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Few conversations last week could exclude the furore over AIG's use of US taxpayers'

money to reward people who ran the insolvent corporation to the ground.

At delivery-service company TNT's local head office at New Petchaburi Road, country manager Alan Miu says the scandal - the worst yet for the US financial meltdown -

shows an utter lack of transparency and responsibility among global firms.

"It all boils down to ethics," says Miu, a nationalised Singaporean who ethics, executives cannot tell right from wrong."

Clearly when AIG CEO Edward Liddy foolishly defended his decision to pay the dubious bonuses on Thursday, he was set on by outraged congressmen in Washington who fail

to buy his argument that the contracts were so binding they could not be renegotiated.

In hindsight, paying off US$165 million (Bt5.8 billion) did more harm than good to AIG's reputation, which now ranks with Enron and Worldcom as some of the most stark examples of corporate greed.

Miu says the standing of his company demands staff members to exercise integrity, honesty and responsibility.

"CSR [corporate social responsibility] is my favourite area," he confesses. "I feel good when I help to build up awareness among the workers."

In a field that is highly competitive with three rivals - Fedex, UPS and DHL - all fighting for a bigger share of the market, TNT cannot afford to have its image to be tarnished by petty, selfish and immoral behaviour.

"The Thai market is second after Vietnam in terms of growth. But volume-wise, Thailand is still a bigger market," he says. The Kingdom's revenues are about Bt100 million a year

and growing at a steady pace.

"One example of our CSR programmes is to provide villagers in the North with clean drinking water," he says.

"When we were on a trip to Lamphun, we found many children had yellow teeth, which I first thought was from smoking cigarettes. Instead I found it was caused by water consumed from untreated sources such as wells."

"By providing schools with a water treatment machine, we were able to bring a smile to their faces," says Miu, who himself is a father.

"Another CSR programme we initiated is in providing rural families with safety helmets when riding motorcycles," he says.

"It is common to find, especially in the provinces that a family of four would all be riding one motorcycle and none of them are wearing helmets."

"Statistics show fatalities can be Without ethics, how can executives tell right from wrong?

avoided if passengers wore helmets," he says.

As TNT grows, so will its CSR programmes, says Miu. "The marketplace is changing fast and with our expansion we need to be sure our people are capable and responsible as

well.

"Today we can ship by land containers from Singapore to China."

"Land routes once closed are now open and thriving. The rise in activity in the Asian region cannot be ignored," he says. "A container truck now takes five days to travel from

Singapore to China. It goes through Malaysia, Thailand, Laos before crossing to the Mainland."

Miu heads 1,000 staff and reports to his superior in Singapore.

"Our headquarters is in Amsterdam has a corporate policy to supporting environmental and CSR activities."

He has spent more than 20 years in the airline and air express industry where he worked for Cathay Pacific Airways, FedEx and DHL. His experience in Hong Kong, Philippines, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and Thailand gives him broad experience.

In commenting on the challenges in face of a US fallout, Miu says the new generation of executives are more fortunate than his in thatt they have social safety nets such as unemployment benefits to help them through the crisis if they are laid off.

"When I was growing up in Hong Kong, if you don't work, you don't eat.

There was no social security then," he recalls.

"But it was good in that it made us stronger. There is a saying in Hong Kong: If you work hard, there's no danger of starving."

"Like many people, I held two jobs so i could save enough money for a rainy day." It was this tough reality that shaped many of Hong Kong's tycoons like Li Ka Shing, whose rags

to riches stories are now legendary.

"You must understand they were not privileged children of the rich and they did not have very high education and connections. All they had was drive."

But behind the race to gain wealth, there was always the underlying realisation of moral obligations and honour.

Drenched deep in Confucian philosophy, overseas Chinese immigrant workers never forgot the importance of honesty, hard work, family values and social responsibility.

A handshake and one's word were everything among the merchant classes.

But in the current age of litigation and contracts, the mistake would be underestimating the need for ethics.

As in the case of AIG, you need not be a PhD to realise public outrage was inevitable, considering the US government has put its citizen, deep in debt to save a badly behaved business elite.

This abuse of privilege offers an invaluable lesson about what's legal and what unacceptable, says Miu.