HC
Mr Mitche
Mitered.
LORD CAITHNESS'S VISIT TO SINGAPORE:
BREAKFAST WITH MPs
1. Lord Caithness had breakfast today at Eden Hall with Chandra Das MP, Arthur Beng MP and John Chen MP.
2. Initial discussion focussed on Burma, where Lord Caithness was born. Chandra Das is a frequent visitor to Burma. He said that the military regime had severely miscalculated the election: they had been expecting to lose about 100 of the 400 seats and had hoped that the Opposition vote would be divided rather than, as turned out to be the case, heavily behind the NLD. Lord Caithness asked what we should now do. Chandra Das, who said that he had met Saw Maung quite recently, advised that we should leave the Burmese to their own devices. He was reasonably confident that the military regime wished to restore some form of civilian authority before too long and pointed out that they had already begun to set up a number of civilian committees of one sort or another. He added that Burma was in a better state now than in 1988. Rangoon had been smartened up and businessmen were now allowed to trade in foreign currency. The High Commissioner asked about Chandra Das's business interests in Burma. Chandra Das said that these were essentially trading. He added, however, that Singaporean firms were attempting to position themselves in Burma. tourist potential.
For example, construction firms saw considerable
3. Chandra Das, who is also Chairman of Singapore's PECC organising committee said that Dan Quayle would be leading the US delegation to the PECC meeting later this month and wanted to make a keynote address. Chandra Das was trying to dissuade him. The Mexican President, Salinas, will not now be coming.
4.
I spoke to John Chen about his NTUC responsibilities (he recently became one of the three Assistant Secretary-Generals). He said that there was considerable ill-feeling at the employers' attitude towards the 1% increase in employers' CPF at the recent NTUC Congress. As for the "Executives' Union", the policy, for the time being, was to wait and see whether, in the light of recent pronounciations, firms topped regrading employees of their own accord. If not, NTUC would proceed to set up an Executives' Union. Chen's doctorate is in Engineering (not Medicine).
5.
Arthur Beng
and his wife (who is also a Doctor) run six medical clinics. in Singapore and one in Batam. We gave him the usual pitch on drugs asset seizure
6. Lord Caithness reinforced HC's invitation to Chandra Das to visit the UK, possibly with a group of MPs and asked to be kept in touch.
김
Ри
Cale
3 May 1991
CC:
CC SEAD
TG PAXMAN
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