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Lawyer M Ravi To Contest As An Independent In Ang Mo Kio

Lawyer M Ravi today (Feb 2) declared in a hastily-called press conference his intention to contest the next General Election as an independent candidate in Ang Mo Kio constituency.

Sending the media the invitation roughly three hours before the press conference started yesterday afternoon at The Fullerton Bay Hotel, he spent nearly an hour unleashing a tirade against the Government for not treating Singaporeans with due respect and not putting their interests above those of foreigners.

His electoral campaign, he said, will focus on seeing Singaporeans “being put first”. He also brought up a range of issues he wants to tackle should he be elected. For example, he called for the four official languages here — Malay, English, Mandarin and Tamil — to be made compulsory in school curriculum to “promote equality in the languages”.

The lawyer, who has taken on a number of cases involving government leaders, including the recent defamation suit by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong against blogger Roy Ngerng, said he chose to run in Mr Lee’s constituency because he (Mr Ravi) has a quarter of his relatives living there. He said he has not firmed up plans on who will run with him in the six-member Group Representation Constituency. Mr Ravi also said he aspires to become the Prime Minister one day. He claimed that he had set aside S$1 million for his campaign and said more details of his manifesto will be announced on Friday.

Source: www.todayonline.com

February 3, 2015
Online Betting Sites Blocked As Remote Gambling Act Comes Into Force

Visitors to online gambling sites would have found themselves shut out yesterday after the authorities blocked access to several hundred of them, as laws to curb remote gambling kicked in.

The list of websites to be blocked will be regularly reviewed, but details will not be made public, a Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) spokesperson told TODAY.

“The MHA and the Media Development Authority are working with Internet service providers (ISPs) to ensure that the blocking of websites is implemented smoothly,” the spokesperson said.

As the law came into force yesterday, some regular visitors to remote gambling websites found that they were unable to withdraw money that they had deposited for games on those sites.

A check by TODAY showed that as of 10pm yesterday, some popular betting sites such as ibcbet.com and sbobet.com had been blocked. Some other popular sites were still  accessible.

The Remote Gambling Act, which was passed in Parliament on Oct 7 last year, outlaws remote gambling services. “It is also an offence under the Act to publish remote gambling service advertisements and promote remote gambling in Singapore. Offending websites will be served notices to remove these materials,” said the MHA spokesperson.

Under the new legislation, it is an offence to gamble in Singapore using remote communication such as via websites or to use a remote gambling service such as mobile apps that are not provided by an exempt operator. Those who break the law may be fined up to S$5,000, or jailed for up to six months or both.

The Association of Banks in Singapore confirmed that banks here had been informed that the Act would come into force yesterday and said it had “ensured compliance with its provisions” after it received orders from the Monetary Association of Singapore (MAS) to do so.

The MAS yesterday ordered all licensed banks, card issuers, holders of stored value facilities and operators of any payment system designated under the Payment Systems (Oversight) Act to block payment orders involving mobile or Internet gambling application or websites.

Financial institutions are not to accept credit or proceeds of credit, any cheques, bank drafts or similar instruments, or make or accept electronic fund transfers or any fund transmissions to or from remote gambling services.

They are also to block payment and prohibit transactions to merchant category codes 7995 MasterCard, 7995 Visa, 7995 UnionPay, 7995 JCB and 7995 Diners.

Meanwhile, StarHub, an ISP here, yesterday told TODAY that it was putting measures in place, in compliance with the new law. However, it was not able to share information on the blocked websites due to confidentiality obligations, said a spokesperson.

Source: www.todayonline.com

February 3, 2015
Jackie Chan Conferred Title Of Datuk By Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR: Hong Kong superstar Jackie Chan surprised many when he turned up to receive his Datukship from the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Abdul Halim Muadzam Shah in conjunction with Federal Territory Day.

When the name Chan Song Kang was announced, many among the audience and recipients were startled to see the star, who was seated in front, beside popular preacher Ustaz Kazim Elias, walk up to the dais to meet the King.

The 60-year-old actor-director’s birth name is actually Chan Kong-sang while his stage name is Seng Lung (Cantonese) or Chen Long (Mandarin).

Some of the surprised guests were heard murmuring: “Is that Jackie Chan?”

Chan did not turn up for the rehearsal of the investiture ceremony on Saturday.

After receiving his award, Chan, who was smartly attired in a songkok and black suit and wearing black-rimmed glasses, walked back to his seat before he was whisked away by a palace official after a while.

A smiling Chan later posed for pictures on the palace stairs with his award.

He also took pictures with several people, including Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin who uploaded the shot on his Twitter account.

Chan, who is known for movies such as Rush Hour, Police Story and Drunken Master in a remarkable career spanning five decades, was among the 68 recipients who were conferred the Panglima Mahkota Wilayah, which carries the title Datuk.

In his Twitter account, Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor said Chan was an actor with many fans in the country and “can promote Malaysia especially Kuala Lumpur and is deserving (of the award)”.

“We should be proud that he received the Datuk award,” he wrote, posting pictures of Chan filming Police Story in Kuala Lumpur.

Adnan also thanked Chan for receiving the award, writing “don’t forget Kuala Lumpur”.

Source: www.thestar.com.my

February 2, 2015
Lee Hsien Loong Instructs The Revise Of Electoral Registers

Singapore’s voter rolls are being revised to ensure they are current.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has directed that the revision of the registers of electors be made and completed by April 30, according to Monday’s Government Gazette.

This is the second time the voter rolls will be revised since the 2011 General Election.

The Parliamentary Elections Act requires that the voter rolls be updated not more than three years after a general election. It also provides for the Prime Minister to call for revisions from time to time.

But the last revision, which was done last year, had already fulfilled that requirement as the election was held on May 7 in 2011.

When completed, it showed that there were 2,411,188 eligible voters as of March 31 last year.

To qualify as an elector, a person has to be a Singapore citizen. He must also be 21 years old or older as of Feb 1 this year and also cannot be disqualified as an elector under any written law.

In addition, the person must have a Singapore residential address registered with the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority as of Feb 1 this year.

This is so that his name can be entered or retained in the register for a constituency.

The Elections Department will give details later about public inspection of the revised electoral rolls.

Source: www.straitstimes.com

February 2, 2015
Former Presidential Election Candidate Tan Kin Lian Posts Racist Remarks On Foreigners

Former presidential candidate Tan Kin Lian has come under fire from netizen for posting a status seen by some as racist.

Mr Tan had taken a photo on board a bus where all the commuters in the photo appeared to be foreign workers from India.

He accompanied the photo with the caption “I boarded SMRT 857 and found that I was in Mumbai. Hahaha.”Preview

He had likely intended it as a light hearted observation of the number of foreigners in Singapore and passed comment on a common frustration Singaporeans feel but doing so on a public platform like Facebook wasn’t taken well by netizens.

Many commented that his comments were racist and unfit for someone who was once running for presidency.

Some netizens commented that they were glad that he wasn’t voted in or he could have steered Singapore wrongly or made such social media gaffes which could result in international outrage.

However, some others also defended Mr Tan saying that the comment itself was not particularly racist as he was just observing that the commuters were probably from India and did not make any derogatory or otherwise negative comments about them.

It is also clear that many people agreed with Mr Tan or at least found his comment accurate and funny as there were at least 101 people to like his status.

Mr Tan has since removed the Facebook post after the heavy criticism received but he failed to remove the linked post on Twitter which still shows his post and some users comments in response.

Source: www.therealsingapore.com

February 2, 2015