Singapore’s curious snow globe of Hong Lim Park

By Kirsten Han | SingaporeScene – 

COMMENT

Kirsten Han is a Singaporean blogger, journalist and filmmaker. She is also involved in the We Believe in Second Chances campaign for the abolishment of the death penalty. A social media junkie, she tweets at @kixes. The views expressed are her own.

The crowd at the latest #ReturnOurCPF protest in Hong Lim Park over the weekend didn't have many good things to say about the government. They were suspicious and angry, and all-too-ready to cheer the anti-PAP rhetoric coming from the speakers.

Such protests used to be unheard of in Singapore, but are becoming more and more common. As this article points out, the number of events – often protests or rallies – held in Hong Lim Park has been increasing year on year.

The article goes on to wonder if Singapore is facing any real threat of civil unrest, or whether the government should be worried. Devadas Krishnadas, the managing director of a risk consultancy, rightly points out that peaceful protests to date have been organised in accordance with the law. A government spokesperson also highlighted Speakers' Corner in Hong Lim Park as having become "more vibrant, used for a variety of purposes and provides an avenue for citizens to air their views on various issues openly and responsibly", and something that the "government will continue to encourage".

I've been to Hong Lim Park more than enough times to know that it has become one of the focal points of civil society in Singapore. There are things that can be said to crowds there that will probably not be said anywhere else in the country. That's the beauty of the space. It's also a big problem for Singaporeans.

The sad truth (hard truth?) of the matter is that Hong Lim Park is like a snow globe, stuck in the middle of a busy city that has no real time for it. Once in awhile something happens, and the snow globe is shaken: the scene turned upside down, glitter everywhere. Then, as time passes, the debris settles and everything returns to what it was before, nothing changed.

This is probably why the government is happy to "encourage" the development of activities in Hong Lim Park.

There are now many protests in Singapore, but they can't be compared to the civil disobedience one might see in other countries: they're either shunted off to the lovely-but-easily-forgettable Hong Lim Park, or require organisers to jump through hoops for police permits. Examples include how two anti-racism events have had different responses from the police and how the Pink Run in support of LBGT rights in Singapore was not allowed to go ahead unless it moved to Hong Lim Park.

All this leads Singaporean activists to some difficult questions: how can we continue to safely push the boundaries? How much of a difference are we really making? Or are we simply constructing an illusion of participatory democracy?

So is there a threat of civil unrest and instability in Singapore? Hardly. Things are changing, that's for sure, but there are still many ways in which civil society has to mature and grow before we can start talking about anything more than tweaks in the system.

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/singaporescene/singapore-s-curious-snow-globe-of-hong-lim-park-150130452.html

Monday #sgroundup: Street maps of yesteryears now available to public

By Yahoo! Singapore

By Yahoo! Singapore | What's buzzing? – 

Here are today's top trending stories in case you missed them.

Street maps of yesteryears now available to public

A general view of Singapore. Thousands of letters and publications are kept in the Rare Materials Collection (RMC) …

Redhill Close is currently missing Block 4 as it was reportedly demolished many years ago to make way for a road. Hawkins Road near Sembawang used to host Vietnamese refugees in the 1970s. More recently in 2005, the old National Library Building had to be torn down to build the Fort Canning Tunnel.

These places no longer exist but if you are hoping to look them up on a map and identify where they used to be, you might be in luck. For the first time, 23 editions of historical street maps dating from 1954 to 2009 will be available to the public, as downloadable as images, from today.

https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/street-maps-yesteryears-now-available-public-021526961--sector.html

Five-room flats will not qualify for Lease Buyback Scheme

Flats in Singapore (File picture)

The Lease Buyback Scheme (LBS) was not extended to bigger flats like five-room flats because the government does not want to see Singaporeans living in homes bigger than what they really need, said Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean yesterday and reported in the media.

He added homeowners of such units already have many other options such as renting out rooms and right sizing their homes which they can consider first.

https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/five-room-flats-not-qualify-lease-buyback-scheme-014226816--sector.html

Thai PM stacks cabinet with soldiers

Thai Army Chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha smiles during the military anniversary of the 21st Infantry Regiment in Chonburi …

Thailand's coup leader and newly appointed premier Prayut Chan-O-Cha on Sunday received royal endorsement for a cabinet stacked with soldiers, as the military extended its reach into the kingdom's politics.

Nearly a third of the 32-strong cabinet are senior military officers. Among them are Prayut's close allies and key players in the recent years of political turbulence, including generals involved in the bloody 2010 crackdown on "Red Shirt" activists.

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/thai-pm-stacks-cabinet-soldiers-134935017.html

Search for survivors after six die in Paris building explosion

Firefighters and rescue workers inspect the site where a four-storey residential building collapsed following a …

Rescue workers searched throughout the night for two people missing after an explosion ripped through an apartment building outside Paris, killing six and reducing half a residential block to rubble.

Among the victims were a 10-year-old boy and a mother and two children aged 14 and 18.

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/four-dead-paris-suburb-building-explosion-200657186.html

Apparent Hollywood hack attack nabs stars' nude pix

Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence at the "X-Men: Days Of Future Past" world premiere in …

Nude photos purportedly showing many top stars, including Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence and pop star Rihanna, bounced around social media, in an apparent massive hacking leak, US media reported.

"It's so weird and hard how people take your privacy away from you," Lawrence said in a tweet on Sunday.

The actress' agent, meanwhile, vowed to take legal action.

https://sg.entertainment.yahoo.com/news/apparent-hollywood-hack-attack-nabs-stars-nude-pix-013137311.html

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/what-is-buzzing/monday--sgroundup--street-maps-of-yesteryears-now-available-to-public-092605724.html

Play a part in assimilating: PM Lee, Khaw to new Singapore citizens

By Jeanette Tan | Yahoo Newsroom – 

Join community activities and reach out to others who have newly arrived in Singapore, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan to new citizens on Saturday.
 
Speaking at separate national citizenship ceremonies held on Saturday morning and afternoon, both encouraged the newly-minted citizens to serve the community with other Singaporeans and called on residents to invite the new arrivals to community events and for meals at their homes.
 
Lee welcomed some 150 new citizens in Ang Mo Kio and Sengkang West constituencies, while Khaw awarded citizenship certificates to 194 new citizens in Sembawang, including 32 families who applied for citizenship together.
 
Acknowledging that changing citizenship is a big decision, the prime minister said it is certainly more than doing a cost-benefit analysis on a spreadsheet. "(It is in) committing your heart — what identity do you adopt? What values will you make your own? Where will your loyalty lie?" he added.
 
Meanwhile, Khaw said the state of affairs in Singapore is "truly extraordinary" given the many racial and religious conflicts that are occurring around the world now.
 
"We must treasure it, and it requires every one of us to continue to preserve what is important to us: social harmony, mutual respect for one another and graciousness when sharing the common spaces," he said.
 
Khaw also encouraged new citizens, being better-able to understand the challenges of adjusting to a new environment, to reach out to other newly-arrived residents in Singapore.
 
Singapore's population grew 1.6 per cent between 2012 and 2013 to 5.4 million, while its citizen population moved up by just over 26,000 or 0.7 per cent over the same period to 3.8 million, according to figures from the Department of Statistics.
 
Its population density has risen from 7,529 to 7,540 per sq.km in 2013, a pain point for many who have complained in recent years of overcrowding in public spaces and competition for jobs and housing.

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/play-a-part-in-assimilating--pm-lee--khaw-to-new-singapore-citizens-014112028.html

Friday #sgroundup: Nicole Seah quits National Solidarity Party

By Nurul Azliah Aripin | What's buzzing? – 

Here are today's top trending stories in case you missed them.

Nicole Seah quits National Solidarity Party
Nicole Seah speaks at a rally for presidential candidate Tan Jee Say in this file photograph. (Yahoo file phot … 
Opposition politician Nicole Seah has resigned from the National Solidarity Party, both she and its secretary-general Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss have confirmed.

In an email response to queries from Yahoo Singapore on the matter, Seah said leaving the party was "an extremely difficult and painful decision to make", stating that there was nothing that happened to trigger her departure.

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/nicole-seah-quits-national-solidarity-party-052810094.html

Local comedian David Bala passes away at age 67
 
Veteran Singapore actor David Bala has passed away at the age of 67 due to heart disease, said MediaCorp. TV station Vasantham posted the announcement on its Facebook page on Friday, 29 August.

https://sg.entertainment.yahoo.com/news/local-comedian-david-bala-passes-away-061518648.html

Malaysia Airlines to cut 6,000 staff in overhaul
 Malaysia Airlines planes are seen parked at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang on June 17, 2014
Malaysia Airlines will cut 6,000 workers as part of a $1.9 billion overhaul announced Friday to revive its damaged brand after being hit by double passenger jet disasters.

Current CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya will continue to head Malaysia Airlines until its new incarnation is established in July next year.

https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/malaysia-airlines-cut-6-000-071637612--finance.html

PM Lee pledges to strengthen ties with Malaysia
 Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong delivers a speech during the 20th International Conference on the …
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong treated his Malaysian counterpart Datuk Seri Najib Razak with great hospitality in return for the latter's treatment when they met in Putrajaya last April.

He also pledged to continue to cooperate and strengthen ties with Malaysia.

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/singapore-pm-pledges-strengthen-ties-031057088.html

Ex-Myanmar beauty queen accused of stealing crown
 Former Miss Myanmar stripped of her beauty pageant title.
A Myanmar beauty queen who was stripped of her title for allegedly being rude and dishonest has run off with the $100,000 jeweled crown, a South Korea-based pageant said Friday.

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/dethroned-myanmar-beauty-queen-takes-crown-055600555.html

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/what-is-buzzing/friday--sgroundup--nicole-seah-quits-national-solidarity-party-095120326.html

YOUR VIEW: Recognising non-religious Singaporeans

Yahoo Newsroom – 

This email by a reader was sent to us via reachus@yahoo-inc.com. We welcome your views. Please include your full name, age and occupation if you want your emails to be considered for publishing. Please note that all submissions will be subject to these terms.

Two years ago, a social work volunteer rang up my organisation. A 95-year-old man, she said, had a dying wish to join my humanist group – currently Singapore's only organisation for non-religious people.

The man, Mr Ang Hock Guan, lived alone and had been non-religious for over 50 years. Unfortunately, hours after becoming our oldest ever member, he passed away.

Like many Singaporeans of the pioneer generation, he died before his stories could be recorded and told. Mr Ang was a young man when Singapore experienced the deadly racial riots of 1964, but lived to see Singapore transform from a Third World to First World country.

As Singapore prepares for its 50th anniversary next year, it is worth remembering that non-religious Singaporeans have a long history on this multi-religious island and gave their fair share to nation building.

Mr Ang was already a free-thinker before Singapore's independence, although non-religious Singaporeans were not classified as so in the national census until 1980.  While violent tensions existed between religious groups back in the 1960s, Mr Ang was free to be non-religious for most of his life, in a country where more than eight in 10 citizens have a religion.

This is because safeguards were put in place to ensure secularism and the freedom of belief in public spaces such as schools, community centres and Government offices. Housing, healthcare and education policies contain no discrimination on the basis of faith.

Strained family relations

Yet Singaporeans may not be as accepting of their loved ones' having other religions. A recent Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) survey on race and religion found that while people here were comfortable having bosses, colleagues and neighbours of other religions and being close friends with people from other religions, they were less comfortable when it came to close relatives such as spouses and in-laws.

This can lead to strains in family relations. Those who convert to a new religion for reasons such as marriage or personal conviction are able to find emotional support in new religious communities to tide over painful transitions.

Such transitions can be harder for some Singaporeans who leave their religion when they no longer believe in it and rely on science, evidence and empathy to guide their lives. They are an under-represented group without support from any large network or organisation. Some who become freethinkers face hostile disapproval from religious groups for leaving the religion.

In more extreme cases, their morality is also questioned at workplaces and some are forced to leave home for their refusal to participate in the family's religious activities. Others have to take on pseudonyms to express their feelings. Fearful of strict laws governing criticism of religion, a few are even considering migration.

While their numbers are probably small, it is regrettable some freethinkers have to hide their views to gain social acceptance within their families and communities in Singapore, a multicultural nation which prides itself on inclusiveness.

Part of such hostility stems from a misconception that freethinkers lack moral codes. This is not true. Many freethinkers still share universal human values with the religious, such as the cardinal rule of treating others as one would like others to treat oneself.

Understanding free-thinkers

As Singapore prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary next year, I have two suggestions which can help religious Singaporeans better understand their non-religious countrymen and free them from any existing prejudice.

The first: Stronger recognition for non-religious Singaporeans and their contributions in the national narrative.

Singaporeans have always embraced religious traditions as part of our moral code, heritage and national identity. Religious buildings, monuments and festivals can be seen easily around the country. With no temples, monuments or festivals of their own, freethinkers leave behind only individual memories and ideas for posterity.

For a more holistic narrative, non-religious Singaporeans should be given a stronger mention in school textbooks and local literature, alongside the various modern religions.

My second suggestion: More academic research should be done on non-religious Singaporeans. What do they believe? What motivates them to do their best in life? When they marry or die, what kind of rites do they go through?

Such research will be timely as non-religious people are becoming more common in Singapore. In 2010, they made up 17 per cent of resident population – or about 640,000 Singaporeans. This is up from 13 per cent in 1980 according to the Singapore Census of Population.

Regretfully, we are not able to turn back the clock and listen to Mr Ang share his life experiences.

But there are many more Singaporeans today, like Mr Ang, whose non-religious world view has helped shape our nation over the past 50 years in big and small ways.

Paul Tobin, 53
Engineer

Paul Tobin, together with 11 others, founded the Humanist Society (Singapore), a community of freethinkers, atheists, agnostics and humanists, in 2010.

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/your-view--recognising-non-religious-singaporeans-075825779.html

Nicole Seah quits National Solidarity Party

By Jeanette Tan | Yahoo Newsroom – 

Opposition politician Nicole Seah has resigned from the National Solidarity Party, its secretary-general Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss has confirmed.
 
Speaking to Yahoo Singapore over the phone on Friday, Chong-Aruldoss said Seah tendered her resignation on Monday, 25 August. The party is sorry to see her go but respects her decision to leave, she added.
 
"We thank her for all the contributions she has made during her time with us, and we are very appreciative of all her efforts… but we respect her decision, which I'm sure she has considered and not made lightly," she said.
 
Chong-Aruldoss acknowledged that the 28-year-old has become "quieter than before" in terms of her involvement with party activities and correspondence in the months since she moved to Bangkok to work.
 
"We wanted to give her some space to get her own things organised and haven't been running after her to tell her to do things," she said.
 
She also stressed that no incident, altercation or animosity had taken place between Seah and the party's leaders.
 
"She's been with us for quite a few years, and I do have fond memories… it's sad that I have to see anyone go, but that's her decision and we respect it. I take comfort that she took some time to think about it," she added.
 
Seah moved to Thailand in March to work at IPG Mediabrands's Bangkok office and has been based there ever since.
 
Yahoo Singapore has contacted Seah for comment on her departure from the party, which she has been a key face of since Singapore's watershed general election in 2011. A new face on the scene, she grew to prominence with her strong speeches and grassroots work, and also became very popular online.

Her last-held position in the party was second assistant secretary-general. She previously was a member of the Reform Party, which she subsequently left alongside other current NSP members like Hazel Poa and Tony Tan in 2011.

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/nicole-seah-quits-national-solidarity-party-052810094.html

SMRT encourages more schools to charter off-peak trains

By Jeanette Tan | Yahoo Newsroom – 

Despite drawing some criticism from a recent incident, Singapore train operator SMRT is urging schools to consider chartering of trains during off-peak hours in case they need to move a large number of students around.
 
Its managing director for trains, Lee Ling Wee, took to Facebook on Thursday in a lengthy letter to the public to shed more light on its recent chartering out of five trains to ferry students and staff from the Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) to the National Stadium for a rugby match.
 
"We are grateful that the school informed us beforehand as it gave us time to make the operational scheduling decisions that minimised inconvenience to other commuters along the line," said Lee, who noted that staff were able to work with the school to transport the 3,000 students and staff smoothly while keeping all stations open to other commuters.
 
She explained that while the current train fleet on the Circle Line is overloaded at morning and evening peak hours, only 20 to 30 per cent of its trains are used for the rest of the day. "We are able to withdraw some trains from service because of low passenger loadings," she added.
 
"The story may have been different had 3,000 students descended on the Circle Line with no prior notice at the same time without crowd control measures in place, catching commuters and our station staff by surprise," she continued, adding that normal Circle Line services ran smoothly throughout the charter period for ACS (I). "Prior notice by ACS (I) allowed SMRT to put in place crowd control measures at the two stations as both the school and the destination were close to MRT stations."
 
Lee also made it a point to mention that SMRT had never sought permission from the Land Transport Authority (LTA) for previous occasions when it chartered trains for "tens of thousands of students from many schools" for the National Education shows in recent years, noting that they "all moved efficiently and safely and without fuss".
 
"We encourage more schools in the neighbourhoods located close to MRT stations to consider such charters, during off-peak periods, should they see a need to move a large number of students along our network," she continued. "All things considered, we feel the effort was genuine and worthwhile as it transported a large number of students efficiently and safely."
 
Earlier this week, the LTA said it was mulling action against the train operator for failing to seek its approval ahead of its train charter for the ACS (I) students, saying SMRT was required in terms of its licence to do so.
 
Responding at that point, SMRT stressed that regular operations were unaffected, and that it would inform the authorities of such arrangements in the future.

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/smrt-encourages-more-schools-to-charter-off-peak-trains-022427214.html