General V.K. Singh blames top Army official for trying to ‘bug’ his phone

Major R Vikram of 1st Signals Regiment outside the official residence of Gen VK Singh in New Delhi on Saturday

Matters are getting murkier in the military. There was high drama at the official residence of former Army chief General (retired) V K Singh on Saturday afternoon after his family and personal staff detained a major, accusing him of surreptitiously trying to plant a “bug” in the house.

V.K. Singh on Saturday alleged that top hierarchy of the Indian Army was involved in the reported bugging incident that took place at his residence in Delhi Cantonment area.

A red-faced Army headquarters was quick to flatly deny any such snooping attempt, holding that the major and two jawans had simply gone to the house to change the military telephone exchange lines and withdraw the two operators manning them.

The incident gained political overtones as Gen Singh has continued his running battle with theUPA government when he was in service by joining Anna Hazare and being part of demonstrations organised by the Gandhian activist’s group.

The army put down the controversy to a miscommunication. “Resources deployed with Gen Singh are being pruned down after the government’s withdrawal of his Z-plus security cover. There was just some miscommunication and misunderstanding. We have apologized to Gen Singh’s family for that,” said a senior officer.

But it played out like “a spy versus spy” episode. Gen V K Singh, who now fears he is “being spied upon”, himself has been in the eye of a storm over allegations that a secretive military intelligence unit during his tenure as Army chief had illegally used off-the-air interceptors for clandestinely tapping phones of important people in New Delhi.

The drama at the 20 Mandir Marg bungalow, which is allocated to Army chiefs on retirement for six to 12 months , began when Major R Vikram of the 1 Army HQs Signals Unit — in uniform but later curiously seen without a name-plate — entered its premises at about 11.45 am.

“I was not in town, but received information regarding this development that an Army team, consisting of Signals personnel, entered my house in Delhi Cantonment. They said they had orders from the top hierarchy of the Army,” said Gen V K Singh, who is currently travelling in Gujarat.

His elder daughter Mrinalani apparently let Major Vikram inside the house. But when her mother Bharti Singh reached the house soon after, she strongly objected to the Signals’ team presence there without “any prior notice”. She then directed that the two gates of the house be locked to ensure nobody could go out.

Gen Singh’s lawyer Vishwajeet Singh, who also subsequently reached the house, said the major was “found to be fiddling” with the exchange equipment, removing “some card” from the machinery located in a room at the rear of the house.

“The major could not give any reasonable explanation for what he was doing…he had no document/letter authorising him to remove the exchange. It could be anything…he could have come to plant a bug. Recently, they withdrew Gen Singh’s security and now this…it could be something big,” he said.

The former Army chief’s family also summoned television channels to witness the unfolding drama. With images being beamed “live”, the Army HQs promptly swung into action. Delhi Area general-officer-commanding Lt-Gen Subroto Mitra entered the house just after 4 pm to then have a 90-minute “negotiation” with Bharti Singh before being allowed to escort the major out.

The Army admitted it had erred in not giving “prior notice” for changing the telephone exchange and withdrawing the two operators manning it. “The Signals team was mandated to do the job. But there was some misunderstanding and miscommunication. We regret that. The matter was amicably resolved by intervention of the Delhi Area GoC. The exchange will be removed later, this time after prior intimation,” said an officer.

-via The Times of India and TruthDrive

Gen V K Singh named in FIR for violence

Delhi Police has named former Army Chief V K Singh in an FIR registered in New Delhi in connection with the clashes between their supporters and police at Jantar Mantar during a protest against the gangrape of a paramedic student.

The former Army Chief was prevented from marching towards India Gate, the epicentre of the protests. Police sources said the names of Singh was mentioned in the FIR. The FIR gave the sequence of events that led to the clashes between police and protesters. Singh made speeches at the function, according to the FIR. The supporters had clashed with police when they were prevented from marching towards India Gate.

After a brief speech at Jantar Mantar yesterday, Singh and others had started marching towards India Gate but police stopped them. As soon as he got down from the dais, police cordoned off the area and the protesters sat at the spot.

However, the supporters started marching towards India Gate and tried to break barricades following which police resorted to use of force. Two persons suffered injuries in the melee.

A total of four cases of rioting and destruction of public property have been registered.

-via The Economic Times

General V K Singh’s political activism leaves military men embarrassed

Many within military circles are animatedly discussing the increasing political activism of former Army chief General V K Singh. Discussions over the controversial former chief further intensified on Friday when he announced that he may join a gherao of Parliament announced by cane growers.

To many serving and retired officers, Gen Singh’s ambivalence over those accused of corruption has come as a shocker. “Yesterday, he was sharing the dais with Om Prakash Chautala, who is accused of accumulating crores of rupees worth of illegal wealth, he is under CBI investigation. Gen Singh’s moral circle doesn’t go beyond his personal political ambition,” a serving colonel said. He added that it was “embarrassing” to see the former Army chief “stage hopping” on a daily basis “without any ideological moorings”.

Many in military circles believe that Gen Singh could be positioning himself for the 2014 elections. “He seems to be testing out various forums,” a senior serving officer, who has known Gen Singh for years, said.
Gen Singh’s Friday outing for cane growers came a day after he shared the stage with opposition leaders including Chautala in Haryana. Gen Singh appeared along with leaders of Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan and demanded rejection of the Rangarajan committee report on freeing the sugar sector.

The committee has recommended doing away with State Advisory Price and which will adversely affect the farmers of northern states, he said. Along with RKMS convenor V M Singh, Gen Singh released a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanding rejection of the Rangarajan committee report.

Asked whether he supported the call for a gherao of Parliament in December, the former Army chief said, “I am endorsing a call which is in the interest of farmers.” When asked if he would join the gherao, Gen Singh said, “We will cross the bridge when we reach there… Whether that situation will come or not, we will see.”

However, even the fact that Gen Singh was endorsing such a mode of protest has not gone down well with many in military circles. Maj Gen (retd) Afsir Karim told a TV channel that it was “a surprising statement for a just retired chief” to make.

Lt Gen (retd) Shankar Prasad said Gen Singh’s announcement meant “breaking the law”, and for a former Army chief — sworn to protect the Constitution — to endorse such a method was baffling. “I really wonder if such a statement is befitting for a man of his wisdom,” he said.

A serving general said Gen Singh always had shifting stances on most issues. “He went back on his commitment not to rake up his age issue once he became chief. He wouldn’t think twice before going to Supreme Court to challenge the government over the age issue. He wouldn’t now mind sitting alongside corrupt politicians,” the officer said.

-via The Times of India.

Former Army chief threatens siege of Parliament

Gen VK Singh

Former Army chief VK Singh on Friday backed a farmers body’s demand for rejection of the Rangarajan Committee report on freeing the sugar sector and threatened to gherao Parliament next month if it is not met.

Addressing a press conference along with VM Singh, convenor of the Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan (RKMS), Singh said the committee’s recommendation on doing away with state advisory price (SAP) and cane reservation area will adversely affect the farmers of northern states.

He said the revenue sharing formula suggested by the committee is not fair and does not provide a level-playing field to northern states, where sugar recovery is below 9 per cent. But the panel suggests 70 per cent revenue be paid based on an average 10.31 per cent recovery of sugar.

Singh demanded that the Centre should not fix fair and remunerative price (FRP) and current system of SAP and cane area reservation should continue. He said the farmers’ body has no objection to other recommendations of the panel.

In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, both VK Singh and VM Singh said, “In case the report is not rejected, canegrowers of northern states would gherao Parliament on December 4 as a protest against the said report.”

Asked whether he supports the call for a gherao of Parliament, the former Army chief said, “I am endorsing a call which is in the interest of farmers.”

On joining the agitation next month, he said, “We will cross the bridge when we reach there … Whether that situation will come or not, we will see. I am quite sure the Prime Minister is competent enough to relook at the report.”

Singh further said that he will support all those who work in the interest of the country. He was responding to a query about his presence at platforms led by Anna Hazare and Ramdev endorsing different issues.

He clarified that he has not yet decided on contesting elections. “Good people should enter Parliament. But I have not thought about myself yet.”

-via The Times of India.

Army chief, top generals wasted crores, shows defence ministry audit

Gen Bikram Singh

Sudhi Ranjan Sen.

Army chief General Bikram Singh, his predecessor General VK Singh and other top generals wasted over Rs. 100 crore of public money in just two years, an internal audit of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has revealed.

Defence Minister AK Antony, taking a grim view of the profligacy, has come down hard and has ordered that spending of the commanders must now be cleared by the MoD.

Not just has the money been wasted, but the audit also finds that guidelines to buy foreign equipment have repeatedly been disregarded, and equipment rejected by one part of the Army has been bought by another.

In one example that goes beyond just the wastage of money, the auditor points to Chinese-origin communications equipment which was bought by the Generals, when they were commanders-in-charge of their regions, armed with special financial powers to make emergency purchases. In this case, the auditor found that even the Chinese-origin equipment was bought from agents rather than directly from the manufacturer as required, and despite the fact that similar Indian equipment would have been cheaper.

“There is an apprehension that the stores have actually been purchased from the grey market and perhaps are of Chinese origin,” the report says.

Chinese-made communication equipment has been found to be embedded with malignant software. In a few cases detected in the past, it was found that Chinese and other foreign security agencies were exploiting these chinks in critical equipment to gather secret information.

The Military Intelligence (MI) and the Director General of Information Services have issued exhaustive guidelines on equipment purchase and checks. The audit, however, found these have been completely violated. “This would be a major security risk apart from being a serious financial irregularity,” the auditors observe.

Gen VK Singh

The auditors also found that despite clear guidelines to source directly from manufacturers, most foreign-origin equipment have been purchased from Indian agents. In some cases, middlemen were used even though the original equipment manufacturer was present in India.

The report points out that High Resolution Binoculars were purchased by the Eastern Command at higher cost from an Indian agent when the original manufacturer was selling the same equipment at a lower cost.

In yet another major lapse, the auditors say that while the Army Headquarters rejected a certain make of bullet-proof jackets for troops because they were of a low quality, the same were purchased by the Northern Command.

The Comptroller of Defence Accounts (CDA), under instructions from Mr Antony, carried out an audit of Special Financial Powers of the Army Commanders for two years – 2009-10 and 2010-2011 – and just looked at 55 transactions across six of the seven commands of the Indian Army. The audit report observes the total estimated losses were to the tune of Rs. 103.11 crore. 55 transactions were sampled during the audit and in most cases, the auditors weren’t able to establish the amount of loss due to the manner in which financial records were kept, and the lack of complete information made available, the report has said. It suggests that future audits should try to quantify the loss.

Perhaps, most worrying is the fact that “none of the Army commanders have furnished complete data” of the purchases made by them to the auditors. The auditors noted that purchases took over a year to reach the Army and in some cases, the delivery took as long as three years. The report says that “the delay in utilisation” suggests that “operational urgency for which stores” were acquired “could not either be addressed or there was no real operational urgency for the purchase of stores.” The report also observed that although auditors are posted in the commands, they are intimidated by military officers in command, who are also their reviewing officers.

The auditors have told the ministry that there is need for complete audit of all purchases made using the special financial powers of the Army Commanders, and have also suggested that “it would not be advisable to consider any proposal for enhancing the existing delegated (financial) powers. Whole system of delegated powers available to the Army Commanders needs to be reviewed.”

-via NDTV

Delhi court pulls up General VK Singh for wasting its time

Mail Today Bureau.

A Delhi court pulled up former army chief General V.K. Singh on Monday for wasting its time by filing a separate application seeking permanent exemption from personal appearance in a criminal defamation case against him.

Metropolitan Magistrate Jay Thareja warned Singh of “stern action”, claiming he was increasing the court’s workload. “Singh should have moved the plea for permanent exemption when the other four serving officials, also accused in the case, had filed similar applications. I will take stern action against him (Singh),” the judge told the ex-army chief’s counsel.

-via India Today.

To amend ACRs, ex-Army chief gave himself sweeping powers

Gen VK Singh

Ritu Sarin.

As Army chief, Gen (retired) V K Singh had modified a key rule that governs the changes that can be made in Annual Confidential Reports (ACRs) of officers and given himself the power to edit them as he pleased.

Though the order to give him sweeping powers was issued on March 7, 2011, Singh had, in fact, introduced it retrospectively from November 2010.

But in March this year, two months before Singh retired, the Defence Ministry reversed his sweeping modifications after it was found that they were impacting promotions and selections of a large number of officers, and Solicitor General Rohinton F Nariman felt the changes made by Singh were not “legally sustainable”.

Nariman also said any proceedings in selection boards after March 7, 2011 based on the moderated confidential reports would have to be “revised accordingly”.

Asked by The Indian Express how many selection board orders had been reversed following the Solicitor General’s opinion, the Army Headquarters only said: “Based on observations of the Ministry of Defence on this policy, the necessary modifications to the policy have already been carried out.”

According to the original Army rule, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) could expunge an entire ACR if it was found to be “grossly inconsistent” with the past profile of the officer who had been rated.

However, a letter dated March 7, 2011 issued by the Military Secretary’s branch said that this rule was amended to allow the COAS to moderate or expunge the ACR either partly or fully for the same reason as in the past.

Both orders, however, held that the changes made could not be revoked or reviewed. Although the force was informed of the amendment through the March 7, 2011 letter, the same letter said that Singh had approved this amendment and introduced it retrospectively since November 2010.

The letter said that moderation of ACRs could lead to changes in the numerical rating of officers and these ratings are amended in the confidential report as well as the database of the personnel.

Senior Defence Ministry officials told The Indian Express that they decided to seek legal opinion on the amendment after they found that the changes being made in the ACRs were impacting selections and promotions of a large number of officers. “Following the receipt of the Solicitor General’s opinion, we reversed everything,’’ a senior defence official said.

In his seven-page opinion received by the ministry on March 21 this year, Nariman categorically stated that the power conferred by the Army chief on himself “is not legally sustainable”.

“It has been stated that in the recently held selection boards, it has been noticed that the officers’ confidential reports have undergone drastic changes, effectively changing the merit of officers in the panel,” Nariman said. “Since the marks allotted in the confidential reports have a direct bearing on the promotion of an officer, any proceedings of the selection boards based on confidential reports which have been illegally modified would not be sustainable,’’ he said.

“It goes against the provision of mandatory expunction in the cases of gross inconsistency. Any confidential report which is found to be grossly inconsistent must be expunged in full,” Nariman said. “Therefore, paragraph 137, as it stood prior to the amendment, correctly did not leave any discretion in the Chief of Army Staff in such cases. To introduce an element of discretion now is therefore not permissible.”

Nariman was also of the opinion that the provision in both orders that the changes made by the Army chief cannot be revoked was beyond the powers of the Army Act and would have to be modified.

Original para 137 of Army order

“CR identified as grossly inconsistent or with inflationary/ deflationary/ subjective reporting, after due examination at appropriate level, may be expunged by the COAS. Expunctions approved by the COAS will be irrevocable. No re-initiation or review is permissible.”

Amended para 137 of Army order

“CR identified as grossly inconsistent or with inflationary/ deflationary/ subjective reporting, after due examination at appropriate level, may be either moderated or expunged in part or full by the COAS. Expunctions and moderations approved by the COAS will be irrevocable. No re-initiation or review is permissible.”

-via Indian Express.

Army to disband VK Singh’s snoops

Rahul Singh.

A clandestine military intelligence unit — set up by former army chief Gen VK Singh and accused of tapping the phones of top political leaders — is to be shut down. The so-called ‘technical support division’ was controlled directly by VK Singh, who had taken on the government over a dispute on his age — a battle he eventually lost in Supreme Court.

The unit had faced allegations of listening in on mobile phone conversations of politicians and bureaucrats at a time when the age row was at its peak earlier this year.

Sources said army chief Gen Bikram Singh has issued directions to constitute a board of officers to probe the unit’s mandate, tasks executed by it and its financial records. A three-star general will head the clean-up act.

“The army wants to fix responsibility before disbanding the unit. It’s surprising why a unit with no strategic relevance was reporting directly to the army chief,” a senior officer said.

This is the first instance of a chief setting up such a unit —which had a budget of about Rs. 18 crore.

VK Singh, who retired on May 31, had claimed he was born in 1951, contrary to official records that showed he was a year older.

Post-retirement, he has continued to speak out against the government, even sharing the stage with Anna Hazare.

It was alleged the snoop unit had illegally deployed two sets of mobile phone interception equipment.

The army had in March accused Lt Gen Tejinder Singh — who formerly headed the Defence Intelligence Agency — of planting stories about the alleged snooping by the force.

VK Singh had also accused Tejinder Singh of offering him a bribe of Rs. 14 crore to clear the purchase of substandard Tatra trucks. Tejinder Singh subsequently filed a criminal defamation case against VK Singh.

-via Hindustan Times.

A general falls out of line

Ashok Mehta.

Phone calls last week from friends -including a former diplomat and an erstwhile minister –king ‘what is wrong with your Army chief’ and the Amul ad (“Adaulat ka mamla? Don’t sena to it”) briefly encapsulate the self-inflicted discomfiture of Gen VK Singh. The disclosure of an attempted bribe and the inexplicable leak of a classified letter written by Gen Singh to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about critical deficiencies in army equipment show holes in operational preparedness at one level and on another, the pathetic state of relations between Gen Singh, defence minister A K Antony and the ministry of defence (MoD).

Never has a serving army chief taken his government to court; and later made startling disclosures through the media, perfectly timed to embarrass it with Parliament in session and a BRICS summit under way. Antony comes out of this certainly as probity personified but also singularly lacking in managing Gen Singh, his ministry and the modernization of the armed forces- what with bragging on the floor of the House, his penchant for cancelling contracts and blacklisting arms companies.

This year alone the Army and Air Force returned unspent nearly Rs 4000 crore from their capital accounts, despite streamlined defence procurement procedures that have been revised half a dozen times since 2003. This is a betrayal of the promise made by Prime Minister Singh during his New Year message that he would personally ensure the modernization of the armed forces.

The central figure of this Greek tragedy is inevitably Gen Singh who has allowed serious issues connected with the sword arm of the state to virtually become a trial by media, which rocked both Houses of Parliament, culminating in some members demanding his resignation. It is no secret that Gen Singh is incensed over losing the battle about his age. He has spoken to the media, complaining about the Supreme Court verdict saying his date of birth has to be reconciled. He feels he is being marginalized because he was targeting corruption and trying to improve the internal health of the Army in organizational interest.

What he does not explain is some of the improprieties he committed while holding the sacred office of the COAS: like taking the government to court and not resigning after losing the case. With two months left before demitting office, Gen Singh has launched a riposte to salvage his image. That in doing so he has exposed the cracks and warts in the system is laudable. But the modus operandi is highly suspect and objectionable.

Take the alleged bribery case. For two years after the incident – which Gen Singh ostensibly audiotaped – he sat over it. Worse, he declined to proceed against the offending officer, Lt Gen Tejinder Singh despite Antony’s prodding, till last week. This was followed by the mysterious leak of a confidential letter from him to the Prime Minister highlighting critical shortages in the army. The very latest target is a serving lieutenant general on a complaint of May 2011.

Lt Gen Tejinder Singh has taken Gen VK Singh to court for libel along with the vice chief, chief of military intelligence and senior officers of the public information department. You have the sorry spectacle of an enquiry where, for the first time in history, a serving chief, defence minister and MoD officials will be quizzed by the CBI. You cannot have the hierarchy of the second largest army which is required to fight a two-front war, under investigation. This is a bizarre situation in which the image of the Army, office of the COAS and national security have been directly imperiled.

The Prime Minister must immediately rein in Gen Singh. A ministerial task force must be constituted to examine why army operational preparedness has dipped so low and why civil-military relations have reached a nadir. It must also enquire why army is unable to spend its modernization budget in full. This year alone it returned unspent Rs 3000 crore.

Gen Singh has clearly shifted the focus of the debate from himself to issues of corruption and debilitating delays in modernization. I urge Gen Singh to stop the sequential disclosures in organizational interest and ride out into the sunset.

The author is a retired major general and founding member of the Defence Planning Staff.

-via The Times of India.

A sting in the general’s tale

Bharat Karnad.

It is hard to say when it is that the military stopped being the paragon of propriety in a social milieu increasingly bereft of basic values that people once saw reflected in the men in olive green (or in Air Force blue and Navy white), such as honour and honesty. There are still many officers of the old school for whom military is a career, yes, but also an orderly world of do’s and don’ts and simple pleasures and simpler certainties. There have been service chiefs who after demitting office rode bicycles because that’s all they could afford (Adm. R.L. Periera), or repaired without fuss to living in small, cramped apartments because anything grander their pensions wouldn’t allow (Adm. Vishnu Bhagwat). But the officer cohorts that produced a Periera or a Bhagwat also threw up service chiefs — no names, please, they have law on their side! — verily Kubla Khans who have built pleasure domes, allegedly on a service chief’s salary and pension.

The Chief of Army Staff, Gen. V.K. Singh, has blown the lid off the comfortable milieu senior military brass cocoon themselves in, where every whim quite literally is a command, revealing just how dirty military life has become, how much corruption has seeped into and become part of the cantonment life. Of course, there were always officers from the support arms in the Army — the service corps and ordnance corps — who were known for accumulating wealth at the public exchequer’s expense. Gen. Singh actually hinted at a conspiracy of Rs. 14 crores being dangled as bait by retired officers he identifies as “the Adarsh lobby” in the hopes of implicating him in a bribery scandal. What the Army Chief’s revelations have done is loosened the dirt lining the military acquisitions system, permitting the muck and the scum to float to the top. Now all the rumours one heard about payouts to senior military officers over the years can be freely aired.

Over time, one has heard hearsay accounts, for instance, of a system of “under the table” payments by consortia of contractors and victual suppliers to officers assuming the highest commands. Thus, an appointee to an Army commander’s post was richer, one was told a decade back, by `3-4 crores. Today the sum may be a multiple of this figure. It’s not clear, however, whether this is a one-time booty or recurring prize-money. The trouble is these sorts of payoffs have come to be viewed by many in Army circles as perquisites of the job. In like vein, pelf at lower level is tolerated as an “equalisation” measure relative to politicians and civil servants who routinely siphon off public funds.
The rot is wide and deep and spreading fast. What Gen. Singh has put his finger on are the vendors, mostly foreign, of weapon systems, spares and service support either directly or through Defence Public Sector factories, involved in assembling imported systems or licensed production, who prop up this system of corruption. With the expenditure on acquisitions rocketing, so have the competitive stakes for foreign Companies, DPSUs (Defence Public Sector Undertaking), and Indian private sector firms entering the lucrative defence business. Consequently, more and more officers up and down the military acquisitions line — in the weapons and quality control directorates, units tasked with testing and short-listing, and in price negotiation committees — are tempted at every turn, and many succumb.

The Congress government’s initial response was remarkable for its insouciance and near indifference — the Army Chief should have lodged an FIR. Par for the course, one supposes, for a political party that during its long years in office first perfected and then institutionalised corruption. Defence minister A.K. Antony defended himself in Parliament saying Gen. Singh informed him about the attempted bribery over 16 months ago all right but was remiss in not following up with a written complaint without which, the minister lamented, he couldn’t proceed. Why does that ring false? For one thing because Mr Antony has turned his programme to root out corruption into a fetish, and someone so concerned with cleansing his ministry surely should not have stood on formalities. In the event, he neither reminded the Army Chief to send his charge in writing nor, in the interim, ordered an investigation, which he could have, and should have, done. Instead, he waited until now when the story broke and the leads may have gone cold, to bring the CBI into the picture. Was this Mr Antony’s Plan B if all this ever came to light?

In the wake of a tsunami of wrongdoing in the military, it is time to initiate two major reforms before it is too late. One is to institute “deep selection” of service chiefs — that is, all lieutenant general-rank officers completing two years in that rank be eligible for consideration. This widening of the selection pool will at once weed out those who have advanced in their careers with only seniority to recommend them, leading to just too many duds as service chiefs for it to be a coincidence. This will also incentivise an entire cohort to strengthen their records with genuine achievements rather than coasting in their last few tenures, and prevent “succession planning” by unscrupulous former Army Chiefs as has happened in the case of the designated successor to Gen. Singh. The other measure is to routinely do deep and thorough background checks of not just the candidates for appointments to corps commander level up, but also their immediate families. It will prevent persons from becoming Army Chiefs, like the one who not too long ago held this post and was known for shedding tears usually for the camera, adorning his golf cart with the four stars of his rank, and deploying a large contingent of soldiers from his parent infantry unit at his residence to help run his wife’s textile fashions and export business. With such a man in the chief’s saddle, what message would have been conveyed to military officers except “misuse your position to the max”?

The writer is a professor at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi.

-via The Asian Age.