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A timely reminder to walk the talk

July 16, 2013, 6:13 am
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By Uwe Kaufmann, Published The Straits Times, 15 Jul 2013

ON A recent trip to Japan, I took a Shinkansen high- speed train from Kyoto to Tokyo.

The train was scheduled to arrive at Tokyo Station at 9.03pm.

Since I had made an appointment to meet a good friend after arrival, I asked the train conductor whether we would be on time.

The conductor looked at me, not understanding my question, and said: "We will be arriving at 9.03pm."

I thought to myself, yes, I know the schedule. But will we be on time?

He must then have somehow guessed my real meaning. He said: "There is no reason for a delay. We have not had an earthquake or tsunami today. So, we will be on time."

I had not heard this kind of answer for a while.

My professor at a German university where I studied - let's call him Hofmann - was very strict in many aspects. His style was driven by a deeply ingrained set of values. One of them was punctuality. Unless there was a very, very good reason for being late, we had to be on time - always.

Once, I was quite late for a meeting. However, I thought I had a good reason: "My train was delayed by 40 minutes."

His reply was, "Okay, you take this train every day, right?"

"Yes, of course," I replied.

"Was it ever late before?"

"Yes, this happens from time to time," I answered, thinking that I was off the hook.

His answer: "Then you should have taken this into account and been prepared. Don't use this excuse again!"

With this management style, we were able to deliver outstanding results. No project was ever delayed.

Despite this tough regime, Professor Hofmann was known as one of the professors everyone wanted to work with. He was not only able to develop one's IQ (intelligence quotient) but also took strong care of EQ (emotional quotient) as well.

As a result, punctuality is one form of behaviour that I hold very dear to my heart, because it reveals one's attitude towards the most basic values of integrity, professionalism and respect.

Every human relationship starts with basic courtesy.

"Punctuality is the politeness of kings" is a saying coined by King Louis XVIII of France. He was making the point that educated people, and people who aspire to have and try to show a certain status, will fail if they don't master the most basic of all manners: punctuality. Without punctuality they are just "small men".

In Singapore, I have had to get familiar with the phrase, "Sorry, I'm late", uttered by members of all levels of society without hesitation or shame. Often, it comes without any excuse. Only sometimes is it paired with statements such as "heavy traffic on PIE".

No one is really surprised about the fact that some people are late, or the fact that there is heavy traffic on the Pan-Island Expressway, although both facts really have nothing to do with each other.

It is very likely that there is some heavy traffic on the PIE at certain times. This happens daily.

But heavy traffic is as good an explanation for being late as something like "There are many birds in Changi Village".

So what is the real reason for being late? I think that this is because we are good at talking about values, but have forgotten that these values should also be part of daily courtesy and kindness, and not only values to be put on display on National Day.

A good example of the huge gap between theory and practice is when meetings regarding value development or competency deployment cannot start on time because of the late arrival of key players.

Their entrance with a "Sorry, I'm late" can be directly translated into "Sorry, I don't respect you". Would you want to say this to your colleagues or friends? Wouldn't it be more appropriate to show the correct behaviour ourselves before we try to plant this seed in others? This would be good for our credibility as well.

In Singapore, we should live every day the way we deliver great projects: excellent quality, on time.

How much time gets wasted and how much productivity gets squandered every day due to our inability to walk the talk?

There are always excuses for not doing things. Can we instead try to find reasons for doing things such as being on time? Our co-workers would thank us for it.

Remember, behaviour is contagious. Is yours worth catching?


The writer is a German-born Singapore permanent resident working for the Centre for Organisational Effectiveness, a business advisory firm.
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In era of instant gratification, time not on Govt’s side

July 16, 2013, 6:33 am
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Singapore’s ‘super-efficient’ reputation is compounding the situation where people expect fast solutions: Analysts
By Tan Weizhen, TODAY, 15 Jul 2013

The Government’s difficulties in managing public communications during the recent haze crisis was symptomatic of the immense pressure that the authorities are under in an era of Facebook and Twitter dominated by instant gratification and sound bite politics, political analysts said.

And while the phenomenon is not unique to Singapore, the People’s Action Party Government’s “super efficient” reputation — at a time when more stakeholders want to be consulted but quick solutions are expected — is compounding the situation, political analysts and Members of Parliament (MPs) whom TODAY spoke to said.

As National University of Singapore (NUS) political scientist Bilveer Singh put it: “Today, the Government has to operate in a 24/7 news environment and yet policies cannot be operating in a similar mode. There is a bureaucracy ... and there are priorities that need to be aligned.”

Noting the speed with which issues are “uploaded (on the Internet) and made viral”, he pointed out that increasingly, “we are becoming hostages to the information and communications revolution”.

This has made “almost every government” around the world look “inefficient, slow and incompetent” but the reality is not so, he said.

Former Nominated Member of Parliament Siew Kum Hong added: “A lot of this is the result of a more open, connected world, where a lot more people have access to the same information and so, are able to react to it.”

When the Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) hit historic levels last month, the Government announced a series of measures, including a special scheme to subsidise the needy and the elderly who visited designated general practitioners (GPs) for respiratory problems.

However, the GPs were made aware of the scheme at the same time that the public was informed.

As a result, some patients who had gone to their GPs the next day were unhappy to realise that the clinics were not part of the scheme. It took a few days before a significant number of GPs signed up.

Similarly, it took time for the N95 masks to be distributed to the retailers and there was some public dissatisfaction about some retailers running out of stock and others raising prices to profiteer despite the Government’s pledge that there were adequate masks.

On the distributions of the masks, Member of Parliament for Marine Parade GRC Seah Kian Peng agreed that the “implementation was not fully thought out”.

But he added: “The situation was not helped because there were some groups of people out there spreading distortions about the PSI figures and the masks. Social media is useful, but in the situation when rumours are flying around, it forces the Government to address them. This takes up resources which could be spent on the actual work.”

Need for speed

The experts noted that the pressure on the authorities to publicly address concerns swiftly, even though there are no easy and quick solutions was also apparent in the announcements over the past year or so by the Government to conduct open-ended review of policies such as the Certificate of Entitlement (COE) system, as well as the Design Build and Sell Scheme and the Executive Condominium Scheme.

And in some instances, there were unintended consequences as people brought forward their purchases of cars or houses amid the uncertainty and in anticipation of policy changes, noted property and transport experts.

In the case of the COE review, the rush pushed up the premiums, offsetting the effect of the car loan curbs which had brought down the premiums only a few weeks earlier.

While NUS transport expert Lee Der Horng noted the need for the Government to respond to the middle class, Mr Colin Tan, who is the Head of Research and Consultancy at Chesterton Suntec International, pointed out its dilemma: “They may have wanted to tell people that they are aware of the issues, but at the same time it raises expectations and if nothing is done, then credibility can suffer.”

Mr Siew noted that in some instances, the Government could be sending out feelers to gauge public opinion.

But Nominated MP Eugene Tan added: “Is the Government ‘thinking aloud’ being mistaken as definitive statements pointing to policy shifts? What may often be the Government’s attempt to be seen to be responsive to ground concerns may instead be read as ‘heads up’ on inevitable policy change.”

Chua Chu Kang GRC MP Zaqy Mohamad cited the complexity of issues that the Government are tackling and these involves several agencies and many stakeholders who want to be involved in the consultative process.

He said: “More issues are inter-connected these days, with more implications. The Government needs more time to study the impact and consult stakeholders.”

Whether or not the Government has ready solutions, Mr Seah stressed that it has to publicly address concerns — even if “intentions and outcomes may not be aligned” — just so that people know that policymakers are working on the issues. He said: “When people have been talking about (an issue) on social media, and they have been saying it for a certain length of time, they will be asking, how come nothing is happening?”

Managing public expectations

The analysts and the MPs have no doubt that the Government has to communicate better.

For one, ministers need to calibrate their comments on policies that are market sensitive, Mr Siew said.

He added that most people do not expect the Government to have all the solutions but it “has to speak and act in a way consistent with that”.

There is a “mismatch between what the Government can realistically deliver and what the Government has conditioned the public to expect”, he said.

Mr Seah agreed that the Government has to set the right expectations. For instance, if the Government needs more time to tackle a certain issue, it has to make it clear. And when it doesn’t have all the solutions, it should not give the impression that it does, he added.

Mr Seah said: “People must have trust in leaders. Leadership is about providing clarity, reassurance. When leaders come out to share their intention, I believe that, for most people, it is helpful and useful.”

Associate Professor Tan, who is a law lecturer at the Singapore Management University, suggested that when a minister address specific policy concerns, he should “reflect and engender more policy coherence, rather than confusion”.

The Government also needs to be clear and resolute about what policy tweaks need to be done and how to go about it, he said.

“There is a need to look at how to communicate so that policy changes achieve their intended outcomes,” Assoc Prof Tan added.

But he stressed that the “fundamental challenge is to have a sound policy — no amount of spin doctoring can make up for an inherently flawed policy”.
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Yes, do fear the grey wave

July 17, 2013, 8:03 am
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By Salma Khalik, The Straits Times, 15 Jul 2013

IN AN ideal world, there would be fewer old people and many young children, all supported by a large number of able-bodied adults.

This way, the strain on working adults will be minimal.

There will also be enough children to take over the work as their parents age, and everyone can lead a good life.

This was once the scenario in Singapore when it experienced a growth spurt in the decades following independence in 1965.

Not many went to university, so the majority started jobs in their late teens, retired when they were 55, and enjoyed their last 10 years living off what they had saved after 40 years of work.

In the last 50 years, many things have changed.

People today are having fewer children, so there is a smaller number of young people joining the workforce each year.

Higher living standards and advances in medical science also mean people are living much longer. In 1965, the average life expectancy here was 65. Today, it is 82, which means that people are living 17 years longer on average.

Based on current projections, people aged 65 years and older, which accounted for 2.5 per cent of the population in 1965, is expected to form 18.4 per cent by 2030.

So should you fear the greying population, or the "silver tsunami" as some have called it?

The simple answer is: Yes!

If the current situation does not change, a shrinking younger generation will be left to bear the increasing cost of caring for an ever-growing group of dependent elderly.

As people get older, they will need more health-care services.

According to the Ministry of Health, people over the age of 65 are four times more likely to be hospitalised than younger adults. They also tend to stay in hospital for a longer period.

The number of people in that age group in Singapore is expected to nearly triple, from 350,000 in 2010 to 960,000 by 2030.

This means that more hospitals will have to be built, more doctors and nurses will be needed, and government spending will go up as more old people, having depleted their savings after 20 years or more in retirement, turn to subsidised wards.

Who will pay for all this?

You.

That is, unless things change.

Official retirement age has gone up to 62 years from 55.

But extending it by just seven years when people expect to live 17 years more is simply bad mathematics.

With about half going on to university or polytechnic, coupled with two years of national service for boys, people today usually start work in their early 20s.

This means that the actual number of working, and hence income-generating, years has gone up by very little.

So savings from four decades of work now has to sustain the person over the remaining 20 years of his life, when it was only 10 years in the past.

Many retirees may then have to turn to government subsidies when it comes to expensive health-care needs. Others may turn to their children, who have their own families to bring up.

These children, caught in a sandwich generation, will be hard-pressed to support their parents or grandparents, bring up their kids, and save for their own old age.

The government is aware of this looming issue. Companies are already being encouraged to keep workers till they are 65 years old.

But a lot more has to change, especially society's attitude towards older people.

So long as 65 remains the yardstick to label someone old and over the hill, the rapidly greying population will continue to be seen as a problem.

Singapore is not the only country facing a rapidly ageing population.

Worldwide, the number of people aged 65 or older is projected to grow to 1.5 billion in 2050, from 524 million in 2010. From forming just 8 per cent of the world's population, this group will make up 16 per cent by 2050.

Because of this, there have been many studies on older people's abilities, frailties and needs. And these studies show that there is only a very slight drop in ability between the ages of 60 and 69.

There is some truth in the adage that the 60s is the new 40s - meaning that people who are 60 years old today are as fit as someone at 40 half a century ago.

Anecdotally, many people remain in good physical and mental health well into their 70s, and some even into their 80s.

New terms have emerged.

The "young old" are people aged 65 to 80 years, while the "old old" refer to those over 80.

Even then, geriatricians - doctors who specialise in elderly care - say some of the old-old are fitter and more alert than some adults in their 50s.

When it comes to dependency, a person's frailty rather than biological age should be what counts.

As long as a person remains fit and is able to contribute to the economy, they should be allowed to. This will help boost the total workforce.

But many of these older people, having worked for decades, might feel that it is time for them to kick back and enjoy their lives.

To cater to their aspirations as well as society's needs, companies need to adjust and allow such people to work perhaps on a part-time basis, or give them a shorter work week.

This way, they remain economically independent even as their hair grey, but are still able to enjoy more free time.

The worry would no longer be how much of the population is made up of people who are 65 and older, but rather, the actual number of frail elderly who need to be supported.




THE SINGAPORE PERSPECTIVE
Looking ahead to tackle problem of shrinking workforce
By Salma Khalik, The Straits Times, 15 Jul 2013

SINGAPORE has one of the fastest-greying populations in the world.

This means that the percentage of people aged 65 years and older, relative to the total population, is increasing far more rapidly than in other countries.

The number of people in that age group is expected to nearly triple from 350,000 in 2010 to 960,000 by 2030.

With good sanitation, clean water and quality health care available to all, Singaporeans now have the fourth-longest life expectancy in the world.

Singapore already has close to 1,000 centenarians, or people aged 100 years or older.

On the other end of the spectrum, the fertility rate has been falling - from about five children for each woman in the 1960s to 1.2 today. This means that people here are not producing enough babies to replace themselves.

The stark reality is that the workforce here will shrink, unless at least one of three things happen:
- Women here start having a lot more babies.
- More people join the workforce and work for more years, increasing the total number of productive individuals.
- Foreign workers are brought in to grow the economy.
Currently, there are attempts to promote all three.

The Government has put in many incentives to encourage couples to have three or more children if they can afford it. This has helped halt the birth rate from falling, but has not raised the total number of births significantly.

Efforts are also being made to encourage more women, especially those who had stopped working to look after their young children, to return to the job market.

This includes encouraging companies to provide these women with part-time jobs to ease them back into the workforce.

From January last year, companies are also expected to re-hire employees who have reached the retirement age of 62 for another three years.

So far, only about half of these employees are taking up the offer to continue working, which often requires them to settle for lower pay and fewer perks.

Following complaints from the public, the Government has slowed down the recruitment of foreigners.

This has led to companies saying that they are not able to get enough workers, particularly for jobs which Singaporeans disdain - such as working as a helper in a nursing home.

While a large greying population is good news as it means that people are living longer, it comes with problems, unless society is ready to change.


This is the tenth of 12 primers on various current affairs issues, which will be published in the run-up to The Straits Times-Ministry of Education National Current Affairs Quiz.
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Auditor-General flags procurement lapses

July 19, 2013, 7:11 am
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Some firms may have enjoyed unfair advantage because of that, says report
By Leonard Lim, The Straits Times, 18 Jul 2013

SOME companies could have enjoyed an unfair advantage in tendering for public sector contracts because of the failure of certain public bodies to follow procurement policies, according to the Auditor-General's latest annual report.



Among the largest tenders in which the bidding process was deemed unfair was a $19.14 million project by Republic Polytechnic to develop an integrated academic system. After the deadline, it allowed one vendor to submit a revised proposal.

It was a substantial change from the original tender, but the fact was not disclosed to the tender-approving authority and the company got the contract.

Auditor-General Willie Tan noted that the polytechnic did not consider re-calling the tender or inviting other shortlisted tenderers to submit revised bids, though this is required under government rules.

Such procurement lapses - which took up a significant portion of the 63-page report for the financial year starting in 2012 - happened despite efforts to tighten the rules in the last few years.

Without open and fair competition, Mr Tan said, there would be no assurance that public sector bodies could secure competitive prices for goods and services.

In another case, the Media Development Authority negotiated with a vendor for a revised proposal to organise the $4.57 million Film Festival.

The vendor's earlier bid was the highest among three bidders.

It then submitted a new bid, which became the lowest, after the closing date for the tender. It was awarded the contract.

One case involved a $283.36 million tender for building works by the National Research Foundation where the scoring method used was not established upfront and made known to tenderers.

Another example involved irregularities in a Ngee Ann Polytechnic tender that could have reduced its chances of getting a more competitive price.

The $528,120 tender was for the supply and managing of graduation gowns to the polytechnic's Consumer Cooperative Society. The society's key positions of president, chairman and directors are held by senior polytechnic staff.

The Auditor-General reiterated that public sector entities should ensure that transactions with related parties "are at arm's length and be seen to be so", as public funds are involved.

Four other areas where public sector bodies could devote more attention and improve internal controls were also highlighted.

These were the monitoring of contractors' performance, oversight of projects managed by external consultants, management of stocks and stores, and management of computer access controls.

For instance, inspections of 41 chalets under the Public Service Division showed certain areas were not properly maintained.

These chalets, rented to civil servants for recreation, were to be maintained by a contractor for four years, beginning from 2010, in a contract worth $13.07 million. Checks found that furniture was dirty or damaged, there were insect hives, and electrical sockets were exposed.

Holland-Bukit Timah GRC MP Liang Eng Hwa, deputy chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Finance, Trade and Industry, called for more vigilance and the setting aside of more resources to ensure contractors deliver work to the promised standard.

This, he said, is even more important amid the tight labour market and many public sector projects involving contractors.

The Auditor-General also singled out Muis for "laxity in monitoring and collection of debts".

As of July 2012, it had $24.68 million in debts owed. The money - which comes from the community - was mostly loans and advances to mosques, madrasahs and Muis' subsidiaries.

All in, the report cited lapses in eight ministries and 11 statutory boards. These include the Urban Redevelopment Authority, Ministry of Defence and Singapore Civil Defence Force.

The lapses, however, do not necessarily reflect the organisation's general state of administration, the report said, but "serve as pointers to areas where improvements should be made in the accounting, use and management of public funds and resources".





HDB to keep tabs on carpark wardens
More HDB and URA carparks to get electronic parking system
By Charissa Yong, The Straits Times, 19 Jul 2013

BAD news for drivers trying to park for free - illegally. The Housing Board (HDB) has promised to step up its carpark monitoring with tighter checks, after an unsatisfactory report card from the Auditor-General's Office (AGO) on Wednesday.

Also, both HDB and the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) will be implementing electronic parking systems at more carparks.

The AGO's annual report found that both statutory boards had been lax in monitoring their parking wardens: Some of them failed to check all vehicles; others did not turn up for duty at all. They were hired under contracts.

AGO's 88 surprise checks found five instances where patrolling officers were not present at their patrol sites, despite indicating that they were.

It also found 26 instances where wardens did not inspect all vehicles in the carparks, although they were required to do so.

An HDB spokesman said it would be conducting more checks on wardens to ensure compliance.

It will also introduce e-parking systems at "more carparks where it is technically feasible to do so". URA will do the same for all of its 200 off-street carparks where feasible.

E-parking systems have already been implemented at 368 of the existing 1,800 HDB carparks.

These systems deduct parking charges from a CashCard inserted in the in-vehicle unit of a vehicle leaving the carpark.

This minimises the need for attendants to manually check if parking coupons are properly displayed.

"It is important for HDB to hold the service providers accountable for compliance with contract requirements. Otherwise, HDB would not be getting full value for the public funds spent," said the AGO report.

HDB's six carpark enforcement contracts are worth $37.24 million. The board will impose charges on the service providers.

However, the report noted that previous penalties imposed by URA on its contractor had not resulted in any improvement. The figure amounted to less than 4 per cent of monthly payments.

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More foreigners caught with fake certificates

July 19, 2013, 7:24 am
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Record 53 nabbed so far this year compared to 43 for whole of 2012
By Toh Yong Chuan, The Straits Times, 18 Jul 2013

INDIAN national Praveen Kumar Bollu was hired by dance studio Prabhudeva Dance Academy here as a dance instructor and choreographer in July last year.

Armed with an Indian university degree, he obtained an Employment Pass - a permit for foreign professionals working in managerial, executive or specialised jobs.

His wages were considerable, at $4,700 a month. But the 27-year-old was living a lie. He had faked his university degree.

He was among a record number of 53 foreigners caught for forging educational qualifications this year, more than the 43 nabbed during the whole of last year.



The authorities revealed that 25 were charged in court on Tuesday, after a crackdown by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).

Court papers obtained by The Straits Times showed that 24 foreigners - with the exception of Praveen - lied so as to obtain S Passes.

Among the two dozen were salesmen, chefs and a hairstylist. S Pass holders are mostly junior executives whose employers pay lower levies and face fewer hiring restrictions.

The foreigners, who came from Myanmar, India and the Philippines, all pleaded guilty.

Twenty of them - including Praveen - were jailed for four weeks.

The remaining five are serving jail terms of 20 days each as they were unable to pay court fines of $5,000.

These foreigners will be deported after serving their jail sentences and will be barred from working here in the future.

The latest crackdown came after a law was amended last September. Now, the forging of educational certificates is a standalone offence whereby the foreign worker may be jailed for two years and fined $20,000.

Previously, the maximum penalty was a year in jail and a $15,000 fine.

Labour MP Zainal Sapari applauded MOM for the crackdown: "These foreigners who falsify their documents do so because they do not qualify for the work passes. Through false pretence, they take away jobs that could have otherwise gone to Singaporeans."

He also urged MOM to turn its attention to the bosses: "The Government can send a signal that it will also clamp down on errant employers and agents."

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TRS website popular but ranks low on credibility

July 19, 2013, 8:21 am
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Observers cite plagiarism and the anonymity of its editors as big flaws
By Tessa Wong, The Straits Times, 18 Jul 2013

A WEBSITE that made the news twice in recent weeks for publishing information that PAP MPs say is false is popular with some online readers but ranks low on credibility among sociopolitical sites and blogs.

New media watchers consider The Real Singapore (TRS) the "black sheep" among such sites because of its track record of publishing plagiarised content and unverified assertions, and because its editors are anonymous.

According to Web statistics company Alexa, TRS enjoys higher traffic than many other sites, which observers put down to its sensational content. But when it comes to credibility, TRS fares badly in these media watchers' assessments.

The anonymity of TRS' editors is a major reason to not take it seriously, said former Nominated MP Calvin Cheng. Knowing the editor's identity is important because "it shows an individual is willing to take responsibility for the content", he said.

TRS brands itself as a serious platform for the "voices of average Singaporeans". But when caught publishing unverified information, as it was this week in a dispute with Chua Chu Kang GRC MP Zaqy Mohamad, its editors dodged responsibility by saying they did not produce the content but simply provided a platform for articles by members of the public.

The dispute was over an article containing allegations about Chua Chu Kang town council which Mr Zaqy described as "clearly false and borders on defamation". Two weeks ago, Tampines GRC MP Irene Ng lodged a police report about an article that the site falsely attributed to her.

Last November, a lawyer's letter was sent to the site over a defamatory article it published about Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen, which it later took down.

Observers drew a distinction between TRS, which gives an impression of reliability, and humour website New Nation.

Though both have carried speculative pieces, Institute of Policy Studies research fellow Carol Soon said that New Nation makes it clear it is doing so for satire, "so readers clearly know that they should not take what they read on the site seriously".

During the recent haze crisis, blogger Ravi Philemon re-published on his Facebook page an allegation that the Government's stockpile of N95 masks was not for the public.


Dr Soon said that the public backlash to Mr Philemon's post and to a recent tirade by blogger Andrew Loh against President Tony Tan Keng Yam "points to an increasing expectation among the Singapore public for people to practise responsibility when producing and sharing content".

Rumours about politicians and their families have also made the rounds online, though these tend to originate from relatively unknown blogs. Nominated MP Eugene Tan cited one such rumour, started two years ago, that Acting Minister for Social and Family Development Chan Chun Sing was related to Mr Lee Kuan Yew. Such misinformation is potentially "damaging and unhealthy", he said.

Observers generally agreed that Singaporeans are becoming more discerning in sifting true information from false but added that more media literacy would help, especially when websites such as TRS that thrive on unverified facts tend to be popular.

Mr Cheng, who is a member of the Media Literacy Council, said that "people have to be taught to fact-check themselves before they believe something, or re-post it".

"If we have a media-illiterate population that naively believes whatever they read, then we are in trouble."







Woman withdraws allegations about Chua Chu Kang Town Council, apologises
In a joint statement, town council apologises to her for inconvenience
By Tessa Wong, The Straits Times, 20 Jul 2013

A WOMAN who made false allegations about the Chua Chu Kang Town Council and its chairman Zaqy Mohamad, on The Real Singapore (TRS) website, has apologised and withdrawn her remarks.


The town council, too, apologised to her for causing her inconvenience when it gave her a wrong phone number for its insurer.

Ms Tham, who declined to give her age and occupation, had injured herself in May when she fell on a staircase at Block 293, Choa Chu Kang Avenue 3.

She wrote to TRS twice to complain about the town council's handling of her case.

In her second letter, published on July 13, Ms Tham alleged the town council had replaced the staircase railing, saying it contradicted a claim allegedly made by Mr Zaqy that there were "no issues" with the staircase.

Mr Zaqy, a Chua Chu Kang GRC MP, subsequently took TRS to task for publishing the second letter, saying the accusation was "clearly false and borders on defamation".

Yesterday's joint statement said Ms Tham had checked and acknowledged "there was indeed no replacement of railings and admitted her mistakes in stating otherwise in her letter to TRS".

It also said Ms Tham, who is making an insurance claim for her fall, had assumed the railings were replaced as the town council had told the loss adjuster it is considering replacing them in the future. A loss adjuster is a third party assessor of an insurance claim, and in this case was engaged by the town council's insurer.

The town council, which made a typo error when giving Ms Tham its insurer's phone number, said it will work to improve its communication efforts.

Mr Zaqy has also offered to facilitate her claim process.

The statement said she will write to the TRS editor to remove her July 13 letter. Ms Tham yesterday declined to comment further on her apology.

Mr Zaqy told The Straits Times he was "thankful Ms Tham came forward to work with us on the joint statement. We came to an agreement and we will help her with her claims".

He met her at the town council office yesterday, and she had brought a prepared statement of apology, he said. But the town council decided to work with her on a joint statement.

TRS removed the posting's contents yesterday afternoon, but kept the accusatory headline.

It directed readers to another posting with the joint statement, and said Ms Tham had told the site that "without us her concern would never have been escalated and resolved so quickly".

Ms Tham, however, told The Straits Times last night she did not make the comment and asked the site to remove it.

Mr Zaqy said he had no further comment on the site's actions.





The Real Singapore founder confirms he remains linked to site
By Tessa Wong, The Straits Times, 18 Jul 2013

ALTHOUGH the identities of those running the socio-political website The Real Singapore (TRS) are unclear, one of its founders has confirmed that he remains linked to it.

Mr Alex Tan, a 25-year-old systems engineer, told The Straits Times yesterday that he continues to contribute articles to the site anonymously.

But, he said, he has never met the site's chief editor, who calls himself Mohd Farhan, and to whom he passed control of the site last year.

Questions about who runs the website have arisen since it was taken to task this month by two MPs.

Two weeks ago, Tampines GRC MP Irene Ng made a police report, accusing the site of falsely attributing to her an article it published. Earlier this week, Chua Chu Kang GRC MP Zaqy Mohamad asked the website to remove allegations regarding his town council.

TRS responded to Mr Zaqy on Tuesday with an online statement signed by Mr Mohd Farhan with the title chief editor - a rare instance of the site revealing clues of its editorship.

Yesterday, Mr Tan said he started the website with a couple he has never met personally and whom he believes live in Australia.

He became acquainted with them online early last year after he responded to their call on Facebook for socio-political articles on Singapore.

The couple identified themselves to him as Mr Yang Kaiheng and Ms Ai Takagi, but Mr Tan said he could not establish whether they were real. Checks online show that the site was created last June.

The trio ran it and communicated only via e-mail, until the end of last year, when Mr Mohd Farhan, a contributor to the site, volunteered to take over the reins, he said.

Again, all communication was done online and he had never met Mr Farhan. Mr Tan said: "I'm comfortable dealing with anonymous persons and editors. My objective has always been for my writing to reach a wider audience."

On Tuesday, The Straits Times received an e-mail from a Mr Farhan, saying the couple were never editors of TRS. He refused to comment further on his identity and the site's editorship.

Yesterday, Mr Zaqy said he will not take legal action against TRS for posting false information. He gave it 24 hours on Tuesday to remove the post but it was not done.

"We note TRS' position and are content to let members of the public reach their own conclusions based on what has been written by both sides."





Another MP takes website to task for publishing false info
Zaqy: Letter published on The Real Singapore borders on defamation
By Tessa Wong, The Straits Times, 17 Jul 2013

A SECOND MP from the People's Action Party (PAP) has taken issue with sociopolitical website The Real Singapore (TRS) for publishing false information.

Chua Chu Kang MP Zaqy Mohamad asked TRS early yesterday morning to produce evidence in the next 24 hours to back up an article it published about his town council or remove the post and apologise.



His move, made in a Facebook posting, comes two weeks after Tampines GRC MP Irene Ng made a police report against TRS for publishing an article it falsely attributed to her.

The TRS post pinpointed by Mr Zaqy has a letter written by Ms Serene Tham, who alleges she suffered injuries from falling down a staircase at Block 293, Choa Chu Kang Avenue 3.

Ms Tham, whose age and other personal particulars could not be established, also alleges recent actions by the town council contradict its earlier statement that the staircase is safe.

Mr Zaqy, who is the town council's chairman, said what Ms Tham said is "clearly false and borders on defamation".

He added that the matter is being investigated for an insurance claim and that TRS should "take great care to validate all facts before considering to publish such potentially defamatory articles".

TRS yesterday uploaded pictures of Ms Tham's alleged injuries. In a statement signed by a Mr Mohd Farhan, whom it called its chief editor, TRS said it had contacted Ms Tham, who is sticking to what she wrote.

As of press time, the posting had not been removed from the website, which now also carries Mr Zaqy's statement.

The TRS statement also said its editors are "now taking the time to respond to and clarify our position on this issue".

It said it tries to validate facts before publishing, but "due to the nature of many of the issues raised, it is in fact impossible for us to wait for or even receive clarification from MPs or government organisations on the issues".

In a separate editor's note on Ms Ng's case, TRS claimed it is a platform for users to post articles, and it does "not necessarily agree with or have the ability to completely censor all articles posted".

It said it had received the article from someone using the e-mail address IreneNg.TampinesGRC@gmail.com.

The site has removed the article in question and said it is assisting the police with investigations.




Who are The Real Singapore's real editors?
By Tessa Wong, The Straits Times, 17 Jul 2013

MYSTERY surrounds the identity of the editors of The Real Singapore (TRS), who until yesterday were believed to be a couple living in Australia.

It was sparked by a TRS statement yesterday signed off by a "Mohd Farhan", with the title "chief editor".

Checks on its website found a total of five TRS articles signed off by either a "Farhan" or "Mohd Farhan".

One article was linked to the Twitter profile and website of 27-year-old writer Farhan Shah. When contacted, he denied being involved with TRS and expressed surprise his website was linked to it.

He said he had written the article for another website, but it had been reproduced by TRS without his consent.

Separately, The Straits Times was contacted by someone claiming to be a "Farhan" representing TRS.

He said he was not Mr Farhan Shah, adding that it was not true an Australian-based couple are editors of TRS. He declined to comment further.

The Straits Times understands from a source who is in contact with TRS, that Dr Joseph Ong and Mr Alex Tan remain linked with TRS.

Dr Ong, a medical doctor believed to be in his 30s, was linked previously to the defunct website Temasek Review. He was arrested in 2011 for conducting an illegal election exit poll.

When contacted, he said he did not know anything about TRS and refused to comment further.

Mr Tan, a 25-year-old systems engineer and blogger who contested in the 2011 general election under the Reform Party banner, is one of the founders of TRS.

He could not be contacted yesterday.





Beware of websites run by anonymous owners

SINGAPOREANS should be concerned about websites run by anonymous owners, as many of these sites serve to divide us ("TRS website popular but ranks low on credibility"; Thursday).

These sites may be run by foreigners and foreign agencies who wish to do us harm.

After all, there have been reports of foreign agencies setting up websites to promote certain causes and regularly editing entries in Wikipedia to favour certain viewpoints ("CIA, Vatican and Howard's office 'edited Wikipedia'"; Aug 29, 2007).

Many less-discerning Singaporeans believe whole articles on such websites simply because parts of them are true and the message resonates with them. They forget that the best liars do not lie completely.

Many of these sites are not only anti-government but also anti-Singapore and highly defamatory. Singaporeans who write the occasional credible anti-government article may lend a certain credibility to such websites, and influence netizens into believing that the sites are reliable.

Tan Ying San
ST Forum, 20 Jul 2013

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Race not an issue in Singapore, study finds

July 20, 2013, 7:52 am
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But most Singaporeans do not have close friends of another race
By Leonard Lim, The Straits Times, 19 Jul 2013

MOST Singaporeans say that race is not a factor in determining who gets promoted at work or served at public facilities here, according to a new study.

But while the survey found that many believe all races are generally treated fairly by society, it also notes that more than one in two Singaporeans do not have a close friend of another race.

Just 45 per cent of the 4,131 Singaporeans interviewed have such friends, an attribute that is essential for racial harmony, said the study released yesterday.

It is the first such study carried out to gauge the state of racial and religious harmony in Singapore by asking people for their views on 10 areas.

Overall, the results are positive, indicating that people of different races and religions get along.

The study's authors attributed it to government policies that foster social harmony. For instance, eight out of 10 Malays and Indians do not feel they are treated worse than other races in the workplace. And nine out of 10 feel there is no discrimination when they use government services, like hospitals.

Also, the vast majority of Singaporeans take online racist or offensive postings in their stride, such as when former NTUC staffer Amy Cheong ranted on Facebook about Malay void deck weddings.

Fewer than 10 per cent say they are often upset by incidents that insult their religious beliefs or racial customs.

These are among the key findings of the study carried out by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) and racial harmony advocacy group OnePeople.sg.

The study ranked the 10 indicators with scores, from one (worst) to 10 (perfect). The score was above five for all except for interracial friendships, at 4.51.

Despite the positive picture, IPS and OnePeople.sg said racial harmony remains a work in progress.

OnePeople.sg chairman Zainudin Nordin cited especially inter-racial friendships.

Such close-knit relationships form the backbone of racial harmony, the Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC MP said at a press conference.

"It could be as simple as going into a lift and not looking down, but making an effort to chat with the neighbour of another race and deepening that relationship," he added.

The study found that two in 10 Chinese have a Malay or Indian friend, while nearly two-thirds of Malays and Indians have at least one Chinese friend.

Dr Mathew Mathews, the study's principal investigator and an IPS research fellow, attributed the poor score in inter-racial friendships to the population demographics.

The Chinese form almost 75 per cent, a vast majority compared to Malays (13 per cent) and Indians (9 per cent).

As a result, the Chinese can go about their daily routine without needing to meet someone from a minority race, Dr Mathews said.

Sociologist Tan Ern Ser, who was not involved in the study, agreed but said economic status could also be a factor.

"We need to promote inter-racial collaborations on projects of common interest and under conditions of equality," he added.

But Dr Norman Vasu of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies noted that the other findings show the poor friendship score has not hindered inter-racial relations.




Racial and religious harmony 'remains strong'
By Leonard Lim, The Straits Times, 19 Jul 2013

RACIST online postings about Malay void-deck weddings and Indians needing to be in separate train cabins hogged headlines last year.

But a study has found that racial and religious harmony remains strong, despite these incidents that threatened to damage Singapore's social fabric.

Fewer than 10 per cent of 4,131 Singaporeans surveyed said they had often been upset in the past two years by situations that could potentially lead to racial or religious tension.

These instances could range from being insulted for one's racial customs or religious beliefs, and being challenged about one's religion, to undesirable attempts to convert one to another religion.

No specific examples were put to the people interviewed for the study by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) and racial harmony group OnePeople.sg.

But two incidents stood out last year.

In March, Nanyang Polytechnic student Shimun Lai, upset at the congestion on an MRT train, wrote on her Facebook and Twitter accounts that Indians needed their own form of transport or to be in separate cabins from others. She also likened them to dogs.

In October, former NTUC staff member Amy Cheong made headlines for posting a racist rant on Facebook about Malay weddings.

But the study found that overall, six out of 10 Singaporeans agreed or strongly agreed that the country is free from both racial and religious tension.

Seven out of 10 agreed that they did not experience any religious or racial tension in their daily lives.

Principal investigator Mathew Mathews of the IPS, as well as OnePeople.sg, said the findings are a credit to government policies that foster harmony, such as ethnic housing quotas that ensure the proportion of residents in HDB blocks mirrors the national demographic. "It's nice to see these fruits of nation-building policies," Dr Mathews added.

Sociologist Tan Ern Ser, who was not involved in the study, said he believes most Singaporeans are not racists.

"I'm not suggesting that Singaporeans are entirely free of racial prejudice. But the Amy Cheong case shows there are strong social and legal sanctions against deviants," added the National University of Singapore don.





INDICATORS that gauge state of Singapore's racial and religious relations, ranked by scores:

1 Absence of minority discrimination in using public services (9.75)

2 Absence of interracial and religious tension (7.99)

3 Embracing diversity (7.63)

4 Absence of minority discrimination in workplace (7.56)

5 Interracial and religious comfort in public and private spheres (7.46)

6 Interracial and religious social trust (7.18)

7 Embracing colour blindness (6.96)

8 Interest in intercultural understanding and interaction (6.49)

9 Absence of minority perception of social exclusion (6.20)

10 Presence of close interracial friendships (4.51)

The survey asked Singaporeans questions on 10 different aspects of racial and religious harmony.

Their answers were used to compute how Singapore fared according to the 10 indicators. Nine indicators had a score above five, with 10 being the perfect score.

The national survey interviewed 4,131 Singaporeans aged 18 or older. The overall profile mirrors the country's population demographics.

To ensure minority views were adequately represented, an additional booster sample of 492 Malays and 489 Indians were included for scores where minority views were sought (indicators 1, 3 and 9).
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42,663 babies last year

July 21, 2013, 11:03 pm
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Fewer kids with both parents from S'pore
A rising number of babies are being born to Singaporeans with foreign spouses. Theresa Tan and Jane Ng examine the implications of this demographic shift.
The Sunday Times, 21 Jul 2013

There were 42,663 babies born in Singapore last year, but only half of them had parents who were both Singapore citizens. Their proportion of all births shrank sharply from 2000.

The rest were born to citizens with foreign spouses, or foreign couples. And this group swelled considerably from before.

It is a significant demographic shift, experts say, with implications for what it means to be Singaporean and how to integrate foreigners who are here to stay.

The data on parents' nationality appears in the Report on Registration of Births and Deaths 2012, published by the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) this month.

A comparison of birth statistics for 2000 and 2012, both auspicious Dragon Years in the Chinese zodiac, shows:

A sharp decline in the number of babies with parents who are both Singaporean - 22,650 (53.1 per cent of all babies) last year, down from 31,308 (66.6 per cent).

Slightly more babies born to Singaporeans and their foreign spouses - 10,588 (24.8 per cent) last year, up from 10,309 (21.9 per cent).

The number of babies born to parents who are both foreigners has nearly doubled - 9,425 (22.1 per cent) last year, from 5,380 (11.4 per cent).

Sociologists and demographers say the shift comes as fewer Singaporeans are marrying and having babies and more marry foreigners.

Meanwhile, the number of permanent residents (PRs) and non-residents such as foreign workers doubled from one million in 2000 to two million last year and this explains the sharp rise in the number of babies born to foreigners here.

Demographer Gavin Jones noted that the ICA statistics shed some light on immigration patterns, giving a rare breakdown of data by nationality. For instance, the statistics suggest a significant presence of newcomers from Asean countries, China and India.

Babies born to couples from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, for example, formed 4.5 per cent of babies born last year - more than triple the 1.3 per cent in 2000.

According to the Census 2010, the Indian and Others minorities in the resident population grew over the previous decade, while the proportion of Chinese and Malays shrank.

Sociologists say the changes also mean the country is looking at a shrinking "Singaporean core" or may have to redefine what it means to be Singaporean.

How many of the babies with a foreign parent will stay for the long haul is a question to ponder, said sociologist Paulin Straughan. This can affect population size, especially given the baby shortage and ageing population here.

"This is a wake-up call that policies must evolve with the demographic shift," she said.

Singapore should offer dual citizenship to children of Singaporean-foreigner unions, she added, to attract these children to choose Singapore as their home when they grow up.

Children of foreign parents may find the national school system a good way to integrate into the Singapore way of life, said sociologist Tan Ern Ser, but there is a need to determine if there are sufficient places in schools for these children, while still giving priority to Singaporeans.

Singaporean couples interviewed were surprised to learn of the large number of babies born to foreigners.

But Singaporean teacher Yvonne Neo, 30, felt racial and national boundaries are blurring as more Singaporeans marry foreigners or Singaporeans of a different race.

She is married to a Malay Singaporean, teacher Mohamed Shahrom Taha, 34, and they have a seven-month-old son, Mohamed Mikail.

She said: "Everyone is worried that we are living in a less Singaporean society, but we have been an immigrant society all along. We must learn to be more inclusive while raising our kids."




SINGAPOREAN MUM, FOREIGN DAD
Marriages with men from China on the rise
By Jane Ng, The Sunday Times, 21 Jul 2013

Singaporean Cara Ng, 43, never thought she would marry a man from China, not least because of her poor command of Chinese.

But Cupid struck after her mother introduced her to Mr Zhang Lei, who was armed with a medical degree from China and was here to do his Master of Science degree. Now 49, he is a Chinese physician.

Her mother met his grandmother at a taiji class and they decided to play match-makers.

After an eight-month romance, they tied the knot and have since overcome misunderstandings caused by language differences. They have three daughters aged between 15 and 17 and a 15-month-old son.

Madam Ng, an accountant turned housewife, said her Chinese has improved but "when I get angry, I scold him in English".

A small but growing number of babies are born to Singaporean women and their husbands from China. There were 306 such babies last year, comprising 0.7 per cent of all births, up from just 64 (0.1 per cent) in 2000.

When it comes to babies born to Singaporean mothers with foreign husbands, Malaysian men still top the list. But the number of babies born to such couples has dipped. There were 1,384 babies (3.2 per cent of all births) last year, down from 1,560 (3.3 per cent) in 2000.

There was a rise in the number of babies born to Singaporean women and men from Australia, America, Britain and countries classified as Others, including countries in Europe, Africa and South America.

Sociologists say that for Singaporeans with foreign spouses, men tend to marry Asians, whereas women tend to pair up with Westerners.

This is because the local men tend to be less educated and seek brides from poorer countries, while the women are better educated and may meet their partners while studying or working abroad.

One reason for the rising number of women pairing up with men from China could be the emergence of Chinese middle-class professionals.

Match-maker Horatio Li, boss of Good Luck Friends Centre, sees more male Chinese professionals seeking wives. Ten years ago, he had no such clients.

He said: "Some of these Chinese men studied in the United States or Britain, speak good English and have good incomes. These are qualities Singaporean women like."




SINGAPOREAN DAD, FOREIGN MUM
Wives may face visa problems
By Theresa Tan, The Sunday Times, 21 Jul 2013

Singaporean property agent Dennis Ng's first marriage to a Singaporean ended after three years and no children.

Now 40, he says he is enjoying marital bliss with his 24-year-old Vietnamese wife Nguyen Thi Dieu Hien, whom he met when she came to Singapore to visit her sister, who is also married to a Singaporean.

"We can click. Our lives are really simple but we are very happy," he said. "Singaporean women's expectations are increasing and this gives the men pressure. One reason my first marriage broke down was the differences in expectations."

The couple married last year after a whirlwind romance and they have a seven-month-old son, Jayden. A second baby is already on the way.

Like Mr Ng, more Singaporean men are starting families with foreign women, in particular those from China and Asean countries.

Last year, 16.9 per cent of all babies born had a Singaporean father and a foreign mother, up from 15.6 per cent in 2000.

While Malaysian mums still topped the list of foreign women who had babies with Singaporean men, the number of babies from this group declined considerably from 3,763 (8 per cent of babies born in 2000) to 2,411 (5.7 per cent) last year.

There were also fewer babies born to Singaporean men with Indonesian wives.

But the number born to Singaporean men and women from China rose from 1,122 (2.4 per cent in 2000) to 2,034 (4.8 per cent) last year.

There was also a sharp rise in the number born to women from Asean countries excluding Malaysia and Indonesia. They had 1,498 babies (3.5 per cent last year), up from 676 (1.4 per cent) in 2000.

Matchmakers and those who work with foreign brides say a growing number of Singaporean men are marrying Chinese, Filipino, Thai and Vietnamese women.

Many of these men tend to be older and poorer and their marriages to poor foreign women face unique challenges, social workers note.

The wives may find it hard to stay in Singapore for long periods and families risk being broken up if the woman cannot extend her visa.

Many such foreign wives are here on long-term visit passes of between three months and a year. Some get only tourist visas for a month, said Ms Elizabeth Tan of the Archdiocesan Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, a Catholic group that helps foreign brides.

There are also professional Singaporean men who meet their spouses while working abroad.

Assistant manager Alvin Tan, 35, met his Chinese wife Xue Bo, 37, while running a business consultancy in Kunming, China. Both are graduates and have been married for five years.

He said: "We just hit it off. I find it very easy to talk to her and we both share the Christian faith."

They moved to Singapore in 2009 to start a family and Ms Xue is now a permanent resident and working as an accounts assistant. They have two children, daughter Xin Rui, four, and son Shao Jie, two.

"Some of my friends say Singaporean girls are too demanding but I think it depends on who you meet," he said. "It's so hard to find true love so let's not judge people by their nationalities."




FOREIGN MUM, FOREIGN DAD
More choose to have their babies here
By Jane Ng, The Sunday Times, 21 Jul 2013

Rajat and Aarti Nagpal arrived in Singapore from India in 2011 and had their second child here last year.

Mr Nagpal, 34, a regional director at Expedia, said Singapore's medical facilities and cleanliness were among the factors that helped them decide to have a baby here.

"It is closer to our home country - we have a flight every four hours to India," he said.

Their born-in-Singapore baby boy is now seven months old. They also have a nine-year-old daughter.

Indian nationals Anupriya and Nitin Chellani had both their sons here. Rian is four and Aadit is four months old. Mr Chellani, 33, came here in 2004 and works in a bank. The family are Singapore permanent residents.

Mrs Chellani, 31, a part-time teacher, said: "Singapore is a very convenient place to live and work. There is no racism and it is a multi- cultural and multi-ethnic place. It has the international appeal, the infrastructure and facilities. And I want my children to grow up in a safe environment."

They are among a rising number of foreign couples who had babies here last year.

From 2000 to last year, the number of babies born to couples from the Indian sub-continent tripled to 1,935 (4.5 per cent of all babies), the number born to Chinese couples doubled to 1,100 (2.6 per cent), and the number for those from Asean countries - excluding Malaysia and Indonesia - shot up fivefold to 1,221 (2.9 per cent).

No statistics are available for Asean babies by nationality, but a Philippine Embassy spokesman said the number of Filipino workers here has risen over the past decade. About 60 per cent of the 160,000 Filipinos here are skilled workers and professionals, and the rest are maids.

"Filipinos love children and we like big families. In fact, the Philippines is one of the few Asian societies which is not expected to age considerably in the coming years," she added.

Filipino housewife and Singapore permanent resident Shirley Velasco, 33, considered going back to the Philippines to have her second child as it would cost less there, but eventually had her baby here.

"Singapore is safe for raising children - I don't have to worry about kidnapping. The education is of a good quality too," said Madam Velasco, who has been here since 2008.

Her Filipino husband Lawrence Erfe, 34, is an architect and also a permanent resident here. They have a seven-year-old daughter and a son who was born last year.

Apart from India and the Philippines, many couples who had babies here last year were from China.

Mr Tony Du, 58, chairman of new immigrant group The Tianfu Association, said Chinese nationals are attracted by Singapore's "fairer system" in education and in the workplace.

"In China, you would need connections to get ahead. Here, hard work can get you far," said the engineer, who came here in 1991 as a supervisor in a poultry factory and eventually brought his wife and son over. The Du family got citizenship in 1994.

Malaysian couples bucked the trend by having fewer babies here than before. The number went down from 1,622 (3.5 per cent of all babies) in 2000 to 1,199 (2.8 per cent) last year.

A Malaysian High Commission spokesman said that could reflect a rise in the number of Malaysian career women who may not want as many children as before, and difficulty in finding affordable housing and childcare here.

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SAF to recruit more women

July 21, 2013, 11:16 pm
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Military aims for 3,000 women as number of male enlistees is expected to shrink
By Jermyn Chow, The Sunday Times, 21 Jul 2013

The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) is looking for more women to join as career soldiers as the pool of qualified male enlistees shrinks.

For a start, it wants at least 500 more women by 2018. When that happens, one in 10 career soldiers will be a woman.

Beyond that, the military hopes to double its current female population to at least 3,000, said the SAF's chief recruiter Gan Siow Huang.

Latest statistics revealed to The Sunday Times show that 1,500 women now hold combat jobs, with 60 young women signing on every year as officers, specialists and warrant officers, and military experts.

These female combatants, who serve as artillery gunners, pilots and intelligence analysts, among others, account for 7.5 per cent of the SAF's pool of regulars.

By comparison, women make up 14 per cent of the United States military and more than 10 per cent of the Australian Defence Force.

Colonel Gan, one of the first four women who received the SAF Merit Scholarship in 1993, heads the Joint Manpower Department. She said the number of female troops in the SAF is "way too low", adding: "There are many top-quality women out there who can contribute so we need to be more aggressive to get them to sign up.

"We also don't want to be overly reliant on the pool of male enlistees. Today they may be our main group, but the numbers are going down."

About 21,000 males enlisted for national service in 2011. But given the declining birth rate, the number is expected to shrink to about 15,000 a year in future.

Adding more women will boost the ranks and ensure that the SAF can still mobilise about 300,000 soldiers from regulars, full-time national servicemen and operationally ready NSmen, said Col Gan.

The army recruited its first women combatants in 1986.

Australia, South Korea, Germany and Israel allow women to serve in combat roles. Last month, the Americans revealed plans to open up more combat positions to women.

Col Gan said the SAF will be doing more to hire women who can perform well in areas like cyber-defence, military intelligence and air warfare surveillance.

The army and air force recently started recruitment drives targeted at women. Among other things, the Defence Ministry's publication Pioneer was bundled with women's magazine Cleo for the first time last year.

The navy will start its recruitment campaign for women later this year.

Defence analyst Bernard Loo said that while the SAF has been progressive in integrating women into its ranks, some "apparent barriers" need to be removed.

Noting that the highest-ranked SAF female officer now is a colonel, Dr Loo said: "The perceived glass ceiling will truly be broken if a female officer becomes a general and shows that there is true meritocracy within the SAF."

But Col Gan, the only female colonel in active service now, said: "We are not about to put a woman in a job or promote her for the sake of doing so or to make a statement.

"It is about who is the best man for the job."




Men treat us like one of them, say SAF women
Female SAF regulars say they have not encountered any discrimination
By Jermyn Chow, The Sunday Times, 21 Jul 2013

Women combatants in the Singapore Armed Forces say the male-dominated workplace is a conducive environment for doing well and progressing in their careers.

About a third of the 60 women who sign on with the SAF every year receive study awards and scholarships for their tertiary studies, said the Defence Ministry.

This also puts them on track to be groomed as commanders and leaders in the top military brass.

The women who spoke to The Sunday Times said they have not encountered any discrimination from their male colleagues.

Military Expert 2 Jayanthi Armugamm, who signed on with the navy in 1997, said she was never made to feel like an outsider when she was the only female in the combat medic training course.

"The boys treated me like one of them and made me feel comfortable... They were very supportive and we helped each other out," said the 34-year-old mother of two.

While she admits that she does not outperform the bigger-sized men in physical training, she has held her own in medical emergency drills.

"My only limit is my physical ability... In everything else, we are equals and fair competitors," she said.

Infantry officer Nur Atiqah Ahmad Rosman, 25, agreed, and said today's battlefield requires as much mental and intellectual power as brawn.

"A lot has got to do with positive attitude and mental strength. Size does not matter," said the pint-sized platoon commander from the Officer Cadet School, who gave birth to daughter Nur Alesya, her first child, on July 9.

And being a mother in the SAF does not disrupt the servicewoman's career progression.

Major Neo Su Yin, 33, a mother of one and commanding officer of the navy's patrol vessel RSS Dauntless, said: "I never felt I was at a disadvantage or marginalised when I was pregnant. I was still given many opportunities and moved ahead in my career."

Some women, like artillery instructor Angeline Wong, have also impressed commanders with how they handle volatile situations.

Staff Sergeant Wong, who signed on with the army when she was 17, is one of six women who have done tours of duty in Afghanistan.

During her deployment in 2010, she and her team risked being hit by enemy artillery and rocket attacks.

The 29-year-old said a rocket shell landed only 100m from her.

Senior Warrant Officer K. Chandran, who was in the war-torn region at the same time, said the cool-headed women appeared to have "a calming effect" on the men.




HIGH-FLIER
Pioneer scholarship holder also proud mum
By Jermyn Chow, The Sunday Times, 21 Jul 2013

The most senior female officer in the Singapore Armed Forces is Colonel Gan Siow Huang, who was among the first four women to receive the SAF merit scholarship in 1993.

After graduating from the London School of Economics, she rose through the ranks and is now head of the SAF's joint manpower department. She is also something of a poster girl for the SAF's recruitment campaign for women.

Her successful military career included stints drafting policies, and commanding the Republic of Singapore Air Force's 203 squadron and Air Surveillance and Control Group.

But the 39-year-old is also a proud mother of three girls: Ella, nine; Emma, five; and Eleanor, one.

Despite her current 8am-to-7pm work routine, Col Gan still manages to spend at least three hours with her daughters in their Bukit Panjang home. "It is always a joy to be there to witness every step of their growing-up years," said Col Gan, who is married to Mr Lee Jek Suen.

It was through the military that they met in 1994. He was a naval officer studying in Britain on an SAF scholarship. They got married in 1998.

Mr Lee, who left the service in 2006 for the private sector, said in jest: "At least she was holding a stable job, allowing me to be more adventurous with my job options."

Col Gan said her second pregnancy was her "most trying" because her husband was away in Algeria. After that, the family decided to settle down, with Mr Lee taking twice-monthly work trips to Shanghai.

Col Gan, who also has a Master of Business Administration from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, admitted that as a pioneer female scholarship recipient, she does face some pressure to meet people's expectations.

Many others have followed in her footsteps, with one becoming the first woman to be awarded the most prestigious SAF Overseas Scholarship in 2010.

Col Gan said: "It keeps me going, knowing that I'm not alone and I cannot let down some of the very good men and women I've worked with over the years. I'm still happy to know that I'm doing something that is more than just desk-bound and money-making."




SAF'S NIGHTINGALE
Yearning for the front line
By Jermyn Chow, The Sunday Times, 21 Jul 2013

Dissatisfied with her humdrum stint in a paediatric ward, nurse Kong Hui Yun decided to switch to a military career and a more fast-paced emergency department.

She was drawn to the prospect of treating casualties on the front line, after chancing upon an advertisement about the Singapore Armed Forces' overseas deployment in Afghanistan in 2011.

"I wanted to experience the thrill and adrenaline, working against time and resources to treat war injuries," said the 27-year-old, who worked for more than three years in hospitals here.

She traded her nursing whites for green fatigues last year, hoping to emulate one of her heroes, Florence Nightingale, and tend to wounded soldiers.

She joined the SAF's Military Domain Experts Scheme, in which she would be a medical military expert.

Despite being offered a senior military expert rank, she requested to start from scratch before moving up the rank structure.

"I wanted to be with the men and get hands-on experience in the medical centres, rather than do administrative work in the medical corps headquarters," said Military Expert (ME) 1-2 Kong.

She has not looked back since.

Today, she is the second-in-charge at one of the busiest SAF medical centres in Pasir Laba Camp.

Since her posting last October, she has attended to soldiers with respiratory problems, fractures, seizures and fainting spells.

She has also been mentoring medics under her, teaching them how to bandage or handle casualties better.

The avid motorcylist, who rides a CBR 150 bike, said: "The discipline and regimentation in the military suits me and I definitely am more motivated to put in my best, and hopefully inspire more people to join."




TRAILBLAZER
A naval diver, tough as the guys
By Jermyn Chow, The Sunday Times, 21 Jul 2013

Naval diver Esther Tan almost did not make history as the crack unit's first-ever female in 2001.

She finished among the top of her naval officer cadet batch and aced her physical and medical tests, but she was not picked for the final - and most crucial - interview to qualify for the Naval Diving Unit.

The indignant 25-year-old challenged the decision. "I knew I had fulfilled all requirements so I just asked what else I lacked," she recalled.

That paid off and she landed an interview with the unit's then commander. Among other things, she could run 6km within 28 minutes and swim 50m in under a minute.

"All I thought was to convince him that I was confident that I could do it," she said.

She was accepted into the elite unit and went on to specialise in search-and-rescue operations and explosive ordnance disposal. She is now a major.

Despite blazing the trail as the first woman naval diver, the avid triathlete, who has taken part in more than 30 international marathons, triathlons, and Ironman and adventure races, still had to overcome her peers' pre-conceived notions.

"They wanted to tie knots on a rope, thinking they were helping to make it easier for me to climb up and clear the obstacle, but I just told them, 'No need'," she recalled.

She eventually broke the barriers with the men and became good friends with them.

These days, the tanned 38-year-old works in the navy's intelligence department. She runs every other day and spends two hours working out in the gym on weekends. This is to build up her strength and stamina so she can still carry up to 39kg of load and weapons underwater.

She said: "If a woman is competent and has leadership qualities, her career shouldn't be hampered by her shape, her size or her gender."

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NDP song cheesy? That's one view

July 21, 2013, 11:39 pm
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A whole spectrum of responses is to be expected with each new song, says Ng Eng Hen
By Stacey Chia, The Sunday Times, 21 Jul 2013

This year's National Day Parade (NDP) theme song, One Singapore, may seem to have hit all the wrong notes, but Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said a whole "spectrum of responses" is to be expected with every new song.



Launched by organisers of the parade last week, the upbeat pop song was quickly slammed by netizens, who labelled it "childish and cheesy". Others have also questioned the need to have a new song every year.

"All of us will have our favourite, so I leave you to have your own favourite," said Dr Ng yesterday on the sidelines of the National Day Parade National Education Show 2, a preview of the parade for Primary 5 pupils.

He was on the parade grounds to meet participants and also stayed to watch the show with Education Minister Heng Swee Keat.

The parade's theme song has always been performed by local artists. But this time, organisers decided to let it be sung by a choir of 68 ordinary Singaporeans, in an effort to showcase their diversity.

When asked if a new song is needed every year, Dr Ng said that he would leave that to the NDP committee.

"The Minister of Defence mustn't try to crimp artistic style," said Dr Ng.

In response to queries, Dr Ng, who chairs the Haze Inter-Ministerial Committee, said that there are contingency plans in place should the haze come back.

"Let's just hope that we won't have a situation where we have to activate the contingency plans, but obviously the contingency plans are first and foremost to protect the health of the participants."

A total of 6,000 people are participating in this year's celebrations.

Dr Ng said that he was proud and impressed with the participants, in particular Muslims who are observing fast.

"It's really a wonderful spirit, and I think they do it because they love to be part of NDP and they just want to show their affection for their country," he said.


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Political satire used to be better

July 22, 2013, 6:00 am
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A recent dispute between the PAP and the Workers' Party over the cleaning of two hawker centres produced not only a 22-page dossier of the events, but also videos and cartoons parodying the ministers involved. Some in the public lapped it up, while others said it was in bad taste. Robin Chan speaks to a playwright and an expert in comic art.
The Straits Times, 20 Jul 2013



CHATROOM ELEANOR WONG

MS ELEANOR Wong, 51, is a National University of Singapore associate professor of law and a playwright.

Her works include the 2006 political satire The Campaign To Confer The Public Service Star On JBJ.
What does political satire mean to you?
As a writer, political satire is a form of comedy where we take on political issues but treat them with humour, often of a sarcastic or parodying nature.

And cultures are different. Some cultures are humourless, which often comes with an inability or lack of appreciation of saying things at many different levels. After all, good humour is quintessentially about "I don't actually say what I mean, but I say something one or two levels down, and I assume that my audience will understand the layers and allusions and be able to laugh at it".

Political satire will gain an audience in two or three types of societies. One, where the welcoming of political critique is very low, and therefore your critiquers resort to an indirect way, trusting an audience capable of catching the allusions and understanding what the piece is about.

A lot of political satire - think of Russian work, even Gulliver's Travels - all that is essentially writers and artists in a low tolerance of criticism environment, engaging in expression in an indirect sort of way.

At the other end, you may have an audience that is extremely erudite and capable of seeing many layers, who would be bored with just saying something directly because language is there to be used for allegory, analogy, etc.
So what to you is good political satire?
Good satire of any sort, whether it is about politics or about love or about rich people, what it counts on is a dynamic like this. So you want to criticise rapacious bankers. Well, you don't have to be so boring as to just say "bankers are evil people and they make money off you".

Instead, you write something that is satirical. Maybe you make your banker your hero, but everyone, underneath, is laughing at the guy because it is written so well that you know he is being poked fun at.

It is very sad when, in a way, the political landscape opens up so much that we are all sort of free to just rubbish things bluntly rather than pick the right analogy, the right language, the correct second or third or fourth layer and also give credit to your audience for being so tuned in that the existence of a certain colour on stage without anything else or an allusion to some ongoing spat will make them sit up and understand exactly what is being said without you ever having to say that. There's a joy in that!
The Government has historically not been tolerant of political satire. But with more political openness these days, is there room for political satire to flourish?
Political satire actually used to be better. It has become more blunt now.

With all credit to our new generation of leaders, I think they are more open to direct criticism.

People don't actually have to write something beautiful, interesting, indirect and so powerful that everyone who watches it knows exactly what he or she is saying.

You think of (late playwright) Kuo Pao Kun's earlier work. The deep, cutting, very sarcastic commentary embedded inside what looked like fables about a little girl looking for her cat or a man trying to bury his father.

And then you look, with all due respect, to some of the more recent pieces, where you kind of take words that were actually spoken and just get actors to re-speak them verbatim, with some slapstick thrown in. Arguably, that is already blunter satire.

So sadly, I posit that from an artistic perspective, precisely because the Government actually gets more open to criticism, perhaps we correspondingly also get more lazy about how to couch critique and less sophisticated in how we want our artistic commentary fed to us.

It would be sad to me if our audience in the artistic area come to want only more direct comedy.

Slapstick - let me put some politician's face there and throw a pie at it - to me, that does not equate to political satire and certainly does not come close to satire at its best.

I really hope we do not get to the point where the humour is so blunt that it is simply rubbishing people for the sake of it.

We are still at the place where we prefer our politicians to be treated in a civilised manner and to have our discussion on that plane.

Let us keep some things sacred because it is a slippery slope. When we become very cynical about our country or our institutions, we lose something.

Icons like the flag, the pledge and the national anthem, these represent our country, and when we desecrate them, we desecrate all of ourselves.




CHATROOM LIM CHENG TJU

There is a place for sense of humour

MR LIM Cheng Tju, 41, is an educator and editor of journals of comic art. His master's dissertation at the National University of Singapore was on the history of Chinese cartoons in Singapore.
After some ministers charged Workers' Party MPs with dishonesty in a hawker centre cleaning dispute, WP MP Chen Show Mao created a controversial cartoon showing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and two ministers as Snow White's dwarves off to clean. What did you make of that?
Strictly speaking, it is not a cartoon or caricature. It is more like a collage with photographs cut out and pasted on three cartoon figures. It evokes a chuckle but if you don't know the context, you won't get the humour. I don't think it is offensive, although I understand some people feel it is disrespectful. Maybe it is because we are in Asia.
So what in your view makes a good political cartoon or caricature?
There must be a point of view. It cannot be an illustration that just accompanies an article or story. The cartoon must be able to stand on its own, and offer its own opinion.
The Government has tended to take a stern line on political cartoons, especially caricatures. What is the history behind that?
Politics is serious business in Singapore. To caricature someone is seen to be making fun of them. Therefore, for a long time, local cartoons focused on social issues and policies but not the politicians. It is different from the West where being caricatured means you are an important enough public figure for the cartoonists and the readers to recognise and pay attention to.

The lack of caricatures in our political cartoons (with few exceptions) has been so since the 1960s, if you look at the cartoons that appeared in The Straits Times. But you have gentle caricatures in books like Morgan Chua's My Singapore, his book on the late Mrs Lee Kuan Yew and his illustrations for the abridged version of ex-president S R Nathan's memoirs.
Do you think political caricatures will ever have a place in our political discourse?
I would like to see more of it but my gut feel is that we will see more political satire in different forms such as songs and performances, not necessarily cartoons. In the past, cartoons were important in conveying messages and shaping opinions because the literacy level was low. A cartoon conveys a thousand words, so to speak. The Chinese call it yi zhen jian xue (going right to the heart of the matter).

But today, people read their political satire on social media or watch it on stage. You don't need to be an artist to draw political cartoons. You could be a poet, writer, playwright, film-maker or YouTube artist.

In the past, you spent a long time practising your craft, either drawing political cartoons or writing political satire before finding a platform in newspapers or magazines to share your views.

Today, individuals do it through Facebook, YouTube or Twitter, the quality varies and the amount of thought and effort put into it might be less.

People expect a quicker response on social media. Things become more "democratic"; everyone has an opinion they want to share or a political joke they want to tell. I think there is a place for political satire whether politics is "normalising" or not. I see having a sense of humour and not being too uptight about things as rather important for all of us.
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The tussle to define good politics

July 22, 2013, 6:11 am
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Singapore's competitive advantage is getting its politics right, the Prime Minister said at a recent forum, and that means politics which is clean and constructive and draws good men and women in to lead. But the opposition says the PAP does not live up to its own rhetoric. Rachel Chang explores the issue.
The Straits Times, 20 Jul 2013

IN THE past month, politicians on opposing sides of the House have advocated "good politics".

And a debate over what that means has come to the fore in a dispute between the People's Action Party (PAP) Government and the Workers' Party (WP) over payment for the cleaning of two hawker centres in Bedok.

Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan said that WP MPs had been untruthful about the situation, and challenged them to press defamation charges.

WP chief Low Thia Khiang said this was not good politics: "Personal attacks and asking people to sue."

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong swiftly countered this, arguing that "good politics is first and foremost about integrity".

The hawkers in Bedok were just the latest catalyst for this round of mutual exhortation to practise good politics.

In reality, the tussle over what constitutes "good politics" in Singapore has intensified as the country has moved towards greater political pluralism.

At the heart of it is the PAP Government's fear that a politicised Singapore would mean a divided and weak one, stripped of the elements that have made it successful for so long.

In early 2010, Prime Minister Lee said that "a weak government or a divisive national politics would be disastrous for Singapore".

But with the 2011 General Election delivering an unprecedented number of seats to the opposition and the two by-elections since then going the WP's way, can the PAP's version of "good politics" prevail against the electorate's desire for more diversity in parliament?

Or is it just a rallying cry for those yearning for the days of one-party dominance?

Three Cs

OVER five decades and three prime ministers, three "Cs" loom large when PAP leaders describe a good political system.

This is one that is clean, constructive and conducive to continuity - both of policies and of leadership.

At a forum with business leaders organised by DBS Asia two weeks ago, PM Lee was asked what was needed to ensure that Singapore remained successful.

What was needed was good leaders, he said, and to get good leaders, Singapore needed "good politics", politics that is "constructive, clean, where you're solving problems and not just slugging it out, fighting with one another".

The prospect of a politics mired in conflict, instead of focused on action and long-term policymaking, has often been invoked by PM Lee.

In 2006, during the first GE he called as Prime Minister, he said that if the opposition held 10 to 20 seats in Parliament, he would have to spend a lot more time engaged in political battles and focusing on "how can I solve this week's problem and forget about next year's challenges".

Later, he painted a picture of a Parliament where "we're going to spend a lot of time countering them, and they are going to spend all their energies frustrating the Government rather than helping the Government".

During dramatic parliamentary debates in the last few years over cuts to ministerial salary and the Population White Paper, the WP's eight MPs put forward proposals of their own and voted nay to policies, while an unusual amount of time was spent by ministers and PAP MPs countering their points.

This made a bigger difference to political theatre than to proceedings due to the PAP's overwhelming majority, say politicians like National Solidarity Party vice-president Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss.

"There are eight opposition MPs out of 87. It's no significant proportion, and it's a leap to think we are having a foretaste of the kind of politics you see in other countries. If a change is happening, we are Stage 1, or 0.1," she says.

But the WP's long-term goal is to win a third of the seats in Parliament as this would allow them to block constitutional change.

This intention to block government policy, warned Law and Foreign Minister K Shanmugam during the 2011 General Election, was a precursor of the gridlock and dysfunction of other "First World Parliaments", in a reference to the WP's election manifesto.

The United States - where almost all of the President's legislative agenda is blocked by partisan opponents in Congress - is an example of political bickering overriding national interest, note government leaders.

Political leaders who have to focus more on taking positions to get them elected and re-elected, could end up acting in politically expedient ways which are ultimately not in the longer-term interest of their voters, they add.

Decisions affecting the country's future get delayed, or kicked down the road, sometimes indefinitely. The mounting national debts in some Western countries, and inability to tackle this, are often cited as a cautionary tale.

But some observers say that this scenario is unrealistic in the context of Singapore's centralised, Westminster system.

Former Nominated MP Calvin Cheng points out that the Westminster system rules out the possibility of gridlock. By definition, the party that holds the parliamentary majority forms the executive branch of government, unlike in the US.

"We have one chamber, and it's impossible to have a stand-off because we have a fusion of powers, not a separation of powers," he notes.

"The worst-case scenario for us is a hung parliament like in Britain, and even then, once majority government is formed, legislation can be passed."

The WP's goal, said chairman Sylvia Lim during the GE, was not to create chaos or block the Government, but to stop the "mutilation of the Constitution".

The opposition party has consistently emphasised that it does not want to block policy but help in its refinement.

Even so, argues PAP MP Vikram Nair, the danger lies not in their ability to upset legislation.

Rather, it is in the way the presence of a sizeable opposition can influence the thinking and priorities of the elected government.

"If the WP one day has a third of the seats, the Government will not be sufficiently confident of its mandate beyond the immediate horizon," he says.

"So you start getting short-term policies. The Government must start to think more tactically, looking from one election to the next. That's the bigger problem."

Continuity crucial

THAT the PAP Government does not have to look "from one election to the next" in Singapore has often been cited as a key factor in the country's success.

This crucial element of continuity is central to the ruling party's philosophy of governance.

There is a degree of trade-off between a system of regular, free and fair elections and one where long-term policy planning is possible.

Singapore succeeded only because it was lucky enough to have a founding generation of politicians who, in Mr Shanmugam's words at a a student dialogue last week, "thought long-term but were also charismatic enough to win elections".

Continuity and stability in Singapore politics has two elements: The first is in policies that may hurt in the short term but pay off in the long term, and the second is in the induction of top talent into government via uncompetitive politics.

Veteran PAP MP Inderjit Singh cites former health minister Howe Yoon Chong and the issue of Central Provident Fund (CPF) retirement savings as a good illustration of these elements.

In 1984, the Health Ministry released a paper, which quickly became known as the "Howe Yoon Chong report", on raising the age of CPF money withdrawal from 55 to 60 years old.

It sparked a huge backlash, and the Government did not act on the recommendation, but a few years later, after Mr Howe had exited politics, it moved to raise the minimum sum required in CPF savings.

"You could not have done that if politics was more competitive," recalls Mr Singh. "And we lost a minister for it. Retirement savings would be in terrible shape now if we didn't do it."

Mr Howe himself was a good example of the sort of technocrat who, by personal admission, was not a natural politician. Yet when the PAP dominated, he was electable. This continuity of leadership - whether from top civil servant to minister or for future ministers to be groomed over several years - is also now under threat from more competitive politics.

The days when "introverted policy-wonk politicians who don't want to be involved in the cloak-and-dagger aspect of politics" populated the PAP slate are gone, said former NMP Mr Cheng.

Several PAP MPs and ministers have noted the growing reluctance among some individuals to enter the harsher political landscape of present day.

The unhappy state of electoral-cycle policies and a revolving door of ministers can be seen in countries from Japan to Spain.

However, this reasoning has met with scepticism in some quarters. "It's not either/or," said NSP's Ms Chong-Aruldoss. "The efficiency of a one-party system as opposed to the chaos of a pluralistic system is an unnecessarily dichotomous framing by the ruling party."

At the NUS forum attended by Mr Shanmugam, a student said the minister's views suggested that "a strident opposition or a critical press is a hindrance to long-term thinking".

Mr Shanmugam denied that this was so and noted that since World War II, both countries run as dictatorships and those with multi-party systems have failed as they largely "did not achieve the maximum potential for their people".

The exceptions, he said, were China, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore - and Singapore was "sui generis" simply for its luck to have a team of leaders that could win elections, but also think long term.

"Choose people who can deliver," he urged the students. "Please vote them in in a way that gives political stability."

But when he concluded that "I think our people are smart enough to make those choices", moderator Viswa Sadasivan, a former Nominated MP, responded:"If you think people are smart enough to make those choices, why do you think it is your task to tell people that?"

The WP's contrasting definition of continuity in politics is that there must be "insurance" against the Government becoming incompetent in the form of a viable opposition.

In this argument, good politics also leads to stability and continuity - not because one party continuously forms the government but because the country has the capacity to switch governments with minimal disruption.

The reason why this argument has proven attractive to some voters, says PAP MP Mr Singh, stems from the Government's "long-term thinking" taking too much precedence over short-term gain.

He points to various concerns that have been voiced in recent times, from high housing prices to strained public infrastructure, that have been caused by a rapid population expansion.

In a speech to top civil servants earlier this year, PM Lee acknowledged the need to address such concerns and frame policies with a eye on electoral cycles, telling them that "policies and programmes have to deliver not only practical results but also political dividends".

If not, the political leadership will be unable to "carry the ground", he said.

As politics becomes more competitive, the PAP leadership's definition of what it means to get Singapore's politics right may be increasingly contested.

But as the Prime Minister has made clear, the larger and more important battle is not that between political parties but the fight to keep politics above narrow, vested interests.

The ultimate goal must be to maintain support for the kind of politics that ensures sustainable benefits for Singaporeans across the board.




SHORT-TERM POLICIES

"If the WP one day has a third of the seats, the Government will not be sufficiently confident of its mandate beyond the immediate horizon, so you start getting short-term policies. The Government must start to think more tactically, looking from one election to the next. That's the bigger problem."
- PAP MP Vikram Nair



LONG-TERM GAIN

"You could not have raised the CPF minimum sum if politics was more competitive. And we lost a minister for it. Retirement savings would be in terrible shape now if we didn't do it. (But) while sometimes the short-term pain is worth it for long-term gain, people have been suffering for very long now."
- PAP MP Inderjit Singh



FEEDBACK PROCESS

"The short electoral cycles help us to adjust long-term planning to short-term needs and medium-term trends. Elections are a feedback process for the refinement of long-term planning. This is also an issue of political education, and in this respect, the vast majority of Singaporeans do think in the long term (especially for their children) and will not succumb to short-term gains and populist policies."
- NUS sociologist Daniel Goh



SMALL NUMBER

"There are eight opposition MPs out of 87. It's no significant proportion and it's a leap to think we are having a foretaste of the kind of politics you see in other countries. If a change is happening, we are at Stage 1, or 0.1."
- National Solidarity Party vice-president Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss



FUSION OF POWERS

"We have one chamber, and it's impossible to have a stand-off because we have a fusion of powers, not a separation of powers. The worst-case scenario for us is a hung parliament, like in the UK, and even then, once majority government is formed, legislation can be passed."
- Former Nominated MP Calvin Cheng
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Gloves off in PAP-WP punch-ups

July 22, 2013, 6:46 am
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More blows could come as both parties begin drawing up electoral battle plans
By Zuraidah Ibrahim, The Sunday Times, 21 Jul 2013

We are reaching the mid-point of the electoral cycle. For the main political parties, this means moving from post-2011 introspection to pre-2015/6 positioning. Seen in that light, the recent skirmishes between the ruling party and the Workers' Party (WP) are interesting for what they portend for the battle ahead.

The latest dust-up started with hyperlocal dissatisfaction with the WP-run town council's handling of hawker centre cleaning. The PAP spotted the opportunity to grow this seed into weeds of doubts about the opposition party's integrity. Two WP MPs made "false and untruthful statements" when they insisted no one in their town council had demanded extra payment for the cleaning of high areas at two Bedok hawker centres, charged the Government.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong himself stepped into the fray, urging WP chief Low Thia Khiang not to leave unresolved the "grave doubts" over the integrity of the two MPs, Ms Sylvia Lim and Mr Pritam Singh. He spelt out how he would have conducted matters if they had been his own troops. They would be investigated and if they were indeed found to be dishonest, they would have to resign, he said.

During the recent parliamentary exchange on the matter, Mr Low backed his MPs, saying that the confusion was over whether this was the full annual cleaning exercise or quarterly "spring cleaning", which did not include high areas. He told the House that he would try to find out how the quotation for the cleaning came about. However, the following day, he said he was doing nothing further as he was satisfied with the earlier investigations and explanations.

He also needled the Government for challenging the WP MPs to sue it for defamation if they felt so wronged by the accusations in Parliament. This was not "good politics", Mr Low said, quoting the PM's recent exhortations back at him.

This is not the first time that the WP has turned its back on a scrap. When the Aljunied town council's finances were debated in May, clear evidence was gathered to show that the WP did not go through a tender process when it appointed its managing agents, who happened to have close party ties. The WP has tacitly admitted that its town council is a political outfit, even as a public furore raged over PAP town councils' use of a party-owned company, AIM, to run its computer systems.

It was also accused by the Government of charging higher rates for its service and conservancy charges. It has denied this, but without giving clear evidence.

The PAP will be hoping that the WP's reluctance to be more forthcoming betrays a slipperiness that will damage its credibility. To the WP's supporters, the tactic of non-engagement is good politics: It is taking the high road and refusing to let the PAP set the agenda.

Mr Low has probably calculated that the reservoir of goodwill his party enjoys as an underdog is deep enough to sustain it through such attacks, even if some of the PAP's accusations are on target. It is still the David fighting the Goliath.

The WP may also be counting on the one-way barrage from the PAP backfiring on the ruling party. As the Government ups the ante and gets more stridently inquisitorial, more and more Singaporeans may be reminded of the People's Action Party's domineering, know-it-all reputation - an image it has been trying to live down.

Of course, there are limits to the WP's strategy. It may work when the question at the core of the debate does not catch fire. The current case centres on what one town council manager or government official may or may not have said to a group of hawkers - not something that immediately touches a nerve in most Singaporeans. If the issue were something larger, the WP may find Singaporeans much less satisfied with non- answers.

Furthermore, there are only so many times that the WP can get away with it. If Singaporeans detect a pattern, some will conclude that it is indeed less than honest.

Equally, there are risks for the PAP. Some have argued that the Prime Minister lost points by stepping into such a small debate. Yes, an integrity deficit among MPs would be a serious issue, but not everyone agrees that the dispute over hawker centre cleaning qualifies as the damning evidence the PAP presented it as.

The Government's handling of this case, in many ways, was a blast from the past. It is reminiscent of the accusations of dishonesty it made against WP's 2006 Aljunied candidate James Gomez, for example. Even PAP insiders eventually acknowledged that its overly strong reaction backfired.

Thus, such tactics won't win over its critics. But then the PAP has always argued that integrity is a non-negotiable: Upholding this virtue in Singapore politics is more important than short-term electoral advantage. As evidence, it can point to how it allowed its MP Michael Palmer to vacate his Punggol East seat despite the risk of losing it to the opposition - which is exactly what happened.

That is not to say that its attack on the WP is necessarily unwise as an electoral strategy. After all, as it heads towards the next general election, the PAP's top concern probably isn't voters who are already lost to the opposition. Its eyes would be elsewhere.

First, it needs to secure and galvanise its own base. There have been criticisms from among the party faithful that the PAP has allowed itself to be too much of a punching bag since the last general election. They want to see their leaders come out of the corner swinging, even if not every punch lands a knockout blow.

Second, the PAP needs to keep the WP busy and on the defensive. The WP already has its hands full trying to run a ginormous town council covering seven wards with no slackening of standards, while attempting to make an impact on national policymaking. Every disruption that the PAP can cause within the WP means less time for Mr Low and comrades to work the ground in neighbouring group representation constituencies and plot their next big push into PAP territory.

Third, as part of this same containment strategy, the PAP needs to plant enough doubt about up-and-coming WP leaders. It knows that Mr Low's cachet with the public is unimpeachable. Its best bet is to create a distinction in people's minds between Brand Low and Brand WP, so that his younger comrades do not benefit too easily from his political capital. This is why the Cabinet-approved script took pains to say that Mr Low was "honourable", even as it questioned the integrity of his fellow MPs.

After apologetically moving from Hougang to Aljunied to secure the opposition's first GRC, Mr Low cannot very well repeat the gambit to helm the WP's team for, say, East Coast GRC. If it wants to spread the Aljunied karma, it would have to dispatch one or two of its other Aljunied GRC MPs off into battle. Someone like Mr Singh is gaining in visibility and, by 2015/16, could be seen as ready to lead a new team elsewhere. The PAP will try to nip this trend in the bud.

The PAP may calculate that, to achieve this containment objective, it is prepared to engage in the old-style politics of attrition even if it means being seen as hard-knuckled. If this assessment is correct, we can expect to see more such exchanges in and out of Parliament, possibly more bruising ones, in the run-up to the next general election.


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Senior-friendly scheme extended to 7 more constituencies

July 23, 2013, 12:27 am
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By Salma Khalik, The Straits Times, 22 Jul 2013

SEVEN more constituencies have joined the City for All Ages scheme, which aims to make estates more liveable for elderly residents.

Chua Chu Kang was the first of the seven to receive $80,000 under the programme. It marked the occasion with a health screening yesterday for 200 residents, who paid just $2 each.

The other constituencies are Bukit Panjang, Hong Kah North, Queenstown, Siglap, Tampines Central and Tanglin-Cairnhill.

The programme was first set up in 2011, and there are plans to involve the whole country, said Minister of State for Health and Manpower Amy Khor, head of the City for All Ages project.

She had earlier announced that the scheme will be extended to another 10 constituencies this year. So, there is still money for three more to sign up.

But should more apply and they have good ideas for making their estates more elderly-friendly, "we will see how we can help them", Dr Khor said on the sidelines of the launch.

The project is being rolled out in phases so that the experiences of pioneering constituencies can help others. After the first phase, the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on Ageing produced a guidebook based on the experiences of Marine Parade, Whampoa, Bedok and Taman Jurong, which took part in the pilot scheme.

The latest seven constituencies to join them will share fundamentals such as health screenings and town audits to see what the elderly need. But they will also try new ideas such as seeing what seniors need in their homes beyond the grab bars, non-slip floors and ramps which the Housing Board already subsidises, said Dr Khor.

For instance, they are looking at whether lever handles on water taps may be easier for older residents to use, and if stools can help them get in and out of bed safely.

Chua Chu Kang will involve students to find out the needs of the elderly, and to promote healthy living. She said: "This will foster inter-generational bonding."

Health Minister Gan Kim Yong, an MP for the area, hopes to enlist around 200 youth ambassadors from neighbourhood schools to spread the message.

Speaking at the health fair at the Chua Chu Kang Community Club yesterday, he told residents: "We hope to make healthy living the norm across generations of Chua Chu Kang residents, and our community in the long run."

The focus is on prevention as well as getting the young involved, given that the proportion of elderly in the estate is below the national average.

Mr Gan, who also chairs the IMC on Ageing, said the Health Promotion Board (HPB) will reach out to all schools in the area to get them to promote health.

The HPB will work with food outlets in the constituency "to provide healthier food options". Twice a month, the $2 health screening will be made available to people aged 50 and above.

Mr Gan told the 600 people at yesterday's fair: "After screening, residents with chronic conditions will receive health counselling and advice on how to manage their conditions."

Nurses from Khoo Teck Puat Hospital will call the 68 people who discovered they had high blood pressure or cholesterol levels, or diabetes, yesterday to advise them on what to do.

Over the next three years, Mr Gan's target is to get at least 30 per cent of older residents in the constituency to go regularly for health screening.


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Getting to the core of S'porean identity

July 23, 2013, 12:42 am
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By Rachel Chang, The Straits Times, 22 Jul 2013

I KNOW that I am a Singaporean. But I do not know what a Singaporean is.

This is the paradox that faces citizens of this "accidental nation", wrote public intellectual Kishore Mahbubani in this newspaper last month.

Unlike old nations like France or China, Singaporeans are not ethnically homogeneous, and do not share a centuries-old history, language or culture, he noted.

Unlike new nations like the United States, Singaporeans find it difficult to identify core concepts that power the national narrative, in the way that words like "liberty" and "democracy" do for Americans.

Still, this young nation of immigrants is no collective of strangers.

As Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said earlier this year in Parliament, "Singapore" may be a relatively new concept, but a Singaporean can pick another out from a crowd in a foreign place.

"You don't have to wait for him to speak. You just look at him, see how he walks, his body language," he said.

But what are the markers of the Singaporean identity?

This question has grown more urgent in recent years, as a rapid influx of foreigners over the past six years has stirred resentment over public infrastructural strain, competition for jobs, and, at a deeper, primordial level, a fear that the national identity, however undefined, was being diluted.

This is no surprise, sociologists have pointed out, because studies have shown that a community's sense of belonging or identity tends to become stronger when under pressure or intimidation from other groups.

And so it has been in the past few years, as tension between locals and foreigners have manifested themselves in ways that were called xenophobic by some, and expressions of national pride by others.

In 2011, a mainland Chinese family who complained about the smell of the curry cooked by their Indian Singaporean neighbours sparked a backlash that morphed into a national "Cook a Pot of Curry" Day.

Last year, a trial by train operator SMRT to broadcast MRT station names in Mandarin, in addition to the usual English announcements, was met with outrage as some thought the move pandered to Chinese immigrants.

These - local food and a common language that binds disparate racial groups - are both central facets of the national identity.

But in hardening into barriers of entry, some saw a repudiation of another national trait: the openness to multiracialism and multi-culturalism.

At the start of this year, the Government released a controversial Population White Paper that projected the Singapore population to grow to a size of up to 6.9 million by 2030.

Of this, about 3.8 million were projected to be Singapore citizens, with the rest permanent residents and foreigners on work passes.

Citizens would be a mere 55 per cent of the total population, down from 62 per cent now.

In fact, if the abysmal total fertility rate of 1.2 does not improve, the group of born-and-bred Singaporeans will start to shrink in 2025.

It would take the naturalisation of 15,000 to 25,000 new citizens a year to even form that 55 per cent of 2030's projected population.

This would dilute the Singaporean core, argued Workers' Party chairman Sylvia Lim in the bruising parliamentary debate over the White Paper.

New citizens "see Singapore through a different lens, and can equally make a decision to leave if the circumstances change," she said.

The Singapore core must be made up of those who "grew up in and with Singapore", she added. If this group becomes a minority in 2030, the character of Singapore will be changed forever, she argued.

But the counter from ruling party politicians was equally vociferous. Many members of Singapore's founding generation of leaders were "new citizens", they argued, but this did not make them any less Singaporean.

They invoked former deputy prime minister S. Rajaratnam, who was born Ceylonese and ended up writing the words of the Singapore Pledge: "Being a Singaporean is not a matter of ancestry," he once said. "It is conviction and choice."

But can the Singapore identity evolve and expand while surviving intact?

Surveys show that while newcomers and natives share some common ideas of what goes into "Singaporean-ness", they also differ in some key ways.

In a 2010 survey of 2,000 citizens - half local-born, half foreign-born - the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) found that both groups ranked "respect for multiracial and religious practices" as a top marker of the Singaporean identity.

But they disagreed on the institution of National Service, considered a rite of passage by Singaporean men: 69 per cent of local-born citizens said that having a male child who has completed NS is an important characteristic of being "Singaporean"; only 43 per cent of foreign-born citizens agreed.

In 2011, the Ministry of Defence revealed that one-third of NS-liable 18-year-old permanent residents (PRs) chose not to fulfil their obligations and gave up their residency, noted Dr Leong Chan Hoong, the head researcher behind the IPS survey.

This is an enduring source of resentment for locals, he said, because they see NS as a symbol of citizenship.

Still, others believe that the work of strengthening national identity requires just patience and perspective.

The Singapore state has only five decades behind it, Acting Minister for Social and Family Development Chan Chun Sing noted last year.

In contrast, the US Declaration of Independence was written in 1776, while the Commonwealth of Australia Act, creating one entity from the Australian colonies, was passed in 1900.

Economic growth "buys time" for the Singapore identity to form and solidify, he argued.

Whether it includes a love of durian or the ability to speak Singlish, all that the national identity may need to thrive is a self-confidence that it exists.

"Cultural assurance," said Institute of Southeast Asian Studies visiting research fellow Asad Latif, is what countries like the US and Australia have that allows them to absorb immigrants without worry that the character of the country could change.

"They have a strong sense of themselves and so immigration is not a threat to identity," he said. "It does not touch the core of their being."

For Singaporeans then, the paradox of national identity may well be its kernel.

I may not know what a Singaporean is. But I know I am a Singaporean.




THE SINGAPORE PERSPECTIVE
Racial and religious harmony a hard-fought state of affairs
By Rachel Chang, The Straits Times, 22 Jul 2013

BUILDING a sense of national identity across heterogeneous racial groups has always been one of the foremost challenges for the Singapore nation-state.

At dark moments of the national history, racial tensions have threatened to split the country asunder, like 1969's racial riots that left four dead and 80 injured.

Over the past four decades, a combination of assimilation and legislation have prevented racial differences from stymying the formation of a national identity.

From independence in 1965, a central tenet of the fledgling state was that it would be a "Singaporean Singapore", with all four racial groups - Chinese, Malay, Indian and Eurasian - on equal footing.

Hence, there are four official languages in Singapore: English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil.

But in recognition of the Malays as the indigenous people of Singapore, Bahasa Melayu is Singapore's national language, and the language of the National Anthem.

The Housing Board's racial quotas prevented the formation of ethnic enclaves in public housing estates while presenting the opportunity for inter-racial socialising from a young age.

At the same time, strict laws in the Sedition Act make it a criminal offence "to promote feelings of ill will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Singapore".

Those arrested under the Act in recent years include a couple who mailed pamphlets denigrating Islam and teens making racist comments on an Internet forum.

Similarly, the Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act forbids religious leaders from "causing feelings of enmity, hatred, ill will or hostility between different religious groups".

Christian pastor Rony Tan was given a warning by the Internal Security Department in 2011 for making disparaging remarks about Buddhists and Taoists.

These strict laws have been criticised by some as creating an artificial sense of racial harmony.

Because the topic of race and religion has been made so taboo by legislation, honest conversation about enduring prejudices - and thus the possibility of real maturation into a post-racial society - is impossible, some say.

But the Singapore Government has defended its staunch legislation as necessary to ward off communal conflict.

Said former Home Affairs Minister S. Jayakumar in 2009: "I worry that an entire new generation which has never experienced communal conflict may believe that we have nothing to worry about, that our present religious harmony is a natural state of affairs and will never be under threat.

"I worry that people don't realise how fragile racial and religious harmony is. It is foolhardy to take these things for granted and become complacent."

Despite the progress over the past four decades, there are issues that many say remain obstacles in the way of a "Singaporean Singapore".

Some decry the practice of stating race on identity cards, while others point to the lack of Malays in top positions in the Singapore Armed Forces.

The Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) conducted a wide-ranging survey of 4,000 Singaporeans recently on attitudes towards race and religion. Preliminary findings show that an overwhelming majority agree that hiring should be race-blind and that it is good for Singapore to be made up of people from different racial groups.

But at the same time, most of the respondents do not have close friends of different races.

Presenting the findings at a speech earlier this year, IPS director Janadas Devan said that they indicated that "we haven't arrived at some multi-cultural nirvana".

"Singaporeans, it would seem, are ideologically committed to diversity. But they do not always live out that ideology in their everyday lives."


This is the 11th of 12 primers on various current affairs issues, which will be published in the run-up to The Straits Times-Ministry of Education National Current Affairs Quiz.

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$5m grant set up to help fund heritage projects

July 23, 2013, 1:19 am
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Aim is to get more to help tell the Singapore story: PM Lee
By Lydia Lim, The Straits Times, 22 Jul 2013

A $5 MILLION grant scheme to encourage Singaporeans to be active in creating heritage content was launched by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday.

Those with good ideas on how to capture and celebrate Singapore's shared heritage through exhibitions, publications, documentaries or mobile apps can apply for the Government to co-fund half their project's cost, up to a cap of $30,000 each time.

PM Lee said he hoped Singaporeans would take full advantage of the grant and lend their voices to telling the Singapore story.



Speaking at the launch of the Singapore HeritageFest, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, he said heritage is essential to peoples and nations.

"It anchors our sense of place and identity. It enables a nation to adapt and to progress as the world changes. It is the yin to the yang of material progress,"he said.

Even as he highlighted the work of the National Heritage Board (NHB) and the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth in promoting culture and the arts, he stressed that the Government does not own, or define, the Singaporean heritage.

"Our heritage is a collection of individual memories woven into a national story, something that belongs to every Singaporean, which each of us can contribute to and help preserve, individually and collectively," he said.

Parents and grandparents play a vital role, he said, "providing links to our past, passing down convictions, sentiments and values to your children and grandchildren".

The setting for his speech was the National Museum, which was a hive of activity yesterday afternoon as families and tourists alike took part in activities that celebrated games, music, clothes and buildings of old.



In its 10-year history, HeritageFest has evolved from a festival organised by NHB to one "by people from all streams of life, for Singaporeans", NHB chairman Ong Yew Huat said.

This year, 64 partners contributed. Some created heritage trails, while others shared personal possessions close to their heart, he said, "showing how much our heritage resonates with Singaporeans".

Attendance at the festival has doubled from 620,000 in 2004 to 1.3 million last year.

And heritage will become even more important as the country moves ahead, PM Lee said, "as it is clear from Our Singapore Conversation that Singaporeans value not only economic progress, but cultural development too".

Returning to a theme that he first spoke about in his National Day Rally last August, he said: "We want Singapore to be our home with heart and hope. Our home is not just where we live, but where we feel a sense of identity and belonging.

"Having a heart is not just caring for the less fortunate, but feeling at one with our fellow Singaporeans. Hope is not just individual success, but what the future holds for Singapore and the values we hold dear."

Even as they look back and celebrate the past, Singaporeans must also look forward and write new chapters in the Singapore story.

"That way, Singapore will continue to thrive, and offer a brighter future for our children and our children's children," he said.

This year's HeritageFest with the theme "Memories for Tomorrow" is on until Sunday, with events at 10 festival hubs.




Who can apply

THE Heritage Grant Scheme starts on Aug 1, and has $5 million to disburse over four years for two types of projects:

Heritage Participation Grant
- For individuals and groups to engage with and promote heritage.
- Grant quantum ranges from $1,000 to $30,000, or up to 50 per cent of realistic project expenditure, whichever is less (30 per cent for profit-making applicants). Total funding is capped at $50,000 per year per applicant. Applications are open six times a year.
Heritage Project Grant
- For projects with the potential to make a significant and lasting impact, and address gaps in the local heritage scene.
- Grant quantum is expected to be $30,000, or 50 per cent of realistic project expenditure, whichever is less (30 per cent for profit-making applicants).
Total funding is capped at $150,000 per year per applicant. Applications are open twice a year.





Singapore's hawkers celebrated in book
By Melody Zaccheus, The Straits Times, 22 Jul 2013

KNEADING and shaping dough is second nature to Madam Chua Chay Cheng. The 92-year-old hawker, after all, sold traditional Teochew snacks for more than 40 years.

After her husband, a cook, died in 1971, she became a hawker to support her eight children, who were between seven and 15 then.

Her story of resilience is celebrated by Mr Sinma DaShow, 39, in the last chapter of his book, Not For Sale: Singapore's Remaining Heritage Street Food Vendors, which focuses on 10 women hawkers. The book's launch is part of this year's Singapore HeritageFest.

Partially funded by the National Heritage Board, the book, which includes black-and-white photographs, took 21/2 years to produce. Co-authored by Singapore-based photographer Jim Orca, 39, it is being sold for $88 on website www.notforsale.sg

"There are tonnes of values that we can pick up from our older generation of hawkers, including perseverance and resourcefulness," said Mr DaShow, whose father was also a hawker.

Madam Chua has sold hundreds of thousands of delicacies such as ang ku kueh, soon kueh, rice kueh and yam kueh. She worked nine-hour shifts, seven days a week, and made little profit. Life, she said, was tough.

"But I had very young children to support, so it was necessary for me to work hard and put my heart into what I did to make ends meet," she said in Teochew.

She retired last year after a fall.

Three of her children who have been helping her at the family's Yan Seng Traditional Teochew Kueh stall in Tekka Centre will continue the business.

Mr DaShow said the duo embarked on the project because the "hawker scene is at its crossroads". He explained that many old-time hawkers are retiring and with few of their children willing to take over, there was an urgent need to document their stories.

The book starts on a sombre note, looking at hawkers without heirs. The subsequent two chapters feature interesting hawker characters, and narrate their encounters and romances. The fourth is a tribute to second-generation hawkers, while the final one features female "superhero" hawkers who have slogged in the trade for 40 years or more.

Mr DaShow, who is also the founder of local cooking school California Sushi Academy, said: "Each photo represents a lifetime of work, sacrifice and dedication to their trade. Their stories are part of Singapore's shared narrative, which many readers will be able to relate to."

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Boon Heng to be new Temasek chairman

July 25, 2013, 12:36 am
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Dhanabalan to retire at end July after 17 years at helm of investment firm
By Lee Su Shyan, The Straits Times, 23 Jul 2013

TEMASEK Holdings chairman S. Dhanabalan is retiring after 17 years at the helm of the investment firm and handing the reins to former Cabinet minister and labour union chief Lim Boon Heng.

Mr Lim will take over on Aug 1, in a move signalling a new chapter for Temasek after what has been a remarkable era of transformation.

Mr Dhanabalan's 17 years have included some tumultuous times for stock markets, including the terror attacks in September 2001, and the global financial crisis.

But Mr Dhanabalan, 75, will retire at a high point, with Temasek's portfolio valued at a record $215 billion as at March 31.



Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong thanked him warmly for his years of dedicated service in a personal letter yesterday.

He described Mr Dhanabalan as an exemplary chairman who provided strong leadership that helped Temasek distinguish itself as an active investor, a forward-looking institution and a trusted steward.

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said that Temasek has delivered good, long-term returns and praised Mr Dhanabalan's "intellect, humility and deep sense of integrity", while Temasek chief executive Ho Ching paid tribute to his "strong moral compass and wise counsel".

Mr Dhanabalan, who will serve as honorary adviser, told a briefing yesterday how he felt "satisfaction" in helping to transform Temasek into an internationally respected Singapore institution.

Post 2000, Temasek expanded into Asian growth markets, making its portfolio more diversified and resilient.

Another area was better governance and transparency. A Temasek charter laid out guiding principles for the firm and it began publishing the annual Temasek Review. The firm also issued bonds.

These moves improved Temasek's position as a professionally managed investment firm.

Mr Dhanabalan also made it clearer, that the responsibility of looking after the interests of the Temasek portfolio companies and their shareholders lay with their boards.

Yesterday, he warned of challenges ahead in an increasingly volatile world. "The challenge will be to establish over the next five, eight, 10 years in spite of the ups and downs, a steady trend of increase," he said.

On fluctuations in the investment portfolio, he said: "We cannot be affected in our job by what the market perception is. We have to focus on producing results."

Mr Dhanabalan highlighted his successor's ability and experience in the public and private sectors. Mr Lim's "strong connection with people on the ground.... his people orientation will be a great help in his new role", he added.

Mr Tharman said Mr Lim, 65, has a strong track record of leadership in various roles and is well- placed to lead Temasek in its next phase of development in a challenging global environment.

With the new chairman's appointment out of the way, the issue of CEO succession is bound to crop up again. This has been a perennial topic since one-time successor Charles Goodyear abruptly resigned in 2009.

Mr Dhanabalan, noting that one of his most important decisions as chairman was to bring Ms Ho into the management team in 2002, would only say: "The board is constantly looking at succession. At some point, the CEO will be succeeded; over the next three, five years, there will be changes."




Steadfast leader in the face of challenges
Retiring Temasek chairman driven by sense of purpose in 17-year career
By Robin Chan, The Straits Times, 23 Jul 2013

TEMASEK Holdings chairman S. Dhanabalan has had plenty of difficult decisions to make over his 17-year tenure but one of the most controversial came on May 20, 2002.

That was the day it was announced that Ms Ho Ching, the wife of then Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, would become the investment firm's next head.

A decade later, he still stands steadfastly by that decision.

As he spoke to the media yesterday to announce his retirement from Temasek at the end of the month, he began by stating that the appointment was "one of the most important decisions" he took as chairman.

While he had no clear idea as to what Temasek should be when he decided to bring her in, he knew that the company had to change, he said. And in Ms Ho, he found someone who had "the creative ideas, the courage to take the ball and run with it without specific directions". That decision has played a pivotal role in his time at Temasek, said colleagues and observers yesterday.

It gave Mr Dhanabalan a trusted and entrepreneurial chief executive who helped transform Temasek from a civil servant-run investment company focused on Singapore, to a truly international, professionally run and globally respected investor today.

Under his stewardship, the investment company's portfolio value tripled from $70 billion in 1997 to a record $215 billion as of March 31.

Having the right management team enabled the firm to diversify its investments to emerging Asia and beyond, improve its transparency for the investment community and the public by issuing an annual report on its financial performance, and build up its corporate governance model.

The decision to appoint Ms Ho also exemplified Mr Dhanabalan's toughness of mind, independent streak and strong sense of purpose.

A former colleague, who declined to be named, said: "He has given a huge amount of support to Ho Ching, who has been the driving force behind Temasek's strength. To achieve that, she really needed someone like Dhana to make that decision."

Mr Dhanabalan admits that, as in any investment house, Temasek has had successes and failures during his time, but said he was happy overall. When asked yesterday about the naysayers of Temasek throughout his tenure, he repeated his mantra: "Let the results speak for themselves... We cannot be affected in our job by what the market perception is."

Beyond his strong-mindedness and intellect, Mr Dhanabalan, a former Cabinet minister and chairman of DBS Bank and Singapore Airlines, led with a deep sense of morality and humility.

He once observed in private that everyone sits on the same type of chair at Temasek - a testament to the openness of culture that he instilled at the organisation.

He noted at the briefing yesterday: "I don't necessarily have to work through the CEO, I can contact anyone. I have lunches with senior staff, one on one, so I know what's happening."

United Overseas Bank chairman Hsieh Fu Hua, who was a Temasek director from 2010 until last year, described him as "a man who is, in the world of business and finance, a humane person".

"It is not about himself, for sure," he added.

Mr Dhanabalan revealed yesterday that he had ideally wanted to retire at 70. But just as he was called back from retirement from politics in 1992, after then Deputy Prime Minister Lee was diagnosed with cancer, he answered the pleas to stay on at Temasek until a suitable successor could be found.

Reflecting on finally retiring, one month before his 76th birthday, he expressed his emotions in his typical rational manner: "If I go away feeling completely happy, then there's something wrong. If I go away feeling tearfully sad, there's also something wrong."

A devout Christian, Mr Dhanabalan said he will now commit more time to his church, the Bukit Panjang Gospel Chapel, where he preaches occasionally.

He may even write a book for his two children, he said, joking that he will not be playing golf because he is poor at the game.

What is clear is that he will be busy with something that gives him the same sense of purpose that has accompanied him throughout his career.

He said: "I want to do things that, in my personal value system, are most significant.

"And being successful in the corporate world is not, in my value system, the most significant in life. So I don't want to, finally, when I have the time to do it, (find that) I'm too blind to see, too deaf to hear, too weak to move."




AN EXEMPLARY CHAIRMAN, MENTOR AND FRIEND

"You have been an exemplary chairman.

You instilled a forward-looking culture in Temasek, which has stood it in good stead in a rapidly changing world. Temasek has reviewed its charter to stay abreast of the evolving landscape, while upholding the core principles of its success: emphasising long-term, sustainable investments over short-term bets, developing talent, and imbuing in your officers a commitment to Singapore.

"On a personal note, I would like to thank you for your signal contributions to Singapore. For half a century, you have served with distinction in the public service, political office and now Temasek. Throughout your career, you upheld the highest standards of integrity and probity, and demonstrated commitment, thoughtfulness and resilience. You are an exemplar to your successors, and an inspiration to all Singaporeans."



"Dhana has been an inspirational leader and mentor to me and the rest of us in Temasek, as well as many in the various Temasek portfolio companies where he has either previously held leadership positions or offered his guidance as friend and mentor over many decades.

"Without Dhana's clear leadership and support for many of the ground-breaking initiatives, Temasek would not be what it is today. I wish him a well-earned retirement, after having served Singapore selflessly in so many ways over many years.

"At the same time, I take this opportunity, on behalf of the board and of our Temasek staff, to welcome Boon Heng as our fourth chairman. Boon Heng shares many common traits with Dhana, including a strong moral compass and a deep dedication to public service and public good. I am sure he will add to the tapestry of Temasek as we strive towards 2020 and beyond."
- Ms Ho Ching, Temasek executive director and CEO



"Under Mr Dhanabalan's leadership over the past two decades, Temasek has seen significant transformation. It has developed in its role as an active, value-oriented investor, and has delivered good, long-term returns.
"Having known and worked with Mr Dhanabalan for more than 20 years, I know his intellect, humility and deep sense of integrity will leave a permanent legacy at Temasek.

"I am confident that Mr Lim, who has had a strong track record of leadership in varied roles, will capably succeed Mr Dhanabalan in leading Temasek as it charts the course for its next phase of development in an evolving and challenging global environment."



Temasek is a key Singapore institution, and an Asia-focused investment house. It has a portfolio of strong companies and a remarkable team of global talent. The energy and the drive of the management and staff are very impressive. I am very honoured to have this opportunity to work with the board and management to take the company forward.
- Mr Lim Boon Heng




Lim Boon Heng 'an adaptable, fast learner'
By Robin Chan, The Straits Times, 23 Jul 2013

FORMER labour chief Lim Boon Heng may not have a background in finance but his private and public sector experience and the willingness to build a rapport with people make him an ideal chairman of Temasek Holdings.

That was the ringing endorsement made yesterday by outgoing chairman S. Dhanabalan, who added that Mr Lim's ability to adapt and learn quickly will stand him in good stead.

"He was in NOL (Neptune Orient Lines) before politics, plunged into the union movement, which he knew nothing about, and he was a success wherever he was," added Mr Dhanabalan, who retires on Aug 1.

"So adaptability, ability to learn, rapport with people under which you work, the way you see yourself as a general, leading the charge as part of the team working on strategies; I think he has all that in my view that is required to be a good chairman of Temasek."

Mr Dhanabalan, who brought Mr Lim onto the Temasek board last June, said that he was picked from "quite a long list of candidates" that even included foreigners. The decision was made unanimously by the board.

He also shot down suggestions that a new chairman signalled a change in direction, saying "no one person determines the shift".

"The chairman together with the board and management determine which direction to take. It is not determined by the whims of one person at the top," he said.

Observers agree that it is unlikely there will be major changes.

Singapore Management University associate professor of finance Annie Koh said the appointment of a new chairman now will "provide a long-term runway for Temasek" and also ensures there is sufficient time for the chairman to settle in before more succession changes are made.

CIMB economist Song Seng Wun said that Mr Lim will be joining a team that is already "very well-versed" in investing.

"Temasek is growing overseas, with offices in the United States and Europe, so it's about him holding the team together. His people skills from NTUC will be where his main strength lies, gelling the whole team together," he said.

Former NTUC president John de Payva pointed out that Mr Lim has experience in the business world, having sat on the board of Singapore Airlines, and led NTUC and its recent restructuring of its co-operatives.

Mr Lim, 65, started his career at shipping firm NOL as a naval architect before rising to be manager of corporate planning and liner services. He entered politics in 1980 and over the next 30 years served as labour chief and minister in the Prime Minister's Office, before he retired in 2011.

Mr Liang Eng Hwa, MP for Holland-Bukit Timah GRC and the deputy chairman of the Finance, Trade and Industry Government Parliamentary Committee, said of Mr Lim yesterday: "His wide ranging experience in business, government and the labour movement as well as his steady temperament will be of great value to Temasek."




Growing Temasek into a distinct and unique enterprise
Temasek Holdings announced on Monday that former minister Lim Boon Heng will take over as chairman on Aug 1 from Mr S. Dhanabalan, who is retiring after 17 years. Below are edited excerpts of a question and answer session between Mr Dhanabalan and reporters at the press conference.
The Straits Times, 24 Jul 2013
Mr Dhanabalan, what is your greatest satisfaction? What would you do differently if you had the opportunity?
When we started Temasek in 1974, basically we had just a few companies in which the Government had invested. And the idea at that time was that the Government should not be involved in management of businesses. The Government and the civil servants should focus on policy.

For many years, Temasek continued in that mode, looking after companies, making some small investments, but basically looking after companies that we have. It was only from 2002 onwards that Temasek began to really seek to invest outside Singapore.

First of all, we decided that we would focus on emerging Asia, because we could see rapid growth in Asia, China, India, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. And then, we began to look farther afield to other emerging markets like those in Latin America. Then we felt that if we were going to become an international investor, people should know who we are. We cannot continue to remain a mystery. And, therefore, we decided that we would come out with our financials on a group basis, what we call the Temasek Review.

We also issued bonds, which again required us to reveal much of our financials to the bondholders. So we became known among international investors because many of the investments we made were with co-investors. And co-investors needed to be comfortable with who they were dealing with and needed to know more about us. And that's one of the main reasons why we decided that we'll open our books, as it were, to the investment public.

Then we speeded up the governance model of Temasek. When Temasek was set up, the idea was that civil servants and the Government would not be involved in business. Therefore, investments were put in Temasek. But the process of the Government not being involved took time to develop.

And because of the early years of history, the first 15 years or so, of being very closely connected with the Government, key decisions were made in close consultation with the Government, including the appointment of chairman, appointment of directors, appointment of chief executive officer (CEO).

And in fact, before Ho Ching, all the CEOs were civil servants. So we have instilled that process of Temasek becoming more and more commercially driven, almost a private sector kind of enterprise.

And now, appointments within Temasek, as well as in Temasek portfolio companies, decisions on who is to be on the board, who should be the chairman, who should be the CEO, are all taken at the board level.

That's a major change and it makes us quite distinct and unique in the world of government- owned enterprises.

As with any private enterprise, if you do a major move, you will speak to your main shareholders - it happens in the private sector. So obviously, you know, we don't keep secrets from the Government. We keep them informed. But basically at the end of the day, the board, the management of Temasek are responsible for the performance of Temasek.

Similarly, in our relationship with our own companies, we leave it entirely to the board and management, we do not appoint our own people on the board. We do recommend people but the boards make the decision.

Another major development over the last 13 years has been the composition of the boards of these companies, where 25 per cent of the members of the boards of the Temasek portfolio companies are non-Singaporeans because all of our companies are now global companies - whether it's SingTel or SIA. They operate in the world and they need to get successful businessmen who understand different markets to be on their board and we had managed to persuade many people to come on the boards of our companies. Temasek itself has Swedish businessman Marcus Wallenberg and we'll be getting other non-Singaporeans to come on board.

The board of Temasek, including myself, have spent a lot of time meeting international business people both in Singapore, as well as during our travels. We have built up quite a good database of people who are successful, who have an interest in this part of the world, who are friendly to Singapore, who can form the pool from which we can draw directors for Temasek as well as for Temasek companies. This has taken a lot of effort but we have now a good database.
Mr Dhanabalan, you spoke much about satisfaction but there will always be the naysayers about Temasek, its work and the people who helm Temasek. What's your message to these naysayers?
Let the results speak for themselves. We are not in the exercise of publicly defending what we do. As an investment house, there will be ups and downs in the value of portfolio, we've had many crises to go through since we started and I personally have gone through many economic crises in my life as in business, in the civil service... So people may be naysayers, they may be critical, especially where there's a downturn and our portfolio value goes down, they say we’ve lost money. When the portfolio goes up, they say, oh, that's because market prices have gone up. So this is almost an exact quotation of what I read in the media.

We cannot be affected in our job by what the market perception is. At the end of the day, the performance must be the result.
Mr Dhanabalan, comparing the experience of Mr Lim Boon Heng and yourself: When you became Temasek chairman, you already had experience as chairman of DBS as well as Singapore Airlines, whereas Mr Lim does not have that experience. So what gives you the confidence that he has that business acumen, investment acumen that you yourself had when you took over as chairman?
No two chairmen can be the same, we all come from different backgrounds. So we have to see whether, first of all, the person is able to learn quickly, whether he has shown himself to be able to fit into new environments and Lim Boon Heng has shown that. He was in NOL (Neptune Orient Lines) before politics, plunged into the union movement which he knew nothing about and he made a very good, fantastic success wherever he was.

So adaptability, ability to learn, rapport with people under whom you work, the way you see yourself as a general leading the charge as part of the team working on strategies, working with that, I think he has all that in my view is required to be a good chairman of Temasek. His background is different, his only commercial background is NOL but in the unions, he was very much involved with businesses of unionists, FairPrice and so on. As you know, he put together the unions under a union group, a cooperative holding company. So he's got a wide variety of business interests and he's been keeping tabs on those business interests.

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'Same job, so same pay for older worker'

July 25, 2013, 12:51 am
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Companies say labour shortage and battle for talent behind wage decision
By Toh Yong Chuan, The Straits Times, 23 Jul 2013

THE shortage of workers and battle for talent are forcing Singapore companies to maintain or even raise the pay of their older workers.

Also, it is not right to cut the pay of workers when they turn 62 if they continue in the same job, the companies told The Straits Times yesterday following a report that the public sector lags behind the private sector in the way they pay these workers.

On Sunday, the NTUC said its survey of 118 unionised companies in the private sector shows eight in 10 did not cut the pay of of their workers when re-employing them at age 62.

In contrast, public servants, when re-hired, faced pay cuts of up to 30 per cent.

Using the findings, the NTUC has renewed its push for re-employment terms in the public sector to be reviewed.

When asked yesterday whether it would review the pay formula for these older workers, the Public Service Division said it "has been reviewing" re-employment guidelines and its review "took into account" private sector practices.

"We expect to release the outcome of our review soon," its spokesman added in a statement, without elaborating.

Meanwhile, all the 10 small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) interviewed were opposed to reducing the pay of older workers.

The president of the Security Association of Singapore, Mr T. Mogan, said it was "unthinkable" for security companies to even consider cutting the pay of guards: "We are still in need of them. It is not as if there is a long queue of young people wanting to join the sector."

For training consultancy Absolute Kinetics, reducing the salary of an older worker who continues to do the same work sends a wrong signal, said its executive chairman, Mr Fang Koh Look.

"It tells the worker the firm does not value his work," he said, adding, "if I cut the pay of an older, experienced worker today, he will wonder, 'Why should I continue to work for you tomorrow?'"

While the SMEs declined to comment on public sector practices, some suggested it review its practice of cutting the pay of these workers automatically.

Said Mr Frederick Wong, chief executive of M-Luck International which provides housekeepers for hotels: "What matters more is whether a worker can continue to meet the requirements of the job, not his age."

NTUC yesterday declined to give more details, such as the size of the companies it surveyed and the sector to which they belong.

But for Heng Li Eating House owner Lim Kuong Kwok, the size or sector does not matter. "It comes down to how we treat our older workers.

"They are Singaporeans who are trying to earn a living too, so how can we cut their pay just because they turn 62?" he said in Mandarin.




Public sector 'lags behind in pay for rehired staff'
NTUC uses poll results to push case for change in re-employment terms
By Pearl Lee, The Straits Times, 22 Jul 2013

THE public sector lags behind private companies when it comes to pay packages for older workers who are rehired, the labour movement said yesterday.

A survey of 118 firms conducted by the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) last year found that close to eight in 10 unionised companies in the private sector did not reduce the pay of their older workers when they were rehired at 62.

In contrast, public servants faced pay cuts of up to 30 per cent when they were re-employed at the age of 62.

NTUC deputy secretary-general Heng Chee How produced the survey results yesterday to strengthen the union's call for change in the public sector.

"When compared to the private sector, actually they (the private sector) are doing better in this regard," said Mr Heng, who is also Senior Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office. "(The findings are) our additional basis to ask that the formula that they are currently using to determine re-employment pay be reviewed in the light of the findings for the broad private sector."

Mr Heng was addressing an audience at the annual U Live Symposium organised by the labour movement.

It was previously reported that unlike the public sector, the private sector tends to see cuts of 10 per cent to 20 per cent. Not all private sector workers will suffer a pay reduction when they are rehired on reaching 62.

In the public sector, re-employed officers will have their salaries adjusted to the mid-point of the salary scale they are at, or 70 per cent of the last drawn salary, whichever is higher.

"From the labour movement side, we are not saying that you cannot adjust pay downwards, but what we are trying to say is... the default should be to consider the value of the job and the contribution of the person, rather than the formula," he said.

This is not the first time the NTUC has pushed for parity. Two years ago, unionists pointed out the difference in pay cuts between the public and private sectors - even before the law that raised the retirement age from 62 to 65 went into effect.

Mr Heng said NTUC had met the Public Service Division and had shared the survey findings with it.

One company that does not cut the wages of its workers when they hit re-employment age is KH Security Agency. It does not reduce wages based on age because its requirements for workers do not change.

"We value the experience of the older workers who have been in the company for a long time," said senior business development manager Gary Haris. "And we keep them for as long as they can be productively employed."

At the U Live Symposium, Mr Heng reiterated another push by the labour movement: Raising the age limit for re-employment from 65 to 67, to allow productive workers to continue working.

This will not be an overnight change, he said, pointing out that it took four years to raise the re-employment age from 62 to 65.

"The process of going from 65 to 67 will again require more learning on the ground, which is why I want the process of collecting data and learning and discussing to begin sooner rather than later," he said.
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Why annual value is relevant

July 25, 2013, 6:38 am
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Government Help Schemes

MR LIM Tong Wah suggested reviewing the practice of using the annual value of a person's home as a criterion in government subsidy and wealth-sharing schemes ("Flat size not an accurate reflection of income"; Forum Online, July 8).

We agree that government assistance should be targeted at those in greater need. This is why government assistance schemes, such as the Workfare Income Supplement and the GST Voucher, consider both a person's assessable income and the annual value of his home.

While this is not perfect, it provides us with a fair and objective basis to take a person's income and wealth into consideration.

Annual value is a relevant consideration, as among those who do not have income, citizens living in private condominiums, for instance, are generally better off than those living in smaller HDB flats.

For government assistance schemes, those living in five-room flats enjoy the same subsidy tier as those living in four-room flats.

Mr Lim shared the example of the cost of a mammogram at a polyclinic.

Government subsidies are provided to all polyclinic patients, which means they would need to pay only $50 for a mammogram. To encourage regular screening, the cost for women due for rescreening was further reduced through the sponsorship of the Khoo Teck Puat Foundation, a charitable organisation, with the level of sponsorship based on the annual value of their residences.

We recognise that there are those with unique circumstances who may not qualify for government assistance based on their home.

For those facing extenuating circumstances, the Government is prepared to exercise flexibility. They may also consider approaching the family service centre, citizens' consultative committee, community development council or social service office, which are better placed to assess their specific needs and provide the necessary help.

We thank Mr Lim for his feedback and assure him that the Government continually explores ways to refine the eligibility criteria of government subsidy and wealth-sharing schemes, so that help reaches those who need it most.

Lim Bee Khim (Ms)

Bey Mui Leng (Ms)




Flat size not an accurate reflection of income

I AGREE with Mr Munir Shah ("Maid grant: Review use of property annual value as gauge"; June 26).

There are many retirees who worked very hard during their younger days so that they can own their dream home and ensure that they have a roof over their heads when they are no longer working.

Many are surviving on their savings and avoided the need to ask the Government for financial assistance.

I hope the Government will relook the decades-old method of granting subsidies or sharing national wealth according to the property annual value or the type of HDB flat a person lives in.

Recently, my relative went for a mammogram at a polyclinic with her friend. Her friend paid $2 but my relative paid $25.

Both are under the Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS). The friend held an Orange card and my relative held a Blue card. Holders of Orange cards have a household income higher than that of those with Blue cards.

The irony is that the person with the higher household income enjoyed a higher subsidy than the person with a lower household income.

I asked the Health Promotion Board about this and was told that the reason was because we lived in a five-room HDB flat whereas the friend lived in a four-room HDB flat. This is despite the fact that we earn less compared to the friend.

Giving more to people earning more, and less to people earning less, is definitely not the right way to go.

Using HDB flat type as a criterion for subsidy assessment is outdated as people today have different expectations and lifestyles compared to the older generation. Owning a smaller flat does not equate to a lower income.

I hope the relevant ministries and authorities will review this wealth assessment system and give more to the people earning less.

Lim Tong Wah
ST Forum, 8 Jul 2013




Maid grant: Review use of property annual value as gauge

I WAS delighted when the Finance Minister announced during last year's Budget that there would be a Foreign Domestic Worker Grant for households with elderly or disabled members, to help them hire a maid.

I applied for the grant and was optimistic I would qualify as I am caring for my ailing 83-year-old mother.

I was pleased with the empathy shown by the staff of the Agency for Integrated Care, but was disappointed that my application was rejected on the grounds that the annual value of my landed property exceeded the ceiling of $13,000.

My semi-detached house was bought for just $125,000 in 1977. The fact that its annual value is now $38,400 is purely academic because as an owner-occupier, I do not earn any rental income.

Being a retiree, I live on my life savings, and support my elderly mother and four other members of my immediate family.

I hope the relevant authorities will show some compassion as I am sure there are other retirees in a similar situation.

Munir Shah
ST Forum, 26 Jun 2013
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One in 10 borrowers overstretched, warns MAS

July 25, 2013, 6:52 am
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Hike in rates and fall in property prices may pose risks to financial stability
By Yasmine Yahya, The Straits Times, 24 Jul 2013

HOUSEHOLDS here are borrowing more amid low interest rates and combined with soaring home prices, the mix poses "significant risks" to Singapore's financial stability, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has warned.

The central bank said 5 per cent to 10 per cent of borrowers here have likely taken on too much debt to buy a home. In other words, their total monthly debt repayments exceed 60 per cent of their income, said MAS managing director Ravi Menon yesterday.

This proportion of "at risk" borrowers could hit 10 per cent to 15 per cent if mortgage rates rise by 3 percentage points, he added.


While Singapore households as a whole have more cash and deposits than debt, individual households may not be in such good financial shape, Mr Menon said at the release of the MAS annual report. Households with lower income, less savings or longer loan periods may find it a strain to repay debts if interest rates rise.

"The combination of low interest rates, growing leverage, and surging property prices poses significant risks to financial stability," Mr Menon said.

"When interest rates rise and if property prices fall, any risks built up will materialise."

He added: "So when interest rates rise, long before any bank gets into trouble - and they won't - some households will."

Bank housing loans here have risen 18 per cent a year in the last three years, and home loans as a share of gross domestic product (GDP) have jumped from 35 per cent to 46 per cent in the period.

This has led Singapore's debt as a share of GDP to rise from 200 per cent to 270 per cent over the last three years, while resident debt to GDP has risen from 125 per cent to 155 per cent, Mr Menon said.

Economists have sounded similar alarms. Standard Chartered noted this month that Singapore households are among the most indebted in Asia relative to what they earn, while Moody's Investors Service recently downgraded its outlook for Singapore's banking system due to mounting debt.

Barclays economist Joey Chew pointed out that Singaporeans have one of the highest savings rates in the world. OCBC economist Selena Ling added that while debt is not a major problem now, the MAS wants to ensure that people do not assume interest rates will be low forever.

The MAS last month unveiled a new framework for home-buyers' loans, to ensure that a borrower's repayments on all his debt does not exceed 60 per cent of his gross monthly income. The move came as MAS wants banks to practise responsible lending. It had noted some "worrying practices" during bank inspections.

One couple with a total monthly income of $6,000 were granted a new home loan of $400,000 on top of their existing debt, as they had a savings deposit of $90,000. But their total monthly loan repayments came to more than 90 per cent of their income.

Some car buyers also borrowed almost the full car price, which is not prudent as cars are depreciating assets, Mr Menon said.

While the MAS is concerned about household debt, it is less worried about the local banks as they are financially strong and have healthy buffers against home price falls. The average housing loan-to-value ratio for banks is just under 50 per cent, he said.

A report yesterday by the National University of Singapore's Risk Management Institute said the probability of default for each of the local banks is now near lows not seen since early 2011.





Full-year inflation forecast lowered to 2-3%
By Alvin Foo, The Straits Times, 24 Jul 2013

CHEAPER cars and slowing accommodation cost prompted the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to lower its full-year inflation forecast, although June consumer prices still inched up.

It now forecasts that inflation will come in at 2 per cent to 3 per cent, down from the 3 per cent to 4 per cent it tipped previously.

"For the first time in three years, CPI (consumer price index) inflation has come down closer to historical trends and within MAS' comfort range," said managing director Ravi Menon at the release of the central bank's annual report yesterday.

But MAS kept its core inflation forecast at 1.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent. Mr Menon said the figure, which excludes private transport prices and accommodation costs, will show a moderate rise to about 2 per cent or slightly higher by the year end due to continuing tightness in the labour market.

Private sector economists agreed, saying that inflation is no longer a major threat, although they also cautioned about rising wages and rents.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch economist Chua Hak Bin said: "Inflation remains subdued and is no longer a major threat, despite some remaining concerns about rising wage costs."

Numbers out yesterday show that consumer prices rose 1.8 per cent last month over the same month last year. This is up from the 1.6 per cent recorded in May due to costlier petrol, which rose on the back of the recent pick-up in global oil prices.

Despite the slight rise, inflation still remains close to a three- year trough, with April's 1.5 per cent the lowest reading since February 2010.

Core inflation stayed at 1.7 per cent last month.

Overall inflation for the first six months of the year hit the bottom one-fifth income bracket the hardest. This group experienced a 3.1 per cent rise in prices, compared with 2.7 per cent for the richest one-fifth of households and 2.9 per cent for the remaining households, Singapore Department of Statistics data showed.

But excluding imputed rentals, which are not actual cash expenses, inflation for the poorest households would have been slightly lower than for other groups.

Imputed rentals are expected rents home owners have to pay if they are tenants of their own homes, and do not actually figure in home owners' cash spending.

Several economists lowered their full-year forecasts. OCBC economist Selena Ling said easing inflation comes as a relief for lower-income earners, noting that the inflation gap between the highest and lowest income groups has narrowed.

Mr Menon also said yesterday that the economy will "comfortably meet" the growth forecast of 1 per cent to 3 per cent this year, due to a gradual recovery in the global situation. He added that growth was estimated at 2 per cent in the first half and should pick up further in this half.

Mr Menon also noted that the asset management industry has reached a new peak, and that Singapore is now "clearly the insurance and reinsurance hub in a growing Asia".

He said: "The key drivers of future growth in our financial centre are showing good promise."

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