May 1-7

Paradise Valley residents John and May Chu Harding have been banned.

Not from the Town of course, but their co- authored book "Escape From Paradise:

From Third World to First" has been banned in Singapore.

Mrs. Harding is relatively sure the book's allegations about the underhanded activities of powerful Singaporean government leaders is the reason the book can't be found in Singapore's bookstores.

It can, however, be found in Singapore's libraries.

Friends of the Hardings, who reside in Singapore, report that 16 copies of the book are currently checked out.

"Escape From Paradise" went from a ranking of

871,000 to 4,000 in its first three months on Amazon.com. It is currently ranked 16 as an E-book on Amazon UK.

If the 300 hits per day on the Harding's Web site are any further indication of the book's future performance, the couple may have a top-selling book on their hands.

The book chronicles Mrs. Hardings' true story of life in a wealthy Singaporean family, her destructive arranged marriage and the web of intrigue that surrounds the story.

Mrs. Harding was born into the Tiger Balm family who at one point, according to her, was the richest family in Singapore.

Tiger Balm, Asia's answer to Ben Gay, has been used for more than 100 years and is sold in more than 70 countries. Today, sales of the ointment total over 20 million jars per year. If Tiger Balm didn't keep them rich, the banks, newspapers and hospitals they held would.

Although childhood for Mrs. Harding could have been privileged, she certainly doesn't remember it that way.

"My parents were self-indulgent people," she said. "I just existed."

This lack of parental interest coupled with life in, what Mrs. Harding believes is, a country where women are not afforded the same rights as men, appear to be the source of her tumultuous struggle.

The cast of characters she met along the way certainly didn't make her road any less bumpy.

Mrs. Harding's ex-husband Hin Chu Chung, who spent a year in Brunei detained by police, is now concentrating his efforts on the X-l0 digital camera. The online pop-ups for the camera appear frequently while browsing the Internet.

Her father, Jackie Lee, is wanted by police in Singapore. Reportedly, the heir to the Tiger Balm fortune has vanished, taking millions of dollars with him. The flight, according to Mrs. Harding, is an effort to escape paying her mother millions in a divorce settlement.

Now, according to Mrs. Harding, the family has disappeared from the Singapore financial scene.

Her grandmother has been forced to live in Singapore's version of government subsidized housing.

The family's properties, such as Hong Kong's Tiger Balm Gardens and Singapore's Haw Par Villa, have become major tourist attractions.

Questionable connections abound throughout the book including those with George Bush Sr., the Sultan of Brunei, England's Lord Chancellor Lord Irvine and numerous Singaporean government and business leaders.

Does the indictment of some of the world's most powerful people have the Hardings running a little scared? The answer is yes and no.

"We worry about the family (May Chu's ex-in-laws)

and their CIA connections and possible drugs and arms trafficking," John Harding said. "But we're careless people."

If the Hardings look and sound familiar, it may be because they've recently been featured on local television news regarding their lawsuit against Immigration and Naturalization Services. The couple have filed a $100 million lawsuit against the agency.

According to the Hardings, they were removed from the Phoenix INS office in May when they went to find out why Mrs. Harding had not yet received her green card. If the Hardings are awarded a judgment, they plan to give the money to families of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.

But that's another story.

So are the two books presently in the works for the Hardings:

"Dowager Empress 2000: The Most Powerful Woman in Asia" and "The Gulf," based on John Harding's experiences in Saudi Arabia.