Tag: secrecy

Probe: Is Asian Development Bank defending Vietnam’s secrecy?

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(August 26, 2003) With reference to the attached August 1st 2003 letter from ADB external relations specialist, Bart Edes, to Russell Peterson, NGO Forum on Cambodia, the ADB appears to be refusing to disclose the Se San 3 Hydropower Project Environmental Impact Assessment (TA 3222-VIE) dated February 2001.

Federal support of exports: too secretive

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(June 8, 2001) The Access to Information Act should apply to the Export Development Corporation – Montreal’s Métro newspaper quotes Probe International. The government makes "excessive and unreasonable" use of certain clauses in the Access to Information Act in order to "protect the corporations it awards contracts to," says Probe International (PI) in a document submitted to a federal task force established to review the Access to Information Act.

It pays to think big: history favors dictators who take billions, not millions

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(May 24, 1999) President Suharto opened his 1989 autobiography with memories of his simple childhood bathing in muddy canals in Java. “My roots are in the village,” he wrote. From the start of his dictatorship in 1966, Suharto carefully cultivated an image not just of humble origins but of lifelong simplicity. He claimed to be a common farm boy with common values, who rose without ambition to a position of dominance over one of the largest countries in the world, and who ruled in the best interests of the nation.