Michael Backman is a best-selling author of several books on East Asia. Last year MITA Minister Lee Boon Yang accused him of crossing Singapore's out of-bounds markers and seeking to interfere in Singapore politics after he had argued for greater media freedom in Singapore. Backman will address the FCA on the urgent need for greater business openness, transparency and the rule of law to create a modern global economy in Singapore. Otherwise, asks Backman, will Singapore become irrelevant, especially in the face of a booming China and a resurgent Malaysia? Among his works, Backman wrote the acclaimed "Asian Eclipse: Exposing the Dark Side of Business in Asia," named by The Economist as one of the finest general non-fiction books published that year, and his just published book, "The Asian Insider," is the second best-selling non-fiction work in Malaysia and the third best-seller in Singapore's Kinokuniya. He is also a newspaper columnist, including the Age in Melbourne and occasional columnist for the Today newspaper in Singapore. He is based in London.