Shady Politics

By Nirmal Ghosh,
Thailand Correspondent

Latest US sanctions put spotlight on cosy ties between Myanmar junta and business tycoons of dubious reputation

March 9, 2008, BANGKOK - ONE muggy July afternoon in 1999, a convoy led by an off-road SUV with flashing red light and siren was seen making its way down the winding mountain road from Lashio, capital of the Shan state, to the central Myanmar plains bound for Mandalay.

The convoy carried heavily armed Tatmadaw (Myanmar army) soldiers, apparently for the benefit of the man in the second vehicle, a Toyota Land Cruiser.

The man was Mr Lo Hsing Han

That Mr Lo, at the time said by the United States authorities to be one of the kingpins of the heroin trade out of Myanmar's notorious Golden Triangle, was being provided minister-level security gives a clue to an intriguing story of living on the edge, networking in the highest places, the making of enormous wealth - and ultimately, the art of survival.

It also says much about Myanmar's Machiavellian politics and the intricate games played by the junta in power at Yangon and various armed ethnic minority groups in far-flung border provinces.

Mr Lo's name surfaced again late last month when the US Treasury Department placed financial sanctions on him, his son Steven Law, whose Burmese name is Tun Myint Naing, his Singaporean daughter-in-law Cecilia Ng, and their network of 10 companies in Singapore and four in Myanmar.

On Feb 26, US President George W. Bush said in a statement: 'As one element of our policy to promote a genuine democratic transition, the US maintains targeted sanctions that focus on the assets of regime members and their cronies who grow rich while Burma's people suffer under their misrule.

'The Department of the Treasury has applied financial sanctions against Steven Law, a regime crony also suspected of drug-trafficking activities, and his financial network.'

Mr Stuart Levey, under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement: 'Unless the ruling junta in Burma halts the violent oppression of its people, we will continue to target those like Steven Law who sustain it and who profit corruptly because of that support.'

The Treasury Department in its statement said that 'in addition to their support for the Burmese regime, Steven Law and Lo Hsing Han have a history of involvement in illicit activities. Lo, known as the 'Godfather of Heroin', has been one of the world's key heroin traffickers dating back to the early 1970s. Law joined his father's drug empire in the 1990s and has since become one of the wealthiest individuals in Burma'.

The new sanctions were in addition to those already announced against 33 individuals and 11 entities, in the wake of the September 2007 crackdown on the 'saffron uprising' against the junta led by unarmed Buddhist monks.

The sanctions are one of the US' principal weapons deployed to undermine Myanmar's ruling generals.

Monopoly of the rich

WHILE many analysts agree that there is an obscene disparity between the country's few enormously wealthy tycoons and the rest of the population that barely manages on an average per capita income of less than US$1 (S$1.40) a day, there is also a counter-argument that the sanctions, while squeezing their targets, do little to shake the generals' hold.

Mr Law's companies, Asia World Co Ltd, Asia World Port Management, Asia World Industries Ltd and Asia World Light Ltd, as well as Golden Aaron Pte Ltd and another nine companies in Singapore reportedly managed by his wife Cecilia were named in the sanctions.

Mr Law is among a small group of Myanmar's richest businessmen, including Mr Tay Za who was covered by previous sanctions, who in the words of Mr Aung Din, director of the US Campaign for Burma, 'monopolise the country's economy by using their connections with the ruling generals'.

It has been reported that as many as eight of the junta's ministers were guests at Mr Law's wedding. Mr Law, however, keeps a relatively low profile and travels a lot between Singapore and Myanmar.

In the case of Mr Law's father, his alleged heroin empire appears to have morphed into a legitimate business empire through a series of twists and turns, including a long spell in a Rangoon jail.

Mr Lo is an ethnic Chinese from Kokang, a former Chinese state which eventually came under the British when they colonised Burma. It went on to become part of the Union of Burma, and a part of the Shan state at the country's independence in 1948.

Chiang Mai-based writer Bertil Lintner has chronicled the sagas of the heroin warlords and ethnic armies in his book, Burma In Revolt.

In an e-mail to The Sunday Times, Mr Lintner wrote: 'Mr Lo commanded the Kokang Ke Kwe Ye (KKY), a government-sponsored militia in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

'In exchange for fighting the Communist Party of Burma (CPB), he was, unofficially, permitted to trade in opium. When the KKY scheme was abandoned in 1972, he went underground and teamed up with the Shan State Army, but with conditions. Eventually the collaboration went sour.'

Mr Lo was arrested in a remote corner of Thailand's Mae Hong Son province in 1973 and extradited to Burma where he was sentenced to death for 'rebellion against the state' - not for opium trading, because he had been unofficially permitted to do that.

He was pardoned during a general amnesty in 1980 and allowed to set up a new 'home guard' force under a scheme called Pyi Thu Sit (people's militia).

He returned to Lashio and benefited enormously from the ceasefire agreement in 1989 between the former CPB forces in Kokang and the Burmese government, which he helped negotiate.

'He made a fortune from a number of business undertakings, including opium and heroin,' Mr Lintner said.

Low profile

NOT much else is known about Mr Lo. What is certain is that he is now in his 70s and lives a relatively low-profile life in Yangon, playing a lot of golf and travelling little.

His Asia World group made its fortune building roads in Myanmar, and today spans trading, manufacturing, real estate, construction, transportation, and imports and distribution.

It is part-owner of the landmark Trader's Hotel, a favourite with Singaporean tourists and a short walk from the Sule Pagoda where many of the biggest anti-junta demonstrations were held last September before they were broken up by soldiers and police in a bloody crackdown.

Asia World was also one of the contractors for the port of Yangon, and for the multimillion-dollar new capital Naypyidaw.

While Mr Lo has never been formally 'wanted' by the US government, he and others in similar positions have been under investigation many times.

In July 1997, then-US secretary of state Madeleine Albright said: 'Drug traffickers who once spent their days leading mule trains down jungle tracks are now leading lights in Burma's new market economy.

'We are increasingly concerned that Burma's drug traffickers, with official encouragement, are laundering their profits through Burmese banks and companies - some of which are joint ventures with foreign businesses.'

That perception remains the basis of the newest sanctions, which freeze bank accounts of the targeted individuals in the US, prohibit US citizens or entities from doing business with them - and make it impossible for them to obtain visas to the US.

nirmal@sph.com.sg
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Blacklisted businessman and Singaporean wife shunned publicity
Additional reporting by Diana Othman and Teo Cheng Wee

BOTH Myanmarese businessman Steven Law and his Singaporean wife Cecilia Ng Sor Hong should have made the Forbes list of who's who in the business world.

Instead, they keep a low profile, and perhaps for good reason.

Last month, the United States Treasury Department, in its bid to increase pressure on Myanmar over human rights abuses, slapped sanctions on a major conglomerate, Asia World, and 10 Singapore-based companies owned by Mr Law and his wife.

They include Golden Aaron, GA Ardmore, GA Capital, GA Foodstuffs, GA Land, GA Resort, GA Sentosa, GA Treasure, GA Whitehouse and SH Ng Trading.

Golden Aaron, which was started in 1995, clinched a deal in 2004 to explore the coast off Myanmar with the country's state-owned oil company and China's largest offshore oil and gas outfit.

Under the agreement, the three companies were to carry out oil and gas exploration in a 10,000 sq km area in Rakhine state in the south-west and a 15,534 sq km area in the gulf of Mottama off Tanintharyi in the far south.

According to the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority, the company has a paid-up capital of S$5 million.

US President George W. Bush said last month that the targeted sanctions 'focus on the assets of regime members and their cronies who grow rich while Burma's people suffer under their misrule'. Burma is the former name for Myanmar.

Mr Adam Szubin, director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), explained to The Sunday Times that if it did not sanction those companies, 'then Steven Law could sidestep the law by placing his assets into firms owned by his wife'. OFAC is an agency of the United States Treasury Department.

Mr Law, who also goes by his Burmese name Tun Myint Naing, is the son of Mr Lo Hsing Han - dubbed the 'Godfather of Heroin' by OFAC - and one of the wealthiest individuals in Myanmar. No photographs of his wife are available, and a check with high-society magazines here, The Peak and Prestige, drew a blank.

A freelance photographer, who wanted to be known only as Wong, told The Sunday Times that many 'rich and famous folks guard their privacy jealously'.

'I seem to remember the Laws being one of such who officially requested not to have their pictures taken or published,' he said.

Even friends and acquaintances know very little about the couple. They spoke to The Sunday Times only on the understanding that they are not identified, for fear that their businesses are affected or 'sanctioned'.

One acquaintance said Ms Ng, who was born in 1958, studied at Dunman Secondary School and Hwa Chong Junior College.

A check on the Internet found that she is the third daughter of Mr Ng Ah Khoon and Madam Hong Or Tew Chua. Attempts to contact Ms Ng or her parents at their home in Jansen Road have failed. There was no one at home each time The Sunday Times paid a visit.

Ms Ng married her college sweetheart, now a second-hand car dealer, and had three children by him. She divorced him and married Mr Law in 1995.

A businesswoman who used to play mahjong with her more than 20 years ago said she was 'friendly but kept a distance when it comes to her business of private affairs'.

'A group of us used to hang out socially but I haven't seen her since 1988. People change. I heard she had moved out of the country with her new husband,' she said.

Golden Aaron's office at Shenton House was shut when The Sunday Times visited it late last month. But its doors were open on another visit last Friday. The company sign on the glass door - listing Golden Aaron Pte Ltd, Kokang Singapore Pte Ltd and S H Ng Trading - had been taken down.

An employee said Ms Ng was out of the country. She would not say where she was or how long she had been out of Singapore.

The Sunday Times also visited Ms Ng's condominium home off Alexandra Road last Friday. No one was at home except for a cleaner, who said she cleaned the unit once a week.

She said Ms Ng was in Myanmar and that she spent most of her time there on business matters, returning to Singapore every one or two months.

The last time the cleaner saw her was during the Chinese New Year.