Tag: Singapore

Malaysian Workers Use Spiderman Shortcut At Causeway To Beat Jam Into Singapore

JOHOR BARU (Sin Chew Daily/Asia News Network) – To beat the perennial jam on Johor Causeway, many Malaysians have come up with a risky solution.

They take the short cut along the rail line from Lido Beach along the Straits of Johor to avoid the traffic jam, and then climb up to the Causeway and walk their way to the other end.

These Malaysian workers making the daily commutes to Singapore have somehow managed to evade the Malaysian immigration checkpoint.

It is understood that this short cut is quite popular among commuters around 7am to 8am morning rush hours, and the same route is taken during the evening rush hours between 7pm and 8pm when they return from Singapore.

A reader tipped off Sin Chew Daily that such “Spiderman” acts were common during morning rush hours.

He said he has already got used to seeing people climb up from the rail line, over the large water pipes onto the Causeway.

Sin Chew Daily’s reporting team checked out the shortcut, and found that it was very much in use by some impatient commuters.

These “Spidermen” are believed to have gained access to the shrubs beside the Causeway from the beach on the left just across the road from the JB police headquarters.

They later walk along the rail line beside the Causeway until the point nearest to the Causeway road surface, where they will climb up to the Causeway from the water pipes.

Our reporting team found a well-trod path in the midst of the shrubs beside the Causeway believed to have been used by the commuters over the years.

Malaysian Railway KTM Southern Region manager Omar Nazari Othman told Sin Chew Daily he was unaware of the practice as he had not received any report or complaint so far.

He said KTM could not do anything even if a person was found walking along the rail line.

“I will probe this matter and will send people there to check. We will report to the police if we find anyone doing things that will damage the rail line.”

A construction worker at a nearby site confirmed that he had seen people taking this route.

In order to have a hands-on experience with this short cut, our reporting team decided to take the shortcut themselves.

But when our reporter was about to climb up to the rail line, he was instantly stopped by someone claiming to be a KTM employee.

He told Sin Chew Daily KTM had no enforcement power and could not take any legal action against violators of KTM properties, adding that all they could do was to stop people from taking the shortcut.

A check by The Straits Times with the Singapore immigration authority’s website shows that those coming into Singapore need a passport, a valid visa, and a embarkation or disembarkation card.

Source: www.straitstimes.com

June 22, 2015
Passengers Unhappy After Scoot Flight Delayed For More Than 21 Hours

There was frustration for Scoot passengers again after a flight set to depart from Singapore to Perth on Saturday (Jun 20) evening was delayed by more than 21 hours. This is the airline’s second flight delay in three days.

Scoot said in a statement: “(Flight TZ8) was delayed at Changi Airport due to a technical issue and we regret that the delay has inconvenienced our guests.”

Dear Scoot Community, Scoot flight TZ8 to Perth was originally scheduled to depart from Singapore at 1210hrs on 20…

Posted by FlyScoot on Saturday, 20 June 2015

Videos of the scene at Changi Airport on Saturday evening show angry passengers demanding compensation while a ground handler admits to not being able to do anything, as “we are guided by Scoot”. These were allegedly taken after the ground handler announced that the flight had been rescheduled to 9.50am on Sunday morning.

Channel NewsAsia understands that before the announcement was made, passengers had had to board and disembark the plane several times.

In a letter addressed to Scoot that was seen by Channel NewsAsia, a passenger called “Cole” said they were asked to board and leave twice, saying the airline offered up six different excuses for the delays.

“First it was that the plane was delayed, then came that the tyre was worn out, then came the pilot being unable to fly because you had stretched over the time limit,” wrote Cole.

The passenger also complained that the airline had merely offered travel vouchers in compensation, and eventually asked Singaporeans to go home.

“We have already paid way more than what we budgeted for, just to stay in Changi Airport for over 10 hours for meals, and to make things worse, we had to pay two-way cab fare, which is already about $50, and you are giving us a voucher to subject us to this trouble all over again?” Cole wrote.

Perth resident William Forde, another passenger who shared photos and a video with Channel NewsAsia, said the flight had been rescheduled a total of seven times and throughout the ordeal, many passengers had stuck together: “The duty of care provided and inhumanity of this business model is alarming, but the way people came together to protest as one was inspiring and unheard of in Singapore”.

Said Mr Forde: “We were refused temporary accommodation even though many of us had not eaten, and by then the flight had been delayed for close to 21 hours.

“Some of us requested that the elderly and those with children be given a flight first, but we were rejected at every turn by a Scoot rep. As a result of our protest we were only given a S$10 meal voucher and a letter of disruption, which had details of the next flight out. But we were told these were still ‘tentative’”.

Two viewers also called the Channel NewsAsia hotline on the issue, with one saying that the last time they were asked to board the flight to Perth at 7.45pm, they were “sent off again” and “told the flight would not be taking off and would be cancelled”.

“The management just walked away without providing hotel accommodation to transit passengers and Singaporeans were asked to go home,” said the caller. “They also said the decision was final – take it or leave it. People were unhappy.”

The flight finally departed for Perth at around 10.40am on Sunday. Earlier, another flight scheduled to fly from Hong Kong to Singapore on Friday was grounded for more than 24 hours before taking off on Saturday evening.

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

June 22, 2015
Dr Mahathir: Under PM Najib, Malaysian Malays Could Suffer Safe Fate As Singapore Malays,

KUALA LUMPUR, June 21 — After predicting the fall of the Barisan Nasional (BN) government under Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is now claiming that if the prime minister stays in power, the Malays here could become marginalised like their Singaporean brethren.

In a video of a Wednesday forum released online today by blogger Din Turtle, Dr Mahathir was seen reminding his audience that the struggle for the country is not for the personal goals of one man but for the survival of the nation, its race and its religion.

“I think we are smart people. Do we want to protect Najib? Or do we want to protect the Malays and the country?

“This is what we have to ask ourselves,” he said in his speech during the forum with several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) at the Perdana Foundation.

Dr Mahathir cited again the example of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) controversy, his biggest pet peeve of the Najib government, and said that he found it difficult to imagine how the firm had racked up a RM42 billion debt.

“Its hard to even imagine RM1 billion… even RM1 million, some Malays don’t recognise… this is RM42 billion,” he said.

“But if we don’t acknowledge the crime that is happening here, there is a high likelihood that we will lose and we will be divided… And we will suffer the fate of the Malays in Singapore, in southern Thailand and other places.

“Now we are thankful because we are still in power but if Najib leads the country, we will lose that power in our hands and at that point, there won’t be anyone there to offer us protection,” he said.

Dr Mahathir has been at the forefront of attacks against the Najib administration and has been actively campaigning for the prime minister’s resignation, believing the latter will lead BN to doom in the next federal polls.

Among others, Dr Mahathir has attacked Najib over his handling of the controversy surrounding 1MDB, the troubled state-owned firm that has racked up a debt of RM42 billion since its inception in 2009.

Najib, however, has refused to step down and has responded to Dr Mahathir’s accusations – several times via his blog and once through a pre-recorded interview on TV3.

Dr Mahathir, however, has refused to relent.

In his speech at the forum, the outspoken 89-year-old told Najib: “I am aware… I am old. And Najib said why listen to one man when the entire country supports him (Najib)… so why listen to one man?

“I don’t know if I am one man or I am many. But I request that if we want to save ourselves, we must show the strength of numbers… that is very important.

“We have to remind everyone that our struggle is not or one man alone. It is for our country, our race, our religion and that is our struggle.”

Despite Dr Mahathir’s persistence, Najib has fought hard to resist the former’s calls for his resignation, repeatedly responding by saying that he has the support of the leadership in Umno, the country’s ruling party and BN lynchpin.

In his latest blog post on June 12, Najib fired back at Dr Mahathir, accusing him of using the 1MDB controversy as a ploy to attack him.

Najib pointed out that if the former prime minister was genuinely interested in getting answers, he only needed to wait for the conclusion of the various investigations by the Auditor-General, Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and Bank Negara on 1MDB.

Source:www.themalaymailonline.com

June 22, 2015
Zaid Ibrahim: Under Najib, Malays Will Become Like Talibans

KUALA LUMPUR, June 21 — If Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak remains in office, the Malays here will become like those living under the repressive rule of the Taliban and not like Singapore’s Malays, former Umno minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim said.

Zaid, who was disagreeing with Dr Mahathir’s claim that Najib’s leadership would force the Malays here to become as marginalised as Singapore’s Malays, told the former prime minister that if his assertion were true, he would gladly support Najib.

“Sorry Tun if under Najib Malays here will become like Spore Malays; I will give him full support. Malays under Najjb will be Talibans,” the former minister wrote on Twitter today.

“Malays under Najib and Hadi will abandon their culture, traditions and values. Tun M must read my new book Assalamualaikum out in Sept,” he said in another post on the microblogging site.

In a video of a Wednesday forum released online today by blogger Din Turtle, Dr Mahathir was recorded saying that if Najib stays in power, the Malays here could become marginalised like their Singaporean brethren.

The former prime minister also remind his audience that the struggle for the country is not for the personal goals of one man but for the survival of the nation, its race and its religion.

“I think we are smart people. Do we want to protect Najib? Or do we want to protect the Malays and the country?

“This is what we have to ask ourselves,” he said in his speech during the forum with several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) at the Perdana Foundation.

Dr Mahathir has been at the forefront of attacks against the Najib administration and has been actively campaigning for the prime minister’s resignation, believing the latter will lead BN to doom in the next federal polls.

Among others, Dr Mahathir has attacked Najib over his handling of the controversy surrounding 1MDB, the troubled state-owned firm that has racked up a debt of RM42 billion since its inception in 2009.

Najib, however, has refused to step down and has responded to Dr Mahathir’s accusations — several times via his blog and once through a pre-recorded interview on TV3.

Source: www.themalaymailonline.com

June 22, 2015
Scam Victims From China Allegedly Lost $1.6B, Look For Clues In Singapore

Ripples from a scam that has allegedly cost Chinese investors US$1.2 billion (S$1.6 billion) touched Singapore’s shores yesterday.

A group of angry investors from China showed up at a flat in Sengkang yesterday afternoon to demand their money back from a Singaporean employee of the company that allegedly caused thousands of investors to get their fingers burnt.

The seven, who had flown in from Beijing on Sunday, knocked repeatedly on the door of a Singaporean’s flat for two hours to no avail.

He purportedly worked for API Premiere Swiss Trust AG – a finance firm that has reportedly cost almost 30,000 investors from China US$1.2 billion of their savings.

In the five days here, the investors have engaged lawyer Chung Ting Fai and lodged a police report with the Commercial Affairs Department.

They left a note written in Chinese on the man’s door. It read: “Return our hard-earned money.”

Street protests were held in Beijing and Hong Kong earlier this year when investors realised they might have been duped.

In January, API sent out a message informing investors that its servers had been hacked.

Investors could not access their accounts and were told that their money was gone.

Mr Zhao Guangcai, the group’s leader, said in Mandarin: “We went to Switzerland and found out that the company was a shell.”

The police had sealed doors to its so-called headquarters.

The group in Singapore said they had invested through another Singaporean, who visited China and held seminars in Beijing.

Some investors were also invited to all-expenses-paid trips to Switzerland – where they met with traders – and Dubai.

They saw forex trading rooms, where traders worked and made deals online.

Most investors had started by investing about US$10,000 and could withdraw their money any time they wanted. They got back their principle sum – with 8 per cent interest – within a week.

Over time, they began to pump in more money. Mr Zhao and Ms Miao Lihua, 33, who owns a fashion company, put in more than US$1 million each.

Now, they want their money back.

The group, due to return to China yesterday, extended their stay after realising that one of the company’s employees was in Singapore.

So far, they have spent about $10,000 each, flying around the world to look for leads.

They plan to stick around the Singaporean’s registered address to demand an explanation from the employee.

Mr Zhao, 58, said: “He is the closest clue we have to getting our money back. We are not giving up so easily.”

According to Chinese evening daily Lianhe Wanbao, the Singaporean said he was also a victim and that the company owed him $30,000 in wages.

He blamed the other Singaporean, whose registered flat in Mei Ling Street is empty, for roping him into the business.

“I have been looking for him since the start of the year, but I can’t find him. I don’t want to talk about this incident any more. I just want the situation to be over,” he said.

Source: www.straitstimes.com

June 21, 2015