Category: Singapuraku

AHPETC Banded Red In Two Categories In MND Report

The Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC) has been banded “red” again in two areas in the latest Town Council Management report, the Ministry of National Development (MND) said on Tuesday (Dec 1).

The annual Town Council Management Report assesses the town councils on five indicators – estate cleanliness, estate maintenance, lift performance, service and conservancy charges (S&CC) arrears management and corporate governance. The town councils’ performance is rated in three bands – green, amber or red.

In the latest report, MND said most town councils performed well last year, although some “could do better” in the area of estate maintenance, S&CC arrears management and corporate governance.

Ten town councils scored “amber” in the estate maintenance category. The obstruction of common areas was the topmost observation, accounting for 36 per cent of total estate maintenance observations, the report said. Such obstructions are fire hazards and can hamper evacuation efforts during emergencies.

AHPETC BANDED “RED” IN TWO CATEGORIES

This is the third successive report that the Workers’ Party-led Town Council has been banded “red” for corporate governance, and the fourth successive report it has been banded “red” for S&CC arrears management.

AHPETC was banded “red” under S&CC arrears management for failing to submit its monthly S&CC arrears report for the assessment period, “even though it was reminded to do so and extensions of deadline were granted”, MND said, adding that most of the Town Council’s S&CC arrears reports since May 2013 are still outstanding.

Under corporate governance, the Town Council was banded “red” due to three legal and regulatory contraventions as indicated by its own auditor’s findings and its self-declared corporate governance checklist, the report said.

In the FY2013 report, the Town Council was banded “red” as it had not shown that it had rectified the various legal and regulatory contraventions for FY2011 and FY2012, and had not submitted its FY2013 audited financial statements, auditor’s report, auditor’s management letter and self-declared corporate governance checklist.

It subsequently made the required submissions for FY2013 on Jun 30 this year, which showed four regulatory contraventions. AHPETC would still have been banded “red” in the FY2013 report if it had submitted the required documents on time and therefore no revision of this rating was needed, the ministry said.

Chua Chu Kang Town Council and Potong Pasir Town Council were also banded “amber” for S&CC arrears management.

Bishan-Toa Payoh Town Council received an “amber” rating for corporate governance on a “technicality”, the report said. The Town Council had incorrectly classified its residential rooftop antenna Temporary Occupation License income under its commercial property fund for FY2014, due to a data migration error when it moved to a new computer system. It has since made the necessary rectifications.

TOWN COUNCIL WORKING TO ADDRESS ISSUES: PRITAM SINGH

Responding to the report, chairman of the Aljunied-Hougang Town Council Pritam Singh said in a press release on Tuesday that the “red bandings for S&CC arrears management and corporate governance are issues that the Town Council has been working to address”.

Mr Singh added that a new Town Council management software system has been approved to tackle the issues.

“Despite incremental enhancements made to the existing IT system over the last few years, there remain inherent limitations which continue to contribute to some management and reporting challenges associated with S&CC arrears management and corporate governance,” he said. “The new system is expected to be operational within 18 to 24 months from the award of tender.”

The chairman also highlighted that they had appointed external consultants in March 2015 to advise the Town Council on compliance matters to address the Auditor-General’s Office’s (AGO) findings published in February 2015.

“In light of the recent Court of Appeal judgment, the TC will appoint an accountant(s) as mandated by the Court. The TC will work with the accountant, MND and HDB to facilitate the transfer of the outstanding government grants and make the mandatory sinking fund transfers,” said Mr Singh.

CHUA CHU KANG AND POTONG PASIR TOWN COUNCILS RESPOND TO “AMBER” BAND

In response to the report on Tuesday, the Chua Chu Kang and Potong Pasir town councils said they have stepped up efforts to improve the “amber” rating they both received under S&CC arrears management and estate maintenance.

“This is the first time Chua Chu Kang Town Council has received an ‘amber’ rating for arrears management,” said MP for Chua Chu Kang GRC, Mr Zaqy Mohamad.

He noted that an increase in appeals by residents to delay payment or lower their arrears instalments caused the S&CC arrears for three months or more to increase and exceed the MND threshold “marginally”.

He said: “Immediately, the TC stepped up its efforts with house visits and worked closely with social assistance agencies to help deserving needy cases. Families with financial difficulties who receive help are often better able to pay their arrears.”

“By late March 2015, we were back in ‘green’, as residents affected needed time to have their cases evaluated and manage their arrears,” he added. “However, this was not in time to overturn the results during the evaluation period of Apr 1, 2014 to Mar 31, 2015. We have since been in ‘green’ status”.

Mr Sitoh Yih Pin, MP for Potong Pasir, said his Town Council has also been “working tirelessly with our residents who have fallen in arrears with their payments of S&CC”.

“We have contacted these residents and are working closely with them to deal with their arrears,” he said. “Often times, we have taken into account their financial circumstances and have arranged a scheme for them to make payment of their S&CC in instalments. This is done on a case-by-case basis.”

He added: “We are pleased to announce that we have made good headway in the past six months and our S&CC arrears have improved. Our Town Council will continue to work on further reducing our S&CC arrears.”

On estate maintenance, Mr Zaqy said Chua Chu Kang Town Council is “constantly working to improve our rating in this area”.

He said: “More than 50 per cent of the highlighted issues in the Town Council Management Report are caused by corridor obstruction and unauthorised fixtures by residents. This will be a focus area to continue our efforts to educate residents in helping to manage corridor clutter and illegal fixtures.

“We have also stepped up activity by our officers to proactively manage building defect issues moving forward to enhance the maintenance of our estate.”

Mr Sitoh said that Potong Pasir Town Council is also stepping up efforts to ensure estates are in compliance with MND rules. He pointed out that Potong Pasir is a mature estate, and as such, many of the HDB blocks are “older and in need of more maintenance”.

“We have been aggressively pursuing our Home Improvement Programme (HIP) to renew our HDB blocks and the homes of our residents,” he said. “As a result of the intensive HIP works, further defects, such as spalling concrete and damaged plaster/cracks, have emerged. These will be dealt with in due course through the HIP works.”

Mr Sitoh added: “On the issue of obstruction and unauthorised fixtures in common areas, our Town Council property officers are in active surveillance of such issues.

“Once observed, we will advise our residents to remove such obstruction and unauthorised fixtures. Some do so immediately, while others take a longer time to comply. However, if residents fail to comply after a reasonable length of time, our Town Council will intervene and remove these obstruction and unauthorised fixtures by enforcement.”

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

December 2, 2015
Court Of Appeal Throws Out Blogger Alex Au’s Appeal

Throwing out socio-political blogger Alex Au Wai Pang’s appeal against his conviction for contempt of court, the Court of Appeal issued strong words against his attempt to pass off the content in his offending blog post as fair criticism.

By using insinuations, rather than express statements, to allege that hearing dates for two challenges against laws criminalising homosexuality had been manipulated, Au’s blog posting on Oct 2, 2013 was an “even more insidious” attack on the judiciary’s independence, the court ruled, in its judgment released yesterday.

“It was carefully crafted so as to take the form of insinuations that were just as effective as (if not more effective than) overt or express statements. There was, in addition to the very nature and tenor of the article itself, a total absence of a rational basis on the part of (Au) when he wrote the article, and it follows that the article clearly did not constitute fair criticism,” the three-judge court said.

“This insidious attack on the independence as well as impartiality of the judiciary goes to the very heart of what the (indeed, any) judiciary stands for and clearly undermines public confidence in the administration of justice.”

Au had appealed against an S$8,000 fine for the blog post titled 377 wheels come off Supreme Court’s best-laid plans, which alleged that the Supreme Court’s “strange calendaring” had allowed a gay couple’s constitutionality challenge against Section 377A to be heard first, although they had launched the bid after a similar contest by Mr Tan Eng Hong, 51, who was caught having oral sex with a man in a public toilet.

This, Au alleged, was because Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon wanted to be on the three-judge Court of Appeal to hear the constitutional challenge against Section 377A. CJ Menon could not do this otherwise because of conflict of interest, as he was Attorney-General when Tan’s criminal case was heard in court.

In arguing against the conviction for contempt of court, Au said he had not engaged in mere descriptive reporting in the article. Instead, it was based on what he called logical deductions arising from a set of objective facts.

But his argument was dismissed by Judge of Appeal Andrew Phang, who delivered the judgment on behalf of the three-court judge. From a “plain reading” of the title of the article, “the implication — or rather, insinuation — is that there was something untoward or even sinister in the alleged deliberate scheduling” of the cases, said the court, which comprised Judge of Appeal Chao Hick Tin and Justice Tay Yong Kwang.

“Put simply, why would the ‘wheels’ need to come off a perfectly functioning vehicle which was presumably headed in the correct direction to begin with?” the judges wrote.

Au also did not have “even a shadow of objective facts upon which to premise what he claims is fair criticism”, they added, referring to the blogger’s argument that his article was based on conversations with several unnamed sources. “The alleged sources – or, rather, their rank absence – bear this out. They were nothing more than general as well as vague references.”

Justice Phang noted that this was not simply a case of Au getting his version of events incorrect or off the mark, as he had claimed. Neither was it a case of Au being misled by these so-called sources,” he added.

“It should also be noted that in his affidavit, Au even attempted to rely on ‘sources’ that post-dated the publication of the article. His efforts in this regard – viewed in their totality – come across as disingenuous. It is clear that the Article did not constitute fair criticism,” the judge added.

Source: www.todayonline.com

December 2, 2015
Pemerintah Harus Melarang Madonna Dari Membuat Persembahan Di Singapura

Tuan Yaacob Ibrahim,

Saya baca dengan amat prihatin terhadap berita akhbar Straits Times pada tarikh 29 Nov 2015 mengenai rancangan bagi penyanyi terkemuka, Madonna untuk mengadakan konsert di Singapura Februari depan. Pernampilan Madonna di dalam konsert-konsert sebelumnya agak keterlaluan, dengan pakaian yang menonjol mata, dan aksi-aksi yang tidak sesuai hingga boleh dikatakan amat lucah. Dia pernah dilarang membuat konsert di Singapura pada tahun 90an, mengikut akhbar Straits Times kerana persembahannya bercanggah dengan ajaran Islam. Persembahan Madonna tidak banyak berubah walaupun telah dimakan masa, beliau masih terus manyajikan bahan bahan kontroversial di dalam persembahannya. Madonna juga adalah penyokong kuat LGBT.

Dengan penyanyi Adam Lambert, yang sah mengaku dirinya sebagai seorang LGBT, dijemput sebagai tetamu khas di perayaan akhir tahun Singapura, tidakkah kehadiran Madonna akan menambah lagi anasir-anasir yang kurang sihat di kalangan belia-belia Islam di Singapura, yang masih mudah dipengaruhi minda mereka?

Sebagai Menteri Bertanggungjawab bagi hal ehwal Islam, anda bertanggungjawab untuk melindungi kepentingan masysrakat Islam di Singapura. Jadi saya amat berharap yang Madonna tidak akan diberi kelulusan untuk mebuat persembahan di sini, seperti mana yang dilakukan oleh pihak kerjaan pada tahun 90an. Masayrakat Singapura amnya, dan masyarakat Islam Singapura khususnya, harus dilindungi dari anasir barat yang kurang sihat, seperti kaum LGBT dan konsert-konsert yang menampilkan aksi lucah.

Sebagai seorang Muslim yang bertanggungjawab, kita semua perlu memainkan peranan untuk membentuk belia yang bermoral dan kuat pegangan agama, bukan belia yang menyokong anasir anasir buruk.

Wasalam,

Syed

[Reader Contribution]

December 1, 2015
Organisers Of Miss/Mrs Asian International 2015 Singapore Must Review Their Objectives, Educate Malay/Muslim Public With Correct Moral Values

Nowadays many people want to be a pageant organiser but never really understand what is the purpose for and the right ethics. Especially when it comes to the Malay community. The organiser of this particular pageant called Ms/Mrs Asian International 2015, should take into consideration of their contestant not to expose her unsightly tattoo (see right-most contestant seated at front row).

Of course for the newer generation, tattoo is a form of art but it can be an issue among the Malay’s community. What exactly does the organiser is trying to portray for muslim married women out of this Ms/Mrs Asian International 2015 when their contestants are all Malays and few are with hijabs.

And also by the pageant title Ms/Mrs Asian International, what will other contestants and their supporters from other regions would possibly think?

This is not to condemn any of the the contestants. It is to highlight the responsibility of the organiser of this pageant to reflect on their objectives and to build awareness as in to educate the right moral values for our Malay married women and our young Malay’s community.

Anonymous

[Reader Contribution]

December 1, 2015
P N Balji: Ignore Calvin Cheng, We Don’t Need A Donald Trump In Singapore

P N Balji is a veteran Singaporean journalist who is the former chief editor of TODAY newspaper, and a media consultant. The views expressed are his own.

It was the week that was worth shouting about. The Court of Appeal quashed the Home Minister’s decision to detain soccer bookie Dan Tan without trial – and here is the rub – because he was not a threat to public safety, peace and good order in Singapore. The very words that were used to keep him in prison.

Thank you, Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon. You have shown that there are Singaporeans who dare to scrutinise and even reject a Minister’s detention order under the Criminal Law (Temporary Provisions) Act when it goes against the law.

At about the same time came the Malaysian decision to kick Singapore out of the Malaysian League. Thanks, Malaysia. If we needed one good reason to make all of us unite under our very own soccer League, this is it.

And our National Gallery, home to the largest repository of South-east Asian art, opened its doors adding another nail on popular talk that this country is a cultural desert.

Thank you, Lee Boon Yang. It was you as minister of Communication, Information and the Arts who pushed against the views of some naysayers to make this another pride of Singapore.

To spoil the party, out came the bulldozer without brakes Calvin Cheng. He went on his Facebook page advocating that children of terrorists should be annihilated to stop them from taking revenge.

I have known the former NMP for many years now. The last time I met him was when we were on a panel to discuss this year’s General Election.

The moderator goaded Cheng into wading into controversial territory, but he didn’t take the bait. Instead, he made his points well with no overt expression of rancour.

It is hard to believe that it is the same Cheng who went on a “kill the children” tirade.

My brief meetings with him revealed a bright, young man with strong views against those whose Singapore narrative differed from the official version.

But each time I offered him a different way of looking at things, he would grudgingly nod his head.

But when he goes into the lonely online world, with no one to check him, he becomes a very different personality.

And that is what happened when he went on a verbal rampage with words like “traitorous” hurled at his opponents.

To try and get a better measure of the man, I spoke to his former secondary school principal.

Harphal Singh said: “Even in school Calvin was opinionated and contentious. I remember once incident very well. We were on a bus getting ready to go on an excursion. Calvin refused to give up his seat for one of the teachers, even when asked to. He felt there was no good reason for him to do so.

“That is Calvin. He always wants to know why. ”

Singh felt Cheng had clearly crossed the line with his comments on the children of terrorists.

“I am sure there are others who have the same view but to articulate them so publicly and in uncivil language, especially when he is a member of an organisation whose duty it is to advocate proper conduct in the online space should not be condoned.”

Cheng said he was deliberately provocative. But he is also the kind of personality who when provoked can become nasty.

The best way to deal with such people is to ignore them. Deprive them of the oxygen of publicity, a phrase famously crafted by former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher at a time when the world was witnessing a series of bloody hijackings of planes.

That is what modern-day parents do when their children use unsavoury language. They turn the other way. One parent said she has seen great results with her son.

In many ways, Cheng is like this modern-day child who wants to see how far he can push the borders of decency.

We don’t need a Donald Trump in our country. All of us will do well to pretend that this upstart called Calvin Cheng doesn’t exist.

Source: https://sg.news.yahoo.com

December 1, 2015