the daily Brief

65% spike in Internet love scam cases hot news • 3

Special-needs artists to auction artworks for charity singapore | news • 12

todayonline.com we set you thinking

saturday, 11 feBruary 2017 M C I (P) 026/06/2016

TAN WEIZHEN AND VALERIE KOH tanweizhen@mediacorp.com.sgvaleriekohsf@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE — The Committee on the Fu-ture Economy’s report — released on Thursday — marks the third time in less than two decades where Singa-pore had assembled some of its bright-est economic and business minds to come up with the way forward.

Each time, the Republic had to face a very different set of circumstances and challenges, noted Singapore Man-agement University President Arnoud

De Meyer, who sat on the Econom-ic Review Committee (ERC)

which was set up in 2001. He recalled that back at

the start of the millenni-um, Singapore’s economy was rather lopsided and it

was relatively easy to come up with new growth drivers,

such as medical tourism, the Inte-grated Resorts and the global school-house initiative.

Today, however, Singapore has a mature and diverse economy which “does not have that many examples that it can look toward for inspiration”, Prof De Meyer said. “Thus I expect it to be more difficult to come up with a new silver bullet,” he added.

Several observers have pointed out the lack of meticulous details in the CFE’s report, unlike its predecessors’ work. But several experts felt that this was a sign of the times: It is no long-er possible to prescribe a series of

CFE’s focus on strategy, not schemes, a sign of the times

CONTINuED ON pAgE 7

THE

READBIG

CHINGAY CELEBRATION KICKS OFF performers from the opening item ‘Crescent and Stars’ at this year’s Chingay main parade, held at the F1 pit building yesterday. This year’s parade involves 2,500 performers, comprising local and international acts. Chingay, which is Asia’s largest street performance and float parade, will be held again this evening at the same venue. Tomorrow, it will head to Chinatown for the first time. pHOTO: NuRIA LINg

US will stick to One China policy, Trump tells Xi

WA SHINGTON — President Donald Trump has told Chinese President Xi Jinping that he will respect the One China policy, a move that will ease ten-sions between the world powers.

“The two leaders discussed nu-merous topics and President Trump

agreed, at the request of President Xi, to honour our One China policy,” the White House said in a statement re-leased late on Thursday night (US lo-cal time), adding that the two leaders had “extended invitations to meet in their respective countries”. The phone

call was said to be “extremely cordial”.The statement, issued after

Mr Trump’s his first conversation with Mr Xi since entering the Oval Office, appeared to be an apparent U-turn by the White House. It was seen

CONTINuED ON pAgE 5

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Inspiration: the fund will be like a gift to the beneficiaries

Shrunk down for perspective.

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Chutney Mary outlet at T2 suspended for selling ‘unclean’ food singapore | news • 10

PEDRA BRANCA: HAGUE COURT RELEASES DETAILS OF ‘NEW FACTS’ hot news • 2

hot news2

today • Saturday 11 February 2017

Challenge originates from three documents recently found in UK’s national archive

Hague court reveals Malaysia’s ‘new facts’ on Pedra Branca

SINGAPORE — The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has released the full text of Malaysia’s application to chal-lenge a 2008 judgment to award sover-eignty of Pedra Branca to Singapore, shedding new light on Putrajaya’s le-gal arguments.

Malaysia filed the application with The Hague-based ICJ on Feb 2, citing “new facts” discovered in recently de-classified British documents which it said would have had resulted in a “dif-ferent conclusion” by the court.

The “new facts” originate from

Malaysia claims that the new documents establish that ‘officials at the highest levels in the British colonial and Singapore administration appreciated that Pedra Branca did not form part of Singapore’s sovereign territory’ during the relevant period. Photo: ReuteRs

three documents recently discovered in the United Kingdom’s national ar-chive — internal correspondence of the Singapore colonial authorities in 1958, an incident report filed in 1958 by a British naval officer and an an-notated map of naval operations from the 1960s.

“The documents indicate that in the critical years following the 1953 correspondence … Singapore officials at the highest levels did not consider that Singapore had acquired sover-eignty over Pedra Branca from Johor,” said Malaysia in its filing.

The 1953 correspondence refers to a letter from Johor’s Acting State Secretary to Singapore’s Colonial Sec-retary which stated “the Johor gov-ernment does not claim ownership of

Pedra Branca”. It was a key considera-tion in the 2008 ruling.

Malaysia’s application to the ICJ challenged the significance of the 1953 letter. “(The) weight that the Court accorded to the 1953 correspondence cast this correspondence as the prism through which the subsequent develop-ments were seen,” its application said.

“The recently discovered 1958 docu-mentation goes directly to the reliabil-ity of this vantage point, calling into question not only the controlling char-acter that was attributed to the 1953 correspondence but also the evaluation of the practice subsequent thereto.”

Malaysia claims the new docu-ments establish the new fact that “offi-cials at the highest levels in the British colonial and Singaporean administra-tion appreciated that Pedra Branca/Pulau Batu Puteh did not form part of Singapore’s sovereign territory” dur-ing the relevant period.

“It is Malaysia’s contention, in-formed by a close reading of the judg-ment in 2008 and its accompanying opinions, that the court would have been bound to reach a different con-clusion on the question of sovereignty over Pedra Branca had it been aware of this new evidence.”

Malaysia said in its application

that it discovered these documents between Aug 4 last year and Jan 30 this year.

Article 61 of the Statute of the Court provides that an application for revision of an ICJ judgment may be made only when it is “based upon the discovery of some fact of such a nature as to be a decisive factor, which fact was, when the judgment was given, unknown to the Court and also to the party claiming revision, always pro-vided that such ignorance was not due to negligence”.

The request for revision must be submitted within six months of the discovery of the new fact and not lat-er than 10 years from the date of the judgment.

Singapore has said it is “studying Malaysia’s application and documen-tation closely”, and has formed a legal team to respond to Malaysia’s chal-lenge.

The row over the ownership of Pe-dra Branca dates back to 1979, when Malaysia published a map indicating the island to be within the country’s ter-ritorial waters. Singapore lodged a for-mal protest with Malaysia in early 1980.

It took more than 20 years for the dispute to be brought before the ICJ in July 2003. In May 2008, after sev-eral rounds of written pleadings and public hearings, the court ruled Pedra Branca to be Singaporean territory.

The ICJ had found that Singapore investigated shipwrecks within Pedra Branca’s territorial waters and grant-ed or did not grant permission to Ma-laysian officials to survey the waters surrounding the island. The ICJ noted too that Malaysia did not react to the flying of the Singapore ensign on the island and Singapore’s installation of military equipment on the island.

The ICJ had also judged that sov-ereignty over the Middle Rocks, a maritime feature to the south of Pe-dra Branca, belonged to Malaysia. But the court refrained from award-ing South Ledge, also to the south of Pedra Branca, to either Malaysia or Singapore.

Commenting on the timing of the filing amid signs that Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak may call for a general election this year, Profes-sor James Chin, director of the Asia Institute at the University of Tasma-nia said “he (Mr Najib) will milk it for political mileage”.

“But until we see the new docu-ments, we don’t really know.”

Dr Oh Ei Sun, an adjunct senior fel-low at the S Rajaratnam School of In-ternational Studies, added: “What is remarkable in this case is that both countries take this matter very pro-fessionally and strictly in accordance with the proper procedure of interna-tional law, with hardly a hint of public spat or shouting match.”

the ‘new FactS’

Confidential telegram in 1958 from the Governor of Singapore to the British Secretary of State for the Colonies in London which proposed the establishment of an international high seas corridor one mile from Pedra Branca. “If he had understood, or otherwise been advised, that Pedra Branca/Pulau Batu Puteh was under Singaporean sovereignty, there would not have been a need for him to advocate the provision of an international passage so near to the island,” Malaysia’s filing said.

A naval incident report from 1958 citing the British navy’s inability to assist a Malaysian vessel being followed by an Indonesian gunboat near Pedra Branca as it “was still inside Johor territorial waters”. This showed that the British authorities “did not view the waters around Pedra Branca/Pulau Batu Puteh as belonging to Singapore”, Malaysia claims.

A map dated 1962 but with markings dated February 1966 that the Malaysian filing said showed Singapore’s territorial waters “do not extend to the vicinity of Pedra Branca/ Pulau Batu Puteh”.

hot news today • Saturday 11 February 20173

New scam involving the impersonation of Chinese officials cheated victims of S$23m

Crime rates dip, but love scams see 65% spike

ALFRED CHUAalfredchuam@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE — The Republic’s general crime rate fell last year, but online Romeos continued to net windfalls by duping people, with the number of cases rising 65 per cent to 636, involv-ing a total of S$24 million.

And a new scam that only emerged last year — scammers pretending to be Chinese officials demanding pay-ment — saw close to 500 people falling prey to them, netting the scammers S$23 million.

These details were shared yester-day at the police’s annual crime brief for last year.

Overall crime in the Republic de-creased by 2.6 per cent, from 33,839 cases in 2015 to 32,964 last year.

But while commercial crimes dipped 0.6 per cent last year, online

WOmAN ScAmmEd by fAkE ONlINE ROmEO

After befriending a man who appeared to be a Caucasian on Facebook and spending time communicating with him, Jenny (not her real name), who is in her 50s, fell head over heels with the person, who went by the name “J Carl”.

So enamoured was Jenny with J Carl that when he poured out his woes of financial hardship to her, she sold shares — to the tune of S$40,200 — to help him. By August last year, Jenny’s older sister Mary (also not her real name) caught wind of the virtual relationship. Jenny had also told Mary, 60, that J Carl would be visiting her in Singapore, but that meeting did not come to fruition.

Mary grew suspicious after learning that her sister was instructed to remit money to various Malaysian bank accounts, all of which belonged to strangers.

Her warnings fell on deaf ears because Jenny was smitten by her online lover. It took much persuasion from Mary before Jenny sought help from the police, and came to terms that she had been cheated.

Jenny’s case is among the rising number of Internet love scams the police flagged as a concern yesterday at their annual crime brief for 2016. The number of such cases reported shot up from 385 in 2015 to 636 last year, and involved S$24 million, twice the amount from the year before.

To prevent Internet love scams, the police advised the public to exercise caution when one makes friends online, and not to send money to those they are not familiar with.

“Be in control of your emotions and meet all requests for money with a cool head, knowing that it may be a scam,” the police said. Those in doubt should also call the police’s anti-scam helpline at 1800 722 6688. AlfREd cHUA

love scams continued to proliferate. The sum swindled also doubled from that of the previous year.

Speaking during the media brief-ing yesterday, Commercial Affairs De-partment (CAD) director David Chew said the large sums of money involved were a concern. He also pointed out that the scams also often involve per-petrators who are overseas, and said busting such scams would require co-operation with the department’s for-eign counterparts.

The Chinese officials impersona-tion scam was a new development last year, with no such case reported in 2015. Such scams see the perpetra-tor pose as a Chinese official who call victims claiming that they are wanted by the authorities for illegal activities. The victims were asked to remit mon-ey to “clear their name”.

The police said the number of cases spiked between March and July, but has been tapering off. Nonetheless, the large amounts cheated also made it a cause for concern.

As such, the police will be “upping our game” in the fight against online

crime, said Mr Chew, such as by us-ing computer forensics to investigate the crimes. “We are also gearing up on training up our investigators (in the land division), as well as in the CAD to look at the various typologies of crime,” he said.

Commenting on online love scams, Mr Chew said one reason scammers have been successful is because “(scams like these) bank on human trust”. While the police educate the

public about such scams, the public must be vigilant when interacting with strangers online.

Elsewhere, e-commerce cheating cases, as well as credit-for-sex cas-es saw decreases of 5.9 per cent and 33.8 per cent, respectively. The sharp drop in the latter category was attrib-uted by the police to good interna-tional cooperation with overseas law agencies, as well as increased engage-ment efforts with convenience stores to train counter staff to spot victims of scams.

Two major operations busted a criminal syndicate in China last year, where the Chinese police detained at least 140 suspects in connection with these scams, the police noted.

Separately, the police noted that three crime types — violent/serious property crimes, housebreaking and related crimes, as well as theft and re-lated crimes — had fallen to 30-year lows, with decreases of 17.1 per cent, 16.2 per cent, and 9.5 per cent, respectively.

Unlicensed money lending harass-ment also fell to a 10-year low at 3,375 cases last year, compared with 18,000 such cases in 2009.

Deputy Commissioner of the Police (Investigations and Intelligence) Tan Chye Hee said that the dip in these crime types showed “a very encour-aging set of public safety outcomes”.

Nonetheless, the police “will press on with our multi-pronged approach of tough enforcement action, communi-ty partnerships, public education and leveraging technology in our continu-ous fight against crime”, he added.

ScamS oF concerncHEAtING INvOlvING E-cOmmERcE

vIOlENt/SERIOUS PROPERty cRImES

HOUSEbREAkING ANd RElAtEd cRImES

tHEft ANd RElAtEd cRImES

cOmmERcIAl cRImES

cRImES AGAINSt PERSONS

mIScEllANEOUS cRImES

INtERNEt lOvE ScAm

cHINA OffIcIAlS ImPERSONAtION ScAm

2015

2015

2015

2015

2015

2015

2015

2015

2016

2015

2015

$1.5 mIllION cHEAtEd

overall crime 2.6%

17.1%

16.2%

9.5%

0.6%

5.7%

10.6%

$24 mIllION cHEAtEd

$23 mIllION cHEAtEd

2016

2016

2016

2016

2016

2016

2016

2016

2016

2,239

299

340

15,615

8,426

4,139

5,020

385

0

2,105

248

285

14,127

8,379

4,374

5,551

33,839

32,964

636

487SOURCE: SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE

2016 crime StatiSticS in Singapore

hot news today • Saturday 11 February 20174

Police camera footage helped solve over 1,600 casesALFRED CHUAalfredchuam@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE — More than 1,600 cases were solved last year with the help of footage from police cameras across the island, said the police yesterday as they gave details about the expan-sion of the programme.

From now until 2019, cameras will be installed at about 2,500 locations, while the police are also testing new capabilities, such as video analytics, to boost their crime-fighting capabilities. Video analytics can, for instance, rec-ognise and detect certain behaviours caught on camera, such as fights, said deputy director of the police’s opera-tions department Assistant Commis-sioner of Police Jarrod Pereira.

The expansion of the police cam-era plan — dubbed PolCam 2.0 — was

announced by Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam during the Police Workplan Seminar in April last year. Under the plan, more than 11,000 sur-veillance cameras will be installed in public areas such as neighbourhood centres, hawker centres, and walk-ways leading to transportation nodes such as MRT stations and bus inter-changes.

Installations began in June last year, and by the end of next month, 1,385 cameras would have been installed. The first phase of the PolCam plan, which began in April 2012, focused on fitting police cameras at access points to HDB blocks and car parks. About 3,400 video clips from police cameras helped solve more than 1,600 cases, in-cluding unlicensed moneylending, theft and outrage of modesty offences, the police said at a briefing on the annual

Fewer babies born last year than in Singapore’s Golden Jubilee year

SINGAPORE — Fewer babies were born last year, after the previous year saw highest number of births in over a decade.

A total of 33,161 Singaporeans babies were born last year, a shade under the 33,725 babies born in 2015.

Total fertility rate (TFR) stood at 1.2 last year, down from 1.24 in 2015, according to prelimi-nary figures from the Immigra-tion and Checkpoints Authority of Singapore.

But while there were fewer ba-bies born than in Singapore’s Gold-en Jubilee year, the number is still above the average of 32,000 in the past decade, said Senior Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Of-fice Josephine Teo yesterday.

In a Facebook post sharing the figures yesterday, Mrs Teo noted there were 23,873 marriages with at least one Singaporean last year, more than the 23,805 in 2015, and the second highest annual figure since 1998. “We have reason to cel-ebrate,” she said.

The dip in TFR was partly the result of a demographic transition, whereby Singapore has a relatively large cohort of young Singapore-ans entering into their peak child-bearing ages (25 to 39), but many have not yet started having chil-dren, said Mrs Teo.

“While the impression is that Singaporeans are marrying lat-er, in fact the median age of first marriage has been stable since 2011, at 28 years for Singaporean brides and 30 years for Singapo-rean grooms,” said Mrs Teo.

She added: “I want to encourage millennial Singaporeans to pursue their aspirations for family as much as they work towards other mean-ingful goals.

“It is not unusual for people to have reached the zenith of their careers only to look back wish-ing they had set aside some time to grow a family of their own.” The Government will also be re-vealing plans on how to support families in the coming weeks, said Mrs Teo.

“We need bold collective actions in the areas of housing, pre-school services, workplace and community support. Together, let’s try and give our millennials the confidence that marriage and parenthood are achievable, enjoyable and celebrat-ed,” she added.

crime statistics yesterday.As of July last year, more than

62,000 cameras have been in-stalled in all 10,000 public housing blocks and multi-storey car parks. The police said they will continue to install cameras at new HDB blocks and multi-storey car parks.

Ang Mo Kio Central was among the first estates to have cameras installed in public areas under the PolCam 2.0 plan, and residents have noticed the positive effect of the increased surveillance, said grassroots leaders.

Immediate past chairman of the Yio Chu Kang Zone 4 residents’ committee Kelvin Wang said resi-dents have commented that their estate has felt safer after the police cameras were put up.

Residents have also been more willing and confident about step-ping forward to report any possi-ble crimes, he added.

Hawker Tan Chuan Lee, who is also the secretary of the Yio Chu Kang Block 724 Market Food Centre area sub-committee, said break-ins have become less fre-quent. The 60-year-old also noted that they now encounter fewer in-cidents of people causing nuisance at the food centre.

Nearly two weeks after he was arrested for allegedly murdering his pregnant wife, former property agent Teo Ghim Heng was taken back to his Woodlands flat yesterday afternoon for a re-enactment of the crime.

Cuffed at the wrists and ankles, the 41-year-old looked downcast as he walked towards the sixth floor unit at Block 619 Woodlands Drive 52, where the charred bodies of his wife and four-year-old daughter were discovered by the police on Jan 28. He mumbled in English when

the police asked him which keys to use to enter the flat. According to court documents, Teo’s wife, Mdm Choong Pei Shan, was allegedly killed eight days before her body, as well as that of her daughter, was found on Jan 28. PHOTO: WEE TECK HIAN

AllEGEd KIllER TAKEN BACK TO THE CRIME SCENE

hot news today • Saturday 11 February 20175

US will stick to One Chinapolicy, Trump tells Xi

Continued from page 1as a diplomatic boost for China as Mr Trump had previously questioned why Washington should uphold the principle.

Mr Lu Kang, spokesman for Chi-na’s Foreign Ministry, said yesterday it had been a “very good call” and add-ed that “both sides have been in close communication ever since President Trump’s inauguration”.

“Xi Jinping appreciates Trump’s emphasis on the American govern-ment’s commitment to the One China policy and pointed out that the One China principle is the political foun-dation of US-China relations,” ac-cording to a Chinese foreign ministry statement. CCTV, the Chinese state broadcaster, also reported about the phone call, saying Mr Xi welcomed Mr Trump’s gesture.

Mr Trump angered Beijing in De-cember by talking to the President of Taiwan and saying the US did not have to stick to the One China policy, under which Washington acknowledg-es the Chinese position that there is only one China and self-ruled Taiwan is part of it.

China responded by accusing the US of interfering in its internal affairs.

The call with Mr Xi came as Mr Trump was preparing to welcome Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the White House. The decision to speak to Mr Xi just before the Trump-Abe summit was designed to reduce

the fallout from the lavish welcome planned for the Japanese leader. Mr Abe will dine with Mr Trump four times, fly on Air Force One to the president’s resort in Florida, and play a round of golf with his US counterpart.

“The significance of this phone call before the visit of Prime Minister Abe cannot be overstated,” said Mr Dennis Wilder, a former top China analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency now at Georgetown University.

“The Chinese had sought reassur-ance that President Trump did not intend to overturn a fundamental principle underpinning US-China re-lations and north-east Asian geostra-tegic stability for the past four dec-ades — the One China policy.”

Mr Wilder added that by reassert-ing the commitment to the policy, “President Trump opens the ground for a constructive dialogue with Bei-jing on the difficult but resolvable issues of rebalancing the trading relationship that has tilted in Bei-jing’s favour”.

The call between the American and Chinese leaders came just hours af-ter a White House meeting between Mr Trump and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Two people familiar with the think-ing of Mr Tillerson, former Exxon-Mobil chief executive, said he want-ed Mr Trump to back the One China policy.

“It’s a wise move that sets the ba-

sis for Trump and Xi to address the myriad challenges on the US-China agenda.

It signals to China that Trump is willing to learn,” said Mr Evan Me-deiros, a former top Asia adviser to Mr Barack Obama now at the Eura-sia Group.

Mr Paul Haenle, director of the Carnegie-Tsinghua centre in Beijing and the top China adviser to former presidents George W Bush and Ba-rack Obama, welcomed the move by Mr Trump.

“This was the right step, not be-cause it’s what Beijing wanted but be-cause upholding our One China policy is ultimately what is in the US’ inter-ests,” he said.

“The One China policy was the ba-sis that allowed the US to establish re-lations with China four decades ago while maintaining robust unofficial relations with Taiwan.”

M r H aen le s a id th at wh i le Mr Trump had toyed with the notion of using the issue as a bargaining chip, he had concluded that “the One China policy is not a card on the bar-gaining table — it is the table itself”.

However, lawyer James Zimmer-man, the former head of the Ameri-can Chamber of Commerce in Chi-na, said Mr Trump should have never raised the One China policy in the first place.

“There is certainly a way of nego-tiating with the Chinese, but threats concerning fundamental, core inter-ests are counterproductive from the get-go,” he said in an email.

“The end result is that Trump just confirmed to the world that he is a paper tiger, a ‘zhilaohu’ — someone that seems threatening but is wholly ineffectual and unable to stomach a challenge.” AGENCIES

US scrambled to undo damage from Tsai’s call to TrumpWASHINGTON — The important but de-layed call between the leaders of the two world powers would not have ma-terialised without hard work behind the scenes. Relations between Wash-ington and Beijing had been frozen since December, when then-Presi-dent-elect Donald Trump took a con-gratulatory phone call from Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen.

The United States has not had dip-lomatic relations with Taiwan since 1979, and Mr Trump defended the call by saying he did not know why Washington should be bound by the One China policy.

To lay the groundwork for a bet-ter relationship, Mr Trump’s national security adviser, Mr Michael Flynn, spoke last Friday with China’s top for-

eign policy official, Mr Yang Jiechi. That call produced only a vague

commitment to “reinforce high-level exchanges”, suggesting that Mr Trump’s statements on China sill precluded a direct leader-to-leader exchange.

As a gesture of concil iation, Mr Flynn and his deputy hand-de-livered a letter from Mr Trump to President Xi Jinping to China’s am-bassador to the US, Mr Cui Tiankai. Mr Trump wrote that he wished “the Chinese people a happy Lantern Festi-val and prosperous Year of the Roost-er”. He also said he “looks forward to working with President Xi to develop a constructive relationship that benefits both the United States and China”.

“This letter means they’re looking

us heavy at the borders when we don’t tax them; with building a massive for-tress in the middle of the South Chi-na Sea, which they shouldn’t be doing; and, frankly, with not helping us at all with North Korea,” he had said.

But arguably, no bilateral relation-ship is more important than the one be-tween Beijing and Washington, and the fact that Mr Trump and Mr Xi had not talked since Mr Trump took office last month has drawn increasing scrutiny.

“The US-China relationship only works if the two leaders have a serious relationship and use their contact to do real business,” Mr Medeiros said. “Given the rigidity of the Chinese sys-tem, leader-level contact provides es-sential stability, direction and momen-tum to US-China ties.”

“It is tempting to say Beijing won Round One, but that would be mis-leading,” said Mr Steve Tsang, direc-tor of Soas China Institute, University of London.

“I should think that Xi is pleased with the outcome, but is still wait-ing to see what Trump really wants.” AGENCIES

for creative ways to stabilise this re-lationship when Trump and Xi can’t talk due to differences over Taiwan policy,” said Mr Evan Medeiros, who was senior director for Asia on the Na-tional Security Council under former president Barack Obama.

But there were indications that the Trump administration recognised it needed to do more.

State Secretary Rex Tillerson, of-ficials said, suggested that Mr Trump publicly reaffirm his commitment to the One China policy as a way of breaking the deadlock and getting the two presidents back on the phone.

For Mr Trump, it was a significant reversal. In an interview with Fox News in December, he said the policy should be contingent on extracting concessions from Beijing.

“We’re being hurt very badly by China with devaluation; with taxing

trump on the one China poliCy

Before the inauguration

The President of Taiwan CALLED ME today to wish me congratulations on winning the Presidency. Thank you! ... Interesting how the

US sells Taiwan billions of dollars of military equipment but I should not accept a congratulatory call. (Dec 2, 2016)

I fully understand the One China policy, but I don’t know why we have to be bound by a One China policy unless we make a deal with China having

to do with other things, including trade. (Dec 11, 2016)

After the Trump-Xi phone call

“The two leaders discussed numerous topics and President Trump agreed, at the request of President Xi, to honour our One China policy,”

the White House said in a statement released late on Thursday night, adding that the two leaders had “extended invitations to meet in their respective countries”.

Taiwan’s response

Taiwan and the US both maintain close contact and communication so as to keep a “zero accident” approach (to the relationship). Maintaining good

Taiwan-US and cross-Strait relations (with China) fulfil our national interest and are key for regional peace and stability.Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang

hot news today • Saturday 11 February 20176

Trump bid to reinstate travel ban fails again

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals panel has unanimously rejected President Donald Trump’s bid to reinstate his ban on travel into the United States from seven largely Muslim nations, a rebuke of the administration’s claim that the courts have no role as a check on the President.

The three-judge panel, suggesting that the ban did not advance national security, said on Thursday (US local time) the administration had shown “no evidence” that anyone from the seven nations — Iran, Iraq, Libya, So-malia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — had committed terrorist acts in the US.

T h e r u l i n g a l s o r e j e c t e d Mr Trump’s claim that the courts are powerless to review a President’s na-tional security assessments. Judges have a crucial role to play in a consti-tutional democracy, the court said.

“It is beyond question,” the panel said, “that the federal judiciary re-tains the authority to adjudicate con-stitutional challenges to executive ac-tion.”

The decision was handed down by the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco.

It upheld a ruling last Friday by a district court judge in Seattle, Mr James Robart, who blocked key parts of the travel ban, allowing thou-sands of foreigners to enter the coun-try.

Early Friday (US local time), the President reacted to the panel’s deci-sion in a tweet that selectively quoted

from a post on Lawfare, a blog on law and national security issues.

The blog post found it “remarka-ble” that the panel “did not even both-er to cite” a key US legal statute that authorises the President to suspend entry to the US of all or any class of aliens deemed detrimental to Ameri-can interests.

After quoting the Lawfare passage in his tweet, Mr Trump declared the court’s conclusion: “A disgraceful de-cision!”

Earlier, within minutes of the ruling, Mr Trump angrily vowed to fight it, presumably in an appeal to the Su-preme Court.

“SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SE-CURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE!”, he posted on Twitter.

At the White House, the President told reporters that the ruling was “a political decision” and predicted that his administration would win an ap-peal “in my opinion, very easily”.

He said he had not yet conferred with his Attorney-General, Mr Jeff Sessions, on the matter.

The Supreme Court remains short-handed and the decision could end in a deadlock. A 4-to-4 tie there would leave the appeals court’s ruling in place. The administration has moved fast in the case, and is likely to file an emergency application to the Supreme Court in a day or two. A decision next week, either to reinstate the ban or to continue to block it, is possible.

The travel ban, one of the first ex-ecutive orders Mr Trump issued after taking office, suspended worldwide refugee entry into America. It also barred visitors from seven Muslim-majority nations for up to 90 days to give federal security agencies time to impose stricter vetting processes.

After it was issued, the ban spurred chaos at airports and protests nation-wide as foreign travellers found them-selves stranded at immigration check-

points by a policy that critics derided as un-American. The State Depart-ment said up to 60,000 foreigners’ visas were cancelled in the days im-mediately after the ban was imposed.

Several Democrats said they hoped the appeals court ruling would cow Mr Trump into rescinding the ban. Democrat Representative Karen Bass of California said in a statement that the ban “is rooted in bigotry and, most importantly, it’s illegal”.

But some Republicans cast asper-sions on the Ninth Circuit’s decision and predicted that it would not with-stand a challenge in the Supreme Court. “Courts ought not second-guess sensitive national security de-cisions of the president,” Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, said in a statement.

In its briefs and in the arguments before the panel on Tuesday, the Jus-tice Department’s position evolved. As the case progressed, the administra-tion offered a backup plea for at least a partial victory.

A Justice Department brief said, “previously admitted aliens who are temporarily abroad now or who wish to travel and return to the United States in the future” should be allowed to enter the country despite the ban.

The appeals court ultimately re-jected that request, however, saying that people in the US without authori-sation have due process rights, as do citizens with relatives who wish to travel to the US. AGENCIES

Twelve people, including three children, were killed in landslides across the Indonesian resort island of Bali, as torrential rain lashed the area, Indonesia’s disaster agency said yesterday.

The landslides destroyed houses in three villages in Bali’s Kintamani district, on the slopes of the Mount Batur volcano late on Thursday, killing the residents, the agency said.

The victims include a seven-year-old girl and a one-year-old boy, as well as their mother.

Several people were injured, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency said.

The agency officials said the villagers had been evacuated from the affected areas — far from the popular beach resorts of southern Bali — and no one else was believed to be missing.

The national weather agency said heavy rain would continue to drench Bali today and tomorrow. AGENCIES

BALI LANDSLIDE KILLS 12 IN THrEE vILLAGES

CroSSING SWordS oVer ruLING

“We have seen him in court twice, and we’re 2 for 2,” said Washington State Attorney-General Bob Ferguson (picture). He also said the latest ruling was a “complete victory for the State of Washington”.

PHOTO: REUTERS

hot news today • Saturday 11 February 20177

CFE’s focus on strategy, not schemes, a sign of the times

Continued from page 1

actions to boost the economy over the longer term, given how quickly the world changes — to do so would be akin to picking out winners and stak-ing the country’s future on them. How-ever, this is increasingly tricky to do in the current global climate, and at this stage of Singapore’s economic devel-opment. “Over time, the Government has become more aware of the difficul-ty of choosing winners ... The Govern-ment is shifting emphasis to being an enabler,” said Distinguished Professor Ivan Png of the National University of Singapore Business School.

What is needed is a blueprint to change the “culture” of the economy, as Prof De Meyer put it, and inculcate resilience as well as adaptability in in-dividuals and companies — intangi-bles that are hard to measure but im-portant in a volatile world.

Still, former Member of Parliament (MP) Inderjit Singh, who was involved in the ERC as well as its successor, the Economic Strategies Committee (ESC), noted that there were high ex-pectations of the CFE’s recommenda-tions. “I would say that the report did not have any earth-shattering rec-ommendations, and many of the ini-tiatives were a continuation or repeat of what the Government has been fo-cused on in the past,” he said.

GAUGING THE SUCCESS OF ECONOMIC COMMITTEES

It was during the 1985 recession — the first Singapore had faced since inde-pendence in 1965 — that the Govern-ment formed its maiden committee to map out new areas of growth. But it was another 16 years before the next committee was convened.

The ERC was formed in Dec 2001, just months after the terror attacks on the World Trade Center and terror-ist groups were uncovered in South-east Asia, including Singapore. The region was also still reeling from the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis.

The ERC identified five key pri-orities: To expand external ties, stay competitive and flexible as an econ-omy, encourage entrepreneurship in a knowledge economy, promote both manufacturing and services, and de-velop human capital.

Specific proposals included a two-year freeze on the further restoration of the Central Provident Fund contri-bution rate, setting up a national Con-tinuing Education Training (CET) body, and a Centre for Adult Learning. A working group on tourism proposed legalising casinos, but this suggestion was not taken up in the ERC’s final re-port — although the Government sub-sequently decided, after an intense de-bate, to build the Integrated Resorts.

The ERC’s successor, the ESC, was established in May 2009, with the

Minister for Trade and Industry (Industry) S Iswaran (left) and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat at the launch of the report of the Committee on the Future Economy. Observers have noted the lack of meticulous details in the report, saying that its initiatives are a continuation or repeat of what the Government has been focused on in the past. photo: nuria Ling

world still suffering from the global financial crisis that stemmed from a subprime mortgage crisis in the Unit-ed States.

The ESC laid out three priorities: To boost skills in every job, deepen corporate capabilities to seize oppor-tunities in Asia, and make Singapore a distinctive global city and an en-dearing home. To achieve these, the committee put forward several strat-egies including growing the economy through skills and innovation, becom-ing a global-Asia hub, and making in-novation pervasive.

Productivity was a key area the committee wanted to address: Apart from suggesting the launch of a Na-tional Productivity Fund and a high-level national council overseeing productivity as well as continuing education training, the ESC also set a target of 2 to 3 per cent productiv-ity growth over the next decade — up from 1 per cent in the preceding 10 years.

The ESC also proposed crafting a masterplan to develop a new water-front city at Tanjong Pagar, and stud-ied the feasibility of a consolidated port at Tuas.

While many of the ERC and ESC recommendations have been imple-mented by the Government, experts said the progress is a mixed bag. They acknowledge that efforts to boost en-trepreneurship and innovation are bearing fruit, but it will take more time to witness the full results. An-other positive aspect is that efforts to improve worker employability have also resulted in displaced individuals finding jobs in previous downturns.

In terms of providing greater sup-

port to small- and medium-sized en-terprises (SMEs), experts were divid-ed: Some felt that much has been done in this area, while others were less sat-isfied with the efforts so far — particu-larly with support for SMEs to raise productivity. In fact, some experts cit-ed the productivity drive as the “big-gest failure”, in Mr Singh’s words.

Mr Singh, who is the chief execu-tive of consumer-electronics firm Solstar International, added, “It is a tough job, but I think the Government is not organised correctly to support SMEs, where the biggest productiv-ity issues are. The Government spent a lot of money, but the KPIs (key performance indicators) were focused on input factors and not the outcome.”

Agreeing, CIMB economist Song Seng Wun said, “We should be using labour in a more productive manner. Services, obviously, is the main chal-lenge, as 60 per cent of the economy is made up of services provided by the smaller SMEs. But their performance is very uneven.”

UOB economist Suan Teck Kin said that looking at the overall pro-ductivity figure — an average of 0.4 per cent from 2011 to the third quarter of last year — misses the point that some sectors performed better than others. For instance, in the same pe-riod, the manufacturing sector’s pro-ductivity rose 1.9 per cent on average, while the finance and insurance sec-tor and the wholesale and retail sector saw productivity go up by 3.5 per cent and 2.2 per cent respectively — well above the ESC’s targets. The main laggards were accommodation and food (-0.9 per cent), and business ser-vices (-1.1 per cent).

Mr Singh felt that Singapore has not seen “real progress” in its bid to restructure the economy, by incentiv-ising companies to move up the value chain. The problem lies in the imple-mentation, he said. For example, the strategy of letting smaller SMEs ex-it, and freeing up workers for higher value-add companies, did not work because of a mismatch in skills, he pointed out.

Mr Singh said, “The Government also tried to select winners ... the market should have determined this as the Government has not had a great track record in picking winners. More broad-based support would have been better.”

He added, “The end result is that we have failed to create new global companies in Singapore.”

FOCUSING ON THE ECONOMIC CULTURE

The experts noted a distinct lack of concrete measures in the lat-est efforts to review the Singapore economy. Mr Singh said he had hoped for “fresh and significant” ideas, citing the plan to legalise ca-sinos that was mooted by the ERC tourism working group. Adding that the CFE did not offer big, new ideas, Mr Singh said, “It does make the rec-ommendations look less tangible com-pared to the past committees that had (more) understandable plans.”

Several of the CFE’s recommen-dations have already been rolled out — most notably, the Industry Trans-formation Maps (ITMs) that were an-nounced in last year’s Budget. Citing

Continued on page 8

hot news today • Saturday 11 February 20178

CFE’s focus on strategy, not schemes, a sign of the times

Continued from page 7the ITM as an example, Mr Song pointed out that due to the sluggish growth of recent years, policy changes had already been set in motion. The CFE painted the policy direction in broad strokes instead of making spe-cific recommendations, he said.

At the press conference on Thurs-day, Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat, the co-chairman for the CFE, was asked to cite the key new ideas from the committee’s report. In re-sponse, he noted that “the question of how Singapore stays relevant to the world is a question for ever”. “I don’t think there’s anything new in that question. We just have to keep our-selves focused and know how we stay relevant to the world. In that regard, similar questions were asked even in previous reviews,” he said.

He added, “There isn’t a detailed roadmap to say, ‘Follow this and you’ll reach there’, but rather, we have to find our way, we have to experiment.” Given the rapid changes taking place globally, the key is for the country to remain very adaptable, he stressed.

Prof De Meyer praised the CFE strategies, which “provide a sensible set of ideas and actions for the imme-diate future”. As I expected, there were no silver bullets or big new initiatives like we saw in ... the earlier review com-mittees,” he said. “What we need is a transformation of a mature and com-plex economy, thus it is an absolute pri-ority to work on these less tangible as-pects of our economy, or what I call the ‘culture’ of our economy.”

two decadeS oF remaking S’pore’S economy

The Resorts World Sentosa Integrated Resort and Casino complex. As Singapore’s economy at the start of the millennium was ‘rather lopsided’, says a former committee member, it was relatively easy to come up with new growth drivers such as the Integrated Resorts. photo:

bloomberg

But he disagreed that there was a lack of concrete ideas. He cited the digitisation of Singapore’s compa-nies, the emphasis on data analytics, harnessing data as an asset, and the enhancement of Singapore’s physical landscape as examples of “very inter-esting and very concrete” proposals. “If we can implement these recom-mendations, the Singapore of 2025 will look very different from what it is today,” he said.

Several experts pointed towards a growing uncertainty in the world economy, as a factor to why the CFE focused on the bigger picture.

Mr Satya R, KPMG partner and head (management consulting), felt that the recommendations were meant to form a broad strategy to guide policymaking “while keeping it flexible to respond to new threats and opportunities in a volatile world”.

OCBC economist Selena Ling stressed that under such circum-stances, gazing into crystal balls has become decidedly tougher, with dis-ruptive technology changing econo-mies rapidly. Identifying the right broad strategy was more important, and the Government would find it-self taking on the role of an enabler, in partnership with the private sec-tor and associations, said Ms Ling. “In

internationalisation, they’re not going to say which countries to go (to) specif-ically. But it’s (about) recognising the limits of (the) domestic economy, and that depends on the external market because of the ageing population and the shrinking workforce,” she said.

Indeed, the change in perspective arose from evolving product cycles, consumer behaviour and the global environment compared to five years ago, said CFE member Saktiandi Su-paat, an executive vice-president in Maybank Group, who is also an MP for Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC.

In the new economy, “as long as you are nimble enough, hungry enough to be on top of any new development, you’ll be fine”, Mr Song said.

Prof De Meyer noted that the Re-public has, in fact, become a role mod-el over the years for many other coun-tries, and the expectation is now for the country to “invent the future”.

That is where entrepreneurship and innovation come in, he said. “The world is a lot more uncertain than in 1985 or 2001, thus we need to be flex-ible and agile. There are fewer role models we can learn from.”

“We just have to have the ambi-tion and the passion to become bet-ter at what we already do,” said Prof De Meyer.

It has not gone unnoticed that sev-eral buzzwords kept appearing in the economic committees’ reports over the span of 21 years — such as inno-vation, entrepreneurship, skills, and deepening international links.

But the experts stressed that this is not because Singapore has failed to make progress in these areas. The re-ality is that the country needs to con-tinually take things to the next level, they said.

In particular, Prof De Meyer felt that there has been much progress in the area of entrepreneurship. “I observe many more entrepreneurs (now) than, for example, 10 years ago. But now, we need to grow these entre-preneurial initiatives into S$100 mil-lion companies. We have done a lot of successful research, now we need to turn these results into commercial successes. So the nature of these con-cepts of innovation and entrepreneur-ship has changed. We have to get into higher gear.”

PwC Singapore partner Winston S Nesfield noted that excelling in in-novation and entrepreneurship will “never be as straightforward as oth-er hard metrics such as foreign di-rect investment”. Achieving these objectives requires building different processes and behaviours in order to produce sustainable outcomes, he said. “This is hard stuff and requires real change at the political, cultural and individual levels of society. This is why these issues are recurring. Sin-gapore must match its well-regarded political leadership success with deep and real change at the cultural and in-dividual level,” he added.

And despite all the hand-wringing over the productivity drive, the ex-perts said they were not surprised that the Achilles heel of the Singapore economy did not make it prominently into the CFE report. Productivity im-provements would be a natural out-come of the committee’s strategies, if they are successfully implemented, they said. “If we work at innovation, skills, if we get these things right, then productivity will follow. It is tackling the source of these issues that can raise productivity,” Mr Suan said.

commentary &analysis What the cFe report leFt unsaid is critical to Future success 16

1 economic reView committee (2001 - 2003)

• in dec 2001, then-prime minister goh Chok tong announced the formation of the economic review Committee (erC) to address what he described as the most severe challenges — affecting security, social cohesion, and jobs — facing Singapore since its independence in 1965. • headed by then-deputy prime minister lee hsien loong, the erC published its report in feb 2003, outlining recommendations to remake Singapore into a globalised, diversified economy, and a creative and entrepreneurial nation.• Specific proposals included a two-year freeze on the further restoration of the Central provident fund contribution rate, setting up a national Continuing education training body, and a Centre for adult learning. a working group on tourism proposed legalising casinos, but this suggestion was not taken up in the erC’s final report.

2 economic StrategieS committee (2009 - 2010)

• With the world still reeling from the global financial crisis, mr lee, who was by then the prime minister, established the economic Strategies Committee (eSC) in may 2009 to develop strategies to maximise Singapore’s opportunities in a new world environment, by building its capabilities and making the best use of its resources, with the aim of achieving sustained and inclusive growth. • the eSC was chaired by then-finance minister tharman Shanmugaratnam. it announced its recommendations in feb 2010, laying out three priorities — boosting skills in every job, deepening corporate capabilities to seize opportunities in asia, and making Singapore a distinctive global city and an endearing home. • Specific proposals included setting up a national productivity fund, a high-level national council overseeing productivity as well as continuing education training, undertaking a masterplan to develop a new waterfront city at tanjong pagar, and studying the feasibility of a consolidated port at tuas. the eSC also set a target of 2 to 3 per cent productivity growth over the next decade, up from 1 per cent in the preceding 10 years.

3 committee on tHe Future economy (2016 - 2017)

• following the last economic review, significant structural shifts in Singapore’s external environment prompted the setting up of the Committee on the future economy (Cfe) in January last year. the shifts included slowing global economic growth, ageing populations around the world, sluggish global productivity growth, and rapid technological changes that disrupted many industries.• the Cfe, which was co-chaired by finance minister heng Swee Keat and trade and industry (industry) minister S iswaran, submitted its report on thursday. • the committee proposed seven “mutually reinforcing” strategies aimed at keeping the country plugged into the world, and building the capabilities of its people and organisations. • Specific proposals included the industry transformation maps, reviewing the tax system, establishing a global innovation alliance, and training full-time national servicemen in cyber security.

hot news today • Saturday 11 February 20179

Hundreds of pilot whales that swam into the shallow waters of a New Zealand bay died overnight after they got stuck in the waterway and got beached on the coastline.

More than 500 rescuers tried to send the whales back out to sea, but about 250 of them died in what officials called one of the worst whale strandings in the country’s

history. About 50 whales swam out of the bay after high tide, but as many as 90 others had re-beached themselves by yesterday afternoon. PHOTO: AFP

Hundreds OF wHAles die AFTer being sTrAnded On new zeAlAnd beAcH

Rail network hit by 3 disruptions in a day KENNETH CHENGkennethcjw@mediacorp.com.sg

singAPOre — Commuters were hit by three rail breakdowns at different parts of the island yesterday — one on the North-South Line (NSL) and two on the Light Rail Transit (LRT) lines — beginning from the morning till late in evening.

The day began with a disruption on the NSL during the morning rush hour caused by a signalling fault that developed on a train, which was later withdrawn from service.

The fault caused delays for com-muters travelling between the New-ton and Marina South Pier stations. The faulty train, which was travel-ling towards Yishun, was pulled from service after passengers alighted at the Raffles Place station, rail opera-tor SMRT said.

In the afternoon, services on the Bukit Panjang LRT were affected by a train fault. SMRT tweeted about the disruption at 3.26pm, saying that free regular bus services were available along the line. Less than 20 minutes later, it said normal train services had resumed, after an earlier tweet said a faulty train was being “recovered”.

New jobs app offers real-time matches

RuMi HARdAsMAlANirumih@mediacorp.com.sg

singAPOre — When staff at the Katong eatery The Chop House asked for leave during the Chinese New Year period, restaurant manager Jack Taylor Yang found himself in a bind, as he always does during peak periods due to the manpower crunch in the retail sector.

This time, however, Mr Yang had a quick-fix solution: JobsOnDemand, a real-time, location-based job-match-ing mobile platform that helps retail-ers tap into the casual and flexible lo-cal workforce when the need arises. “It was quick and easy. Business at the restaurant went on smoothly all through the Chinese New Year peri-od despite my regular staff being on leave,” he said.

JobsOnDemand, available since last year and was launched yesterday, lets businesses post ad hoc jobs via an app, and then alerts job seekers who have signed up as members.

Hiring managers pay a service fee only when jobs have been completed, and workers get paid by the next busi-ness day. Registration is free of charge for jobseekers.

Under an exclusive tie-up with CapitaLand Mall Asia, which man-ages 17 malls, Aptus Technologies — the creator of JobOnDemand — is of-fering retailers at CapitaLand malls in Singapore special rates for sign-up and commission.

A check at about 10pm yesterday showed nine job openings for cater-ing crew and waiters posted by eat-eries such as Jack’s Place and Tung Lok Catering.

The jobs were mainly for assign-ments today and tomorrow, paying S$8 to S$11 an hour.

Retailers as well as food and bev-erage companies across the island have been buffeted by the manpower crunch in recent years in part due to changes in government policy to slow the inflow of foreign manpower while encouraging industry transformation to achieve higher productivity gains.

“JobsOnDemand helped us fill our temporary labour shortages at our busier outlets, especially during peak periods,” said Mr Andrew Khoo, CEO of Swensen’s.

“The flexibility factor and the im-mediate payments are what I like most about taking up a job through this platform,” said Choa Chu Kang resident Rachel Low, 20, who has tak-en up several jobs as a service crew member at F&B outlets through the app.

In the evening, services on the east-ern loop of the Sengkang LRT was in-terrupted for about 90 minutes, due to a power fault.

Although the NSL disruption was brief, commuters expressed their un-happiness on social media. Twitter user Sharifah Sharomsah complained about being late for work, while an-other user, Wong Wing Seng, took a jibe at SMRT, saying it “should be in the Guinness Book of Records for the most breakdowns and delays”.

The NSL is due to transit to an up-graded signalling system in stages from next month, allowing trains to run at closer intervals. While the re-signalling works on the trains, stations, depots and the operations control cen-tre were completed last year, the Land Transport Authority previously said it would push back the rollout in order to carry out more than 1,300 tests.

The last high-profile signalling in-terference reported happened on the Circle Line between August and No-vember last year, which experienced persistent disruptions.

After months of investigation, in-cluding military experts being roped in for the probe, the cause was traced to faulty signalling hardware on a “rogue”

train, which was later removed.Commenting on yesterday’s sig-

nalling fault on the NSL, experts said a single incident should not be inter-preted as a sign of a major problem. They added that it was not unusual for trains to be withdrawn from service in order to resolve such faults.

Assistant Professor Raymond Ong, a transport researcher at the National University of Singapore, said it was saf-er to withdraw a faulty train that has the potential of disrupting an entire system to rectify the fault immediately.

Transport analyst Park Byung Joon said a faulty train has to be pulled from service if the fault is a minor one that can be solved with troubleshoot-ing by a train driver or station staff. Barring a significant breakdown, it can return to service the next day.

“One incident itself should not be interpreted as a sign for major break-downs,” said Dr Park, an SIM Uni-versity senior lecturer. He noted that withdrawing troubled trains has be-come quite common nowadays and this incident pointed to the need to strengthen train maintenance.

Agreeing, railway signalling, control and communications lecturer Andrew Ng from the Singapore Institute of Technology said the withdrawal could be due to faulty onboard equipment.

He pointed out that train with-drawals, which are linked to reliabil-ity, should be kept as low as possible. Measures to improve reliability include tightening performance standards and conducting thorough checks on trains before they begin service, he added.

singapore10

today • Saturday 11 February 2017

Four other eaterieS alSo SuSpended over variouS oFFenceS

SINGAPORE — A restaurant at Changi Airport Terminal 2 will be closed for two weeks starting next Monday after it was found to have sold unclean food.

In a suspension notice posted on its website yesterday, the National Envi-ronment Agency (NEA) said the res-

Chutney Mary outlet at T2 to close for two weeks after selling ‘unclean’ food

Cat found behind hospital in Yishun killed by dogs: AVA

SINGAPORE — Animal abuse has been ruled out as the cause of death for one of the cats found in Yishun on Thurs-day, with the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) saying that closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage showed the feline had been at-tacked by two stray dogs.

The cat had been found lying on the ground behind the Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH), its white fur mat-ted with blood.

Earlier in the day, cat welfare group Yishun 326 Tabby Cat posted on its Facebook page a photograph shared by Facebook user Fadillah AR, showing another cat lying on a road divider.

Ms Fadillah said her cousin had come across the cat with its throat slit near Yishun MRT Station.

In response to TODAY’s queries, the AVA said it had collected the carcasses of both cats as part of its

investigations. “For the cat found near KTPH, CCTV footage showed that it was attacked by two stray dogs,” the authority added.

Yishun has been hit by a spate of cat deaths in the last 18 months, but fewer cases surfaced following en-hanced enforcement, with volunteers conducting patrols while the authori-ties investigated the cases.

One man, Lee Wai Leong, was ar-rested and charged in December 2015 for flinging a cat over the parapet of the public housing block where he lives.

The 41-year-old, who suffers from moderate intellectual disability, was sentenced to 18 months’ probation in June last year for animal cruelty.

Four people will be splitting S$12,001,648, after their numbers were picked in yesterday’s Toto Hong Bao draw.

The winning numbers were 7, 29, 2, 27, 24, 34 and the additional number was 21.

Each winner will be taking back just slightly over S$3 million in earnings.

Earlier in the day, winding queues were reported at several betting outlets across Singapore, ahead of the draw last night at the Singapore Pools Building at Middle Road.

Last year, two winners shared the S$13.9 million jackpot in the Toto Hongbao Draw. PHOTO: WEE TECK HIAN

HOPING FOR A WINDFALL

taurant — Chutney Mary Indian Fast Food at T2’s viewing mall — had ac-cumulated 12 demerit points over the last 12 months for failing to register an assistant and for selling unclean food.

The restaurant was also fined S$800 for both offences and will have its li-

cence suspended from Feb 13 to Feb 26.According to the NEA, any food li-

censee who accumulates 12 or more demerit points during a 12-month peri-od may have his/her licence suspend-ed for a period of either two or four weeks, or revoked. All food handlers

working in the suspended premises would also be required to attend and pass the Basic Food Hygiene Course again, before they can resume work.

The agency stated: “NEA takes a serious view of these offences and would like to remind food operators to observe good food and personal hygiene practices at all times, and to engage only registered food handlers. NEA will not hesitate to take firm ac-tion against anyone found to be in vi-olation of the Environmental Public Health Act.”

Separately, four other food estab-lishments also received suspension notices yesterday for failing to regis-ter shop assistants and failing to keep their premises free of cockroach in-festations.

The food establishments censured were: Foodstall No 18 at the Kopitiam at Jurong Point Shopping Centre; foodstall No 2 at 536A Upper Seran-goon Road; Ambeng Cafe By Ummi Abdullah in the Simpang Bedok area; and foodstall No 2 at Blk 866A Tamp-ines Street 83, Tampines Central Community Complex.

All four received two weeks’ sus-pension and a fine of S$800 each.

“In the interest of maintaining a high standard of food hygiene at all eating establishments, we would also like to advise members of the public who come across poor hygiene prac-tices in food establishments not to patronise such outlets but to call our 24-hour NEA Contact Centre at 1800 - CALL NEA (1800 - 2255632) with de-tails for our follow-up investigations,” said the NEA.

singapore | news today • Saturday 11 February 201711

Nurse upset by defence’s questions about intimate messages to attacker

SINGAPORE — Emotions ran high in the attempted murder trial of healthcare assistant Varadharajan Mahadevan Mahadevan yesterday, when question-ing by the defence lawyer provoked an outburst from the victim on the wit-ness stand. The defence lawyer was trying to disprove her account that she was never serious about pursu-ing a relationship with her assailant.

The High Court heard that she had said “I love you” and “I want to be your wife” over the phone and sent heart-shaped emoticons in text messages to Varadharajan — the 33-year-old is accused of later stabbing and slash-ing her repeatedly at the void deck of the housing block where she lived on Dec 20, 2013, because she rejected his advances.

St Margaret’s School celebrates 175th anniversary

SINGAPORE — St Margaret’s School, the oldest girls’ school in Singapore, cele-brated its 175th anniversary yesterday with the reopening of its heritage gal-lery and to complete a record-break-ing feat witnessed by representatives from the Singapore Book of Records.

The school’s students and staff members had worked from Feb 6 to form the words “Glowing in His Glory: 175 Years of Charity, Patience, Devo-tion” using 4,208 tin cans.

Ex-student and guest-of-honour Mrs Chua-Lim Yen Ching, who is deputy director-general of education (professional development) at the Min-istry of Education, put in the last tin can yesterday.

The canned food will be donated to

The 23-year-old victim, now a staff nurse, cannot be named to protect her identity.

The two got to know each other in early 2013 when she was a nurs-ing student at the National University Hospital.

On March 12 that year, she said “I love you” via a WhatsApp message to the accused, and a few days later, she wrote, “I want to be your wife now”.

On April 1, the accused told her over the phone that he would not cheat on her, saying “the kiss you gave me was enough”.

This was after the victim accused him of cheating and quarrelled over the issue in a bid to get rid of him.

When defence lawyer Rengarajoo Balasamy asked why she said “I love

you” and sent those messages, some of which were past midnight, the vic-tim said that she was “playing around” with Varadharajan. Asked why she did that, she said that she was “young and didn’t know the consequences”.

At one point during the cross-examination, the victim — who sus-tained multiple shoulder and back wounds and almost had her left thumb severed in the attack — grew frustrated, saying that the messages were sent when she was an immature 19-year-old.

“I was not in a relationship and I don’t consider this a relationship. He can think whatever he wants, but I wasn’t in a relationship with him,” she said.

“No one has the right to injure me

like that. This is very unfair for me … Every day, I’m looking at the scar. Every day, it’s fresh, what he did.”

Justice Woo Bih Li had to in-terject, explaining that while the court understood the ordeal that she had gone through, the defence had to present Varadharajan’s ac-count.

Mr Rengarajoo later produced a photograph dated Nov 7, 2013, in which the accused is pictured kiss-ing her, with the word “Love” plas-tered over it.

When asked whether she was still playing along with him then, the victim retorted: “Does this de-fine I was in a relationship with him?”

She said that the photo could have been taken before July, as she had distanced herself from him from July onwards.

The court also heard certain de-tails of Varadharajan’s account of what took place before the attack: After the victim exited the lift, he allegedly grabbed her hand and said that he wanted to kill himself. He then started crying. She later kissed him on the lips and told him that she wanted to marry him, but her parents were against it.

At this point, the victim said that she disagreed with the ac-count of the events.

Referring to Thursday’s hear-ing, where she testified that the ac-cused stabbed her in the back and abdomen with a knife shortly after she came out of the lift, and uttered the word “die” in Tamil during the attack, Mr Rengarajoo said that the accused did not use the word — a point the victim refuted.

The cross-examination end-ed when the lawyer had no more questions.

No date has been set for the next hearing. FARIS MOKHTAR

needy residents from the North West Community Development Council, the school said.

The celebration at the school grounds on Farrer Road was attended by the primary and secondary school communities, as well as several alumni.

Mrs Elizabeth Ezekiel, 75, from the class of 1958, told TODAY that she is still, to this day, thankful to her prin-cipal at the time, Ms Norah Inge.

After her father died, her mother took her to Ms Inge, saying she could not take care of her. Mrs Ezekiel was then placed in the boarding school. When she completed her secondary school and thanked Ms Inge for giv-ing her an education, Ms Inge’s only words to her were: “Pass it on.”

St Margaret’s Secondary School’s alumni from different generations turned up to celebrate the institution’s 175th anniversary yesterday. photo: Robin Choo

St Margaret’s School was founded in 1842 by Mrs Maria Dyer, a Christian missionary and pioneering educator. It was then known as the Chinese Girls’ School and located in a shop-house at North Bridge Road. JEONG HONGBIN

Police looking into allegedly inappropriate comments made by officerALFRED ChUAalfredchuam@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE — The police are looking in-to allegations of inappropriate com-ments made by one of their female of-ficers while attending to a complaint relating to an alleged molest case, as they revealed that an arrest had been made over the molest report.

The incident was brought to light

by a Facebook user by the name of Amanda Lai. Ms Lai had said in a post dated Feb 8 that her company’s Chinese New Year dinner was held at Mouth Restaurant at Cross Street in Chinatown. Ms Lai, who was not at the dinner, said two of her colleagues — called T and R in the post — had walked out of the building to use the restroom. As they were returning to the restaurant, they were stopped by

two men. One of them began harass-ing her colleague, T, by allegedly ask-ing her to take off her shirt to show him her breasts. When T refused, the man apparently lifted her off the floor and molested her, stopping only when another colleague started screaming.

The next day, T made a police re-port, but was apparently told by the of-ficer at the start of the interview, “Are you sure you want to do this? If this

goes to court, you’ll need to testify ...” Ms Lai also claimed that the officer

told T, “Are you sure they weren’t just trying to be friendly? You know, ang moh culture is different from ours.”

In her Facebook post, Ms Lai said she was “most disappointed” at how the police officer did not appear to take her colleague’s complaint seriously.

In response to queries from TODAY, the police said they are aware of allegations of some inappropriate comments made by a female police of-ficer when attending to a complaint relating to an alleged molest, and they were looking into the matter. “In re-lation to the case, the police have ar-rested a 37-year-old man for outrage of modesty, and he is currently assisting with investigations,” they added.

singapore | news today • Saturday 11 February 201712

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Auction of art, ESM’s personal items to raise funds for TODAY charity

New campaign focuses on greater acceptance for people with disabilities

KENNETH CHENGkennethcjw@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE — Hit by a bus while on a business trip in Paris in 2011, Mr Ra-jan Raju was paralysed from the neck down. But the corporate high-flier — who has regained much of his mobility and even attempted marathons again nearly six years on — said he prefers doing things on his own in the “first, second, third instance”, and turn to help only as a last resort.

Noting that people around him were uncertain about the extent that

they should help him with day-to-day activities, Mr Rajan said helping per-sons with disabilities — whom he pre-fers calling the “differently abled” — sometimes means first grasping their abilities and how they would like to be assisted, if at all, before extending a helping hand.

“I’ve a certain set of skills, and where those are slightly weak, I’d like to do it on my own in the first, sec-ond, third instance, then if I’m bor-ing everybody else, then I say please help me,” said Mr Rajan, who sits on the fundraising committee of the SPD (formerly the Society for the Physical-ly Disabled).

In May 2011, Mr Rajan, then chief executive for Asia at DWS Invest-ments — Deutsche Bank’s asset man-agement arm — was in the French capital for a conference when he was knocked down by a bus after he ven-

tured out for a run. After 10 days in a Paris hospital, he was flown back to Tan Tock Seng Hospital for an opera-tion to stabilise his neck.

Slowly regaining the use of his limbs through painstaking rehabili-tation, Mr Rajan returned to work nearly nine months after the accident. Today, he runs his own investment company, Invespar, which provides business advisory and consulting.

Yesterday, the SPD kicked off a cam-paign, Breaking Barriers, with the aim of quashing barriers — environmental, attitudinal and institutional — to the inclusion of persons with disabilities, and promoting equal access in areas such as education and employment.

Speaking to TODAY, Mr Rajan brushed off the suggestion that his re-covery was exceptional. “It’s not like I’ve got anything more than (others) … Everybody who has gone through

SINGAPORE — Special-needs artists will auction off their artworks as part of a fund-raising dinner to be held for the TODAY Enable Fund. The four origi-nal artworks and three colour-accent-ed prints by six autistic artists feature nature, animals and architecture.

The fund’s patron, Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, will also be donating a number of personal items for the charity auction, including a model replica of a pipa, at the dinner.

The event has drawn strong inter-est from individuals as well as corpo-rations such as OCBC, Keppel Corp and Tanoto Foundation, a non-profit organisation

involved in tertiary education

scholarship disbursements, education infrastructure development, and med-ical research funding in Singapore.

All 30 tables for the dinner, to be held at Grand Mercure Roxy in East Coast on Feb 28, have been taken up. The aim is to raise S$100,000.

Since it was set up last December, many donors have come forward, in-cluding individuals, raising more than S$60,000 to date.

Among the first wave of donors was Ms Anne Chiang, who wanted to give the special-needs community a leg-up after witnessing the challenges faced by a family member who uses a wheel-chair. The owner of Active Ageing, which sells assistive hardware to help

seniors and persons with disabilities lead an independent life, said, “We ex-perienced first-hand how challenging everyday routines like bathing and go-ing to the toilet can be, not just for the patient but for the caregiver as well.”

Ms Belinda Tanoto, a member of the board of trustees for the Tanoto Foundation, which is taking part in the Feb 28 charity dinner, said, “The TODAY Enable Fund supports a wor-thy cause which the Tanoto Founda-tion shares. We level the playing field when we lend that extra hand to the disadvantaged. And it’s not about charity — it’s about educating, em-powering and enhancing lives and maximising potential so every mem-

ENABLEFUND

ENABLEFUND

Inspiration: the fund will be like a gift to the beneficiaries

Shrunk down for perspective.

ENABLE FUND

ENABLE FUND

Support the TODAY Enable Fund for the special-needs community. Find out more via www.todayonline.com/enable

ber of society participates in inclusive growth.”

The TODAY Enable Fund aims to boost the education, skills and employ-ment prospects of persons with dis-abilities. SG Enable, an agency set up to support persons with disabilities through its programmes, is the fund administrator.

There are plans to start disburs-ing from the fund to support its first beneficiaries by the first quarter of this year.

Other events lined up for the year to help the fund raise its target of S$500,000 to S$1 million a year in-clude a charity golf session and a pub-lic fundraising event.

an injury like mine will have the same amount of will to (bounce) back,” he said. “It’s just that I was a bit luckier than many others.”

SPD president Chia Yong Yong said that while strides have been made in making society more inclusive for peo-ple with disabilities, much more needs to be done.

For instance, as firms ponder re-designing jobs for the disabled, edu-cational institutions such as the In-stitute of Technical Education should be flexible in their curriculum to allow the substitution of different modules to count towards a full certificate for young persons with disabilities.

“It helps (them) to get jobs; it builds the economy in the long run,” she said. “If schools are very rigid and they say, ‘No, this is my curriculum and if you can’t do it, I can’t give you a certifi-cate’, then we’ll always be stuck.”

Employers, too, must have the con-viction that hiring persons with differ-ent abilities is the way forward, rec-ognising that persons with disabilities “can do certain things very well”.

“Persons with autism can do re-peated work very well … if you carve out that work, they do a fantastic job,” she said, noting that persons with dis-abilities form a “useful core group” employers can tap, especially amid the increasing difficulties to hire for-eign labour.

The 10-week Breaking Barriers campaign includes a roving photo-graphic exhibition that showcases pic-tures embodying the inclusion of disa-bled persons in everyday activities. It will move across different areas, from public libraries and community clubs to the Courts megastore in Tampines.

At the campaign’s launch at the Central Public Library yesterday, Social and Family Development Min-ister Tan Chuan-Jin said such cam-paigns were important. “Creating that consciousness is an important part of creating a more inclusive society, be-cause it begins to help us change our mindsets,” he added.

Mr Rajan Raju, 51, director of investment company Invespar, has bounced back from paralysis to regain much of his mobility and even attempt marathons. PHoTo: RobiN CHoo

singapore | business today • Saturday 11 February 201713

S’pore banks likely to report profit slump amid oil sector stress: Analysts

SINGAPORE — DBS Group Holdings and smaller rival United Overseas Bank (UOB) are set to report their lowest quarterly profit in at least two years, hurt by bad loan provisions for a bat-tered oil services sector, a survey of analysts by Reuters has shown.

Nearly a dozen Singapore-listed firms in the offshore services sec-tor have sought to restructure their bonds and loans over the past two years to stay afloat, hit by a slump in orders as global oil prices remain low by historical standards.

Stress in the sector, highlighted by Swiber Holdings’ decision last year to restructure under judicial manage-ment, does not appear to have abated.

Ezra Holdings this month flagged it may have to take a US$170 million (S$242 million) write-down on a sub-sea services joint venture.

All three of Singapore’s listed banks reported increases in third-quarter charges for soured loans, with DBS in particular doubling its charge to S$436 million.

The extent of further provisions in the fourth quarter and the outlook for 2017 will be the key focus as the lend-ers report their earnings next week.

“To a certain extent, the credibil-ity of the managements is on the line as well when they say there are suf-ficient provisions being provided for, and we will see whether (or not) this is the case,” said Mr Christopher Wong, senior investment manager at Aber-

‘Too soon’ to call property market recovery despite renewed interestAngelA Tengangelateng@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE — Despite the renewed in-terest in residential launches in re-cent months, it is “still too soon” to conclude that a market recovery is in sight, Real Estate Developers’ Asso-ciation of Singapore (Redas) president Augustine Tan said yesterday, as he pointed to a persistent glut in all seg-ments of the property market.

“With the weakened labour mar-ket, slower growth in employment and earnings, declining population growth, coupled with the prospect of rising interest rates, the current slowdown is expected to continue into 2017,” he said in his address to about 570 attendees at the association’s Spring Festival Lunch.

Private home prices fell 0.5 per cent in the last three months of 2016 to hit their lowest level in six years, as the longest falling streak on record was extended to 13 consecutive quar-ters, Urban Redevelopment Authority data showed last month. For the full year of 2016, prices fell 3.1 per cent, the data showed.

“Dampened demand and rising operating costs remain key concerns with property cooling measures still in place alongside slow economic growth. All segments of the proper-ty market continue to reel from the persistent oversupply situation, ris-ing vacancy rates and weak demand,” Mr Tan said.

External conditions also weigh on the market and prospects remain murky with uncertainties surround-

ing global geopolitics and macroeco-nomic developments, he added.

The vacancy rate for private homes last year was the worst in more than 10 years at 8.4 per cent, close to the high of 8.6 per cent in 2005 when there was an oversupply of private housing stock, noted Mr Tan.

“The situation now is exacerbated by difficult business conditions, com-pany restructuring and reduced head-count, especially that of expatriates. This has put pressure on rents, which fell 4 per cent.

“This picture is repeated in other sectors of the property market. Of-fice prices and rentals, under pres-sure of oversupply and lacklustre de-mand, saw declines of 2.8 and 8.2 per cent, respectively, in 2016. Islandwide vacancy rate at the end of 2016 rose to 11.1 per cent, close to the last high of 11.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2012,” he said.

Equally worrisome is the rise in unemployment. Singapore’s overall unemployment rate rose to a six-year high of 2.1 per cent last year. A total of 19,000 people were made redundant last year, a 22 per cent increase from 2015, Mr Tan noted.

Ahead of the Budget on Feb 20, Mr Tan said Redas’ wishlist includes

a review of Singapore’s property tax policies, improved transparency in the valuation process, reduction in busi-ness costs and regulatory fees, and special training grants to enhance maintenance skills and technical expertise.

The association added that it looks forward to participating and contrib-uting to the key areas drawn up by the Committee on the Future Econo-my (CFE). It wants to weigh in on top-ics such as innovating, developing and adopting digital capabilities for the re-al estate industry, elevate skills and raise the bar of competency within the industry, and play a part in developing Singapore into a connected and sus-tainable city.

“The (CFE) recommendations on urban solutions provide a wide scope for Redas members to respond with our collective action plans. Specifi-cally, we will garner feedback from our members on how we can partner the public sector in the master devel-oper scheme to develop, place-make and manage future precincts. We will support the Government’s efforts to establish a formal place management framework to rejuvenate and realise more vibrant districts within the city,” said Mr Tan.

deen Asset Management Asia, which owns shares in the three banks.

Slowing loan growth — now in the low single digits compared to double digits just two years ago — as China offshore loan demand and region-al trade weakens — is also clouding prospects for the lenders.

DBS, South-east Asia’s biggest bank, is expected to show a 6.6 per cent fourth-quarter net profit decline to S$936 million, its weakest perfor-mance since the quarter to December

2014, according to the average esti-mate of six analysts polled by Reuters.

Singapore’s second-biggest lender OCBC is set to report a 10.8 per cent fall in fourth-quarter net profit to S$856 million, its lowest level in three quarters, while profit at UOB is set to drop 7.4 per cent to S$730 million, the lowest in more than three years.

While some analysts see the banks as well provisioned, CIMB analyst Jes-salynn Chen said the market had not fully factored in asset quality concerns.

Some specific provisions were low at under 20 per cent as the loans were collateralised by vessels and other as-sets, but that might not be sufficient, she said. “The problem is the valuation of the vessels could be written down, especially for companies with more specialised or purpose-built assets that are unable to find new orders to support cash flows,” she added.

OCBC is scheduled to report earn-ings on Feb 14, DBS on Feb 16 and UOB on Feb 17. REUTERS

Nearly a dozen Singapore-listed firms in the offshore services sector have sought to restructure their bonds and loans over the past two years to stay afloat, hit by a slump in orders as global oil prices remain low by historical standards. PHOTO: AFP

singapore | sports today • Saturday 11 February 201714

No change in Hyfa rent despite new operating rules

SINGAPORE — There will be no change in how much rent Home United Football Club (HUFC) has to pay for its Home United Youth Football Academy (Hy-fa) despite the new operating hours and guidelines imposed on the train-ing facility, TODAY understands.

Monthly rental of the area which the 2.5ha facility is situated on is un-derstood to be in excess of S$30,000.

Under the new guidelines, Home United FC Youth Football Academy can now extend its operating hours on certain days and resume its youth training programmes. today file photo

SLA eases restrictions on Hyfa’s youth academy pitch usage

Noah taNnoahtanyw@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE — The restrictions imposed on the Home United Youth Football Academy (Hyfa) have been eased, as the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) announced new operating hours for the football facility, which take effect today.

Under the new guidelines, Home United Football Club (HUFC), which owns Hyfa, can now conduct youth training activities on Hyfa’s two 11-a-side football pitches from 7pm to 9pm on Mondays and Wednesdays.

These are in addition to the cur-rent operating hours of 9am to 7pm on weekdays, for which public bookings are allowed.

HUFC will also be able to use the pitches for training and community engagement programmes from 9am to 6pm on Saturdays, and from 4pm to 7pm on Sundays.

However, this means Hyfa will now be unable to lease the pitches to com-mercial entities during the weekends.

Previously in December, the SLA had ordered Hyfa, located at 8 Mat-tar Road, to cease operations of the two pitches during weekends, and lim-ited its hours of operation to 7pm on weekdays.

The SLA restrictions came about after residents living in the nearby block of f lats on Aljunied Road — Block 126 — allegedly complained that the football activities conducted at the pitches generated too much noise.

The complaints were submitted to the SLA and the Urban Redevelop-ment Authority (URA), as well as to

Ms Tin Pei Ling, the Member of Par-liament for MacPherson — the con-stituency in which Hyfa is located.

Although the area which Hyfa is situated on has been demarcated by the URA for sporting activities, and HUFC’s detailed plans for the Hyfa facility — which cost in excess of S$1 million to build in 2014 — were approved by the authorities, TODAY understands that SLA deemed that the noise constituted a breach in its tenancy agreement (TA) with HUFC.

The TA included a clause requir-ing the tenant (HUFC) to maintain the peace of its adjoining premises.

The restrictions, in turn, forced lo-cal football academy JSSL Singapore, one of Hyfa’s main clients, to relocate their operations, which significantly affected Hyfa’s revenue.

JSSL used to conduct full-day activities at the 11-aside pitches on weekends.

It also meant that more than 200 players from HUFC’s youth pro-grammes, which cater to at-risk and underprivileged youths, no longer had suitable pitches to train on.

Hfya’s new operating hours, how-ever, means that HUFC can now re-sume its training programmes.

Said HUFC’s chief executive offic-er Azrulnizam Shah Sohaimi: “This is a positive development, and will still allow Hyfa to continue to organ-ise some of its community as well as youth training activities.

“Hyfa is part of the MacPherson community and HUFC will ensure that our activities do not excessive-ly inconvenience residents, while we continue to pursue Hyfa’s mission of developing local football talent and de-veloping character in youths. We ap-preciate and thank our residents and the agencies for their understanding.”

Ms Tin, who is also the club ad-

viser of S.League side Geylang Inter-national, added that the residents in Block 126 are happy with the SLA’s new guidelines for Hyfa.

“Our residents have always been very supportive of community events and sports,” she told TODAY. “The original concern was really that, at the peak of everything, they couldn’t get any rest because there were a lot of activities every weekday night and on weekends. They were asking for a breather and a reprieve.

“With the current guidelines, I be-lieve that this objective is being met. So far, residents that we’ve spoken with do accept the outcome and are supportive of it. The only hope they have is that they (Hyfa) will adhere to the (new) operating hours.”

A resident, who identified himself only as Mr Goh, said the new guide-lines will help to balance out the need for peace in the area, while ensuring that Hyfa will not be badly affected by the restrictions.

“I understand some neighbours had it bad with the noise, so hopefully this (new operating hours) will give them some peace,” he said yesterday.

“However, Hyfa itself needs to make money, and football pitches in Singapore are already quite scarce, so it’s good that there’s some leeway given for them to continue to go about their business.”

TODAY’s report on the SLA’s re-strictions on Hyfa last month sparked a strong reaction online, with netizens expressing outrage over the decision.

An online petition was then started by a Billy Jones on the petition web-site Change.org, titled “Revoke the bizarre decision to curtail the Hyfa”, which garnered over 2,100 signatures.

When TODAY conducted a survey among residents of Block 126 recently, this newspaper found that of the 46 units that responded, residents of six units described themselves as either “affected” or “very affected” by the noise from Hyfa.

Residents from the remaining 40 units said they were either “unaf-fected”, or called the noise “tolerable”.

There are 76 units in the block. Thirty units did not take part in the survey. ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY

TEO TENG KIAT

However, while Hyfa previously could use its two 11-a-side pitches for full-day activities and lease them to commercial entities such as local foot-ball academy JSSL Singapore, which was one of its main clients, they now cannot do so under the new guidelines.

Hyfa’s total operating costs, includ-ing rent to Singapore Land Author-ity (SLA), are around S$50,000 per

month. It is estimated that even with the latest guidelines, Hyfa will lose at least S$15,000 monthly in potential earnings.

It was only in the middle of last year that HUFC extended their lease for Hyfa with the SLA to 2019.

SLA did not reply to TODAY’s queries by press time, while HUFC declined to comment on this matter.

JSSL Singapore has since relocat-ed to The Arena at Woodleigh Park but its managing director Harvey Da-vis remains upset at how the situation was handled.

“What they (SLA) did and the way they did it, is to me, unacceptable and

a disgrace,” Davis told TODAY. “If they had given us two months’

grace after imposing the restrictions in December, that would have been proper business etiquette ... we would have understood and accepted it in a business sense.

“Now, they are just acting ret-roactively, because of the feedback and uproar over the fact that they are shutting down something which is supposed to be for sport, and the manner in which they did it.

“So while I can understand why they are doing it, I still don’t think it’s very fair in relation to private organi-sations like ourselves.” NOAH TAN

Mattar Road facility can now extend operations by two hours on weeknights and use 11-a-side pitches for weekends

singapore | entertainment today • Saturday 11 February 201715

More dialects added to hit Hokkien drama

Cast of Eat Already 2 will also speak in Cantonese, Teochew

SINGAPORE — Hit dialect drama Eat Al-ready? will return for a second season on Feb 24 with a bigger cast, more dia-lects and new themes.

In addition to Hokkien, the second run of Eat Already? (or Jiak Ba Buay in Hokkien) will see the cast speak in Cantonese and Teochew — a de-cision that was made after director Royston Tan and his team received feedback from viewers who wanted more dialects to be featured on the show “for better representation of the local community”.

“I’ve always wanted to create that bridge to connect the older genera-tion with the younger generation, (and) I feel dialect is a bridge,” he told TODAY in an interview, adding that it took him and his team a year to pro-duce both seasons of the show. The 10-episode series aims to educate sen-ior citizens on government policies, and this season includes themes such as emergency preparedness, tips on avoiding scams, depression manage-ment, and domestic violence and el-derly abuse.

Tan said he felt most strongly about the messages involving con art-ists because his own family nearly fell victim to a kidnap scam.

“My dad once received a phone call that me and my brother had been kidnapped,” the 40-year-old director said.

“My father is a very street-smart person, but sometimes when these types of things happen, you react first. My father almost ran out to pay the deposit. I think when that hap-pened to me, I felt it was very impor-tant for me to put this encounter that I had experienced in (the show),” the filmmaker said.

SuRPRISE HIt

Eat Already? 2 comes after the show’s first season, which was mostly shot in Hokkien and drew over 200,000 TV viewers per episode — far higher than the average viewership for pro-grammes in its 12pm-12.30pm times-lot on Channel 8 — when it aired from September to November last year.

The series is a collaboration be-tween the Ministry of Communica-tions and Information (MCI) and Me-diacorp, in partnership with Chuan Pictures and Tribal Worldwide.

“I was actually quite surprised at the show’s success ... (and) we were told that our ratings were comparable to the 9pm slot,” Tan said.

My dad received a phone call that me and my brother had been kidnapped ... when these types of things happen, you react first. My father almost ran out to pay the deposit. Royston tanWhoSE family nEarly fEll victim to a kidnap Scam

hon Jing yihonjingyi@mediacorp.com.sg

“I took close to a year, putting a stop to many projects I was supposed to do to concentrate on Jiak Ba Buay, and I am happy that I made this choice. I am very honoured to be the first director to open up this dialect belt, which hasn’t been open for the last 40 years.”

Tan believes the series’ first sea-son was popular because it struck a chord with the older generation, and because there was a balance between the dissemination of government in-formation and humour.

“In terms of the dialogue, I am very careful with it. We try to make it sound very colloquial, as natural as possible, so people can relate to it,” he said. He added that he is often moved when people tell him that even though the time slot may be inconven-ient, they make it a point to catch the show — even going as far as to “watch it in the toilet” on their smartphones, he said.

BIGGER cASt, tOuGH ROlES

Cast members Marcus Chin and Ai-leen Tan, who starred in the first season of Eat Already?, will return to the show, with stars like Ian Fang, Liu Ling Ling, Zhang Yaodong, Chen Shucheng, Hong Hui Fang, Ye Shipin and Li Bao En set to join the cast.

The drama will also feature cam-

eos by Priscelia Chan, Hossan Leong, Chen Tianwen, Xiang Yun, Tay Ping Hui and Jesseca Liu.

To Chin, 63, being a part of Eat Al-ready? is a dream come true.

“I’ve always watched the Hok-kien dramas in Taiwan, and I never thought we’d be able to make a series using dialect in our own country. I am very excited and think it’s a unique op-portunity,” said the actor, who plays a dessert stallholder in the series.

“I think older viewers should watch this show, because they will learn a lot. Younger audiences should also stay tuned so they will know how to take care of the older folks in their families. Plus, our show has romantic subplots. It’s funny, and it’s still a drama. Except you get to learn about different (Government poli-cies) as you watch it, without even realising it.”

Even though Fang, 27, who plays a mute coffeeshop boy, was not able to show off his dialect chops this time around, he says he is happy that au-diences will get to see a different side of him.

“It wasn’t a very easy role,” he said, adding that he paid special at-tention to his character’s level of edu-cation and background so his perfor-mance would be more nuanced.

“Before the shoot, Tan told me it was a role that I’d either ace or fail

The cast of Eat Already? 2 is (clockwise from top left): Wang Yuqing, Priscelia Chan, Zhu Xiufeng, Li Bao En, Liu Ling Ling, Marcus Chin, Royston Tan, Hong Hui Fang, Ye Shipin, Chen Tianwen, Zhang Yaodong, Ian Fang, Zhang Wei and Aaron Tan. photo: hon Jin yi

at,” said Fang. To his relief, “after the whole thing, Tan said he liked the performance very much”.

MOvIE SPIN-Off?

While Tan believes audiences can ex-pect to see a third season of Eat Al-ready?, he feels it is time to pass the baton to another director. The film-maker will be leaving the series to work on his next feature film, 1998.

“Initially I really just wanted to do the first season, but because it was so popular and there was so much de-mand, I decided that I’d do a second season. But because of this, (I had to delay) my plans for one whole year. Now, I have to catch up,” he said.

But if the audience really likes the show, Tan says he is ready to look into making an Eat Already? movie spin-off.

“Dialect is so colourful, I really want to explore this,” he said. “Also, there (so many) idioms and many lay-ers of humour in dialects that we can play with. It’s something I find very ingenious and it’s (such) an explora-tion into our local heritage.”

He added: “I think an Eat Already? movie would be very fun.”

the second season of Eat already? will air on fridays at 12pm from feb 24 on channel 8.

comment analysis

16

The global economy is weakening, and Singapore could be hard hit. And

Singapore is not in the same category as countries that have the domestic resources to stay comfortably afloat, or in a commanding position to negotiate better trade terms. VOICES • 18

tOday • Saturday 11 FEbruary 2017

What the CFE report left unsaid is critical to future success

dEtaIlS, COmplExIty COnSpICuOuSly abSEnt

The dust has barely settled with the release of the Report of the Committee on the Future Econ-

omy (CFE), and already commenta-tors are out in droves scrutinising the minutia of the strategies.

No doubt the debates will continue, especially during Budget 2017 time. But let us appreciate that the CFE report is simply that: A report. It re-mains to be seen how the recommen-dations are interpreted, elaborated and implemented.

Still, there are some elements of the report worth highlighting.

The first is the report itself, and the very notion of the “plan”. The CFE re-port is simply the latest in a series of grand national economic plans pro-duced by high-powered committees.

Such exercises in strategy-mak-ing are based on three main assump-tions: The primacy of the Government in charting Singapore’s future direc-tions (albeit with broad consultation with different stakeholders), the effi-ciency of top-down, centralised plan-ning and, not least of all, the very abil-ity to plan ahead in near-excruciating detail.

On the latter point, the absence of the meticulous details that charac-terised previous reports and that we have come to expect showcases the in-creasing limitations of the “plan”. In a paradoxical way, the CFE report is very much a strategy for these uncer-tain times.

Indeed, what we have is a crude, broad-brushstrokes strategy that is in fact an appropriate fit with such un-certainties and disruptions.

The report is instructive in that it reveals that previously we had a “programme”, as opposed to a strat-egy. For example, where 2010’s Eco-nomic Strategies Committee spelled out concrete proposals on enhancing productivity, the CFE report is mainly an exhortation to remain open to the global economy and to be agile in the face of disruptions.

AdriAn W J KuAh And hAWyee Auyong

A programme establishes a series of actions that are decided ahead of time, and which must unfold in a pre-determined sequence in order to ac-complish an objective.

Obviously, a programme functions in an environment that is relatively stable and predictable. Far from den-igrating it as painfully vacuous, the crude strategy articulated in the re-port is one that provides broad guid-ance on how to adapt to new informa-tion and chance events as they arise. To expect it to do more is to ignore the complex challenges of the future economy.

In a sense, it would have been dis-concerting if, at this level of develop-ment, Singaporeans are still looking to “the plan” to descend ex-machina to provide guidance for the economy’s next steps.

While the CFE exercise inadvert-ently reveals the limits to what the state can do to address complex chal-lenges, we should also hear it as a clar-ion call to Singaporeans to shake off their propensity to leave things to the Government. Indeed, the inevitable gaps in the report are like the silenc-es between notes in a musical score:

They are an integral part of the mu-sic, and are opportunities for different players to improvise and embellish.

The second noteworthy element of the report is what is conspicuous by its absence: Complexity.

For all of its appreciation of com-plexity science, the Government’s ap-proach to the CFE was far from being a holistic one.

Partly, this is due to the economic imperative that has long undergird-ed Singapore’s philosophy: To talk of the future of Singapore is essential-ly to talk of the future of Singapore’s economy.

If, as complexity science suggests, everything is connected to everything else, then the way ahead for Singapore cannot be simply defined in economic terms and tackled through primarily economic instruments.

After all, participants in the econ-omy do not simply pop into existence, but emerge as products of different life-shaping experiences in schools, families and the broader community.

For example, it remains to be seen how qualities such as nimbleness, the ability to collaborate and innovative-ness — qualities lauded by the CFE

report — are to develop from an ed-ucation system that incentivises and privileges qualities that are the antith-eses of the former.

Furthermore, while the report enjoined Singaporeans to remain open to disruption and to continu-ously adapt through developing new skills, it painted a lopsided picture of disruption.

While disruptions — automation, new paradigms such as the sharing economy and so forth — are compe-tence-destroying, they are also in-stitutions-destroying: They call into question existing socio-cultural and political arrangements and systems. We forget that our regulatory frame-works, social compacts, value systems and education ethos were appropriate to a particular historical period.

As the economist Thorstein Veblen pointed out in his 1915 essay, the rise of Germany as an industrial power was partly enabled by Britain’s failure to tear down and remake its prevailing institutions and deeply-entrenched ways of doing things in order to ac-commodate new technologies.

Finally, one of the most important factors for Singapore’s future suc-cess is in fact national solidarity, or how well her people can create for one another an island of stability and prosperity in an increasingly uncer-tain world. The report alluded to this in an almost throwaway line in the letter to the Prime Minister, saying, “Our ability to work with and trust one another will be our distinct competi-tive advantage …”

Indeed, social capital and social support may very well be the distinct competitive advantage in an era when these are under pressure in many places. Whereas in the past, Singa-pore goes as the economy goes; today and tomorrow, it may be that the econ-omy goes as Singapore(ans) go.

This trust cannot be assumed, and if issues of income inequality, redistri-bution and social safety nets are not meaningfully addressed, that trust and social cohesion may well unravel amid a politics of resentment and dis-enfranchisement.

While we should recognise that the CFE report was intended to focus mainly on economic issues, one still hopes that the point on building up so-cial trust and social capital is elabo-rated on. And soon.

Adrian W J Kuah is senior research fellow and hawyee Auyong is research fellow at the Lee Kuan yew School of Public Policy. They both work on the Future ready Singapore Project.

Singaporeans should look at the Report of the Committee on the Future Economy as a clarion call to shake off their propensity to leave things to the Government. TodAy FiLe PhoTo

comment analysis today • Saturday 11 February 201717

Why ‘radical Islamic terrorism’ is the wrong phrase

United States President Donald Trump has made it very clear that a central focus of his ten-

ure will be, in his own words, to “erad-icate radical Islamic terrorism from the face of the earth”.

I n adopt i n g s uch rhet or ic , Mr Trump has gone further than Mr Barack Obama and Mr George W Bush, his immediate predecessors. Both took care to avoid associating Islam with the terrorist threat posed by the likes of Al Qaeda and later the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (IS).

That Mr Trump means business was illustrated by the attack by US Navy Seals on Jan 28 on the Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) net-work in Yemen, in which 14 militants were reportedly killed, along with an American soldier.

The ra id demonstrated that Mr Trump not only has IS in his cross-hairs; other terrorist networks with transnational reach such as AQAP — which was implicated in the Char-lie Hebdo attacks in Paris two years ago — are being targeted as well. In keeping with a campaign prom-ise, Mr Trump has given the Penta-gon 30 days to come up with a strat-egy for defeating IS. Mr Trump even mentioned that he has an “extremely tough secret plan” to defeat IS that will “knock the hell out of them”.

When such a plan does materialise, it will likely be one in which military force will play the dominant role in the ongoing struggle against “radical Islamic terrorism”. But how effective will it be?

This is no mere academic question. Even if IS does get “the hell” knocked out of it in Iraq and Syria, most ana-lysts agree that it will merely morph into what FBI Director James Comey has called a “terrorist diaspora” that would spread outwards and threaten other regions — including South-east Asia. Mr Trump therefore needs to get the strategic focus right. Deploying massive military force against “radi-cal Islamic terrorism”, however, might very well be the wrong approach.

Since the Twin Towers tumbled, transnational terrorism remains a concern and has even metastasised. A 2016 study by the US-based Investiga-tive Project on Terrorism showed that in the five years after September 11, there was an annual average of 2,508 terrorism-related deaths globally.

In the following five years till 2011, another 3,284 were killed annually. By 2013, the annual terrorist death aver-age had tripled to 9,537 and another two years on, that number tripled

real problemS are enemy doctrineS and ideologieS, not religion

Kumar ramaKrishna

yet again, hitting an unprecedented 28,708 annually.

The study attributed this exponen-tial rise to the fact that more terror groups ideologically similar to Al Qae-da have emerged in the Middle East and Africa. Moreover, IS — a par-ticularly brutal offshoot of Al Qaeda — has itself expanded its influence in the Middle East, Africa and even South-east Asia. Thanks to the emer-gence of cheap smartphone technolo-gy and Internet broadband access, the rise of popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, WhatsApp and Telegram for instance, violent narratives of such terror net-works have been enabled to fuel the rise of low-signature lone wolf attacks over and above the residual threat from established terrorist networks.

Against this backdrop, the Trump administration’s designation of “radi-cal Islamic terrorism” as the threat and the likely emphasis on a largely militarised strategy targeting it, is unlikely to be an optimal response. There is a need to unpack the phrase “radical Islamic terrorism” itself to gain deeper insights into this matter.

PROBLEMATIC ASSUMPTIONS

Firstly, the phrase “radical” needs re-examination. Terrorism scholar Alex Schmid suggests that an analytical distinction between “radical” and “ex-tremist” is important.

While radicals preach a root-and-branch transformation of society, they need not necessarily do so violently. They may be debated with and even won over to one’s side, such as the for-

mer British Hizbut Tahrir activists Maajid Nawaz and Ed Husain, who nowadays engage in the ideological counter-attack against the likes of IS with the needed familiarity and nuance.

Prof Schmid reckons that it is rather the extremists — those activ-ists who possess supremacist lean-ings twinned with ideological justifi-cations for the violent seizure of power — that pose the real threat. They should never be negotiated with, and the full force of the law should be ap-plied against them. Anjem Choudary in the United Kingdom and Aman Ab-durrahman in Indonesia are examples of such extremists in recent times.

Secondly, use of the term “Islamic” is unhelpful. Islam the religion is not the problem. It is the power-driven, organised violent Islamists who are. Technically, therefore the Trump administration should be targeting Islamism and not Islam. At the mo-ment, though, ambiguity seems rife. While some senior US officials have apparently identified the religion it-self, rather mistakenly, as a “cancer”, others argue the real problems are “enemy doctrines” and the “ideology”.

Whatever the case, semantic ambi-guity is problematic. It can influence policy — such as the highly contro-versial travel ban affecting citizens from seven Middle Eastern countries — that unwittingly suggests that all Muslims are the enemy.

The impression of Islamophobia encouraged by such heavy-handed policy measures is highly counterpro-ductive. It merely reinforces the vio-lent Islamist narrative that the US and its allies are indeed at war with the

world’s 1.6 billion Muslims, the vast majority of whom reject the invidious supremacist goals that animate Al Qaeda and IS networks.

Thirdly, the term “terrorism” seems rather narrow. The Trump administration appears aware that it is not just the physical networks but the “enemy doctrines” driving them that are of concern. Terror cells and extremist Islamist ideology aside, what terrorism scholar Scott Atran calls the “passive infrastructure” or the supporting ecosystem of Islamist extremism should also be targeted.

Hence closer intelligence coopera-tion with precisely those “countries of concern” on whose citizens the trav-el ban has been imposed, remains critical. These national jurisdictions should be mapped much more granu-larly to identify specific smaller “com-munities of concern”.

They are where extremist ideology — for historical, socio-economic and political reasons — have incubated within closed networks of individuals, educational institutions, places of wor-ship and other social spaces.

Such a mapping strategy, inciden-tally, should also be employed to iso-late similar communities of concern in Europe, Africa, Asia and elsewhere, within which violent Islamist cells of potential transnational reach may be gestating.

In turn this suggests that mili-tary force mounted by any additional “boots on the ground” must be close-ly calibrated and integrated with po-litical, socio-economic, educational and counter-ideological efforts. This should be done in partnership with lo-cal communities, businesses, munici-palities and other relevant stakehold-ers, customised to each specific locale. This entails hard work and resources, but really, that is the only sustainable way to “eradicate” the threat.

In short, the term “radical Islam-ic terrorism”, while perhaps a pithy sound bite, is nevertheless not opti-mal policy-wise. While the Trump administration is energetically en-gaging with this issue, what it really should be targeting is more precisely termed “extremist Islamist ecosys-tems”. Furthermore, rather than raw military power alone, a judicious and customised use of hard and soft power — “smart power” if you like, remains the way forward.

If 16 years of the struggle against extremist Islamist terror networks has taught us anything, it is that no “secret plan” based largely on military force can bomb them into oblivion. They will merely mutate into some-thing else. Sun Tzu’s ancient adage thus remains as pertinent as ever: “Let us fight with wisdom, and not just force alone”.

Kumar ramakrishna is associate professor, head of Policy studies and coordinator of the national security studies Programme in the office of the executive deputy chairman, s. rajaratnam school of international studies (rsis), nanyang Technological university. This is adapted from a piece in rsis Commentary.

People carrying coffins of men who were killed in the recent Saudi-led airstrikes during a funeral in the Old City of Sanaa, Yemen on Jan 28. The strike was one of US President Donald Trump’s attempts to eradicate militants ‘from the face of the earth’. PhoTo: aP

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We Set You thinking

today • saturday 11 February 2017

The S$500 SkillsFuture Credit is grossly

insufficient for many meaningful courses.

Allow use of CPF savings for postgraduate degree studies

I earned my master’s degree almost a decade ago and would like to pur-sue another postgraduate degree at the same level to complement my ex-isting qualification, so as to take my career in a slightly different direction.

Reskilling before finding a new job is risky

I refer to the report “SkillsFuture to focus on reaching out to more Singapo-reans this year” (Feb 6), on how Skills-Future Singapore is trying to help in-dividuals reskill and find new jobs.

I do agree to a certain extent that reskilling will help individuals get a new job. However, attention has to be paid to the issue of those who have un-dergone training but still are unable to land a job.

I worked in a laboratory for more than 10 years and wanted a career change, and decided to do a part-time degree with one of the recognised uni-versities in Singapore. I graduated three years later and applied for po-sitions related to my course of study. I have searched for at least five years but did not even land an interview.

I spoke to a few recruiters and they shared that employers are not open to the idea of hiring us as we are akin to ‘old paper that has been drawn on’.

Consider top-ups for SkillsFuture Credit

Last year, I attended a digital photography course for begin-ners at LaSalle College of the Arts at the cost of S$490 and used my SkillsFuture Credit.

I intend to sign up for the next level of the course that costs S$261.03 after the Nation-al Silver Academy’s subsidy of S$228.97.

However, the S$500 Skills-Future Credit — given to Singa-poreans aged 25 and above last year with no expiry and can be used through one’s lifetime — is grossly insufficient for many meaningful courses.

As a retiree belonging to the Pioneer Generation, I hope the Government would consider further top-ups for the Skills-Future this year as I wish to continue with the higher-lev-el course.

The top-ups will also benefit many others especially the low-er-income group, unemployed, retirees and students who intend to continue with more courses with various levels.

FROM chin Kee thou

FROM tan chi Wei

This experience of mine is not a one-off incident, as I know of two others who are in a similar situa-tion. The lack of employers willing to hire people like us — those seek-ing a mid-career change — makes it a demoralising experience. We invested time, effort and money and got nothing in the end.

I spoke to a few recruiters and they shared that employers are not open to the idea of hiring us as we are akin to “old paper that has been drawn on”. Other reasons in-clude our lack of experience in the job or field.

This has made me sceptical about reskilling first before try-ing to find a job. The better option is have employers committed to hiring a person, before he/she em-barks on the training.

FROM Foo li ming

Water price hike could weaken Singapore’s position

I refer to the report “Govt will ensure ‘higher water prices do not hurt Sin-gapore’s competitiveness” (Feb 9).

Perhaps there is a case for increas-ing water prices, but I am concerned about the timing of such increases.

FROM Prem singh The global economy is weakening, and Singapore could be hard hit. And Singapore is not in the same category as countries that have the domestic re-sources to stay comfortably afloat, or in a commanding position to negotiate better trade terms.

So many things have gone awry

since United States President Don-ald Trump’s ascension, and there is already a climate of fear, or cau-tion, amongst investors of Singapore’s future. To increase water prices at this stage could weaken the Repub-lic’s position.

Mr Trump has reaffirmed his elec-tion promise to pursue an “America First” economic policy and some European countries could adopt the same stance for their respective econ-omies.

The situation called for a new eco-nomic mission where creation of in-dustries, markets and jobs becomes

However, I realised that because I would like to pursue a second post-graduate degree at the same level, I would not qualify for govern-ment subsidies.

I would also have to bear the cost of the tuition fee in cash because the Central Provident Fund’s Ordi-

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nary Account can only be used for first degrees.

I would like to urge the Skills-Future committee to consider al-lowing individuals such as myself to use the savings from the Ordi-nary Account or Special Account for postgraduate degree courses.

the priority. Wooing investors is part of the

deal, by going beyond traditional in-centives. The Government and the private sector should work more closely together to identify which are the industries that could take Singa-pore further.

Raising water prices at this time could dampen the momentum by de-terring investors.

Reacting to global events is no long-er enough. Having already anticipated what could happen on the global stage, we must not procrastinate in doing the right thing by our economy.

today • Saturday 11 February 201719

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today • Saturday 11 February 2017

The fire on a train at Tsim Sha Tsui station in Hong Kong during the evening peak-hour period, after a man reportedly tried to hurl a petrol bomb. photo: MtRideRs’ facebook

US, Chinese military planes in ‘unsafe’ encounter over South China Sea

WASHINGTON — A United States Navy P-3 plane and a Chinese military air-craft came close to each other over the South China Sea in an incident the Navy believes was inadvertent, a US official told Reuters.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the aircraft came within 305m of each other on Wednes-day in the vicinity of the Scarborough Shoal, between the Philippines and the Chinese mainland.

The official added that such inci-dents involving Chinese and Ameri-can aircraft are infrequent, with only two having taken place last year.

The US aircraft was “on a routine

mission operating in accordance with international law,” US Pacific Com-mand said in a statement to Reuters.

“On Feb 8, an interaction charac-terised by US Pacific Command as ‘unsafe’ occurred in international air space above the South China Sea, be-tween a Chinese KJ-200 aircraft and a U.S. Navy P-3C aircraft,” it said.

The KJ-200 is a propeller airborne early warning and control aircraft based originally on the old Soviet-designed An-12.

“The Department of Defense and US Pacific Command are always con-cerned about unsafe interactions with Chinese military forces,” Pacific

u.S. navy believeS incident waS unintentional

Command added. “We will address the issue in ap-

propriate diplomatic and military channels.”

In Beijing, China’s defence minis-try told state media the Chinese pi-lot responded with “legal and profes-sional measures”.

“We hope the US side keeps in mind the present condition of rela-tions between the two countries and militaries, adopts practical meas-ures, and eliminates the origin of air and sea mishaps between the two countries,” Global Times cited an unnamed defence ministry official as saying.

China’s blockade of Scarborough Shoal, a prime fishing spot, prompted the previous Philippine government to file a legal case in 2013 at the Per-manent Court of Arbitration in the Hague, infuriating Beijing, which re-fused to take part.

While the court last year largely rejected China’s claims, new Philip-pine president Rodrigo Duterte has sought to mend ties with Beijing, and the situation around the shoal has largely calmed down.

China is deeply suspicious of any US military activity in the resource-rich South China Sea.

In December, a Chinese naval ves-sel picked up a US underwater drone in the South China Sea near the Phil-ippines, triggering a US diplomatic protest. China later handed it back.

The US has previously criticised what it called China’s militarisation of its maritime outposts in the South China Sea, and stressed the need for freedom of navigation by conducting periodic air and naval patrols near them, which have angered Beijing. REUTERS

HONG KONG — The police arrested a man over a suspected arson attack late last night after fire broke out in-side a train at one of Hong Kong’s busi-est subway stations during rush hour, injuring at least 17 people, including two who were in a critical condition.

A 60-year-old man surnamed Cheung, who was seriously injured in the incident, admitted he started the fire while the train was headed to the busy Tsim Sha Tsui shopping ar-ea, district Police Commander Kwok Pak-chung told reporters.

“At this stage, we’re certain that there’s no evidence suggesting it was terrorism or an attack targeting the mass transit system,” said the com-mander.

The suspect is said to have tried to hurl a lit Molotov cocktail (petrol bomb) on board a packed train when it was about to reach the station plat-form. He reportedly said “Burn you to death” before he drew the bottle and lit it, a police source said.

“While he was on the way to the hospital he mentioned some personal reasons, but he was incoherent. What he said did not make much sense,” Mr Kwok said, adding that the Coun-ter Terrorism Response Unit, which was patrolling nearby at the time of

At least 17 hurt in train blaze at Hong Kong subway station

the incident, was on the scene quickly.Online media footage, which Reu-

ters could not independently verify, showed people beating out the flames on a man’s legs as he lay on the plat-form. Mr Kwok told reporters the man, whose trousers appeared to be completely burned, was likely to be Mr Cheung.

Another video showed sever-al items scattered inside the train ablaze. It then showed a crowd on the platform who appeared calm as they pointed their phones at the fire. A fire alarm sounded in the station and a man could be heard shouting, “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!”

Two passengers in the under-ground train as it crossed Victoria Harbour told Reuters they saw a lot of smoke.

“Suddenly, a lot of thick white smoke swarmed over us. People started covering their noses and mouths. But people were calm. No-body screamed,” said passenger Ni-gel Ngai, 30. He added that the smoke smelled like burned plastic.

“I didn’t know if it was a terrorist attack,” he said.

Another passenger, a 28-year-old who wanted to be known as Ms Chau, said the experience was “a lit-

tle scary”, but people exited the train calmly. “There were many people, and it was impossible to run,” she said.

Hong Kong leader, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, said in a statement that he was “highly concerned” about the incident, and has asked the rele-

vant departments to investigate. Mr Leung also asked the city’s food and health secretary, Dr Ko Wing-man, to visit the hospitalised passengers “to understand their conditions and to instruct the various hospitals to give them full treatment”. AGENCIES

world today • Saturday 11 February 201721

Jakarta will ‘spare no effort’ in uniting Asean: Indonesian foreign minister

SINGAPORE — Indonesia’s foreign poli-cy under President Joko Widodo has been one of activism despite some ob-servers suggesting when he first took power that the leader would be more inward looking, said Indonesian For-eign Minister Retno Marsudi yester-day morning.

Speaking during a S Rajaratnam School of International Studies Dis-tinguished Public Lecture titled “In-donesia’s Foreign Policy under the Jokowi Administration”, Ms Marsudi claimed that Indonesia has sought to play a leading role in various region-al matters since October 2014, when Mr Widodo assumed office.

Noting that one of Indonesia’s key foreign policy priorities is to “strengthen Indonesia’s role in the re-gion and the world”, Ms Marsudi said that the basic premise of her country’s foreign policy is to contribute towards the attainment of peace, stability, and prosperity.

Indonesia, S’pore bring maritime treaty into forceBen Hoben.ho@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE — Indonesia and Singapore have brought into force a landmark maritime boundary treaty, and jointly announced that the two nations would celebrate the 50th anniversary of bi-lateral relations this year.

At a ceremony at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) yesterday af-ternoon, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, and his Indo-nesian counterpart, Ms Retno Marsu-di, exchanged the Instruments of Rati-fication for a bilateral treaty to delimit territorial seas in the eastern part of the Singapore Strait, which was signed in Singapore in September 2014.

The 2014 treaty delimits a 9.5km stretch of territorial sea boundary be-tween the two nations in the Singapore Strait. This agreement, together with two other treaties signed in 1973 and 2009, establish a continuous 67.3km maritime boundary with Indonesia.

The treaty is “a significant mile-stone in Singapore’s bilateral relations with Indonesia”, according to the MFA statement.

“It demonstrates the mutual com-mitment of both countries to resolving complex bilateral issues in an amica-ble manner on the basis of internation-al law, and underscores the excellent bilateral ties between Singapore and Indonesia,” the statement added.

Noting that the negotiations for the

treaty took slightly over three years, which was relatively fast for a bound-ary agreement, Dr Balakrishnan said during the ceremony that this was possible because of the deep level of strategic trust between Singapore and Indonesia.

Ms Marsudi’s visit followed a se-

ries of high-level bilateral exchanges in recent years, including Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s state visit to Singapore in 2015, as well as the Sin-gapore-Indonesia Leaders’ Retreat in Semarang, Indonesia, in Novem-ber 2016 where Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong met Mr Widodo.

Dr Balakrishnan and Ms Marsudi also jointly announced during the cer-emony that the two nations would cele-brate the 50th anniversary of bilateral ties in 2017. To mark this milestone, Singapore and Indonesia will organise a number of activities and events to be held in both countries. These include cultural and business exchanges, as well as dialogues.

The two ministers also discussed several new areas of bilateral coopera-tion which were identified during the Leaders’ Retreat.

These include cooperation in areas such as tourism, energy and the estab-lishment of the Indonesia-Singapore Business Council. Both foreign min-isters agreed to continue deepening cooperation in mutually beneficial ar-eas. In addition, they exchanged views on regional and international develop-ments, and reaffirmed the importance of unity and centrality of the Associa-tion of Southeast Asian Nations.

Indonesia was Singapore’s fifth-largest trading partner last year, while Singapore was Indonesia’s third-largest trading partner in 2015. The two nations are each other’s top source of visitor arrivals as well.

During the visit, Ms Marsudi also paid a courtesy call on Mr Lee, and they reaffirmed the importance of closer bilateral cooperation. Mr Lee also looked forward to hosting Mr Widodo in Singapore for the Lead-ers’ Retreat later this year.

She said Indonesia’s contribution towards this has been especially clear in two areas: Its involvement in the Association of South-east Asian Na-tions (Asean) and Myanmar’s restive Rakhine state.

“Asean remains the cornerstone of Indonesian foreign policy,” Ms Marsu-di said in the address held at the Pan Pacific Singapore, belying claims by some commentators that Indonesia is turning away from the 10-nation entity that promotes political and economic integration in the region.

She said that Indonesia has “spared no effort” in advancing Asean unity and centrality, adding that the coun-try has always played a “leading role” in uniting Asean, and will continue to do so. For instance, Indonesia initi-ated the joint statement on the main-tenance of peace, security and sta-bility in the region during an Asean Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Laos in July 2016.

Ms Marsudi also said that Indone-sia will be “at the forefront … in pre-serving peace and stability in the re-gion, including the South China Sea”.

To that end, Indonesia will host a meeting that covers the full implemen-tation of the Declaration on the Con-duct of Parties in the South China Sea, as well as negotiation on the Code of Conduct, said the Foreign Minister.

Unlike some of its South-east Asian neighbours, Jakarta has long main-tained it has no maritime disputes with Beijing in the resource-rich South China Sea, and does not con-test ownership of reefs or islets there.

Commenting on the plight of the Rohingya in Rakhine state, Ms Mar-sudi said Indonesia has actively helped Myanmar to address the issue.

She noted that she recently dis-cussed the Rohingya issue with Unit-ed Nations (UN) officials in Myanmar and neighbouring Bangladesh, adding that Jakarta would continue to engage with Naypyidaw on the matter.

In terms of material assistance, Indonesia has sent over 10 contain-ers of food and clothing to Rakhine. In addition, Jakarta has built in the state six schools that are not only open to Muslims but also people of other

faiths, Ms Marsudi noted. Indonesia has also helped with the setting up of mobile clinics and a hospital in Rakh-ine, she said.

At least 86 people have been killed in Rakhine and an estimated 66,000 have fled into neighbouring Bangla-desh since nine Myanmar policemen were killed on Oct 9 last year in at-tacks on border posts, which the My-anmar government blamed on Roh-ingya supported by foreign militants.

In the initial stages of Mr Wido-do’s presidency, the emphasis on “pro-people diplomacy”, as evident in the increased attention to the mi-grant worker issue, had prompted questions by analysts on whether the country was abandoning its interna-tional roles.

Given its active participation in various regional and international matters, Ms Marsudi observed that Indonesia’s foreign policy is “anything but inward looking”.

Other issues she touched on during her lecture include Indonesia’s eco-nomic diplomacy under Mr Widodo, the country sharing its experience in democracy with others, as well as its contributions to UN peacekeeping ef-forts. BEN HO, WITH AGENCIES

Indonesian Minister for Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi (left) and Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Vivian Balakrishnan at the signing of the treaty, for which negotiations took just over three years. PHoTo: nURIA LInG

22

School of thoughtA tentative plan to introduce complaint boxes in Malaysian schools raises fears of abuse•25

On the right trackIndia plans to upgrade its rail system in an attempt to end the blight of deadly derailments•24

TODAY • SATurDAY 11 February 2017

In Yangon, upfront rents stretch tenants, small businesses

YANGON — As rents in the com-mercial capital rise, the illegal but common practice of landlords demanding six months’ or even a year’s rent upfront is stretching Yangon’s residential and business tenants to breaking point.

Mr Soe Win Maung runs a roadside Shan noodle shop and stays with his wife in the top-floor loft of an old, three-storey building. The monthly rent is 160,000 kyats (S$165) and a pay-ment of six months of rent comes up to 960,000 kyats.

Persecution prevails despite official end to China’s one-child policyBEIJING — On the first day of this Chinese New Year, a shop own-er in Zhejiang province found an enforcement notice posted on his front door that ordered his family to pay an overdue fine of 170,000 yuan (S$35,000) for having a second child. The fam-ily’s monthly income from sell-ing car-seat cushions is less than 10,000 yuan.

The fine, dubbed a “social maintenance fee”, is in effect a punishment for violating China’s now-defunct one-child policy. The shop owner’s sec-ond child was born in July 2014, well before Beijing scrapped its three-decade-old one-child rule in October 2015, allowing

all couples in China to have a second child.

If the shop owner does not pay, the local court will block the family bank accounts, and the authorities will limit the cou-ple’s ability to buy railway tick-ets and to stay in hotels.

According to a notice issued by the Tiantai County People’s Court, their names will be put on the government’s “List of People with Bad Credit”, an online pub-lishing blacklist created to pun-ish violators that is shared with major commercial and state-owned banks.

For the 35-year-old vendor, the punishment would be dis-astrous to his small business

in Tiantai, which supports his whole family.

“I must pay the kindergarten (pre-school) 2,000 yuan each month for my first child. I can save less than 20,000 yuan in a year,” he said. “I can hardly support my two kids. I don’t un-derstand why they want me to pay the fine.”

He says he does not even un-derstand why the fine still ex-ists, since Beijing has already recognised the problem of the country’s ageing population and dwindling workforce by adopt-ing a universal two-child policy.

“What could be so wrong about having a second child in this ageing society?” the Zheji-

ang shopowner asked.

NOT THE ONLY ONEHis is not an isolated case. One hundred and nine families in Zhejiang received similar no-tices last month about fines for a second child. Their “social maintenance fees” ranged from 3,000 yuan to 190,000 yuan, ac-cording to judgment documents released in a Zhejiang govern-ment website set up to publicise court information.

In October 2015, the Commu-nist Party of China’s 18th Cen-tral Committee decided to abol-ish the country’s longstanding one-child policy and roll out a

SOme PrOVINCeS ImPOSe ‘SOCIAL mAINTeNANCe Fee’

Continued on page 23

EYE ON ASIA

Continued on page 25

an ethnic Miao man clad in the costume of a ‘Manggao’, a legendary creature in the Miao culture, chasing local residents as he attempts to smear black ash on their faces during a local event to celebrate Chinese new Year in Liuzhou, guangxi Zhuang autonomous Region, China, on Feb 5. the Manggao performers believe this act will bring good fortune in the coming year. PHOTO: REUTERS

Dressed for success

inside asia23 TODAY • SATurDAY 11 FebruArY 2017

Japan opens door to foreign maids, but protection, cost remain issuesYOKOHAMA — The door has opened for the first foreign housekeepers to be hired under a government policy to support professional women wanting to re-enter the workforce after having children.

The domestic workers begin training this month in Kanagawa Prefecture and Osaka City, before being dispatched to several loca-tions. Still, concerns remain on whether enough ordinary house-holds can afford to use the service to have an impact on society.

Previously, only certain house-holds, such as those of foreign dip-lomats and executives in foreign companies, had employed foreign housekeepers, but the recent rise in double-income households with higher incomes is making it easier to hire domestic help.

Chezvous, a domestic work service provider based in To-kyo’s Shibuya Ward, has around 200 employees, half of whom are Filipinos married to Japanese and who hold resident status that al-lows them to work in any job.

Ms Juri Goto, 36, who lives in Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward and has a four-year-old daughter attending kindergarten, has been using Fili-pino staff from Chezvous to clean her house once or twice a month for the past two years.

Ms Goto works as a yoga in-structor twice a week. Her hus-band, who is a company employee, returns home after 10pm almost every day.

“Never mind working full- time, I was swamped with house-work and child-rearing. So I was relieved to get even this small amount of help,” she said.

But the cost of the services, which starts from ¥8,300 (S$150) for three hours of work, is pricey. “I’d love to work five days a week. (But) the service charge is too high to use to back up becoming a full-time employee,” she added.

A CULTURAL SHIFTJapanese people are also still re-luctant to use domestic services.

A 2014 survey conducted by the Nomura Research Institute among 40,000 women aged 25 to 44 living in metropolitan are-as found that only 3 per cent had used housekeeping services, cit-ing the “expensive service fees” and resistance to allowing stran-gers into their home.

“To speed up use of the ser-vices, companies need to provide subsidies for the costs and have a framework in place to lessen the economic burden (on families),” said the research firm’s chief con-

sultant, Mr Kana Takeda.“Companies are also placing

more effort on women’s job assis-tance, but not only for recognising (a) reduction in working hours or leaves of absence. There’s a trend happening to support women who are really making an effort for achievements,” Mr Takeda said.

Experts also question the prof-

itability of the industry.Chezvous has held off entering

the business in some designated areas where foreign housekeep-ing agencies are allowed. Domes-tic service providers are mainly for part-time employment, but a full-time work week of at least 40 hours is required in the desig-nated areas.

“We can’t always match people with jobs. The strain on compa-nies, including the training costs before (foreign workers) arrive in Japan, is big for service providers, so first of all we have to be watch-ful of the movements of large com-panies taking the lead,” said Chez-vous president Kisun Yu.

Bears Co, a large housekeeping service provider, dispatches do-mestic helpers in the designated areas. “The industry has a chron-ic labour shortage. We can see the market expanding in the future, so we decided on a prior invest-ment,” said Bears vice-president Yuki Takahashi.

The government has been pro-moting the employment of foreign nationals, but many are under the government’s skills acquisition programme, which critics say is a guise for hiring cheap labour un-der illegal working conditions.

Foreign workers complain of problems such as being unable to cope with the language barrier and difficulty in demanding re-dress for grievances.

Rules stipulate that foreign housekeepers are not permitted to become live-in employees to lessen the chances of harassment or violence. Also, their pay must be equal to that of Japanese.

Solidarity Network of Mi-grants Japan, which specialises in foreign labour issues, says work-ers must earn fair wages even if more people start using house-keeping services.

“You can’t have a situation where service fees are lowered and wages are cut to get more us-ers. It’s necessary to carefully ex-amine if there are any holes in the system instead of blindly expand-ing the business when problems still exist,” said the organisation’s secretary-general, Ms Motoko Yamagishi. KYODO

universal two-child policy, which officially took effect on Jan 1, 2016.

As for second children born one or two years earlier, the cen-tral government has told local governments to judge “for them-selves” whether to levy fines and if so, how much they should be.

“In a case where the govern-ment has already made the deci-sion to fine, then it should collect the fine. But if the decision hasn’t been made yet, the local govern-ment can judge by itself,” said Mr Yang Wenzhuang, a deputy di-rector of the National Health and Family Planning Commission.

Under such a general guideline and without any uniform stand-ards, provincial-level govern-ments have dealt with the issue in different ways. While the Zheji-

ang government is taking a tough line, other provinces like Shaanxi have adopted a relatively relaxed policy on second children.

Ms Han Manli, a mother from central Shaanxi, said she has nev-er paid a fine or received any gov-ernment notice after her second child was born in April 2015.

But for most provinces, hav-ing a second child in 2014 or 2015 seems to be an offence that can be punished, but is negotiated on a case-by-case basis.

In eastern Fujian province, one two-child parent told Caixin that last March, the local govern-ment urged him to pay the social maintenance fee. He did not pay and has not been contacted since. Now he is worried because he has learned that many parents who did not pay the fine have been qui-

etly put on the government’s “List of People with Bad Credit”.

Another father, surnamed Lin, from Zhangzhou, said that after he gave some “gifts” to local fam-ily planning officials, they agreed to let him pay less. He was fined 20,000 yuan last year. He had been levied a fine of 60,000 yuan in October for his second child, who was born in 2014.

For want of better guidelines, the city and county government set the amount of the fine accord-ing to the violator’s social position and financial status, said the shop owner from Zhejiang.

An article published in De-cember 2013 on the website of the Tiantai county government com-plained about the county-level government’s excessive freedom to judge the amount of family

planning fines, and disclosed how the funds were spent.

“In some towns and villages in Tiantai, 80 per cent of the so-cial maintenance fees are used for government receptions, as well as being given to civil serv-ants as salaries and bonuses,” the article said.

In four townships, the family planning bureaus, which normally collect the fines, were found to have seized more than 5.3 billion yuan in social maintenance fees instead of handing the money over to the local treasury department as required by Chinese law. In a few cases, that enabled them to use the mon-ey to earn a profit by making home loans, according to the article.

The social maintenance fee, first introduced in the 1980s, has become an important source of

Continued from page 22 revenue for local family plan-ning commissions, a government source told Caixin last year.

The Chinese government should be able to collect 20 billion to 30 billion yuan in social mainte-nance fees each year, said Mr Zhou Tianyong, vice-director of re-search in the Chinese Communist Party’s central party school, the party’s in-house think-tank.

Twenty-four provinces across China collected a combined 20 bil-lion yuan in 2012, according to Zhejiang lawyer Wu Youshui. He sent letters to the 31 mainland pro-vincial-level governments in 2013 asking officials to disclose how much they had collected in fam-ily planning fines and how they used the money. Only 24 replied, and none disclosed how the money was spent. CAIXIN ONLINE

A Filipina living in Japan vacuuming a house that she was dispatched to by a domestic work service provider. The recent rise in double-income households with higher incomes is making it easier to hire domestic help. photo: Kyodo

inside asia24 TODAY • SATurDAY 11 FebruArY 2017

Quote of the week

I hope he will stay in DAP a little bit longer. The problem is that in this country, we have a race of frogs. These frogs, they like to hop here, hop there and when I try to catch one, they’ve ... hopped somewhere else.Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad

Dr Mahathir expressed hopes that former de facto law minister Zaid Ibrahim would remain in the opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP). Mr Zaid joined the DAP this week to show that the predominantly Chinese party was not anti-Malay, as claimed by detractors. Mr Zaid was formerly with the ruling United Malays National Organisation and opposition Parti Keadilan Rakyat before forming his own party, Parti Kesejahteraan Insan Tanah Air in 2010. He stepped down as president in 2012 amid internal squabbles.

India turns to tech in bid to improve rail safety

DELHI — India is phasing out the daily track inspections conduct-ed by an army of 125,000 engi-neers across its vast colonial-era railway network, as ministers at-tempt to put an end to the blight of deadly derailments.

A plan to bring in electronic sensors on tens of thousands of kilometres of track instead is part of a wider programme to improve railway safety, to which Finance Minister Arun Jaitley allocated US$15 billion (S$21.2 billion) in last week’s Budget, and follows three serious derailments in the past three months.

“We will be using wheel-based sensors and fixed monitors at cer-tain positions on the track to meas-ure whether they are fractured,” said Mr Hanish Yadav, an adviser to Rail Minister Suresh Prabhu. He added that the sensors would take several years to install.

India’s rail system is one of the largest in the world, carrying 20 million passengers a day. But it is also in need of modernisation, with many parts of its infrastruc-ture more than 100 years old.

Even where improvements are being made, the technology up-dates often lag well behind those in Western countries. The Linke-Hof-mann-Busch coaches being rolled

India’s train system has experienced several deadly derailments, with the most recent, in Andhra Pradesh last month, killing 41 people. The sector is turning to technology in a bid to update its infrastructure and improve safety. PHOTO: AP

SBY trolled on Twitter after posting complaints

JAKARTA — Former Indonesian pres-ident Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s habit of taking his grievances to Twitter backfired this week when Indonesians roundly mocked his recent self-pitying tweets.

Mr Yudhoyono took to Twitter to complain that his house in Me-ga Kuningan, South Jakarta, was stormed by a group of protesting students earlier this week.

He directed his tweet to Presi-dent Joko Widodo and National Police Chief General Tito Kar-navian, blaming them for not doing anything to protect a for-

mer president.Mr Yudhoyono’s original tweet

read: “I’m asking the President and the police chief — don’t I have the right to live in peace in my own country?”

Indonesians — whose capital, Jakarta, has been dubbed the world’s most active Twitter city — soon rejoiced in trolling Mr Yud-hoyono.

By Tuesday morning, the top Twitter Indonesia trend was the hashtag #SayaBertanya (I’m ask-ing) which people used on tweets mimicking and mocking the ex-

president’s melodramatic tone.Twitter user @fathyle said:

“I’m asking the President and the police chief — those parking touts at minimarkets always appear out of nowhere just as I’m about to leave. Who are they really?”

The next top trend was “Bap-ak Presiden dan Kapolri”, or “The President and the Police Chief”.

@Papi_Ardi said: “I am asking the President and the police chief, how come I love eating roast pork?”

Some also took the opportuni-ty to make snide remarks against Mr Agus Harimurti, Mr Yudhoyo-

no’s eldest son, who is running for the Jakarta gubernatorial elec-tion on Feb 15.

One of them, @martendoank, wondered why Mr Yudhoyono’s son had refused to be interviewed by Metro TV host Najwa Shihab, when he seemed to be on friendly terms with Mr Rizieq Shihab, the leader of the hardline Islamic Defenders Front. Ms Najwa and Mr Rizieq share the same surname.

He said: “And I’m asking, why is Agus so afraid of Najwa Shibab when he’s so chummy with Rizieq Shihab?”

Previously, the head of the South Jakarta Police, Chief Com-mander Iwan Kurniawan, said the protest at Mr Yudhoyono’s home, which attracted around 500 stu-dents, was dispersed by the police at 2.45pm.

During the protest, the stu-dents handed out leaflets to pas-sers-by containing messages of support for Indonesia’s state ide-ology, Pancasila, encouragement for law enforcers to continue their probe into high-profile graft cases and protest against discrimination and radical groups. JAKARTA GLOBE

out to replace older trains, for ex-ample, were designed in the 1990s.

The problems with the system have been highlighted in recent months after a series of serious ac-cidents in which dozens of people died. The most recent, last month, involved a passenger train com-ing off the rails near the border be-tween Andhra Pradesh and Odisha in eastern India, killing 41 people.

Sabotage has not been ruled out for any of the accidents. How-

ever, local officials have said there is no evidence of deliberate at-tacks, and civil servants blame decades of under-investment for the state of the system, in which tracks regularly fracture.

“In over 65 years (since inde-pendence), there was no money to be spent on new technology,” said Mr Yadav. “With the money they had, the best they could do was simply to maintain their assets.”

M r P rabhu ha s pled ged

US$137 billion until 2020 to over-haul the system, as part of a plan that includes attracting private-sector money and foreign invest-ment to help rebuild stations and implement new services. Two years in, however, the results of that scheme are mixed.

Of the 400 stations across the country that are due to be upgraded, only a handful have been approved. Of these, only one is designed by a private company, a model the gov-ernment hopes to encourage.

Another idea, to tap foreign markets for funds using “masala bonds” issued in London, has fallen by the wayside. “We were not able to get better rates than we could domestically,” said Mr Yadav. Masala bonds are bonds issued outside India, but denominated in Indian rupees.

The ministry’s plans to electrify and broaden thousands of kilome-tres of track appear to be behind schedule. According to an internal strategy document seen by the Fi-nancial Times, about 5,000km of track is overdue for renewal.

Meanwhile, an eye-catching project to build a US$15 billion high-speed link between Mumbai and Ahmedabad has been signed off by the Japanese and Indian governments, but New Delhi is yet

to allocate its US$2.7 billion por-tion of the funds needed to build it.

“Unfortunately, the current government is focusing more on mega-projects like the bullet train rather than upgrading the current infrastructure,” said Mr Sand-eep Upadhyay, chief executive of Mumbai-based Centrum Infra-structure Advisory.

However, he added that pas-sengers would start seeing im-provements more quickly over the next few years.

“The root cause of all our prob-lems has been that there was not enough money to invest in capital infrastructure,” he said. “But now, for the first time, the money is be-ing made available to do that. Now we have to get on with spending it.” FINANCIAL TIMES

QUICK STATS: INDIA’S RAILWAYS

90,803km of track

41,038km electrified

7,137 stations

1.326 million staff

US$14.9 billion (S$21.1 billion) budget 2017-18

inside asia25 TODAY • SATurDAY 11 FebruArY 2017

next weekOne thing tO lOOk Out fOr

Feb 15

Jakarta will hold its gubernatorial election, in which incumbent Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (picture), also known as Ahok, will seek re-election. Mr Purnama is Jakarta’s first ethnic Chinese and Christian Governor. His main rival is Mr Agus Yudhoyono, son of former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Mr Purnama, who is currently on trial for blasphemy, remains a frontrunner in the race to lead the city of over 10 million people.

“If we could pay our rent on a monthly basis, it would be fine. Cur-rently, we can’t afford to pay (the lump sum), so we have to share the apartment with another family. We don’t want to share our apartment, but there is no choice,” he said.

The Urban Rent Control Act of 1960 states that a landlord is al-lowed to demand no more than a month’s deposit. But enforcement is lax, and with demand outstrip-ping supply in Yangon as the econ-omy opens up, landlords have the upper hand. A Real Estate Ser-vice Law currently being drafted may help, but it still has to wind its way through Parliament.

It is not only low-income groups who are suffering. For others, the situation presents a different di-lemma.

Mr Ko Phone Kyaw, a white-collar employee, said paying lump-sum rents upfront upon signing the lease does not do tenants justice.

“When we rent an apartment, we cannot know immediately if the area is suitable for us by mere inspection. Hence, we need to stay for around a month or two (before coming to a decision), and if it isn’t, we can relocate,” he said. But, under the current system, tenants lose what they have paid if they decide to move out earlier.

For owners of small business-es, upfront rents can form a hefty proportion of their business in-

vestment. “When I started a travel agency as an entre-preneur back in 2014, I got into trouble when renting of-fice space. Here (in Yangon), it is very expensive to rent an apartment as an office, and also to pay the rent in a lump sum. Seventy per cent of the in-vestment in my business went to rental expenditure when we submitted our 12 months of rent in advance,” said Mr Ko Phone Kyaw.

Some landlords ask for lump-sum payments even from existing tenants, add-ing to the difficulty of running a business, said Mr Ko Pouk Si, owner of a restaurant in Kyauktada township.

“My restaurant is located on the ground floor and the rental rate is K1 million per month, but we need to pay 12 months’ rent in advance. The owners are asking for an extra

11 million kyats in the next year (for the remaining 11 months ahead). We cannot go on run-ning the restaurant with the current practice,” he said.

The government needs to start enforcing the Urban Rent Control Act, said Mr Tin Than Oo, a legal and business consultant.

“A long time ago, before in-dependence (from the British), the then-Rangoon Municipal Committee had a panel to su-pervise the rental market and deal with rental issues with the Urban Rent Control Act. But later (after independence), there was no supervising body, and they (the administration) are not effective in implement-ing the Act. That is why people are facing these types of prob-lems nowadays,” he said.

The Myanmar Real Estate Services Association (MRE-SA) would also like to see the

property sector properly regu-lated, said MRESA secretary Moh Moh Aung.

“First, we need an effective law for the real estate sector. We don’t have an existing law (to oversee the industry). And we need to be in a healthy econ-omy because this situation (of paying rent in a lump sum) … is totally dependent on the busi-nesses. Good economy and a sound legal framework, (and then) no one will be plagued by (such measures),” she said.

The Commission for the As-sessment of Legal Affairs and Special Issues, chaired by for-mer speaker Thura U Shwe Mann, is in the process of draft-ing a Real Estate Service Law. But given the time-consuming parliamentary procedures, disgruntled tenants in Yangon will have to continue to stom-ach lump-sum payments a little longer. THE MYANMAR TIMES

In Yangon, upfront rents stretch tenants, small businesses

A mall under construction in Yangon. Booming property prices have pushed up rental rates in the city, and upfront rents can form a hefty proportion of the investment of small-business owners. PHoTo: ReuTeRS

Malaysia’s school complaint box plan raises fears of abuseKUALA LUMPUR — A plan by Malay-sia’s Education Ministry to intro-duce complaint boxes in schools to encourage students to anony-mously report misbehaviour by

ConTinued fRoM PAGe 22

peers might end up creating an environment of suspicion and backstabbing, parent groups said.

Malacca Action Group for Par-ents in Education chairman Mak

Chee Kin said rivalry among stu-dents could also lead to innocent students being victimised due to false complaints.

“The ministry needs to discuss

the pros and cons of the complaint box and perhaps solve the root of disciplinary problems first,” Mr Mak said.

He said he doubted that the box would attract genuine complaints, especially since parents might be reluctant for their children to be-come entangled in the situation.

“Some may say they sent their children to school to seek knowl-edge, not to complain against one another,” he said.

Education Minister Mahdzir

Khalid said this week that schools were instructed to provide a com-plaint box for students who want to confidentially report misconduct by other students, especially involve-ment in crime. He said the infor-mation provided would be scruti-nised by disciplinary teachers and, if necessary, forwarded to police.

National Parent-Teacher As-sociation Collaborative Council president Professor Mohamad Ali Hasan said introducing the box might create extra work for teachers as they would have to in-vestigate the complaints.

He said the box should be un-der the provision of the discipli-nary teacher as well as the guid-ance and counselling teacher.

“What mechanisms are in place to ensure the complaints lodged are genuine? This may end up creating a platform to be abused by pranksters.

“How will the school adminis-tration ensure students who lodged the complaints will have their ano-nymity protected?” he asked.

Prof Mohamad Ali said the sys-tem, however, was worth a try, and that it should include reports on misdemeanours both inside and outside of schools.

“Sometimes there are students who skip school and are up to no good outside, so it is acceptable to report wrongful activities outside of schools as well,” he said.

The Parent Action Group for Education chairman Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim said the government should try out the complaint box-es in high-risk schools first, par-ticularly those known for gang-sterism. Such a pilot programme could help determine if it is neces-sary in schools nationwide.

“Sometimes students do not want to share information about their friends openly, and would stand by them despite their wrongdoings.

“Perhaps this can be a platform for them to be able to reveal infor-mation safely. However, a proper mechanism needs to be in place to ensure students who complain are protected,” she said.

Ms Noor Azimah said the schools need to be able to deter-mine the accuracy of the com-plaints. She added that schools have to ensure the complaints are taken seriously, and not be swept under the rug in cases where the students have influential parents. THE MALAY MAIL ONLINE

world | sports today • Saturday 11 February 201726

Collapsing Liverpool must reboot or risk a Spurs beating

Played 10, won 1, drawn 4, lost 5. If Liv-erpool could rewind the clock and start 2017 all over again, they would jump at the chance. It has been a horren-dous start to the New Year for Jurgen Klopp’s side. What has gone wrong? How can the Reds repair the damage? Ahead of Sunday’s pivotal clash at home to the Spurs (Singtel Ch103 and StarHub Ch228; 1.25am), TODAY’s EPL analyst Adrian Clarke (sports@mediacorp.com.sg) shares his observations and possible solutions.

Problem 1: running into brick walls

They were so enterprising, so full of ideas, but since the clock struck mid-night on New Year’s Eve, Liverpool’s bountiful well of imagination has run dry. It is not as if encountering oppo-nents that try to neutralise them with 10 or 11 men sat behind the ball is a new phenomenon.

With the exception of a lethargic display at Burnley back in August, Liverpool were blowing away teams that adopted such a negative approach with their keen-witted passing and dynamic angular movement up until January.

Of late, it has been a different story.Flat, predictable and mentally

sluggish, they have spent the last six weeks passing endlessly from side to side without getting anywhere. They played better against Manchester United and Chelsea (even if they did only muster a total of five shots on tar-get in those two games) but in match-es they were expected to waltz, it has been one frustration after another.

Having to hog the ball just has not suited them. Losing to Swansea and Hull with over 72 per cent of posses-sion was humbling,

Moving the ball too slowly, pick-ing the wrong moments to try give-and-gos or deliver crosses, Liverpool have looked rather lost trying to break through the brick walls.

The stats are damning. A far less imaginative Liverpool have snared just 14 goals in their last 13 outings.

solution vs sPurs

Tottenham’s desire for all three points should make tonight’s contest a differ-ent experience. I expect a fairly even split of the ball, so gaps will not be so

the redS have been Flat, predictable, mentally SluggiSh

hard for Liverpool to exploit when they win it back on turnovers.

If they do begin to dominate and Mauricio Pochettino’s men drop back, Klopp must conjure up a Plan B.

For me, that means going more di-rect. While I accept it is not Liverpool’s style to hoist early balls into the pen-alty box, when a rival drops deep and denies you space for incisive passes to come off, sometimes it is best to go longer, to play the percentage game.

Knockdowns and flick-ons often en-force untidy breakthroughs, and that is all Liverpool need to get their sea-son back on track.

They are not blessed with a natu-ral target man, but it is important the Reds do not become one-trick ponies.

Problem 2: DoDgy Defensive Decisions

If Liverpool were serious about stay-ing in the hunt for honours, they would have strengthened at the back in Janu-ary. With a makeshift left-back, two nervy keepers and just the one reli-able central defender, I am astonished Klopp did not delve into the market. That was a mistake.

Counter-attacks have been a re-al thorn in their side. Three of their last five concessions have stemmed from ruthless breakaways that were self-inflicted.

Desperate to breach the massed ranks, they have been too gung-ho. Pushing both full-backs forward at once and letting two central midfield-ers get ahead of the ball were dicing with death and opposition managers sussed it out. Over and over again the Reds were caught short on breaks.

They have never quite solved their set-piece troubles either.

Every time a free-kick or corner is delivered, panic seems to ensue. Al-fred N’Diaye’s close-range finish for Hull last weekend from a knockdown at a corner was near identical to four

others the Reds have shipped this sea-son. Learning from their mistakes has failed to happen.

solution vs sPurs

Rumours on Merseyside suggest Klopp may switch to a 3-4-3 forma-tion against the Spurs. It would be a radical, risky move for a game of this importance. Personally, I would bring Loris Karius back in for Simon Migno-let. The Belgian keeper can look out-standing on his day, but he is often a blooper waiting to happen.

I would also ditch the zonal mark-ing system that has failed them so badly at corners this term. Klopp could instruct his two biggest defend-ers to man-mark Toby Alderweireld and Harry Kane, leaving the others to go zonal, and I believe that will help.

You cannot keep making the same mistakes without altering something. Part zonal, part man-to-man may be the way forward.

As for counter-attacks, I expect Liverpool to be more sensible against Tottenham. Big games tend to focus their minds. Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City all failed to score from open play at Anfield.

Problem 3: imPerfect PreParation

Liverpool’s absence from European competitions played into their hands until Christmas. With a full week to prepare for each fixture, jaded-ness was never an issue. Klopp and his coaching staff could fine-tune the teams’ preparations without dis-tractions. A packed late December-January schedule proved how big an advantage that was.

With five domestic cup games to cram in, the Reds were forced to play 12 matches in 40 days.

This meant there was minimal time to work on tactics at the train-ing ground, players suffered fatigue, and fringe players were called upon.

It blunted their edge, and exposed their fragilities.

solution vs sPurs

For the first time in a couple of months, Liverpool have had seven days’ train-ing to prepare for the visit of Totten-ham Hotspur.

There is no excuse for them not to look refreshed, and ready to imple-ment Klopp’s strategy.

so how, sunDay?

The hosts are unbeaten against their top six rivals this season, and with time to work on their game plan, I am expecting a serious upgrade in performance.

The form table says Spurs will walk it, and they are a very powerful propo-sition these days, but a five-star show-ing from the likes of Sadio Mane and Philippe Coutinho is long overdue.

If that happens, I am not convinced the Londoners will be able to come out of the Anfield cauldron unscathed.

A draw suits neither team, so I am tipping a winner. Klopp’s revival MUST start here.

Prediction: Liverpool 2 Tottenham Hotspur 1

Big-matCh prediCtionSarsenal

vs hull city

(Tonight, Singtel Ch102 & StarHub Ch227; 8.30pm)

Arsenal fans are disenchanted by recent performances and bitterly divided over Arsene Wenger’s future, so expect plenty of empty seats in protest, amid an uneasy atmosphere at Emirates Stadium.

Tactically, fast-improving Hull will try and frustrate an already edgy Gunners side, and I do not think the North Londoners will find it easy. Prediction: 1-0

burnley vs chelsea

(Sunday, Ch102 & Ch227; 9.30pm)

Sean Dyche’s over-achievers have only trailed for 38 minutes at home all season. No visiting team has breached their defence at Turf Moor in the opening half hour of a contest.

That is rock solid form. So Chelsea will have to bring their A-game. The Blues are physically strong though and this is just the kind of battle that they relish. Prediction: 0-1

Swansea city vs leicester city

(Sunday, Ch103 & Ch228; 11.50pm)

In many respects, this is THE game of the weekend. It pits a Swansea side that has begun to buzz under Paul Clement, inspired by the excellent Gylfi Sigurdsson, with a Foxes outfit that is in serious danger of becoming the first top-flight champions to be relegated the following season, since 1938. Wingers Demarai Gray and Riyad Mahrez will be key men, and I fancy them to produce some much-needed magic for Claudio Ranieri. Finally. Prediction: 0-2

There have been rumours that Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp (picture) may switch to a 3-4-3 formation against Tottenham Hotspur this Sunday, which would be a radical, risky move for a game of this importance. PHOTO: REUTERS

listings on saturday today • Saturday 11 February 201727

CHANNELtellchannel5@mediacorp.com.sg 6.00AM There Was A Time (HD) c6.30 On The Red Dot — It Takes A Village: Singapore Boys’ Home(CC) (HD)7.00 The Dr Oz Show VI (HD) (PG)8.00 Food For Thought (HD) 8.30 Wheel Of Fortune XXXIII (HD) (CC) 9.30 JML TV Home Shopping (Paid Presentation)10.00 Euromaxx (HD) 10.30 Arts 21 (HD)11.00 The Ellen DeGeneres Show XIII (HD) (PG)NOON Martha Bakes (HD) 12.30PM Films & Stars1.00 So You Think You’d Survive (HD) (PG) 2.00 Serial Swindler (HD) c, m2.30 Let’s Think About It V (HD)3.00 Island On The Edge c4.00 OK Chope! (HD) (PG)5.00 Race To The Scene (HD) (PG)6.00 Man Birth (HD) (PG) (CC) c, m6.30 The Simpsons XXVI (HD) (PG) (CC)7.00 Cine on 5: After Earth c (HD) (CC) (PG-Violence)9.00 News 5 (HD) E9.30 Travel Bytes: Okinawa (CC) 10.00 Box Office Showcase: c, m World War Z (HD) (PG13-Horror)12.15AM Hidden Cities Extreme II (HD) (PG) 1.15 Sleepy Hollow II c (HD) (CC) (PG13-Violence)2.00 Forever (HD) (PG-Graphic Visuals)2.45 The Mysteries Of Laura (HD) (PG) (CC)3.30 Wheel Of Fortune XXXIII (HD) (CC)4.20 The Ellen DeGeneres Show XIII (HD) (PG)5.10 The Dr Oz Show VI (HD) (PG) CHANNELtellchannel8@mediacorp.com.sg 6.00AM Right Frequency (CC) E6.30 With You, A 1000 Miles 7.00 The Rainbow Connection E (CC)9.00 Little Counsellor (HD) E, c9.30 Tales From Journey To c The West (HD) 10.00 Cookie Master c10.30 Smart Kid c11.00 Please Be My Guest! II E, c (HD) (CC)NOON 3-Plus-1 II 1.00PM Golden Age Talentime c 2016 (HD) (CC)2.00 Saturday Matinee: E, c God Of Cookery (PG)4.00 Counterfake II (HD) 4.30 Disclosed (HD) (CC) E, c (PG-Some Disturbing Scenes)6.30 Singapore Today (HD) 7.00 Lee’s Family Reunion E, c (PG) (CC)9.00 The Sheng Siong Show XX10.00 News Tonight (HD) c10.30 Divorce Lawyers c (HD) (PG)

UpdatE on what’s frEsh in thE markEt

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12.30AM The Score (HD)2.30 Power Trends (HD) c3.30 Say It If You Dare4.00 Destiny In Her Hands (PG) CHANNELtellchannelu@mediacorp.com.sg 8.00AM Home Shopping 10.00 Grandpas Over Flowers c - Spain (Finale)11.30 IWalker - Ah Da & Lulu c12.30PM Your Thoughts, Please? c (Finale) (CC)1.30 Food Of Life (CC) E, c2.30 So Simple 3.00 Salaryman Cho Han-ji (PG) c4.00 Salaryman Cho Han-ji c (PG) (Finale)5.00 The Great Doctor E, c (PG-Some Violence) (CC)7.00 I Am A Singer9.00 Punch (PG) (CC) E, c11.00 News Tonight c11.30 I Am A Singer1.30AM Let’s Eat (PG) c2.30 End Of Transmission tellvasantham@mediacorp.com.sg 1.00PM Vasantham Gold: E Veethukku Vanda Marumagal4.00 Bollywood Masti: E Sanam Re (PG) 7.00 Thirai Talkies II (HD) (CC) E, t8.00 Indian Beat VII (HD) (CC) E, t8.30 Tamil Seithi t9.00 Tamil Silver Screen: E, t Vasuvum Saravananum Onna Padichavanga (VSOP) (PG — Violence) (CC)MN Tamil Seithi t12.30AM Close tellsuria@mediacorp.com.sg 2.00PM Healthy Lifestyle (Paid Presentation)3.00 Tunggu Sekejap III4.00 Crush Next Door (HD) m6.00 Nenekku Superspy Upgrade (Episode 1)6.30 Makan Story E7.00 Jom Hong Kong m7.30 Skuad Cilik (HD) (CC) E, m8.00 Berita (HD) (Live) m8.30 Gegar Vaganza II (HD)9.30 Uda Dan Dara (HD) m10.30 Masyarakat Backpacker m11.00 ASET (HD) m11.30 Berita (HD) mMN Close tellokto@mediacorp.com.sg 7.00AM Peter Rabbit Season 1 (Specials) (Pre-school)8.00 Sesame Street (Pre-school) 9.00 Disney Sofia The First Yr 2 (HD) 9.30 Tobot (HD) 10.00 Pokemon The Series: XY&Z (HD)10.30 Star Wars Rebels Yr 1 (HD) 11.00 Yo-Kai Watch (HD) 11.30 Thunderbirds Are Go (HD) NOON Junior Justice (CC) 1.00PM The Amazing World Of Gumball III1.30 Flash & Dash S 2.00 Kate and Mim-Mim 3.00 The Adventures Of Tintin (PG)3.30 Transformers Rescue Bots II4.00 Robin Hood: Mischief In Sherwood 5.00 Sherlock Yack, Zoo Detective (HD)5.30 Battle Disc6.00 Exlosers (HD) (PG) (CC) (Episode 1)6.30 Okto Cup 2016 (HD) (CC)

7.00 Transformers Robots In Disguise II (CC)7.30 Cardfight Vanguard V (HD) (CC)8.00 Corneil & Bernie II (HD) (CC) 8.30 Sam Fox Extreme Adventures (CC)9.00 Knockout Adventure (HD) 9.30 Omnisport (HD)10.00 Pure Outdoor (HD) (CC) 11.00 Ultimate Clash (CC)11.30 Omnisport (HD)MN End Of Transmission programming@channelnewsasia.com hEadlinEs nEws 7.30am, 8.30am, 9.30am, 10.30am, 11.30am, 12.30pm, 2.30pm, 3.30pm, 4.30pm, 5.30pm, 6pm, 7.30pm, 9.30pm, 12.30am, 2.30am, 4.30am hEadlinE nEws/singaporE UpdatE 1pm, 6pm

Programmes may be pre-empteddue to breaking news

6.00AM Between The Lines7.00 News Now7.32 Insight (HD)8.00 News Now8.32 Correspondents’ Diary9.00 News Now9.32 Welcome 2 Taiwan (HD) E10.00 News Now10.32 World View11.00 News Now11.32 Insight (HD)NOON News Now12.32PM First Look Encore1.03 Insight (HD)1.30 Conversation With (HD)2.00 News Now2.32 Welcome 2 Taiwan (HD) E3.00 News Now3.32 World View4.00 News Now4.32 ASEAN’s Next Generation Leaders (ANGeLs) (HD)5.00 News Now5.32 First Look Encore6.03 The Big Turnaround (HD)6.30 A House of Its Time (HD)7.00 Primetime Asia7.32 Japan Hour (HD) E8.30 Let’s Think About It (HD)9.00 Primetime World9.31 Bridging Giants (HD)10.00 Singapore Tonight10.30 Money Mind (HD)11.01 Get Rea! (HD)MN News Now12.31AM Japan Hour (HD) E1.30 Bridging Giants (HD)2.00 News Now2.31 World View3.00 Singapore Tonight3.30 Cooking For The Crown (HD)4.00 News Now4.31 Money Mind (HD)5.00 News Now5.31 World View

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118 s2 (Ep 54) (pg)Jinlong tenses up at word that A-pao has been acquitted. After trying to keep Manman away from the triad, he does not want his efforts to go to waste. E

innocEncE lost 2In the poor village of Luzon in the Philippines, people are cutting down trees illegally to produce charcoal. Two boys, Jomari and Chris John, would watch the fire overnight.

romancing star 2 (pg)The three romancers enter showbusiness and join the ratings-struggling Chow TV station, run by Lao Chow, to boost their careers and attempt to court an aspiring actress and a beauty pageant candidate.

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manchEstEr UnitEd Vs watford Watford travel to Old Trafford to face Manchester United, whom they beat in a convincing 3-1 victory back in September. Can United take revenge and get the win over Watford this time around?

saturday, feb 11, 11pm

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sunday, feb 12, 1.30am

swansEa citY Vs lEicEstEr citYThe battle for safety continues in a must-win match for both teams, as they hope to survive the relegation battle through to the end of the season. Will defending champions Leicester prevail, or will a spirited Swansea City claim victory against the Foxes?

monday, feb 13, mn

listings on sunday today • Saturday 11 February 201728

CHANNELtellchannel5@mediacorp.com.sg 6.00AM Two Greedy Italians II7.00 The Dr Oz Show VI (HD)8.00 Food For Thought (HD) 8.30 Wheel Of Fortune XXXIII (HD) (CC) 9.30 JML TV Home Shopping (Paid Presentation) 10.00 This Is Opera (HD)11.00 The Ellen DeGeneres Show XIII (HD)11.45 Just For Laughs Gags XV (HD) (Part 1) (Episode 1)NOON Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals (HD) 12.30PM In Search Of Perfection II1.00 Britain’s Got Talent X (HD) (PG) (CC) 2.15 Just For Laughs Gags XIV (HD) (Part 1)2.30 Let’s Think About It V (HD) 3.00 Scorpion (HD) (PG) (CC) c4.00 Nikita IV (HD) (CC) c, m (PG-Action Violence) 5.00 Sayang Sayang II c, m5.30 Films & Stars6.00 Fine Tune (HD) (CC) c, m6.30 The Simpsons XXVI (HD) (PG) (CC)7.00 Cine on 5: Taken II c (HD) (CC) (PG-Violence) 9.00 News 5 (HD) E9.30 Eat List Star (HD) (CC)10.30 Scam City Series II c (HD) (PG) (CC)11.30 America’s Next Top Model XXII (HD) (PG)12.30AM It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia Yr 10 (HD) (PG13-Mature Themes)1.00 The Cube V (Episodes 1 &2) 3.00 Films & Stars3.30 Wheel Of Fortune XXXIII (HD)4.20 The Ellen DeGeneres Show XIII (HD)5.00 Just For Laughs Gags XV (HD) 5.10 The Dr Oz Show VI (HD) CHANNELtellchannel8@mediacorp.com.sg 6.00AM Super Taste XII (HD) 7.00 The Rainbow Connection 9.00 Chinese Di Zi Gui E, c9.30 New Doraemon (HD) c10.00 Little Life Hacks (HD) 10.30 Three Little Wishes (HD) 11.00 Tuesday Report: E, c What Makes A Boss (CC)11.30 Hearts & Hugs (HD) (CC) E, c12.30PM Xuan Yuan Sword: E, c Scar In The Sky (HD) (CC) (PG-Some Fighting Scenes)2.30 Food Source III (HD)3.30 The 4 Chefs (HD) (CC) E, c4.30 Disclosed (HD) (CC) E, c (PG-Some Disturbing Scenes)6.30 Singapore Today (HD) 7.00 Lee’s Family Reunion E, c (PG) (CC)9.00 Hear Me Out III10.00 News Tonight (HD) c10.30 I Want To Be A Star E, c (HD) (CC) (PG-Some Sexual References)11.00 Food Detective11.30 FrontlineMN Sunday Night Movie: Lee Rock II (HD) (PG13-Mature Themes) 2.15AM Beautiful Illusions

UpdatE on what’s frEsh in thE markEtA new initiative between Mediacorp & SGX features hourly highlights of key stocks on Mediacorp TV Channel 5 and Channel 8 from 8.30am to 5.30pm. Readers can now be informed of key stocks, in their chosen language, without having to subscribe to cable channels.

4.15 The Glittering Days (PG) E CHANNELtellchannelu@mediacorp.com.sg 8.00AM Home Shopping10.00 Sing My Song II c11.30 King Of The Kitchens NOON The Unusual City12.30PM Innocence Lost II (CC) E, c1.30 Healthy U (CC) E2.00 Secret Singapore (CC) c2.30 Big Food (CC) c3.00 Marriage, Not Dating c (PG) (CC) (Episodes 1&2)5.00 Served H.O.T. (PG) (CC) E6.00 IWalker - Ah Da & Lulu IV c7.00 Heroes Of Remix c8.30 Approaching Science IX c (Premiere) 9.00 Punch (PG) E, c11.00 News Tonight c11.30 Heroes Of Remix c1.00AM Approaching Science IX c1.30 Let’s Eat (PG) c2.30 End Of Transmission tellvasantham@mediacorp.com.sg NOON Healthy Lifestyle1.00PM Indian Panorama: E Eh Janam Tumhare Lekhe (Punjabi)4.00 Vasantham Box Office: E En Purushanthaan Enakku Mattumthaan 7.00 Theriyatha Tamil Cinema III E, t (HD) (CC)8.00 Ha Ha Ha Sirippu 8.30 Tamil Seithi t9.00 Ninaivugal - E, t Valentine’s Day Telemovie (HD) (CC)11.00 Cinema Express: E, t Bangalore Naatkal (CC)2.00AM Tamil Seithi t2.30 Close tellsuria@mediacorp.com.sg 10.00AM A&E (PG) (CC) E, m11.00 Kecoh IINOON Makcik Kaypop (Episode 1) E12.30PM Zahira m1.30 Jom Hong Kong m2.00 Jiwa (PG) m3.00 Tunggu Sekejap III4.00 Kasih Antara Kita m6.00 Nenekku Superspy Upgrade6.30 Makan Story II E (Episode 1)7.00 Eksis Abis m7.30 Orang Pinggiran (HD) m8.00 Berita (HD) (Live) m8.30 Ceria Popstar (HD)9.30 Uda Dan Dara (HD) m10.30 Ikon Kuliner Nusantara m11.00 Raikan Wanita (Episode 1) m11.30 Berita (HD) mMN Close tellokto@mediacorp.com.sg 7.00AM Baby Looney Tunes II (Episodes 1&2) (Pre-school)8.00 Sesame Street (Pre-school) 9.00 Robocar POLI Seasons 3 & 49.30 Tobot (HD) 10.00 Buddy Fight (HD)10.30 CardFight! Vanguard G: NEXT (HD)11.00 Power Rangers Dino Super Charge11.30 Thunderbirds Are Go (HD)NOON Exlosers (HD) (PG) (CC) (Episode 1)12.30PM Okto Cup 2016 (HD) (CC)1.00 The Amazing World Of Gumball III

1.30 Flash & Dash S 2.00 Kate And Mim-Mim 3.00 The Adventures Of Tintin (PG) 3.30 Transformers Rescue Bots II4.00 Robin Hood: Mischief In Sherwood 5.00 Sherlock Yack, Zoo Detective (HD)5.30 Battle Disc 6.00 Junior Justice (CC) 7.00 Transformers Robots In Disguise II (CC)7.30 Cardfight Vanguard V (HD) (CC) 8.00 Corneil & Bernie II (HD) (CC)8.30 Sam Fox Extreme Adventures (CC)9.00 Knockout Adventure (HD) (CC)9.30 Omnisport (HD)10.00 The Football Review (HD) 11.00 Ultimate Clash (CC) 11.30 Omnisport (HD) MN End Of Transmission programming@channelnewsasia.com hEadlinEs nEws 7.30am, 8.30am, 9.30am, 10.30am, 11.30am, 12.30pm, 2.30pm, 3.30pm, 4.30pm, 5.30pm, 6pm, 7.30pm, 9.30pm, 11pm, 12.30am, 2.30am, 4.30am hEadlinE nEws/singaporE UpdatE 1pm, 6pm

Programmes may be pre-empteddue to breaking news

6.00AM Inside The Storm 2 - Back From The Brink (HD)7.00 News Now7.32 Correspondents’ Diary8.00 News Now8.32 World View9.00 News Now9.32 Bridging Giants (HD)10.00 News Now10.32 Money Mind (HD)11.00 News Now11.32 Let’s Think About It (HD)NOON News Now12.32PM First Look Encore1.03 Japan Hour (HD) E2.00 News Now2.32 Insight (HD)3.00 News Now3.32 World View4.00 News Now4.32 Correspondents’ Diary5.00 News Now5.32 First Look Encore6.03 Cooking For The Crown (HD)6.30 Bridging Giants (HD)7.00 Primetime Asia7.32 Welcome 2 Taiwan (HD) E8.00 Finding Singapore (HD)9.00 Primetime World9.31 Let’s Think About It (HD)10.00 Singapore Tonight10.30 SportsWorld Weekend11.01 Cooking For The Crown (HD)11.30 Welcome 2 Taiwan (HD) EMN News Now12.31AM Fortunes From Fun (HD)1.00 Finding Singapore (HD)2.00 News Now2.31 World View3.00 Singapore Tonight3.30 Bridging Giants (HD)4.00 News Now4.31 SportsWorld Weekend5.00 Inventing Southeast Asia With Dr. Farish Noor (HD)

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stay hEalthy stay happyA health-themed info-ed talkshow that discusses one health issue or illness each week, featuring Taiwanese celebrities and health practitioners. The programme is hosted by singer Selina Jen.

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today • Saturday 11 February 201729

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