The second son of former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, Lee Hsien Yang, has made a press release confirming that his father’s wish will be respected and the Oxley Road house will be demolished:
“In accordance with our late father’s last Will and Testament that his house at 38 Oxley Road be demolished, my sister and I, as the executors and trustees of the estate, believe it is only appropriate that some of his personal items of historic importance, that have been used by him at the house, be donated to the NHB for the people of Singapore who honoured him with their love and respect during our recent bereavement.”
Previously the Singapore Government intended to preserve Lee Kuan Yew’s more than 100 year old bungalow as a national monument and even have laws under the Preservation of Monuments Act to over-rule his will.
According to Lee Hsien Yang, all personal items of historical value will be donated to the National Heritage Board and he has signed the deed on Monday (June 8).
More than 100 days have passed since 23 March, and business seems to be back to normal in Singapore. There is no more outpouring of gratitude whatsoever and in typical pragmatic style people have begun to realise that the next general elections could be as near as 100 days away. Given the trend of downwards support for PAP, things certainly look interesting.
For one, the PAP has always preached that the opposition should not be given a blank cheque less they make things hard by blocking policies in parliament. As the past 5 years have shown, this is complete and utter bullshit; the WP has shown that they have acted responsibly by voting to strengthen regulatory oversight of town councils despite placing a higher burden on them.
In fact, quite the contrast can be said. The PAP has made use of their parliamentary majority to pass laws such as the population white paper and the implementation of new media laws, which may not have been favourably received by the majority at large. Hence, more opposition power in parliament may be seen as a positive thing as democracy becomes the new norm.
Are we willing to accept that alternative political parties in parliament have added more value? While Aljunied town council may have been portrayed as a failure, the fact that WP’s presence in parliament has proven its worth as they serve as a platform to raise difficult questions and elicit answers from the PAP to allow us an insight into their thinking.
The questions range from the millions spent on scholarships to foreign students to government intentions on the use of ‘unaccredited’ degrees. In both instances, this left some sour feeling on the expected returns from these foreign scholars as well as the PAP government’s lack of empathy. As this catches on, slowly but surely people have begun to realise the merits of having more voices.
So let’s think about it: do we want another 5 years with PAP?
PETALING JAYA: The father of a British woman arrested in Sabah for posing nude on top of Mount Kinabalu has pleaded for mercy for his daughter, 24-year old Eleanor Hawkins.
“She’s pretty scared and quite upset,” said Timothy Hawkins, who was quoted by the British newspaper The Telegraph on Thursday.
Hawkins, who owns a mechanical engineering business in the village of Draycott in Derbyshire told The Telegraph: “We really hope they don’t try to make an example of her.”
It was reported that Eleanor was touring Southeast Asia when she was arrested at Tawau airport as she was about to catch a flight to Kuala Lumpur as part of an extended tour of Southeast Asia following her graduation from the University of Southampton with a Masters degree in aeronautical engineering.
The tour, which began in January saw Eleanor traveling alone from Thailand to Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam before arriving in Malaysia. She was planning to continue from Malaysia to Singapore, Indonesia and Hong Kong.
She had reportedly expressed her love for Southeast Asia and Malaysia in particular, saying that Malaysia has ” proper palm trees and decent sunsets. It’s pretty damn amazing.”
On May 30, a group of tourists allegedly stripped naked and indiscriminately urinated atop Kinabalu. They posed for pictures that went viral after they were posted on social media.
Their antics angered Sabah’s Kadazandusun tribe who revere the mountain and view them as an insult and desecration of a sacred place.
On Wednesday, two of the four tourists remanded by police for desecrating Mount Kinabalu confessed to going naked while on the mountain. The four were remanded the same day while police hunt for six other tourists who allegedly committed the offence together.
The four were Eleanor, a 23-year-old male and his 22-year-old sister, from Canada; and a 23-year-old Dutchman.
They were remanded until June 13 for investigations under Section 294(a) of the Penal Code for committing obscene acts in a public place. They have yet to be charged in court.
If convicted, they face a maximum three-month jail term or a fine, or both.
Police believe the other six tourists, mostly Europeans, were still in the state.
On June 5, a magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck the mountain and 18 people lost their lives.
Meanwhile, the Guardian reported that Timothy had spoken to Eleanor on Wednesday morning, saying that it was good to speak to her.
Timothy added that Eleanor was relieved to be in the hands of the Malaysian authorities after seeing the anger the stunt had created among Malaysians.
“She’s kind of relieved because she saw it coming. It’s good to know where she is. It is not the kind of situation you envisage when your daughter goes travelling. I have faith in their judicial system,” he said.
KUALA LUMPUR, June 11 ― The antics of a British national who has been blamed for causing last week’s earthquake in Sabah when she and a group of other tourists photographed themselves in the buff atop Mount Kinabalu, has earned sensational headlines in the UK.
In UK daily The Sun, the eye-catching headline, “Your boobs have angered mountain gods”, was splattered across its front-page today, against the backdrop of a photograph showing several tourists allegedly in the act of stripping naked on Mount Kinabalu’s peak.
It also carried the words “Brit girl jailed after strip ‘causes killer earthquake’”, along with a photograph of Eleanor Hawkins, the 24-year-old British woman who was nabbed by police as she attempted to leave the state.
The Sun also claimed to have an “exclusive” story on the episode, with an excerpt claiming that the British national had said “I’m scared” and had apologised for what the paper called a “prank”.
In the same excerpt, it said the backpacker was in jail and was “accused of angering the gods and causing a deadly earthquake”.
Another paper Daily Star used the headline “Naked Brit girl caused killer quake”, while The Daily Mirror used the headline “Nude student faces jail for ‘causing deadly quake’” along with the line “Locals in Borneo say gods on sacred mountain were angered by photo prank”.
Yesterday, Sabah police confirmed Hawkins was nabbed at Sabah’s Tawau airport while attempting to leave the state, while three others surrendered themselves — Canadian siblings Lindsey Petersen, 23 and Danielle Petersen, 22 and Dutch national Dylan Snel,23 — to the police.
The four are currently under a four-day remand at Sabah capital Kota Kinabalu’s police station, where they are being detained to aid in a police probe.
The police are probing the four under Section 294(a) of the Penal code for public indecency, an offence which is punishable by a maximum three months’ jail term or fine or both.
They have yet to be charged, but their lawyer Ronny Cham was reported in The Guardian as saying their likely defence would be that Mount Kinabalu’s summit should not be defined as a public place where annoyance could be caused to the public.
According to UK dailies TheGuardian and TheTelegraph, Hawkins’ father Tim Hawkins is hoping that Malaysian authorities will only fine his daughter and sentence her “to some kind of relief work” and require a public apology.
“She’s going to plead guilty and then it is up to a plea bargain from her lawyer. We have faith in the Malaysian justice system, but I have a terrible feeling they might throw the book at her, make an example of them,” he was quoted saying by TheTelegraph.
According to a police report by Sabah Parks staff, 10 tourists were alleged to have stripped and posed naked for photos on Mount Kinabalu’s peak on May 30 and reportedly rebuffed their local guide who tried to stop them, telling him to “go to hell”.
The act has angered natives who believe that the mountain is sacred and carries the spirit of their ancestors, with deputy chief minister Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan blaming a magnitude 5.9 earthquake on June 5 that killed 18 people on the disrespectful act.
Four Western tourists accused of being part of a group who posed nude at the top of Malaysia’s Mount Kinabalu have appeared in court in Sabah state.
Authorities said the two Canadians, a Briton and a Dutchman may be charged with causing public nuisance.
Mt Kinabalu was hit by a magnitude 6.0 earthquake last Friday which left 18 people dead, including children.
A senior minister last week said the tourists had angered the spirits of the mountain, which is considered sacred.
Six people sought
Ranau district police chief Mohd Farhan Lee Abdullah confirmed to the BBC that the authorities had arrested a British woman at Tawau airport in Sabah on Tuesday.
The two Canadians, who are siblings, and the Dutchman turned themselves in to police on the same day.
Their lawyer, Ronny Cham, told the BBC’s Jennifer Pak that he had requested the four be held apart from other detainees in order to ensure their safety.
A candle-lit vigil was held on Tuesday for the victims of the Mount Kinabalu earthquake
The group appeared in court on Wednesday to have their remand extended, according to Malaysian newspaper The Star. They will now be held until Saturday while police continue their investigation.
Jalaluddin Abdul Rahman, Sabah’s police commissioner, was quoted by AFP news agency as saying that the authorities may charge them with causing a public nuisance.
He said they were still looking for six other tourists from the same group “and we will catch them”.
The father of the British tourist who has been arrested, Eleanor Hawkins from the English city of Derby, said he was extremely worried about her. “I have got every faith in [Malaysia’s] judicial system. I just hope they don’t make an example of them,” Tim Hawkins told the Guardian newspaper.
‘Disrespect’
The group of 10 foreigners had allegedly stripped naked and posed for pictures on 30 May. They were also said to have urinated on the mountain.
The Muslim-majority country is socially conservative, and Mount Kinabalu is also considered sacred by Sabah’s Kadazan Dusun tribe.
Pictures posted on social media angered many in Malaysia, but public sentiment intensified after the quake.
Why is Kinabalu sacred?
Sabah’s Kadazan Dusun tribe believe the mountain houses the spirits of their dead ancestors.
The name Kinabalu is derived from the tribe’s phrase “Aki Nabalu”, which means resting place of the dead.
Climbers are told by guides, many of whom are Kadazan Dusun, to treat the mountain with respect and to refrain from shouting, screaming or cursing at it.
Every December the tribe conducts a ritual called the Monolob to appease the spirits and allow climbers to continue visiting the mountain.
A priestess, called a Bobolian, makes an offering of seven white chickens accompanied by seven chicken eggs, betel nuts, tobacco, limestone powder, and betel plant leaves. The Bobolian leads a chant and the chickens are then slaughtered, cooked, and given to the ceremony participants.
In the past, this ceremony was conducted before every ascent, and climbers used the cooked meat as rations for their journey.
Last weekend, Sabah’s deputy chief minister, Joseph Pairin Kitingan, had linked the earthquake to the tourists’ act. He said the tragedy was a “confirmation” that they had showed “disrespect” to the mountain.
Sabah’s tourism minister, Masidi Manjun, said later that this idea was “misconstrued”, but added that the tourists’ actions “were against the people of the largest tribe in Sabah”.
Some officials have demanded that the foreigners be tried in a native court for flouting local customs.
Mr Masidi said on Wednesday that searchers had found the bodies of the last two missing people.
Mourners left tributes to primary school victims in Singapore over the weekend
Singapore’s education ministry identified the two bodies as pupil Navdeep Singh Jaryal Raj Kumar and teacher Mohammad Ghazi Bin Mohamed.
They were part of a group from Tanjong Katong Primary School who were climbing the mountain with guides when the earthquake struck. Seven pupils, two teachers and a guide were killed.
Others killed included Malaysians and citizens from China, Japan and the Philippines.
