Current Affairs

On 12th December, an SMRT worker was involved in an unfortunate accident involving a maintenance vehicle on the MRT tracks near Joo Koon station which resulted in his right foot being crushed and needed amputating. The accident happened about 4.10am, said SMRT in a statement. It caused a delay in the start of the train service on the East-West Line …

During the Q&A session at the United Nations Association of Singapore Model UN (UNASMUN 2018) on 18th December, Speaker of Parliament Mr Tan Chuan-Jin was asked by a member of the audience, Jael Koh, whether there was systemic discrimination against Singaporean Malays. Mr Tan diverted by asking the audience member, whether he had any experience as a volunteer. Mr Tan, …

Last month, it was reported that GD Group, a food and beverage company specialized in selling Penang food, had deceived the Manpower Ministry (MOM) into issuing Employment Pass to 20 of its foreign employees, when they did not meet the requirements. Between February 2013 and July 2015, GD Group falsely declared salary amounts of between $4,000 and $4,800 for its …

On Wednesday (March 6), over 30 foreign workers participated in a sit-down protest at the Central Business District (CBD) demanding answers from their employer over unpaid salaries. Their employer, Stargood Construction, believed to owe these workers about S$300,000 for their work at the old Central Provident Fund (CPF) building from December 2018 to February 2019. Those who participated in the …

National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said in Parliament today (7 Mar) that the government is looking into relaxing CPF loan rules on the purchase of older HDB resale flats. He said details will be announced in May. One issue is the restriction in CPF usage for flats with less than 60 years of lease remaining, Minister Wong said. Some banks …

Yesterday (6 Mar), Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Grace Fu who is also in-charge of the Municipal Services Office (MSO) told Parliament that new services will be introduced through its online OneService app soon. It will enable residents to perform simple transactions and engage one another more conveniently, she said. For example, residents would soon be able to book …

Serial protestor Yan Jun is facing two charges under the Public Order Act for his protest outside Raffles Place MRT station at the end of last month, just 10 months after he was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment and a S$5,000 fine. The 43-year-old former research assistant was charged with one count of taking part in a public assembly outside Raffles …

The Independent Singapore, a socio-political website has decided to retract two articles that made allegations against NTUC Foodfare Co-Operative; the food-centre operator at Changi Terminal 4. The first article was published on 19 Nov last year alleging of an elderly hawker passed away due to exhaustion after working 18-hour days to avoid hefty fine by NTUC Foodfare. Another article that …

In Parliament today (5 Mar), Manpower Minister Josephine Teo told Parliament that the Government, unions and employers have all agreed to raise the retirement age beyond 62 and re-employment age beyond 67 (‘Parliament: Govt, unions and employers agree retirement, re-employment ages should be raised‘). Ms Teo was referring to the Tripartite Workgroup on Older Workers set up last year to …

While diplomacy primarily remains the ideal course of action for Singapore in the field of foreign affairs, deterrence serves to be more important as diplomacy will be “hollow” in the absence of “a credible deterrent force capable of putting action to resolve”, opines Ben Ho Wan Beng, Associate Research Fellow with the Military Studies Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School …