Tag: Singaporeans

Police Report Lodged Against Dr Lam Pin Min

Local film-maker and activist, Martyn See has filed a police report against Minister of State for Health and Member of Parliament of Seng Kang West SMC, Lam Pin Min over his facebook posting on the Thaipusam incident in February.

Mr See in his police report, filed a complaint against Dr Lam for offences committed under the Sedition Act (Chapter 290) and sub judice contempt of court.

Dr Lam in his facebook posting wrote, “An example of how alcohol intoxication can cause rowdiness and public nuisance.”

The incident which Dr lam commented on, took place during the Thaipusam festival on 3 February, Tuesday.

It was said that police officers had pulled urumi drumers for a kavadi carrier into an alley after playing musical instruments despite being disallowed. This subsequently erupted into a scuffle between the police and the men who hired the drummers.

3 men are now accused of using vulgarities and injuring one police officer.

The Singapore Police Force (SPF) had initially issued a statement saying, “All three men were believed to have been drinking earlier as they smelt strongly of alcohol.” but has since stopped referring to this allegation.

The article, “What really happened at the Thaipusam scuffle?” by Lovely Singapore which Dr Lam had linked to, has also since been deleted.

However, Dr Lam’s comment on his public facebook fanpage still remains.

Mr See claims that Dr Lam’s comment has distorted an allegation by the SPF into a statement of fact. By doing so, he has :

1. Incited enmity towards the Hindu community by stating as fact that devotees were intoxicated while participating in the holy festival of Thaipusam.

2. Caused ill-will and hostility between different races and communities. The responses on his facebook page show overwhelming hostility to his remark. Yet, he has allowed his offending words to remain online.

3. Committed sub judice contempt of court by risking prejudice which may affect the final determination of the ongoing case against Ramachandra Chandramohan, Jaya Kumar Krishnasamy and Gunasegaran Rajendran, who are due to undergo trial for alleged disorderly behaviour. The three men were charged in court on 7 February.

TOC has sought the comments of Dr Lam and will include them when he replies.

Source: www.theonlinecitizen.com

February 26, 2015
SMRT Enterprise Wins Award For Enterprise Risk Management Programme

SMRT Corporation has won an international award for its enterprise risk management programme – first time that SMRT has won such an award.

The public transport operator won the Delivering Value through Risk Management award at the Institute of Risk Management (IRM)’s Global Risk Awards 2015 – an international industry award recognising the highest standards of excellence in risk management.

In a media release issued on Wednesday (Feb 25), president and group CEO Desmond Kuek said SMRT was honoured to receive such an award, which was presented to the company last Thursday (Feb 19) in London. “The rigorous judging process reaffirms that SMRT’s enterprise risk management programme is truly world-class, and delivers superior value for our stakeholders,” he said.

Companies shortlisted for this award were assessed for evidence of sustained revenue enhancement, cost savings or other improvements such as reduced error rates, that can be attributed to a risk management initiative or programme; acknowledgement of the role of risk management as a value-added function within the organisation; and value delivery in the context of an overall risk management programme.

The Global Risk Awards’ judges praised SMRT’s “forensic focus on how risk management could be used to support corporate strategy”.

February 26, 2015
Chan Chun Sing: Build Social Cohesiveness Through Property Design

SINGAPORE: Building rental units next to new Build-to-Order flats and getting real estate students to also study social sciences – some of the ideas raised by Social and Family Development Minister Chan Chun Sing to have more social inclusiveness in Singapore.

Mr Chan was speaking to 50 engineering and real estate students from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) at a dialogue on Wednesday (Feb 25).

Homes today provide greater privacy – for instance, common corridors are no longer seen at newer blocks. Flat owners can have greater privacy this way, but it can have social implications, said Mr Chan.

“In short, today’s privacy will be tomorrow’s social isolation,” said Mr Chan.

“That common corridor doesn’t just serve a functional role to allow people to get from the lift lobby or staircase back to their house – it allows mixing, it allows people to get to know their neighbours, it allows people to walk past and greet each other,” he explained.

“When we take away that in the name of privacy, then we have to ask ourselves the next design that we need to incorporate that will allow people to have privacy and at the same time, not create a situation where in 20 to 30 years’ time, we will have an aged population with a social problem.”

Mr Chan said in fostering social interaction, those in the real estate industry have an important role. Developers could consider building different types of flats, including rental units, in a single project to bring together people of different social and economic status.

“Perhaps it’s important, in our whole society, to have social mixing whereby the rich grow up understanding that there are poor people in this society, that we will count our blessings, that in this society it’s our responsibility for those who have been more blessed to extend a helping hand to the poor,” he said.

Mr Chan added that in cases of the “not-in-my-backyard” syndrome, designers and architects can also help to mitigate the situation through careful design.

But for the property sector to play that role well, those in the industry, and real estate students, need to have a good understanding of social needs. That is still lacking in the curriculum of some universities in Singapore, said Mr Chan.

“If you want to be a good architect, a good real estate student, beyond architecture and real estate, you should really study sociology, demographics – you should study social sciences,” he said.

When asked if the government will consider building HDB flats at prime locations such as downtown Marina to improve social interaction, Mr Chan said he is sceptical it would work, as there are other issues to consider.

For instance, buyers can purchase HDB flats in prime areas at “artificially low prices”, only to flip them in the resale market and enjoy a windfall.

“Who is cross-subsidising them? The Government? Actually the Government has no money to cross-subsidise,” he said. “The real answer is the rest of the people – the three-room flats and the four-room flats are cross-subsidising them. That comes to another point which is then, is this a fair system? So there are complex considerations on where we want to build.”

Organisers of the dialogue, the Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore, said it hoped to foster a better understanding of the real estate environment amongst youths.

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

February 26, 2015
Proposal – NSFs Receiving Financial Aid From SAF To Be Automatically Referred To MSF After Service

Less well-off national servicemen who receive financial aid from the Singapore Armed Forces may continue to receive help even after they have completed their full-time stints.

Under a proposal by a feedback body to the Government on defence matters, these servicemen will not have to re-apply for financial assistance after their mandatory stints. Instead, they will be automatically referred to the Ministry of Social and Family Development, which will likely to pick up the tab to help them.

This is one of the 18 proposals submitted by the Advisory Council for Community Relations in Defence (Accord) to the Defence Ministry on Wednesday.

They include partnering women’s groups to organise small group information sharing sessions to improve the understanding of defence issues among women; notifying employers and firms earlier when their staff are called up for in-camp training; and grooming ambassadors to promote the SAF Volunteer Corps and encouraging more people to sign-up as volunteers.

The proposals come six months after Accord, formed in 1984 to help shape the efforts of Mindef in getting the buy-in for defence and NS, was restructured into three separate councils to strengthen broader community support for defence and NS.

Accord member Claire Chiang, who sits on the Family and Community Council, said the panel wanted to address the “life-cycle needs” of less well-off national servicemen who might face hardship after NS and might need financial help.

Source: www.straitstimes.com

February 26, 2015
Experts: GST Set To Increase To Pay For Social Spending

While the Government has raised income tax rates for top earners in Singapore for a more progressive tax system, taxes paid by a broader swathe of Singaporeans, such as the Goods and Services Tax (GST), will probably go up in the coming years to pay for social spending, said tax experts and economists.

The GST could go up after next year to 9 or 10 per cent, in line with the Asia-Pacific average. Other taxes the Government could raise include consumption taxes, stamp duties and property taxes, they said.

On Tuesday, Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam had dispelled the notion that the Government had adopted a “Robin Hood” strategy for this year’s Budget by taxing the rich more to give to the poor. He said the bulk of the spending is for the common interest and not one particular group.

“This is our society… We need to take collective responsibility,” said Mr Tharman, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, on a televised forum on Channel 5.

PricewaterhouseCoopers tax partner Koh Soo How said Mr Tharman’s words signal a continued shift towards a “broad-based” system that reaps revenue from indirect taxes such as the GST. Noting the Government had committed not to raise the GST for five years during the 2011 General Election, he said any hike would probably take place in 2016 or 2017.

On the other hand, Ernst & Young Solutions head of tax Chung-Sim Siew Moon does not expect a hike in the GST before 2020. “The minister has indicated that the revenue measures that have been put in place will be sufficient for the increased planning needs until the end of the decade,” she noted.

The GST contributes the second largest share, after corporate income taxes, to Singapore’s total operating revenue, contributing about 16.5 per cent in Financial Year 2014.

Taxes such as the GST, which are collected from the domestic population, can be raised without affecting Singapore’s international standing in terms of tax competitiveness, Mr Koh said. He noted that many countries, including the United Kingdom, Malaysia and countries in the European Union, are also gradually increasing tax revenue from indirect taxes. Indirect taxes include consumption taxes such as duties on alcohol, tobacco and petrol.

Mr Koh added: “Tools such as GST vouchers are in place for the Government to make adjustments to alleviate the burden on low-income taxpayers.”

KPMG Singapore head of tax Tay Hong Beng also pointed out that consumers have a degree of choice as to whether to consume and pay consumption taxes.

Experts also expected the current income tax rates to hold. Noting that only about 30 per cent of all Singapore residents pay income tax, Mr Tay said increasing the tax burden on a minority of taxpayers “might not be the fairest way forward”.

“Taking the concept of ‘collective responsibility’ further, the best option remains to grow the Singapore economy. A growing economy directly increases the takings from taxation without the need for excessively high tax rates,” he said.

Mr Koh from PwC pointed out that raising the top marginal rate of personal income tax beyond the 22 per cent announced during Monday’s Budget statement may hurt Singapore’s competitiveness.

In line with the global shift from direct to indirect taxation, Mr Tharman on Monday also announced an increase in petrol duties. Duties on tobacco, alcohol and gambling were also raised last year, with alcohol taking the steepest hike of 25 per cent.

Nanyang Technological University economist and Assistant Professor Walter Theseira said taxpayers can expect to pay more in the medium and long term, with higher-income earners contributing a larger share. The proceeds can fund social initiatives to help the unemployed, and support medical expenses and retirement provisions for middle- and lower-income groups.

“It is fair that we all are asked to pay a bit more to fund them, although of course in general the more fortunate amongst us should contribute a larger share,” said Asst Prof Theseira.

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

February 26, 2015