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Man Gets 30 Months Jail For SEA Games Match-Fixing

The first of four men charged with conspiring to fix a SEA Games football match was sentenced to 30 months’ jail yesterday.

Nasiruddin, 52, an Indonesian, pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiring with two others to corruptly give S$15,000 to Timor Leste Football Association’s technical director Orlando Marques Henriques Mendes.

Based on court documents, Nasiruddin became acquainted with a man called Raja in Indonesia. He met Raja and Singaporean Rajendran R Kurusamy, 55 — among the four charged — on March 16 for a talk. They met again four days later and Rajendran asked Nasiruddin whether he knew anyone in the Indonesia or Timor-Leste SEA Games football teams who could help fix matches.

Nasiruddin later contacted former Timor-Leste player Moises Natalino de Jesus, who is also among those charged. Rajendran sought Moises’ help to fix a match involving the Timor-Leste SEA Games team. He also informed Nasiruddin that he would give money to players who helped ensure a defeat to Malaysia on May 30.

Two days before the match, Raja took Moises to meet Rajendran and another person at Orchid Country Club. Moises later informed Orlando about Rajendran’s “business plan” to fix the match and told him to lose by a certain number of goals.

Rajendran wanted Timor-Leste to not concede a goal in the first 20 minutes, but eventually lose to Malaysia by a few goals. He would pay each complicit player S$4,000 and told Orlando seven players would be enough to help lose the game, but it would be better if all 11 players were involved. The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau arrested the four before the match, which ended 1-0 in Malaysia’s favour.

Deputy public prosecutor Navin Naidu urged the court yesterday to impose a jail sentence of 30 to 36 months. He said Nasiruddin’s only reason for entering Singapore was to arrange to fix the match. “There was no other reason for the accused to be in Singapore aside from committing the offences. A strong deterrent message … must be sent … to forcefully show Singapore’s intolerance against people who come to our country for the sole purpose of committing crimes”.

The remaining three accused have yet to submit a plea.

Source: www.todayonline.com

July 22, 2015
Wanted: Thinking Footballers For The Lions

An important piece in the plan to fix Singapore football was put in place on Tuesday (Jul 21) with the appointment of Richard Tardy as head coach of all the national youth teams from under-18 and below.

The 65-year-old Frenchman, who has extensive experience coaching youth sides and worked with former Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier in France’s triumph at the 1996 European Under-20 championships, has been contracted by The Football Association of Singapore (FAS) for two years.

But the most impressive item on his resume is talent-spotting and helping to groom French footballer Zinedine Zidane, who went on to inspire the national team to World Cup victory in 1998.

Tardy’s job in Singapore is to work with the respective age-group coaches to implement technical director Michel Sablon’s blueprint to reverse the poor state of youth development, cited as a major cause of Singapore’s current football ills.

Making the point that he shares the football philosophy of Sablon, the Frenchman served notice that the axe will fall on youth coaches who resist the new master plan.

“I am the boss of the youth national coaches,” said Tardy. “So they must think and do what I want. I must adapt the quality of the players and team, but I want to give them my philosophy of training and playing the game, and to talk to the players. If they are not okay with it, I will stay, not them.”

In an interview with TODAY earlier this month, Sablon, who was appointed to the FAS post in April, pointed out that young children playing football are under too much pressure to win. They are also playing too many matches and have no time to learn the basics of football.

Agreeing with Sablon, Tardy said the focus should be in building the mental toughness of the young players. The goal, he added, is to help them take the initiative to think and adapt to different situations that develop on the run of play rather than just following their coaches’ instructions.

“My job is not only to helping a team to win but to push players to take more responsibility and have their own answers to what happens on the field,” he said. “This way may take more time but it yields better results in the long run.”

Ultimately, players who make the national team must have three key qualities: Talent, intelligence, and motivation.

He added: “We need to build the mental ability of our players when they are young, so that when they reach 18 or 20 it will be easier for them to think on what needs to be done to succeed on the pitch.”

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

July 22, 2015
Singapore Police Freezes Two Bank Accounts Linked To Malaysian Sovereign Fund

Singapore’s police have frozen two bank accounts as part of an investigation linked to Malaysian sovereign fund 1MDB, which is being probed by authorities in Malaysia for financial mismanagement and graft.

“On Jul 15, 2015, we issued orders under the Criminal Procedure Code to prohibit any dealings in respect of money in two bank accounts that are relevant to the investigation,” Singapore police said in a statement on Wednesday.

It did not identify the bank or the accounts in question because the investigation is continuing.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that investigators looking into 1MDB had traced close to US$700 million of deposits into personal bank accounts belonging to Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Reuters has not verified the WSJ report.

Najib has denied taking any money for personal gain and said the corruption allegations are part of a malicious campaign to force him out of office. 1MDB has denied transferring funds to Najib.

(Reporting by Rujun Shen and Anshuman Daga; Editing by Paul Tait)

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

July 22, 2015
Mufti Perak: Reconsidering Issuing Cinema Licences As Muslims Only Go To “Beromen”

KUALA LUMPUR, July 21 — Perak mufti Tan Sri Harussani Zakaria urged authorities to reconsider awarding licences for cinemas today, claiming that Muslims frequent them not to watch films but to indulge in “hanky panky”.

In a report by news portal Astro Awani, Harussani was quoted saying cinemas are a form of “vice” that is detrimental to the faith of Muslims in this country.

“The cinemas themselves are a vice, what more sitting at couple seats that encourage others to commit vice in the cinemas,” Harussani told Awani.

“No licence should have been awarded, they are there not to watch movies, but to ‘beromen’,” he added, using the Malay slang that roughly means “hanky panky”, but which is also used to mean “having sex”.

Harussani also urged religious enforcers to nab unmarried couples whenever they see any, and not just in cinemas.

“We spend so much money for preaching, but our own side is encouraging vice,” said Harussani.

“The cinemas are already showing ‘romen’ stories, people who watch them want to ‘romen’ at their own seats; I don’t get why all this is happening.”

Awani reported earlier today that a cinema outlet has banned unmarried Muslims from selecting couple’s seats — adjoining seats without an armrest separating the two — when frequenting its outlets in Perak.

The report said that the Lotus Five Star (LFS) cinema in Seri Iskandar, a township with several tertiary education institutions, had issued the ban following “advice” from the Perak Tengah Municipal Council.

It is unknown what by-law authorises the council to advise LFS’s management to implement the ban.

It is also unclear how the cinema enforces the ban or what action will be taken for those who defy it.

Malay Mail Online cannot yet reach LFS or the council for verification.

LFS operates over 25 cinemas across the country, and is popularly known for showing Hindi and Tamil films.

Source: www.themalaymailonline.com

July 22, 2015
Elections Department Makes Changes To Polling Districts

The Elections Department has made changes to the boundaries of polling districts within several electoral divisions, adding to the anticipation of an imminent report from the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee (EBRC), which Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has said was formed two months ago.

Details of the alterations in eight Group Representation Constituencies (GRC) were published in the online version of the Government Gazette today (July 21). These GRCs are: Chua Chu Kang, East Coast, Jurong, Moulmein-Kallang, Nee Soon, Pasir-Ris Punggol, Sembawang and Tanjong Pagar.

In response to TODAY’s queries, an Elections Department spokesperson said the boundaries of polling districts are altered to ensure an even distribution of voters across polling stations. In February this year, the Elections Department also posted a notification on alterations to polling districts.

Under the Parliamentary Elections Act, the Registration Officer may periodically alter boundaries of polling districts within electoral divisions. This is due to population shifts, such as with the mushrooming of new towns.

But the changes to the districts do not necessarily mean tweaks to electoral boundaries: The latter are only later decided by an EBRC, comprising senior civil servants. The committee can create new electoral divisions by taking one or more polling district from a constituency and putting it into another.

The committee will submit its recommendations to the Prime Minister and, if accepted, these are gazetted and published in a report — usually an imminent sign the General Election is on the way. The next polls must be held by January 2017.

The only change in today’s gazette is the addition of one polling district in East Coast GRC, making 41 in total.

As it stands, Pasir-Ris Punggol is the GRC with the highest number of polling districts (72). Holland Bukit TImah is the GRC with smallest number of polling districts (34).

For SMCs, Potong Pasir has the fewest polling districts (5), while Sengkang West has the most (16).

There has been wide variation in the window between changes made to polling districts and the release of the EBRC report.

In the last three polls, the lag has ranged roughly from three weeks to two months.

Singapore Management University law professor Eugene Tan said the latest notification is a routine step by the Elections Department and a separate exercise from the EBRC report.

“But it’s also clear that polling districts provide the EBRC with the most granular data in terms of the number of voters in a polling district, which means that if the EBRC feels there’s a need to redraw boundaries — let’s say they’re looking at maybe this particular GRC needs 5,000 more voters to make it on par with GRCs of a similar size — this is where the polling districts provide very useful information on the number of voters,” he said.

Nevertheless, he thinks the polling districts are unlikely to go through another round of changes before the next General Election is called, “which means that if they’re going to redraw boundaries, it means that particular district is unlikely to be split (between) electoral divisions”.

Source: www.todayonline.com

July 22, 2015