Michael Backman
Encyclopedia
Michael Backman is an Australian-born writer who now resides in London
. Much of his writing relates to Asia’s economies, business, culture and politics.
Another recurring theme of Backman's is that business people seeking to do business in Asia must understand the cultural and political context of Asia and not just business per se. Accordingly his books have included chapters on the role of women in Asia, Islam
, executions, and so on. Another theme is that Asian leaders must be accountable for their actions - to the citizens they are supposed to serve and that this is best guaranteed by an independent judiciary and a free media.
Backman's main book on corporate governance in Asia – Asian Eclipse – was described by one commentator in Hong Kong's South China Morning Post
as "the most corrosive, devastating attack on Asian business practices I've ever seen. It was a real eye opener. I thought it was amazing stuff." Backman has said that legal advice prevented him from going even further. The Economist named it as one of the “finest” non-fiction books of the year. Said The Economist, “Backman really understands why business evolved the way it did in Asia.” Praise also came from some surprising quarters. Thailand's then Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra
included the book in his list of 109 books that all Thais should read. His books have been translated into Chinese, Indonesian and Spanish as well as being available in English.
Backman has also played a role in the debate over his native Australia's relationship with Asia. Rowan Callick writing in the Australian Financial Review described Backman as "the brilliant young writer on regional business strategies" and one of the fresh names to drive debate over Australia’s future role in Asia.
Backman is not without his critics. The support he has offered Malaysia's former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad has been criticised for example. But then perhaps not surprisingly, Backman’s support was quoted approvingly in a speech by Malaysia’s then Transport Minister Ling Liong Sik.
He first came to notice with the Australian Government's publication in 1995 of 'Overseas Chinese Business Networks in Asia' of which he was the principal. Although a government publication, it received wide international media coverage such as in the Financial Times
. A reviewer in Fortune magazine recommended it in favour of John Naisbitt’s Megatrends Asia. The Australian trade minister cited the report in the Far Eastern Economic Review as one of his favourite books of the year.
Backman left the Australian government shortly after to write more books. These have looked at culture, politics and business in Asia. A recent book, Asia Future Shock looks at what Asia will be like in the coming decades.
in 1999 in the middle of the Asian economic crisis that "If Asia had a little more bluntness – a little more truth – it would not be in the economic mess it is now."
In October 2003 in Singapore's Today newspaper he wrote that the Singapore government should loosen up media restrictions. The column attracted many letters to the editor in favour from Singaporean readers. But shortly after Singapore’s Minister for Information Lee Boon Yang
accused Backman in a speech at a Singapore Press Club luncheon at Raffles Hotel
of seeking to intervene in Singapore’s domestic politics. He said that Backman had "knowingly crossed the line" with his remarks. Lee's claim was widely ridiculed, and was the subject of an editorial in the Wall Street Journal which said that Lee’s assertion that Backman had sought to intervene in domestic politics showed that Singapore was politically repressed. It also said that the fact that Today published Backman’s column showed that some in the Singapore media agreed with him and wanted to carve out more independence.
The affair was taken up by international media freedom watchdog Reporters Sans Frontières (Reporters without Borders) in its 2004 report on Singapore. Said the report:
He has been critical of the degree to which academics in Australia were captured by Indonesia
and were beholden to former President Soeharto’s New Order regime.
He provided an affidavit on behalf of Time Magazine when it was sued in a Jakarta court by former President Soeharto for defamation over an article it published on 24 May 1999, called ‘Suharto’s Billions’ in which Backman was quoted. Backman has since said that he did not support all of Time’s findings in the article and that some he did not believe at all.
His book Asian Eclipse contains several chapters on the Soeharto family’s business dealings. The link between Soeharto and Australia’s then Prime Minister Paul Keating
was examined too, leading to the matter being raised in the Australian Parliament. Senator Susan Knowles told the Parliament that Backman had raised in the book “extraordinarily important questions about the national interest.”
quoted Backman in his 1998 National Day Rally Address calling him an expert in overseas Chinese. For his part Backman has often praised Singapore in his writing but he has also been critical. He admires Singapore’s lack of corruption but has been deeply critical of what he sees as the Singapore government’s petty harassment of opposition political figures and the degree to which it micro-manages Singapore. He wrote a series of columns for the Age following Singapore’s elections in 2006 in which he was critical of the process. Each column was answered by a published letter by Eddie Teo, Singapore’s High Commissioner to Australia, providing readers of the Age with an interesting debate of a type that Singapore’s government tries to deny Singaporeans. Backman made this point in a column by pointing out that prior to his appointment as high commissioner to Australia, Teo was head of Singapore’s Internal Security Department and so had spent his time denying Singaporeans a free media of a type that he was now taking advantage of in Australia.
Backman has also dismissed the Asian values
debate as self serving on the part of its proponents and has pointed out that those most identified with the debate – Singapore’s leadership – are largely drawn from the baba
or Straits Chinese community whose values draw on the paternalism of Victorian England rather than on Asia.
Nonetheless, Backman has held up Singapore as a model for the rest of Asia when it comes to Asia, and has said repeatedly that Singapore embarrasses the rest of Asia when it is claimed that corruption is an unavoidable part of Asian culture.
what she thought of Backman’s remarks. She said that she didn’t care what Backman said because he was a foreigner and that she had better not catch a Malaysian saying such things. The minister’s comments were reported in the Malaysian media and they caused still more anger among Malaysians annoyed that apparently a foreigner can comment on how Malaysia is run but Malaysians cannot. Meanwhile, the column continued to circulate and Backman reportedly received more than a thousand e-mails in support from Malaysians.
Shortly after the column was published, the term Malaysia Bodoh entered into popular Malaysian discourse. Malaysians critical of their government took to calling their country or at least its administration Bodohland and websites with political comment sprung up that made use of the terms boleh and bodoh as part of their domain names.
Backman had earlier penned a column in which he criticised Rafidah’s allocation of permits to import cars into Malaysia. Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang had quoted from Backman’s article in the Malaysian Parliament to embarrass the minister.
Backman wrote more columns on Malaysia in the lead-up to and in the aftermath of the historic 2008 elections at which the Malaysian government achieved its worst result in fifty years. These two were widely distributed and cited by commentators within Malaysia.
provoked accusations of anti-semitism. Backman claimed various terrorist attacks had been motivated by anger over Israel's treatment of Palestinians, and criticised the behaviour of Israeli tourists abroad:
"Trekking in Nepal is fashionable among young Israelis. So much so that many shops in Kathmandu and Pokhara have signs in Hebrew. But once you get on the trekking circuit and speak with local Nepalese guides and guesthouse operators you soon discover how disliked the Israelis are. Many guesthouses in this poor country will even tell Israeli trekking groups that they are full rather than accept them. This has nothing to do with religion or politics: Nepalese people are some of the warmest, most hospitable in the world. Rather, they say that the young Israelis are rude, arrogant, and argue over trifling amounts of money even though they clearly have means."
Local Jewish lobbyists made strong representations to The Age editor Paul Ramadge
who apologised for the article, claiming it had been run "in error" despite the Age having had the draft column for almost a week. Backman denied what he wrote was anti-semitic, but conceded "some of the forms of words used did not adequately explain what I intended to say". He pointed out that he had named his son after Israel's President and former prime minister Shimon Peres
, and argued his column concerned Israel's policies rather than the Jewish Diaspora
.
In light of the controversy, The Age suspended Backman's column but in April 2009 a complaint to the Press Council in relation to the column was dismissed.
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Much of his writing relates to Asia’s economies, business, culture and politics.
Writing and ideas
Backman has written widely about the ills faced by Asia’s economies, arguing for greater scrutiny and transparency and denouncing official corruption. He argues that a free and well-resourced media is one way in which greater transparency and accountability can be brought about. His bluntness coupled with his knowledge of Asia has drawn both public praise and opprobrium from political leaders and others in Asia.Another recurring theme of Backman's is that business people seeking to do business in Asia must understand the cultural and political context of Asia and not just business per se. Accordingly his books have included chapters on the role of women in Asia, Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, executions, and so on. Another theme is that Asian leaders must be accountable for their actions - to the citizens they are supposed to serve and that this is best guaranteed by an independent judiciary and a free media.
Backman's main book on corporate governance in Asia – Asian Eclipse – was described by one commentator in Hong Kong's South China Morning Post
South China Morning Post
The South China Morning Post , together with its Sunday edition, the Sunday Morning Post, is an English-language Hong Kong newspaper, published by the SCMP Group with a circulation of 104,000....
as "the most corrosive, devastating attack on Asian business practices I've ever seen. It was a real eye opener. I thought it was amazing stuff." Backman has said that legal advice prevented him from going even further. The Economist named it as one of the “finest” non-fiction books of the year. Said The Economist, “Backman really understands why business evolved the way it did in Asia.” Praise also came from some surprising quarters. Thailand's then Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra
Thaksin Shinawatra
Thaksin Shinawatra is a Thai businessman and politician, who was Prime Minister of Thailand from 2001 to 2006, when he was overthrown in a military coup....
included the book in his list of 109 books that all Thais should read. His books have been translated into Chinese, Indonesian and Spanish as well as being available in English.
Backman has also played a role in the debate over his native Australia's relationship with Asia. Rowan Callick writing in the Australian Financial Review described Backman as "the brilliant young writer on regional business strategies" and one of the fresh names to drive debate over Australia’s future role in Asia.
Backman is not without his critics. The support he has offered Malaysia's former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad has been criticised for example. But then perhaps not surprisingly, Backman’s support was quoted approvingly in a speech by Malaysia’s then Transport Minister Ling Liong Sik.
Early writing career
Backman has said that he first developed his interest in Asia while at university in Australia. Many of the other students were from Asia, particularly from Malaysia.He first came to notice with the Australian Government's publication in 1995 of 'Overseas Chinese Business Networks in Asia' of which he was the principal. Although a government publication, it received wide international media coverage such as in the Financial Times
Financial Times
The Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....
. A reviewer in Fortune magazine recommended it in favour of John Naisbitt’s Megatrends Asia. The Australian trade minister cited the report in the Far Eastern Economic Review as one of his favourite books of the year.
Backman left the Australian government shortly after to write more books. These have looked at culture, politics and business in Asia. A recent book, Asia Future Shock looks at what Asia will be like in the coming decades.
On media restrictions
Backman has frequently criticised media restrictions in Asia. He has blamed many of Asia's political and economic problems on a lack of transparency and accountability. He said in a speech to the National Press Club in CanberraCanberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
in 1999 in the middle of the Asian economic crisis that "If Asia had a little more bluntness – a little more truth – it would not be in the economic mess it is now."
In October 2003 in Singapore's Today newspaper he wrote that the Singapore government should loosen up media restrictions. The column attracted many letters to the editor in favour from Singaporean readers. But shortly after Singapore’s Minister for Information Lee Boon Yang
Lee Boon Yang
Dr. Lee Boon Yang is a former politician from Singapore. A member of the governing People's Action Party , he served in the Cabinet from July 1991 to April 2009 in various portfolios including Minister for Defence, Minister for Manpower, and Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts...
accused Backman in a speech at a Singapore Press Club luncheon at Raffles Hotel
Raffles Hotel
Raffles Hotel is a colonial-style hotel in Singapore, and one of the world's most famous hotels. The hotel was established by the famous Armenian Sarkies Brothers. Opened in 1887, it was named after Singapore's founder Sir Stamford Raffles. Managed by Fairmont Raffles Hotels International, it is...
of seeking to intervene in Singapore’s domestic politics. He said that Backman had "knowingly crossed the line" with his remarks. Lee's claim was widely ridiculed, and was the subject of an editorial in the Wall Street Journal which said that Lee’s assertion that Backman had sought to intervene in domestic politics showed that Singapore was politically repressed. It also said that the fact that Today published Backman’s column showed that some in the Singapore media agreed with him and wanted to carve out more independence.
The affair was taken up by international media freedom watchdog Reporters Sans Frontières (Reporters without Borders) in its 2004 report on Singapore. Said the report:
On President Suharto
Among Backman’s research was his analysis of the Soeharto family’s business empire. His figure of 1,251 companies in which members of the Soeharto family had significant interest has been widely quoted in media and studies around the world.He has been critical of the degree to which academics in Australia were captured by Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
and were beholden to former President Soeharto’s New Order regime.
He provided an affidavit on behalf of Time Magazine when it was sued in a Jakarta court by former President Soeharto for defamation over an article it published on 24 May 1999, called ‘Suharto’s Billions’ in which Backman was quoted. Backman has since said that he did not support all of Time’s findings in the article and that some he did not believe at all.
His book Asian Eclipse contains several chapters on the Soeharto family’s business dealings. The link between Soeharto and Australia’s then Prime Minister Paul Keating
Paul Keating
Paul John Keating was the 24th Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 1991 to 1996. Keating was elected as the federal Labor member for Blaxland in 1969 and came to prominence as the reformist treasurer of the Hawke Labor government, which came to power at the 1983 election...
was examined too, leading to the matter being raised in the Australian Parliament. Senator Susan Knowles told the Parliament that Backman had raised in the book “extraordinarily important questions about the national interest.”
On Singapore
Singapore’s then Prime Minister Goh Chok TongGoh Chok Tong
Goh Chok Tong is the Senior Minister of Singapore and the chairman of the central bank of Singapore, the Monetary Authority of Singapore. He also served as the second Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore from 28 November 1990 to 12 August 2004, succeeding Lee Kuan Yew, the former Prime...
quoted Backman in his 1998 National Day Rally Address calling him an expert in overseas Chinese. For his part Backman has often praised Singapore in his writing but he has also been critical. He admires Singapore’s lack of corruption but has been deeply critical of what he sees as the Singapore government’s petty harassment of opposition political figures and the degree to which it micro-manages Singapore. He wrote a series of columns for the Age following Singapore’s elections in 2006 in which he was critical of the process. Each column was answered by a published letter by Eddie Teo, Singapore’s High Commissioner to Australia, providing readers of the Age with an interesting debate of a type that Singapore’s government tries to deny Singaporeans. Backman made this point in a column by pointing out that prior to his appointment as high commissioner to Australia, Teo was head of Singapore’s Internal Security Department and so had spent his time denying Singaporeans a free media of a type that he was now taking advantage of in Australia.
Backman has also dismissed the Asian values
Asian values
Asian values was a concept that came into vogue briefly in the 1990s to justify authoritarian regimes in Asia, predicated on the belief in the existence within Asian countries of a unique set of institutions and political ideologies which reflected the region's culture and history...
debate as self serving on the part of its proponents and has pointed out that those most identified with the debate – Singapore’s leadership – are largely drawn from the baba
Baba
- Geography :* Baba, Masovian Voivodeship * Baba, Mogilno County in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship * Baba, Rypin County in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship...
or Straits Chinese community whose values draw on the paternalism of Victorian England rather than on Asia.
Nonetheless, Backman has held up Singapore as a model for the rest of Asia when it comes to Asia, and has said repeatedly that Singapore embarrasses the rest of Asia when it is claimed that corruption is an unavoidable part of Asian culture.
Malaysia Bodoh controversy
Backman has written extensively about Malaysia, often favourably. However, in 2006, Backman penned a column for the Melbourne Age newspaper in which he questioned the Malaysian government’s wasteful spending. Playing on Malaysia’s national catchcry ‘Malaysia Boleh! (Can!)’ Backman said that if the government did not change its ways then that would be ‘Malaysia Bodoh! (Stupid!)’ The column was published as UMNO, Malaysia’s ruling party, was holding its general assembly. Dissatisfaction with UMNO was growing in Malaysia and Backman’s column was immediately spread widely in Malaysia and among expatriate Malaysians by the Internet. Journalists asked the then Trade Minister Rafidah AzizRafidah Aziz
Tan Sri Rafidah binti Abdul Aziz is a Malaysian politician and the current Member of Parliament for the Kuala Kangsar constituency since 1986....
what she thought of Backman’s remarks. She said that she didn’t care what Backman said because he was a foreigner and that she had better not catch a Malaysian saying such things. The minister’s comments were reported in the Malaysian media and they caused still more anger among Malaysians annoyed that apparently a foreigner can comment on how Malaysia is run but Malaysians cannot. Meanwhile, the column continued to circulate and Backman reportedly received more than a thousand e-mails in support from Malaysians.
Shortly after the column was published, the term Malaysia Bodoh entered into popular Malaysian discourse. Malaysians critical of their government took to calling their country or at least its administration Bodohland and websites with political comment sprung up that made use of the terms boleh and bodoh as part of their domain names.
Backman had earlier penned a column in which he criticised Rafidah’s allocation of permits to import cars into Malaysia. Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang had quoted from Backman’s article in the Malaysian Parliament to embarrass the minister.
Backman wrote more columns on Malaysia in the lead-up to and in the aftermath of the historic 2008 elections at which the Malaysian government achieved its worst result in fifty years. These two were widely distributed and cited by commentators within Malaysia.
Israel column controversy
A column by Backman on the 2008-2009 Israel-Gaza conflict in 17 January 2009 edition of The AgeThe Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
provoked accusations of anti-semitism. Backman claimed various terrorist attacks had been motivated by anger over Israel's treatment of Palestinians, and criticised the behaviour of Israeli tourists abroad:
"Trekking in Nepal is fashionable among young Israelis. So much so that many shops in Kathmandu and Pokhara have signs in Hebrew. But once you get on the trekking circuit and speak with local Nepalese guides and guesthouse operators you soon discover how disliked the Israelis are. Many guesthouses in this poor country will even tell Israeli trekking groups that they are full rather than accept them. This has nothing to do with religion or politics: Nepalese people are some of the warmest, most hospitable in the world. Rather, they say that the young Israelis are rude, arrogant, and argue over trifling amounts of money even though they clearly have means."
Local Jewish lobbyists made strong representations to The Age editor Paul Ramadge
Paul Ramadge
Paul Ramadge is editor-in-chief of The Age, Melbourne's successful broadsheet newspaper. Since his appointment in 2008 he has overseen a voluntary redundancy program at the request of Fairfax, the paper's owner, and put in place his own editorial management team.-External links:* at The Age...
who apologised for the article, claiming it had been run "in error" despite the Age having had the draft column for almost a week. Backman denied what he wrote was anti-semitic, but conceded "some of the forms of words used did not adequately explain what I intended to say". He pointed out that he had named his son after Israel's President and former prime minister Shimon Peres
Shimon Peres
GCMG is the ninth President of the State of Israel. Peres served twice as the eighth Prime Minister of Israel and once as Interim Prime Minister, and has been a member of 12 cabinets in a political career spanning over 66 years...
, and argued his column concerned Israel's policies rather than the Jewish Diaspora
Jewish diaspora
The Jewish diaspora is the English term used to describe the Galut גלות , or 'exile', of the Jews from the region of the Kingdom of Judah and Roman Iudaea and later emigration from wider Eretz Israel....
.
In light of the controversy, The Age suspended Backman's column but in April 2009 a complaint to the Press Council in relation to the column was dismissed.