Tag: Singaporeans

Singaporean Helps Youths Across The Causeway Realise Varsity Dreams

Still in university and with no industry experience, Mr Tengku Ahmad Syamil and Mr Syakir Hashim joined competitions and met with potential investors, hoping to raise funds to set up a crowdfunding platform that would link needy undergraduates with generous sponsors.

Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia: Interview with Skolafund’s founderForbes Asia 30 Under 30: Inspired by the community’s generous response to a student’s plea for financial aid on his university’s Facebook group, Mr Tengku Ahmad Syamil, 25, a Singaporean studying in Malaysia, set up a scholarship crowdfunding platform called Skolafund.com.

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(Video: Illiyin Anuwar/TODAY)

Posted by TODAY on Saturday, May 21, 2016

It was to no avail. The investors didn’t see potential in their idea and did not believe in the young team. “No one wanted to listen to us because we were just two young boys,” recounted Mr Syamil, 25, co-founder of scholarship crowdfunding platform Skolafund.

But the duo were undeterred. So in December 2014, they dipped into their savings to hire developers to build a website. “We knew that it would be buggy and crappy based on our limited budget but we wanted to prove that the model can work,” said Mr Syamil, who came up with the idea after seeing a Facebook post from a fellow undergrad at the International Islamic University Malaysia seeking financial aid and the subsequent offers of help.

Hello Everyone! My friend and I are participating in “Your Action Project” Competition by Malaysia Youth Council to…

Posted by Tengku Ahmad Syamil on Sunday, May 11, 2014

Their determination paid off and soon after launching the website in April last year, they were selected for an accelerator programme in Singapore, which provided mentorship and funding of S$24,500 to financial technology start-ups. “Once we got into the programme, suddenly a lot of people were interested in us and welcomed us to their offices. We got to meet directly with the CEOs,” he recounted. Finally, Skolafund was up and running. One year on, 42 campaigns have been launched, 25 of which have been successful. Among them, 22-year-old Razlan Ibrahim Mukhtar, who lost his eyesight at age 10, raised close to RM6,000 (S$2,033) from the public before Malaysian telco Maxis, through Skolafund, offered him a RM300,000 scholarship to study at the University of South Australia in June last year. While Skolafund is only available in Malaysia now, plans are underway to launch the site in Singapore by July. Unlike in Malaysia where the focus is on raising university fees, the campaigns in Singapore will focus on raising funds for overseas internships or overseas activities like exchange programmes and community projects, said Mr Syamil, who was accepted into a university here but chose to study in Malaysia.

Skolafund has received about 20 funding requests from students and parents here.

For his work on Skolafund, Mr Syamil was selected by Forbes for its inaugural 30 Under 30 Asia list — which features 300 promising people under the age of 30 from 10 sectors – and invited to its Under 30 Summit Asia in Singapore. The listees were selected by industry leaders based on qualities such as creativity, use of technology and adaptability. Mr Syamil, a Singaporean, was selected under the social entrepreneurs category and is one of 24 people on Forbes’ list based in Singapore.

Glad to have a representative of Skolafund at Forbes Under 30 Summit in Singapore! Credit goes to everyone that has…

Posted by Skolafund.com on Thursday, May 19, 2016

“Getting recognised by Forbes gives us that morale boost and the signal that we should keep on persevering,” said Mr Syamil in an interview with TODAY. “It also enhances the Skolafund team’s credibility and somewhere down the line, investors will take us more seriously and support us.”

Students in need can sign up for free and the Skolafund team will verify the application. During the campaign period, capped at 30 days, the team helps spread the word on social media and via “influencers”. If the target is met, Skolafund transfers the funds to the school and to students as allowance. Otherwise, the money raised will be refunded and sponsors can either cash out or contribute to another campaign.

(Click to enlarge. Source: Skolafund.com)

Skolafund takes a 5 per cent commission on each successful campaign. The team consists of two others, Mr Wildan Zulfikar, 21, and Mr Faruq Rasid, 25. All four members of the team are still studying — two of them are studying in Malaysia while the other two are at the National University of Singapore. Mr Syamil, who is studying business administration, said he intends to focus on Skolafund full time after he graduates in 2017.

Mr Syamil said the team also intends to launch in Indonesia. “Ultimately, we want Skolafund to be the best higher education financing platform in Asia. In five years’ time, we really hope to develop more ways for students to receive and manage their funds for universities,” he said.

Source: www.todayonline.com

May 24, 2016
LoveSingapore WearWhite’s Message Is Troubling In Multi-Culural, Diverse Singapore

On May 19, the LoveSingapore Christian network released a Facebook post launching the Wear White movement for 2016, calling on churches in its network to wear white. While the Wear White movement was founded last year by a Muslim religious teacher as a counter-movement to Pink Dot, LoveSingapore, as a Christian group, appears to be taking the lead this year. This year, the Wear White movement is scheduled on the same weekend (June 4-5) as Pink Dot, which will be held on June 4 at the Speakers’ Corner.

LoveSingapore’s Facebook post, which they said was addressed to the government, church, press and society, contains several points which are troubling. In the second point of the post, the LoveSingapore network calls for churches to arise and move on their convictions regarding public morality. This was followed by Howard Hendricks’ quote which said, “A belief is something you will argue about. A conviction is something you will die for.”

The juxtaposition of LoveSingapore’s mobilisation call and Hendricks’ quote raises eyebrows. Such rhetoric is questionable, especially in view of this year’s terrorist attacks in Brussels and Jakarta.

The third and fourth point in the message emphasized the importance of listening to Singapore’s conservative majority and keeping with the core values they possess. It also warned that the conservative majority will push against attempts to promote lifestyles and ideologies that openly and outrightly contradict Singapore’s laws, government’s stated policies, national core values, and the conservative majority’s views on public morality, marriage and family.

LoveSingapore’s repeated emphasis on the word “majority” is troubling. In Singapore’s multiracial, multireligious society, no particular religion or group can claim to speak for the majority.
The Humanist Society (Singapore) calls for respectful, informed discussion on the topic, based on reason, evidence, and compassion around the cause.

Executive Committee Humanist Society (Singapore)

Source: Humanist Society Singapore

May 24, 2016
LTA Investigating Deaths From Sudden Acceleration Of Hyundai Cabs

Madam Poh Ah Gin, 78, was killed by a reversing Comfort taxi. The woman, who had been collecting cardboard to recycle, was hit twice.

Reports noted that the Hyundai Sonata was reversing into a parking lot when the vehicle suddenly rolled backwards, mounted the kerb and hit Madam Poh.

Mr Lim Kah Kong, 35, a tow truck driver, told The Straits Times Online that he shouted at the taxi driver to stop when he saw that Madam Poh had been hit.

“But his car continued to lunge back and forth, and he hit her again,” he said.

The cabby’s son, known only as Sam, said his father was an experienced driver with no past traffic offences.

“He repeatedly told me that there was something wrong with the cab,” he said. “But there’s nothing we can do about it now.”

MARCH 17, 2016

A Comfort cab caused a chain collision at Block 702, Bedok Reservoir Road.

The cab was trying to reverse into a parking lot when it surged forward instead, hitting a red car.

The impact caused the red car to scrape the side of a blue lorry beside it, before mounting a kerb and hitting the front of a white lorry on the other side of the car park.

The taxi reversed into the void deck of Block 702, nearly colliding with three teenagers who were there.

Except for the taxi, the three other vehicles were parked.

Madam Sandy Goh, 48, a volunteer at the neighbourhood’s Senior Care Corner, rushed to the scene after receiving a flurry of calls from senior citizens about the accident.

She said the taxi driver seemed to have escaped injury.

“He looked quite confused. I heard the police officer asking him what had happened, but he said he didn’t know,” she said.

DEC 25, 2009

In 2011, a cabby was fined $800 for hitting four pedestrians and crashing into a 7-Eleven store.

The cabby was in the taxi queue at the Tiong Bahru Plaza when his Hyundai Sonata suddenly surged forward.

He ran into a man and three women, before crashing into the entrance of the 7-Eleven store.

His defence counsel said it was his client’s first time driving the Hyundai cab. He was not used to the sudden burst of speed when the accelerator was pressed suddenly.

The court heard that as the cabby was moving forward in the taxi queue, some pedestrians stepped off the kerb. They seemed to be in the path of his taxi.

Instead of hitting the brakes, his foot slipped and he stepped on the accelerator.

Source: www.tnp.sg

May 23, 2016
Cost Of Singapore University Education To Rise

The cost of a university degree in Singapore is set to rise, according to a new study by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

Released yesterday, the study projected that a four-year degree will cost 70.2 per cent of an individual’s average yearly income in 2030, up from 53.1 per cent in 2015.

Since 2010, tuition fees at local universities have gone up every year for most undergraduate courses, mainly due to rising operating costs.

For instance, a local undergraduate entering the National University of Singapore’s faculty of arts and social science this academic year (2016) would pay $8,050 annually, up from $7,950 last year (2015).

Another projection showed that Singapore’s education spending will dip from 3.4 per cent of gross domestic product last year to 2.7 per cent in 2030, largely due to falling birth cohort sizes and a growing population aged over 60 years.

The study, known as the Yidan Prize Forecast, Education to 2030, was released today (May 22) at a press conference held at the Kowloon Shangri-La in Hong Kong.

It was commissioned by the Yidan Prize Foundation, a global education foundation based in Hong Kong and named after its founder Charles Chen Yidan, a Chinese Internet philanthropist.

The EIU study, conducted from January to March, looked at future trends in education across 25 economies including Hong Kong, the United States, Germany, and Japan.

It focused on five indicators: public expenditure on education, youth unemployment, affordability of education, number of graduates in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) fields and the access to Internet in schools.

Historical data was collected from sources such as the Unesco Institute for Statistics, the World Economic Forum, EIU income data, as well as university rankings.

For each of the five metrics, the EIU derived results based on econometric models that would forecast how these trends would continue in the next 14 to 15 years.

For instance, the affordability of a university degree was based on factors such as inflation rates, analyst feedback and research.

According to projections, Singapore’s proportion of Stem graduates in its labour force will grow slightly to 0.4 per cent in 2030, from 0.3 per cent last year.

Mr Chris Clague, editor of the EIU report, said this forecast could be worrying, depending on Singapore’s priorities and if its job market will need Stem skills, as this might mean a skills mismatch.

The report also cited a separate 2015 study by the US National Science Foundation which noted that Stem knowledge and skills are used in more occupations than traditionally thought of, including finance, and sales and marketing.

Such a trend is likely to intensify in the next 15 years and beyond as technology becomes more central to different jobs, it said.

Meanwhile, Singapore’s youth unemployment rate is projected to remain low – from 10.9 per cent last year to 10.8 per cent in 2030.

The Republic is also among the top performers for having Internet access in schools in 2015, coming in joint second with Finland with a 6.4 on a scale of 1 to 7, with the latter being the best.

This improves to 6.5 in 2030, although Hong Kong, Finland and Norway are expected to surpass that level by then.

Yesterday’s event also saw the launch of the Yidan Prize – the largest education award of its kind in terms of monetary value.

There will be two awards each year, – one recognising education research and the other initiatives that promote development in education. Each winner will receive a cash prize of HK$15 million (S$2.67 million) and a fund of HK$15 million based on the principle of impact investment, to be distributed in three instalments over three years to fund research or projects.

Nominations for the prize will open next month (June). Individuals such as teachers, academics, and policymakers, among others, from around the world including Singapore can apply. The first winners will be announced in September next year (17).

Speaking at the press conference yesterday, Mr Chen, who funded the prize, said education is close to his heart as he sees the potential of university education in helping people discover themselves.

“The prize recognises and supports agents of change whose work transforms education in a sustainable way, and encourages innovative approaches to education research and development,” he said.

Source: www.straitstimes.com

May 23, 2016
Indonesian Businessman: Indonesia Needs To Stop Acting Like “Big Brother”

Tensions between Indonesia and Singapore are simmering as a kerfuffle is developing over the decision by a Singaporean court to grant a warrant to the National Environment Agency (NEA) for an Indonesian businessman suspected of involvement in last year’s forest fires. The warrant was obtained after the businessman, whose identity remains hidden, failed to turn up for an interview with the Singaporean authorities while he was in the city-state.

The saga took an interesting twist as Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied its counterpart’s repeated claims that a formal complaint against the warrant had been lodged by the Indonesian Embassy in Singapore.

The reason for Indonesia’s umbrage remains unclear, although implicit in the protest was the notion that Singapore had tried to force Indonesia’s hand in acting against responsible parties for last year’s environmental disaster, which saw much of South-east Asia engulfed in a haze. Jakarta’s reaction suggests that it deemed Singapore to have overstepped its scope of action. By contrast, Singapore’s National Environment Agency (NEA) felt that it had every right to prosecute those deemed responsible, based on the 2014 Transboundary Haze Pollution Act.

To be fair, Singapore’s move was both logical and laudable. However, it was an inadvertent slap in the face for the Indonesian government. Chiefly, politicians in Jakarta were worried that, if successfully pulled off, it was bound to be seen by the public as a derogation of sovereignty: that an Indonesian national could be arrested and even tried in a foreign country.

The swift action was also an embarrassing reminder of Jakarta’s own unmistakable sluggishness in bringing the forest fire perpetrators to justice as a deterrent. Although the Indonesian police did arrest several company executives suspected of wrongdoing last year, no tangible progress has been made with regard to their prosecution so far. A lack of transparency has also marred the process, with Jakarta seemingly intent on protecting the identities of the companies suspected of setting fire to the forests, or negligence in preventing forest fires, in their respective concessions.

STUCK WITH A RESOURCE MENTALITY

Singapore’s foreign ministry has understandably described Indonesia’s reaction as “puzzling”. To any outsider, this view probably holds sway, too. Yet the majority of Indonesians would really see Singapore’s action as an insult.

The main problem here is that post-Suharto Indonesia is still grappling with how to deal and interact with the Singapore of today.

Most Indonesians probably admire the city-state for its efficient bureaucracy, cleanliness and overall orderliness, which are the opposite of how things are in Indonesia.

Our middle class still like to shop in Singapore for luxury goods and, given the choice, most of them, when ill, would rather be treated in Singapore than at home.

Yet for a resource-oriented nation like Indonesia, it is difficult to understand Singapore’s economic success fully, especially as the latter lacks natural resources. The “resource” mentality is after all part of the national myth in Indonesia, with every student taught from an early age how “resource-rich” Indonesia ought to make the country prosperous and how this makes it the envy of the world, even the target for colonial agenda in the past and neo-colonial exploitation subsequently.

It rarely occurs to most of us that today’s advanced economies have gone beyond the exploitation of natural resources and the production of goods as their mainstay in prosperity.

The green-eyed monster is now quite real in the way many Indonesians see Singapore. Coupled with the firmly held belief that many of Indonesia’s super rich park their funds there, it has been conveniently cast as a “foreign” scapegoat for Indonesia’s own failures, even among the educated classes. Singapore is often portrayed as a pushy and cunning little neighbour who takes advantage of Indonesia’s good and gullible nature.

However, many of the accusations against Singapore widely circulated in the Indonesian press could hardly pass the litmus test. For example, the “revelation” by former Air Force chief Chappy Hakim that the airspace above Riau islands falls under Singapore’s Flight Information Region (FIR) — while factually true — neglects to mention that FIRs overlapping national boundaries are more common than he would allow.

Conveniently forgotten is also the fact that Indonesia manages the FIRs for both Timor Leste, a sovereign state in its own right, and Christmas Island, a territory belonging to Australia. The Indonesian press hardly informs the public that revenues derived from managing airspace above Riau are remitted monthly by Singapore to the Indonesian government. Instead the issues of national pride and “unjust” benefits for Singapore at Indonesia’s expense are exaggerated ad nauseam.

It is high time that Indonesians cultivated a new mindset in dealing with Singapore. The Suharto-era self-imposed view that Indonesia must necessarily act as South-east Asia’s “big brother” is no longer relevant in today’s geopolitical realities. Former President BJ Habibie’s jibe at Singapore being a “little red dot” has also gone sour as Singaporeans appropriated the insult as a badge of pride.

In many ways, the consoling myth of Indonesia as “big brother” to the rest of South-east Asia has been a source of great complacency for Indonesians. Rather than chastising us into bettering ourselves, it has lulled us. Isn’t it time for us to wake up? THE JAKARTA GLOBE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Johannes Nugroho is a writer and businessman from Surabaya.

Source: www.todayonline.com

May 23, 2016