It was only 4 years ago that Western critics went on a warpath of criticism of public and corporate governance in Asia to explain and vent their frustration at the bursting of the Asian bubble economies. Yet yesterday's Worldcom bombshell is the latest evidence that quality of corporate governance is not an "Asian problem" - its an international problem - centered on the glamour companies of the USA's late 1990's new economy.

Enron and Worldcom, stars in the US new economy of the late 1990's. Arthur Anderson, previously a brand reflecting stability, respect, and synonymous with the good things about US Business culture. All failed to return the trust of investors and the man in the street in US and Western business as a whole.

Today the Worldcom bombshell, released after trading finished in New York yesterday was the key prompt in a broad based and significant stock market slide in Asian stock markets. Today, the South Korean KOSPI fell more than 7%, Japan's Nikkei over 4%, Thailand's SETI down almost 5%, Taiwan down almost 4%, Singapore, Jakarta, Philippines and Hong Kong down over 2%, and Kuala Lumpur, already down sharply over jitters relating to political leadership over the past 2 days down almost 2% in late trading.

In Europe, the London FTSE, German CAC, France and Switzerland opened around 3 to 4 percent down. The US market has not opened at this stage, but we can expect similar turmoil there tonight.

Worldcom is the latest in a string of glamour Western companies that have been caught with their grubby hands in the till, conspiring to shield their real performance from public scrutiny. The fact that Worldcom, along with Enron and Arthur Anderson were hitherto blue chip companies, and in the case of Arthur Anderson, not an upstart, but a pillar of long established respect, is chipping away at the trust investors and the man in the street has in Western business.

In retrospect, the most significant role of the Asian economic crisis in 1997 was to deliver an (albeit painful) innoculation to corporate governance in Asia. A combination of improved corporate governance in Asia, and a fast decline in the US means that no longer is corporate governance a competitive disadvantage for Asian economies and business.

Faced with financial timebombs on all sides, a Worldcom that grew on the false promise and spin of the dot-com/telco revolution in those heady times by acquisition and mergers, somehow managed to stuff up their accounting procedures, at the same time hiding their very precarious financial position from stock markers, investors, regulatory authorities, debtors and partners.

These companies are not outsiders or tricky players - they represent a cross section of new economy businesses, an established auditing firm, and companies that represent the cream of US business. When economic bad times hit, it was easier to cover up losses and debts than to expose them. The stock markets are bleeding today as quite simply, investors have suffered yet another blow in their trust of the the whole US business-financial system. How can they trust company audited figures and reports to present an objective view or performance or future prospects?

This time for sure, we will wake up to the fact that something is very fishy in the state of US business...