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SkillsFuture for Digital Workplace: Big push to equip workers with basic digital skills

October 7, 2017, 5:47 am
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Largest national training programme in a decade to get 100,000 trained over 3 years
By Amelia Teng, Education Correspondent, The Straits Times, 6 Oct 2017

A major initiative to ensure that Singaporeans keep pace with the digital economy, at work and in everyday life, was launched yesterday.

Over the next three years, the SkillsFuture for Digital Workplace - the largest national training programme in a decade - aims to get 100,000 people equipped with basic digital skills that suit them, from the use of e-payments and e-commerce platforms, to data analytics and automation.

This will be done through two-day customised courses, developed with tech giants IBM, Lazada, Microsoft and Samsung. Courses cost $50 each, which can be paid using the $500 SkillsFuture credits given to all Singaporeans aged 25 and above.

SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) said the aim is to instil digital confidence and a positive attitude towards digital disruptions - a point which Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills) Ong Ye Kung stressed yesterday when launching the initiative. "Every workplace that we go to - regardless of industry - we have to know IT, we have to know robotics, digital technology. We don't have to be experts, we don't all have to be coders but we must know that these are our friends," he said.

He recalled the sense of unease among certain segments of the population when Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, at this year's National Day Rally, highlighted the need to adopt cashless payments as key to Singapore's vision of becoming a Smart Nation. "The recent feedback we got when e-payment came on stream was a sign of this (fear)," said Mr Ong. "There are people who are not familiar with technology and they are afraid, concerned."

He described the digital workplace initiative as a "friendly way" to overcome this. He hopes that "more and more workers can be familiarised with digital technologies and that will help Singapore in our economic restructuring".

The courses, which SSG chief executive Ng Cher Pong said have already drawn strong interest from the public and small and medium-sized enterprises, will introduce participants to how technology can uplift jobs and personal lives.

Recognising that a one-size-fits-all approach will not work, SSG has appointed seven training partners, including Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP), NTUC LearningHub and Singapore Management University, to deliver customised courses.

For example, though they will share a common syllabus, one course explores the use of 3D-printing, while another shows how digital ordering and kitchen automation can improve productivity in the food and beverage industry.

Participants can also learn how to search for information online and harness digital data, use e-commerce platforms to start an online business, or even how to shop online and compare prices.

Ms Megan Ong, director of NYP's Singapore Institute of Retail Studies, one of the training providers, said some people, "especially from the bricks-and-mortar generation", see the adoption of tech as a hurdle.

"But we want to let the public know that tech can actually help them in their day-to-day living."









Course on tech at the workplace a boon for SMEs
By Amelia Teng, Education Correspondent, The Straits Times, 6 Oct 2017

As recently as early this year, Mr Elton Pan was averse to selling furniture online.

Said the 44-year-old chief executive of Fullhouse Home Furnishings: "It can be quite challenging to change business practices, and workers are also uncomfortable with new demands."

But in the past few months, he realised that e-commerce is inevitable in retail, and sent his staff for the new SkillsFuture for Digital Workplace programme.

It is open to company owners like Mr Pan, as well as members of the public who want to keep up with technology trends at the workplace and in daily living.

The programme, lasting two days, is conducted by public and private training organisations and can be tailored to the needs of a company.

There are seven such training partners for now, including Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) and human resource solutions provider Capelle Academy.

Since the programme's pilot run in July, more than 330 people from 21 companies such as Maybank and Courts have been trained.

Ms Judy Goh, 44, who wanted to learn about technology trends in the food trade, took up the course by NYP's Asian Culinary Institute.

She is the office manager of a local enterprise, Montreux Patisserie, which makes pastries, desserts and breads.

The course opened her eyes to how technology can help firms, including small and medium-sized enterprises, be more productive.

Mr Pan's company, an SME that started in 2008, has seven furniture showrooms across Singapore. But by year end, it would have an online website as well for its products, which include sofas and beds.

He said: "Many people now use smartphones to shop, so we hope to attract them to our online platform and then our showrooms. When people buy furniture, they still want to feel and touch what they're buying."

More than 15 employees, including Mr Pan, attended a customised course by NYP's Institute of Retail Studies. It was done in two phases, one day each time. A second group of 30 will do a one-day course later this month.



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Singapore's first dementia-friendly coffee shop in Bishan

October 8, 2017, 7:04 pm
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Stallholders trained as 'dementia friends' to recognise and help people with the condition
By Lin Yangchen, The Sunday Times, 8 Oct 2017

Since Friday, a bustling coffee shop in the heart of Bishan has displayed large decals showing life-sized photographs of delicious hawker food on every table big and small.

And if you sit down and read the accompanying text in English and Chinese, it tells you that someone who has dementia might not be able to see coin denominations correctly; think they have been served the wrong food; or ask for the wrong condiments, such as ketchup for half-boiled eggs.

Fifteen stallholders at Kim San Leng Food Centre at Block 511, Bishan Street 13, have also been trained as "dementia friends" to recognise and help possible dementia sufferers in what is being billed as Singapore's first dementia-friendly coffee shop.

They are also given a checklist to display in their stalls. It explains what to look out for, and contains advice to be polite and to let suspected dementia sufferers take their time instead of growing impatient.

This is the work of the Forget Us Not (FUN) initiative run by local philanthropic organisation Lien Foundation.



Mr Hoon Thing Leong, group chief executive of Kim San Leng and chairman of the Bishan Merchants' Association, said he immediately agreed to the proposal because his Bishan coffee shop has high footfall and the scheme would benefit many elderly people.

MP for Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC Chong Kee Hiong said the coffee shop is a good place to raise awareness as the tenants are long-term operators who know regular patrons and can alert family members if they notice any behaviour changes.

Admin and marketing executive Elaine Tan, 57, whose mother was diagnosed with dementia in 1994 and died in 2005, welcomed the initiative at Kim San Leng coffee shop.

"Dementia is a very scary condition," she said, recalling her mother's visits to coffee shops where she would keep dropping her food and spilling drinks, drawing looks of disgust from other patrons.

One of the new "dementia friends" at the Kim San Leng coffee shop is Ms Eunice Seah, 32, owner of Yu Kee House of Braised Duck, which has an outlet there.

She has a regular customer who has dementia, whom she helps to keep an eye on. She prevents her from roaming too far and waits for the family maid to pick her up.

But some feel there is room for improvement in the messaging.

Supply chain manager Susan Tan, 43, who lives nearby, said of the decals: "It looks like they are promoting chicken rice instead of telling people about dementia."

Several other patrons told The Sunday Times that they had not noticed the dementia messages, as the majority of the text was quite small.



Since its launch early last year, FUN has trained almost 18,800 "dementia friends" from 86 businesses, government agencies, schools, places of worship and voluntary groups, including those from the finance and transport sectors.

In fact, the coffee shop is part of a larger effort by Bishan East-Thomson constituency's effort to create a dementia-friendly community.

The constituency has joined FUN and is planning other outreach initiatives such as school talks, training, celebrity roadshows and even an art contest for students, and aims to train 3,000 "dementia friends" within a year.

Lien Foundation chief executive Lee Poh Wah noted that Japan, which started the dementia-friendly concept 12 years ago, already has 8.8 million dementia friends, which is 20 times more than Singapore per capita.

According to Singapore's Institute of Mental Health, one in 10 people above 60 years of age here suffers from dementia, and it affects about 40,000 people.

The country is gearing towards building more dementia-friendly towns in addition to existing ones in Yishun, Hong Kah North and MacPherson. In his Budget speech, Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat said such efforts will cost $160 million over five years.














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60 years of the Singapore citizenship: From hawkers to millionaires, they all queued up

October 9, 2017, 12:08 am
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How did the landmark 1957 citizenship law come about? What has changed in the 60 years since, and what were the consequences in terms of building a Singaporean identity? Insight takes a look.
By Elgin Toh, Insight Editor, The Sunday Times, 8 Oct 2017

"You go through one door, come out another door, and you are a Singapore citizen." So read an eye-catching quote by then Chief Minister Lim Yew Hock in a Straits Times report on Oct 15, 1957.

At a meeting with Chinese teachers, he sought to stress that an upcoming government campaign to register citizens - dubbed Operation Franchise - would be hassle-free.

The message was received.

Over a three-month window from November 1957 to January 1958, hundreds of thousands turned up to queue at registration points like the Singapore Citizenship Registry in Fort Canning Road, community centres and clan associations.

"Labourers, hawkers and millionaires queued up holding their application forms," said a news report.

In some cases, people waited more than an hour for their turn - but that did little to quell their eagerness, since some had waited decades for this moment.

The Chinese formed the bulk of those queueing, but there were also Indian and Malay registrants, and those of other races.

Millionaire banker Lien Ying Chow, among the first to submit papers, hailed the moment as important for overseas-born residents like himself who had worked hard to build a new life in Singapore.

India-born legislative assemblyman M.P.D. Nair registered, calling on others to follow, so that "they may help in shaping the destiny of our country".

By the end of Operation Franchise, more than 320,000 mostly foreign-born residents in Singapore had "come out another door" as Singapore citizens. A very big majority of those eligible signed up.

When added to a group of mainly local-born residents who were automatically considered citizens, the final tally was over 600,000 in total - the first people in history to be called Singapore citizens.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the enactment of the Singapore Citizenship Ordinance of 1957, the law that gave birth, unexpectedly, to a new national identity.

What led to the passing of this ordinance? What was its significance? How did it shape the course of later events? And what future scenarios are possible for the Singapore citizenship?

Insight speaks to historians and experts to shed light on the subject.

TOWARDS SELF-GOVERNMENT

The Singapore Citizenship Ordinance of 1957 rested in a larger, post-World War II context. "The coloniser (Britain) no longer was untouchable and omnipotent," says Dr Sikko Visscher of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, who studied this period.

The Atlantic Charter between Britain and the United States put the self-government of colonies "firmly on the agenda". Britain was also under pressure from the British public "to give local society in their colonies a larger and more democratic say", he adds.

In Singapore, the elites of each ethnic community began to lobby the colonial government for change.

This was in part the result of the process of localisation - or "Malayanisation" - of the Chinese, Indian and other migrant communities in Singapore as they put down roots.

Professor Kwok Kian Woon of Nanyang Technological University adds: "From the late 1920s, you begin to see the educated Chinese debate in their writings about how the Chinese living in Malaya should relate to Malaya. And there was also the development of a distinct body of literature called mahua wenxue, or Malayan Chinese literature. An incipient Malayan identity was growing among the Chinese."

The fall of China to communist rule in 1949 accelerated the process, since the prospects of a return to China looked increasingly remote. Statements from China and India in the 1950s also encouraged domiciled Chinese and Indians in South-east Asia to take up citizenship.

By 1955, Singapore's newly elected Chief Minister David Marshall was calling for citizenship for Singapore's overseas-born residents, as part of a move towards greater autonomy.

The British had detached Singapore from Malaya constitutionally in 1946, with Malaya eventually achieving independence without Singapore in 1957. Singapore had to pursue its own path of constitutional change, with a vague eventual goal of independence through merger with Malaya.

Mr Marshall resigned when constitutional talks in Britain ended in failure. But Mr Lim Yew Hock, who took over, led a second delegation to London and secured a substantial commitment on autonomy - in part because "Lim was prepared to be tough with the communists", says Professor Tan Tai Yong of Yale-NUS College.

The deal was self-government, a fully-elected legislature and citizenship rights for an expanded electorate. "Self-government requires a representative legislative assembly. And for that assembly to be legitimate, you cannot have less than half the population voting," notes Prof Tan.

Within two days of Mr Lim's return in April 1957, he announced plans for citizenship. Six months later, the law was passed.

It created a new status - Singapore citizens.

Those born in Singapore automatically qualified. Those born in Malaya, Britain or other British colonies must have lived here for two years. Those born elsewhere, such as China, must have lived here for eight of the last 12 years - reduced from 10 of the last 12 years, after lobbying from Chinese groups.

Dual citizenship was only allowed for those born in Malaya and Britain. Those born in China or India had to renounce their citizenships. All registrants were also required to swear "to be faithful and bear true allegiance" to Britain's Queen and to the head of state in Singapore, and to "observe the laws of, and be a true, loyal and faithful citizen of Singapore".

CITIZENSHIP SINCE 1957

The ordinance took a very liberal, open-door stance on those born in China. All who arrived in Singapore before the war could become citizens in one fell swoop.

Criteria tightened considerably when Singapore joined Malaysia in 1963, and have been tight ever since.

Dr Seng Guo Quan of the National University of Singapore calls 1957 a "one-off political settlement". Dr Seng, whose grandfather became a citizen in 1957 (see other story), adds: "Singapore was looking forward to self-government and eventual independence through merger. It was simply not tenable to have a big group of immigrants in a state of limbo and thinking of another homeland."

Says Prof Tan Tai Yong: "There was a realisation that the Chinese and Indians would not be rooted without being given citizenship."

If the intention was to prod the overseas-born to make a commitment to Singapore, it does seem to have worked.

Says Associate Professor Eugene Tan of Singapore Management University: "There was in effect a new entity that required a sense of togetherness, a feeling of being one people, responsible for our own collective fate."

In 1959, a general election was held. The expanded electorate voted out Mr Lim Yew Hock, the man responsible for Operation Franchise - choosing instead as the new prime minister a young lawyer - Mr Lee Kuan Yew (see other story).

In 1963, Singapore merged with Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak to form Malaysia. All who were Singapore citizens under the 1957 ordinance stayed Singapore citizens, and took on Malaysian citizenship concurrently. Dual citizenship for British citizens ended.

In 1965, Singapore separated from Malaysia over irreconcilable differences on race issues. Conveniently and somewhat inadvertently, because the Singapore citizenship had existed since 1957, it did not seem absurd to many for Singapore to go it alone as an independent nation, despite the difficulties of nationhood for a small island.

In the early years after 1965, Singapore citizenship was mainly passed on by descent. There was naturalisation for some who moved here, but the numbers were small. There was also a tendency for foreigners in Singapore - including blue-collar workers - to eventually be granted permanent residency and citizenship if they sank roots.

But as the Singapore economy grew rapidly, the country attracted many more prospective immigrants, and the Government could be much more selective.

Today, most blue-collar workers are given work permits, with no path to citizenship. Skilled migrants can become citizens, but the criteria are fairly non-transparent.

Applicants know that factors like education, income, length of stay and family ties matter, but they are not sure how they add up - unlike in countries that use a point system such as Canada and Australia.

Associate Professor Elaine Ho of NUS says a move towards transparency is desirable. It reduces the emotional stress on applicants and helps them make informed choices.

In 2004, citizenship laws were changed to allow children born overseas to Singaporean mothers - and not just Singaporean fathers - to get citizenship.

The next significant milestone came around the 2011 General Election, amid unhappiness over the fast pace of immigration.

Although new citizen numbers had risen at a much slower pace than non-resident and permanent resident numbers, it was hard for Singaporeans to tell who was a new citizen and who was a permanent resident or employment pass holder.

Says Prof Eugene Tan: "Singaporeans questioned whether citizenship was being commoditised, and whether the ease with which to obtain (it) cheapened it."

The state responded in a few key ways, notes Institute of Policy Studies researcher Debbie Soon - moderating the number of immigrants, stating there should always be a strong core of citizens, and sharpening the difference in benefits between citizens and permanent residents in areas such as housing, education and healthcare.

As men who are naturalised as adults do not have to perform national service, "the state also moved to affirm the value of national service with measures such as vouchers to servicemen", she notes.

What are some future scenarios for Singapore citizenship? And how might the 1957 ordinance inform the way Singaporeans think about these futures?

One possibility is exploring dual citizenship (see other story).

On the issue of accepting new immigrants, Prof Eugene Tan says that with low birth rates and an ageing population here, immigration will continue to be important, although the Government will have to calibrate the numbers carefully and ensure infrastructure construction does not fall behind.

Prof Ho notes that the narrative so far has placed the burden on immigrants to integrate with Singapore.

"Integration is a two-way street. Singaporeans equally have to adapt to the changing demographics. This is where we might want to look back at 1957. The idea of a Singaporean identity then came about through an amalgamation of different cultures," she says.

And for Prof Kwok, 1957 also has implications for how Singaporeans think about multiracialism, both today and for decades to come.

Because the vast majority of the overseas-born given citizenship in 1957 were Chinese, it created a much bigger Chinese majority than would otherwise have been the case. This must always serve as a reminder to the Chinese majority that "they have an additional burden - indeed, a responsibility - to be aware and respectful of minorities and uphold multiracialism", he says.





New voting bloc shows its clout
By Elgin Toh, Insight Editor, The Sunday Times, 8 Oct 2017

Following the Singapore Citizenship Ordinance of 1957, the first legislative assembly general election was held in 1959.

The elections would usher in an era of self-government.

For the first time, every legislator would be directly elected by voters. The 1957 ordinance also meant a fully enfranchised population, or universal suffrage.

In the previous elections, in 1955, Britain appointed seven of the 32 members of the legislative assembly. The remaining 25 members were elected by British subjects in Singapore, who made up only half of all adults here then.

Others living here were not British subjects because they were not born in Singapore, or could not speak English, or could not afford the legal fees involved in applying to be a subject.

The left-leaning People's Action Party (PAP), founded by Mr Lee Kuan Yew and others in 1954, had won three of the four seats it contested in the 1955 elections. In 1959, it decided to contest all 51 seats.

Mr Lee wrote about the 1959 elections in his 1998 memoirs: "This election would be the first test of public opinion. The electorate had increased tenfold since 1951 to about 500,000 after the Citizenship Ordinance was passed in October 1957."

The PAP won in a shock landslide, taking 43 of 51 seats. Mr Lee became Singapore's first prime minister, and the PAP has held power ever since. The Singapore People's Alliance, the party led by Mr Lim Yew Hock, who had been chief minister until the 1959 elections, won just four seats.

The impact of the 1957 ordinance on the 1959 elections was significant. The electorate was enlarged. But, more importantly, the new voters were predominantly working-class and Chinese-speaking.

This meant voters were much more left-leaning, radical and anti-British, because many of them blamed the colonial system for being exploitative, says Professor Tan Tai Yong of the Yale-NUS College. This placed Mr Lim's party at a disadvantage, as it was seen as too close to the British.

The PAP won over the electorate because of its socialist positions and its co-opting of Chinese-speaking union leaders Lim Chin Siong and Fong Swee Suan, who could mobilise the Chinese masses.

Says historian Sikko Visscher: "Without the 1957 ordinance... the PAP would have been much more inclined in its early years to have been dominated by, and oriented towards, the perspective and concerns of the English-speaking and educated."

The ordinance also necessitated Mr Lee's famous strategy of "riding the Tiger", he notes, referring to cooperating with leaders that he knew probably had communist links, so as to win the elections.





Is Singapore ready for dual citizenship?
By Elgin Toh, Insight Editor, The Sunday Times, 8 Oct 2017

The issue of whether Singapore should one day consider dual citizenship has been raised from time to time in discussions about the future of Singapore citizenship.

For example, parliamentary questions last year and in 2013 quizzed the Government on its position.

The Government's reply: As Singapore is a "small and young nation", dual citizenship could dilute citizens' commitment to the country.

But Ambassador Barry Desker of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, a prominent advocate of dual citizenship, argues that it helps root two groups to Singapore: first, Singaporeans living abroad and, second, foreigners in Singapore who are married to Singaporeans.

Singapore "may be losing good people" when Singaporeans living abroad are forced to give up their citizenship, says Professor Tan Tai Yong of Yale-NUS College.

Associate Professor Eugene Tan of Singapore Management University says: "I would say, 'never say never'... However, it should be a means of last resort, when Singapore is confident that dual citizenship will not have a detrimental impact in terms of people's sense of belonging to the country."

A strong opponent of dual citizenship is Professor Leo Suryadinata of the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.

He argues that citizenship is about political loyalty and it is doubtful if a person can be loyal to two countries. He adds that in an age of growing nationalism and the potential break-up of the European Union, global trends appear to be moving away from dual citizenship.

Institute of Policy Studies researcher Debbie Soon says if Singapore were to one day be in conflict with another country, dual citizenship would be problematic because of Singapore's conscription system. Singapore also lacks a religious or cultural heritage to help it call on the loyalties of such dual citizens, which some countries with a longer history may have, she notes.

But discussions on dual citizenship do not have to yield a binary yes-or-no answer, argues Associate Professor Elaine Ho of the National University of Singapore.

There are in-between options that may enhance the links people have to Singapore, she notes.

One is the British example of an ancestry visa, which offers foreigners who can prove ancestral links to Britain an inside track to living and working there. A similar concept is the Overseas Citizenship of India.

Prof Tan Tai Yong notes that the honorary citizenship, which Singapore grants to a very select group of foreigners who have made outstanding contributions to the country, is also an example of an in-between option.





Historian's grandpa among first batch of citizens
By Elgin Toh, Insight Editor, The Sunday Times, 8 Oct 2017

One of the 320,000 who registered as citizens under the Singapore Citizenship Ordinance of 1957 was the late grandfather of historian Seng Guo Quan of the National University of Singapore.

Mr Seng Chek Hong was born in 1916 in Guangdong, China.

He arrived in Singapore as a 17-year-old in 1933 with his mother, and lived in the Beach Road area with relatives.

He was a grocer at the old Beach Road Market for over three decades, until he stopped working in the 1970s due to ill health.

In 1957, after the passing of the citizenship ordinance, he registered as a Singapore citizen, renouncing his Chinese citizenship.

His Singapore citizenship certificate is dated Dec 23, 1957.

"According to my grandmother, people hesitated when the citizenship was offered. They must have, since it took them till December to register," says Dr Seng. The registration drive began on Nov 1, 1957, and ended on Jan 31, 1958.

Dr Seng was born in 1981, five years after the death of his grandfather. His knowledge of his grandfather was passed down from his grandmother Goh Whee Kheng, who is alive and aged 87.

He said of his grandfather: "Like the Chinese masses, he was most likely sympathetic of the left wing. There are stories of him sending vegetables and food to the Chinese High students who were barricading themselves in school (during a demonstration) in 1956."

"My grandmother also remembers him telling her to vote for the 'lightning symbol', most likely in 1959," adds Dr Seng, referring to the symbol of the People's Action Party, which took power in a shock landslide victory during the 1959 General Election.

Mr Seng Chek Hong died in 1976, leaving behind five children and one granddaughter.

He was cremated and his urn was placed in the Tse Toh Aum Temple in Sin Ming Drive.

Dr Seng says his grandfather's story marks a break with the "sojourner mentality" of previous generations, who would travel back and forth between China and Singapore. Mr Seng Chek Hong never went back to China after leaving in 1933.

The citizenship offer in 1957 was one factor that helped many China-born Chinese make up their minds to sink roots in Singapore, he notes - the other factor was China coming under communist rule in 1949.


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Hawkers' Productivity Grant: Kitchen equipment grant, info centre for hawkers launched

October 10, 2017, 7:17 pm
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Initiatives part of the Government's efforts to sustain the hawker trade and attract more new hawkers
By Lim Min Zhang, The Straits Times, 10 Oct 2017

Potatoes, cucumbers and carrots - none is a match for the $2,000 commercial-grade vegetable cutter from Spain, which can slice up to 300kg of vegetables in an hour.

From yesterday, eligible hawkers might pay only 20 per cent for such kitchen automation equipment, by tapping a government grant announced in March.

The Hawkers' Productivity Grant, administered by the National Environment Agency (NEA), allows stallholders to claim 80 per cent of the unit cost of equipment on a reimbursement basis, up to a total of $5,000 within three years.

As part of the Government's efforts to sustain the hawker trade and attract more new hawkers, Senior Minister of State for the Environment and Water Resources Amy Khor launched the grant at the opening of a one-stop information and service centre for hawkers yesterday.

Located at the revamped Customer Service Centre at the HDB Hub in Toa Payoh, the centre provides information on the hawker trade for both aspiring and current hawkers, such as how to tender for a stall, where to take courses on food hygiene, and how to apply for the productivity grant.

Sharing sessions by veteran hawkers and courses related to the trade, such as on how to improve a stall's signboard and menu, are also in the works, said Dr Khor.

On some of the uses of the centre, Dr Khor said: "Apart from training, some hawkers are unaware of resources such as various types of equipment that can help in food preparation and suppliers' contacts for raw ingredients, which would be particularly helpful."

She added that the NEA will conduct briefings at hawker centres to help hawkers understand the types of equipment available to help them reduce their workload, especially for repetitive tasks such as chopping vegetables.

While some hawkers welcomed the move to make such equipment available at a lower cost, others think that being able to prepare food by hand is still an important skill.



Madam Muthuletchmi Veerapan, 55, who mashes potatoes by hand for her masala dosa dish, said she has to wake up at 3.30am six days a week to prepare food for her vegetarian food stall at Ghim Moh Food Centre.

"With this new equipment, I could save five to six hours every day, and no longer have to spend time cutting the ingredients the night before," she said.

Third-generation hawker Afiq Rezza, 27, was interested in some of the equipment, but said: "If you put in the effort with your hands, it is so much more sincere."



Related
Opening Of The ‘One-Stop Information And Service Centre’ And Launch Of ‘Hawkers’ Productivity Grant’
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Capability Transfer Programme: Foreign trainers to help impart expertise

October 11, 2017, 9:36 pm
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Companies can tap new MOM scheme to help local workers learn from overseas experts
New govt programme will subsidise cost of bringing them in to train local workers
By Joanna Seow, The Straits Times, 11 Oct 2017

Singapore food manufacturers want to learn more about high-pressure processing to extend the shelf life of their products, while a furnishing firm wants to break into the healthcare interior furnishing market.

But such expertise is scarce here, a shortage the Government hopes to address with a new funding scheme.

Called the Capability Transfer Programme, it will subsidise the cost of bringing in trainers from abroad to arm local workers with skills and knowledge of new technology. The scheme will also help fund the salaries of both trainers and trainees.



Companies can get from 30 per cent to as much as 90 per cent of the cost of introducing such training.

More support will be provided to projects by small and medium-sized enterprises and those that benefit industries as a whole rather than a single company, Manpower Minister Lim Swee Say said yesterday when he announced a pilot run of the programme.

This latest move is part of an ongoing national effort to upgrade the skills of the local workforce, strengthen its "Singaporean core'' and enhance how local and foreign workers complement, rather than compete with, one another. Also, in the new world of rapid technological innovations, Singapore has to compete not just on cost, but also in new and better capabilities, Mr Lim said.

"It is simply not possible for any economy, corporation and workforce to try to be self-sufficient in the fast-changing world of technology, innovation and global competition. So, we have to build new capabilities that will be in great demand in the future but are currently lacking or in short supply here."

It has to be done as quickly as possible, he added, speaking to about 200 company officials at a seminar on developing human capital.

This is critical to Singapore's future growth, especially since the expansion of its working-age resident population is projected to stagnate before the end of this decade, a slowdown from the 1.3 per cent annualised growth from 2005 to 2015.

He also said the scheme will support on-the-job training done overseas as well as co-fund up to 70 per cent of the cost of equipment for better work processes.

Applications for it will be assessed on a case-by-case basis during the pilot run, taking into account the skill gaps and how useful is the transfer of expertise to the individual company and the industry as a whole, he said.

To ensure companies do not use the programme to just hire more foreign workers, they will have to provide a specific plan listing the type of expertise they are bringing in, who the local recipients are, the training timeline and desired outcome, Mr Lim told reporters.

At the event, he presented certificates to 56 employers who recently joined the Human Capital Partnership programme, bringing the total membership to 130.

The programme, launched last year, aims to grow a community of employers committed to developing their staff, especially the local workers. The bosses' firms receive benefits like being put on the fast track when applying for foreign worker passes and grants.

One group that Mr Lim foresees benefiting from overseas know-how is motor workshops.

The president of the Singapore Motor Workshop Association, Mr Francis Lim, said he wants to use the new programme to fly in experts from Germany or the United States to run an introductory course on hybrid vehicles for most of the 15,000 mechanics here, as well as to pass on their knowledge to local trainers.

"The majority of technicians here are not trained or equipped to deal with high-voltage vehicles, and it can be dangerous for them," he said.

"With the recent hype surrounding electric cars, we want to make them more aware of the new technology."








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Malaysian Muslim preacher arrested for sedition after criticising Johor Sultan's decree against Muslim-only launderette

October 13, 2017, 3:05 am
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He slammed ruler for barring Muslim-only launderette, called Chinese 'unhygienic'
By Shannon Teoh, Malaysia Bureau Chief In Kuala Lumpur, The Straits Times, 12 Oct 2017

Muslim preacher Zamihan Mat Zin was arrested yesterday for sedition following a religious lecture in which he criticised a sultan - understood to be the Johor ruler - for barring a Muslim-only launderette, and called Chinese people "unhygienic".

National criminal investigation chief Wan Ahmad Najmuddin Mohd told The Straits Times the former officer with the government's Islamic Development Department, or Jakim, will be remanded today.

"He was arrested at 3.50pm, after he was summoned to have his statement recorded," he said.

The arrest comes after the Conference of Rulers issued a statement on Tuesday condemning moves to set up Muslim-only launderettes as divisive and tainting the reputation of Islam.



In a video of a lecture that has gone viral, the Ahli Sunnah Wal Jamaah Organisation president said the Muslim-only launderette controversy was sparked because the sultan commented on it.

"There was a sultan who had said Muslim-friendly launderettes are not allowed in his state. It is not right for the sultan to say such things. These launderettes are meant to show that Muslims prioritise cleanliness," he said. "Chinese usually don't wash after they urinate or defecate. What about menstrual blood on their underwear? Or if they had hugged a dog, or spilled alcohol or food containing pork? If they want to enter a laundry, then just go to a normal one."

In an interview with The Star last month, Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar said he could not accept "this nonsense" after news broke of a Muslim-only launderette in Muar. "This is Johor, which belongs to Bangsa Johor, and it belongs to all races and faiths. This is a progressive, modern and moderate state. This is not a Taleban state and as the head of Islam in Johor, I find this action to be totally unacceptable as this is extremist in nature," he said.

The Conference of Rulers - made up of Malaysia's nine Malay rulers and the governors of the four states without royalty - backed Sultan Ibrahim, as well as the Crown Prince of Perlis, who also ordered a similar launderette in the northern state to drop its Muslim-only policy.

However, in a statement yesterday, Mr Zamihan denied criticising the Johor Sultan, saying he had not mentioned the ruler's name, nor used "words that were rough, rude or that had seditious elements". He said he was giving media outlets seven days to retract their articles and "wild allegations" before he took legal action for defamation.

Malaysia's sedition law prohibits discourse that sparks hostility towards other races, the rulers or the government.



































Unique institution of rulers, governors
By Shannon Teoh, The Straits Times, 12 Oct 2017

Malaysia's Conference of Rulers is a unique institution that brings together its nine Malay monarchs and the governors of the four states that have no royal family.

Although these rulers play a largely symbolic role in the federation's constitutional monarchy, they do wade into issues of public interest at times, and Malaysians pay attention.

In 2015, they expressed concern over the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal involving graft allegations against Prime Minister Najib Razak.

The rulers' statements are not legally binding, and their authority on religious matters is in force only in their states. But as a collective, they wield huge influence over the administration of Islam nationally.



The conference's main task is to elect a Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Malaysia's king, every five years from among the nine rulers. The agong is tasked by the Constitution with safeguarding the special position of the Malays and indigenous peoples of Sabah and Sarawak, and legitimate interests of all other communities. He also appoints the four governors.

The rulers meet three times a year, and as and when at least three members, or the agong, request a conference. Certain provisions of the Federal Constitution - pertaining to the special position of Malays and indigenous peoples - cannot be amended by Parliament alone and must have the approval of the Conference of Rulers.




















Rulers' harmony message a boost for Muslim moderates in Malaysia
By Shannon Teoh, Malaysia Bureau Chief, The Straits Times, 12 Oct 2017

Malaysia's monarchs have emboldened progressive Muslims after Tuesday's statement by the Conference of Rulers condemning "divisive" acts in the name of Islam, a religion they said should be "respectful, moderate and inclusive".

With Islamic conservatism on the rise, backed by an aggressive Islamic bureaucracy that outlaws anything it deems deviant, the statement by the conference - which includes nine rulers who are custodians of Islam in their states - is seen as representing those who feel social cohesion in multi-ethnic Malaysia is breaking apart.

"This injunction by the Malay rulers reaffirms the dignity of every Malaysian," said Human Rights Commission chairman Razali Ismail, who called for an end to acts "against the spirit of tolerance" that cause disunity.

Singling out operators of Muslim-only launderettes which made headlines in recent weeks, the rulers said their actions "have gone beyond all acceptable standards of decency, putting at risk the harmony that currently exists within our multi-religious and multi-ethnic society".

"The rulers are of the opinion that the damaging implications of such actions are more severe when they are erroneously associated with or committed in the name of Islam," Keeper of the Ruler's Seal Syed Danial Syed Ahmad said in a statement on behalf of the conference. "As a religion that encourages its followers to be respectful, moderate and inclusive, the reputation of Islam must not ever be tainted by the divisive actions of certain groups or individuals which may lead to rifts among the people."



Cultural expert Eddin Khoo told The Straits Times that the statement was "clearly not just about launderettes, but divisiveness".

"They are reasserting their role as a compass for our democracy and governance," he said of the statement by the rulers, who are widely influential among the Malay Muslim majority, especially in their own states. "They represent a wider consciousness, and so would only make a statement if it appeals to a large public, because these values are embedded among the people, even though these people may have so far been silent."

Aside from the launderette controversies, the past month has seen the authorities ban a slew of books by Muslim intellectuals and translations of the Quran. The Islamic authorities have also ignored civil court orders, while pressure from Muslim hardliners caused beer festivals in the Klang Valley to be cancelled.

ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute senior fellow Wan Saiful Wan Jan said the rulers were right to comment on national harmony, "but they left out the biggest elephant in the room, that is how Malay politicians are sowing distrust against Malaysian Chinese in order to attract votes from the Malays".

"When (ruling party) Umno and Parti Islam SeMalaysia keep suggesting the dangers of losing Malay political power, the implication is that non-Malays cannot be trusted," he said.

The two parties have pursued increasingly Malay Muslim-centric strategies of late, ahead of an election due in less than a year. After the rulers' statement, Malaysians on social media have questioned the government's silence when faced with intolerance by hardline Muslims.

But analysts say despite the monarchs not specifically chiding the government, their statement could spark a pushback from a previously silent Malay ground.

"It gives confidence to those in margins, who are not sure whether they can be critical. But now that the monarchs have come out, more moderate Malays can stand up and be counted instead of fearing action by the religious authorities," said Rajaratnam School of International Studies' senior fellow Johan Saravanamuttu.

He added that this was already evident within the Islamic bureaucracy, which has been silent in the face of the rulers' statement.

"Instead, the police chief has said the preacher who criticised the Johor Sultan for condemning the Muslim-only launderette may be charged with sedition," Mr Saravanamuttu said.





China Communist Party officials told to avoid religion, superstition
The Straits Times, 13 Oct 2017

BEIJING • China's top newspaper warned Communist Party officials yesterday not to "pray to God and worship Buddha" because communism is about atheism and superstition is at the root of many corrupt officials who fall from grace.

China officially guarantees freedom of religion for major belief systems such as Christianity, Buddhism and Islam, but party members are meant to be atheists and they are especially banned from participating in what China calls superstitious practices such as visiting soothsayers.

The party's official People's Daily said in a commentary that it had been common in the past few years to see officials that were taken down for corruption to have also participated in "feudalistic superstitious activities".

"In fact, some officials often go to monasteries, pray to God and worship Buddha," it said.

"Some officials are obsessed with rubbing shoulders with masters, fraternising with them as brothers and becoming their lackeys and their money-trees."

Chinese people, especially the country's leaders, have a long tradition of putting their faith in soothsaying and geomancy, as they look for answers in times of doubt, need and chaos.

The practice has grown more risky amid a sweeping crackdown on deep-seated corruption launched by President Xi Jinping upon assuming power in late 2012, where dozens of senior officials have been imprisoned.

In one of the most famous recent cases, China's powerful former security chief, Zhou Yongkang, was jailed for life in part due to accusations that he leaked undisclosed state secrets to a fortune teller and healer called Cao Yongzheng, known as the "Xinjiang sage" after the far-western region where he grew up.

REUTERS


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Singapore women's CPF savings go up, narrowing gender gap

October 13, 2017, 4:07 am
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It is a reassuring sign that women can better meet their retirement needs, say experts
By Joanna Seow, The Straits Times, 12 Oct 2017

Singapore women's nest egg for retirement is growing at a faster pace than men's, Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board figures show.

Experts attribute it to a shift towards women holding better-paying jobs and working longer these days, and the easing of rules to encourage more husbands to top up their wives' CPF savings.

Over the past 10 years, women's average balance rose by 8.3 per cent a year against 7.7 per cent a year for men. This refers to savings in their Ordinary, Special, Retirement and Medisave accounts.

As a result, the gap in average CPF balances between women and men narrowed from 16 per cent in 2006 to 11 per cent last year - a reassuring sign that, increasingly, women can better meet their retirement needs.

The trend could help women enjoy a higher standard of living in their senior years and lower the financial pressure on their children and the national budget, said National University of Singapore (NUS) sociologist Tan Ern Ser.

He believes these children, being less likely to be part of the sandwiched generation that have to take care of both the old and young, would be inclined to have more children themselves.

The rise in women's balances is largely fuelled by job-related factors, such as higher wages and the growing proportion of working women, said NUS economist Chia Ngee Choon.

Sociologist Kang Soon-Hock of the Singapore University of Social Sciences said there are now more initiatives to encourage women to remain in or return to the workforce. Flexible work arrangements, for example, are more widespread.

Ms Mayda Jutahkiti, 43, an account director at Rice Communications, said she rejoined the workforce full time last month after four years as a stay-at-home mum.

"I was also a little worried about my retirement savings, given all the news about the rising cost of living," she added.

Also, more husbands are contributing to the CPF savings of their wives, a move encouraged by a change in the CPF transfer rule.

Last year, the minimum amount members must save before they could transfer excess savings to their spouses was halved.

In all, $110 million moved between spouses last year, double the previous year's amount. Almost 90 per cent of these transfers last year were from men to women, said the CPF Board.

Last week, the Manpower Ministry proposed changes to the CPF Act to lower the threshold for children to transfer funds to their parents and grandparents' accounts.

Cash top-ups to CPF accounts of family members also get tax relief.

Mr Wong Chee Yong, 41, a professional in the finance industry, said that in the past few years, he had put $14,000 in cash into his mother's account. She quit being a seamstress about 15 years ago.

"It is good for older folk to have more money for retirement. In the event that my sister and I lose our jobs, my mum can still have a source of income," he said. "Topping up her retirement savings is a way to thank her for her care."










Looking after wife's later years via CPF transfers
By Joanna Seow, The Straits Times, 12 Oct 2017

Until six years ago, Madam Ng Ah Choo's Central Provident Fund accounts hardly had any money. The 58-year-old had stopped working soon after she married in 1988 to be a stay-at-home mum.

In 2011, her husband, Mr Yang Chin Hong, 61, transferred some of his CPF savings to her account to provide her with a steady income in her later years.

Mr Yang, a resident technical officer who inspects buildings, has also been topping up both their accounts with cash.

He has been working in the same line for the past 40 years and now, the two of them have about $166,000 each in their accounts - the prevailing full retirement sum recommended by the Government for those turning 55 this year.

He earns about $4,700 a month, and has used about $500,000 of his CPF savings over the years to pay for their five-room flat in Redhill.

Mr Yang hopes to contribute even more to their accounts so that he and his wife can get bigger monthly payouts later from their retirement accounts.

"It is another way for us to have a comfortable retirement because when we are not working, at least we will have a minimum payout to keep us going," he said.



Madam Ng said she was glad her husband topped up her retirement savings. "He really cares for my future."

CPF Board figures show women's average retirement savings in their CPF accounts have risen in the past decade, at a faster pace than men's.

Some contributing factors include the extra help women are receiving to stay employed and measures that encourage spouses to top up their wives' accounts.

For Mr Yang and Madam Ng, being self-sufficient is their way of continuing to look out for their two daughters, aged 26 and 23.

Mr Yang said: "We plan to take care of ourselves. Nowadays, the cost of living is quite high, so we let them plan their own future without worrying about us."

He added: "I think as long as people live within their means, they should be able to do it."


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Harvey Weinstein and the Silence of the Men

October 13, 2017, 11:46 pm
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The hush in Hollywood about the mega producer only reinforces a culture that keeps women from speaking up.
By Lena Dunham, Published The Straits Times, 13 Oct 2017

I went to Hollywood when I was 23. I had made a low-budget film, won an award at a prestigious festival, scored an agent and made a TV deal all within six months. It was a fairy tale most people will never experience, and I knew, as well as a 23-year-old can know anything, that I was getting a pretty great deal. I bounced from meeting to meeting with the joy of Cinderella at the ball.

These meetings, almost always with men, were rife with acts of everyday sexism - the presumption that I must want to make small "intimate" movies, a suggestion that I write a comedy focused on "the way women's periods sync up and they go crazy for a week", the insistence that I'd be "really funny paired with a hot girl".



There were dinners that went on too long, work lunches that turned into confessions about the broken state of the film executive's marriage and the consistent insistence that I must, as my work suggests, be "up for anything in bed".

I took it in stride, unloading the day's injustices on the couch of my new friend (and now my work partner), Jenni Konner. She told me maddening stories of her own ascent and we plotted a new world for ourselves. We imagined a set run by women, men who wouldn't dream of overstepping or underpaying, a company where girls stretched as far as the eye could see, the chance to write scripts that changed people's perceptions of feminine identity.

We would tell any man who thought that was an invitation for sex to go eat a shoe. The men we have worked with - like Judd Apatow, Hollywood's least sleazy guy - have showed us utter respect. The only terrifying producer rage I ever experienced was from a gay man who tried to take back a purse he had bought me. We got to do all that we had dreamed of and more.

This past week, reports that Harvey Weinstein had sexually harassed women for years came to light, making it crystal clear that not every woman in Hollywood has had the chance to walk our path.

Abuse, threats and coercion have been the norm for so many women trying to do business or make art. Weinstein may be the most powerful man in Hollywood to be revealed as a predator, but he's certainly not the only one who has been allowed to run wild. His behaviour, silently co-signed for decades by employees and collaborators, is a microcosm of what has been happening in Hollywood since always and of what workplace harassment looks like for women everywhere.

The use of power to possess and silence women is as likely to occur in a fast-food restaurant as it is on a movie set, and Hollywood has yet another chance to make a noisy statement about what we should and should not condone as a society. A liberal-leaning industry, we have been quick to condemn Bill O'Reilly, Roger Ailes and, yes, the President. We do not accept sexual abuse as "locker room talk".



So why the deafening silence, particularly from the industry's men, when one of our own is outed as having a nasty taste for humiliating and traumatising women?

This isn't anything new. Woody Allen, whose daughter has said, over his denials, that he sexually abused her as a child, is still getting the hottest young stars to work with him. Roman Polanski, whose victims continue to come forward, is considered a visionary worth fighting for, and I recently had a male star tell me that working with him would "obviously be the ultimate". (In fact, Weinstein himself gathered Hollywood to sign a letter asking that Polanksi's charges be dropped and he be allowed to return to America.)

Beyond these bold-name cases, ignoring bad behaviour remains the signature move of men in Hollywood. I hear stories from victims themselves at a rate that feels positively dystopian.

Last year, I was sexually harassed by a director of a show, not my own, and not on a set, and the response by the powers that be was to defend him, question the women ferociously and take ages before letting him go from the network. It was a move based less on his skill than on some ancient loyalty. It's that kind of behaviour that normalises this abuse of power.

The accusations against Weinstein, so clearly outlined and so completely horrifying, seemed impossible to dispute or ignore. I naively expected that the reticence that Hollywood's powerful men have shown, the collective refusal to take sides in he-said she-said narratives, would be crushed in the face of this open secret being revealed definitively.

The reason I am zeroing in on the men is that they have the least to lose and the most power to shift the narrative, and are probably not dealing with the same level of collective and personal trauma around these allegations. But here we are, days later, waiting for Weinstein's most powerful collaborators to say something. Anything.

It wouldn't be just a gift to the women he has victimised, but a message to the women who are watching our industry closely. They need a signal that we do not approve of the abuse of power and hatred of women that is the driving force behind this kind of behaviour.



In the fall of 2016, I performed at a benefit for Mrs Hillary Clinton organised by the Weinstein Company. I had heard the rumours. I felt that going onstage under his aegis was a betrayal of my own values. But I wanted so desperately to support my candidate that I made a calculation. We've all made calculations, and saying we're sorry about those calculations is not an act of cowardice.

It's an essential change of position that could shift the way we do business and the way women regard their own position in the workplace. I'm sorry I shook the hand of someone I knew was not a friend to women in my industry.

Men of Hollywood, what are you sorry for? What will you refuse to accept anymore? What will you say to fill the void and change the standard? Are you afraid because you heard the whisperings but accepted a role or a position on a host committee or a glass of champagne and a pat on the back? Are you embarrassed because you're in a photo with him smiling broadly or because he gave money to your organisation or introduced you to your girlfriend or earned you your Oscar nomination? Are you operating under the assumption that this is very sad but that it is not your problem?

It is, unfortunately, all of our problems. It is the problem of the agents who sent their clients to meet a man they knew was a predator, who shuffled them onto his sets. It is the problem of producers who turned a blind eye. It is the problem of actors who heard whispers but walked back to their trailers to play fantasy football. It is the problem of industry media that would not report their findings because they feared losing their place in Weinstein's good graces. It is not, as some have suggested, the problem of the women who are afraid to come forward with their own stories or who settled financially with Weinstein.



Hollywood's silence, particularly that of men who worked closely with Weinstein, only reinforces the culture that keeps women from speaking. When we stay silent, we gag the victims. When we stay silent, we condone behaviour that none of us could possibly believe is OK. (unless you do).

When we stay silent, we stay on the same path that led us here. Making noise is making change. Making change is why we tell stories. We don't want to have to tell stories like this one again and again. Speak louder.

NYTIMES










Sexual harassment allegations against Harvey Weinstein: Why so quiet, SNL?
Saturday Night Live and other late-night television comedy shows rapped for their silence as movie producer Harvey Weinstein is sacked
The Straits Times, 10 Oct 2017

LOS ANGELES • Even as Harvey Weinstein was sacked by the company he helped found, late-night show hosts also were lambasted for keeping quiet about the sexual-harassment storm surrounding the movie producer.

On Sunday, the board of directors of the Weinstein Co. fired Weinstein, four days after a New York Times investigation uncovered accusations of rampant sexual harassment and at least eight settlements paid to women.

It was an escalation from Friday, when a third of the all-male board resigned, and the members who remained announced that Weinstein would take a leave of absence while an outside lawyer investigated the accusations.

In an interview on Sunday, Mr Lance Maerov, one of the four remaining board members, said it had been brought to their attention that Weinstein violated the company's code of conduct.

But he would not specify what the violation was.

He added that Weinstein was notified by e-mail on Sunday night of his termination from the company.



The sexual harassment accusations uncovered by The Times stretched back decades.

Actress Ashley Judd recalled him summoning her to his hotel room in the late 1990s for a work meeting where he asked if he could massage her and if she would watch him shower.

Other complaints came from former employees of the Weinstein Co. and its predecessor, Miramax.

In 2015, a junior executive filed a searing memo with top executives at the company accusing the movie producer of rampant misconduct.

In response to the Times report, Weinstein, 65, said: "I appreciate the way I've behaved with colleagues in the past has caused a lot of pain and I sincerely apologise for it."

But he also threatened to sue for defamation, and his legal adviser Lisa Bloom said he "denies many of the accusations as patently false".

On Saturday, Ms Bloom resigned.

For the past week, many women in Hollywood, frustrated with an industry that seems to perpetually sexualise and mistreat women, were watching closely to see where the revelations would lead.

"I see this as a tipping point," Ms Jenni Konner, executive producer of HBO series Girls, said on Sunday.

"This is the moment we look back on and say, 'That's when it all started to change.'"

The firing of Weinstein by his own company, she noted, "is going to scare any man in Hollywood using his power for anything but making movies and television".



The storm engulfing Weinstein has also hit TV's late-night comedy shows.

The story seemed to parallel those of other powerful men confronted with accounts of sexual misdeeds, including television host Bill O'Reilly, television executive Roger Ailes and United States President Donald Trump - all of whom were widely pilloried in the monologues of the late-night hosts and on shows such as Saturday Night Live.

Yet since Thursday, when The New York Times published its expose on Weinstein, most of the late-night shows have avoided the matter altogether.

The omission seemed especially glaring on the weekend's instalment of Saturday Night Live, a show with a history of responding rapidly to news events.

The absence of any commentary about the movie producer opened up SNL to rebukes from conservative critics who said the show was covering up for a prominent liberal.

The President's eldest son Donald Trump Jr suggested in a Twitter post that SNL had one standard for people like his father and another for people such as Weinstein.

NYTIMES







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Esplanade turns 15

October 14, 2017, 12:30 am
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#mydurian turns 15
At birth, it was feared that Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay might be a white elephant. Instead, it has become a hub for the arts and the community.
By Benson Puah, The Straits Times, 13 Oct 2017

In 2009, amid a financial crisis and rising religious intolerance, we at Singapore's national performing arts centre decided to do something to bring calm and reflection. We created a sacred music festival. We wanted to take sacred music out of the cloisters of religious communities, put it on a secular platform and enable people of different faiths to be uplifted by great and stirring music.

And the people came.

Since then, for one weekend every April, the festival A Tapestry of Sacred Music fills the centre with spiritual sounds. These range from the rousing vocal improvisations of South Asian qawwali (Sufi devotional music) singers to the tranquil chants of Tibetan Buddhist monks.

This festival is one of many in Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay's year-round calendar. It is a demonstration of our vision to be an arts centre for all, as we believe the arts can break down the walls that divide us.



Fifteen years ago, when the Esplanade opened on Oct 12, sceptics wondered if the arts centre would become a "white elephant". At that time, the arts were seen as an exclusive activity for those in the know. The last thing we wanted was to be a glittering but empty shell, underutilised and irrelevant. We wanted to be a living arts centre, alive with people who feel at home here.

To that end, we activated our public spaces to ensure that at any time, a person at the Esplanade will encounter the arts through daily free performances and art installations. For 15 years, we worked hard to develop relationships with the different communities, while raising the capabilities of the arts industry in Singapore to put on shows of the highest quality.

To date, more than 37,000 performances have taken place at the Esplanade, drawing an audience of 26 million patrons and 92 million visitors. And we continue each year to attract some two million attendances.

In 2011, famed Taiwanese choreographer Lin Hwai-min - whose Cloud Gate Dance Theatre has performed several times here - would remark in Lianhe Zaobao that Esplanade audiences are "not only there to watch performances" but to hang out with family and friends over food, beer and ice cream and that their behaviour, "be it before or after performances, always seems natural and full of joy".

He added: "A performing arts centre such as Esplanade is very rare elsewhere in the world. It represents an 'ecosystem' where arts & culture and life can coexist, and it's teeming with life."

CONNECTING COMMUNITIES, NURTURING ARTISTS

Early on, we decided that presenting arts events in a festival format gave audiences a certain focus and intensity of experiences, which translates into excitement and buzz.

In one year at the Esplanade, you can participate in cultural festivals which bring together the various ethnic communities; genre festivals dedicated to specific art forms; family, children and youth programmes, as well as community outreach and free programmes.

We hoped to weave the arts into how Singaporeans celebrate key cultural occasions. Our cultural festivals are therefore integrated with major celebrations.

For example, Huayi - Chinese Festival of Arts is held during the Chinese New Year period; Kalaa Utsavam - Indian Festival of Arts in conjunction with Deepavali; and Pesta Raya - Malay Festival of Arts during Hari Raya Puasa. In recent years, we introduced a weekend celebration of Holi, a spring festival celebrated in South Asia, and a weekend entitled Cipta Cita, exploring the beauty of the Malay language through the arts.

Besides connecting artists in Singapore with the region, these festivals have provided opportunities for Singaporeans across different cultural backgrounds to learn about and from each other.

There are English subtitles if a theatre production is in another language. There are introductory talks and workshops on everything from traditional art forms to heritage food. We are encouraged that audiences at these programmes are increasingly from a range of different ethnic or cultural backgrounds.

Over the years, our programmes have expanded to reflect Singapore's diverse society. They have also gone beyond narrow definitions of ethnicity and nationality, reflecting the complexities of identity, heritage and society in our globalised world.

Last year, a multidisciplinary work, Message from a Medicine Man, was presented at Pesta Raya and involved a Japanese sound artist, an Indonesian hip hop pioneer and a Singapore artist. At the upcoming Kalaa Utsavam, we are co-producing a cross-cultural dance production Anjaneyam, based on the ancient epic Ramayana, with Indian dance company Apsaras Arts but also featuring Singapore's Era Dance Theatre, Bimo Dance theatre from Indonesia and India's Kalakshetra Repertory Theatre.

Underlying our festivals is another critical aspect of our programming - the relationships with artists. Particularly for Singapore artists, we try to take their art further through our programmes. Take our 15-year-old indie music festival Baybeats, with its presentation and mentorship of home-grown indie bands. Several have scored hit songs or gone on to play elsewhere in Asia. In this way, Baybeats is changing perceptions among many ordinary Singaporeans of local music.

Another opportunity for developing artists is through the producing of new work. From April last year to March this year, we commissioned or co-commissioned over 10 new works, including a Noh drama-inspired double-bill, Drums, involving Singapore theatre director Chong Tze Chien. It premiered at our Super Japan - Japanese Festival of Arts in May last year, and will be restaged at the Tokyo Metropolitan Festival in December.

Another commission was a full staging of Singapore poet Pooja Nansi's You Are Here, a heartfelt one-woman play. Such commissions are based on an understanding of the artist or company's artistic development, built through the Esplanade's festivals, or through collaborations on festivals presented by arts companies.



INCLUSIVE ARTS

In recent years, we have heightened our focus on the young, seniors and underserved communities. Every year, we reach out to some 10,000 voluntary welfare organisation (VWO) beneficiaries through arts performances and workshops.

Overall, it is about making sure that our arts centre welcomes all and leaves no one behind. Last year, we started producing sensory friendly performances for children on the autism spectrum or who have sensory sensitivities. These shows are more brightly lit and have no sudden or loud sounds that could alarm those with special needs.

I was so moved by a response on the Friends of ASD Families Facebook group. A mum shared that her "family's theatre-going days" ended when her son was diagnosed with autism. A few months ago, however, mother and son watched their "first show at the Esplanade together, seated on the floor and immersed in the magical experience of theatre just as I did with his older sister a whole seven years ago".

She thanked us "for redefining the rules of theatre just to embrace families with special needs". This was a proud moment for me, more than any of the high-profile performances we have staged.



A NEW MID-SIZED THEATRE

After 15 years, fund-raising and partnerships are critical to our next phase. Our 15th anniversary tagline, #mydurian - named for the shape of the Esplanade's twin domes that resemble the prickly fruit - was conceived in the spirit of encouraging people from all walks of life to take ownership of what we do as the national performing arts centre, and support us in whatever way they can.

Not many know that the Esplanade is a not-for-profit company with charity status. To supplement our commercial income, we receive grants from the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth and Singapore Totalisator Board. However, we are expected to be increasingly less reliant on government support.

To do more, we hope more individuals can contribute to our mission and activities. Each time we host frail or elderly VWO beneficiaries, we need volunteers to assist our staff in making their visit a comfortable one.

Our community engagement team is looking for sponsors and donors to support worthwhile projects. We have piloted some of these, such as a singing project for seniors with dementia, and are ready to take them to even more.

Another challenge is engaging youth aged 13 to 26. We want to engage digitally savvy audiences well before and long after a performance. We ask ourselves if we can, together with other players in the arts, create a "digital arts centre" online that can present a new way of experiencing or learning about the performing arts in Asia.

Finally, we hope to support artistic creation in the region more effectively. Works created for mid-sized theatres make up a majority of those produced for major festivals.

The Esplanade has started fund-raising to build a 550-seat theatre along our busy waterfront. This theatre would allow the Esplanade to develop more programmes for the young, as our large and small venues are fully utilised. It would enable us to work with Singapore and regional artists to create more productions with touring potential.

Whether in doing more to engage underserved communities, or striving to become a leading performing arts producer in the region, the Esplanade's mission remains the same.

We want to bring different communities together to express themselves and find comfort, joy and introspection through the arts. Doing that effectively requires new strategies. The danger is thinking that once you have arrived in a port of call, you can safely dock and drop your anchor. We are still on the move, because we must stay relevant to the artists and audiences we serve.

The writer is CEO of Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay. He is conducting a behind-the-scenes tour of the Esplanade on Dec 16. Go to https://www.esplanade.com/ mydurian/backstage-pass-with

A longer version of this essay was published in the Cultural Connections journal by Culture Academy Singapore.










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Help available for those living on the streets: Ministry of Social and Family Development

October 15, 2017, 7:35 am
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We thank Mr V. Balu for his suggestions and concern for those in need (Set up task force to help those living on streets; Oct 11).

The Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) looks into each report of persons sleeping in public.

The MSF also conducts patrols and joint efforts with other agencies to engage those who are sleeping in public.

Our priority is to ascertain and address their immediate needs, in particular their health and safety.

Those with no family support and housing are offered shelter.

Individuals who need long-term support are cared for in welfare homes.



There are often multiple and complex issues that may result in a person sleeping in public.

For instance, some may have homes but are unable to return home due to a conflict with family members or tenants.

We work closely with social service, community and government agencies to extend help and support to these individuals by providing financial assistance, employment assistance, counselling to address marital and family issues, or referrals to other services.

There are also instances where individuals decline assistance, despite attempts by MSF officers, social workers and community members to engage them to offer the necessary support.

Members of the public can play a role too. If they see someone in need, they can approach him, understand his situation, and call the ComCare hotline on 1800-222-0000 or advise him to approach the nearest Social Service Office or Family Service Centre if he requires help.

Kong Kum Peck (Ms)
Director
ComCare and Social Support Division
Social Policy and Services Group
Ministry of Social and Family Development
ST Forum, 14 Oct 2017


















































↧

10 CPF hacks to grow your nest egg

October 16, 2017, 1:00 am
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By Lorna Tan, Invest Editor/Senior Correspondent, The Sunday Times, 15 Oct 2017

It is never too early to start preparing for retirement - think of it as a lifelong journey, one that in Singapore is inevitably linked to our Central Provident Fund (CPF) savings.

Whether you're starting work, about to buy a home, raising a family or nearing retirement, small steps like CPF transfers and cash top-ups can help build up your nest egg and secure a desired future lifestyle.

The CPF Board has been organising the CPF Retirement Planning Roadshow series in the past few years to raise awareness on how the system helps retirement planning.

Last year, more than 80,000 CPF members visited the five roadshows held islandwide.

The first one this year kicked off in August at the Toa Payoh HDB Hub and featured a wide range of interactive exhibits, including an augmented reality experience booth.

Not to be left out, young CPF members are encouraged to try out a mobile game app called Ready, Get Set, Grow. The app encourages them to take action today via CPF-related messages based on the three basic needs of retirement - housing, healthcare and income.

The Sunday Times highlights 10 hacks to "game" the CPF system.

HACK #1

USING THE CPF VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTION SCHEME TO TOP UP YOUR CPF SPECIAL ACCOUNT

Let's assume you have maxed out your CPF savings by topping up to the current Full Retirement Sum (FRS) of $166,000 in your Special Account (if you are under 55) or the Enhanced Retirement Sum (ERS) of $249,000 in your Retirement Account (if you are 55 and above).

To enjoy the attractive risk-free CPF interest rates, you can consider the CPF voluntary contribution (VC) scheme - the "VC-3A" scheme - to top up monies to your three CPF accounts (Ordinary, Special and Medisave Accounts) subject to an annual limit known as the CPF Annual Limit. This annual limit takes into account both mandatory and voluntary contributions.

The maximum amount of voluntary contribution to the three CPF accounts that you can make this year is the difference between the CPF Annual Limit ($37,740) and the amount of mandatory contribution received for the year.

Mandatory contribution made by employers takes precedence over voluntary contribution when determining any excess made above the CPF Annual Limit. The excess contribution above the CPF Annual Limit will be refunded without interest from your voluntary contribution payment.

If you have ongoing mandatory contributions for the rest of the year, you would need to take this into account and take note of the total mandatory amount that you would receive for the year, when computing the amount of voluntary contribution you can make. The voluntary contribution to the three CPF accounts is non-tax deductible.

Use the Voluntary Allocation Contribution Calculator on the CPF Board's website to find out how much is allocated to each of the three CPF accounts.

Any Medisave contributions in excess of the member's Basic Healthcare Sum (BHS) will be transferred to the Special Account for members below 55 if they do not have the Full Retirement Sum, and to the Retirement Account for members 55 and above. Otherwise, the excess CPF contribution will be transferred to the Ordinary Account.

The BHS is the estimated savings that you need for your basic subsidised healthcare needs in old age. The prevailing BHS is $52,000 from the start of this year for all CPF members who are 65 years old and below this year.


HACK #2

MAKING USE OF CPF VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTION SCHEME TO GROW YOUR ORDINARY ACCOUNT SAVINGS

If you have just started working, your CPF mandatory contributions are unlikely to hit the CPF Annual Limit.

You can consider making as many voluntary contributions as possible to grow your three CPF accounts which include your Ordinary Account savings, with compounding interest.

By the time you need it for housing, you will have more Ordinary Account savings and so will not need as big a mortgage.


HACK #3

TOPPING UP TO YOUR ERS TO MAXIMISE INTEREST AND GET HIGHER PAYOUTS

When you turn 55, CPF savings from your Special Account and Ordinary Account up to the prevailing FRS will be swept to your Retirement Account (RA) to form the Retirement Sum.

If you want to get higher payouts, why not quickly top up to ERS - with either CPF savings or cash - to maximise the interest once you turn 55. This will result in higher payouts later as the compounding would have started earlier.

If you have sufficient money in your Special Account, you could leave it there to earn the CPF interest rate, instead of using your Special Account savings to top up your RA to the prevailing ERS.

Take the opportunity to inject cash by topping up to the prevailing ERS in your RA to maximise the interest and get higher payouts when you reach your payout eligibility age.

The prevailing ERS is $249,000. Assuming you are now 55, with this amount in your RA, you will get a monthly payout of $1,860 to $2,000 under the national annuity scheme CPF Life. And you can continue to top up to the prevailing ERS of subsequent years to get higher monthly payouts later.


HACK #4

TOPPING UP PARENTS' CPF ACCOUNTS AND GETTING TAX RELIEFS

If you are giving your parents cash, why not channel the cash to their CPF accounts via top-ups? Not only do you get tax relief of up to $7,000, they stand to earn attractive risk-free CPF interest too. Do note that there is no tax relief for top-ups beyond the prevailing FRS, and tax relief is capped at the $80,000 personal income tax relief cap.

CPF savings in the Ordinary Account earn guaranteed interest rates of 2.5 per cent a year, while savings in the Special Account, Medisave Account and Retirement Account earn 4 per cent.

The first $60,000 of your combined CPF balances, of which up to $20,000 comes from your Ordinary Account, earns an extra 1 per cent interest a year. And from last year, an additional 1 per cent interest is paid on the first $30,000 of combined CPF balances for all members aged 55 and above.





HACK #5

TOPPING UP YOUR SPOUSE'S CPF ACCOUNTS TO ENHANCE FUTURE FINANCIAL SECURITY

You can perform a cash or CPF top-up to your spouse subject to conditions. It benefits non-working spouses who have low CPF balances. Only cash top-ups qualify for tax relief.

Before the changes on Jan 1 last year, only CPF savings above your FRS could be transferred to your spouse. There is now a lower threshold so members can transfer their net CPF money after setting aside the BRS in their own CPF accounts to top up their spouse's CPF account up to the ERS.

Both will benefit from the extra interest that will be paid in the respective accounts and there is peace of mind as the spouse will have his or her own source of retirement payouts.


HACK #6

DOING CPF TOP-UPS IN JANUARY TO BENEFIT FROM EARNING INTEREST EARLIER

If you already intend to top up every year, why not do it in January instead of December? This is because CPF members can earn more interest by topping up earlier in the year. So don't procrastinate.

Let's assume you regularly top up your Special Account by $2,000 a year for 10 years, a total sum of $20,000. If you had performed the top-up in January, the total interest earned (4 per cent per year) over 20 years of $16,800 is higher than the $15,500 interest from topping up in December.


HACK #7

DOING CPF TOP-UPS IN SMALL BITE SIZES

Topping up does not have to be one lump sum. You can still make small but regular top-ups. Through Giro, you can consider allocating a small amount from your monthly salary to your CPF account.

For example, you need not add $7,000 to your Special Account or Retirement Account at one time.

Use Giro and split it into 12 payments over a year and avoid the year-end rush.


HACK #8

ENSURING THERE IS AT LEAST $60,000 SAVINGS IN YOUR ORDINARY AND SPECIAL ACCOUNTS

Even if you are using your Ordinary Account for housing, make sure your Ordinary Account and Special Account savings add up to at least $60,000 to maximise earning the extra 1 per cent interest.

CPF members 55 and above enjoy an additional 1 per cent interest (up to 6 per cent) for the first $30,000 of their combined CPF balances, so the gains are even higher.


HACK #9

MAXIMISING YOUR CHILD'S CHILD DEVELOPMENT ACCOUNT (CDA)

Financial experts say it is prudent to maximise your child's CDA - which earns an interest of 2 per cent a year - as unused CDA savings will eventually be channelled to their CPF Ordinary Account.

This is how it works: Unused CDA savings will be transferred to a Post-Secondary Education Account (PSEA), and unused PSEA savings will be transferred to your child's Ordinary Account (OA).

"These OA savings give your child the head start in growing their CPF savings and can be used to finance your child's first home," said the CPF Board.

The CDA is part of the Government's Baby Bonus scheme. Children born from March 24 last year will receive an upfront grant of $3,000. The Government will match any savings made to your child's CDA on a dollar-for-dollar basis.

Money in the CDA can be rolled over to your child's PSEA when he or she turns 13. Funds that are not used by December of the year that the child turns 12 will get transferred to the PSEA.

The PSEA money also earns an interest of 2.5 per cent. At age 30, those funds will go into the CPF Ordinary Account, which earns an interest rate of up to 3.5 per cent.


HACK #10

TOPPING UP YOUR CHILD'S SPECIAL ACCOUNT

If your retirement needs are well catered for, and you have plenty of surplus cash or just won the lottery, you can consider topping up your child's Special Account to leverage attractive interest rates and compounding.

Assuming the child has zero Special Account balance, the top-up is subject to a cap of $166,000 for this year. Assuming an annual interest rate of 4 per cent, the amount will grow to $1.5 million over 55 years.

Of course, this is assuming there is no change in CPF policies and interest rates.

There is no tax relief for top-ups to your child's CPF accounts.

This is the first of a two-part series on retirement planning with a focus on Central Provident Fund savings.








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Kampung Admiralty stirs to life as residents move in

October 16, 2017, 8:51 pm
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Singapore's first 'retirement kampung' is self-contained with many practical features
By Toh Wen Li, The Straits Times, 16 Oct 2017

Every time a new resident moves into Kampung Admiralty, Mr Heng Gee Choo would rush out to greet them.

The 64-year-old, who is one of the first to move in to his studio apartment at Singapore's first "retirement kampung", said: "This is actually better than a kampung. The people who live here are our age, and have more time on their hands, and it's easier to communicate with them. When new neighbours move in, I quickly go over to say hello. We hope to organise more events such as gatherings and having tea together."

Located next to the Admiralty MRT station, Kampung Admiralty is self-contained. The two HDB blocks house the two-level Admiralty Medical Centre - managed by the Alexandra Health System - a hawker centre, rooftop vegetable and community gardens, and an active-ageing hub. The hub is co-located with a childcare centre and both will be ready in February.



"We've already found a place for our granddaughter at the childcare centre," said Mr Heng.

The couple look after their granddaughter on weekdays while her parents are at work.

As of this month, about 20 households have moved in, out of 30 which have received their keys. All of the 104 flats at Kampung Admiralty were snapped up after they were first offered in the July 2014 Build-To-Order (BTO) exercise.

For the past two weeks, Mr Heng and his wife have busied themselves with furnishing their new home, caring for their 20-month-old granddaughter, and getting to know their neighbours.

Mr Heng, the semi-retired owner of a renovation company, said he and his wife decided to downsize from a four-room flat in Marsiling for the sake of convenience and practicality. The couple can also visit the active-ageing hub which will offer programmes for well and healthy seniors. It will also offer daycare and rehabilitation services for those with greater needs, and help homebound elderly residents at their homes.

People from the active-ageing hub can help seniors with groceries, household chores or personal hygiene if necessary. Residents can also activate an emergency alert system in their studio apartments to call them for help.

The complex is the first of 10 similar Housing Board build-to-order projects with childcare and elderly centres housed in the same area.

On a visit last week, the place was abuzz with activity. Old folk, students and young families lounged around in the ground floor plaza - which boasts a range of retailers such as Ya Kun Kaya Toast, Mr Bean, Starbucks, Mos Burger and Japanese confectionery Chateraise. More eateries and a supermarket will open in the coming months.

Retired shipping manager Wang Qing Hui, 70, hopes to socialise with other seniors. He moved in with his wife on Saturday.

"One thing that's really horrible is to be suffering from boredom... It's not about having material things, but finding people you can relate to."

Mr Wang will have Mr Heng and Grab driver Ahmad Mohammad Said, 66, waiting to greet him.

Mr Ahmad was the first resident. He moved in to his 45 sq m studio apartment on the eighth floor with his wife, caterer Norhati Nordin, 63, in August.

The grandfather of eight, who grew up in a kampung, said: "I go around, and walk around the floors to see if there are any other residents. I like to make friends. We usually sit in the lobby and chit-chat with neighbours."





Flats designed to be elderly friendly
By Toh Wen Li, The Straits Times, 16 Oct 2017

The Kampung Admiralty complex has two Housing Board residential blocks - 676A and 676B - which extend from the fourth to 11th floors.

These contain 104 studio apartments and two-room flexi flats, of either 36 sq m or 45 sq m.

The studio apartments, which form the vast majority of the units, cost between $91,000 and $115,000 for a 30-year lease.

The units - all of which have already been sold - each come with a living room cum kitchen area, as well as a bathroom and a bedroom.



The flats are fitted with elderly-friendly features to help seniors aged 55 years and above lead independent and active lives.

These include hand railings, a retractable clothes drying rack which can be used with less effort, induction hobs that minimise the risk of fires, and resilient (vinyl) strip flooring which is slip-and moisture-resistant.

The units all have window grilles, built-in bedroom wardrobes and kitchen cabinets.

About 60 per cent of those who bought a flat at Kampung Admiralty were residents of Woodlands or nearby towns, such as Sembawang and Yishun.

More than 40 per cent of the flats were booked under the Studio Apartment Priority Scheme and Senior Priority Scheme.

These schemes give priority to elderly residents who wish to age in place in a familiar environment or live near their married children or parents.









Related
Kampung Admiralty: 'Modern kampung' to launch in Jul 2014 BTO; First batch of residents collect keys on 12 Aug 2017
Woodlands to get 'vertical kampung'
2-Room Flexi scheme: More flexible HDB flat options for elderly buyers
Two-Room Flexi: Studios, 2-roomers to come under same HDB scheme
↧

MRT tunnel flooding: SMRT maintenance team failed us, says Khaw Boon Wan

October 17, 2017, 9:06 am
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North-South Line flooding was preventable: Khaw Boon Wan
He says SMRT team in charge of maintaining anti-flood system at Bishan failed commuters
By Adrian Lim, Transport Correspondent, The Straits Times, 17 Oct 2017

An MRT tunnel flooding incident which left a section of the North-South Line (NSL) inoperable for 20 hours earlier this month was "preventable", and the SMRT team in charge of maintaining the anti-flood measures "has failed us".

Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan said this yesterday during a press conference together with officials from the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and train operator SMRT, which runs the NSL.

"Our findings are that the anti-flooding system there had been poorly maintained... The SMRT team in charge of maintaining the anti-flood system at Bishan has failed us," he said, adding that the incident "should not have happened" and "we are all sorry that it did".

Apologising to commuters, SMRT and SMRT Trains chairman Seah Moon Ming took a bow, as SMRT group chief executive Desmond Kuek and SMRT Trains CEO Lee Ling Wee looked on.



Mr Seah said the incident will have an impact on the bonuses of the SMRT maintenance team. Mr Kuek said SMRT was taking full responsibility and looking into tackling remaining "deep-seated cultural issues" within the company, despite progress on instilling a positive work culture.

"Indeed, many of our major disruptions in the past have been attributed in some part, or all, to human error or failure. We regret that this is so," said Mr Kuek.

Investigations after the Oct 7 incident found that a storm water pit in the tunnel between Bishan and Braddell MRT stations - designed to collect and pump out rainwater - was likely close to full before the recent flooding incident.


It was also found that due to the maintenance lapse, sludge and debris had accumulated in the lower compartment of the water pit, which could have affected the operational capabilities of pumps and float switches. They were to be inspected and maintained last month, but this was postponed as the maintenance team claimed it could not get a slot for track access during engineering hours.

The failure of the float switches resulted in water flooding the tunnel between Bishan station and the underground Braddell station. The water had to be manually pumped out through the night, with help from the Singapore Civil Defence Force and PUB.

NSL services in both directions, between Ang Mo Kio and Newton MRT stations, were down from 5.30pm on Oct 7, and resumed only at 1.36pm the next day. A quarter of a million commuters were affected.

Mr Lee said SMRT will conduct checks on water pumps and flood sensors more rigorously - on a monthly basis instead of every quarter currently. The flood-prevention devices that failed were last inspected in June.



SMRT will also work with LTA to improve the redundancy of flood prevention measures, including additional radar sensors to activate pumps. On top of alerts sent to the operations control centre, SMS messages will also be sent to SMRT staff when water in the storm pit reaches a certain level.

The pump control panel will also be re-located so that track access is not required to manually activate the water pumps, said Mr Lee. LTA added that it will send the failed float switches for further testing.

Mr Khaw said that MRT tunnels are designed to handle Singapore's weather and cope with very extreme storms. "(The) bottom line is that MRT tunnels should not be flooded. Full stop," he said.

MP Sitoh Yih Pin, chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Transport, said he hopes SMRT can strengthen its system of "checks and balances". "It cannot be that just because one department or a group of people didn't check the water pump, the whole system fails," Mr Sitoh said.

Mr Seah said SMRT has added more staff to its inspectorate teams, which check all work done and reports independently to an audit and risk management committee.










SHOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED



The incident on the evening of Oct 7 was preventable. It should not have happened. We are all sorry that it did... Our findings show that the anti-flooding system there had been poorly maintained... The SMRT team in charge of maintaining the anti-flooding system at Bishan has failed us. Basically, MRT tunnels are designed to handle our weather, and can cope with very extreme storms, far more severe than what we experienced in the last two weeks... (The) bottom line is that MRT tunnels should not be flooded. Full stop.

- TRANSPORT MINISTER KHAW BOON WAN




 




PROCESS TO TAKE PROPER COURSE



It may not end up as one person. There will be a whole process of disciplinary proceedings and investigations that we will have to allow to take its proper course.

- SMRT GROUP CHIEF EXECUTIVE DESMOND KUEK, when asked about the company's removal of a senior executive over the tunnel flooding incident.




SMRT TAKES FULL RESPONSIBILITY



We are sorry for the inconvenience caused to all our commuters... SMRT has failed to prevent this incident from happening. SMRT takes full responsibility for this incident. SMRT wants to, and aims to, make things right for our commuters. We are very determined to put in all necessary resources to improve maintenance and to cut down disruptions and train breakdowns.

- SMRT CHAIRMAN SEAH MOON MING






‘Deep-seated cultural issues’ partly to blame for train disruptions: SMRT Group CEO
TODAY, 16 Oct 2017

While rail operator SMRT has been focused on improving train infrastructure over the years, mistakes have been made and there are “deep-seated cultural issues” within the company that have contributed to the major disruptions since 2011.

SMRT’s president and group chief executive officer Desmond Kuek acknowledged this on Monday (Oct 16), in his first public comment following the massive flood-induced train disruption on the Oct 7 and 8 weekend.



Mr Kuek said: “Indeed many of our major disruptions in the past have been attributed in some part, or all, to human error or failure. We regret that this is so.

“Much progress has been made with the inculcation of a positive work culture, but there remain some deep-seated cultural issues within the company that has needed more time than anticipated to root out.”

He did not elaborate on what these issues are, but said that it would be “wrong to paint everyone in SMRT with the same brush”, because most employees are “incredibly committed, professional and commuter-focused”.



Mr Kuek also acknowledged that there have been mistakes made over the last five years and apologised repeatedly to commuters for the inconvenience caused.

“Regardless whether our issues are viewed by others as inherited, structural or cultural, we make no excuses,” he said. “I take full responsibility for all that has happened under my watch as the overall group’s chief executive.

Besides Mr Kuek, SMRT’s chairman Seah Moon Ming, SMRT Trains’ chief executive Lee Ling Wee as well as Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan also apologised to the public for the Oct 7 incident that saw train services halted for more than 20 hours, affecting some 250,000 commuters.

Mr Seah said: “We know we have disappointed you and affected your life with each MRT service disruption.”

He added that the team is “fully committed to resolve the engineering and maintenance issues”.

“I ask for your patience and kind understanding, to allow us to work towards providing you with a better and smoother commuter experience.”



Meanwhile, Mr Khaw pinned the blame squarely on SMRT and called for action to “nail down who is responsible”.

“The bottomline is that MRT tunnels should not be flooded,” he said.

Several days after the weekend outage, the rail operator restructured its engineering and maintenance teams. In an internal memo sent out last Thursday, it stated that it had replaced a senior staff member involved in system maintenance.

The SMRT circular, a copy of which was seen by TODAY, said that Mr Siu Yow Wee has been appointed, with immediate effect, to take over Mr Ng Tek Poo in running its building and services division.

Mr Ng was previously SMRT’s vice-president for maintenance, while Mr Siu was its director of station operations for the North-South Line and East-West Line.

At the press briefing on Thursday afternoon, Mr Kuek said that the restructuring was “for greater accountability and focus”.

He assured the public that the rail operator would “redouble efforts to instil a strong culture of operational discipline in our workforce”, as well as strengthen engineering and maintenance capabilities to serve an ageing and expanding MRT network.































‘Old system’ of penalties and fines led to adversarial relationship between regulator and operator: Khaw
Transport Minister states preference but said LTA board will decide on penalties for the Oct 7 flooding incident
By Valerie Koh, TODAY, 17 Oct 2017

While the Land Transport Authority (LTA) will decide on penalties for train operator SMRT, Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan said he prefers to avoid the “old system of penalties and fines” provided by the existing licensing framework.

“If you ask me, my preference is not to go back to this old system of penalties and fines because it created a very adversarial relationship between the regulator and the operator,” said Mr Khaw at a joint media briefing with SMRT on Monday (Oct 16).



The acrimonious relationship between both parties was a stumbling block to achieving excellence, he said. Mr Khaw took on the transport portfolio in Oct 2015, a month after SMRT was fined S$5.4 million for the Republic’s worst train disruption that affected 413,000 commuters in July 2015. In July 2012, SMRT was fined S$2 million for two disruptions in December 2011 that affected 221,000 commuters.

Under the Rapid Transit Systems Act, operators can be fined up to S$1 million or 10 per cent of their annual fare revenue for the affected line, whichever is higher.

“Two years ago, the immediate reaction was — who’s to blame?... In such a relationship, it’s always, ‘I’m not responsible, it’s not me, it’s a design problem.’ Then (the) design (team) says, ‘No, this is (a) maintenance problem.’ And everything just ding-dongs,” said Mr Khaw.

In the past two years, he has worked to bring regulator and operator together as a team to address major and minor problems together, he said.

The aviation industry pioneered such a working relationship, forming joint committees to investigate aviation incidents, he added.

The LTA will mull over the facts of the case and the mitigating factors to mete out penalties for the flooding incident between Bishan and Braddell MRT station on Oct 7.

“For this particular issue, that’s for the LTA board to decide,” said Mr Khaw.



Days after the flooding incident last week, it was reported that SMRT replaced a senior staff member in the maintenance team. Mr Ng Tek Poo, the vice-president for maintenance, was replaced by Mr Siu Yow Wee, the director of station operations, with immediate effect.

At the media briefing, SMRT chairman Seah Moon Ming said he made the decision to remove the team leader immediately, without naming anyone. Team members and their superiors will also see their bonuses being cut.

“Because he is the head of this particular function, we removed him from his responsibilities there. It allows us to investigate the entire workflow and processes and culture in that sub-unit in a more open and transparent way... but (he) may not end up as (the only) person,” said SMRT group chief executive Desmond Kuek.

Internal investigations continue but SMRT has pinpointed several weak areas: The level of accountability by supervisors, the level of ownership over “what is not working well”, and the openness in reporting issues on the ground. These are areas in which the operator will be improving, pledged Mr Kuek.










SMRT maintenance staff bonuses will be affected
By Adrian Lim, Transport Correspondent, The Straits Times, 17 Oct 2017

The SMRT maintenance team which failed to properly maintain a flood-prevention system at Bishan MRT station will have their bonuses affected.

SMRT chairman Seah Moon Ming said this yesterday at a press conference which revealed that a maintenance lapse led to a flood in the tunnel between the Bishan and Braddell MRT stations and rendered services along a stretch of the North-South Line (NSL) inoperable for 20 hours on Oct 7 and 8.



SMRT group chief executive Desmond Kuek said a senior executive had been redeployed so that an investigation into the team's entire workflow, processes and culture could be done in an open and transparent way. "It may not end up as one person. There will be a whole process of disciplinary proceedings and investigations that we will have to allow to take its proper course," he added.

Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan said MRT system reliability has improved, going by the longer average distances trains are clocking before encountering a delay of over five minutes. But he acknowledged Singaporeans could not relate to the improvement. This is because two ongoing projects - improving existing MRT lines, and upgrading the NSL's signalling system, which has faced teething problems - have been "conflated".





Apology a ‘turning point’ for SMRT, workers’ morale a concern, experts say
By Kenneth Cheng and Louisa Tang, TODAY, 17 Oct 2017

Transport analysts have expressed hopes that the apologies by leaders of SMRT and Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan for the recent service disruption on the North-South Line will mark a “turning point” in the company’s train operations.

They also highlighted that the morale of SMRT employees would be a major issue that the rail operator has to handle.

At a media briefing on Monday (Oct 16), the SMRT and Land Transport Authority (LTA) released their findings on why and how MRT tunnels along a part of the line were flooded after a downpour on Oct 7, causing a shutdown of train services at six stations that affected about 250,000 commuters.

Mr Khaw blamed the SMRT team in charge of maintaining the anti-flooding system for the incident, but urged fairness for rail workers who have been “working their guts out” to raise MRT reliability. SMRT’s top management said that the bonuses of the team at fault would be affected.



Experts interviewed by TODAY had mixed views about imposing penalties on the company under the licensing framework, with some pointing to systemic issues that have not been ironed out by SMRT president and group chief executive officer Desmond Kuek in the few years that he has been at the helm.

Mr Khaw said at the press briefing that his preference was not to return to a system of penalties and fines because it created a “very adversarial” relationship between the regulator and operator, but added that the decision rested with the LTA.

Under the Rapid Transit Systems Act, operators can be fined up to S$1 million or one-tenth of their yearly fare revenue for the affected line, whichever is higher.

Dr Walter Theseira, a transport economist from the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS), said that the main problem with the framework is that when an operator is penalised, money meant for train operations is taken away.

Although the framework allows for the operator’s licence to be suspended or revoked, he noted that it is not easy to find a new operator with similar expertise to run a rail line.

“It’s a complex problem, and part of what Minister Khaw is alluding to, is that he ultimately wants to look at whether these penalties are productive, in the sense that (the public) gets what they want — better behaviour or more attention to maintenance,” Dr Theseira said.



Professor Lee Der-Horng, a transport researcher from the National University of Singapore, said that retaining the expertise of rail workers and keeping morale high is important, and this team of workers is “critical” to operations.

But in the case of the latest incident, which was due to “human error” as a result of poor maintenance, the penalties should be decided based on the regulatory framework, he added.

On Monday, Mr Khaw also stressed the importance of “troop morale” in battle, saying “no amount of weaponry and good leadership can win the war” if those on the ground are demoralised.

On this, Assistant Professor Zhou Yi from the Singapore Institute of Technology said that the morale of rail engineers is of concern. He also wonders how many Singaporeans will be willing to take on such jobs in future, given the declining pool of young people choosing the engineering vocation.

Dr Park Byung Joon, an urban transport expert from SUSS, said that maintenance and inspection work can be boring, and this, too, can affect the workers’ morale.

As for the work culture at SMRT, Prof Lee said Mr Kuek's reference to “deep-seated cultural issues” in the company pointed to even “deeper” issues.

“He’s not a new CEO; he’s been in the office for many years. This means there are certain things even he himself, as a CEO, is not able to overcome," added Prof Lee. "If he couldn’t get it done, then who can?”

Dr Theseira noted that the incident appeared preventable to some extent. There were “most likely multiple failures in the system that caused this to happen”, he said, which hammers home the importance of SMRT management taking responsibility for the incident.

Addressing the technical problems, Asst Prof Zhou, who is also deputy chair of the Institution of Engineers, Singapore’s railway and transportation technical committee, said that poor water quality could have caused the float switches to fail, tripping up the water-pumping system.

The LTA and SMRT said that the bottom of the stormwater sump pit at Bishan was lined with sludge and mud, but these did not reach the levels of the float switch.

“The float switches are contact sensors. If the water is quite dirty, there might be certain issues with the sensors after many years,” Asst Prof Zhou said.

He suggested that the company employ technology and data analytics in a bigger way. These tools, for instance, can detect the areas with very high water levels or which are critical, and SMRT can raise the frequency of checks accordingly, for “smarter” maintenance planning.

Commuter Koh W M, 35, a brand director who was caught by the breakdown of train services on Oct 7, questioned why it took a while for SMRT to offer answers.

“It’s a sore point for a lot of commuters. So the apologies today make no difference to me. It’s something that has come too late,” he said.

Madam Grace Lee, 59, who works in finance, said that while the operator is putting in place more measures, there was no “excuse” for it not to do the quarterly check on the pumping system in September as it disclosed on Monday.

“When it’s time to check, they should check, and not postpone it and wait another month,” she added.

The faulty pumping system was supposed to have been serviced in September, SMRT said, but this was postponed until Oct 12, because staff members claimed they could not find a time slot to get on the tracks.
















SMRT, LTA have to get to root of the problem
Overtures to appease public must be coupled with steps to ensure flooding does not recur
By Christopher Tan, Senior Transport Correspondent, The Straits Times, 17 Oct 2017

If something fails, no matter why, you take responsibility. Let's take responsibility first, then find out why.

That was SMRT chairman Seah Moon Ming's stance when asked why the rail operator had removed its vice-president of maintenance just days following the tunnel flooding on Oct 7 and 8, despite the fact that deeper investigations were ongoing.

Earlier, he said that bonuses of the maintenance team and its bosses would also be affected.

Mr Seah's response sends a strong message to SMRT staff.



Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan, who chaired a briefing yesterday on the flood-induced breakdown on the North-South Line, said he prefers a no-blame culture, with all sides working as one to solve problems.

He noted that it would be left to the Land Transport Authority (LTA) as to whether to impose a financial penalty on SMRT for the incident. But if it were up to him, Mr Khaw said "my preference is not to go back to this system of fines" because it "creates an adversarial relationship between operator and regulator".

Both men apologised for the incident. But the overtures to appease the commuting public - with Mr Seah bowingbriefly - would not be complete without concrete steps to prevent similar incidents from ever recurring.

SMRT and the LTA must get to the bottom of why the flooding happened in the first place.

Yes, preliminary findings point to weak maintenance. Two float switches which controlled the pump system at Bishan did not kick in. The theory is that one or both had failed well before Oct 7, which led to an underground reservoir - between Bishan and Braddell MRT stations - designed to hold water from six hours of heavy rain being full or nearly full before the downpour on that fateful day.

Citing calculations by water agency PUB, the LTA said Oct 7's torrential rain would have filled only 13 per cent of the reservoir, which isthe size of two Olympic pools, if it had been empty. And it would have been empty, or near empty, if the pump system had been working.

According to SMRT, the pumps and switches were last checked in June. The next scheduled check was to be on Oct 12.

But five days before that, on Oct 7, two switches failed - one linked to the operation of three pumps in the reservoir, and the other to alert SMRT's operations control centre when water reached a critically high level. The probability of two switches failing at one go is extremely low. The LTA is convinced that it is down to poor maintenance, and SMRT is not refuting that.

But LTA deputy chief executive for infrastructure and development Chua Chong Kheng said it is still unclear what exactly caused the switch which controlled the pumps to fail. The components have been handed over to the authority for further investigation.

Accumulation of sludge in the reservoir was suspected, but SMRT Trains CEO Lee Ling Wee said post-incident photos showed the sludge level to be well below where the switch is situated.



Whatever the eventual findings, steps must be taken to make the system even more resilient now.

For one thing, the operation of all three pumps should not be tied to one float switch. Even though each of the three had its own float switch, a fourth switch detects low water levels to prevent the pumps from overheating when there is little or no water in the reservoir. This fourth switch, which overrides the rest, was the one that malfunctioned.

The system would have been more robust if the fourth "stop" switch was removed, and each individual pump had its own low-water cut-off. Many modern pumps have this in-built feature.

As Mr Khaw pointed out, two pumps would be sufficient to empty the reservoir even in heavy rain. Having three thus seems to provide sufficient redundancy. But to have all three tied to one switch undermines this redundancy.

Be that as it may, now that accountability has been addressed, it is time to take the added responsibility by fixing a system that has clearly shown to have failed, for whatever reason.









































Related
Preliminary Investigations into Train Service Disruption on North – South Line
Update on LTA Investigations into the North-South Line Service Disruption on 7 and 8 October 2017
SMRT pledges swift actions to prevent recurrence of flooding incident in tunnel
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School fees for foreigners, PRs to increase from 2018

October 18, 2017, 8:22 pm
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School fees going up for foreigners and PRs
Hike for next 3 years applies to local primary, secondary schools, and pre-university level
By Amelia Teng, Education Correspondent, The Straits Times, 18 Oct 2017

Foreigners and Singapore permanent residents (PR) will have to pay more over the next three years to enrol their children in local schools.

Monthly fees for PRs attending a primary school will increase from the current $130 to $155 next year, $180 in 2019, and $205 in 2020.

For international students, monthly fees will increase by $50 each year, from $600 now to $750 in 2020.

Secondary school fees for PRs will nearly double from the current monthly fee of $200 to $380 in 2020, with an annual increase of $60 in monthly fees.

The revision in fees - which applies to primary and secondary schools, and the pre-university level - will take effect from January each year. This will be the third consecutive year that school fees have gone up for non-Singaporeans.

A Ministry of Education (MOE) spokesman said yesterday that it conducts regular reviews of school fees and makes adjustments when necessary. "The fee increase sharpens the differentiation between Singapore citizens, PRs and foreigners, to reflect the privileges of citizenship," said the spokesman.

"Having said that, even with the increase in school fees, our fees for international students remain competitive compared to international and private schools."

From 2018 to 2020, school fees will increase by $25 to $60 a month for PRs, and by $25 to $150 a month for international students.

MOE said it released the fee schedule for the next three years "to provide greater certainty and enable parents to plan for the financing of their children's studies in MOE schools".

The fees for Singapore citizens remain unchanged. Primary school education is free for Singaporeans, while those in secondary schools and at the pre-university level pay monthly fees of $5 and $6 respectively.

Affected parents said they were thankful that their children even have places in local schools.

Mrs Kristine Oustrup Laureijs, a 45-year-old Danish artist whose two children, aged nine and 11, attend local schools, said: "We are grateful that our kids actually have places at local schools as it is very, very difficult to get these days.

"I respect that (the hike) is a political message saying, 'Pay your own way as a foreigner, we only subsidise our Singaporean citizens.'"

Mrs Sumalatha Videm, a PR whose daughter attends a local primary school, said: "I don't mind the slight increase every year, as long as the fees are not too much... It is a lot less than the $1,100 per month we paid at an international school."

"But if PRs need to pay the same fees as international students, then I will object," added the 33-year-old, who works in the property industry.

































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Counter-terrorism exercise at Changi Airport Terminal 3: Airport a high-profile target for terrorists, says PM Lee Hsien Loong

October 19, 2017, 12:48 am
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Crucial for security forces to be well prepared; agencies urged to cooperate closely and practise crisis response
By Danson Cheong and Seow Bei Yi, The Straits Times, 18 Oct 2017

Changi Airport is a "high-profile target" for terrorists, and it is crucial that security forces here are prepared to react to an attack there, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said yesterday.

He added that they would have to do so in a way that will neutralise the attackers decisively, while minimising casualties. He made the remarks after observing a counter-terrorism drill at the airport, held as part of ongoing efforts to hone the multi-agency response to terror threats.



The hour-long exercise, dubbed Northstar and in its 10th edition, involved a simulated attack with gunmen shooting people at the Changi Airport MRT station and a suicide bomb explosion in Terminal 3.

Speaking to reporters, PM Lee said: "If you look around the world, more than one airport has had a terrorist attack... It is completely plausible that something like this would happen in Singapore.

"If it does happen, we must be quite sure that our responders are ready for it. We know what to do, we know how to work together, we know who to go where."

PM Lee urged the various agencies to cooperate closely and have ample practice.



Yesterday's exercise involved more than 650 people from the Singapore Police Force, Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) and also ministries and agencies including Changi Airport Group, SMRT and the Health Ministry.

The simulated attack on what was supposed to be a busy Saturday afternoon started with two gunmen firing at people as they alighted from a train at Changi Airport MRT station.

Within moments, police officers from the Public Transport Security Command responded, killing one gunman. The other fled to the T3 departure hall. This initial strike was followed by a suicide bomber detonating an explosive vest in the departure hall, before three other gunmen stormed the terminal.

Crack troops from the Airport Strike Force and Rapid Deployment Troops from the Special Operations Command swooped in. The gunmen were later taken down inside the transit area of T3, where combat engineers from the SAF's chemical, biological, radiological and explosives defence group later disarmed an improvised explosive device.

SCDF officers carried casualties to a first aid point outside the terminal, where they were given emergency treatment by personnel from the Health Ministry.


PM Lee, who observed the exercise along with Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean, Minister for Home Affairs and Law K. Shanmugam, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen and Second Minister for Transport Ng Chee Meng, said such drills allow responders "to come together, practise what they need to do and also give us a good sense of where weaknesses in our preparations may be and what we have to do".

The police said in a statement that the exercise allowed them to test the coordination between the different agencies and groups, as well as their response.



Busy airports have been targeted in recent years by terrorist groups looking to maximise casualties and cripple transport infrastructure. Last year, airports in Brussels and Istanbul were attacked, leaving 73 dead and hundreds more injured.

Associate Professor Kumar Ramakrishna of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies said drills like these were the closest security agencies could get to an actual attack, and will help to expose gaps that might not be apparent in meetings held to simulate emergencies, known as table-top exercises.

"If units exercise often enough, in a time of real crisis, they will already have a certain level of familiarity," he said.

Phase 2 of Northstar will take place on Oct 28 at the Home Team Tactical Centre.


















BEING PREPARED



If it does happen, we must be quite sure that our responders are ready for it. We know what to do, we know how to work together, we know who to go where.

PRIME MINISTER LEE HSIEN LOONG, saying that an attack on a target like Changi Airport was "completely plausible".












































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Prosecutions must keep up with public interest: Attorney-General Lucien Wong

October 20, 2017, 8:15 pm
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AGC's goals have to change over time to tackle emerging issues, says Lucien Wong
By K.C. Vijayan, Senior Law Correspondent, The Straits Times, 20 Oct 2017

Emerging problems in Singapore's society, such as fake news and offences against elderly victims, must be tackled with "resolute prosecutorial action", said Attorney-General Lucien Wong at the annual Singapore Law Review Lecture yesterday.

Making his first major speech since taking the post in January, Mr Wong listed these areas as examples of how the goals of the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) will have to change over time as public interest, which permeates all its decisions, evolves.

Explaining the menace from fake news, he noted that more news is now being delivered through social media, messaging apps and blogs where stories are written anonymously, and many are untrue or deliberately fabricated to achieve a specific end.

Underlining the "vital public interest to stop the flow of lies", he said the AGC will continue to use existing laws to act firmly and decisively against those who seek to distort the public narrative for their own ends.

Mr Wong referred to the recent action taken against fake news purveyors, such as the proprietors of the now-defunct The Real Singapore socio-political website.

Singaporean Yang Kaiheng, 28, and his wife Ai Takagi, 24, an Australian of Japanese descent, were convicted under the Sedition Act last year for deliberately sowing discord between Singaporeans and foreigners through a series of articles on their website. Yang was sentenced to eight months' jail while Ai received 10 months.

On protecting elderly victims, Mr Wong said the rapidly ageing population made for a "highly vulnerable group" who had amassed substantial savings for retirement and is a ripe target for fraudsters.

"We will robustly prosecute those who exploit the elderly, in order to deter such offences and give the full protection of the law to some of the most vulnerable members of our society," he added.

Mr Wong was giving a talk, titled Prosecution in the Public Interest, at the National University of Singapore's law faculty, providing insights into how prosecutorial discretion is exercised, which involves who to charge, the appropriate charges and sentences that prosecutors call for.

"Prosecution of a crime is more than just to punish the wrongdoer or offender - each prosecution is done with the public interest in mind," he said.

He added that prosecutions are conducted in the name of the public; offences are prosecuted for the good of the public; proceedings are held according to values expected by the public; and action is taken in the eye of the public.

But he said that even as prosecutors pursue important objectives like maintaining a secure Singapore environment or promoting a culture where rights are respected, this does not mean that every offence must be prosecuted.

Prosecutors take a solution-centric approach in dealing with crime, which means considering diversionary programmes to deal with young offenders instead of pressing charges in court, said Mr Wong. "The upshot of all this is that prosecutorial decisions are complex and difficult. There are many different interests that we are balancing in every case."

Underlining that there is no single, right answer in many difficult cases, he said "many exercises of the prosecutorial discretion reside along a continuum of credible, good-faith decisions made by my deputies, on the basis of evidence put before them".

"If the correct guiding principles are followed, I accord my officers a 'margin of appreciation' - in short, no one person unilaterally 'determines' the public interest in my Chambers," he added.

"We discuss our cases critically, and at times debate with each other vigorously, over the decisions we have to make every day. We do so precisely because it is only through that process of open engagement that we can arrive at fully considered decisions."

Additional reporting by Nur Asyqin Mohamed Salleh










A-G calls for bold approach in cases involving vulnerable
By K.C. Vijayan, Senior Law Correspondent, The Straits Times, 20 Oct 2017

When he first took the post in January, Attorney-General Lucien Wong was especially concerned about offences involving the sexual abuse of minors and those against foreign domestic workers, as they belong to "exceptionally vulnerable segments" of society.

"If minors and domestic workers suffer at the hands of those that are supposed to care for them, they have very limited means of reporting the abuse and getting help," he said at the Singapore Law Review Lecture yesterday.

In the past months, he said he has seen cases in these two areas that have "shocked his conscience", which is why he tells his colleagues in the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) to take a bold approach on such cases to vindicate the public interest.

He said it is often the case that offences against the two categories are difficult to prove from an evidential point of view, as objective evidence is rare and the cases may turn on the testimony of the victims, if they are alive.

"In cases where the victim has succumbed to his or her injuries, the task for us as prosecutors is even more difficult. Yet the impetus for us to act must be even greater, since an innocent life has been lost," added Mr Wong.

But far from being slow to act or trying to plead down in what may be an "uphill task", he said the prosecution will pursue the case and prefer more serious charges if the justice of the case requires it, though the chances of conviction are higher if less serious charges are pursued.

"If we obtain a conviction, the cause of justice would have been vindicated. But we will not shy away from trying the difficult cases, simply because we cannot guarantee a conviction. Because that is what the public interest and justice demand of us," said Mr Wong.

Such challenges and demands explain why the lot of a prosecutor is seldom the envy of anyone, he added, recalling someone senior who quipped that he "has not come across anyone who has said he likes the A-G".

Pointing out that this is a multifaceted and complicated task requiring the balancing of many competing factors, Mr Wong said that "ultimately, the final guarantor is the quality, integrity and compassion of the men and women to whom this crucial task is entrusted".

" And on this , I am very fortunate, because the deputy public prosecutors who assist me in the AGC are some of the most dedicated and committed lawyers I have ever had the privilege of working with."










The complex challenge of prosecution in the public interest
Attorney-General Lucien Wong explained how prosecutorial discretion is exercised to advance the public interest in the Singapore Law Review Lecture, which he delivered on Thursday. Here is an edited excerpt from his speech.
The Straits Times, 21 Oct 2017

What the public interest is, and how prosecutorial action interacts with it, is an extremely complex topic.

Reasonable people often disagree on what the public interest requires in any particular situation. These disagreements only get stronger in difficult cases. For example, where the behaviour of the accused evokes a visceral emotion, like anger or sympathy. Or where there is a clash of moral ideologies.

Yet, the public interest permeates all the decisions we make at the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) - from the moment we decide to charge someone, throughout the time we conduct the proceedings in court, to the conclusion of the case, when we submit on sentence. Public interest always plays a part. Despite being a concept we interact with so intimately, it is not quite possible to make a definitive statement, which will apply to all cases on what the public interest requires. It has to be assessed, case by case, with skill, wisdom, legal acuity and compassion. This is only one of the reasons why the public prosecutor's job is important and also demanding.

Determining what is in the public interest is a matter on which we have robust debates within the AGC, every single day.

Before we talk about the public interest, let me set the context in which decisions about the public interest are made by the public prosecutor. In every case, the first thing we consider is whether a criminal offence is even disclosed. Believe me, a lot of time and attention is spent considering this. This is a factual and legal exercise. First, we conduct a careful legal assessment of the case. We delve deeply into possible offences, research the elements, and assess whether our evidence can prove every element of the offence.

Then, we look at the evidence. We determine what evidence has been uncovered in investigations that can help prove the charge, and whether such evidence is admissible in a court. We also examine whether the evidence is reliable and the weight a court will give to that evidence.

If necessary, we direct the investigating agency to investigate further, to clarify doubts in the evidence, even if this means uncovering evidence that would exonerate a suspect.

At the end of this internal inquiry, we make an assessment of whether we are likely to have a reasonable prospect of securing a conviction. Only when we are convinced that the evidence and the law disclose a criminal offence, do we even begin to consider whether prosecutorial discretion should be exercised. It would be a subversion of the rule of law, and a waste of valuable public expense and resources, for us to pursue prosecution in the absence of a reasonable prospect of conviction. In fact, many of the files that are considered in the AGC, are closed during the first stage of assessment, because either the facts or the law does not disclose any criminal offence that can be proven in a court of law.

The public interest is then considered after we have decided that an offence has been committed and that we have sufficient evidence to obtain a conviction after trial. That is when we consider how we should exercise prosecutorial discretion. We do not charge every individual who commits an offence. For example, there are many cases which involve very minor offences - it may not make sense to bring these cases to court.

Also, not every person who commits an offence should be automatically prosecuted. For example, certain minor offences, committed by first-time offenders, may be visited with a warning, but may not result in prosecution. This is where considerations of public interest come in. The public interest informs the exercise of our prosecutorial discretion in three ways:

First, we have to decide who deserves to be charged and who deserves a warning instead. Second, we also have to determine what charges are appropriate and how many charges to prefer against the suspect. Third, once we have obtained a conviction, we have to decide what sentence we should submit for. Not every case deserves a stiff and deterrent sentence. We have to assess what we think is a just outcome and submit to the court accordingly.

The rest of my lecture will attempt to explain how the public interest interacts with these three decisions that we have to make virtually every day. I will explain that prosecution of a crime is more than just to punish the wrongdoer or offender - each prosecution is done with the public interest in mind.

Prosecuting in the public interest means four things: first, prosecutions are conducted in the name of the public; second, offences are prosecuted for the good of the public; third, proceedings are conducted according to values expected by the public; and finally, action is taken in the eye of the public.

IN THE NAME OF THE PUBLIC

Every prosecution that we initiate is named Public Prosecutor versus someone, namely the accused. This is more than just a naming convention. Having cases brought by the public prosecutor has two important implications.

First, it means that decisions to prosecute are made independently. As the Attorney-General, I wear two hats. Under the Constitution, I am the Government's chief legal adviser. In this role, the Government is my client. I sign off on legal advice to the Government. I also represent the Government in civil and judicial review proceedings in court.

But at the same time, I am also the public prosecutor. This is also a role that is set out in the Constitution. And in this role, I make decisions on whether to charge individuals for criminal offences. I am personally involved in the decisions for many cases, and in fact, make the final decision in almost all the prosecutions that begin in the High Court. The lawyers in my chambers, as well as the officials in government agencies, are very cognisant of the different hats that I wear. The ministers and permanent secretaries with whom I interact are also keenly aware of my distinct responsibilities under the Constitution.

When I act as the Government's chief legal adviser, our interactions are similar to those of any solicitor and his client. We render legal advice, draft legislation, and do our best to help the Government achieve its important public policy goals. Of course, as any lawyer would know, the lawyer merely advises, but it is the client, in this case the Government, who ultimately decides how to act as a matter of policy.

But as the public prosecutor, the relationship is entirely different. Prosecutorial decisions are made by myself and my colleagues at the AGC. Investigating agencies make recommendations, but the final decision whether to charge or not is made by us. Sometimes, because we stress-test a case based on the level of proof required in court, we may disagree with the agencies. When we do, we explain why we differ, but this is only to help the agencies appreciate what our thinking is, for when a similar case should occur in the future.

The A-G's independence is enshrined in our Constitution and is an established rule of practice within the chambers.

When a charging decision is made, the decision is made by myself and my colleagues. The decision to prosecute is brought solely on the basis of the law, and our assessment of the public interest.

Second, acting in the name of the public means that criminal prosecutions are brought not to further the private interests of the victim, but to further the larger public interest.

Obviously, the views of the victim are important but they are by no means determinative.

The second aspect of prosecuting in the public interest is that we act for the good of the public. In any given case, whether to prosecute, and what offence to prosecute for, is a truly complex and multi-factorial decision. Allow me to make four points about the objectives that we try to achieve through prosecution. First, we prosecute to maintain a safe and secure environment in Singapore. It is a critical national interest for law and order to be maintained. Safety and security is fundamental to the existence of any country, especially a small, highly urbanised, and digitally connected society like ours.

Safeguarding social harmony in Singapore is also an important aspect of protecting the safety and security we enjoy. We take a very serious view of offences that damage Singapore's social, ethnic or religious harmony, for good reason.

The second aim of prosecution is to promote a culture where rights are respected. Respect for legitimate rights is one of the key reasons for Singapore's conduciveness for business. Civil and property rights are protected, contracts are easily enforced, and investments are safe.

Corruption is a fact of life in many countries, including some in our region. If this becomes systemic in Singapore, our reputation as a safe and honest place to do business will be irremediably damaged.

The third objective of our prosecution is to promote strong public institutions. Strong public institutions are essential for the peace, harmony and prosperity of Singapore. Conduct that weakens public confidence in the rule of law and our public institutions, will be met with an unhesitating response from us, be it misconduct by officials working in those institutions or outsiders who cast aspersions on the integrity of these institutions.

Take contempt of court, for example. Contempt of court may not fit with the layman's view of a crime. After all, it is just throwing some dirt on judges and the court. However, it is not only an offence, but we also view it as a most serious one. The courts are an indispensable public institution in Singapore. It is vital that public confidence in our judiciary is maintained, both domestically and abroad, so that people understand that they will always have access to justice dispensed by a fair and independent court, when they need it.

Through prosecution for contempt, we act swiftly when unwarranted aspersions are cast on the motive or integrity of our judges. Let me stress that we are not concerned with criticisms of judgments or decisions of the courts. People are free to disagree with the decisions made by our judges. Judicial decisions are not immune from criticism, nor should they be. However, we will not tolerate the scandalising of our judicial system. We will not sit idly by when the independence and integrity of our judges are attacked. We act not to make any political points, and I would like to stress that we don't make political points by charging someone with contempt but we do so to protect the integrity of the legal system that we have spent decades building. Left to fester, these attacks can seriously erode public confidence in the administration of justice in Singapore.

This has been a consistent approach of previous A-Gs and it will continue during my tenure.

Also, we act to protect the integrity of the AGC - we check ourselves to ensure that we act appropriately in everything that we do, in every decision that we make. We check others who criticise us unfairly or who, without any evidence or proof, accuse us of not being independent in our charging decisions.

Fourth, prosecution also serves larger objectives that may not be immediately apparent to most - for example, in promoting environmental sustainability. The haze that we encounter in some years has severe effects on public health and the Singapore economy. Not to mention the serious long-term repercussions on climate change. With the enactment of the Transboundary Haze Act, we are now in a position to prosecute companies that are based in Singapore, but who contribute to the haze through their actions overseas.

Finally, I stress that these broader social objectives are not static. What we seek to achieve through prosecution will change with time, because the public interest evolves over time.

VALUES OF THE PUBLIC

The third aspect of prosecuting in the public interest is that we prosecute according to values expected by the public.

The public expects a far higher standard from the public prosecutor and his deputies, than from any private lawyer. We are expected to argue our cases passionately and committedly, but not to win at all costs. Our ultimate goal must be to reach just outcomes.

The protection of procedural rights takes on an especial focus in cases where the accused is unrepresented. We are obliged to ensure that the accused has the opportunity to present his defence. In some cases, through the court, we point the accused to the various means by which he can obtain legal assistance, and we urge him to use those.

In agreeing to deliver this lecture, I decided to explain how prosecutorial discretion is exercised to advance the public interest. The overall impression I wish to convey is that this is a multifaceted and complicated task, requiring the balance of many competing factors. There is no single, right answer in many difficult cases. Indeed, many exercises of the prosecutorial discretion reside along a continuum of credible, good-faith decisions made by my deputies, on the basis of evidence put before them. If the correct guiding principles are followed, I accord my officers a "margin of appreciation" - in short, no one person ultimately "determines" the public interest in the AGC.

We discuss our cases critically, and at times debate with each other vigorously, over the decisions we have to make every day. We do so precisely because it is only through that process of open engagement that we can arrive at fully considered decisions. Trust me, my deputies have full liberty to disagree with me. Ultimately, the final guarantor is the quality, integrity and compassion of the men and women to whom this crucial task is entrusted. And on this, I am very fortunate, because the deputy public prosecutors who assist me in the AGC are some of the most dedicated and committed lawyers I have ever had the privilege of working with.

I am confident that we have the right people, with the right values and the right skill sets, and because of this we will continue to prosecute in the public interest, and for the good of Singapore.




Related
Paper presented by Attorney-General Lucien Wong S.C. on “Prosecution in the Public Interest” at the Singapore Law Review Annual Lecture 2017
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New HDB Resale Portal from 1 Jan 2018 to cut resale flat transaction time by half to 8 weeks

October 20, 2017, 9:37 pm
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HDB to halve time taken for resale transactions
Upgraded portal from next year will make it easier to file applications, check eligibility
By Rachel Au-Yong, The Straits Times, 20 Oct 2017

The time it takes to buy or sell a resale flat will be cut from 16 weeks to about eight from next year, with a revamped HDB resale portal.

Part of the country's Smart Nation push, the upgraded portal will also reduce the number of appointments needed to complete a deal from two to one, and will tap the Housing Board's (HDB) trove of resale transactions to do away with most professional valuations.

National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said in a blog post yesterday that the new platform is "an example of how digital technology can be applied in practical ways to streamline existing processes and make citizens' lives more convenient".

Yesterday, HDB announced the changes to its resale portal, promised during March's debate on the National Development Ministry's budget.

It will go online on Jan 1, and make it easier to file applications and conduct eligibility checks.

The one-stop service will mean that buyers and sellers' financial documents can be uploaded and verified online, thus requiring only one appointment to sign the final legal documents.

Currently, the first appointment is for working out how much sellers will receive from the sale and assessing buyers' financial plans.

Buyers and sellers will also save time by having all the eligibility checks - such as for housing grants or whether they are within a neighbourhood's ethnic quotas - available on one page, instead of having to look up multiple e-services spread across the HDB website.

The updated portal will minimise the need for buyers and sellers to manually key in their data, as it will pull in common information used by government services, such as names, identity card numbers and addresses, for the relevant forms.

The HDB will also do away with valuations for most flats, eliminating the need for professional valuers to inspect a flat, thus speeding up the process. Instead, buyers will get the HDB to approve the proposed price of the flat directly.

This new service will cost $120 for all flat types. Under the current system, buyers fork out $156.45 for reports for one-and two-room flats, or $226 for three-room and larger flats.

Flat buyers and sellers will have to use a new Option to Purchase form - a legal document that gives a buyer the exclusive right to buy a flat - when the changes take effect. The current form is valid till Dec 31.



Mr Wong, who said the new platform is one of the initiatives under the Real Estate Industry Transformation Map, added that HDB will set up a dedicated helpline and help desk at the HDB Hub in Toa Payoh to guide those who require assistance.

Civil servant Rachel Samuil, 32, who hopes her husband can sell their four-room Jurong flat to move to a bigger one, was among those who welcomed the shorter resale process.

"We have had some difficulty engaging the right buyer since it was put up for sale in May, but a shorter resale process means we get to move to our new space sooner once it is sold," she said.



















Revamped HDB portal may affect role of property agents and valuers
By Rachel Au-Yong, The Straits Times, 20 Oct 2017

Yesterday's news of a revamped portal to speed up the HDB resale process prompted cheers and concerns about changes to the job scope for professionals in two industries.

While real estate agents were comforted that the changes would free them to focus on value-added services, several valuers were concerned they might lose revenue.

HDB is updating its portal and processes to halve the time taken for resale transactions come next year.

In most cases, buyers will no longer need to request a valuation report. Instead, HDB will "harness technology and transaction data to establish the reasonableness of a transacted price", saving about a week in the process.

"Nevertheless, where a valuation is assessed to be needed, it will still be done," a spokesman said.


The updated portal will also streamline the entire resale process by integrating all eligibility checks into one platform instead of spread across various e-services. This would especially benefit those going down the do-it-yourself route, which HDB noted was a growing trend, especially among the young.

The changes are more likely to affect smaller valuation firms for whom resale HDB flats are their bread and butter, said real estate appraiser GSK Global's chief executive Eric Tan. But while such valuations add only some $5,000 - about 2 per cent - to his company's monthly pot, he was concerned about the message the move would send about the profession. He urged HDB to be "transparent about the criteria for when a resale case requires a professional valuer to step in".

"We studied for years to learn how to make a professional judgment, and technology can never replace that," he said, adding that "numbers alone cannot tell you if your flat is facing a funeral parlour".

But the Singapore Institute of Surveyor and Valuers told The Straits Times that valuers can also carry out valuations for various purposes, including for financial reporting and collective sales.

The impact of the changes will be "insignificant" for such professionals, and the institute will help those who wish to diversify their skills, a spokesman said.

But for agents, the revamped portal was a welcome move.

National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said in a blog post yesterday that the changes will free them from "time-consuming administrative work and allow them to focus on higher value-added work".

Agreeing, Mr Eugene Lim, key executive officer for property agency ERA Realty, noted that while there are more buyers wanting to handle a transaction themselves, most sellers still require the help of an agent to market their flat.

"When you cut out most of the tedious administrative process, it helps the agent focus on what you are paying him for: Selling the flat in the shortest possible time," he said.

Buyers and sellers, in the meantime, welcomed the changes.

Financial consultant Jennifer Wong, 25, who is getting married next year, said she might find her ideal marital home sooner rather than later. "A faster process is less straining and taxing for all involved," she said.















Related
Easier and Faster Resale Transactions with New HDB Resale Portal
Faster and easier HDB resale transactions
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PM Lee Hsien Loong's interview with CNBC, 19 October 2017

October 22, 2017, 1:19 am
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Next prime minister likely from current Cabinet: PM Lee
Strong team has been assembled, but it will take a while to work out successor, he says
By Royston Sim, Assistant Political Editor, The Straits Times, 21 Oct 2017

Singapore's next prime minister is "very likely" to be one of the current Cabinet ministers, but it will take a while to work out who, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

The country's next generation of leaders will, in time, have to reach a consensus on who should lead the team, beyond him, PM Lee told US news channel CNBC in an interview released yesterday ahead of his visit to the United States.

He spoke about Singapore's relations with the US and China, the North Korean nuclear threat, political succession and domestic issues during the wide-ranging interview.

PM Lee said he has assembled a strong team of younger ministers, who have to establish themselves among their peers, work out their relationships and assess one another. They will also have to gain the public's confidence and show their calibre, he added.

Asked if he is close to finding the next prime minister, he said: "I think it is very likely that he is in the Cabinet already. But which one? That will take a while to work out."

Political watchers have identified Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat, labour chief Chan Chun Sing and Education (Higher Education and Skills) Minister Ong Ye Kung as among front runners for the post.

PM Lee reiterated that he is ready to step down some time after the next general election, but said he has to make sure a successor is ready to take over from him.

This entails building up the next generation of leaders to ensure they can work and carry things forward after he leaves. "They are doing that by being hands-on, by having responsibility for major policies, by taking charge of important, spiky ministries," PM Lee said.

Asked if the next general election - due by early 2021 - could be called in the next two years, he replied: "Yes, of course. Any time."

On whether he will remain behind the scenes after stepping down, he said it is up to the next prime minister.


Singapore PM: Would like to grow 2% to 3% annually to ensure 'quality of life' from CNBC.

Asked what he hopes to achieve on his visit to the US from today to Thursday, PM Lee said Singapore hopes to further develop its deep and multi-faceted relationship with the US, which is based on a strategic congruence of views and close cooperation in areas such as defence.

On relations with China, PM Lee said both countries hope to do more together. While there will always be issues where they do not see eye to eye, there are no basic conflicts in perspectives, he added.

As for North Korea's ongoing nuclear provocations, PM Lee said its actions pose an immediate danger to the region, and could shift the strategic balance in North-east Asia in the longer term as South Korea and Japan mull over nuclear capabilities.

Mr Lee also addressed whether Singapore, as a developed economy, still needs the Government to act as a "nanny". Noting that Singaporeans have very high expectations of the Government and its performance, he said: "If you ask a Singaporean - on one hand, they will say let us do our own thing. On the other hand, whenever an issue comes up, they will ask, 'What is the Government doing about it?'... So, we have to keep that balance."

Asked about life without Mr Lee Kuan Yew, who died in March 2015, PM Lee said: "We miss him, we think of him often, we read his old speeches and we say, 'Well, that is still relevant to us today'... At the same time, we have to build on that and move forward."

And if he were still alive, his advice would be to press on and not look at the rear-view mirror, PM Lee said. "Remember what has happened, understand how you got here, but look forward and press forward."






















Singapore-US relationship is deep, very sound: PM Lee
Ties are based on congruence of views, close cooperation over the years, he says in CNBC interview
By Zakir Hussain, Political Editor, The Straits Times, 21 Oct 2017

Singapore has a deep and multi-faceted relationship with the United States, and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong hopes to develop it further on his visit to Washington which begins today.

In an interview with US news channel CNBC released yesterday, he said: "It is a very sound relationship that is based on a basic strategic congruence of views about the world and the region, and deep cooperation over many years, in the economic sphere, trade, investments, in defence and security."

PM Lee also hopes to underline the point that Asia is important to the US, and the US should cultivate its relations and continue to contribute to its peace and stability.

"We have long depended on an America which has got a clear sense of its stakes in the world and how much it depends on the world as well as how much the world and its allies and friends depend on the United States of America, and we hope this will continue," he added.



The official working visit, at President Donald Trump's invitation, comes shortly before Mr Trump's first visit to Asia as president.

CNBC anchor Christine Tan had asked PM Lee how he would describe Mr Trump. He was also asked about the status of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), Singapore's relations with the US and China, and North Korea.

On Mr Trump, he said: "He is confident of himself. There are things which he wants to do, he has a very set view of the world and of people. And we will work with him. He has been elected, he has a mandate from the American voters and he represents the United States of America."

PM Lee also noted every administration has a settling-in process.

"Perhaps the adjustment is bigger in this case because President Trump represented such a radically different rethink to so many things which the American policy intelligentsia had considered to be shared conventional wisdom. But reality and forces of events press down on every president," he said.

As for the TPP, its remaining 11 members are discussing how to take it forward ahead of next month's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. "We hope we will be able to get somewhere," said PM Lee, adding that the volume of trade between the US and the region is substantial, "and we hope it would still be able to grow".

"These are very big stakes we have in each other and which will continue. We had hoped that with the TPP, that would have given it an extra boost. That was not to be. But we have what we have and we will find other ways to take it forward."

On ties with China, which PM Lee visited last month, he said: "We are forward looking. We are two countries and sovereign countries, so there will always be issues where we do not completely see eye to eye. But fundamentally, there are no basic conflicts in our perspectives and we both wish to do more together bilaterally and in the context of Asean."

Singapore chairs Asean next year, and has been coordinating its dialogue relations with China. "We both want to make the relationship prosper. In fact, there is a lot we are doing together," he said.


Singapore PM: 'It depends on how the US relationship with China develops' from CNBC.

Asked about lessons from issues faced with China last year, PM Lee said: "We understand each other's position clearer now."

He added: "It is clear. But events happen, and then we react to events and then the positions have to be restated, clarified. In the case of the South China Sea, our position has always been that we are not the claimant state. We have no claims. So, we do not take sides on those claims: Who owns which island.

"But we do have an interest in freedom of navigation, in the rule of international law, in the peaceful resolution of disputes, and in Asean having a role in an issue which is this important in our neighbourhood. I think that bears repeating."

Asked if it was getting difficult to manage ties with the US and China, he said this depends on how the US relationship with China develops. "If that stays stable and good, then it is easier for Singapore," he said.

"If there are tensions between America and China, we will be asked to pick a side. It may not be directly, but you will get the message that: We would like you to be with us and are you with us. If not, does that mean you are against us? And that is to put it gently," PM Lee said.

"We hope not to have to pick sides. We have such substantial relations with both," he added.

"We hope we will be able to maintain these relationships."










SIA, Boeing to sign deal during PM's visit to US
By Zakir Hussain, Political Editor, The Straits Times, 21 Oct 2017

Singapore Airlines (SIA) hopes to sign an agreement with Boeing to buy more planes during the visit to Washington, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in an interview.

He was asked by US news channel CNBC if there were new deals Singapore hoped to do with the United States on the official working visit that begins today.

SIA had in February agreed to place firm orders with Boeing for 20 777-9s and 19 787-10 Dreamliners for additional growth and fleet modernisation. Yesterday, spokesman Nicholas Ionides confirmed that the aircraft order, which was announced as a letter of intent, is expected to be formally signed during the visit.

"More details will be announced after the signing of the purchase agreement with Boeing," he said.


Singapore's PM Lee says 'done deal' for SIA to buy Boeing planes from CNBC.

The letter of intent had included six additional options for each aircraft type, which would enlarge the deal to as many as 51 planes. The proposed order is valued at US$13.8 billion (S$19 billion), based on published list prices. The 777-9s are due for delivery from the 2021-22 financial year, and the 787-10s for delivery from the 2020-21 financial year.

Separately, the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement that PM Lee will stay at Blair House as a guest of the US government during his visit from today to Oct 26. "The visit will build on Singapore's wide-ranging and robust partnership with the US over the past 51 years."

PM Lee will meet President Donald Trump at the Oval Office on Monday, and be hosted by Mr Trump to a bilateral working lunch together with Cabinet secretaries and key White House officials. He will have separate meetings with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and National Economic Council director Gary Cohn.

He will also meet key congressional leaders, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Armed Services Committee chairman John McCain, Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Corker and House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi. PM Lee will also meet Singaporeans at the Singapore Embassy, speak at the Economic Club of Washington and have a dialogue at the Council on Foreign Relations.

He is accompanied by Mrs Lee, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen, Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, Trade and Industry (Industry) Minister S. Iswaran and Education Minister (Higher Education and Skills) Ong Ye Kung. Deputy PM Teo Chee Hean will be acting PM in his absence.










North Korea crisis 'poses wider danger to region': PM Lee
By Zakir Hussain, Political Editor, The Straits Times, 21 Oct 2017

North Korea's ongoing nuclear provocations not only pose an immediate danger to the region, but could also shift the strategic balance in North-east Asia and raise tensions in the longer term, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has said.

Pyongyang's recent missile and nuclear tests have prompted South Korea and Japan to look at what they need to do to protect themselves, in particular by developing some form of nuclear capability, he noted in an interview with CNBC.

"If it goes that way, and South Korea and Japan go closer to being a nuclear power or actually cross the threshold, it means a different strategic and security balance in North-east Asia," he said. "More risky, more tense, and the Chinese will be very alarmed. And I do not think it will make for a safer world. There will be implications elsewhere in the world."

His first detailed comments on the issue since Pyongyang began stepping up nuclear tests this year came as it warned on Thursday that it would unleash an "unimaginable strike at an unimaginable time".



Brinkmanship has been part of the North Korean issue for a long time, he said. "It is part of the game: You make a threat, you posture, you make a risky move, you hope that the other side will then do something to placate you, or to give you some advantage in exchange for good behaviour. Then after some time, it starts again. So, it is not the first time."

The difference this time, he said, is that North Korea has conducted more nuclear tests, and is developing missile technology, including the ability to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles. So, the risks are higher. "The danger is not just the immediate alarms but also the longer-term trends, which are set off in North-east Asia, if things persist in this direction," PM Lee said.

"With North Korea going this way, the South Koreans are asking themselves, 'What can we do? The Americans have removed their tactical nuclear weapons from South Korea... Do we ask the Americans to bring them back? Do we... think of developing some capability?'"

He noted that 60 per cent of South Koreans now think they should have some kind of nuclear capability. Likewise, Japan, which has very strong anti-nuclear public sentiment, will be forced to think about the possibilities and what they may need to do to protect themselves.

PM Lee noted that a former Japanese defence minister recently wondered if they "should ask the Americans to bring their nuclear weapons and put them in Japan". "The government said, 'No, we shouldn't'. But these are thoughts which cannot be completely suppressed."

Several commentators have also suggested it might be a good thing for regional security if Tokyo and Seoul had nuclear capabilities.

The North Korean issue will be on the agenda at two regional summits next month, which US President Donald Trump will attend.

"It is very high on the US agenda. President Trump himself is very seized with it. Asean is also focused on this, although Asean's influence in these matters must be limited."

Asked about Mr Trump's comment that "China is the linchpin to solving the North Korean crisis", PM Lee said it has a major role to play. It shares a border, and is a big part of Pyongyang's external trade. "They have influence over North Korea. But I would not say that the North Koreans will do anything that the Chinese want them to do. Big countries know that small countries can be quite obstreperous.

"The Chinese have complex calculations to balance. They are living there with the neighbour. They do not want to destabilise the neighbour," he added. "At the same time, I think they cannot be at all happy with the way things are going with nuclear tests and with missile tests. It must worry them a great deal."










PM Lee not sure if dispute with siblings has been resolved
By Royston Sim, Assistant Political Editor, The Straits Times, 21 Oct 2017

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said he is unsure if the dispute with his younger siblings over their late father's house at 38, Oxley Road, has been resolved, saying the matter is "in abeyance" - a state of temporary inactivity.

He also said he has not communicated recently with Mr Lee Hsien Yang and Dr Lee Wei Ling, when asked about the matter in a CNBC interview released yesterday.



The family feud had erupted into the public sphere on June 14, when the younger Lee siblings posted a statement on Facebook to say they had lost confidence in their older brother's leadership and feared the use of organs of state against them.

They also made other allegations against him, such as that he used his position as prime minister to influence a ministerial committee looking into options for founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew's house.

PM Lee refuted the charges of abuse of power in a two-day Parliament sitting in July.

He said there was no evidence to back up the claims, and that he and the Government had acted properly and with due process.



In a statement issued after the sitting, his siblings said they would stop making further posts against PM Lee for now, provided their wish, and their father's desire, to demolish the Oxley Road house "are not attacked or misrepresented".

They also said they welcomed PM Lee's desire to settle their quarrel in private, and looked forward "to talking without the involvement of lawyers or government agencies".

Asked about relations with his siblings and whether he hopes to reconcile with them, PM Lee told CNBC: "I think they are where they are. Perhaps one day when emotions have subsided, some movement will be possible. These things take time."

As to whether he is sad about the way things have turned out, he said: "Yes, of course."



The interview prompted a response from Mr Lee Hsien Yang and Dr Lee, who said on Facebook: "Our brother says he is unsure that the feud is solved. Notwithstanding his public statements, Hsien Loong has made no attempt to reach out to us to resolve matters in private."

They also brought up a contempt of court case involving Mr Lee Hsien Yang's son, Mr Li Shengwu, saying the Attorney-General is "busy prosecuting" him for his "private correspondence".

They added that the letters the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) sent to Mr Li had made repeated reference to the family feud.

The High Court had, in August, approved the AGC's application to continue with proceedings against Mr Li over a Facebook post in which he said Singapore "has a pliant court system".















Related
CNBC's Christine Tan interviewed PM Lee Hsien Loong for CNBC Conversation on 19 October 2017
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MOH introduces immunisation schedule for adults; Medisave can be used to pay for recommended vaccinations from 1 November 2017

October 23, 2017, 1:19 am
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They can use Medisave to pay for seven vaccines that protect against 11 diseases
By Shaffiq Idris Alkhatib, The Sunday Times, 22 Oct 2017

From next month, adult Singaporeans can use their Medisave to pay for vaccinations which the Ministry of Health is recommending depending on their age and health.

The new National Adult Immunisation Schedule (NAIS), which lists who should be vaccinated and when, includes immunisation for diseases such as the flu and hepatitis B. It is the latest step in the country's push to encourage preventive care, and mirrors a similar schedule for children.

The National Childhood Immunisation Programme dates back more than a century.

Senior Minister of State for Health and Transport Lam Pin Min said yesterday that while the scheme has been effective for children, there is low awareness of the benefits of adult vaccination.

He highlighted how out of every 100,000 hospital cases of those aged 65 and above, 56 involve pneumococcal disease, which can cause pneumonia. This risk can be reduced by vaccination, which costs between $70 and $170, said Dr Lam at the Singapore Prevention and Cardiac Rehabilitation Symposium yesterday.

The adult schedule was formed based on recommendations by the Expert Committee on Immunisation, which comprises officials from MOH, government agencies, and doctors.

It lists seven vaccines that protect against 11 diseases, including human papillomavirus (HPV), which can lead to cervical cancer, tetanus, diphtheria (a contagious disease that causes inflammation of the mucous membranes), whooping cough, measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella, more commonly known as chickenpox.

Those 65 years old and above, for example, are encouraged to be vaccinated against influenza.

Singaporeans can use up to $400 of their Medisave account under the Medisave400 scheme for the vaccinations.

Medisave400 allows people to use up to $400 per Medisave account a year for selected outpatient medical services, including health screenings.

Dr Lam said he hopes this would encourage the take-up of important vaccinations.

But he noted that initiatives such as the new immunisation schedule are beneficial if only they are adopted widely and appropriately.

"This is where, as healthcare professionals, you can make a big difference in your patients' lives," he told the symposium.



Experts interviewed said that allowing people to use their Medisave accounts would make vaccinations more affordable.

Associate Professor Hsu Li Yang of the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at the National University of Singapore said vaccines remain one of the most cost-effective ways of preventing infectious diseases. "If a sufficiently large proportion of the population is vaccinated, there is a corresponding herd immunity that results in some protection for the rest that are not," he said.

Dr Chia Shi-Lu, chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Health, said: "Whether or not someone needs these vaccinations, such decisions should be made in consultation with their doctors."

Additional reporting by Linette Lai








Related
MOH establishes National Adult Immunisation Schedule; Extends use of Medisave for Vaccines under the Schedule
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Pre-school Education in Singapore: Let’s Think About It

October 23, 2017, 8:56 pm
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23 Oct 2017

In this first episode of the new season of “Let’s Think About It”, Minister Ng Chee Meng discusses governments move to transform the preschool sector to provide our young children with a good start.

Joining him in the first episode on are Wong Li-Lin, TV personality Andie Chen, Sassy Mama Co-founder Lynn Yeow De-Vito, and Lecturer, Child Psychology & Early Educator, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Maygalai Pannirselvam.


















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