On Sunday, one woman stood out from the crowd at the National Day Parade as the cameras lingered on her five times during the 3-hour long live telecast.
The mystery beauty turned out to be Miss Emma Lee, 29, a China national who is so bowled over by Singapore that she wants to apply for permanent residency and settle here.
The beauty has drive, too, working as a managing director for a company, SinMetal, which she set up.
Previously, she had watched the fireworks at Marina Bay in 2012 and 2013 , so she was eager to go for the NDP this year, for a personal reason – it was her birthday.
A 48-year-old Permanent Resident (PR) from the United Kingdom is suspected of assaulting a 37-year-old financial consultant and drove a car towards the other, charged on Tuesday morning.
The accused, John Duncan Tasker faces two charges, namely for the use of criminal force and for driving rashly towards another driver, Yi Yongjie.
The accused was charged on Tuesday morning and will have the hearing next month on 25 August.
Provoked assault?
The incident is said to have happened at the car park of Parkland Green, East Coast Park, on 30 May (Saturday) around 6:10pm.
Mr Yi was waiting for a parking lot after dropping off his wife and kids at the car park when a silver colored car, driven by Mr Tasker, came driving in against the flow of traffic.
The car then parked in front of the space that Mr Yi was waiting for with his hazard light turned on. As a result, Mr Yi drove his car forward, in front of Mr Tasker’s car and wound down his car window to confront the latter.
According to Mr Yi, Mr Tasker alighted from his car and starting scolding him, calling him “an idiot for being slow”. An argument then ensued between the two men.
All of a sudden, Mr Tasker punched Mr Yi through the car’s window and walked back to his car.
The force of the punch was so great that it broke Mr Yi’s glasses and resulted in bleeding on his face.
Despite being stunned from the punch, Mr Yi hurried down from his car and tried to take down the Mr Tasker’s car license plate number.
“I stood in front of his car and he just stepped on the accelerator, trying to run me over while escaping.” said Mr Yi, who was subsequently treated at Changi Hospital for his injuries.
If convicted, the accused faces up to two-years’ imprisonment or a fine of $5,000 dollars, or both.
Grassroots leader and former military man
In an article about the visit of the British royalty to Singapore three years ago, Mr Tasker was reported to be formerly from the British military and he was once a personal protection officer for the late Princess Diana.
“Among those present were former members of the British military, including 45-year-old John Tasker. His 15-year military career included a stint as a personal protection officer for the late Princess Diana.” (see link)
In his LinkedIn account, apart from listing his current occupation of the Chief Operating Officer at The JLC Group of Companies (a privately held entity with offices in both Singapore and the United Kingdom). Mr Tasker identifies himself as a grassroots leader in his local community in the position of vice-chairman of a Neighbourhood Committee, a grassroots organisation under the aegis of the People’s Association.
He says his role as a grassroots leader include organising and managing community events and “ad hoc meet the people session with our local MP, Dr Maliki Osman.”
Here is a photo of a get-well card and flower bouquet which Dr Maliki’s had apparently sent to Mr Tasker.
Quote : “… How PRs from Malaysia milk our system…”
I believe the author got an agenda in the articles, by pitting ordinary Singaporeans with Malaysian.
Come on, to be fair, it is not just the Malaysians but other nationalities, like PRCs, India Indians, Pignoys, Vietnamese, Burmese who are milking the system? And who allow it in the 1st place – our useless garment?
In fact, comparing Malaysians and other nationalities, I believe Malaysians are more integrated with Singaporeans (as old Cow says so), as Singapore was formally part of Malaysia.
So, I believe it is the pap dog trying to split Singaporeans and Malaysians Chinese/Indian new citizens in the coming GE.
As you can see from fact, why did the useless garment, drawing immigration from the traditional sources like Malaysia/Indonesia up to the late 1990s; to suddenly changed tack and admit other nationalities, like PRCs, India Indians, Pignoys, Vietnamese, Burmese, in large numbers (tens of thousands) as new citizens.
Well, the white monkeys are doing the divide and rule strategy, as they are afraid of the big block of Malaysian voters voting for the opposition parties in the future; just like in Malaysia elections.
So, don’t be fooled by this article. Malaysian new citizens and ordinary Singaporeans should stay united, and vote out the useless garment (just like UMNO, practising cronyism), come the next GE, for a better Singapore.
I believe it is the Malaysian new citizens’ votes that swings the PE by-election to WP favour.
Just two weeks after he was sentenced to a three weeks’ jailfor assaulting a taxi driver, 34-year old Dutchman Dino Petrus Johannes van Deijzen saw his sentence increased to three months.
The deputy public prosecutor had appealed the original sentence, saying the judge in that case, District Judge Imran Abdul Hamid, seemed to have been convinced by van Deijzen’s portrayal of himself as a victim.
The Dutchman, a design executive, had claimed that the taxi driver, Me Ee Kah Ling, had also hit him, resulting in the former losing consciousness.
Justice Imran was reported to have “noted that the victim had also engaged in a scuffle with van Deijzen and traded blows, which would have explained the blunt force trauma suffered by the accused.”
However, justice Tay rejected this.
He said Mr van Deijzen’s claims were “convenient excuses to downplay his use of inexcusable violence” against Mr Ee, 42.
Further, justice Tay noted that Mr van Deijzen was not remorseful and that there were neither an offer of compensation to Mr Ee noran apology from the Dutchman.
Mr van Deijzen and his girlfriend were reportedly intoxicated when they hailed and boarded Mr Ee’s cab at Dunlop Street at almost 1am on 21 October.
They asked to be ferried to blk 538 in Ang Mo Kio.
When the taxi reached the destination, Mr van Deijzen’s girlfriend vomited in the taxi.
Mr Ee then asked the couple to leave the car and asked for the fare.
The couple, however, ignored him and walked away without paying.
At this point, Mr Ee threatened to call the police, and was retrieving his phone from his taxi when Mr van Deijzen pounced on him, slammed the door and punched Mr Ee.
Me Ee tried to escape and ran away, but Mr van Deijzen gave chase and pushed him to the ground, and continued to punch and kick Mr Ee.
The heinous act was caught by the in-vehicle CCTV of Mr Ee’s taxi.
Soosay (Photo: Straits Times)
Also in June, National University of Singapore (NUS) law professor, Sundram Peter Soosay, 43, has been found guilty of assaulting a taxi driver while drunk.
Mr Soosay, who is a Singapore permanent resident and has been working at NUS since 2008, was lambasted by District Judge Victor Yeo in court.
Judge Yeo said Mr Soosay’s testimony was “riddled with hindsight reasoning, convenient conjecture and hypothesis”.
Judge Yeo then sentenced the law professor to four months jail and ordered him to compensate the taxi driver, 71-year old Sun Chun Hua. (See here.)
Singapore has jumped 12 places in March 2015 from a year ago to become the 19th most expensive location for expatriates globally in a list of 30 topped by South Sudan capital of Juba.
The island nation, however, maintained its 9th spot in the Asia Pacific region where Shanghai took the top spot.
The list by ECA International is part of the bi-annual Cost of Living Survey carried out in March and September using a basket of day-to-day goods and services commonly purchased by assignees in over 440 locations worldwide.
It attributed Singapore’s leap on the list to “a strong currency”, a release issued on Thursday said.
“Although, like many currencies, the Singapore dollar has weakened against the US dollar between annual surveys, it strengthened against a number of other major currencies,” said Lee Quane, Asia region director of ECA International. “Assignees having been relocated from one of these locations into Singapore are likely to require a higher cost of living allowance in order to maintain their spending power.”
The allowance is part of pay packages to ensure that an employee’s spending power is maintained when they are sent on international assignment. It is affected by differences in inflation levels as well as exchange rate movements between an employee’s home and host country.
Shanghai has become Asia Pacific’s most expensive location for expatriates for the first time. Globally, the Chinese city has moved into the top 10 to 8th position – up from last year’s 18th spot – just ahead of Beijing (9th globally) and Seoul (10th).
Tokyo ranked two spots above Singapore in the region, as the goods and services in ECA’s shopping basket were just over 2 per cent dearer in the Japanese capital than Singapore as opposed to 14 per cent a year ago. It ranked 16th globally.
Seoul, the region’s second highest location a year ago has slipped to the third spot.
Hong Kong is Asia Pacific’s 4th most expensive location for expatriates and is now more expensive than Tokyo. Globally, Hong Kong has entered the top 15 leaping up from last year’s 29th position to 12th place. Prices of items in ECA’s basket rose more than 3 per cent in Hong Kong over the year between surveys. However, it is exchange rate movements that have had the biggest impact on cost of living for expatriates in Hong Kong.
“With the US dollar, to which the HK dollar is pegged, strengthening against a number of currencies over the past year, (Hong Kong) has become more expensive for many businesses sending assignees there,” said Ms Quane.
Australian locations continue to fall down the ranking – a reflection of the weakened Australian dollar as growth there slows. Sydney is 30th most expensive location ranked in Asia Pacific and 57th globally.
The United States cities of Manhattan, New York and Honolulu stood 20th, 29th and 30th in the global ranking.
