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Tag: Singapore

  • Mother: Help! My 12 Year Old Autistic Son Is Missing

    Mother: Help! My 12 Year Old Autistic Son Is Missing

    Calder disappeared when I came out of the flat this morning. He probably took the lift down to go wait for his school bus. But he didn’t get up the school bus.

    If you see him (esp around Hougang St 51 area), please stay with him and call me at 98367814 (please do not contact me otherwise).

    Calder Kam, 12, missing since 7.30am. Wearing light blue school shirt (see pix) with his name on it and beige bermudas. Carrying dark blue haversack. Calder is autistic and cannot talk well.

     

    Source: Brenda Tan

  • Bigot Calls Burqa-Clad Lady At MBS A “Potential Suicide Bomber”

    Bigot Calls Burqa-Clad Lady At MBS A “Potential Suicide Bomber”

    Netizen Dzahir Syirain‎ shared screenshots of an insensitive lady Candice Hong who took photos of a woman dressed in a burqa and made inflammatory comments about the lady’s dressing. For no apparent reason, Candice commented that there were “so many potential suicide bombers in MBS”.

    Contributor Dzahir did not give details on when or where these screenshots were taken but shared that such comments were saddening to see. If these comments are authentic, is this a sign of Islamophobia spreading to our Little Red Dot.

    Should Candice Hong be arrested for making such inflammatory uncalled for comments against people’s religious dressing?

    Source: www.allsingaporestuff.com

  • We Didn’t Have Willing Fighters: A WWII Survivor Remembers How Singapore Fell

    We Didn’t Have Willing Fighters: A WWII Survivor Remembers How Singapore Fell

    In Mr Ishwar Lall Singh’s Yishun home, the fragments of his military past have lost their shine. A faded peak cap sits on a worn coffee table, sharing the space with long service medals, epaulettes and an old sword caked in rust. But while parts of his uniform have faded, the 87-year-old’s memories of Singapore’s fall to the Japanese remain fresh.

    (Photo: Kenneth Lim) 

    “I was a young 12-, 13-year-old boy,” Mr Ishwar said. “There was a lot of shelling and bombing, a lot of destruction of property, a lot of people being killed – I saw some dead people, with worms crawling in them. I saw that myself.”

    Mr Ishwar is a survivor of World War II and part of a group of 61 former veterans and national servicemen who share their experiences regularly with students and active servicemen, as part of a Ministry of Defence programme. Since the programme began in early 2015, the group has reached more than 12,000 individuals, including students from more than 80 schools as well as more than 8,000 people in the Singapore Armed Forces.

    “We had to queue up for a few rations of corn bread (which was) difficult to eat, rice and some vegetables,” said Mr Ishwar. “This was given on a whim and fancy – it was not a regular thing. Sometimes we queued up and waited for the ration truck to come, and it never came.”

    But for him, the Japanese Occupation was about more than going without food.

    “We lost our independence; we were not able to do what we wanted when we wanted. We lost that,” Mr Ishwar said. “The Japanese restricted us from doing quite a lot of things. For example, if you wanted to go to a cinema, there was a fear that if you went to a cinema, you may not come back.”

    According to Mr Ishwar, Japanese soldiers would pack cinema audiences into trucks at the end of the shows, driving them to Bahar in Johor.

    Mr Ishwar showing old photos from his collection. (Photo: Kenneth Lim)

    “We were under British rule, who were not actually looking after us at that time,” he said. “The Japanese were able to force themselves into Singapore because we were not willing fighters. We did not have Singaporeans who were fighting to defend their own country.”

    But Mr Ishwar was not one of them. He joined the Indian National Army in 1943. Years later, after working as a trishaw rider, storeman and laundry clerk, he joined the Singapore Volunteer Corps, known today as the People’s Defence Force.

    “We kept growing,” he said of the Singapore Armed Forces’ predecessor. “We kept getting better, we started to build camps, we had our National Day Parades, which were very obvious to show that the people were united. We realised the importance of being a free people.”

    This year marks the 75th anniversary of Singapore’s fall. And today, the father of three and grandfather of seven said his fight is against complacency, or making sure Singaporeans do not forget “the price of freedom”.

    “I am afraid that people in Singapore are not yet aware of this – partly I blame the Government,” he said wryly. “Because we have been at peace for 50 years – that’s the Government’s efficiency, the Government’s effectiveness, but this has made people (assume) that nothing is going to happen.”

    “WE WILL HAVE TO UNITE”

    While Mr Ishwar regularly shares his story as part of the engagement programme, this is only the beginning for the retired major.

    “My hope for Singapore is that it will grow, (that) it will grow peacefully, it will be allowed to grow,” he said. “We will not be bullied, we will not accept bullying – we will have to unite.”

    He said one way to do so is to ensure racial harmony truly exists in Singapore.

    “The word ‘Singaporean’ must be understood by everybody,” he said, citing weddings or festivals as one way people of different races could get to know each other better.

    “We should look at each other as that – not as Chinese, Malay or Indian. This is something we need to understand, to raise our children to think along those lines. If we can begin to understand these things, we will begin to respect each other’s religion. We will begin to respect each other’s race; we will begin to respect each other’s doings.”

    “We must always remember that a little spark in the wrong time at the wrong place can cause a lot of problems for Singaporeans,” he added. “And we don’t want that peaceful time that we’ve had for 50 years to be shattered.”

     

    Source: CNA

  • FairPrice Lodges Police Report Over False Claim That Its House Brand Rice Is Made Of Plastic

    FairPrice Lodges Police Report Over False Claim That Its House Brand Rice Is Made Of Plastic

    If you were one of those caught up in a whirlwind of panic when you thought the FairPrice jasmine fragrant rice in your kitchen was supposedly made of plastic, you can rest easy now. The supermarket chain has since debunked the rumours circulating via text and social media. It also lodged a police report over the fake claim and declared on its Facebook page that the rice is 100 percent safe for consumption and has passed ‘stringent safety checks by the authorities’.

    Stores will display notices to calm anxious customers — some of whom have already insisted on refunds at various outlets yesterday — but those who still fear they bought a bag of fake rice can check its authenticity with the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority.

     

     

    Fairprice has issued the following statement on their Facebook page:

    Dear shoppers,

    We’ve noticed a recent message on social media asserting that our FairPrice housebrand jasmine fragrant rice is made of plastic.

    This is false.

    We’d like to assure all our shoppers that our rice is 100% safe for consumption, and have passed stringent safety checks by the authorities. We would like to advise the public not to further circulate this malicious rumour. Thank you!

     

     

    Source: MSN

  • Shanmugam Stresses Need To Uphold Racial Equality

    Shanmugam Stresses Need To Uphold Racial Equality

    The need for Singapore to remain committed to protecting its minorities was stressed by Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam yesterday, as anti-Islamic and anti- immigrant sentiments jolt the world and the region grapples with growing polarisation along religious lines.

    “In the face of all this, the Government has to convey a clear message: We are all Singaporeans. We guarantee the safety, security and freedom of religion to all, including the Muslim community,” he said. “And as a community, we must covenant to ourselves to never allow xenophobia and majoritarianism to override the protection and guarantee of equality, particularly to minorities.”

    With 74 per cent of the population being Chinese, “our system of elections means majoritarianism could have easily taken hold and can, in future, easily take hold”.

    He credits Singapore’s founding leaders for laying the foundation that includes ensuring equal opportunities for the minorities.

    Mr Shanmugam’s robust statement on Singapore’s core principle of equality for those of all races and religions follows the upheavals of the past week after US President Donald Trump’s order suspending refugee intake and temporarily keeping the citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries out of the US.

    At a seminar on religion, conflict and peacebuilding, he said the US changes, made suddenly, present a serious risk to Singapore. The travel curbs, he noted, reflect anti-Islamic feelings gaining ground in the United States and Europe. “It is a groundswell fuelled by fear and a substantial element of racism. Many otherwise reasonable people are also supporting such movements,” he said.

    Singapore, with a 15 per cent Muslim population, could easily slide into a similar situation, he added. Hence, it is imperative that the Government steer clear of engaging in racial politics, Mr Shanmugam said.

    But it can do this only with the community’s support, he added.

    While the majority must back these efforts, the minorities must play their part, and not grow increasingly exclusive. Both sides need to “work together to increase common space, and work with the Government that is determined to hold the common space together”, he said.

    “That is the only way we can resist the tide of populism that is sweeping the rest of the world. We keep to our way of life,” he added.

    The two-day symposium is organised by the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies under its Studies in Inter-Religious Relations in Plural Societies Programme.

    In his address, Mr Shanmugam sketched his view on what has led to the anti-Islamic wave in the West, Singapore’s approach in avoiding the backlash elsewhere against minorities, and regional trends that could agitate Singapore’s minorities.

    Pointing to the Chinese majority, he noted that Singapore has avoided majoritarianism by ensuring equal opportunities regardless of race or religion, guaranteeing religious freedom and clamping down strongly on hate speech.

    “The result is, regardless of all else, you can walk with a sense of being yourself, comfortable in your own skin, as an equal citizen… That is the lived reality of a Singaporean,” Mr Shanmugam said.

    But this takes work, he said, noting that the Government has not taken a laissez faire approach. Without active state intervention, he said, “you will get segregated communities, segregated schools, the lessening of common space and a reduction of opportunities for minorities”.

    Urging racial and religious leaders to champion integration and interaction, he said: “This is critical… to preserve what we have in Singapore.”

     

    Source: ST

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