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  • Missing Schoolboy’s Body Found After 3 Hour Search Operation At East Coast Beach

    Missing Schoolboy’s Body Found After 3 Hour Search Operation At East Coast Beach

    The body of a missing schoolboy was found in the waters off East Coast beach on Monday (May 8) afternoon after a search operation that lasted for three hours.

    The Straits Times understands that the boy is a student from Jurongville Secondary School. He is believed to have drowned.

    The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) first announced in a Facebook post that it was alerted to a report of a missing person at around 12.25pm.

    In a subsequent update at 3.33pm, it said that the body of the missing person had by found by SCDF’s Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (DART) rescuers.

    “Our condolences to the family,” SCDF added in the update.

    The search was conducted along a stretch of beach near East Coast Park’s area E, which was cordoned off when The Straits Times arrived at around 2.45pm.

    At least three coastal police boats were seen searching the waters. An ambulance, two fire engines, a Red Rhino and several police cars were also spotted.

    Several students wearing Jurongville uniforms were seated at a nearby pavilion.

    A 54-year-old man, who declined to be named, told ST he was fishing at Bedok jetty when a passerby told him just before noon that a boy had drowned.

     

    Some pictures taken at the scene.

     

    Rilek1Corner

    Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/

  • Don’t Misuse Prophet Muhammad’s Name To Justify Rape And Marriage, Ex-mufti Says

    Don’t Misuse Prophet Muhammad’s Name To Justify Rape And Marriage, Ex-mufti Says

    Islam does not suggest that it is OK to have sex and then marry minors, the former mufti of Terengganu said today.

    At a public forum on child marriages here, Datuk Ismail Yahya chided Muslims who have been misusing the name of their last prophet, Muhammad, to justify their lust and as a form of “escapism”.

    “That is not right. The religion does not suggest that,” said Ismail who is also a former Terengganu Shariah court judge.

    He noted there were Muslims who had cited Prophet Muhammad’s marriage to Aisha, often portrayed as a nine-year old girl in the Quran, but said there have been many Islamic scholars who have questioned the calculation of her age.

    He then said there were other considerations for a Shariah judge before approving marriage applications to minors.

    “To me, how far the marriage can make the child happy is subjective. It’s to do with how she is treated and nafkah,” he said, using an Arabic word meaning subsistence for living.

    “But, just because he has raped the girl, that is not a reason for a Shariah Court judge to approve the marriage application,” he added.

    Ismail warned those seeking to legitimise statutory rape and marriage with their victims behind the cloak of religion that Islam had dire penalties for rapists.

    “For men like these, according to Islamic laws, it is the death penalty. Death by stoning. Not marriage.

    “So if we want to apply the law, we apply it together and not in parts,” he said.

    Also at the same forum was Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) Youth leader Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman who said he shared the same view.

    “To the majority of Malay Muslims out there, you are not Prophet Muhammad. Stop pretending you are Prophet Muhammad,” the former national debater said to applause from the audience.

    Syed Saddiq urged religious leaders and those who propagate the idea of a moderate Islam to speak out against child marriages.

    “As of now, there is no legitimate religious voice to speak up against child marriages,” he said, claiming this to be the reason why many Muslims were afraid to voice their opinions.

    Both Ismail and Syed Saddiq were speaking at the forum titled “Child marriage: Setting our children up to fail”.

    The subject had sparked a national uproar last month after the Umno MP for Tasek Gelugor Datuk Shabudin Yahaya suggested in Parliament that marriage might be a solution for statutory rape.

     

    Rilek1Corner

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

  • The Voice SG & MY: Participants Can Be Of Any Race Or Nationality, But Have To Be Fluent In Mandarin

    The Voice SG & MY: Participants Can Be Of Any Race Or Nationality, But Have To Be Fluent In Mandarin

    Popular international reality TV show The Voice has now made its mark in Southeast Asia, with a new show aimed at Singaporean and Malaysian audiences.

    The singing competition will now be adapted for the countries under one program, co-produced by mm2 entertainment along with cable providers StarHub (Singapore) and Astro (Malaysia).

    They’ve now opened entries to aspiring singers from these two countries, and they assure that they’re “on the search for true talents with good voices regardless of their appearances.” But there is one curious catch: you must be able to sing in Mandarin.

    “There is no restriction on race as long as you have a good voice, are fluent in Mandarin, and are able to perform Mandarin songs,” they state on the FAQ page on their official website.

    It appears that this version of The Voice is primarily targeted towards Mandarin-speaking audiences. This differs from the Singaporean adaptation of American Idol, where contestants sang in English.

    Social media users are understandably angry over this rule, raising questions over the show’s language exclusivity.

    It’s likely that this show is aiming to reach the level of success of Sing! China, which was formally known as The Voice of China and mainly featured singers, which included finalist Nathan Hartono last year, performing in Mandarin. mm2 will not be allowing entrants to sing in Hokkien or Cantonese.

    While some are crying foul over the show’s discrimination against non-Mandarin speakers, B-Quartet frontman Bani Haykal threw in a slightly different perspective on the matter on Twitter: speculating that the rule is likely a strategic move for the show to appeal to audiences in China, the same way Sing! China became popular with audiences in Southeast Asia.

    He explains more in an entire Twitter thread, and it is an interesting argument: Sing! China‘s finals broke viewership records in China, and the country remains an extremely attractive prospect for foreign media to target (*cough* The Great Wall).

    The Voice for Singapore and Malaysia could simply be an attempt at replicating the success of Sing! China, but with the emphasis on multi-racial growth in both countries, could this be simply a tone-deaf strategic move by mm2?

    Registration

    StarHub announced on Friday (May 5) that those aged 16 and up can begin to apply for a spot on the show as of 6pm.

    Again, although participants can be of any race or nationality, “talents have to be fluent in Mandarin and able to perform songs in Mandarin”, according to a press release from StarHub.

    They must also submit a clip of themselves singing. Clips must be no longer than 90 seconds, and dialect songs such as those in Cantonese or Hokkien are not allowed. Other than that, there is no restriction to the language or genre of the song selected, and applicants may choose between singing a cappella or with an instrument, said the press release. Singing with accompanying music tracks is not allowed.

    The auditions close on May 31. Visit www.thevoicesgmy.com

     

    Rilek1Corner

    Source: https://www.bandwagon.asia and http://www.todayonline.com

  • Singapura Julang Piala Sultan Selangor Kali Ke-7! Kalahkan Pasukan Selangor PKNS 3-2

    Singapura Julang Piala Sultan Selangor Kali Ke-7! Kalahkan Pasukan Selangor PKNS 3-2

    Pasukan Pilihan Singapura menumpaskan pasukan Selangor PKNS untuk menjulang Piala Sultan Selangor buat kali ketujuh.

    Singapura menang 3-2 di hadapan 26,000 penonton di Hab Sukan, malam semalam (6 Mei).

    Singapura membuka tirai jaringan seawal minit ke-11 menerusi tandukan Khairul Nizam.

    Jurang gol dilanjutkan kepada 2-0 hasil gandingan Yasir Hanapi’ dengan Shakir Hamzah.

    Pada minit ke-60, Faris Ramli menyempurnakan tendangan penalti bagi merubah kedudukan kepada 3-0.

    Namun Selangor bangkit semula untuk merapatkan jurang gol kepada 3-1, tiga minit kemudian.

    Pada minit ke-77, Gonzalo Castro menjaringkan gol kedua Selangor.

    Tetapi Selangor gagal menambah jaringan sekaligus memberikan kemenangan kepada Singapura.

     

    Rilek1Corner

    Source: http://berita.mediacorp.sg

  • SDP: Just Whom Is The PAP’s Education Policy Serving

    SDP: Just Whom Is The PAP’s Education Policy Serving

    When he was Minister of State for Education, Dr Ng Eng Hen said that “Our universities must become engines of growth for our economy.”

    In 2012, Minister for Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang reinforced this point saying that our education system is “to build industry-relevant manpower capabilities for the economy.”

    We had even wanted to become the ‘Boston of the East’, with our universities modeled on Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

    But Education Minister Ong Ye Kung now says that the number of graduates will be capped at 30 to 40 percent of the student population because the government had, in the past. placed an over-emphasis on academic qualifications in education.

    This chop-and-change approach to education has damaged the country’s ability to plan for the longer term. For example, the PAP had at one time focused on Information Technology and later switched to preparing students for life sciences. Its current emphasis is on “technology adoption” – whatever that means.

    Such short-sightedness contradicts PM Lee Hsien Loong’s boast of the PAP’s “far-sighted leadership who can anticipate problems”. If the leadership is. indeed, far-sighted, how did we place emphasis on our universities being growth engines for our economy and become the Boston of the East only to realise now that we have over-emphasised academic qualifications?

    Serving local or foreign students?

    And while the PAP caps the number of Singaporean graduates, it subsidises foreign students under the Global Schoolhouse project.

    A majority of international students studying here are given Tuition Grants (totaling more than $200 million per year) as well as scholarships (some of which are not open to Singaporean students). It is reported that foreign students make up between 18 and 20 percent of the total undergraduate intake in Singapore.

    In addition, foreign students receiving the grants have to serve a bond upon graduation (which many, by the way, don’t fulfill). They further compete with local graduates for jobs, many of whom are as it is having a hard time finding employment.

    The discrimination is made even more unpalatable when one considers Singaporean parents spending an average of $21,000 a year on their child’s university education. This is more than twice the global average, with over half of the households going into debt because of it. These parents even prioritise funding their children’s education over paying their bills or saving for retirement.

    And the PAP is limiting the number of local graduates while funding foreign ones? Mr Ong Ye Kung must explain whom exactly his latest policy is serving.

    Read SDP’s alternative education policy: Educating For Creativity And Equality: An Agenda For Transformation.

     

    Source: http://yoursdp.org