More wisdom nuggets from Singapore

As I continue reading Mr. Lee Kuan Yew's memoirs (hey its 761 pages long without counting index) here are some more nuggets of wisdom from which we can learn a bit to develop our own approach for success in Honduras. I am quoting directly from the book which  are written in quotation marks in the text below followed by my brief comments.

 "We have one simple guiding principle for survival, that Singapore had to be more rugged, better organized and more efficient that other in the region. If we were only as good as our neighbors there was no reason for business to be based here. We had to make it possible for investors to operate succesfully and profitably in Singapore despite our lack of domestic market and natural resources"

This statement really flies in the face of the Chavez movement and other ALBA countries, a future which we valiantly defied in the end by removing Zelaya from office. We need to be better than anybody else in Latin America. That should be our goal, the key issue is how to get there...certainly education and health are part of the picture.

"If I have to choose one word to explain why Singapore succeeded, it is confidence. This was what made foreign investors site their factories and refineries here."

Note that he is not taking about charity, gifts or mana from heaven (call it ALBA, USAID, or Cooperación Española), Mr. Kuan Yew is taking about investments in the country to produce things, not survive from international charity.

 

"We chose to redistribute wealth by asset-enhancement, not by subsidies for consumption"


Here Mr. Kuan Yew points out one issue that other economists have pointed out in the past. Hernando de Soto comes to mind when he argued giving title to property as one approach to enhance asset ownership and its value...well, people took this as meaning that by granting property titles, would solve every problem in the country..that's not the whole story, certainly did not work in isolation when tried in our countries. Certainly, subsidies for consumption, such as subsidizing gasoline and diesel in Honduras or electricity, is a terrible way to promote growth and redistribute wealth as it does not discriminate granting the subsidy between the hiper rich or the hiper poor.

So, friends, more nugget to come as I go along in my reading quest here. By the way, the book is called: From Third World to First - The Singapore Story: 1965-2000 Memoirs of Lee Huan Yew."

Some Lessons from Singapore

After a brief visit to Singapore, I could not but express my wonder for such a progressive and fascinating country. Certainly, understanding what they did right is an inspiring exercise. This country's example is quite poignant if we think that Singapore declared its independence from the Malaysian Federation in 1965. Well, they were more or less let go from Malaysia for being "too troublesome" a country.

In fact, when Singapore became an independent nation, others expressed their doubt of their viability as a nation, especially as the British announced that they would withdraw their military bases and approximately 20% of the gross national product. Their per capita income in 1965 was roughly $500 per person (Honduras was $216). Now of course, the story is so different being one of the top ten countries with the highest per capita income and quality of life.

What were the principles behind their success? Reading Mr. Lee Kuan Yew (Former Singapore's Prime Minister from 1965-2000) memoirs we can distill some lessons as we start today a new chapter in our life as a democratic and free republic:

1) Unwavering respect of  law and order
2) Confidence in ourselves and our capacity
3) Understanding that we are alone and to trust only in ourselves for our destiny. No more relying on gifts, grants or international charity.
4) Reward capacity, industriousness, talent and intelligence
5) Respect and promote diversity
6) Reward and promote entrepreneurship
7) Seek social justice and equality


As I continue reading Mr. Lee Kuan Yew's memoirs, I will continue distilling more lessons....

Strongly recommend reading La Gringa's take on the Pepe deal with Zelaya Part I and 2

I strongly recommend reading La Gringa's posts on the deal signed by our President Elect Pepe Lobo granting a free passage document for Zelaya....Lots of questions very few answers I am afraid.

Part 1 and Part 2

Es Asunto de Tiempo

El siguiente es un articulo que recibi en mi correo electronico. Sera...como dice Chelato...quizas esto solo sea especulacion, pero lo importante es comprender que la ofensiva del Socialismo del Siglo XXI no ha muerto y la penetracion de Chavez en los asuntos internos de nuestro pais...tampoco. Asi que a tener cuidado y cuidar a nuestro nuevo presidente.



Opinión
Marianella Salazar
El Nacional

Es asunto de tiempo

Los acontecimientos se precipitan ante la evidente pérdida de popularidad de Chávez. Venezuela es pieza clave al servicio de El Proyecto concebido por Fidel Castro para convertir al país en base de la subversión hacia el resto del continente. Por eso el interés de nuestras fuentes de Inteligencia para se haga pública esta información.

Como adelanté en la columna de la semana pasada, en los primeros días del mes, el presidente Chávez se reunió en Cuba con los Castro, coincidiendo con el líder de las FARC, Iván Márquez. La fuente abunda en detalles sobre esta presencia en La Habana, donde se urdió el plan que a continuación explica: "Al día siguiente de la reunión con los Castro, Iván Márquez viajó a Nicaragua en un avión de la Fuerza Aérea Venezolana, con tripulación venezolana y en compañía de tres oficiales del Ejército venezolano, que son de máxima confianza del presidente Chávez. En Managua, se reunieron con el presidente Daniel Ortega y dos altos funcionarios nicaragüenses para diseñar una operación que logre desestabilizar al nuevo gobierno del presidente electo de Honduras, Porfirio Lobo. La operación está a cargo del líder de las FARC, Iván Márquez, y será financiado a través de las partidas secretas de los cuerpos de inteligencia venezolanos. Las armas serán adquiridas por el presidente Ortega con los dólares provenientes de esas partidas.

El plan concibe entrenar a un grupo de paramilitares, la mayoría de nacionalidad hondureña, que "den de baja" a altos funcionarios del Gobierno del presidente de facto Roberto Micheletti, quien entregará el poder en una semana, o en su defecto, a integrantes del nuevo gobierno que presidirá Lobo, para responsabilizar de esos hechos a Roberto Micheletti". Hay que recordar que el Presidente interino de Honduras, en declaraciones a una emisora local -HRN- el pasado 8 de enero, declaró que Hugo Chávez quiere asesinarlo y que un ciudadano venezolano se trasladó hasta La Mosquitia (Caribe hondureño), donde ofertó 1 millón de dólares con ese fin. Nuestra fuente asegura que el entrenamiento de los paramilitares hondureños corre por cuenta de Iván Márquez, que ofreció 20 de sus guerrilleros para adelantar acciones; el líder de las FARC está en contacto directo y permanente con uno de los oficiales venezolanos que lo acompañaron a Nicaragua, encargado de las finanzas y con quien coordina la operación, que se ejecutará en el momento en que el depuesto presidente Manuel Zelaya salga de Honduras.

Fernandez and Lobo sign letter of safe-passage for Zelaya

La Tribuna reports today that Dominican Republican Leonel Fernandez and President Elect Porfirio Lobo Sosa signed an agreement to give a letter of safe-passage for Zelaya (click here for article). The only issue I have for letting go of Mr. Zelaya is this easily is that he will not face justice nor the tribunal of public opinion as he would if he was forced to testify in the Truth Commission to be setup later. I guess Mr. Zelaya can still participate via teleconference....

Bloggin' from Bali, Indonesia

I am in Bali, Indonesia receiving training on conflict resolution skills and increasing my skills by developing partnerships and my own capacity in the understanding of intellectual property issues as related to agriculture. This event is part of the Central Advisory Services of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CAS-IP CGIAR to see CAS-IP resources on intellectual property issues click here) and its National Partners Initiative (NPI  to see NPI work and resources click here)

Congress say no to the amnesty and the ALBA treaty....at least for now

Honduras Congress has declined discussing further any amnesty for the actors involved with the events leading to and during June 28 (La Prensa (click here for article). Congress has ratified the decree that will formally request the withdrawal of Honduras from the ALBA treaty (La Prensa - Click here for article) . The decree was approved by overwhelming majority, just the usual five suspects from the UD party and one person from the PINU party voted against this decree.

I have been opposed to the ALBA treaty since Honduras started thinking about joining the treaty. I am still opposed to this treaty because of the way it was passed through Congress - little discussion about benefits and costs from the treaty- and because it put us in a position where we had to surrender our independent opinion and positions with regard to international issues. In essence ALBA is not solely a trade or cooperation agreement, rather includes a political component which seems to impose quite a cost to the country without much benefits.

Well, if we think about this issue a bit, we were financing short term expenditures (on fuel) with long term debt...that is not a wise fiancial or economic decision. If we add the 100 tractors, who by the way are crappy tractors, believe me I'm an agronomist, which basically came with barely any implements that would make them usable, then we in the end did not get what we bargained for... But this is a topic for longer post...

Impunity must be erradicated from our country Honduras

The first step is to disallowe the current amnesty decree being discussed in the Honduras because it is too broad and will likely provide a cover for common crimes allegedly committed by Mr. Zelaya and his Cabinet. As written in the editorial of Diario La Prensa (click here to see article) in my free translation "Hondurans are waiting for impunity not to persist in the country as the struggle for more transparency and accountability would not have made any sense if decrees are approved that instead of strengthening democracy, weaken it".

Mr. Gaspar Vallecillo in a much stronger and to the point article in Diario El Heraldo (click here to see article) has the firm opinion is that we should not lower our heads in submission to international pressure trying to force us to make Micheletti resign from his post before his Constitutional time or grant an amnesty to anybody. Mr. Gaspar Vallecillo concludes his article by making the following statement: "if we live in rights based state or nation, lets respect it, so that we are respected by everybody else."

I cannot but agree with La Prensa and Mr. Vallecillo on these positions. Respecting the rule of the law starts somewhere. We have a great start with the Constitutional removal of a person who tried to destroy the Republic, now let's follow up this example by continuing enforcing the law. When this principle has been firmly established, then we talk about reunification and country building plans....

Article on "Diaspora, remittances and immigration" posted in La Gringa's Blogicito

And my article on the "Diaspora, remittances and immigration" has been posted in La Gringas Blogicito. Thanks LG for the honor!!!.

Just say no to an un-restricted amnesty and yes to the Truth Commission and restricted amnesty

As the Honduran Congress starts its deliberations of a potential amnesty law project for the people involved with all the events leading to June 28 2009, let us raise our voice and unequivocally say NO to a an un-restricted amnesty. Reports from different newspapers seem to indicate that Congress is discussing three types of crimes that may be covered under the amnesty law project including political (or constitutional), connected and common crimes.

The definition of political and common seem to be apparent, yet the definition of connected crimes can be made so broad that an amnesty law project could in principle cover all crimes committed during the upheaval leading to June 28 2009.

The newspaper  La Prensa (click here to view article) reports the opinion of known penalist lawyer Dagoberto Mejia Pineda, that Mr. Zelaya has been accused of 1) crimes against our government structure, 2) treason, 3) falsification of public documents, 4) abuse of authority,  5) fraud while declaring emergency decrees and making illegal purchases and withdrawing money for publicity for the "Cuarta Urna", illegal implementation of position functions not described in the Presidency's job description.

Mr. Mejia Pineda in fact indicates that of the crimes charged by the Attorney General of Honduras to Mr. Zelaya, all of them may be considered political or connected to the political crimes, and thus with a generalized amnesty Mr. Zelaya will just be absolved of all the crimes he committed during his government. If you want to see a green light for corruption in years to come this is it...a full strike to governance and respect of the law.

What we need to do is to push for the Truth Commission to be implemented based on the San Jose/Tegucigalpa/Guaymuras pact/accord but force all the actors to go to public hearing and confess their crimes as a pre-condition of receiving a restricted amnesty. The restricted amnesty will cover only political crimes. Forget about this nonsense of connected crimes being covered under the amnesty. Much less common crimes. Those should never be forgotten nor forgiven unless those who committed these crimes pay for what they did, stating with the Truth Commission process. If we do not do this, in effect we are saying that we want things to remain the same as before Zelaya. There is a lot of scope for unification and building a country together, but let us not kid ourselves, this process should be based on a clean slate, one that builds upon accepting that we have committed crimes of action or omission. Then, and only then, we move on.