a big organisation. “Another reason is a longer life expectancy, leading to a need to have some form of employment after retirement,” said Dr Hagiwara. Riding the daikou trend is Singapore- based online concierge and delivery service firm Honestbee, which has been helping people in Japan do their grocery shopping and delivering it to their doorsteps since July. It charges a A part-time employee of Yamato Transport Co. delivers a parcel for distribution in Tokyo. PHOTO; BLOOMBERG concierge fee of 490 yen and delivery fee of 490 yen, but waives these for purchases above 3,000 yen. faced by many Japanese people,” said offer skills from cooking, assembling Signing up as a worker “bee” is Mr Vivek Sampath, Honestbee’s country furniture, babysitting, sports coaching a popular option especially among manager for Japan. and event organising to offering advice housewives, students, freelancers and Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour or a listening ear, at their desired rate. young workers looking to make some and Welfare has put the size of the It also has an online platform called spare cash. They have to work at least household-chores daikou market at Lancers for more skilled freelancing two hours a day. Compensation depends 100 billion yen in 2012 and expects jobs, from editing and website design on their experience and the number of the market to grow six times in the to app creation. hours they work. coming years. “The idea is to help create a society “Traditionally, having house help Daikou jobs are popular with people where anyone can find work they want or house managers is not common in looking for a flexible side job. to do anytime and anywhere through Japan. The introduction of a service Facilitating this trend are firms such the online network,” said a spokesman that offers personalised shopping as Lancers, which launched in April for the company. and delivery also helps address time an “open-talent platform” application management and logistic difficulties called Pook, where people sign up to [email protected] 

35 People

Theresa Tan Social Affairs Correspondent Asean’s philanthropists

usinessman Keith Chua, 64, is a women and children. trustee of a fund which has given Mr Chua said: “My parents were also very away millions to causes in edu- generous individuals and their generosity cation, healthcare and heritage. caught my attention. The simple act of being The executive chairman of able to help someone else gives me a sense BABR Holdings, the food and beverage firm of meaning.” that owns Swensen’s in Singapore, credits his His grandfather is the late Chua Cheng family and his Christian faith with inspiring Liat, one of the Chua brothers who founded him to be a philanthropist. car dealership Cycle & Carriage. His late His great-grandmother, Mrs Lee Choon father Chua Boon Yew worked in the family Guan, also known as Madam Tan Teck Neo, business. was founding president of the Chinese Today, Mr Chua is a trustee of the Mrs Women’s Association. She died in 1978 at the Lee Choon Guan Trust Fund, started by his age of 100, after years of giving generously great-grandmother in 1974 with a $1 million to promote education for girls and protect donation. In 2011, Mr Chua, a father of four, set up the SymAsia Nehemiah Foundation with an initial $1 million pledge. Named after the biblical figure Nehemiah, the foundation supports social entrepreneurship, mental health initiatives and other causes. Mr Chua is one of 25 philanthropists featured in a book released last week by the Asia Philanthropy Circle, a charity that brings together donors to collaborate and address social problems. Its director Stacey Choe told The Straits Times it hopes to inspire others to give by showcasing the impact philanthropists in Victor Hartono Grace Tan Caktiong the region have had in effecting large-scale The Indonesian philanthropists The co-founder of the fast- changes. Djarum Foundation supports food chain Jollibee is taking Here’s a look at some of the other efforts in education, sports steps to eradicate hunger and philanthropists featured in the book and development, cultural malnutrition in the Philippines their areas of focus: preservation and strengthening through the Jollibee Group national cohesion. Foundation.

Tahir Thippaporn Kathleen Chew Fernando Zobel De Ayala The Indonesian tycoon is the Ahriyavraromp The lady, who hails from The seventh-generation family founder of the Mayapada The Thai businesswoman who a family of educators, is steward of Ayala Corporation, Group, one of Indonesia’s is the daughter of Charoen the programme director of a 184-year-old Filipino biggest conglomerates, with Pokphand Group Senior the YTL Foundation, which conglomerate with interests in businesses in financial services, Chairman Dhanin Chearavanont funds initiatives to improve real estate, banking, telecom, healthcare and real estate. His works in the areas of child education. water, power, among others, Tahir Foundation has pledged development, environment, strives to build self-reliant $100 million to fund healthcare social development and communities. programmes in Indonesia, spiritual harmony. among other initiatives. Read in detail about them and other regional philanthropists in the online version of the book Asean Impact 25 here: 36 http://www.asiaphilanthropycircle.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/ASEAN-Impact-25-Final.pdf Stay informed as Malaysia votes and get regular updates on happenings in the region.

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