Singapore Books

Dr Christopher Reynolds in his dense (but readable) book "Global Logic; the Challenge of Globalisation for Southeast Asian Business" explains the Asian economic crisis of 1997-1998 and offers highly cogent suggestions of how the economic interests of Southeast Asia might improve their lot using organic, culturally sensitive strategies. His research is well supported by statistical analysis and the text is organized and concise. The glossary of acronyms in the front of the book was a boon - I found myself referring to it frequently. Some of the implication of Global Logic are slightly distressing; that the global economy is a house of cards largely built on speculation, not on product, save for rapidly diminishing natural resources. Other implications are reassuring; we are in transition from an era dominated by industry to one governed by the brokering of information. Why shouldn't Sri Lanka lead the world in software technology?

Although Global Logic was written to address the problems and possibilities of Southeast Asia, there are also connotations for the rest of the developing world. With the prospect of a new Cold War looming large over the Middle East, the suggestions presented in Global Logic for establishing a balance of trade and financial interdependence, indeed economic self-determination, might make the difference for a developing nation on the brink of being marginalized. This would also apply to the nations of Africa and to the Eastern Block states. A must-read for anyone interested in economics or development.

-Jane Mc Manigill

Assistant Phd Adem Uzun Ahmet Yesevi University Turkistan/Kazakstan

Industri perbankan islami saat ini telah berkembang pesat di negara negara dengan penduduk majorotas muslim,termasuk juga dengan Indonesia,malaysia,dan Brunei bahkan Pilipina,yang dengan demikian mengharuskan setiap banker untuk memahami apa dan bagaiman Bank Islam itu sebenarnya?

Banyak orang yang masih berpendapat bahwa pola operasional islami yang berpagu pada prinsip loss and profit sharing systems adalah sesuatu yang sulit,akan tetapi ternyata dalam praktek system ini berjalan dengan baik.Pemahaman mana seharusnya juga di miliki oleh setiap insan perbankan,termasuk didalamnya bank central atau di Indonesia disebut sebagai bank Indonesia

Bahwa namun demikian kita sadari keterbatasan resources tentang hal hal yang berkiatan dengan bak islam dalam bahasa Indonesia,dan atau yang mendekati approache khas Indonesia.Untunglah kemudian M Arref seorang Lecture pada University Malaya,berkenan mengenalkan pola islami pada dunia perbankan dengan judul bukunya ini,dan salah satu dari resourcesnya adalah buku buku atau artikel artikel tentang perkembangan bank islam di Indonesia

Buku ini sangat penting,karena tidak hanya membahas tentang instrument invesment islami secara definitif tetapi juga membahasa dengan lancranya semua hal yang berkaitan dengan perkembangan bank Islam di Asia tenggara,Memiliki buku ini adalah sangat penting bagi kita para banker,karena bagaimanapun perkembangan insudtri perbankan islami merupakan sesuatu yang patut dipertimbangkan

Tentu saja sekali lagi saya berharap,kepada siapapun yang berkenan untuk menterjemahkan buku ini dalam bahasa Indonesia,bahkan saya mohon kepada Tuan A.Areef agar berkenan menulis ulang buku ini dalam bahasa melayu yang tentu saja difahami oleh Banker atau pecinta buku Indonesia

Selamat membaca dan selamat bekerja

I did not know of the one party rule in that city-state and the ruthless and extreme measures taken to keep that power in the hands of the PAP. Small states in hostile areas often justify their need for police state measures because of their size and context in the nations around them. However, in nearly all those cases the threat never ends and the police powers are the normal way of life. In Singapore dissent was crushed by torture and long imprisonments (decades) without ever being charged with anything. This kind of brutality is beyond the comprehension of Americans. Why? Why the need to keep power by any means? This kind of government corrupts the fabric of the society it claims to protect.

Mr. Lydgate brings us the story of one Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam. He is a person who has given everything to the fight for social justice and political plurality in Singapore. Mr. Jeyaretnam is a man of talents and strength who led the opposition party (the Workers Party) to the PAP. The PAP used EVERY means to drive Jeyaretnam out of government including the courts. Singapore apparently has very strange laws about defamation and the PAP influence on the courts makes these strange laws subject to even stranger interpretations. For example, the suit that finally broke Mr. Jeyaretnam happened because he mentioned that an associate had placed a report on the podium in front of him. Somehow that constituted an endorsement of what was in the report! This subjected him to hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and court costs.

This kind of abuse of the legal system to break anyone who would speak out is obscene to Americans. As are the threats of the prime minister to not refurbish the government-subsidized buildings in districts that voted for the opposition. These naked power plays seem something out of America's Tammany Hall days.

Singapore suffers from being a country that is really a huge city. The Prime Minister is a mayor with too much power over the other aspects of government. It isn't big enough to have sufficient other structures to dilute his power. While Singaporeans justly resent outside influence and recommendations for improvement, I think the advanced democracies need to work to make Singapore a more open and free society in terms of the rights of speech and freedom from government harassment for raising questions.

Mr. Jeyaretnam is the hero of this book and yet in his old age he is reduced to selling books from a stand on the street and is still harassed by hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and court costs. Lovers of freedom and pluralism in the west should reach out and help the aged warrior. There must be some agency that could put together a fund to help him live the dignified life he deserves.

Thanks to Mr. Lydgate for bringing our attention to this important story and this hero of Singapore.

I've prepared roughly 40% of the dishes included in this book and have yet to find one that wasn't delicious. I was sufficiently impressed to buy his other books as well.