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DPM Heng demands that WP “cannot stay silent” and must “take action” in the wake of AHTC judgment

By
Jewel Stolarchuk
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Introducing a motion calling on Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) to require Workers’ Party (WP) politicians Low Thia Khiang and Sylvia Lim to “recuse themselves” from the town council’s financial matters, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat said that WP “cannot stay silent” and urged it to “take action” in an hour-long speech in Parliament today (5 Nov).

DPM Heng’s motion comes weeks after High Court Judge Kannan Ramesh said that Mr Low and Ms Lim had breached their fiduciary duties to AHTC and that the Aljunied GRC MPs are liable for damages, as he released his long-awaited judgment on the year-long AHTC lawsuit.

Noting that the judgment was released nearly four weeks ago, DPM Heng  – who is expected to succeed Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong as head of government following the next election – said:

“Close to four weeks have passed since the judgment was published. In all that time, the Workers’ Party have said nothing. 
“They have not apologised for the shortcomings that the Courts – and before the Courts, AGO (Auditor-General’s Office) and KPMG – have established. They have not accounted for their dishonesties and untruths.
“Nor have they have said whether they intend to put right the many wrongs that the Court has uncovered, and if so how.”

The motion DPM Heng put forth called on Parliament to affirm “the vital importance of MPs maintaining high standards of integrity and accountability” and require Mr Low and Ms Lim to recuse themselves from AHTC’s financial matters until the court case is concluded.

Asserting that “this is the least they can do,” DPM Heng said: “All that this House is asking, is for Ms Sylvia Lim and Mr Low Thia Khiang to recuse themselves from dealing with or having oversight over financial matters, until the court case is concluded.”

On his reasons for introducing the motion, DPM Heng explained that “integrity is of the utmost importance in elected officials” and that Singapore has only succeeded because of its culture of honesty and integrity in the public service. He said:

“Those who participate in politics must be honest, upright people who can be trusted to uphold the public interest, speak the truth even at a cost to themselves, and admit their mistakes when they have done wrong.
“They have to uphold these principles even when it is politically inconvenient to do so and we need to do this, whether you are a government or opposition MP, whether you represent a constituency in Parliament, or are an NCMP or NMP.”

Will DPM Heng’s parliamentary motion against Low Thia Khiang and Sylvia Lim backfire?

PM Lee’s warning that he will “fix” the opposition resurfaces as DPM Heng readies motion against WP MPs

Sneaker thief faces jail for stealing 122 pairs of shoes from outside condos

By
The Independent
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0
Photo: Black and white Alphabounce+ Run Adidias x Parley sneakers/Adidas x Parley website

Singapore—On Monday (Nov 4), Warren Vicente Canabe, a 41-year-old Filipino, was sentenced to 13 months and two weeks in jail for stealing shoes and other valuables from condo units along the Sengkang area.

In July 2019, Canabe went on a jog near La Fiesta Condominium, Sengkang  when he came up with the idea to steal the shoes that residents left on shoe racks outside their homes and apartment units.

Disguising himself with a baseball cap and sunglasses, he swiped the branded shoes from outside the apartment units. He went on a spree about three or four times a week.

Canabe intended to sell the stolen footwear on Carousell or bring them back home in the Philippines according to an initial report by Channel News Asia.

His loot included mostly sneakers from Nike, Adidas, Reebok, and Onitsuka Tiger along with two pairs of Timberland boots.

Read: GrabFood rider delivers food and ‘grabs’ some shoes for himself too

He also filched a kick-scooter and a S$2,505 MacBook Pro on 30 July. Canabe pulled the tablecloth towards the window and bagged the laptop.

Several victims filed police reports regarding the theft.

Police arrested Canabe on 31 Jul. Upon searching his home, they found 122 pairs of suspected stolen shoes which Canabe bagged during his month-long spree. Police also found a haversack that Canabe carried around when he surveyed the units and stole the footwear.

He pleaded guilty to 10 charges of stealing while another 20 charges were considered during sentencing. He could have been jailed for three years for each charge of theft along with a S$3,000 fine. Stealing the MacBook constitutes housebreaking for which he could have been jailed for 10 years.

This is not the first incident of shoe theft in condo and apartment units. In July 2019, two women were also caught red-handed trying to steal from a shoe rack outside an HDB flat in Teck Whye./TISG

2 ladies caught on CCTV stealing shoes at Tech Whye HDB

Josephine Teo: CPF Board looking at electronic nominations for CPF beneficiaries to prevent unclaimed funds

By
Anna Maria Romero
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YouTube screengrab/ Manpower Minister Josephine Teo in Parliament

Singapore—In Parliament on Monday, November 4, Manpower Minister Josephine Teo said that the CPF Board is looking at the possibility of electronically electing a CPF beneficiary.

This could be in place as early as next March.

It was reported on October 21 that the Insolvency and Public Trustee’s Office (PTO) is in possession of S$211 million, mostly made up of Central Provident Fund (CPF) monies.

The Straits Times (ST) reported that in 2018, S$63.2 million from the CPF monies that belong to 3,540 people who had not named their benefactors went to the PTO.

The ST was told by the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the Ministry of Law (MinLaw) that the total amount of unclaimed funds from the Government in the past six years reached S$240 million in unclaimed funds.

The majority of this amount belonged to people who had died without saying who was to receive their CPF funds. The other part, S$29 million, now in the possession of different agencies, is made up of tax refunds, levy bonds, and immigration deposits.

After the report came out, five Members of Parliament (MPs) asked for the processes by which unused CPF funds would be disbursed to those who could inherit them, according to a report from TODAY.

Ms Teo said that those who had died without nominating a beneficiary were usually under  under 45 years old and so having an electronic nomination system would make it easier for them to do so.

Answering a question from MP for Bishan-Toa Payoh Group Representation Constituency (GRC) Chong Kee Hiong, the Manpower Minister said,

“What we intend to do is to make this nomination process even easier for a younger person who is tech-savvy. Through a technology platform, perhaps if they made a nomination today or tomorrow, and they change their mind, (they will find that it) is not so difficult to do as well.”

Senior Minister of State for Law Edwin Tong explained that some of the unclaimed monies could not be disbursed as the CPF member had no beneficiary and their next-of-kin could not be found by the authorities.

He added that the PTO endeavours to reach possible relatives of deceased CPF members with no beneficiaries via letters, phone calls or home visits.

“The PTO continues to make efforts to locate legally entitled beneficiaries of unclaimed monies, including making house visits. We would like to encourage individuals who may be legally entitled to the monies to submit their application,” said Mr Tong adding that there is no time limit for making a claim.

Ms Teo also said that at times the hardest part was finding the next of kin. “The most difficult (issue) is where there is a next-of-kin, but we have difficulty tracing them. The correct thing to do is to make sure the monies are never forfeited. The person could be overseas, the next-of-kin may have lost touch with the deceased, or not even be aware that the person has passed away and that there are CPF monies to be distributed.”/ TISG

Read related: Unclaimed amount with no benefactors now more than S$200 million, mostly CPF monies

Unclaimed amount with no benefactors now more than S$200 million, mostly CPF monies

 

CPF’s Retirement Sum Scheme payout age now at 90 years

By
Anna Maria Romero
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Facebook screengrab/ CPF Board

Singapore— In Parliament on Monday, November 4, Josephine Teo, the country’s Manpower Minister, announced a change of payout rules starting from next year, when payouts will only be given until a member reaches the ages of 90, instead of 95.

Feedback from Central Provident Fund (CPF) members who found the payout duration until age 95 to be too long was the cause of this change.

The shortened duration means an increase in payout amounts for members, dependent on various factors such as their current ages, circumstances, present Retirement Account balance, and the payout amount they are already receiving, as well as withdrawals or top-ups from their Retirement Accounts.

The amended ruling concerning the change in payout rules is applicable to CPF members turning 65 years old from July 1 onwards.

CPF members who are older will have the new rules apply to them from January 1, 2020, onwards, but only if the adjusted amount is higher than the sum they are currently receiving.

A letter from the CPF Board will be sent out at the beginning of 2020 to all members receiving their payouts already, stating details on the changes to their CPF payouts.

The Manpower Minister added that for members born in 1954 and upwards, the changes to the rules do not apply.

The Ministry of Manpower and the CPF held a review of the payout rules together and came to the conclusion that a change was necessary, TODAY reports.

On October 7, MOM announced that it reviewed the scheme upon hearing from CPF members that they find the present payout duration to be too lengthy.

This Retirement Sum Scheme is meant to give members payouts every month for 20 years, or until the depletion of their Retirement Account balance.

In 2008 and 2016 respectively the Extra Interest and Additional Extra Interest component were added, should the payout duration need to be lengthened after 20 years, in order to reduce “the risk of members running out of savings in old age,” according to MOM.

Alternatively, the CPF Lifelong Income For the Elderly (Life), which began in 2009, can be the option for CPF members who wish to get their monthly payout until the end of their lives. Under the Retirement Sum Scheme, joining CPF Life is one option for members, who may apply to join it at any point from the time they begin their payout eligibility age until before they turn 80 years old.

According to MOM, due to the increase in life expectancy, there is now a higher risk that members will live longer than their payouts.

“In 2018, more than half of Singapore residents aged 65 were expected to live beyond age 85, and about one in five were expected to live past age 95,” MOM said.

With concerns over an aging society, CPF has been much in the news this year. In June, a policy brief from the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) showed how increasing the Central Provident Fund (CPF) contribution rates for older workers to put them at the same level of those of younger workers would be helpful in helping them save between S$31,000 and S$145,000 more by the time their retirement period comes around.

The brief from IPS said that, depending on the income bracket,  a 55-year-old employee would be able to put together this amount in savings in his or her Ordinary and Special accounts, if the total rate of contribution is raised to 37 percent until the employee reaches the age of 65.

At present, this CPF contribution rate of 37 percent is only given to employees until they are 55 years of age. As the worker grows older, the rate gets smaller. From the ages of 55 to 60, the rate goes down to 26 percent, and for those older than 65, the rate is 12.5 percent.

Increasing CPF contribution rates for older workers may also give them an incentive to stay as part of the workforce, and younger workers all end up with greater savings during their years of employment, said Damien Huang, IPS research associate, and senior research fellow Christopher Gee, in the policy brief./ TISG

Read related: MOM announces a review of payout rules for CPF’s Retirement Sum Scheme will be completed by year-end 

MOM announces review of payout rules for CPF’s Retirement Sum Scheme will be completed by year end

 

“There is nothing extra bad about a foreigner being rude to a Singaporean” – Calvin Cheng

By
Jewel Stolarchuk
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Photos: Calvin Cheng FB, YT screencaptures

Former Nominated Member of Parliament (Calvin Cheng) has asserted that “there is nothing extra bad about a foreigner being rude to a Singaporean” in a recent Facebook post that was published in the wake of the viral altercation between a condo resident and an elderly security guard.

A video that began trending on 25 Oct showed a condo resident verbally abusing a hapless security officer at the Eight Riversuites condominium with vulgarities after being told that guests visiting his condominium needed to pay parking fees.

Despite the security guard’s explanation that he was simply enforcing the rules, the condo resident continued to berate the worker. In his expletive-ridden rant, the man bragged to the security officer that he bought his condominium unit for S$1.5 million.

He exclaimed: “I buy your f****** property for S$1.5 million you know. This is 1.5 million you know” before adding, “We’re not staying in a HDB you know?”

Netizens subsequently identified the condo resident as Ramesh Erramalli, an India-born naturalised Singapore citizen who works at global financial services company JP Morgan in Singapore.

Outraged over his behaviour, tens of thousands of netizens blasted Ramesh for disrespecting the security guard and insulting the majority of Singaporeans who live in HDB flats. Ramesh has since apologised to the security guard in person.

Last Thursday (31 Oct), Mr Cheng shared his thoughts on the viral incident and took a divergent view from that which was expressed by the majority of netizens, who were calling on JP Morgan to sack Ramesh and lamenting the India-Singapore CECA which allows the free movement of professionals between the two nations.

Asserting that Ramesh’s rudeness has nothing to do with his nationality, Mr Cheng said that there is “nothing extra bad about a foreigner being rude to a Singaporean” and that he does not need to apologise to all Singaporeans for his behaviour.

Mr Cheng added that Ramesh’s behaviour does not warrant him losing his job and does not justify petitions calling on his employer to sack him. He further said that he did not think Ramesh was rude to HDB dwellers:

“A rude person is a rude person regardless of his nationality. It is irrelevant whether it is foreigner rude to a foreigner, a Singaporean rude to a foreigner, a foreigner rude to a Singaporean, or a Singaporean rude to a foreigner. It’s just as bad.
“There is nothing extra bad about a foreigner being rude to a Singaporean. Just because a foreigner is rude to a Singaporean doesn’t mean he has to apologise to all Singaporeans. Just the one he was rude to.
“In most cases, and especially this one, being rude is not a reason for a person to lose his jobs. It certainly isn’t a reason to start a petition to get rude person sacked. In fact, it is embarrassingly petty for those who started and signed the petition.
“Finally rudeness is not a crime. Doxxing and harassment are. The next time someone thinks it’s a good idea to CSI a rude person’s details, put it on internet, harass the person etc, he should remember that.
“Note : I don’t think he was rude to people living in HDBs. He was making the point that unlike in HDBs, most condos don’t require residents or their guests to pay. Which is true. If you feel insulted, I suggest it’s your problem. (And in case somebody thinks I am being rude to people in HDBs, I grew up in one, and still considering myself a HDB boy at heart)”

Mr Cheng was appointed to a two-and-a-half year term as NMP in 2009. While NMPs were supposed to reflect nonpartisan views, Mr Cheng was a member of the ruling party’s youth wing, Young PAP, when he was appointed NMP. He resigned from Young PAP after TODAY questioned his affiliation to the ruling party.

In 2012, Mr Cheng was appointed to the Media Literacy Council (MLC) under the Government’s Ministry of Communications and Information, which was created to “promote civility and responsibility on the Internet”.

During his time with the MLC, provocative comments he had made about killing the children of terrorists drew criticism from MLC chairman Tan Cheng Han. Mr Cheng apologised to the MLC after two police reports were made against him.

Other controversial opinions Mr Cheng has expressed include his support for the Population White Paper in 2015 and his more recent suggestion that Preeti and Subhas Nair should be jailed and caned for creating a controversial rap video about Chinese privilege.

Ex-NMP Calvin Cheng suggests that the authorities should “jail and cane” Preetipls and Subhas Nair

SMRT Feedback draws flak after claiming JP Morgan employee is just like other Singaporeans

Channel 5 actress agrees that controversial JP Morgan employee represents the rest of Singaporeans

Netizens outraged over replacement of security team at Eight Riversuites condo after spat involving JP Morgan staff

US executes gay man who said trial tainted by homophobia

By
AFP
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The US state of South Dakota on Monday executed an inmate who said that jurors at his trial were prejudiced against him because he was gay.

Charles Rhines, 63, was put to death by lethal injection soon after the Supreme Court rejected a last-ditch appeal by his lawyers claiming that his trial was tainted.

Rhines was sentenced to death in 1993 for killing an employee in a shop he was robbing in the rural state.

“It is very sad and profoundly unjust that the State of South Dakota today executed Charles Rhines, a gay man, without any court ever hearing the evidence of gay bias that infected the jury’s decision to sentence him to death,” his lawyer Shawn Nolan said.

According to a court filing on Rhines’ behalf, a juror who voted for the death penalty said that “we also knew that (Rhines) was a homosexual and thought that he shouldn’t be able to spend his life with men in prison.”

Another said that “there was lots of discussion of homosexuality” and “a lot of disgust,” according to the document.

“Anti-gay prejudice should never have any role in sentencing a man to death,” said Nolan.

Rhines’ case gained the backing of the powerful American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), whose senior attorney Ria Tabacco Mar cited Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts as saying “our law punishes people for what they do, not who they are.”

Last year, Rhines’ defense team appealed to the Supreme Court to take up the case and expand on a 2017 ruling that allowed it to examine secret jury deliberations in cases where there were strong grounds to suspect racial prejudice.

But the Supreme Court declined to do so, without giving a reason for the decision.

“Both racial prejudice and anti-gay prejudice have no place in the criminal justice system. Both undermine public confidence in the fairness of the system, particularly when jurors must decide between life imprisonment and death,” said Nolan.

The South Dakota attorney general’s office, however, said that the jury decided to impose the death penalty after hearing a recording of Rhines’ confession, and not because of his sexual orientation.

“The jurors have stated they were moved to a death sentence by the calloused and gruesome nature of the murder and, most of all, by Rhines’ bloodcurdling confession, in which he cackles while comparing (his victim’s) death spasms to a beheaded chicken running around a barnyard.”

© Agence France-Presse

Infectious Baby Shark tune creators earning millions

By
Lydia Koh
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0
Photo: Screengrab from YouTube

With 3.8 billion views on YouTube, the viral song Baby Shark is taking the world by storm.

During the World Series, the National used the song to help fuel the craze.

Tens of thousands of Washington National fans sang the song and clapped in unison as it was played during this year’s World Series.

A video of protestors in Lebanon singing Baby Shark to a frightened toddler went viral.

Late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel said the creator should be jailed for life for creating such an infectious tune.

The song about a family of sharks is so popular now that the Korean family that created it are earning millions.

Kim Min-seok is one of the co-founders of the closely held SmartStudy Co. which was formed in 2010.

Five years later, the children’s educational brand, Pinkfong released ‘Baby Shark’.

Thanks to the song, the family fortune, based on stakes held by Kim’s immediate relatives in those two companies are about $125 million.

The week the World Series began and with the local media reporting on the song’s surging popularity among U.S. baseball fans, the shares of Samsung Publishing soared 89 per cent.

Gerardo Parra, National’s outfielder used the song as his walk-up music, leading to crowd singalongs with shark-jaw gestures, scenes that echoed across TVs as the team broke out of an early season slump. They rode the wave all the way to the championship.

63-per cent of Samsung Publishing is owned by the Kim Family which in turn owns 21-per cent of SmartStudy.

Comparing it to four publicly traded peers, Kim directly owns a 23-per cent stake in the startup.

38-year-old Kim did not set out to write a hit song.

He co-founded SmartStudy to focus on the growing market for educational content for smartphones after working at gaming companies including Nexon and developing content for kids at Samsung Publishing.

The early days for the app-to-video maker’s day were tough but eventually grew faster as the Baby Shark video became a sensation, Seungkyu Lee, Chief Financial Officer said in a January interview.

The startup revenue jumped about 47-per cent to 40 billion won last year.

Baby Shark garnered 3.8 billion views on YouTube and it reached the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

There’s also a concert experience for children, Baby Shark Live!

Maids in Singaporean households no longer a luxury; dependence on FDWs projected to rise

By
Gemma Iso
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You Tube screen grab from the Singapore International Student Film Festival

In less than a decade, the number of foreign domestic workers (FDWs) in Singapore has spiked to approximately 27% — from about 201,000 in 2010 to 255,800 this year.

Today, every fifth Singaporean household has a maid. In 1990, the ratio was about one in 13, with about 50,000 maids then.

With increasing affluence, a prevalence of dual-income parents and a rapidly ageing population, Singapore families’ dependence on FDWs is set to increase even further.

For many Singaporeans, hiring a FDW is no longer a luxury. It is a necessity.

How many foreign domestic workers are there in Singapore?

As of 2011, there were 201,000 female domestic workers in Singapore on Work Permits as reported by the Ministry of Manpower. Today, there are 250,000 foreign domestic workers who contribute over US$8.2 billion (S$11.2 billion) to the Singapore economy. This was indicated in a study commissioned by the information services company Experian and Hong Kong charity Enrich.

Where do they come from? The majority, by far, are from Indonesia and the Philippines; smaller numbers come from Sri Lanka, Myanmar, India, Thailand,  and Bangladesh.

But why do women from these countries seek employment as domestic workers in Singapore? Most are trying to support their families. Their earnings go towards paying for the education of children, brothers and sisters, buying land, extending a family home or simply enabling a family to pay its bills. A few manage to save up money towards starting a small business when they return home.

Can Singaporeans do without maids?

Over the years, maids have become essential to the smooth running of many Singaporean households. They accompany children to school and fetch them, attend to their elderly charges  at the hospital and keep Singaporean homes clean, among their many roles. For Singaporeans who work irregular hours, the maids’ presence at home is an “added comfort.”

How did Singaporeans become so dependent on them?

Between the 1930s to 1960s, only expatriates and wealthy local employers were able to get live-in help in Singapore. This was the time of the legendary amahs, women who hail mostly from Guangdong province in China and have become distinct because of their plaited hair and “uniforms” comprised of white blouses and black pants.

Regarded as part of the family, they were figures of respect. Most families gave their amahs the leeway to discipline the children, allowing them to function as another “parent.”

But with Singapore’s fast industrialisation in the late 1960s, more and more Singaporean women got hired in factories and offices, which led to the need for paid domestic help to look after the home.

This development prompted the government to introduce the Foreign Domestic Servant Scheme in 1978, enabling women from adjacent countries, including the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand, to be employed as paid domestic help.

From a base of about 5,000 in the late 1970s, the number has grown and continues to rise until today.

Contributing to the rise is the increase in the labour force participation rate of married Singaporean women comprising of citizens and permanent residents from 14.7% in 1970 to 63.2% in 2018.

Unlike the much-loved amahs, maids today are treated by many families as an employee who resides with them in their homes.

The skills required of a maid are also higher today. Some are expected to help children with ever-demanding homework and to have the computer skills to assist them; care for the elderly, which has become more complex in terms of nursing skills; and run the home, which involves operating sophisticated appliances and being able to cook according to dietary demands.

Thus, the increasing demands that a domestic helper has to meet inside a Singaporean household make her an extremely necessary “personality” in the daily life of Singaporeans, regardless of whether these Singaporean employers are expatriates, wealthy people or just ordinary members of Singapore’s workforce. -/TISG

K Shanmugam on foreign influence, “Politics in Singapore should be for Singaporeans”

By
Anna Maria Romero
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Photo: YouTube screengrab, for illustration purposes only. POFMA, the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act is a Bill currently in Parliament. The Bill, tabled in Parliament on Apr 1, is aimed at tackling the spread of online fake news. A falsehood is of “public interest” if it has consequences on public health or finances or public safety or tranquility, Singapore's Law Minister K Shanmugam has said.

Singapore—Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam spoke up on the issue of foreign influence and the taking of money from outsiders in Parliament on Monday, November 4, saying, “We, in this House, should stand against that.”

Mr Shanmugam was answering a question from Nominated MP Walter Theseira, about  evaluating the risk of foreign influence.

The Straits Times (ST) reports that the Home Affairs and Law Minister said that Singaporeans should interact with foreigners in order to have a broader understanding of current events and to even have deeper relationships with them, whether in politics, academia or business.

But this does not include receiving funding from foreigners or allowing them to influence operations.

Professor Theseira had said that in evaluating the risk of foreign influence, a person’s behaviour and deeds should be looked at more, and “perhaps less at whether they, for example, receive foreign funding or employ foreigners in sensitive positions”.

He added, “if we are too quick to judge on these matters, we may deter Singaporeans from engaging in foreign exchanges, and that’s going to be very important for us as a globalised society”.

The Nominated MP asked this in the context of the concerns the Home Affairs and Law Minister had stated in October at a forum on Foreign Interference Tactics and Countermeasures, organised by the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

Mr Shanmugam answered, “Politics in Singapore should be for Singaporeans,” which is why political parties and Members of Parliament are forbidden from receiving donations from foreigners, as they represent Singaporeans.

He added that it is important to identify the risks, therefore.

“It is no answer to say, we should not prevent Singaporeans from engaging with international opinions.
There’s nothing to prevent politicians, political parties from engaging with foreign parties. But you cannot take money from them. So you need to identify what it is you’re speaking about.”
The Home Affairs and Law Minister emphasized that foreigners should not be allowed to influence the political processes in Singapore, and that foreign influence needs to be kept away from the country’s political environment.

“We have crafted a series of laws over the years, and I think Singaporeans accept that.”

Mr Shanmugam gave examples of unwelcome foreign interference, such as when Hank Hendrickson, an American diplomat, was removed from the country as he had been encouraging Singaporean lawyers to join opposition groups and challenge the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP), which happened in the 1980s.

The Home Affairs and Law Minister said, “We all meet with foreign diplomats, there’s nothing wrong with it. But when a foreign diplomat engages Singaporeans and encourages them to form a political (party) and run (for elections), that crosses well beyond what diplomats are entitled to do.”

Mr Shanmugam also cited examples of how foreigners have influenced Singaporean media as what happened with the Eastern Sun and Singapore Herald newspapers, which are no longer in operation.

The Eastern Sun, he said, “was an attempt by Communist China to capture and manipulate the local media, ultimately, to influence public opinion and create political situations favourable to their own interests.”

Regarding the Singapore Herald, Mr Shanmugam said, “Singapore’s intelligence agencies concluded that American intelligence had a significant role in these operations, and that this was foreign influence operation.”

When the Minister was later asked how the county can protect itself from foreign influences, he clarified that not all foreign influences needed to be avoided.

“We seek to deal with, for example, foreign influences that seek to disrupt our society, weaken our country and affect our foreign policy. This cannot come as a surprise. Every country seeks to protect itself.”/ TISG

Read related: Minister Shanmugam points out lessons Singapore can learn from HK protests

Minister Shanmugam points out lessons Singapore can learn from HK protests

Khaw Boon Wan: JB-S’pore RTS Link set to proceed, but suspension extended to April 2020

By
Anna Maria Romero
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0
YouTube screengrab/ gov.sg Minister Khaw Boon Wan on the High-Speed Rail bilateral agreement

Singapore—In an answer to a parliamentary question on November 4, Monday, Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan said that the suspension of the construction of the Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link project has been extended to April 30, 2020.

Mr Khaw’s announcement comes on the heels of Malaysia’s confirmation on October 31 that the RTS project would proceed, albeit with a cost cut of 36 percent.

The Transport Minister added that Malaysia has not yet shared with Singapore the details concerning their proposed changes to the original plan to construct the RTS link.

He said in a written response, “Without the details, Malaysia’s proposal is incomplete and Singapore is unable to make a thorough assessment of the technical and commercial feasibility of the proposal,” adding that Malaysia had asked for another six-month extension of the suspension period, to April 30 of next year, to which Singapore agreed.

“In the spirit of bilateral cooperation, Singapore agreed to Malaysia’s request to further extend the suspension period.”

The Transport Minister added, “Singapore welcomes Malaysia’s decision to proceed with the RTS Link Project. This is a mutually beneficial project for both countries. The RTS Link will significantly ease Causeway congestion, facilitate business and tourism, and bring our people closer together.

While we are not obliged to accept Malaysia’s proposed changes, we will continue to keep an open mind and assess them carefully and objectively.”

He also said that there are two other agreements that need to be signed, aside from the re-stated Bilateral Agreement, which are the Joint Venture Agreement between Singapore’s SMRT Corporation and Malaysia’s Prasarana Malaysia Berhad to constitute a joint venture Operating Company or “OpCo”, as well as a Concession Agreement for the Singapore and Malaysian Governments to appoint the OpCo as the RTS Link operator, Channel NewsAsia (CNA) reports.

“The discussions will take some time, and both sides are working hard on this,” Mr Khaw said.

An estimated 10,000 commuters per hour are expected to be served by the new RTS link, in a system similar to Light Rail Transit in Kuala Lumpur. 

On October 31, Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad confirmed in a press conference that the RTS Link would indeed be constructed. Work on the link would resume without further delay, he added, and that the link would be built with a cost cut of 36 percent, “from RM4.93 billion to RM3.16 billion.”

The link was originally planned in order to reduce the heavy traffic on the Johor Causeway and connect Singapore to the Southern Economic Corridor Iskandar Malaysia.

The agreement to build the link had been signed between the Government of Singapore and the administration of then Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak, who lost his bid for re-election in the May 2018 elections.

The project was put on hold when Dr Mahathir began his term, as his administration evaluated the currents and their corresponding costs.

For a time, there was uncertainty whether the project would continue or not, since in May the two countries agreeing to suspend works on the link until September 30. And in September, another month was added to the suspension with no extra costs.

But Dr Mahathir had already confirmed earlier in the month that his government would push through with the project, when the Malaysian Government launched its National Transport Policy in Kuala Lumpur on October 17.

Even earlier,  Lim Guan Eng, Malaysia’s Finance Minister, also said that the Government “intends to proceed” with the link when he tabled the national budget for next year./ TISG

Read related: MOT: Malaysia’s decision to proceed with JB-S’pore RTS ‘welcome’

MOT: Malaysia’s decision to proceed with JB-S’pore RTS ‘welcome’

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