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Category: Politik

  • Stay In Singapore Over National Day Long Weekend, Urges Halimah Yaacob

    Stay In Singapore Over National Day Long Weekend, Urges Halimah Yaacob

    Singaporeans have been urged to stay in the country to take part in its 50th birthday celebrations over the Golden Jubilee weekend that now spans four days after Aug 7 was declared a public holiday yesterday.

    Speaker of Parliament Halimah Yacob said it will be “really sad if a quarter of Singapore goes overseas to celebrate”, The Straits Times reported on its website.

    “My appeal to Singaporeans is to please stay in Singapore during the long weekend. I understand that Singaporeans take the opportunity during periods of long weekends to chill out with their families overseas, and on other occasions that’s all right, but on this occasion, I hope that they will stay and really celebrate together as a nation,” Madam Halimah was quoted as saying.

    She hopes that the travel industry will support her call, The Straits Times added. With National Day falling on Sunday this year, making Monday a public holiday, one can get a 10-day break by taking just four days off from the rest of the week.

    “I know the travel business will be affected but I hope they will understand and see the reason why we are making this call. In Singapore, the government does not declare public holidays willingly, it is really something that they thought about carefully,” Madam Halimah said in The Straits Times report.

    “It is important that everybody come together and celebrate in their own way together with family, friends and neighbours and then really we have that real meaning of being part of a nation.”

     

    Source: http://news.asiaone.com

  • PAP Activists Distributing Flyers Urging Residents To Quiz Their Workers’ Party MPs

    PAP Activists Distributing Flyers Urging Residents To Quiz Their Workers’ Party MPs

    People’s Action Party (PAP) activists in Aljunied GRC have gone on the offensive, distributing flyers today (March 13) urging residents to quiz their Workers’ Party (WP) Members of Parliament (MPs) over the accounting and corporate governance lapses committed by Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC).

    Titled “What You Should Ask WP’s Aljunied Hougang Punggol East Town Council”, the flyer — which was in English and Chinese and came complete with a chart — compared AHPETC’s managing agent rates with those of some PAP town councils. Among other things, it charged that there was improper governance by AHPETC and that the town council had “overpaid its friends at FMSS by at least S$6.4 million”.

    “This is our ‘lost money’. It means we have less money to clean and maintain our estate,” the flyer said, reiterating that serious problems that could affect residents were flagged by the Auditor-General’s Office (AGO).

    The lapses, which were highlighted by the AGO in its audit report on AHPETC, prompted National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan to table a motion in Parliament last month. Among other things, the motion called on town councils to uphold higher standards of accounting and reporting to safeguard residents’ interests.

    During the parliamentary debate, PAP ministers and MPs had zeroed in on a potential conflict of interest: AHPETC secretary Danny Loh and his wife, the town council’s general manager How Weng Fan, are also the main directors and shareholders of AHPETC’s managing agent FM Solutions and Services (FMSS).

    Adding that the WP had deliberately remained silent to queries posed by auditors and in Parliament, the flyer also listed questions that residents should confront the WP MPs with, including how much FMSS and other businesses owned by AHPETC employees earnt from the town council, as well as what the town council’s latest financial situation is. The flyer added: “Why did AHPETC allow the husband-and-wife team to verify and approve payment on work done by FMSS, which is owned by them?”

    It was not stated on the flyer who had come up with the contents. When contacted, PAP Paya Lebar branch chairman K Muralidharan Pillai confirmed that the flyers — which were distributed to units in Kovan — were handed out by PAP activists today. Adding that it was a ground-up initiative by the activists, he said they had nothing to hide and that “there was no difficulty in understanding that (the flyer) was from the PAP”. The plan is to distribute the flyers throughout Aljunied GRC, he said.

    He pointed out that the WP MPs had said in Parliament that they would answer to residents directly on AHPETC’s lapses. Adding that the flyers contained publicly available information, Mr Muralidharan said: “Our activists decided to help residents understand the core issues and suggested questions that they may wish to ask of their MPs. Residents are free to make up their own minds as to what they wish to do after reading the flyer.”

    The WP did not respond to queries by press time.

    Some Kovan residents who received the flyer told TODAY that they were wondering who had distributed them. Nevertheless, a resident who gave his name only as Mr Seah said: “Everything in the flyer is directed at WP. It is quite obvious that it is from the PAP.”

     

    Source: www.todayonline.com

  • Residents To Clean Own Neighbourhood On Cleaners’ Day Off

    Residents To Clean Own Neighbourhood On Cleaners’ Day Off

    Cleaners with various town councils this year will be given a day off, with residents instead mobilised to clean up their own neighbourhoods, as part of fresh efforts to tackle the littering scourge.

    The standard of cleanliness in Singapore has fallen, with surveys showing that from 2006 to 2010, the number of litter items collected almost doubling, said Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan in Parliament today (March 11).

    He joined Members of Parliament who spoke at his Ministry’s Committee of Supply debate in calling for greater civic consciousness, as he signalled his resolve to reduce the littering menace.

    Hougang MP Png Eng Huat called for public cleanliness posters, jingles and banners of decades past to be “recycled” this Jubilee year to drive home the message to the community to keep their surroundings clean.

    Dr Balakrishnan said campaigns have never stopped. “I think what has changed is behaviour and perhaps our propensity to enforce in the past. But now that we have changed onto a higher enforcement posture, and with more volunteers and with everyone being prepared to exert peer pressure, I’m determined to make a difference on the ground as far as littering is concerned,” he said.

    Several new ways to address the littering problem here include equipping enforcement officers with body-worn cameras to document abusive behaviour of litterbugs, providing more training to volunteers, and encouraging organisers to involve participants in cleaning up after major events.

     

    Source: www.todayonline.com

  • 10 More Hawker Centres To Be Built Over Next 12 Years

    10 More Hawker Centres To Be Built Over Next 12 Years

    The Government will build 10 more hawker centres over the next 12 years, located in new estates or existing ones that are relatively under-served, said Second Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Grace Fu today (March 11).

    Speaking in Parliament during debate on the ministry’s budget, Ms Fu said five of these centres will be located in Bidadari, Sengkang, Choa Chu Kang, Bukit Panjang and Bukit Batok. The remaining locations will be made known later in the year.

    In 2011, the ministry announced that 10 new hawker centres will be built over 10 years. The first two centres in Bukit Panjang and Hougang will open this year. Taken together, the 20 new hawker centres centres will add more than 800 cooked food stalls and help to further moderate rentals, said Ms Fu.

    Today, Members of Parliament (MP) raised concerns on rising rental prices, the feasibility of the social enterprise model for hawker centres, among other issues.

    Mr Yeo Guat Kwang (Ang Mo Kio GRC) noted that existing and potential hawkers are concerned with impact of the outsourcing model on stall rentals, while consumers worry if increases in rental will translate to higher prices.

    Ms Fu said that findings from an annual survey of more than 1,000 hawkers showed that rentals take up only 12 per cent of hawkers’ total costs. On the other hand, cost of raw materials took up more than half the total costs, while manpower, utilities, table-cleaning and other costs took up 17, 9 and 3 per cent of the total costs respectively. The survey used data from the National Environment Agency’s Cost Component Survey of hawker cooked food stalls in 2012 and 2013, as well as price data from the Department of Statistics.

    Among the hawker stalls which experienced rental changes, more than half did not change their food prices, according to the survey. “Hence, there is little substantive evidence to say that rentals are the main driver of hawker food prices,” said Ms Fu.

    She also noted that the Government has taken steps over the last few years to moderate rentals to ensure it does not drive up food prices. Currently, sub-letting or assignment of stalls is prohibited for stallholders. Following a three-year grace period, all non-subsidised stallholders also have to personally operate their stalls from April, she added.

    Both Dr Lee Bee Wah (Nee Soon GRC) and Mr Yeo also asked about the new management model of hawker centres, where they are operated by social enterprises on a “not-for-profit” basis.

    In response, Ms Fu said as these managing agents have only run these models for a short period of time, time will be needed before assessing their effectiveness.

     

    Source: www.todayonline.com

  • Lui Tuck Yew: ERP Revenue Fell Last Year

    Lui Tuck Yew: ERP Revenue Fell Last Year

    The Government collected S$152 million in Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) revenue last year, which is a dip from the S$160 million consistently collected in preceding years, said Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew to Parliament on Wednesday (Mar 11).

    This was in response to questions from several MPs who wanted to know if ERP rates could be adjusted on certain roads.

    Mr Lui said the smaller revenue is in part due to the opening of the Marina Coastal Expressway, which saw ERP charges along both the MCE and ECP, lowered, for three consecutive quarters.

    He explained that the optimal speed for expressways is 45 to 65km/hour. When speeds reach above 65km/hr, ERP charges are lowered or removed. Correspondingly if speeds go consistently below 45km/hr, rates are raised, for the particular time belt. The same goes for arterial roads.

    The speed parameters for that is between 20 and 30km/hr. If speeds are consistently above the upper threshold, ERP charges will be reduced, and likewise raised, if it is consistently below the lower threshold.

    Mr Lui added that charges for entry into Orchard Road will remain, on Saturdays.

    “We still feel that there is a need to have this on Saturday afternoon. And for those who find the ERP charge is a burden, then maybe the possibility is for them to shop on Sundays instead because Sundays is entirely free and the traffic speeds a little bit better,” he said.

     

    Source: www.channelnewsasia.com