Corruption index 2009: ASEAN country rankings

How did ASEAN countries rank on Transparency International's Corruption Index this year?

• The top ten least corrupt are the Nordic countries, plus New Zealand (#1), Canada, and Australia.  (Netherlands isn't exactly Nordic, but it comes in at #6.  Singapore (#3) is perceived as the least corrupt country in all of Asia. 
• Brunei (#39) is perceived as being no more corrupt than South Korea.
  
• Malaysia (#56) is perceived as being about as corrupt as some major Eastern European countries and South Africa.
  
• China (#79) and India (#84) rank similarly on corruption.    India is tied with Thailand.
• Egypt has the same perceived level of corruption as Indonesia (#111), but the "land of baksheesh" is perceived as being less corrupt than Lebanon (#130) and Syria (#126) and even Vietnam (#120).
• Pakistan and Philippines are tied at #139.
• Zimbabwe is tied with Russia at #146).. 
• Laos and Cambodia are tied at #158.
• Only Somalia and Afghanistan are considered less corrupt than Myanmar (Burma).
  

More of my perception about the survey here.

Low Chinese yuan a threat to ASEAN exporters

Krugman:

... in recent months China has carried out what amounts to a beggar-thy-neighbor devaluation, keeping the yuan-dollar exchange rate fixed even as the dollar has fallen sharply against other major currencies. This has given Chinese exporters a growing competitive advantage over their rivals, especially producers in other developing countries.

Sounds like a great way to win friends in the region.

Malaysiakini and other pioneers of media freedom

Gregore Lopez, guest blogging at NM, writes "The online media had been at the forefront in providing news and views from diverse groups – especially those marginalised by the mainstream media." Pioneering online news groups profiled by Lopez include: Malaysiakini, The Nutgraph, The Malaysian Mirror, and The Malaysian Insider.

Why is all this happening first in Malaysia?  Why no Singaporekini?   

Is Thailand's dispute with Cambodia helping Abhisit in the polls?

Bangkok Pundit reports the result of a recent Bangkok University opinion poll. BP writes:

Q3. Are you satisfied with Abhisit over the handling of Thaksin's interview with The Times and appointment of Thaksin as economic advisor?
a- very satisifed, 13.6%
b- somewhat satisifed, 27.8%
c- not so satisfied, 39%
d- no satisifed at all, 18.2%
e- no opinion, 1.4%

BP: Of course, those in (c) and (d) are certainly are not all red shirts, you probably have both the yellow and red shirts are not happy. There is no real way to discern, who is who, but it is interesting that only 13.6% are very satisifed while 39% are not so satisifed. That is among Bangkokians and those living close by as well.

How to reconcile this responses to questions in this new poll with a previous poll showing Abhisit's popularity soared as a result of the actions against Cambodia?  A lot hinges on the way such questions are worded.*

BP believes the government has overplayed its hand with respect to the "Thaksin in Cambodia" debacle.    I would like to think so.   

Thailand is engaged in a diplomatic row with a country much much weaker than itself.   Consider that Thailand has 5 times more people than Cambodia, and that the average Thai is 6 times richer than the average Cambodian.

Thailand is getting all worked up about the actions of the leader of a country 30 times less powerful.   By no stretch of the imagination are these countries on an equal footing in any dispute, diplomatic or otherwise.    Cambodia is no mere underdog.  It is a mouse confronting a Thai elephant.

It's good to see that 62% of Thais surveyed by Bangkok University favor "a soft approach by negotiating" with Cambodia. Let's hope their government listens.

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* Update.  BP points me to a post (which I missed) in which he found evidence to support this hypothesis:

Just before asking people whether they support the Abhisit government, it asks those it surveyed:

"Are you aware that the Cambodian leader gave an interview attacking the Thai judicial system?" (การรับทราบข่าว ผู้นำประเทศกัมพูชาให้สัมภาษณ์โจมตีกระบวนการยุติธรรมภายในประเทศไทย)

Siam Report translated questions from the same poll and was "a little skeptical about the methodology and results."

Burma's Shwe Project and Singapore's banks

Updated

Where will Burma's junta put the billions in revenues it will obtain from the Shwe gas pipeline to China?  Noting that on a previous Yadana project, Myanmar's junta had siphoned off nearly $5 billion, ERI reports:

Despite the Singapore banks denials, ERI has confirmed from high level non-Singapore government sources that named banks and several other banks in Singapore are now “backing off cash from Burma” concerned over risks in holding certain accounts. If true, this would be significant; however, ERI is working to ensure that the banks, Monetary Authority of Singapore and other stakeholders do more to ensure the military junta is not squandering illicit gains from Burma’s natural gas wealth.

 If Singapore and other offshore banking locations get more rigorous, will Hong Kong, Macao or Shanghai banks offer more exclusive services to the dictator-thieves of the developing world?    So long as the G20 initiative to clamp down on tax havens worldwide expands and gains momentum, this scenario becomes somewhat less likely.   As Richard Murphy notes, China and India are very much concerned about the tax revenues that they themselves have been losing to loosely regulated offshore tax havens.  

Nevertheless, as some dictators can transfer funds abroad without violating their home country's tax laws, progress in terms of clamping down on tax havens will not necessarily help.   It depends on how offshore banking regulation proceeds.  But it's probably a case where progress -- in terms of coordinated international action -- on any front begets the potential for progress on all fronts.  For example, it would help if the Burmese people's groups could sue banks harboring ill-gotten gains of the country's dictators.   Greater banking transparency in general might enable such lawsuits.

Update:  FEER reports, "The BBC documentary news program Panorama has a report on tax avoidance which shows how Hong Kong has become one of the avenues of choice for dodging the European Savings Tax Directive."