Friday September 15, 3:57 PM
World Bank chief says Singapore damaged reputation
AFP Photo
World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz has said Singapore has damaged its reputation with the reluctance to admit 27 activists accredited for the Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings.Wolfowitz's comments were his strongest yet over the spat that has overshadowed the run-up to next week's meetings in Singapore, which also refused to relax its tough rules on public protests during the events.
The World Bank said he had got a pledge Thursday night from Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong that each case would be looked at individually, but said the city-state should have handled the matter differently.
"Enormous damage has been done ... A lot of that damage has been to Singapore and it's self-inflicted," he said at a meeting with non-governmental organizations.
"I would certainly argue that at the stage of success they've reached they'd be much better for themselves if they (took) a more visionary approach to the process," he said.
Singaporean officials could not immediately comment on Wolfowitz's statement.
"This is a very serious matter," IMF managing director Rodrigo Rato said at the same meeting with more than 30 representatives of non-governmental organizations.
Rato said activists accredited by the two financial institutions are people they regularly work with.
"And we don't have any doubt of their capacity to behave," he said.
Wolfowitz said Singapore appears to have reneged on a 2003 memorandum of understanding that granted open access to activists accredited for the World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings.
He said the wording of the memorandum "seems very clear to me."
The local organizing committee said Thursday that "Singapore is aware of its obligations under the MOU and will continue to honour them."
But it said the memorandum of understanding also obliges Singapore to take all necessary precautions to ensure people's safety.
Police have said Singapore is a high-profile "terrorist" target.
Activists allege some people on their way to the IMF-World Bank meetings have been deported and accreditation has been withdrawn from others.
Police confirmed that an Indian activist and two Filipinos have already been deported after being denied entry at Changi Airport because "they posed a potential security and public order threat to the annual meetings."
A Singapore artist alleged that he and two other Singaporeans were questioned by police over anti-IMF leaflets they planned to distribute during the group's annual meeting.
Since independence in 1965, Singapore has grown from a Third World country to an Asian economic powerhouse.
Political stability has been the bedrock of the economic success of the city-state, which never borrowed from the IMF during its rise to become one of Asia's wealthiest nations.
But critics say this came at a price, in the form of restrictions on freedom of speech and political activity.
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/060915/1/43g7k.html
