Let's do more to engage Singaporeans in the House

By Ignatius Low, The Straits Times, 7 Mar 2012

THEY are there at many parliamentary sessions these days, but yesterday was the first time I properly noticed them.

I'm talking about the students who troop into Parliament House on school excursions. They sit down and quietly listen to proceedings for maybe an hour. Then their teachers make them stand up and bow to the Speaker before they take their leave.

As a student, I never had the privilege of attending a live session. So I found myself wondering yesterday what these teens would have made of their hour in the land's highest decision-making body.

Truth be told, it depended on what time they stepped into the Chamber. Take yesterday's Committee of Supply proceedings as an example.

The debates over the budgets of the Law and Foreign Affairs ministries must have seemed particularly bewildering to these young minds. Members of the House discussed the geopolitics of the region, including the rise of China. The domestic talk centred on difficult-to-follow issues like intellectual property and police procedures.

The debate wore on but there was little change in the Government's positions or policies on many matters. It was Parliament at its most intimidating, not just for the students but perhaps some of the adults who had ventured into the House as well.

But the students who came in after the mid-session break saw a very different side of Parliament.

NEA to take over public cleaning job

Its new department will assume other agencies' functions starting April 1

By Grace Chua & Teo Wan Gek, The Straits Times, 7 Mar 2012

THE job of cleaning public areas is currently split among different agencies: one takes care of footpaths, another vacant land, and yet another, drains.

But that means some areas fall through the cracks.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) intends to take charge of cleaning all public areas, except public housing estates which remain under town councils.

Senior Minister of State (Environment and Water Resources) Grace Fu announced the setting up of a new Department of Public Cleanliness (DPC) within NEA 'to better manage cleaning contracts, improve service standards and to improve our responsiveness to public feedback'.

She was responding to Associate Professor Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim (Nee Soon GRC), who highlighted the need to streamline and integrate cleaning functions.

NEA now oversees the cleaning of public areas such as roads. Water agency PUB cleans drains, the National Parks Board keeps parks clean and the Land Transport Authority sweeps footpaths.

The new department will begin to take over other agencies' cleaning functions from April 1, and by the end of 2016, it will look after all public cleaning work.

Healthcare 2020 road map unveiled: MOH Committee of Supply Debate 2012

Health Minister pledges affordable, good-quality, accessible treatment for all
By Salma Khalik, The Straits Times, 7 Mar 2012

A HEALTHCARE road map was unveiled yesterday, showing the path Singapore will take to tackle a growing and rapidly ageing population.

It sets out the extra infrastructure and manpower needed, as well as signals a change in the way healthcare will be delivered, with patients increasingly being treated in the community rather than in hospitals.

Called Healthcare 2020, it will focus on three goals, said Health Minister Gan Kim Yong when he rolled it out during the parliamentary debate on his ministry's budget. These are: Singaporeans will receive healthcare when they need it, it will be of good quality and effective, and it will be affordable.

Delivering this will call for ramping up the number of beds and manpower. By 2020, 3,700 hospital beds and 20,000 healthcare workers will be added.

To meet short-term demand, private hospitals will be roped in. Parkway East will lease some beds to be run by Changi General Hospital staff and Raffles Hospital will help to treat some subsidised patients.

Public and community hospitals will produce another 170 beds by next year.

The number of people to man the increase in beds - the doctors, nurses and allied health professionals - will go up by 50 per cent across the board. To recruit and retain the 20,000 more workers needed, the Health Ministry will increase salaries.

Workers will get about 20 per cent more in the next three years, starting with pay rises next month. This is expected to cost the Government an extra $200 million this year and Mr Gan promised that none of it will be passed on to patients.

Training will be intensified to produce 500 doctors, 2,700 nurses, 240 pharmacists and 80 dentists a year. But it will not be enough, said Mr Gan. Foreigners will need to be recruited, and Singaporeans working overseas lured back.

Giving an overview of the forces shaping healthcare needs in the years ahead, the minister noted that life expectancy has gone up by four years over the past decade. Premature deaths from cancer, heart diseases and stroke in people under the age of 65 have plummeted between 1990 and today. These changes put Singapore on a par with First World countries such as France and Sweden.

But they also mean the number of people aged 65 and older will triple from 350,000 today to 960,000 in 2030.

'The ageing population will be a strong driver for healthcare demand,' Mr Gan said, and 'requires changes to how we organise and deliver healthcare'.

Older people are four times more likely than younger people to end up in hospital, where they will need more intense care and stay longer. Their chronic conditions are more effectively managed in the community, he added.

National servicemen to get $60 more a month with effect from 1 Apr 2012

By Jermyn Chow, The Straits Times, 7 Mar 2012

NATIONAL servicemen will receive $60 more in monthly allowances from next month.

Recruits entering full-time national service will enjoy the biggest jump, getting $480 - up from $420.

Those who rise through the ranks, becoming, for instance, lieutenants, will pocket $1,180 a month - up from $1,120.

Besides the 40,000 full-time national servicemen (NSFs), the 300,000 operationally ready national servicemen (NSmen) who are called up for annual in-camp training will also benefit.

The increases for all citizen soldiers in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), Singapore Police Force (SPF) and Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) will kick in on April 1.

The move to recognise the contributions of national servicemen and mark the 45th anniversary of national service was announced by Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen in Parliament yesterday.



Elaborating, Minister of State for Defence Lawrence Wong said the raise 'goes one step further in signalling our acknowledgment of our servicemen's commitment and service'.

He said the Government had recognised national servicemen's contributions in various ways, including through the National Service Recognition Award of $9,000 to all national servicemen since February last year, and building recreational clubs for them and their families.

The last time their allowance was boosted was in 2009, going up $20.

The latest increase is likely to cost the Defence Ministry an extra $28.8 million a year for NSF allowances alone.

Seven towns to get new hawker centres; No more subletting for stallholders from 1 April 2012

By Jessica Lim, Chong Ning Qian, The Straits Times, 7 Mar 2012

SEVEN towns - Bukit Panjang, Pasir Ris, Tampines, Yishun, Woodlands, Jurong West and Punggol - have been earmarked for the building of new hawker centres.

They were selected based on the current number of cooked food stalls in the area, growth of the town and land use adjacent to the sites.

Construction of the hawker centre in Bukit Panjang will start in the second half of this year. It will have an adjoining wet market and is expected to be completed within three years.

The other six hawker centres will be built within the next five years. A decision on whether they will have wet markets will be made later.

Each new hawker centre will have 40 to 60 cooked food stalls.

Senior Minister of State (Environment and Water Resources) Grace Fu said yesterday: 'In the year ahead, we will be consulting closely with members and grassroots on the new centres that will be built.'

She stressed that the design and development of these new centres 'should be informed by the views of the people they will serve'.

'Hawker centres are more than just places for affordable food. They are also important common spaces that cultivate the sense of community,' she said.

Smoking ban extended to more public areas

Corridors, void decks and staircases will be no-smoking zones

By Tan Dawn Wei, The Straits Times, 7 Mar 2012

SMOKERS will have even fewer places to light up, with the smoking ban extended to common corridors, void decks and staircases of residential buildings.

Other new no-smoking zones include sheltered walkways, overhead bridges and outdoor hospital compounds. The change kicks in in the coming year.

At bus stops, the change means those who want to light up must stay outside a 5m radius around bus shelters.

Selected parks and town centres could be next, as the authorities make them part of a pilot project to introduce no-smoking zones.

The move to widen smoking prohibition comes on the heels of a public consultation exercise which the National Environment Agency (NEA) and Health Promotion Board (HPB) embarked on last November. The six-week online exercise attracted 8,000 respondents, with 89 per cent of them supporting an extension of the ban. As many as 85 per cent wanted cigarettes stubbed out of common areas in residential buildings.

Senior Minister of State (Environment and Water Resources) Grace Fu said yesterday there was 'broad support' for extending the smoking ban to places that non-smokers cannot reasonably avoid.

Smoking is currently not allowed in most indoor public areas and on all public transport.

In 2006, the authorities prohibited smoking in non-air-conditioned food outlets and hawker centres but allowed those with outdoor dining areas to set aside 20 per cent of that space for a smoking corner. A year later, it extended the ban to entertainment outlets.

HPB is also on a drive to make hawker centres voluntarily smoke-free. There are now 39 such hawker centres.

While the ban extension will go ahead, details of its implementation will be worked out in consultation with the community and building owners, said Ms Fu.

Social recession

Money alone cannot fix 'social deficits'

Editorial, The Straits Times, 8 Mar 2012

JUST as an economic recession destroys capital, jobs and livelihoods, a social recession undermines empathy, solidarity and humanity - qualities necessary to sustain inclusive and cohesive societies. A reference to recession in relation to community engagement, a concept associated with social psychologist David Myers, might not be in tune with the fiscal matters discussed during Budget debates in Parliament. But it is pertinent to a broader concern relating to the perception of the current buzzword - inclusiveness.

To be sure, new NMP Laurence Lien raised this issue dramatically when he suggested that Singapore was indeed in a social recession. He and other MPs in Parliament last week took up recurring social themes - fading resilience, loosening family bonds, the loss of a shared identity, community cohesiveness, and the emergence of a what's-in-it- for-me? mentality. To hear of an epidemic of narcissism and self-entitlement here, one can be forgiven for thinking that Singapore is indeed in the throes of a social recession.

However, that would be inflating things. When British Prime Minister David Cameron spoke of Britain's 'social recession' two years ago, it was in relation to rising violent crime that drew widespread attention. The issues voiced by MPs in Singapore are weaknesses that many urban societies are afflicted with in varying degrees. So while MPs pointed out the weeds, it is worth noting too that there are also green shoots, with agencies and grassroots groups pushing forward with programmes to address social ills.

HDB stands firm on flats for elderly in Toh Yi area

But it will build more recreational facilities, in response to residents' feedback

By Janice Tai, The Straits Times, 6 Mar 2012

THE Housing Board (HDB) has decided - it will not budge.

It will stick to its original plan to build a block of studio apartments for the elderly at the junction of Toh Yi Drive and Toh Yi Road, despite protests and a petition by some residents there.

It said yesterday that alternative sites suggested by 230 residents in the estate - including siting it about 20m away near Block 17 instead - were unsuitable.

This came as good news to residents of Block 17, who had themselves started a petition upon learning about the idea to move the flats near them. They, in turn, proposed another site.

But some residents around Toh Yi Road were clearly unhappy. Several of them met The Straits Times near a basketball court last night, and were disgruntled and frustrated. Some complained that residents had been told there was going to be another open dialogue if there were updates, and were fed up that HDB was now going ahead with its plans.

They also brought up again their concerns about facilities being taken away from them, and how the site was unsuitable for the elderly because of the slopes.

The Build-to-Order exercise for the units will be launched later this month.

The Toh Yi saga, as well as the recent case of Woodlands residents opposed to an eldercare centre being built in their void deck, led to a national debate on how some Singaporeans appear to have a Not In My Backyard, or Nimby, attitude towards vulnerable groups like the old.

Studio apartments are a housing option for the elderly and have fittings such as grab bars and alarms. There are currently 6,800 of them in various housing estates, and HDB will launch 2,000 more units this year.

At a media briefing yesterday, HDB said it was not turning a deaf ear to the concerns of Toh Yi residents.

They had said that the block will be built on what is now the basketball court, jogging track and community garden - the area's main recreational facilities.

To this, HDB said it will build a children's playground and community garden on the second floor of the studio apartment building. This will be open to everyone to use. A jogging path will also be built. These will be on top of the usual facilities that studio apartments get, such as an elderly fitness corner.

Fifty more carpark spaces will be added to relieve the parking shortage in nearby blocks - another concern raised. This excludes the 16 spaces reserved for those in the studio apartments.

Making a start with policies shaped by both head and heart

By Ignatius Low, The Straits Times, 6 Mar 2012

YOU can always count on Ms Indranee Rajah (Tanjong Pagar GRC) to tell a good story in Parliament. Often, the stories are amusing, but also instructive.

Yesterday, during the Committee of Supply debate for the Ministry of Manpower, she had another good one. But this time, her tale horrified more than it amused me.

She had gone to investigate why foreign workers seem to like to loiter at HDB void decks in the Silat precinct of her constituency.

It turns out that they are Punjabi workers who have suffered work-related injuries and are waiting for their compensation claims to be processed.

While they are injured, they cannot work. Their employers continue to house them in dormitories but, wickedly, do not give them food.

So the workers go to a Sikh temple near Silat Road for free vegetarian food. They do not go back to their dormitories because they want to save on transport. So they end up loitering around the areas next to the temple.

She ended the story by revealing that some workers have been doing this for as long as eight months, while they wait for their claims to be processed.

Stories like this make me pause and wonder whether our country has really made the transition from Third World to First. Is Singapore really a civilised and developed society?

If so, why is it that so many of us sometimes refuse to see an issue from anything but the most practical perspective of cost versus benefit, dollars and sense?

Mandatory weekly rest days for foreign maids from 1 January 2013

By Hoe Yeen Nie, Channel NewsAsia, 5 Mar 2012

It will soon be mandatory for employers to give foreign domestic workers (FDWs) a weekly rest day or compensation in lieu.

To give employers time to adjust, the new law will kick in for FDW work permits issued or renewed from 1 January 2013. It will not affect existing maids until their permits are renewed after that date.

By 2015, all maids will be covered by the new legislation.

Employers who break the rules can be fined up to S$5,000 or spend six months in jail.

Currently, rest days and compensation are spelled out in a contract between the maid and the employer but the practice is not uniform.

Only about 10 per cent of maids here have weekly rest days. About half have at least one rest day a month.

Singapore is currently among a handful of countries that have not legislated rest days for maids.

Others include Saudi Arabia, Thailand, South Korea and Malaysia. Malaysia, though, has recently signed an agreement with Indonesia that requires a weekly rest day for Indonesian maids, with the option of compensation in lieu.

In making the change, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said the regulation is expected to enhance Singapore's attractiveness as a destination for quality and experienced maids.

Minister of State for Manpower Tan Chuan-Jin announced the change in Parliament on Monday.

There are currently some 200,000 maids in Singapore. They come from countries like Indonesia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka.

The rest day for maids can fall on any day. If a maid is asked to work on her day off, a replacement rest day must be given within the same month as the day off forgone.

To provide flexibility to employers with elderly or young children who need constant care, or maids who prefer to work to earn more, both parties can discuss compensation in lieu of the rest day.

This has to be mutually agreed by both parties.

The formula to calculate the compensation amount is also spelled out. This will be the maid's monthly salary divided by 26 days, giving the maid a day's wage.

Development should not come at expense of heritage: Tan Chuan-Jin on the government's decision to redevelop part of Bukit Brown Cemetery into a road

By Joanne Chan, Channel NewsAsia, 5 Mar 2012

Minister of State for National Development Tan Chuan-Jin said that Singapore's development should not and need not come at the expense of the country's heritage, identity and sense of belonging.

But he pointed out that hard choices need to be made on how land is used.

Speaking during his ministry's budget debate, Mr Tan was responding to MPs who had called for the conservation of Singapore's heritage, which must not come at the expense of development.



Several MPs had questioned the government's decision to redevelop part of Bukit Brown Cemetery into a road, and raised concerns that the country's heritage was being erased.

Mr Tan said that while physical markers are important, it's also important to document and share the Singapore stories.

CPF Life plans to be simplified from 4 to 2

Members finding it hard to choose from four plans: Tharman

By Cai Haoxiang, The Straits Times, 6 Mar 2012

THE national annuity scheme to provide Singaporeans with a retirement income for as long as they live will be simplified next year.

Instead of four CPF Life plans to choose from, they will have just two.

One, a Standard plan that gives them higher monthly payouts for their living expenses, but bequeaths a smaller sum to dependents upon death.

Two, a Basic plan that will have lower payouts, but a larger bequest.

The change was announced yesterday by Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who said it was prompted by feedback from Central Provident Fund members that they found it difficult to choose from the four plans. This is especially since the payouts are not significantly different.

So the change will 'provide simplicity, but retain the best features of the existing plans', he said.

It will kick in just as CPF Life becomes compulsory next January.

Then, all CPF members who turn 55, with at least $40,000 in their Retirement Accounts (RAs), will be automatically included. In return for premiums paid from their Minimum Sum, they will get payouts from age 65. Currently, the annuity scheme is optional.

Yesterday, Mr Tharman revealed that some 73,000 members have signed up thus far.

About 90 per cent opted for two of the four plans: Plus and Balanced. These two plans provide relatively high payouts, while leaving something behind for family members.

But the difference in payouts between them was only 4 per cent on average, or $30, said Mr Tharman.

So, they will be combined into the new Standard plan, which is also the default choice. It will also give members flexibility to use their RA monies for housing until age 65.