Mandai to be nature hub with five wildlife parks: Eco-link for animals to be ready by end-2019

2 new ones to be built to join zoo, Night Safari and River Safari, with eco-lodges for visitors
By Audrey Tan and Pang Xue Qiang, The Straits Times, 2 Jun 2016

Singapore will have a new wildlife and nature attraction in Mandai, complete with eco-lodges and a rainforest-themed park where visitors can get up close to wildlife.

When the Mandai nature precinct is completed by 2023, two wildlife parks - the new Rainforest Park and the relocated Bird Park - will join the existing trio: the Singapore Zoo, the River Safari and the Night Safari.

Sleeping under the stars could be an option for those who want to spend a night or two in Mandai, as options such as tents, suites and family rooms are being considered.

There will also be nature trails, boardwalks, outdoor seating and playgrounds, where no admission fees will be charged.

The 126ha Mandai hub sits just outside the Central Catchment Nature Reserve and borders Upper Seletar Reservoir.



The plans to turn the area into a nature precinct were announced yesterday by developer Mandai Safari Park Holdings. Tourism experts welcomed the move, saying it could help Singapore benefit from the fast-growing nature tourism.

At the 12.5ha Rainforest Park, visitors can stroll along aerial walkways that extend from the forest floor to treetop canopies, or enjoy the cool forest as they relax in pods suspended from the ground.

The Bird Park, which will be relocated from Jurong, will occupy 17ha and open as early as 2020. Birds will fly freely in nine "upsized" aviaries, each featuring a unique landscape such as bamboo forests.



Mr Mike Barclay, group chief executive of Mandai Safari Park Holdings, said yesterday that encounters with wildlife may be fleeting and irregular in the Central Catchment Nature Reserve, and the Rainforest Park will give people a chance to get up close to wildlife.

The hub is being designed to be in harmony with nature. The two new parks will be developed on previously occupied land and measures will be taken to minimise impact on the flora and fauna in the area.

An eco-bridge will be built across Mandai Lake Road for animals to move between the central and northern reaches of the Central Catchment Nature Reserve.

Plans for a makeover were first announced in 2014 by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. The first phase could start as early as later this year and will cost $1 billion. It will cover construction of the two new parks, infrastructure and enhancing facilities at the existing three parks.

Indonesia sends troops to Pulau Manis, after map blunder involving Singapore

AsiaOne, 2 Jun 2016

JAKARTA - Furious officials sent troops to Indonesian islets near Singapore after an online map of an eco resort mistakenly suggested they belong to the city-state.

Indonesian lawmakers also demanded the country's sovereignty be defended as anger mounted at the map of the under-construction "Funtasy Island".

The map initially showed the islets that make up the resort in blue, the same colour as Singapore, prompting outrage in Indonesian media at what they said was an attempt to claim their country's territory by stealth.

Both governments scrambled to defuse the escalating anger, with the city-state's foreign ministry saying it was "deeply puzzled" since it did not claim the islands while Jakarta insisted it was a mistake.

The six islets were also changed to red on the website map, one of the colours on the Indonesian flag.

But by this point, Indonesian army and navy personnel had already been dispatched from a local base at the weekend to the resort to place the country's flag on the highest point of one of the islands.

Local tourism chief Guntur Sakti said he had sent a warning to Singapore over the map, while Indonesian parliament speaker Ade Komaruddin told news website Tribunnews that "our sovereignty must be upheld".

However Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir played down the row, saying it was due to a mistake by the group Funtasy Island Development, which is building the resort.

"The issue has basically been resolved," he said. "The mistake has been corrected".

Donald Trump "opposes the role a free press plays in a democratic society"

Trump makes venomous attack on US news media
The Straits Times, 2 Jun 2016

WASHINGTON • He called a news conference ostensibly to answer questions about his fund-raising for charities that benefit military veterans. But Mr Donald Trump instead spent most of his time on live television berating the journalists covering his presidential campaign in unusually vitriolic and personal terms.

"You're a sleaze," he told a reporter for ABC.

"You're a real beauty," he told a reporter for CNN, snidely denigrating the man's competence.



For 40 minutes on Tuesday, Mr Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, assailed reporters with a level of venom rarely seen at all, let alone in public, from the standard-bearer of a major US political party. And he warned that a Trump White House would feature more of the same.

The issue had come to light through simple fact-checking. In January, fuming at Fox News, he skipped the final Republican debate before the Iowa caucuses because that network was hosting it. He held a competing event, a televised fund-raiser that he said would benefit military veterans, and announced that he had raised more than US$6 million (S$8.3 million), including US$1 million he was donating himself.

But The Washington Post reported a week ago that Mr Trump had yet to make his own donation.

In Tuesday's news conference, Mr Trump read aloud a list of charitable groups and the exact amounts he said each had received, interrupting himself frequently to issue broadsides at individual journalists, the news media in general, or political reporters as an exceptionally odious class.

Elections Department, police explain Cooling-Off Day probes for the Bukit Batok by-election 2016

Despite the rules being publicised, there were deliberate and serious breaches, says joint statement
By Charissa Yong, The Straits Times, 2 Jun 2016

The reason the Elections Department (ELD) and the police took action against various persons and websites for their online posts on Cooling-Off Day for the Bukit Batok by-election was set out in a joint statement last night.

It came amid criticism from netizens about the way the police are reportedly conducting the investigations, and a call from the Workers' Party (WP) for the police to be consistent in their probes.

The statement noted that the rules for Cooling-Off Day, introduced in 2011, have been breached in the various elections.

The approach taken by the ELD has been to give warnings. In some cases, the breaches were found to be unintentional, it added.

However, "we observed what appeared to be deliberate and serious breaches of the rules... during the Bukit Batok by-election", it said.

This despite the ELD making public past breaches as well as publicising the rules several times, including issuing an advisory before Cooling-Off Day and a subsequent reminder on Cooling-Off Day itself against activities that are deemed election advertising, said the joint statement.

In the Bukit Batok by-election, various persons and sites published online posts in contravention of the rules. It said The Independent Singapore, a socio-political website, continued to post such material even after receiving a specific reminder from the Assistant Returning Officer not to do so.

"Given the blatant disregard of the (rules) in the Bukit Batok by-election, the Assistant Returning Officer decided to make police reports so that the police could investigate."

CPF Board recovers record $516m in arrears from bosses in 2015

By Olivia Ho and Sabrina Faisal, The Straits Times, 2 Jun 2016

The Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board recovered $516 million in CPF arrears from errant employers last year, the highest annual amount to date.

The sum was owed to more than 360,000 workers. Most of it was down to bosses being tardy with their CPF payments. In other cases, employers had contributed less than they should have, or not at all.

The amount recovered last year was the largest in the past five years, the next highest being $420 million in 2013. Information on sums recovered before 2011 is not available.

A spokesman for the CPF Board said the high number of arrears last year was because more employers had not been punctual in paying CPF. She added: "The Board understands that most of the late payments are due to cash flow issues."

Overdue CPF payments made up $500.8 million of the sum recovered last year for more than 353,000 workers, compared with $364.2 million in 2014.

An average of 5,600 employers each month were behind schedule in paying CPF. The spokesman added: "However, most of the employers were able to pay up the arrears within the month."

NWC Wage Guidelines for 2016/2017

National Wages Council recommends $50-$65 pay hike for low-wage workers earning up to $1,100 a month
By Olivia Ho and Toh Yong Chuan, Manpower Correspondent, The Straits Times, 1 Jun 2016

A monthly pay rise of $50 to $65 is being recommended by the National Wages Council (NWC) this year for low-wage workers earning a basic salary of up to $1,100, in a continuing effort to lift their incomes.

And in a nod to tough economic conditions, the NWC is suggesting a range of pay increments instead of a fixed sum as it did in the past four years.

The range is not to put a cap on the pay increase but to allow for flexibility, said NWC chairman Peter Seah yesterday when he announced the annual wage guidelines. "It is to take into account affordability. Employers should give more if they can afford it."

Singapore's economy is expected to grow 1 per cent to 3 per cent this year.

For low-wage workers earning more than $1,100, the NWC recommends that they be given a "reasonable" wage increase and/or a one-off lump sum based on their skills and productivity.

In general, the NWC calls on companies that have done well and have good prospects to reward workers with pay hikes. But those that have not or have poor prospects should exercise wage restraint, with "management leading by example", it said.

The move to raise the basic wage of low-income workers has been one of the NWC's major efforts.

The move began in 2012, when it backed the National Trades Union Congress in its push for low-wage workers earning up to $1,000 each month to receive a built-in pay hike of at least $50. And since 2013, the sum was raised to $60. The salary bar was raised to $1,100 last year.

But non-unionised companies have largely ignored the NWC guidelines, which are not legally binding.

Only 18 per cent of companies, the majority of which are not unionised, gave their low-wage workers a pay rise of at least $60 last year, as specified by the NWC. In contrast, half of the unionised companies here followed the NWC guidelines.

Still, workers have generally benefited from the guidelines.

Time for Singapore to invest in its 'Personality'

By Sanjeev Sanyal, Published The Straits Times, 1 Jun 2016

Singapore has exhibited extraordinary flexibility as it evolved, in less than two generations, from a British colonial outpost to one of the most successful cities in the world. At each stage, the city state was able to add a new layer to the economy as it moved up the value chain - from a port to a manufacturing cluster, then a financial centre and more recently a hub for education, research and entertainment.

This flexibility is based in no small part on the willingness to radically rethink the economic and urban strategy every 15 years or so. The last round happened in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis and the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) epidemic. It is now time for a new round.

The succession of strategies used by Singapore to develop quickly has had one common theme - the economic model was the driving force and sociocultural policy had to adjust to it.

However, the city state now has to face a very different problem: How to maintain sociocultural continuity in the face of very rapid demographic change. How the city state manages this will have a significant impact on its political and economic future.

Singapore's population is currently estimated to be at 5.5 million, 3.4 million of whom are citizens and 500,000 are permanent residents (together they are called the resident population). Foreigners make up the remainder. The problem is that the resident population has a very low fertility rate. Total fertility rate (TFR) is defined as the average number of live births a woman will have over her lifetime. The city state requires a minimum TFR of 2.1 in order to keep its resident population stable, but the current rate is 1.24, a little more than half the "replacement rate". This implies a dramatic long-term shift because the number of "native" Singaporeans will drop to half the current level over a single generation (one must also allow for the fact that, in a globalised world, many Singaporeans will opt to live abroad).

The Government has long recognised the problem of low birth rates, but despite many efforts, nothing has so far succeeded in pushing up the fertility rate. This is not a unique problem and is common to many countries in Europe and East Asia. The obvious implication is that Singapore will need to rely heavily on immigration. In other words, the resident population will have to be steadily replenished by newcomers, including new citizens, merely to maintain the current population cluster.

Religious Rehabilitation Group launches mobile application to combat radicalisation

Religious doubts? Use app for private chat with counsellors
By Jeremy Koh, The Straits Times, 1 Jun 2016

To combat the spread of radical ideology, the Religious Rehabilitation Group (RRG) launched a mobile application yesterday that lets users have one-to-one live private chats with RRG counsellors to discuss issues and concerns.

Answers to frequently asked questions such as "What is jihad?" are in the app, which also notifies users on the latest RRG-related news.

The RRG, set up in 2003 to counsel detained members of terror group Jemaah Islamiah (JI), now also works with radicalised individuals, besides educating the community on the dangers of extremism.

The app was launched at the 12th RRG annual retreat. Speaking on the sidelines of the event, RRG vice-chairman Ustaz Mohamed Ali said his biggest concern is individuals being influenced by ideology propagated by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

"The strength of ISIS (is) they have managed to influence anybody, anywhere," he noted.

It claims to have established a caliphate, and says Muslims must pledge allegiance to the leader of ISIS and join their ranks, he said.

"This has confused the community, so we need to explain to them about the caliphate, jihad, syariah, all these ideologies," he added.

Another concern is young Muslims here who might be against ISIS but are for the idea of adopting Islamic law in Singapore.

"We need to educate our community that they can live as Muslims and practise Islam anywhere in the world, not necessarily in a Muslim- majority country... and (they can) live harmoniously with people of other religions," he said.

Centre of Expertise for Disability Sports launched in Sengkang

New centres will help disabled be active and more confident
By Ng Keng Gene, The Straits Times, 1 Jun 2016

When 51-year-old Tan Whee Boon lost all four limbs after suffering severe food poisoning linked to Group B Streptococcus infection last year, he never imagined that he would participate in a sport again.

However, the former technician enjoyed a dip at the ActiveSG Sengkang Sports Centre yesterday, at the launch of the first of five Centres of Expertise for Disability Sports.

Persons with disabilities (PwDs) like himself will now be able to take up sports at these centres, which provides PwDs access to facilities and programmes to learn a sport suitable for them.

"I've always liked to swim, and now that I have a chance to learn I hope I can do well enough to race. If they select me for next year's Asean Para Games, I will be glad to go," said Tan in Mandarin.

Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Grace Fu, who officiated at the centre's opening, said: "Through sports, they (PwDs) can develop confidence, they have self- esteem, and so they can find physical, social and emotional wellness."

First in the pipeline of programmes is the "Yes! I Can" Swim Programme, which will begin this month. There are three programmes for the public and one for special education schools, where participants can develop water safety and competency skills.

Those interested can register for the programmes on the ActiveSG website. The fees from the courses range from $120 to $200 - of which 30 per cent can be offset using ActiveSG credits.

The Centre of Expertise in Sengkang is the first centre that will be rolled out within the next five years.

Queenstown, Toa Payoh, Jurong West and Delta sports centres are the other locations which have been earmarked based on location, among other considerations.

DPM Tharman at Pre-University Seminar 2016

Singapore in 2035: Inclusive and innovative
Education will be more flexible, Tharman tells Pre-U Seminar
By Yuen Sin, The Straits Times, 31 May 2016

The Singapore 20 years from now will be an innovative and deeply inclusive one, where a new generation of Singaporeans define their own purpose in life, each with a sense of individuality, in a society that is bound together and at home with itself, said Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam yesterday.

Painting a picture of what the Republic will be like in 2035, based on a poll of students, he said: "Twenty years from now, we will still be a little red dot, always will be.

"But it will be a deep red dot. The colour of the Singapore heart."

Education, he said, would become more holistic, flexible and encouraging.

A more flexible system and a focus on skills and job performance, rather than qualifications earned early in life, will be needed instead for the fluid job market of the future, noted Mr Tharman, who is also Coordinating Minister for Economic and Social Policies. He was speaking at the opening ceremony of the Pre-University Seminar held at the Nanyang Technological University.

About 550 students from 30 pre-university institutions, including junior colleges and polytechnics, attended the event, whose theme this year is "Living the Singapore Spirit". It is co-organised by the Ministry of Education (MOE) and Hwa Chong Institution.

Citing an informal survey MOE did to find out the aspirations of seminar participants, Mr Tharman noted that students ranked job satisfaction and the ability to make the most of one's talents, above factors like pay and career progress. Most also felt the Singapore of the future has to be innovative and inclusive.

Whether or not these aspirations could be met would depend on how Singapore reacts to changes in areas such as technology and geopolitics, said Mr Tharman.

Singaporeans 'don't walk the talk' on special needs kids: Lien Foundation’s Inclusive Attitudes Survey

Poll findings show they are tolerant towards, rather than accepting of, these children
By Janice Tai, The Straits Times, 31 May 2016

Singaporeans support the idea of inclusion but do not walk the talk, a survey has found.

While most people believe that children with and without disabilities can study together, only half of parents polled are comfortable with having a special needs child sitting next to their own child in class.

Furthermore, only one in 10 Singaporeans is confident of interacting with special needs children.

These were some of the findings of a survey, released yesterday at a press conference, which asked more than 1,000 people for their experiences of inclusion in daily life and early education. The survey was commissioned by local philanthropic house Lien Foundation.

The findings suggest that Singaporeans are tolerant towards, rather than accepting of, special needs people, said Lien Foundation programme manager Ng Tze Yong.

"Singaporeans embrace the idea of inclusion, but there is a gap between what we think and what we do," he said.

Inclusion means ensuring that everyone, including those with disabilities, is given opportunities to realise his potential in the same environment.

"Building handicapped ramps, parking spaces and toilets is the easy part. We now need to move beyond that to dismantle the obstacles in our minds and the barriers in our hearts," Mr Ng added.

Khaw Boon Wan urges SBS, SMRT to emulate Taipei metro for reliability

Rail system working towards regaining earlier standing: Khaw Boon Wan
SMRT and SBS Transit using Taipei's metro reliability record as benchmark, says minister
By Adrian Lim, The Straits Times, 31 May 2016

Singapore's rail system has lost its "mojo" but it is working hard to regain its earlier standing, said Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan yesterday.

It is measuring itself against the best in class, using Hong Kong as a good reference point, as announced earlier, and now also the Taipei metro system, he said.

Mr Khaw noted that rail staff from the Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation (TRTC) - which was incorporated in 1994 - had in its early years visited Singapore to study the MRT, which began operations in 1987.

"We were then an exemplary MRT player and a subject of study," he said in a speech at a forum on rail infrastructure maintenance.

"Unfortunately, maybe due to complacency or distracted management attention, we lost our earlier standing. I prefer to use the word, we lost our mojo. Let's work hard to regain our mojo."

He has given rail operators SMRT and SBS Transit up to 2020 to achieve TRTC's record last year of a mean distance of 800,000 train-kilometres travelled in between delays of more than five minutes. This is a key metric used by rail operators to measure reliability.

Taipei's record exceeds Hong Kong's 520,000 train-km registered in the first quarter of this year, and Singapore's preliminary figure of 160,000 train-km in the same period. "We may not achieve those very high targets, but I think they can be extremely motivating, so that if we fail, in absolute terms it could still be a very significant improvement," he said.