If Only Singaporeans Stopped to Think

A perfect week of competition for S’pore ends with an 18-point win over Sri Lanka
By Jean Au, TODAY, 15 Sep 2014

Singapore retained their title as netball champions of Asia, beating Sri Lanka 59-41 in the final of the 2014 Asian Championships held at the OCBC Arena yesterday.

A full house of 3,000 fans cheered the team to victory in a repeat of the 2012 final, which Singapore won by only one point.

This outing proved a lot less tricky though, despite the national team mixing youth with experience.

Among the old hands, Premila Hirubalan, with 91 caps for Singapore, was delighted.

“It is (the dawn of a new era for netball in Singapore), in every sport people have to go and people have to come in. The good thing about this team is that we have the old and the younger (players) … so Singapore netball is looking pretty good for the future,” she said.

Singapore coach Ruth Aitken was equally pleased, telling TODAY: “It is huge for Singapore ... we had such an amazing audience they all had a blast. Now they know what a great sport netball is and it will raise the profile of the sport.”

President of Netball Singapore Jessica Tan believes the win sets up the chance to really spread the sport throughout the region.

“This championship had really new teams such as Myanmar, Vietnam and Japan. So the future is bright not only for netball in Singapore but across Asia,’ said Tan.

Singapore made a poor start to the final, with goal shooter Charmaine Soh and goal attack Chen Huifen hitting only 50 per cent of their shots in the first quarter, which gifted Sri Lanka a 12-8 lead. However, at the start of the second quarter, the pair finally settled and made 12 out of 12 and five out of five of their shots, respectively.

“The whole team kept encouraging one another and it built my confidence. When we went into the second quarter, I tried not to think of anything, just my team-mates, and doing it for them,” said Soh, who finished with 78 per cent shooting accuracy.

In contrast, 2.06m-tall Sri Lankan goal shooter Tarjini Sivalingnam bagged 91 per cent of her goal attempts, but for Aitken, the key statistic was that she only got 45 attempts.

“We had to maintain defence against Sri Lanka. You can’t expect just the goal keeper to be the dealing with Tarjini, so I thought the pressure we put on defence right across the court was outstanding,” she said.

Next up for the Asian champions is the 2014 Nations Cup (Dec 7-13) at which Singapore will host teams from Botswana, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Republic of Ireland and Samoa. They will then start as favourites at the SEA Games, before heading to Sydney for the World Cup in August next year.

Despite the win, Aitken was wary of the team becoming complacent. “For the moment (everything’s perfect), but come Monday, we’re back into planning mode. A team’s got to keep evolving and improving, and players have to do so too,” she said.

By Tan Tai Yong, Published The Straits Times, The Straits Times, 15 Sep 2014

WHY is history important? Let me begin by asking another question: After 50 years of nationhood, how well do Singapore citizens know their country's history? In attempting to answer this question, I should make a distinction between historical literacy and historical consciousness.

Put crudely, the first is knowing what; the second, knowing why.

Most Singaporeans have a decent degree of historical literacy. They have some grasp of historical information and understand the key features of our country's history. Historical literacy does not require a personal meaning attributable to the past.

To be historically conscious is to be able to say what the past means to us, as individuals and as a community.

So, what are the attributes of historical consciousness?

First, historical consciousness refers to the ability to draw personal and social relevance from history.

Second, historical consciousness is not simply an intuitive feeling. It is a critical process. History is a contested terrain - it can polarise as much as unify. In this regard, sound historical consciousness requires intellectual rigour and honesty.

More controversially, to allow for deeper understanding, I argue that we must pluralise our history. We must show history in its full complexity. But plurality is not the same as duality, where there are only two sides to the argument: with one right and the other wrong.

Historians are constantly pushing the boundaries of historical knowledge. In the process, they enhance our understanding of historical change through new interpretations. These can be brought about by fresh analyses or the use of new evidence. Such efforts at revising history should be welcomed.

For example, in Singapore history, the left wing has been portrayed as a political force during the tumultuous 1950s, seeking to effect political change through militant action. It was committed to a political ideology and outcome that, if they had come to pass, would have taken Singapore down a very different road.

The People's Action Party took the left wing on and was able to "ride the communist tiger" rather than end up in its stomach. In the political contest that ensued, one group eventually defeated the other.

This narrative is correct insofar as it gives a factual account of the political events of that period.

However, we would have a better appreciation of the challenges and complexities of the time if we were able to understand the intricate dynamics of the left-wing movement and the various groups that came together to pursue similar goals, sometimes with different strategies, as well the international and local factors that shaped their world views and politics.

In the past 10 years or so, there have already been some studies that seek to explain these - political memoirs, as well as books commemorating pivotal events such as Operation Coldstore. They are positioned, perhaps deliberately provocatively, as being "alternative or revisionist history".

In my view, some of these accounts can be helpful in providing a more nuanced understanding of Singapore's past.

While these additional views do not necessarily change the fundamental storyline, they can certainly add texture to make the narrative more complete and interesting.

One point worth repeating is that pluralising history should mean going beyond the realm of politics. We should have more accounts of social, cultural and community level histories, to add layers to the national narrative.

For example, few people know that the hawker centre at Tiong Bahru was probably the first such centre to be paid for by the hawkers themselves.

In a grand collective action, these men, who were illegal or itinerant hawkers previously, got together, negotiated with the Government and raised an infrastructure that was later redeveloped into the two-storey building seen along Seng Poh Road today.

This is not a piece of history we find readily in our history books, or even on the signs in front of the market, but it is a bona fide Singaporean story.

This is what pluralism looks like.

As we develop a more nuanced and textured approach to our historical narratives, these efforts must be underpinned by rigorous research and intellectual honesty.

Good, responsible history will enable Singapore citizens to appreciate complexity without succumbing to propaganda. Sound historical consciousness should be sustained by curiosity rather than certainty; it should be motivated by the desire to understand rather than the intention to pass judgment. This can be constructive for building national identity and belonging.

Finally, historical consciousness should not be regarded as a mere backward-looking process.

Retrospective reflection should lead one to draw conclusions from the past that might be helpful to plans for the future.

The best way to build historical consciousness is to instil it at a personal level, grow it organically. This can be done in schools but also through self-discovery in family and community efforts.

Each of us needs to know our country through grandfather stories. At the same time, there should always be space for personal recollections and individual reflections that are not strictly historical studies.

These can be essential elements for a larger, multifaceted story that is the history of Singapore.

The writer is a Nominated Member of Parliament. He is Vice-Provost (Student Life) and director of the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore.

As Scotland votes on independence from the United Kingdom, the spotlight is on why stable, prosperous countries in Europe face the threat of disintegration.
By Jonathan Eyal, Europe Correspondent In London, The Straits Times, 15 Sep 2014

HISTORY is replete with examples of countries which, defeated in wars or convulsed by revolutions, collapse or become fragmented.

However, if the people of Scotland vote this week for independence - thereby breaking up the United Kingdom - they would be doing so not because the British state has failed them or because they face either economic hardship or political discrimination, but simply because they feel like it.

And if Scotland goes its own way, several other European countries may follow suit: Spain faces a similar separatist referendum and could disintegrate as early as the end of this year, and it may be followed by Belgium, Slovakia and Romania, with Italy and France not that far behind.

In short, we may be on the cusp of a new wave of European revolutions, bloodless but nevertheless profound in their implications. Understanding why some of the most prosperous, stable and well-governed countries in the world are now facing the threat of disintegration is, therefore, not just a useful academic exercise, but a vital contingency planning task.

First, it is important to realise that Europe's current separatist tendencies have nothing to do with similar movements which convulsed the "old continent" in previous centuries, for they are not about people yearning to be free by demanding to be recognised as nations.

The Scots have been treated as a nation as far back as 1603, when it was actually a Scottish king who took over the crown of England. Belgium's Dutch-speaking Flemish and French-speaking Walloons were similarly recognised as distinct national entities for over a century, as are the Catalans and Basques in Spain, and the Hungarians of Romania and Slovakia, to name but just a few protagonists in Europe's complicated ethnic patchwork.

The real dispute today in Scotland and elsewhere in Europe is not, therefore, about the recognition of nations, but about the demands of these nations to acquire the apparatus of new states.

To be sure, some of the nations now wishing to secede were on the receiving end of years of neglect and often also outright discrimination. The English have frequently treated the Scots with condescension, French-speakers have often marginalised Dutch speakers in Belgium and, as late as the 1970s, any expression of Catalan or Basque national identity would have earned a jail sentence in Spain. But those days are long gone: all these nations now have their own local legislatures, flags, anthems, separate sports teams and regional governments; the Scots even print their own banknotes and stamps. Bizarrely, however, instead of calming down separatist demands, autonomy plans have only made these worse.

Lack of state identity

ONE explanation for this curious outcome - that the more powers are handed over to constituent nations in Europe, the more they feel dissatisfied with their countries of residence - is that some of the constitutional measures put in place are simply faulty. It is not by accident that the problem is now most acute in Britain, a country which wrote countless Constitutions for all its former colonies but somehow considered itself above the need to have a written Constitution for itself.

The real answer to the United Kingdom's national problem is to create a federal state, one in which each nation has equal rights and shares equal responsibilities. Instead, the British granted varying powers to Scots, Welsh and Irish, but none to the majority English, who have no Parliament of their own.

"Devolution", as the process of transferring powers from the British government to the Scots is called, has proven to be a particular disaster, for it gave a Scottish government dominated by separatists enough power to claim credit for any popular measure, while still blaming the central British government in London for anything that went wrong.

Another explanation for the rise of separatism is that today's European states have neglected civic and patriotic education and, as a result, have failed to create a sense of belonging which transcends that of their component nations. Britishness was an identity born out of Protestant Christian disdain for Catholics in Europe, and the acquisition of imperial territory. The British Empire has gone, and religion is no longer a binder, so nothing is left to glue the country together, apart from the Queen, which the Scots have cleverly claimed as also their own.

It was noticeable that during the current independence referendum campaign, every single British politician has struggled to make an emotional case for keeping the kingdom united. The same problem is obvious in other European countries as well: half a century after emerging from dictatorship, Spain has still not adopted new words for its national anthem largely because its nations cannot agree what these should be.

Either way, the result of this failure to forge a state identity is that the separatists - with their romantic views of past glories of their nations - have succeeded in portraying themselves as modern, while those who wish to preserve existing states are, curiously, castigated as yesterday's men.

Cost-free nationalism

BUT the biggest reason for Europe's current wave of assertive nationalism is that it is both a reaction to and a product of globalisation. In an age when borders no longer matter and ideologies have evaporated, the "call of the nation", the reminiscences of the past, are appealing.

Nationalism is such a draw precisely because it is not a rational feeling: at its very basic, it depends on nothing more than the promise of a glorious future based on an often fabricated, supposedly glorious past. Scottish nationalists have said nothing about what they would do to keep their country prosperous; instead, they tearfully evoked the allegedly wonderful days when Scotland was a separate kingdom. Previous generations of nationalists warned their people about the sacrifices they were expected to make, the blood they were expected to shed so that their nation would be free.

But globalisation has allowed the current generation of European nationalists to pretend that independence requires no bigger sacrifice than casting a ballot paper in a box - and comes cost-free.

The Scots are told, for instance, their country will be both independent and operate the British pound, that their nation would not need to spend much on its security and armed forces, because others in Europe would do it for them. It may all strike outsiders as nonsense, yet judging by current opinion polls, almost half of the Scottish electorate believes it.

And so do the Catalans in Spain, who are planning to hold their own independence referendum this November; they too pretend that they can pick the bits they want out of Spain, discard the rest and get others to pay their bills. That too is the result of globalisation, and of the existence of the European Union.

Desperate to avoid their countries' disintegration, Europe's politicians are rushing to offer their separatists every conceivable concession. The British government is promising that, if the Scots give up their independence quest, they will be given even more powers, including the right to raise their own taxes, while still getting subsidies from London. Meanwhile, the Belgians have selected a separatist leader as their next prime minister, in the hope that with greater powers he will also become more responsible.

Perhaps such measures would work, but only as stop-gaps. For if Europe's current states are to survive, they will need to reinvent themselves and forge a new purpose. This is doable: it is noticeable that throughout Britain, the Union Flag is now flown from public buildings much more frequently, and the Scottish flag also flies on public buildings in London. Still, forging a new identity is a task for generations.

In the meantime, however, all that European leaders can do is to keep this challenge in perspective, and not to allow themselves to be paralysed by the spectre of separatism. For next to a broken Britain, the worst outcome will be a Britain which is inward looking, obsessed with preserving its territorial integrity and no longer interested in shouldering its international responsibilities.

One thing is, however, certain: if the current nationalists succeed in establishing new states, the first thing they would do is to deny others the same right. The Scottish government is already rejecting demands for a separate status from some of its remote islands. When it comes to nationalism, what is good for the goose is never good for the gander.

By Rachel Chang In Nanning (Guangxi), The Straits Times, 15 Sep 2014

THERE are new and exciting opportunities for Singaporean businessmen in China's relatively unexplored areas such as south- western Guangxi, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said yesterday.

Speaking on his visit to Guilin, known for its stunning natural beauty, he told the city's party secretary Zhao Leqin that he looked forward to telling Singaporeans, based on his personal experience, that they should come and explore it.

Singaporean businessmen in China, such as Mr Justin Low of Golden Verde Investment, had told the Prime Minister that regions like Guangxi "are not so well developed yet and so there are things that you can do, and (you can) open up new areas where other people have not yet been", Mr Lee said.

Mr Zhao urged PM Lee to expand Singaporean investment in Guilin, currently at about US$110 million (S$140 million), and suggested a joint project in Yangshuo county, a popular tourist spot.

Yesterday, Mr Lee took a cruise along the Li River from Guilin to Yangshuo, and caught a performance of the Impressions Of Liu Sanjie, the Zhang Yimou-directed extravaganza set against the winding waterway and Karst mountains.

Now at the mid-point of his week-long trip to southern China, Mr Lee leaves Guilin this morning for Nanning, the capital city of Guangxi, to grace the 11th China-ASEAN Expo.

Singapore is this year's country of honour at the annual international trade fair. Mr Lee is scheduled to deliver the keynote speech at the official opening ceremony tomorrow.

PM shares views on 3rd govt-to-govt project with China
He discusses areas of collaboration with senior Chinese leaders
By Rachel Chang In Nanning (Guangxi), The Straits Times, 16 Sep 2014

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday met senior Chinese leaders in Nanning to discuss areas of Sino-Singapore collaboration ahead of the 11th annual China-ASEAN Expo.

Singapore is the country of honour at this year's expo.

Mr Lee exchanged views with Executive Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli on China's proposal for a third government-to-government project in the western region, said a statement from the Prime Minister's press secretary.

Mr Lee had earlier told Guangdong's Nanfang Daily that the project must fit in with China's priorities, be fully supported by the local authorities, and commercially viable.

Mr Zhang co-chairs the Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC) with Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean. It is the highest platform for bilateral exchange between the two countries.

The JCBC will meet later this year in coastal Suzhou city to mark the 20th anniversary of the Suzhou Industrial Park, the first bilateral flagship project.

The proposed third government-to-government project will likely figure on the JCBC agenda as well.

The two leaders yesterday also discussed the commemoration of the 25th anniversary of Singapore-China diplomatic relations next year, including the exchange of state visits by President Tony Tan Keng Yam and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

With close cooperation in the two government-to-government projects (Suzhou Industrial Park and Tianjin Eco-city) as well as the private sector-led Guangzhou Knowledge City, relations between Singapore and China are excellent, affirmed both leaders.

Mr Lee visited Guangzhou Knowledge City for the first time last week during the Guangdong leg of his week-long tour of southern China.

After his meeting with Mr Zhang yesterday, Mr Lee toured some Singapore companies' exhibition booths at the annual trade fair. He also met Guangxi party secretary Peng Qinghua.

Mr Peng noted that Singapore- Guangxi trade, which reached US$660 million (S$835 million) last year, a 172 per cent year-on- year increase, is on the rise. There are more than 180 Singapore companies invested in Guangxi.

He also proposed greater collaboration between Singapore and Guangxi in three areas - port management, organisation of conferences and exhibitions, and financial services - noting that these are where Guangxi wants to learn from Singapore.

Today, Mr Lee will deliver the keynote speech at the expo's opening ceremony and officiate at the opening of the Singapore Pavilion together with Vice-Premier Zhang.

Mr Lee will then hold a round-table dialogue with Chinese businessmen before leaving for Hong Kong, the last stop of his trip.

Guangxi offers 'lots of advantages as springboard to rest of China'
By Rachel Chang, The Straits Times, 16 Sep 2014

After a three-year study, Singapore company Strategic Petroleum settled on the south-western Guangxi region as the first place in China where it could take its home-grown waste conversion technology.

Besides being culturally and geographically similar to Singapore - Guangxi denizens speak Cantonese and it is China's only western area with a port - the region offers lower business costs than neighbouring Guangdong, with its more advanced economy.

The Singapore firm found an ideal partner in Guigang city, which hosts plywood manufacturers anxious to find a way to get rid of their waste wood in an environmentally friendly way.

Yesterday, it signed a deal to set up a pilot plant in the district that would use its gassification process to turn waste wood into natural gas.

"We're not going to confine ourselves to Guangxi region," managing director Ace Gueh told The Straits Times yesterday. "But as a springboard to the rest of China, it has a lot of advantages."

This includes its designation as the start point of the Chinese central government's plan to revive the ancient Maritime Silk Road, which winds through the South China Sea and links Guangxi with Singapore and other ASEAN countries.

Beijing will push out various incentives to promote the Silk Road to foreign investors and "Singaporeans shouldn't wait too long to come in and explore and see what they can do", noted Singapore Business Federation (SBF) chairman Teo Siong Seng.

He arrived in Nanning this year for the annual China-ASEAN Expo with a biggest-ever delegation of over 90 firms.

All three Singapore banks - DBS Bank, United Overseas Bank and OCBC- are represented here for the first time and a flurry of tie-ups between Singapore and Guangxi companies are set to be inked.

Several of these were cemented under aggressive courting by Guangxi's local government, which wants to position itself both as a gateway to ASEAN - it shares a border with Vietnam - and a gateway to China's vast western inland region.

Although companies were reluctant to reveal details like favourable tax policies, they said the Guangxi government prioritised and facilitated their investments.

IAG Healthsciences signed a memorandum of understanding with the Guangxi Botanical Garden of Medicinal Plants to set up a centre for traditional Chinese medicine research. IAG saw its deal materialise in just two months thanks to the local health authorities and Guangxi's investment promotion bureau.

"The key issue for us was that the government is very proactive in the promotion of trade between China-ASEAN countries," said Mr Patrick Teng, the founder of financial training firm Six Capital, which is collaborating with the Guangxi University of Finance and Economics to set up a 20ha institution to train Chinese and ASEAN foreign exchange traders.

"Because the costs are lower, it's not difficult for people from emerging countries to live and train here," he added.

Still, Guangxi is less globalised and liveable than its glamorous Guangdong neighbour, a major challenge for Singaporean businesses which are part of this pioneer wave.

SBF's Mr Teo cited the lack of transport links - with most businessmen having to go through Shanghai or Guangzhou to get to Guangxi - and the lack of trained professionals in various industries as an obstacle to doing business.

"Top-notch researchers and personnel need a good and suitable environment not just to live and work but also to encourage the flow and interaction of ideas," said IAG Healthsciences group managing director Shen Lee. "This is lacking in Guangxi at the moment."

Shenzhen needs to learn from S'pore, says party boss
By Rachel Chang In Shenzhen, The Sunday Times, 14 Sep 2014

With its high-tech industries, migrant population and clear blue skies, southern metropolis Shenzhen is the most similar to Singapore among Chinese cities, said its party boss Wang Rong.

But while Shenzhen's rapid development has been an "urbanisation miracle", Mr Wang told visiting Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday that the city still needs to learn from Singapore, especially in areas like social gover-nance and managing social conflict.

In their meeting, Mr Lee said he was sure that there would be opportunities for Singapore and Shenzhen to work together.

He added that he was struck by Shenzhen's rapid transformation since his last visit in 1991. Then, he made the trip from Guangzhou to Shenzhen by car, and it took four to five hours.

Last Friday, he and his delegation made the same trip in 36 minutes via a high-speed train.

Mr Wang is a familiar face to Singapore leaders due to his previous post as Suzhou party boss from 2004 to 2009. The city in Jiangsu province houses the first Sino-Singapore joint venture, the Suzhou Industrial Park.

It has been almost 10 years since they last met, noted Mr Lee, and he was glad for the chance to renew their acquaintance.

On the third day of Mr Lee's week-long visit to southern China and his last in manufacturing powerhouse Guangdong province, he also visited the Lotus Hill Park, famed for its bronze statue of Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, who designated Shenzhen as the pioneer site of his plan to open up China three decades ago.

Mr Deng's reform and opening-up blueprint was influenced by his meeting in 1978 with former Singapore prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, Mr Wang told Mr Lee.

Mr Lee also visited Chinese Internet giant Tencent yesterday, where he was given a tour of the company's products and apps by co-founder Pony Ma, one of China's richest men.

Tencent is the company behind WeChat and QQ, China's most popular social media and messaging platforms. The company has now expanded into online payment, maps, video streaming and a variety of other services.

Mr Lee wrapped up his tour of Shenzhen with a visit to the Qianhai development zone before departing for Guilin, a city in the south-western Guangxi region.

Tributes, gifts pour in as Mr Lee turns 91
By Rachel Au-Yong, The Straits Times, 16 Sep 2014

FORMER Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew turns 91 today and well-wishers are brimming with tributes and gifts to honour him. There are video montages of the major moments in Mr Lee's life, portraits of him in various mediums, and several suggestions to declare Sept 16 a national holiday.

The birthday greetings on social media this year, numbering more than a thousand, are believed to be initiated by logo designer Catherine Leck.

On Aug 31, using the hashtag #happybirthdayLKY, she encouraged friends and followers to post online messages for Mr Lee, a founding father who was Singapore's first prime minister.

"I want him to know that even younger Singaporeans who didn't get to see him in action appreciate his efforts," the 32-year-old said.

Her birthday greeting to Mr Lee is an image of his face, made from confetti.

Meanwhile, the People's Action Party (PAP), which Mr Lee co-founded, added to the swell of wishes by creating a website for people to post greetings. It also collated the messages of netizens who had used the hashtag.

In response, Mr Lee said in a statement: "Thank you for your birthday greetings and good wishes. I cannot reply to each greeting individually. I wish you all the very best in return."

The Straits Times understands he celebrated his birthday with his family last week, before Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, his son, began a week-long trip to southern China last Thursday.

Often, the wishes on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter were a simple "Happy Birthday" greeting.

But many also wrote heartfelt messages of how their lives were changed by what Mr Lee achieved for Singapore.

One eye-catching post is a photograph of Mr Lee's visage done in embroidery. Illustrator Evon Lim, 34, took about 40 hours, over eight days, to sew it. "It would be a huge honour to be able to give my embroidery to Mr Lee," she said.

Artist Ng Huifong, 33, who lives in Brunei, is putting the final touches to an oil painting of Mr Lee. She expects to finish it today. "There is no one else whose name is synonymous with Singapore," she said.

Several grassroots leaders also joined in the digital celebrations. Taking the lead from their MP Alex Yam (Chua Chu Kang GRC), several Yew Tee volunteers posted videos on their own Facebook page, showing them extending wishes with birthday cake in hand.

Greetings also popped up in various Facebook threads.

For instance, The Straits Times'Facebook post over the weekend about the PAP website for Mr Lee's birthday, drew more than 3,500 likes and about 400 well-wishes.

The flood of greetings has taken Ms Leck by surprise. Initially she feared some might misconstrue her move as an attempt to curry favour with the PAP.

“It’s really just my sincere appreciation for the man,” she said. “He has shown admirable qualities and there is no doubt he shaped Singapore.”

A study of cities' competitiveness highlights four areas of reform: building institutions, business regulation, and building hard and soft connectivities.
By Janamitra Devan And Razeen Sally, Published The Straits Times, 16 Sep 2014

CITIES are the lifeblood of the global economy and determine the wealth of nations. Throughout history, cities have been magnets for talented people who disseminate knowledge, spark entrepreneurship and innovate.

Today, most productive policy innovation is happening in cities and sub-national regions, not at the level of national governments, let alone in international forums like the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organisation and G-20.

Policymaking is more flexible and practical the closer it is to residents. At local levels, policy experimentation, and learning and adaptation, become infectious. Cities emulate one another and often adopt best international practices better than nations do.

This is why the World Economic Forum has just published a study on the competitiveness of cities.

"Competitiveness" hinges on the productivity of the city - its ability to use available inputs efficiently to drive sustainable economic growth and prosperity.

We compiled 33 case studies of cities around the world, with different endowments and at different stages of development. Nine are in Asia. Some are proven success stories, others are potential success stories, and yet others have got stuck or failed.

Urbanisation is the megatrend that is most relevant to city competitiveness. Never before has the world urbanised at such speed and scale as it is doing today.

As of 2010, for the first time in history, over half the world's population lives in cities. This population accounts for over 80 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP). According to the UN, globally, an additional 2.5 billion people will move to cities by 2050.

For the foreseeable future, rapid urbanisation will be an almost exclusively non-Western affair: 94 per cent of those who will move to cities in the next few decades will come from the developing world. The McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) estimates that, by 2025, the developing world's top 443 cities will account for close to half of global GDP growth and 18 per cent of global GDP. These cities will contain the bulk of about one billion new middle-class consumers.

The four agendas of reform

SO WHAT are the key lessons for city competitiveness in Asia? Here is a checklist of four items. Think of it as a "what-to-reform, how-to-reform" agenda.

- Institutions

First, think institutions, which are the decision-making framework of the city. Leadership and vision - a clear, far-sighted view of where cities should head and a single-minded practical will to ensure they get there - show the power of city leaders as CEOs.

Two Asian examples stand out: Mr Lee Kuan Yew and his first-generation leadership team in Singapore; and Mr S.R. Rao, the chief executive of Surat Municipal Corporation, who turned the Gujarati city of Surat around to become one of India's most successful.

Singapore highlights the importance of gradually building up institutional strength through successive phases of development. But Cebu in the Philippines points to fragile institutions that can endanger existing gains as well as future competitiveness.

Cities should also look out for windows of opportunity - often during a political or economic crisis or turning point - to push through a critical mass of decisive reforms. This is what happened when Singapore was kicked out of Malaysia in 1965, when Penang elected a new opposition-led state government in 2008, and when Surat was stricken by the plague in 1995.

- Business regulation

Second, think of the regulatory framework for the city's business climate. Getting the basics right - stable and prudent fiscal policies, including low and simple taxation, a flexible labour market, openness to trade and foreign investment, and simple and transparent business regulation - is the primary lesson for good public policy at both national and municipal levels.

One of the big takeaways from the Singapore story is to keep policy simple for producers, consumers and citizens. Cities should also develop their own foreign economic policies on trade, foreign investment, tourism and attracting foreign talent, and go global as far as they can. Singapore, Penang, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad in India, and Ningbo in China are great examples.

- Hard connectivity

Third, think "hard connectivity" - the city's core physical infrastructure. Cities need a mix of planning and organic growth, which are complements, not substitutes. Chandigarh in India and many Chinese cities today are examples of overplanning.

Next, urban density, including "building tall" in city centres, is preferable to urban sprawl. Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai are great examples of urban density. Other Chinese cities, though, could also do with more density and less sprawl. Mumbai is a glaring counter-example of very bad urban planning.

- Soft connectivity

Fourth, think "soft connectivity" - the city's social capital. Education is the ultimate soft connectivity - as Singapore has shown by becoming Asia's education hub. Next, cities need to facilitate digital infrastructure to support human-computing interfaces that empower individuals. Also, making cities more liveable - improving the quality of urban life - must be a higher priority for upper-middle-income and high-income cities. Singapore, as a "global city", appreciates that it has to expand and diversify its educational, cultural and recreational facilities to attract top global talent.

Renowned urbanist Jane Jacobs said successful cities are those that are flexible and adapt quickly to changing conditions. That is borne out by the success stories mentioned here. The alternative is to get stuck in mono-industrial, mono-cultural decline.

A second concluding observation is that the right mix of priorities requires tailoring to specific conditions and stages of city development. Priorities for high-income cities will differ from those with much lower income levels, high growth potential, a fast-expanding population and big gaps in infrastructure. And middle-income cities in between will have a different set of priorities.

Last, reforms at the municipal level are usually more feasible than at the national level, even when they seem impossible in national capitals. Urbanisation trends enlarge these possibilities. Cities should grasp this opportunity, experiment with new rules and put reforms on a fast track.

The first writer is a former vice-president of the World Bank and is currently strategy adviser to senior executives. The second writer is an associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore.

Prof Sally coordinated the WEF study as chair of its Global Agenda Council on Competitiveness, and Dr Janamitra contributed as a member of the council.

LTA says it has drawn lessons from the confusion that greeted the opening of the MCE last December, and has taken several measures to ensure motorists understand the changes.
By Sharon See, Channel NewsAsia, 15 Sep 2014

New roads in the Marina South area will be opened on Sunday (Sep 28), giving motorists using the Marina Coastal Expressway (MCE) "a more direct connection" to the city centre, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced on Monday (Sep 15).

The straightening of Central Boulevard will give "a smoother connection" from MCE Exits 2 and 3 towards Shenton Way and Bayfront Avenue, the LTA said. As part of the road changes, Bayfront Avenue will be extended to the Marina Bay MRT station.

Those driving from the Tanjong Pagar area, including Anson Road, Maxwell Road and Shenton Way, can make use of a new direct connection from Maxwell Road to get onto the MCE towards KPE and ECP, the LTA said. The existing slip road from MCE Exit 1 will also be realigned to Maxwell Road. A stretch of slip road between Maxwell Road and Central Boulevard will also be removed.

Due to the changes to the road network, bus services 106, 133, 400 and 402 will be re-routed, said the LTA. The existing bus stop along Central Boulevard (towards MCE) in front of Marina Bay Financial Centre will be removed, and the affected bus services will be re-routed to the bus stop along Marina Boulevard.

Two other bus stops, located along Central Boulevard (towards Shenton Way) and Marina Station Road, will also be removed, and bus services 97, 106, 133, 400, 402, 502 and 513 will now stop at a new bus stop located after the junction of Central Boulevard and Bayfront Avenue, said the LTA.

NEW CONNECTIONS, NEW ROUTES

For those travelling from Maxwell Road to MCE, the new route is 600 metres shorter than the old one of entering AYE through Shenton Way. With a straightened Central Boulevard, there is also no longer a need to make a detour around Marina Bay MRT Station to reach Shenton Way, reducing the journey by 400 metres.

But with one slip road removed, turning into Central Boulevard from Bayfront Avenue means having to travel 100 metres more.

Chua Chong Kheng, LTA's Deputy CEO, said that when the MCE was first built, some road connections were not possible due to the ECP. "We actually had to demolish the structures before we can build these connections. And in order to demolish the ECP, we had to close the ECP. And before ECP can be closed, we need to open the MCE," he explained. "These had to be done in two stages, very clearly. So this was all planned right from the beginning."

LEARNING FROM PAST EXPERIENCE

When the MCE first opened in late December, there was a massive jam as drivers got confused about where they should turn. At the time, drivers said the signs were poorly designed and confusing. The LTA says it has learnt from that experience, and is taking several measures to help road users understand the changes.

These include:

- More extensive use of overhead gantries

- More lane-use signage

- Icons included in signage content to guide people to spots like the Cruise Centre

- Familiar sites like Shenton Way used as reference points, so motorists will feel assured that they are going in the right direction

Said Mr Chua: "We have actually done a focus group discussion and consultation with Friends of LTA to give us independent feedback on the signage - whether they are useful or whether they should be tweaked further. On top of that, we are going to organise a test drive with them as well as other people who are not involved in this project, this will be carried out sometime on Sep 23."

Motorists are also advised to plan their routes in advance, and LTA will upload eight videos from Wednesday (Sep 17) showing various routes, to help drivers get familiar with the roads before they travel on them.

More information on the road network changes is available on the LTA home page and on the LTA’s Youtube channel. In addition, LTA will send brochures and circulars to tenants in the area to inform them about the changes, and there will be lunch-time exhibitions at the Marina Bay Financial Centre, MND Building and URA Centre.

Foreign employment growth also falls to its weakest since late 2009
By Amelia Tan, The Straits Times, 16 Sep 2014

THE tight labour market has helped drive up wages and employment for locals while foreign employment growth fell to its weakest level since late 2009.

Latest data from the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) released yesterday also showed that retrenchments fell while job vacancies hit a record high.

But while the numbers are glowing, the ministry warned of further company closures as the economy continues to restructure.

Employment grew by 27,700 in the three months to June, down from the 33,700 jobs created in the same period last year.

Of the jobs created in the second quarter, just 3,800 jobs went to foreigners, the slowest pace of foreign employment growth since the third quarter of 2009.

The bulk of the jobs created went to locals, supported by a "confluence of foreign workforce constraints, higher wages and employers' adoption of flexible work arrangements to attract more women and older workers", said MOM.

The citizen unemployment rate fell to 2.9 per cent in the second quarter from 3 per cent in the first three months of the year.

The real median gross monthly income of fully employed citizens increased by 4.6 per cent last year, said the ministry.

Economists said that the strong wage and employment growth for locals will continue to hold, with firms looking to expand in the region.

But companies with expansion plans may face difficulty in recruiting as there is already a record 63,900 job vacancies as of June.

OCBC economist Selena Ling said the pick-up in wages should continue to help low-wage workers. "If the wage increase is passed on by businesses to consumers, then the real income growth will be muted," she said.

For higher wages to be sustained over the long term, MOM said that productivity must improve further.

"More needs to be done to raise productivity, most critically in the construction sector, as well as the more manpower-intensive industries within the services sector," it said.

MOM noted that productivity of the construction industry was negative in the first half of the year.

As a result, overall labour productivity in the second quarter was dragged down and fell by 1.3 per cent.

The ministry added that the firms in the service sector, such as restaurants, retail shops and hotels, will feel the pressure to raise wages as many are expanding and need more staff.

"The manpower-lean environment will continue to be a feature of the Singapore economy," said MOM.

"As the economy restructures, some consolidation and exit of less productive businesses is expected."

Bank of America Merrill Lynch economist Chua Hak Bin agreed.

"We have not seen the full brunt of the foreign manpower curbs yet. There will be further tightening, so firms can expect the pain to continue," he said.

The report also said that 2,410 workers were laid off in the second quarter of this year, lower than the 3,110 workers who were retrenched in the previous quarter.

More firms expected to shut due to labour crunch
By Amelia Tan, The Straits Times, 16 Sep 2014

MORE firms are likely to shut down or downsize as foreign manpower curbs continue, said employers and economists.

This is because productivity has not grown fast enough to make up for the labour crunch.

"If you cannot find enough workers to do the jobs, there is no choice but to consolidate," said Bank of America Merrill Lynch economist Chua Hak Bin.

The experts were reacting to new figures from the Manpower Ministry which show that foreign employment has slowed down significantly, inching up 3,800 in the three months to June.

The last time it grew this slowly was back in the third quarter of 2009, during the global financial crisis, when expansion was just 700 in three months.

The experts said the authorities tightened foreign worker hiring policies with the aim of forcing firms to work more efficiently.

But the reverse has happened in some companies.

Singapore Business Federation's chief operating officer Victor Tay said a lack of workers has pushed some firms to focus on day-to-day operations instead of planning ahead to raise productivity.

"There are pockets of firms which have raised productivity through innovation and technology," he added.

"But you need manpower to use this equipment and to drive productivity projects."

Curbs on the renewal of Employment Passes are also curtailing productivity gains, said Mr Victor Mills, chief executive of the Singapore International Chamber of Commerce.

"(These EP holders) are talented, committed and productive employees... All too often, they are rejected," he said.

For things to improve, sectors which are perennially unproductive such as construction must do better, say experts.

"But the effects will not be seen immediately. The construction workers need time to be trained," said Dr Chua.

Mr Tay suggested that the pace of foreign manpower curbs be slowed down to allow firms to recover.

"Policy formulation is like a medicinal prescription," he said.

"We ought to monitor the patient's response, in this case, the companies. Sometimes, after detecting adverse reaction, dosage of medicine should be moderated."

Shortage of skilled staff in some sectors
Record 63,900 vacancies in June; construction, manufacturing hard hit
By Joanna Seow, The Straits Times, 16 Sep 2014

SOME parts of the economy are facing a shortage of skilled workers which, if the posts are left unfilled, could result in rising costs, project delays and a slowing down of business.

And the problem is growing, according to latest official data.

There were a record 63,900 vacancies logged in June, nearly 12,000 more than a year earlier, according to Manpower Ministry statistics released yesterday.

Financial services and health and social services saw at least 1,000 more vacancies each, although the lack of skilled workers is most acute in the construction and manufacturing sectors.

Recruiters and employers flagged mid-level skilled staff such as engineers, nurses and crane operators as highly sought after but difficult to find.

Previously, such positions could be filled by foreigners with relevant skills. But increasingly, with the tighter rules on foreign manpower, companies find that they have to turn to local workers instead, said Ms Linda Teo, country manager of recruitment firm ManpowerGroup Singapore.

However, employers are finding it hard to hire local workers as many do not have the technical skills required, said Mr David Leong, managing director of recruitment firm PeopleWorldwide.

"Not enough people are taking up courses in applied skills, despite there being enough training capacity in education faculties," he said.

The crane industry, for example, is in dire need of fresh blood. Seven in 10 crane operators are aged 40 and above, and few young Singaporeans are interested, said Singapore Cranes Association (SCA) chairman Alan Chan.

"As locals get more educated, the majority don't want to be in this trade where you don't wear long-sleeved shirts and a tie," he said. This is despite salaries of up to $7,000 a month.

Even engineering has lost its shine, with people choosing the finance and service industries instead, said Mr Leong. "A lot of good engineers end up selling property or insurance," he said.

To make career pathways clearer and more accessible, Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam will be chairing a tripartite committee for the development of an integrated system of education and training for all Singaporeans.

In the meantime, however, bosses like Mr Chan said that if the skills shortage continues, construction projects are likely to take longer to complete.

Another consequence across industries is that wages are being pushed up as employers strive to attract locals and grapple with higher minimum salaries for foreign work pass holders.

While this may be good for employees, it raises costs for firms.

Industry associations also warn that the lack of skilled workers may force companies that cannot compete to scale down, shut down or move out.

"Business costs are getting higher and productivity has not grown at the same pace as the foreign manpower curbs and wage increment," said Singapore Business Federation chief operating officer Victor Tay.

And in certain industries, higher wages do not seem to make a difference. Mr Sam Chee Wah, general manager of precision engineering firm Feinmetall Singapore, said the starting pay for machinists has gone up by $500 but they are still hard to hire.

"So we're trying to become less labour-dependent - the process has to adjust to people."

Construction sector the main drag on labour productivity
By Marissa Lee, The Straits Times, 16 Sep 2014

MORE needs to be done to boost productivity in the construction sector, which is still lagging behind other industrial sectors in efficiency.

In the first half of the year, construction was the main drag on total labour productivity, which fell 0.3 per cent from a year ago. Labour productivity for construction fell 1.3 per cent in the same period, according to figures released by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) yesterday.

This despite efforts to incentivise firms to invest in more skilled workers and better equipment, through training programmes and grants.

The nature of the industry makes restructuring difficult, say observers.

"It's not as straightforward as manufacturing, you can't just automate the whole system," said Mr Gilbert Chuah, operations manager of pile testing expert Allnamics.

And while standardisation of building designs has expedited work on Housing Board sites, it is less useful for private residential projects, where the same design may not be replicated throughout.

Noted Mr Dominic Choy, director of projects at Hexacon Construction: "Developers need to place more priority on optimising land use, so repeatability and modularity would be (used) less, and this leads to lower productivity."

Mr Kenneth Loo, executive director of Straits Construction, added that contractors are limited in the initiatives they can take, since they are "at the end of the value chain".

"When we receive plans, more often than not it is too late to make changes to make it more buildable. Initiatives to drive productivity should start upstream when concept design is conceived," he said.

But others in the industry are more optimistic.

Singapore Contractors Association president Ho Nyok Yong, for one, said that big contractors were already on board to buy more equipment, because labour had become more expensive.

Dr Ho was confident that these gains would be reflected in time.

CIMB bank research economist Song Seng Wun agreed, but warned that "some consolidations and exits" would come, as smaller contractors fail to make the cut.

Dr Randolph Tan, an economist at SIM University, believes more communication is needed to assure firms that productivity investments are the right risk to take.

"Businesses are ultimately driven by bottom lines and that's where we need more than a carrot-and-stick approach," he said.

In a move to curb contractors from hiring unskilled foreign workers beyond their quota, a $950 monthly levy was imposed on contractors in July, leading to a cost squeeze.

But Mr Song said: "You need a painful stick, but the carrot will still be there," pointing to the current construction boom here.

Last year, construction demand reached a high of $35.8 billion, he said, and that figure is expected to climb this year.

By Christopher Tan, The Straits Times, 17 Sep 2014

BUS workers must be offered a job by companies which take over the routes of their current employers.

And the terms cannot be worse than what the drivers are enjoying now.

These were among a series of steps spelt out yesterday by a tripartite body headed by Senior Minister of State for Transport Josephine Teo.

Concerns over the fate of workers such as drivers and technicians had been raised as Singapore moves towards a new contracting model from 2016.

Under the new government contracting model, operators will bid for the right to run parcels of routes for a fixed number of years.

If an operator fails to meet service standards, it risks not being invited to bid for future parcels, which raises the potential uncertainty for workers.

The Public Transport Tripartite Committee (PTTC) was set up in February to address the concerns over this uncertainty.

Yesterday, Mrs Teo, who chairs the committee, announced three key recommendations for the industry come 2016.

First, all affected workers must be offered a job by an incoming operator.

Second, affected workers must be offered employment terms no worse than what they have been enjoying - at least for the first year.

Third, affected workers can choose to join the new operator, or be redeployed by their current employer, where feasible.

"I cannot over-emphasise the importance of good employment practices and healthy industrial relations to the provision of high-quality bus services," said Mrs Teo, who is also Senior Minister of State for Finance.

She added that the Government, unions and transport operators know this.

The committee - made up of representatives of the Land Transport Authority, Ministry of Manpower, National Transport Workers' Union, SBS Transit and SMRT - has thus drawn up the three guidelines that will be spelt out in operating contracts.

The first such contract is expected to be up for tender by the end of this month.

It is for a route parcel in the west, consisting of 24 existing and two new services in Clementi, Jurong and Bukit Batok. They will operate out of the new depot off Jurong West Avenue 2, from the second half of 2016.

Yesterday, the Singapore National Employers Federation, unions, and transport operators welcomed the PTTC guidelines.

National Transport Workers' Union executive secretary Ong Chin Ang said the union had held more than 50 engagement sessions with bus drivers to "garner credible feedback from the ground" in contributing to the PTTC guidelines.

Australian bus operator Tower Transit, which has assembled a team to bid for routes here, said: "These are very clear rules of engagement and, as such, they will ensure a level playing field for all companies when preparing their tender."

The new contracting model paves the way for the bus industry to receive more direct government subsidies.

It is expected to free operators from the tension of having to balance revenue and service standards.

They will also be freed from having to acquire and hold on to operating assets which translate into hefty depreciation charges on their profit-and-loss accounts.

The Government will own all infrastructural and operating assets.

Operators will thus be able to focus solely on meeting service standards, which are expected to rise over time.

Post by Land Transport Authority – We Keep Your World Moving.

Transport workers' union welcomes PTTC guidelines
By Sharon See, Channel NewsAsia, 16 Sep 2014

The National Transport Workers' Union (NTWU) has welcomed the employment guidelines issued by the Public Transport Tripartite Committee (PTTC), saying it is pleased that the job security of bus workers has been addressed.

The union has been working closely with the PTTC to ensure its concerns have been taken into account.

One of the main issues discussed was whether the long-term career prospects of bus workers would be affected, with bus service contracts lasting five to seven years. "In fact, this is the top concern of the union," said Mr Ong Chin Ang, executive secretary at NTWU. "Whether are we going to move from permanent employment to become temporary employment of five to seven years - how does it affect our workers' welfare and terms of employment?"

"So we are glad that in the tripartite deliberation, we had raised this issue and I think that the LTA (Land Transport Authority) has agreed that they will ask any potential bidder or incoming operator to incorporate manpower development policies and career development for our bus captains and related workers into the tender specifications," he added.

Another of the union's concerns is how any potential foreign operator would take to such terms. Mr Ong said that foreign operators are likely to be less familiar with Singapore's employment norms and how the tripartite partnership works.

As such, the PTTC requires non-unionised companies to grant direct recognition to the union if more than half of their employees are union members. Of the 10,000 bus workers in Singapore, 90 per cent are union members.

Under the guidelines, incoming operators need to offer affected employees similar terms of employment for at least a year. Mr Ong explained: "This is really to provide a stability period, in particular for the new operator coming from overseas. They are not familiar with our local market situation, local labour law and our industrial relations.

"So it is important to have this sort of stabilisation period to let them understand better and to provide them the opportunity to discuss with the union and the workers what sort of new packages they want to offer to the workers.

"As a union, of course we welcome the incoming operator to provide better terms and conditions for our workers. We are also mindful that we have to make sure that this is sustainable. We do not want to see them make a huge adjustment in the salary and three years later, they go bust. And I think it will cause a lot of pain to our workers. That is not something that we want to see as well."

'POSSIBILITY OF RETRENCHMENT IS LOW'

Even after one year, operators cannot unilaterally cut back on the employment terms without approval from the union or authorities. Operators said that the possibility of retrenchment is low due to a shortage of bus drivers.

Mr Roger Wong, general manager of Woodlands Transport Service, said: "For bus captains, I do not think there is a possibility of retrenchment because there is a severe shortage of bus captains in the market at this moment. And we foresee down the road that the shortage will continue. The only issue is how we are going to retain these bus drivers to continue to work with us."

However, Mr Wong also expressed concern that incoming operators may end up with workers employed under different schemes if they have to be hired under the same terms as before.

He added: "This would create three types of salary scales in one company - the existing two operators and our own. This might create an imbalance among the employees, the drivers - while working in the same company but are under a different type of salary scale. We would have to think out of the box and provide even better salary packages to attract them to join us on a new package."

SMRT, SBS TRANSIT EXPRESS SUPPORT FOR GUIDELINES

SMRT CEO Mr Desmond Kuek is confident that his company would have no problems assimilating people from other companies into his organisation. "Having people on different schemes is not something which is new to SMRT. People may start from different platforms, different standards ... but when they come in to the company, we look forward to assimilating all of them harmoniously into one workforce," he said.

"If there are improvements to the scheme that can bring everybody more closely together under the same HR policies, I think it is something which we certainly look forward to - especially in terms of assimilating workers harmoniously into a single workforce, regardless of where they may have joined us from," Mr Kuek added.

Mr Gan Juay Kiat, CEO of SBS Transit, also expressed his support for the PTTC recommendations. He said: "Should we ever have to give up packages, we would like to ensure that the staff are taken well care of by the new operators. So this thing about the one year to protect the terms and conditions of service is something that we strongly support.

"Obviously for any operator, after the one year and if he values the worker, he has to negotiate with the union and the workers to ensure that any new terms and conditions should be no worse off than what they are currently enjoying. And that is the fundamental principle - that even after the one year, we hope that whichever is the new operator will still continue to adopt that spirit of 'no worse off' when they negotiate and harmonise."

Tower Transit, one of the foreign operators which has expressed interest in bidding for bus contracts in Singapore, has said that it welcomes the guidelines.

Ms Heather Haselgrove, a spokesperson for Tower Transit, said: "The terms and conditions will be set by the LTA in the invitation to tender and every company bidding to provide bus services will have to comply with them. As such, it is a level playing field for all companies. Tower Transit welcomes the announcement and recognises that it is important that employees are protected during the transition to the Government Contracting Model."

The tender for the first parcel of bus routes is expected to be released by early October.

By Yeo Sam Jo, The Straits Times, 17 Sep 2014

CARS may one day go out of fashion in Singapore, said National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan, as he envisions a city with fewer vehicles and more space for living.

"It is already happening in some European cities," he wrote on his blog yesterday.

"Youngsters no longer see a need to take driving lessons, let alone buy a car. People are walking, cycling, taking public transport. The occasional car needs can be satisfied more coolly, via Uber or Zipcar or many such local ride-sharing equivalents."

This would transform lifestyles and the city landscape for the better, and render carparks "excessive and redundant", he added.

That is why it is useful to participate in Singapore's second annual Park(ing) Day on Friday, he urged. The event, supported by the Urban Redevelopment Authority, allows the public to temporarily transform carpark spaces around the island into anything from gardens to living rooms.

The global initiative, which began as a single installation in San Francisco in 2005, now has a following of more than 160 cities across six continents. Most of the carparks here that will undergo the creative transformation this year are located in Jalan Besar and the Central Business District.

So far, there have been about 50 registrations from community groups, local businesses and student bodies, said Mr Khaw. One of the ideas is a pop-up repair cafe, where one can learn to mend items such as furniture, clothes and shoes.

Last year, four parking spaces in Circuit Road were turned into gardens, which also doubled as pedestrian crossings. "The mission is to get everyone to envision a city with fewer cars, and more space for people, for living," said Mr Khaw.

When cars go out of fashion, what happens to car parks?

PARK(ing) Day 2014

They and VWOs seek to keep fund-raising channel via mailers open
By Lester Hio, The Straits Times, 17 Sep 2014

CHARITIES and voluntary welfare organisations (VWOs) sending flier inserts with phone or utility bills are now relying on people not to opt out of receiving them so that this channel of fund-raising remains viable.

SingTel and Singapore Power, the only two of nine telcos, banks and utility companies checked with that carry mailers for charities, said they would give their customers the option of not receiving such appeals.

Since July 2, companies, including charities, have had to seek permission from individuals to send unsolicited marketing materials or fund-raising appeals.

As charities piggyback on the contact lists of companies which send out their fliers, they are dependent on them to obtain the requisite permission.

The Personal Data Protection Commission issued these clarifications, among others, last Thursday on how the Personal Data Protection Act relates to organisations in the social, health-care, education and photography sectors.

"If it's a blanket opt-out option for all third-party services, then we will be affected," said an Assisi Hospice spokesman.

"Hopefully, customers can have the option to differentiate the type of third-party information they wish to or wish not to receive - for example, a choice to opt out of marketing but not community service materials."

She added that a few hundred thousand people receive the mailers each time.

Other charities sending mailers this way include Touch Community Services and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Foundation.

A Singapore Power spokesman said new customers can opt out of getting such inserts through e-mail, the telephone or in person when signing up for utility services.

SingTel has a portal on its website through which new and existing customers can specify the mailers they still want to receive and those they want to opt out of.

"VWOs and other businesses do have their materials inserted in our bills for a fee, and customers who do not wish to receive them can opt out," said a SingTel spokesman.

The Straits Times understands that the handling fee for each insert is about five cents. Charities can run several thousand to over a million of these inserts.

Charities depending on such services as part of their fund-raising efforts may now have to work at persuading people to keep them.

Salesman Francis Tan, 46, said: "I chose to opt out, since I always ignore them. This way, at least they won't be wasting paper sending them out."

Opt-out option for bill inserts applies to charity organisations: PDPC
By Irene Tham, The Straits Times, 11 Sep 2014

Charity organisations are allowed to call numbers listed on the Do-Not-Call registry to raise funds but they are not allowed to insert fund-raising mailers in telco or credit card bills without customers' consent, the authorities have clarified in guidelines for the social service sector issued on Thursday.

This is because the contact list belongs to the telcos or banks, and not the charity. Under the Personal Data Protection Act, fully implemented on July 2, companies must get customers' consent to use their personal data for such purposes. The same rule applies to other bill inserts such as marketing brochures on fixed broadband or pay-TV services.

Companies that have used the personal data of customers to send the inserts before the Act took effect can continue to do so. But customers must be allowed to opt out of receiving such marketing, said the Personal Data Protection Commission, which administers the Act.

Consumers can also opt out of receiving calls from charities.

The legislation seeks to provide safeguards against the wrongful collection, use and disclosure of personal data for marketing. It requires organisations to inform individuals of the purpose for collecting, using and disclosing personal data.

Confusion has arisen over whether charity organisations need to seek consent for inserting fund raising mailers in utility bills as charity organisations are exempted from the Do-Not-Call provisions in the Act.

The Commission also issued guidelines for the education and healthcare sectors today, all of which were finalised following a three weeks-long public consultation in May this year.

They aim to provide more clarity on issues such as the collection of personal data from patients seeking medical care and the use of students' personal data for admission to schools. For instance, if a patient has agreed to be referred to a specialist by a general practitioner, the agreement would constitute consent for his doctor to disclose his personal data to the specialist as required for the referral.

The guidelines are intended to help companies comply with the Act. The first set of guidelines for the real estate and telecommunications sectors were released earlier this year.

Karaoke chain may face the music after customer data breach
Personal details of over 300,000 patrons exposed in alleged hacking
By Irene Tham, The Straits Times, 17 Sep 2014

THE personal data of over 300,000 customers of a popular karaoke bar chain here has been exposed, with the firm possibly facing sanctions for lax security.

The leak of K Box's membership database is being investigated by the privacy watchdog, the Personal Data Protection Commission, which said it is "concerned about the scale" of the alleged breach.

Organisations must take "reasonable measures" to protect personal data in their possession, said the commission, citing privacy laws which came into force on July 2. Police also confirmed that a report had been lodged and investigations are ongoing.

The leaked data included names, addresses and mobile-phone and identity card numbers, although some are outdated.

At least 15 customers confirmed with The Straits Times that their personal details had been exposed along with their K Box membership numbers and the loyalty points they had earned. The list included some local celebrities.

The perpetrators belong to a group which called itself "The Knowns". It sent an e-mail to media outlets, including The Straits Times, yesterday morning, saying that it was releasing the data to show its displeasure over recent increases in toll charges at the Woodlands Checkpoint.

It said the hikes were "an unnecessary financial burden on working Malaysians", and threatened to "attack and expose" the databases of more Singapore companies if nothing was done to reverse the charges.

From next month, driving to Malaysia via the Causeway will cost much more as Singapore has decided to match Malaysia's fee hike announced last month.

Charges will apply for vehicles entering Singapore via the Causeway as well, a fee which is not imposed today. A round trip for a car will amount to $6.50 - more than five times the current $1.20.

The charges for all other vehicles, except motorcycles, will also increase by about the same quantum.

When contacted, a representative of K Box, which runs 12 outlets here, said it is investigating if its computers had been hacked.

The 12-year-old firm was sold by its Singaporean owners to Japanese karaoke chain operator Koshidaka Holdings in February.

Security and privacy advocates said many organisations' lax attitude towards data privacy and security needs to be addressed.

Mr Chai Chin Loon, chief operating officer of locally based IT security specialist Assurity Trusted Solutions, said the database should be "encrypted with advanced authentication measures at the very least".

Engineer Ngiam Shih Tung, 47, said firms should not collect more personal data than they can handle.

"In this case, there is no reason for a karaoke bar to collect identity card numbers," he said.

K Box members feeling angry and insecure
By Pearl Lee, The Straits Times, 17 Sep 2014

A CYBER attack on karaoke bar chain K Box has left its members crooning the blues and crying for swift action, after their personal data, including their home addresses, surfaced online.

More than 300,000 people on K Box's membership scheme are affected by the leak.

One of them, university student Ms Lee, 20, said she is thinking of making a police report.

"All my private information is in the list. I keep thinking about the things people could do with the information obtained," she told The Straits Times.

"This shows a serious lapse in K Box's security system."

Another K Box member, 28-year-old Ms Kwek, said she counted four other friends who were on the list as well.

"I got the membership card during my secondary school days but it must have been more than five years since I last used it," she said.

Ms Kwek, who works in the finance industry, said she had considered making a police report but felt it was of little use.

"You can make a report but so what? The information is already out there right now."

The victims declined to be named in full, fearing further privacy breaches.

The list also contains the particulars of at least two local television celebrities, a check by The Straits Times showed.

A hacking group which calls itself The Knowns had leaked to various media outlets a list containing the names, addresses, e-mails, and phone and identity-card numbers of those holding a K Box membership card.

In an e-mail titled A Warning To Singapore Government, the group said it was releasing the information as it was unhappy that toll charges will soon be increased on this side of the Causeway.

"The selfish act increases the revenue of the Singapore Government at the expense of the common people," it said.

The Straits Times, Mediacorp, and socio-political site The Real Singapore were among those that received the e-mail. The Real Singapore reproduced a screengrab of the e-mail, which showed a link to the leaked information, on its website and its Facebook page.

Financial adviser Mr Tan, 26, said he was angry but "there is nothing I can do now".

"How can K Box compromise on its IT security? Customers' information is the most important," he said. "Even my home address has been leaked. I feel very insecure now."

None of them has been contacted by K Box.

Ms Lee added: "I think K Box should at least explain the incident to its customers."

Firms urged not to rely on just site password
By Irene Tham, The Straits Times, 18 Sep 2014

COMPANIES that rely on just a password to secure their websites are the most vulnerable to cyber attacks, security experts warned yesterday.

Also vulnerable are those that do not scan their computers regularly for security holes, they said, pointing out that this may have been how hackers had broken into and stolen the members' database of karaoke bar chain K Box.

K Box yesterday was scrambling to fix its website, leading to it being intermittently unavailable, following the massive data breach on Tuesday.

The hackers stole and posted on various websites the names, addresses and mobile phone and identity card numbers, among other things, of 300,000 customers.

Calling itself "The Knowns", the group said the cybercrime was in protest against the recent increases in toll charges at the Woodlands Checkpoint. It had threatened to "attack and expose" more Singapore companies.

New victims, the experts said, could be anyone, from restaurants to bowling alley operators, who for years has kept members' personal data on spreadsheets in unsecured computers.

"Typically, smaller companies are easier targets," said Mr Bryce Boland, chief technology officer of California-based IT security company FireEye in the AsiaPacific.

They tend to have smaller budgets for security software and less stringent IT policies, he said.

For instance, access to sensitive data on their websites may be protected by just a username and password, and any data submitted through the website is not secured by the latest encryption technologies.

Also, Mr Boland said, when computers have undetected security holes, malicious programs can be easily installed to steal databases.

Mr Oh Sieng Chye, a locally based malware researcher at security software maker ESET of Slovakia, said: "Malicious software could have been implanted into a computer by a staff member."

This is why Mr Joe Green, Asia-Pacific head of systems engineering at network security firm Palo Alto Networks, believes in strict IT policies that prohibit certain staff from accessing particular systems.

"It can also go a long way in keeping cyber security postures watertight," he said.

Companies also should collect only what data they need, said Mr Alvin Tan, regional director for IT security firm McAfee. "And this data should be protected by encryption and constantly monitored for authorised access."

K Box, which is possibly facing fines for lax data protection, said on Tuesday night that it was undertaking a full internal probe into the theft. The breach is also being investigated by privacy watchdog, the Personal Data Protection Commission.

Privacy laws came into force on July 2 and companies found in breach of the law face fines of up to $1 million.

Little known about The Knowns
By Aw Cheng Wei, The Straits Times, 18 Sep 2014

THE Knowns, who made headlines yesterday for stealing the personal data of more than 300,000 customers of a popular karaoke chain, said in a Twitter post that they claimed another victim, Bakerzin, in another security breach in June.

The group said it did so because it felt the local dessert chain had unfair employment practices.

But a check showed that the link, which supposedly leads to Bakerzin's customer database, did not work.

Bakerzin, which has about 15 outlets in Singapore and Indonesia, declined to comment.

The K Box breach was revealed through an e-mail, purportedly sent by the group to media outlets on Tuesday, which said it was releasing the data to show its displeasure over recent increases in toll charges at the Woodlands Checkpoint.

Little is known about this group, said security experts. "They might be newly formed," said Mr Alvin Tan, regional director at IT security firm McAfee.

It is also difficult to ascertain the group's identity since it has gone to great lengths to keep itself, well, unknown. For example, the e-mail blast to media outlets was through Tor, a service client that protects its users' privacy by transmitting information through random and multiple pathways. This prevents easy tracking.

"The intention of using Tor is to remain anonymous," said Mr Jimmy Sng, technology partner at PwC South East Asia Consulting. He added that with more online presence by companies, they have more responsibility to keep data secure.

M1 website flaw led to one unauthorised access, telco explains
By Irene Tham, The Straits Times, 17 Sep 2014

Telco M1 said a design flaw on its website that takes pre-orders for the new Apple iPhone 6 and 6 Plus resulted in one unauthorised access to customers' personal data.

The website was restored on Tuesday after 12 hours of suspension due to the flaw that allows a visitor to the website to access customers' personal information simply by changing data stored in a "cookie" on his browser.

"A security patch was immediately developed and deployed which rectified the flaw," said M1 in a statement on Wednesday night.

"Our investigation to date has detected one case of unauthorised access to some personal information of 12 customers, such as their names and addresses," it added.

"Credit card and bank account details were not accessible. We sincerely apologise to our affected customers and are in the process of contacting them."

Customers were informed of the security loophole at 7.30pm on Monday via the telco's Facebook notice. Its website was suspended temporarily to protect customers' personal information, it said.

The Personal Data Protection Commission is investigating the M1 security loophole.

A customer alerted M1 to the potential security loophole via a post on M1's Facebook wall on Sunday at around 9pm. He was reportedly able to access information such as phone numbers, identity card numbers and home addresses from online pre-order forms.

The customer was the only one who accessed the data.

Don't let spats overshadow growing relations, he says
By Rachel Chang In Nanning (Guangxi), The Straits Times, 17 Sep 2014

CHINA and ASEAN should maintain the momentum of their regional integration and not let disputes overshadow the positives of their growing relationship, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said yesterday.

Delivering the keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the 11th China-ASEAN Expo in Nanning, Mr Lee said the 10-member grouping and China should keep their difficult issues in perspective, and build momentum on regional integration even as they manage frictions and issues that arise from time to time.

Four ASEAN members have overlapping claims with China in the South China Sea. Tensions rose this year as the Philippines pursued a legal suit against China at the United Nations and anti-China riots erupted in Vietnam over a Chinese oil rig in a disputed area.

Executive Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli, who also spoke at the expo, reiterated China's commitment to resolving the territorial disputes peacefully through bilateral negotiations between the claimants and deepening maritime cooperation with ASEAN members.

In his speech, Mr Lee pointed out how China-ASEAN economic cooperation and interdependence have grown exponentially in recent years.

Since they signed a free trade agreement (FTA) in 2005, trade has tripled, and ASEAN is now China's third-largest trading partner, he noted. By 2020, the goal is to boost two-way trade to US$1 trillion (S$1.26 trillion), and mutual investment by US$150 billion.

Mr Lee welcomed China's proposals to deepen China-ASEAN economic cooperation, such as upgrading their FTA, setting up an Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to lend to emerging countries for their infrastructural development needs, and reviving the ancient Maritime Silk Road that winds through the South China Sea. Singapore looks forward to working with China on details of these initiatives, he said.

While some view the proposals as a bid by China to edge out the United States and Japan in influence in the region, Mr Lee made clear that closer ASEAN-China ties complement, rather than compete with, interdependence and integration in the wider Asia-Pacific.

"Today, a lot of ASEAN-China trade is in intermediate goods, which go into final products that are subsequently exported to third-country markets like the US and Europe," he said. "Therefore, just as ASEAN-China trade grows, so does trans-Pacific trade. In particular, both China-US and ASEAN-US trade are growing."

He said he was glad that Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders will discuss how to realise a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific at their summit in Beijing in November. APEC leaders have pledged to negotiate this mega free trade area by building on the free trade agreements concurrently being worked out in the region. These are the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, spearheaded by China, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, spearheaded by the US.

Yesterday, Mr Lee also attended a round-table dialogue with Chinese businessmen. The expo has designated Singapore as the country of honour this year. Mr Lee made a pitch for them to do business in Singapore, noting its business-friendly and globally connected environment, its understanding of both Chinese and ASEAN cultures, and ASEAN's huge growth potential.

He officiated at the opening of the Singapore Pavilion at the expo and met Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Tanasak Patimapragorn on the sidelines of the expo. Mr Lee then left for Hong Kong, the last leg of his week-long trip to southern China.

PM optimistic about China's growth
By Rachel Chang, The Straits Times, 17 Sep 2014

AMID concerns over China's slowing economy, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong struck an optimistic note on the Asian giant's growth prospects.

"While China's economy will experience ups and downs, I expect China to grow strongly over the next decade and beyond as it implements needed economic and social reforms," he said at the opening ceremony of the 11th China-ASEAN Expo in Nanning yesterday.

"This can only be positive for our region, because it will create more opportunities for win-win cooperation and greater prosperity for all."

Key economic indicators have grown at a slower-than-expected pace in recent months in China, stoking fears that the world's No. 2 economy will miss its growth target of 7.5 per cent for the year.

Observers also believe that its property sector is headed for a rigorous correction, if not a crash.

Yesterday, Mr Lee noted that while the global economy has not been in robust health for some time, Asia has remained a "resilient engine of growth" due to China's dynamism and China-ASEAN integration.

Singapore has benefited, he said: Sino-Singapore trade rose to US$92 billion (S$116.3 billion) last year from US$4.2 billion in 1990.

Also last year, China became Singapore's largest trading partner, while Singapore became the top foreign investor in China.

More than 5,200 Chinese companies have set up shop in Singapore, he added.

Post by Lee Hsien Loong.

PM and HK leader reaffirm strong ties
It is PM Lee's first visit to Hong Kong since 2001
By Rachel Chang In Hong Kong, The Straits Times, 18 Sep 2014

PRIME Minister Lee Hsien Loong met Hong Kong political and business leaders yesterday in his first trip to the city since 2001.

At an evening meeting with Chief Executive Leung Chun Ying before a dinner attended by other Hong Kong politicians, the two leaders reaffirmed strong bilateral ties, said a statement from the Prime Minister's press secretary.

Mr Leung told Mr Lee that he looks forward to continued support from Singapore to bring about an early conclusion of the negotiations for the Free Trade Agreement between Hong Kong and ASEAN, said a statement from the Chief Executive's Office. Talks began in July this year.

The two men also exchanged views on the challenges that the cities share in housing, land use and infrastructure development.

They discussed how the massive transport infrastructure push by Beijing is bringing the region closer together, such as through a road link that would allow a driver to travel from Hong Kong to north Vietnam in 24 hours. This will be possible after the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, an ambitious 50km, 73 billion yuan (S$15 billion) structure across the Pearl River, is ready in 2016.

"The barriers are coming down. And the rest of the world and this region will follow suit," said Mr Leung.

Mr Lee noted that Beijing is also pushing for the revival of the ancient Maritime Silk Road, a trading route that winds through the South China Sea.

Singapore-Hong Kong trade has been growing steadily: In the first seven months of this year, bilateral trade grew 4.9 per cent over the same period last year to $35.4 billion.

Earlier in the day, Mr Lee met former chief executive Tung Chee Hwa, who is now vice-chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

They exchanged views on the latest political and economic developments in Hong Kong, mainland China and the region, said the press secretary's statement.

Mr Tung also told Mr Lee that whenever he visits Singapore, he is impressed by what the Singapore Government is doing to position the nation for the future.

"We try to keep up because the region is moving and we have to keep abreast of it," said Mr Lee. "It's quite difficult, where we are, to try to move ahead. Just like Hong Kong, you can't go as fast as before, because it's more complicated."

On the last stop of his week-long tour of southern China, Mr Lee also attended a briefing by Hong Kong's city planners and took a night-time walk in its bustling Tsim Sha Tsui area.

He returns to Singapore today.

Automated passport clearance for S'poreans visiting HK frequently
By Rachel Chang, The Straits Times, 18 Sep 2014

FROM next Monday, Singaporeans who travel frequently to Hong Kong can apply for a facility to avoid long immigration queues at the city's airport.

The two cities have agreed to allow mutual automated clearance of passports, said the Singapore Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) yesterday. Machines at the airports read passports and fingerprints and travellers need not fill in embarkation or disembarkation cards.

Those eligible to apply are Singapore or Hong Kong passport holders aged 11 years and above who have visited the other city at least three times in the past year.

To enrol, Singaporeans can bring their passports and a colour photo to Changi Airport, Woodlands Checkpoint, Tuas Checkpoint or the ICA building. Applicants aged 11 to 17 must be accompanied by a parent or a guardian and passports should have at least six months' validity.

Enrolment is free, said ICA.

More information can be found on ICA's website at www.ica.gov.sg, or Hong Kong Immigration Department's website at www.immd.gov.hk.

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S'pore welcomes Jakarta's move to ratify haze pact
Indonesian officials hail decision as a new chapter in efforts to tackle issue
By Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja Indonesia Correspondent In Jakarta, The Straits Times, 17 Sep 2014

INDONESIA'S Parliament unanimously agreed to ratify the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution, in a move officials hailed as a new chapter in the country's efforts to take a stronger lead in tackling an annual problem that has irked residents in affected areas and neighbouring countries.

"This is the right step for Indonesia to show that it is serious in addressing the transboundary haze caused by forest and plantation fires," Environment Minister Balthasar Kambuaya told Parliament yesterday. Ratification, he stressed, would benefit Indonesia the most as it would better protect citizens from the negative effects of forest fires and safeguard the country's natural resources.

All nine parties in the outgoing Parliament yesterday backed a Bill to ratify the agreement, 12 years after Indonesia signed it alongside the other nine ASEAN members - but failed to win approval for it from MPs until recently.

The Bill is expected to be formally signed into law by the President in the coming weeks, and after that an instrument of ratification will be deposited with the ASEAN secretary-general.

The House's reluctance in the past became a sticking point last year, when haze levels reached record highs in Riau as well as Malaysia and Singapore.

MPs had felt certain clauses could infringe the country's sovereignty, leaving Indonesia in the awkward position of being the only ASEAN member to hold out.

But the government has clarified that though the treaty obliged Indonesia to be responsible for responding rapidly to fires and cooperating with its neighbours, sovereignty was not negotiable.

Instead, the pact strengthened Indonesia's existing regulations and policies in dealing with fires.

"These responsibilities do not come with sanctions. Any differences among us (ASEAN members) will be settled amicably through discussions and consultation," Dr Balthasar added yesterday.

"Indonesia can make use of the human resources and equipment available within ASEAN countries," Mr Milton Pakpahan, a Democrat MP who helped to push the Bill through, told Parliament.

Singapore welcomed the Indonesian Parliament's decision to ratify the treaty, the Environment and Water Resources Ministry said in a statement yesterday.

It also said the ratification was timely, given the recent spike in the number of hot spots in Sumatra and Kalimantan.

"Singapore looks forward to closer cooperation with the Indonesian government and our ASEAN partners to tackle this recurrent problem," the ministry added.

Under the terms of the treaty, countries have to cooperate in taking measures to prevent, monitor and mitigate the haze by controlling the sources of fires, in exchanging information and technology, and in helping one another manage outbreaks.

Indonesia's Environment Ministry said yesterday that it had already begun taking measures in line with the ASEAN agreement.

Indonesia will also be starting cloud-seeding in the coming days to induce rain to douse forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan.

Post by Vivian Balakrishnan.

Jakarta approval to ratify ASEAN haze pact shows 'commitment'
Move a boost for regional action, improves detection of fire-starters
By Zakir Hussain Indonesia Bureau Chief And Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja Indonesia Correspondent In Jakarta, The Straits Times, 18 Sep 2014

FOREIGN Minister Marty Natalegawa said Indonesia's ratification of the ASEAN haze agreement signals his country's commitment to tackling an annual problem together with its neighbours.

"This is a very important development - a reminder of the commonality of interests between Indonesia and the region at large in dealing with the issue of haze," he told The Straits Times yesterday.

"Indonesia will continue to enhance its efforts to deal with this challenge." Dr Marty's comments come a day after the House passed a Bill agreeing to ratify the ASEAN pact on transboundary haze pollution, 12 years after Indonesia signed it alongside other ASEAN members and as the current haze threatens to spread in coming weeks.

The pact calls on countries to cooperate in preventing, monitoring and managing the haze by controlling the sources of fires, and in sharing information and technology.

Indonesia's delay in ratifying the pact had called into question its commitment to tackle the problem, but officials yesterday said the nation had tried to comply with it before ratification. Dr Marty earlier told Parliament's defence and foreign affairs panel: "Each time incidents like this happen, we feel it the most, but our neighbours also get affected. Our approach is in the spirit of not blaming one another, but seeing how we can solve the problem together."

Mr Agus Purnomo, an adviser to the President on environmental affairs, told The Straits Times: "Indonesia will continue to do what it has been doing, including law enforcement. With the ratification, Indonesia can no longer be blamed as a party that blocks regional cooperation." He added that poverty was at the root of the problem in many fire-prone areas.

Environmental law professor Laode M. Syarif said Indonesia had fulfilled most of its responsibilities under the pact, enacting laws to prohibit open burning and putting in place early warning systems and emergency response measures.

"What we need is the full implementation of those laws and action plans," he said. "Now we are obliged to do it by international law and standards."

Mr Afdhal Mahyudin, a Pekanbaru-based officer with environmental group WWF, hoped the ratification will see better detection of errant plantation owners, saying this should strengthen the government's hand in bringing culprits to book.

Last week, a district court in Riau sentenced a manager of a Malaysian-owned plantation to one year in jail and fined him two billion rupiah (S$220,000) for neglecting to prevent forest fires on the estate in June last year. The firm was also fined and ordered to repair environmental damage.

National Disaster Management Agency and Forestry Ministry officials yesterday told a briefing on the current haze situation that 99 per cent of fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan in recent days were caused by deliberate burning.

Disaster officials said aircraft allocated to do cloud- seeding to induce rain were under maintenance, although they are in talks to rent planes to seed clouds. Meanwhile, helicopters carried out water-bombing to put out fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan.

The PSI in Pekanbaru, Riau, hit the unhealthy range of 138 yesterday. Air quality in Singapore crossed into the unhealthy range with the three-hour Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) registering 102 at 8pm.

'Lost' reservoir historically significant: NHB
Much can be gleaned from materials and methods used
By Melody Zaccheus, The Straits Times, 18 Sep 2014

AN ABANDONED man-made reservoir that dates back more than 100 years has been uncovered by the National Heritage Board (NHB).

Located off Telok Blangah Road and near Mount Faber, it was part of the Tanjong Pagar Dock but is not demarcated in the modern maps of Singapore.

However, while doing a study on the topographical changes in Singapore over the past 100 years, a team from the board discovered the reservoir, nestled in a densely forested area.

"We were poring over old maps of the area and saw a body of water marked out on them,'' said Dr John Kwok, 36, assistant director of research at NHB.

Following the discovery in February, Dr Kwok and four researchers spent another four months going through old maps and documents to piece together the story of the forgotten reservoir, which is about one-third the size of an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

The researchers found it was one of three small reservoirs that used to be in the area, based on a 1924 map by the former Singapore Harbour Board.

It most likely served residents of a nearby settlement. Later, it was used as a swimming pool, based on pre-war and post-war maps. Remnants of a diving board and a bathing area still stand today.

The place, which used to be referred to as Keppel Hill reservoir, made the news in 1936 and 1948 when two soldiers and a boy drowned in two separate incidents after taking a dip.

An oasis of calm amid one of the world's busiest ports, a busy bus interchange and dense residential estates, the site still has a functioning water filtration system that uses different rock types to remove sediment. There are a total of six filter beds. It also has a dam on its southern end.

The board said the land the reservoir sits on is zoned as park land.

Singapore has 17 reservoirs which are managed by the PUB.

Meanwhile, the NHB said the discovery is historically significant because of the building materials and methods used.

The bricks used to build the reservoir show the body of water was constantly in use, said Mr Alvin Tan, 42, its group director of policy. Some were handmade and dated back to the colonial period.

Mr Tan advised people to be careful about exploring the place as its terrain is slippery and overgrown with heavy foliage. He said guided tours may be organised if there is demand.

Nature Society (Singapore) president Shawn Lum said the reservoir and its surrounding mature secondary forest are worth documenting for a closer look at the biodiversity.

"It's a nice, isolated habitat with a lot of vegetation and sufficient shade - pre-requisites for small wildlife such as birds, frogs and aquatic insects to thrive."

Abandoned reservoir near Telok Blangah Road found
By Tan Shi Wei, TODAY, 18 Sep 2014

Once a reservoir that served the Tanjong Pagar Dock in 1905, it was later abandoned and vanished from contemporary maps of Singapore — until a group of National Heritage Board (NHB) researchers stumbled upon it while poring over old maps during a routine research on the island’s history in February.

“‘How did we not know about the reservoir’ was the first thing that came to our minds.” said Dr John Kwok, assistant director (research) of NHB’s impact assessment and mitigation division.

Their curiosity sparked, the five-member research team, headed by Dr Kwok, 36, began comparing maps from different periods to piece the picture together.

“It was a long and gruelling process, as most research are,” said Dr Kwok, during a media visit to the reservoir today (Sept 17). “We had to go through a lot of records and pretty much camped in the archive room to look at them over and over again.”

Through their research, the team found that the reservoir — which is at least 2m-deep — was a water source for Tanjong Pagar Dock back in 1905. Subsequently, maps dating to the Japanese Occupation marked the water body as a swimming pool, although a map and report from a British aerial inspection in 1944 called it a reservoir.

In the intervening years, one newspaper report in 1948 referred to it as Keppel Hill Reservoir, but in the first Urban Redevelopment Authority Masterplan in 1958, it was simply an outline, without a caption. In the 1980s, maps only showed an outline, and by around 2000, it had entirely disappeared from maps.

“It was forgotten because it was a private reservoir and through time, we think that it changed owners and was subsequently abandoned as there was no use for it as a reservoir or a swimming pool.” Dr Kwok said.

Responding to media queries, the PUB said it was recently informed of the existence of the reservoir, and also visited the site with the NHB. “PUB understands that the site may have started out as a private pond used to collect rain water under the then Singapore Harbour Board. Given its relatively small size, it is not viable for tapping on as a reliable water supply source,” a spokesperson said.

Calling the finding “the first of its kind”, Dr Kwok said it was luck that enabled them to locate it so quickly. “We were ecstatic when we had found the site and spent some time there, climbing around,” he said, adding that the team were shocked at how well-preserved it was. The rusted hinges of an old diving board alongside the mould-ridden chute spillway of the dam spotted on site supported their research findings. The team trekked down the overgrown terrain— 400m off Telok Blangah Road — four more times to document the place. The site is not fenced off, although an old and battered sign hanging from a tree cautioned visitors not to swim or fish in the reservoir.

The discovery and history of the reservoir has been made into a nearly eight-minute long documentary called Forgotten Reservoir, which can be viewed on the NHB website from tomorrow.

Asked about the future of the reservoir, NHB’s Group Director (Policy) Alvin Tan said the land has been zoned for park use and he did not foresee any developments. “We would advise members of the public with children, elderly and those with certain handicaps to avoid to coming to the site itself, because it is inaccessible due to the dense jungle grove and possibly slippery roads.” he said, adding that they might look into organising guided tours.

The board would also like to encourage those who have more information about the reservoir to email them atnhb_feedback@nhb.gov.sg.

Views differ on anti-gay sex law at NUS forum

Top lawyers debate repealing of Section 377A at human rights session

By Walter Sim, The Straits Times, 18 Sep 2014

THE subject of universal human rights took a local turn at a university forum on Tuesday night, with two top lawyers disagreeing over whether an anti-gay sex law should be done away with.

National University of Singapore (NUS) law don Walter Woon said he was in favour of repealing the law because of what he sees as a "constitutional problem".

The Government has said that the law will not be proactively enforced. But Prof Woon, a former attorney-general, cited Section 35(8) of the Constitution to make the point that the powers to prosecute lie with the Attorney-General.

"So we have a very dangerous precedent here where the political authorities are saying to the Public Prosecutor - who is supposed to be independent - there are some laws that you don't enforce," he said at the 12th NUS Tembusu Forum attended by about 250 students.

"I find that very uncomfortable," he added.

Section 377A makes it a crime for men to commit acts of gross indecency with other men, whether in private or public. It carries a jail term of up to two years. The law, enacted in 1938, has been in the spotlight in recent years following Parliament debates and constitutional challenges.

Prof Woon said that homosexual sex was "absolutely impossible to prove" as a practical matter. He added: "As a matter of principle, if these are consenting adults, why should it carry a jail term?"

While considered a sin by certain religions, it could be accorded similar treatment to adultery and fornication, which are not crimes under the law, he said, adding: "If it is a sin, it is between you and God."

NUS Centre for International Law chairman Tommy Koh agreed that the provision should in principle be done without, but said abolishing it was "not so simple" given potential political pushback.

A majority of Singaporeans were against a repeal going by opinion polls, Prof Koh said.

"The compromise is a law in the book, but Singapore will not enforce that law," he said, adding that the Government's difficulty in balancing opposing opinions "should not be underestimated".

The panel at the two-hour forum titled Are Human Rights Truly Universal? also included Ms Braema Mathi, president of human rights group Maruah, and Mr Bernhard Faustenhammer, who heads the political, press and information section of the European Union delegation to Singapore.

They concurred that the idea of human rights is universal, but its application hinges on local contexts, such as culture and history.

Ms Mathi cited the example of Brunei's recent passing of the hudud law, an Islamic penal code that calls for death by stoning for adultery, which she said appears to contradict both regional and global human rights declarations.

By Marissa Lee, The Straits Times, 18 Sep 2014

MANY young people want to understand how the "kampung spirit" of old relates to modern Singapore, going by the number of questions they asked Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Lawrence Wong at the annual Polytechnic Forum.

People coming together and working together to build a better future for themselves and their children is what the kampung spirit is about, he told the 300 students who had gathered at Singapore Polytechnic on Tuesday.

During the hour-long dialogue, students had a go at defining the concept in their own terms, throwing up phrases like "volunteerism" and "a collective mindset" - the willingness to work together for a common cause.

Mr Wong agreed that volunteerism was important as well.

"Many things can help promote the kampung spirit but ultimately you need people to take ownership, and that requires people to volunteer their time, volunteer their energies," he said.

Mr Wong was part of a panel that included Mr Tong Yee, co-founder of social enterprise The Thought Collective, and Straits Times senior correspondent Radha Basu, who covers social issues.

The students raised many more issues, such as caring for the elderly and elitism. A common concern they voiced was the nation's reliance on foreign talent in local businesses and sports.

"Some of you spoke quite emotionally about this," said Mr Wong, who urged students to consider the many foreign nurses who care for the elderly, and foreign professionals who have contributed their expertise to build up industries that employ Singaporeans.

"How we feel, how we behave, reflects ultimately on who we are and our own insecurities, or our own confidence as Singaporeans," he added.

Nanyang Polytechnic arts student Heather Abeyasekera, 17, said the local arts community was "very underground", and not talked about much.

Mr Wong said the local arts scene was "still not quite there yet".

Urging the students to be more supportive of the local music and arts scene, he said to laughter from the students: "I can't fill the (Esplanade theatre) if it's a local musician but if I bring a K-pop group, I can charge $100 and the place will be full."

By Tan Wu Meng, Published TODAY, 18 Sep 2014

Today, 18 September 2014, Scotland will hold a referendum on independence from the rest of the United Kingdom.

A year ago, the pro-independence Yes campaign was lagging behind. This has since narrowed to a dead heat, with a Yes majority being a very real possibility.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, Leader of the opposition Ed Miliband and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg have vigorously campaigned in a cross-party effort to keep the UK together.

Even the Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) session, an important part of UK political culture, has been affected — Mr Cameron and Mr Miliband have skipped PMQs to campaign in Scotland.

Scottish independence would have deep implications for Scotland and the rest of the UK.

For some time, the UK’s international standing has surpassed its tangible military and economic reach. Through a combination of international partnerships, cultural soft power and afterglow from the post-Empire and Cold War years, the UK has been able to punch above its weight.

This stature will be much diminished if Scotland separates, the sum of sundered parts adding up to less than what was whole. The UK-America trans-Atlantic relationship will be affected as well.

Separation would be traumatic. Custody of natural resources and strategic assets could be disputed for many years.

An independent Scotland’s fiscal and defence situation would pose problems on both sides of the border. For instance, what would become of the submarine-based Trident, the UK’s strategic nuclear deterrent, which is based in Scotland? The choice of Scotland’s currency would also have implications for investments there and London’s status as a financial centre could also be hurt.

But independence can bring opportunity, too. Self-government would help the Scottish people’s policy preferences find clearer expression, without the overriding influence of the wider UK.

Small countries have started with even less and succeeded amid stiffer odds — as Singapore did, despite independence being thrust upon us in 1965.

A CLOSE CALL

Whatever the merits, why would so many in Scotland countenance the drastic step of independence? Each voter will have his or her own views and sentiments, each campaign its issues, but broader themes emerge, too.

The referendum question, “Should Scotland be an independent country?”, is loaded language. The word “independence” carries a positive connotation, but it leaves aside complexities of “how” and “what happens next”. In this context, a simple word such as “yes” adds momentum, due to its subconscious psychological cachet. Even the pro-unity campaigners have recognised this — hence their use of catchy slogans such as Better Together.

Scotland’s referendum will not have compulsory voting. This introduces an additional hurdle for campaigners. When voting is optional, it is not enough to win support — one’s supporters must find motivation and the will to show up at the ballot box.

Voters with strong views and deep-seated feelings are more likely to turn up. In a close contest under such conditions, emotion can overrule reason — the angry vote against a bitter yesterday, the passionate vote of beliefs made manifest or the inspired vote in the hope of a better tomorrow.

Identity also plays a key role, especially when it fuels emotions. The separate Scottish identity has deep-seated origins, but more could have been done by successive UK governments to minimise divisiveness.

LESSONS FOR SINGAPORE

Although the country is halfway around the world, Scotland’s experience has relevance for Singapore.

By playing to strong emotions, hot-button issues and identity, it is possible for an astute political competitor to whittle down a significant incumbent lead over a few months. The pro-unity campaign in Scotland enjoyed a 60-40 lead barely a year ago. Analysts are now seriously considering the possibility of a loss.

In Scotland, the pro-unity platform, citing track records, policy logic and long-term thinking, has found limited traction. Successful campaigns will be those able to connect with emotion as well as reason: Inspiring people to give of their best, while feeling deeply the gravity of what is at stake.

In a political campaign, the crafting of words is crucial, whatever the language. Words have cadence and rhythm. They carry the weight of context and history. Language frames a discussion for speakers, respondents and observers, for better or for worse.

Identity matters, too — how people see themselves and the lenses through which they see others. Communal and ideological forces have not gone away in the era of globalisation.

It will be more important for public- and private-sector leaders to engage individuals with diverse identities, while drawing together to find common ground and higher purpose.

Amid diversity, our Singaporean society must remain inclusive. Each of us has a unique identity: Who we are, what we do, how we became ourselves. But whatever our race, language, religion, gender, sexual orientation, ability, personal beliefs or socio-economic station in life, we must still see ourselves as Singaporeans in shared humanity.

We are too small a country for individuals to declare themselves islands and be set apart from the rest of society. We can be great enough a nation to accommodate diversity while having a shared purpose.

Tan Wu Meng is a medical doctor working in one of Singapore’s public sector hospitals. He writes in a personal capacity.

Sponsorship deal offers many synergies for both premium brands - and also for Singapore itself
By Wang Meng Meng, The Straits Times, 18 Sep 2014

COME this weekend, rival Mercedes team- mates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg will bring Formula One's unhappiest partnership to town, and motorsports fans all over will watch eagerly for more clashes between the duo.

But as the world witnesses one rocky marriage at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, a happier one is being celebrated as national carrier Singapore Airlines (SIA) makes its debut as the title sponsor of the Singapore Grand Prix.

Both brands are world-famous in their own right.

Both share common values such as excellence, warm hospitality, precision engineering and safety. But as with all big corporate names, they can sometimes do with a sprucing up - and both could not have chosen a better time to do so.

The Singapore race, hailed as the crown jewel of the sport by F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, is now in its seventh edition. While it remains an attraction on the F1 calendar - combining the spectacle of fast cars and pop acts to attract 260,000 race-goers last year - competition is hotting up.

This year, the Bahrain Grand Prix marked its 10th edition by hosting the world's second night race - a sign that Singapore's formula works and others want to replicate it.

Since Singapore joined the F1 fray in 2008, other circuits added or which rejoined include Spielberg (Austria), Austin (United States) and Abu Dhabi. The Black Sea resort town of Sochi in Russia is this year's new F1 race venue. Mexico City joins next year.

The Singapore race's top foreign markets are traditionally Europe and Australia.

But today, the need to reach out to new fan bases in China, India and Indonesia is key - and something the partnership with SIA could accomplish.

Things are already taking off: As soon as the two-year sponsorship deal was announced on April 15, SIA began marketing F1 packages targeted at fan strongholds in Britain, Germany and Australia. They range from a no-frills $2,199 package (round-trip economy air ticket, three-night stay at a non- trackside hotel and a three-day Zone 4 walkabout ticket) to a swanky $21,399 deal, which flies race-goers first class, hosts them at a high-end trackside hotel and includes admission to a hospitality suite and the exclusive Podium and Amber lounges.

All over the world, umbrella girls are an F1 staple feature. SIA's arrival will add the grace of the Singapore Girl - the face of the airline and of its hospitality.

Some 50 Singapore Girls in their distinctive kebayas will accompany F1 drivers, sheltering them with umbrellas. This echoes how the Singapore GP broke new ground by racing at night, providing a timely, TV-friendly sight for a European audience.

Valuable publicity

APART from merchandise like F1-themed gold coins, teddy bears, aircraft models and apparel, SIA also launched, in July, a charm offensive at Canary Wharf, in London's financial district.

Visitors at the four-day event got a treat when Marussia driver Max Chilton demonstrated his skills on an F1 simulator. The public had a go as well, with the driver of the fastest lap winning a luxury trip to the Singapore GP.

As SIA's divisional vice-president of sales and marketing, Mr Foo Chai Woo, told The Straits Times: "There is a good fit between SIA and the Singapore Grand Prix. A European tourist flying to Singapore for the F1 has options to make short stopovers to places like Bali or Phuket."

He added: "As title sponsors, the deal becomes more relevant when it comes to developing markets. (It) is beneficial not just to attract new customers from countries with strong F1 cultures like the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia, (but) is useful in bringing in customers from China and Indonesia."

And it could be a win-win situation for both parties.

Last year, Emirates, Dubai's flag carrier, signed a £150 million (S$308 million) five-year sponsorship deal to be F1's global partner, allowing it to display its branding at all 19 races.

Although SIA did not invest such a colossal amount to splash its brand at all the races, it still managed to gain valuable F1 publicity with its deal in which it will sponsor one race this year and next.

It is believed to have paid in the region of $10 million to $15 million, similar to what SingTel paid for the first six editions.

SIA was quick to rev up, by last month holding a carnival called Light Up The Night, a free event to make motorsport accessible to the public. Fans were allowed into the Pit Building, where they had fun on F1 simulators and saw a supercar parade and stunt driving.

There are also plans to take the F1 car to the skies. SIA plans to paint grand prix-themed livery on its fleet next year and possibly offer more travel packages tailored for fans who want to watch the race, then hop to regional spots like Bali or Phuket.

But why stop there? The night race footage can be screened as in-flight entertainment, for example.

Sports tourism

ASSOCIATE Professor Sharon Ng, a specialist in marketing and branding at Nanyang Technological University's Nanyang Business School, noted: "F1 is an expensive sport for the well-heeled... people who are into things like Ferraris. Through the sponsorship, SIA is getting the association with this premium image. Values such as speed, excitement and coolness are transferred to SIA."

She added: "SIA is a better fit than (previous title sponsor) SingTel.

SIA is a global brand and has a broad market, while SingTel is fairly local. Fans watching F1 in Spain don't need to buy SingTel's products and services."

SIA's Singapore GP experiment could also set wheels in motion for branding Singapore as a sporting destination.

While F1 is the marquee event on the city's sporting calendar, the new Singapore Sports Hub could lend itself to partnerships with SIA - towards the national goal of marketing Singapore as a sports destination.

Next month, Japan and Brazil will play in a high-profile football friendly here. There are plans to host a Super Rugby franchise in 2016, rugby's World Cup Sevens in 2018 and possibly the Twenty20 cricket league.

A look at the numbers shows the potential of sports tourism.

The Grand Prix, which drew tourists from as many as 116 countries last year, reaped $150 million in incremental tourism receipts annually for Singapore. Allied with SIA's reach of 62 destinations in 34 countries, the figure could swell even higher.

Over three days, more than 200,000 fans will pass through the turnstiles at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

Another 100 million will tune in on their TV sets.

Singapore's night race needs to win new fans and shout out to the world. The national carrier wants to attract more passengers. The fit between the two premium brands could not be better.

By Lim Bee Khim, Director, Corporate Communications, Ministry of Health, TODAY Voices, 18 Sep 2014

We refer to the recent letters on some Singaporeans’ experiences with the rollout of the Pioneer Generation Package healthcare benefits. We are sorry that some members of our pioneer generation did not receive the appropriate advice at our public health-care institutions.

We have contacted those concerned to make the clarifications and facilitated the submission of applications from those seeking to switch from private to subsidised patient status.

Since Sept 1, lower- to middle-income Singaporeans may apply for means testing to benefit from higher subsidies of 60 or 70 per cent at subsidised specialist outpatient clinics (SOCs). Pioneer Singaporeans who are patients at such SOCs will receive 50 per cent off on top of this. From Jan 1, pioneers will receive a further half off the bill for subsidised drugs at subsidised SOCs and polyclinics.

Only subsidised patients are eligible for these subsidies; private patients, including those who are pioneers, are not.

Pioneers who are private patients and who wish to enjoy these subsidies can apply to switch to the subsidised SOC.

They can obtain an application form from the SOC when they go for their appointment, or request it to be sent to them. The form is the same as that used for applying for Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS) cards as the information needed is the same.

Pioneers who are not patients at the public hospitals’ subsidised SOCs, but wish to seek care there, should first consult a primary care doctor at the polyclinic or a CHAS general practitioner. If needed, the doctor will refer them to an SOC as a subsidised patient.

We have reinforced awareness of the process at the front lines of our public healthcare institutions and for our hotlines. We will redouble efforts to work with our front-line colleagues to welcome our pioneers.

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