MANILA – Two explosions in the Philippine capital on Saturday night killed at least two people and injured four others, police and witnesses said.
An initial blast occurred at about 6pm (1000 GMT) near a Muslim mosque in Quiapo, one of the older parts of Manila where there are big slums, a police report said.
That blast killed two and injured four, according to the report.
A second explosion occurred in the same area around 8:30pm, according to an AFP photographer who was among a group of journalists near the scene.
The second explosion did not cause major damage to any of the shops or other buildings in the street, according to the AFP photographer.
But it appeared to injure a policeman who was inspecting the body of one of the victims of the first blast, according to witnesses.
Another explosion in Quiapo on April 29, which occurred as Southeast Asian leaders were meeting for a summit, injured 14 people.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the April 29 explosion, but police insisted it was not a terrorist attack, nor was it related in any way to the gathering of political leaders.
They said people involved in a private grievance used a pipe bomb in that blast.
Police did not immediately give any explanation for Saturday’s explosions.
Militants who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group are based in the southern Philippines, more than 800 kilometres (500 miles) from Manila.
Those militants mainly operate in the south, although they have been blamed for terrorists attacks in Manila.
The Abu Sayyaf group, which is most infamous for kidnapping foreigners and killing them if ransoms are not paid, was blamed for the bombing of a ferry in Manila Bay in 2004 that killed more than 116 people.
He shone and dazzled through his stellar career in Singapore’s legal service. The peak of his 21-year career, was when he founded the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD), charged with the duty of bringing commercial criminals to task. It all came crashing down in 1991, when he was probed and subsequently convicted of commercial crimes.
Following his first conviction, Glenn Knight was disbarred from legal practice in 1994. Four years later, he was convicted again for misappropriating CAD funds during his stint as director. It took more than a decade before his application to be reinstated was granted in 2007, this made him the sixth lawyer to be reinstated to the Law Society in Singapore.
Speaking from his small office in Toa Payoh North, Glenn Knight, now 71 years old, is mellow, soft spoken and pensive. He takes a look back at his fall from grace, and shares his thoughts on the path travelled.
About “The Newsmaker”:
“The Newsmaker” （封面人物） is one of 10 SPH-produced short form digital video series as part of a pilot Public Service Broadcast initiative. In this 13-part series, people who have made news headlines in the past share with the host Fred Lai (Content Producer, Chinese Media Group Digital) how the news events changed their lives and how they have been coping since then. All episodes come with English subtitles.
This series is also available on the zaobao.sg website and mobile app.
SINGAPORE: At a crossroads after his O-levels – whether to go to a junior college (JC) or a polytechnic – Kenneth Gwee deferred to his mother’s opinion that the JC route was the most direct route to university.
But at the end of his first year at Jurong JC, the 17-year-old came to rue that decision – he had failed most of his subjects in year 1, and would have to repeat the year.
Worse, his mother was called to the principal’s office. “She cried in front of the principal. To me, that was the most shocking point – it was one of the few times that I have seen my mother cry,” said Mr Gwee, now 23.
“That hit me hard.”
Deciding to take control of his life and his goal of becoming a doctor, he took the bold step of switching from JC to Republic Polytechnic, to pursue a diploma in biomedical sciences.
It paid off. Mr Gwee graduated with a near-perfect GPA (grade point average), and is now a second-year student at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.
Like Mr Gwee, about 1 per cent of students switch to a polytechnic after starting JC, compared to the 0.5 per cent who go the other way, according of Education Ministry figures.
The recent news that MOE will close four JCs by 2019 has sparked discussion online about the relevance of JCs today – given that there are more routes to getting a degree today. The current affairs programme Talking Point picked up on this debate recently (watch the episode here).
WANTED: MORE THAN CLASSROOM KNOW-HOW
MOE had explained that the closure and merger of the JCs were primarily due to falling birth rates. It noted that polytechnics too have been affected, with student enrolment dropping by a fifth from a few years ago.
But experts question the relevance of a JC education today and point out that the jobs and industries of the future – such as cyber security, engineering and IT – require specific skills that go beyond a regular classroom education.
Mr Erman Tan, president of the Singapore Human Resources Institute, said: “Typically, (companies) would like somebody who has a more specific skill set or specialised training with deep capabilities. This means that the diploma graduate tends to stand out better compared to A-level students.”
On average, a JC graduate can expect a starting pay of about S$1,300. A poly graduate will earn nearly S$900 more.
“A diploma programme offers applications as well as specialised training that meets the industrial needs better. Hence, employers are prepared to pay better,” said Mr Tan.
More than 90 per cent of poly graduates are able to find jobs within six months of leaving school. But if one’s ultimate goal is to enroll in a university, does taking the A-level route or the polytechnic route make more economical sense?
NUS economics lecturer Kelvin Seah, whose research focuses on the economics of education, said the two-year JC route is obviously a faster option to a university education.
“But of course if you don’t actually make it to the university, then what are you stuck with? An A-level certificate which is not highly regarded by employers, just because they might prefer a poly graduate who has more hands-on working experience and practical skills,” said Dr Seah.
1 IN 3 NEW UNI STUDENTS FROM POLY
And these days, the A-Level certificate is no longer seen as the only way to get into university.
Associate Professor Jason Tan (policy & leadership studies) from the National Institute of Education said: “A few decades ago, JCs provided the sole entry route to local universities, but over time, that has begun to change quite a bit. We’ve seen local universities admit increasing numbers of poly graduates.
“And we are seeing more and more students who have done well in the O-Levels deliberately choosing the polytechnic path instead.”
In fact, one in three local university students admitted in 2015 is a polytechnic graduate, said MOE.
The ministry revealed that the 2015 intake at the six local universities had the highest ever proportion of polytechnic graduates at nearly 34 per cent, up from 24.7 per cent in 2011.
But this is not the death knell for JCs yet.
Dr Seah said that the belief that JCs are more elite is still common. There is a sense among parents that a JC education is more prestigious, compared to poly education.
One in three local university students admitted in 2015 is a polytechnic graduate, said MOE.
“It’s a selectivity problem. We all know that admission to a JC requires better academic results than admission to poly and because of this, the students admitted to a JC typically score better grades than the poly students.
“And so stereotypes develop – parents sort of think that JC students are more capable,” he said.
POLY ENVIRONMENT ‘WASN’T RIGHT FOR ME’
And there are students like Ong Ting Yong who struggled in a polytechnic and switched to a JC midway.
Mr Ong chose to study banking and financial services in Ngee Ann Polytechnic after his O-Levels, but he just couldn’t adapt to the culture. “I felt that the study environment wasn’t suitable for me,” he said.
“I think at that age, I was still not mature enough to have the discipline to sit down and do more independent learning. So, I ended up procrastinating most of the time.”
Mr Ong left for Jurong JC, where he adjusted better. “I definitely prefer the teaching style in JC because we get more attention from the teachers, and it’s easier to get help from them as well.
“That’s the main reason I made it to university in the end,” said Mr Ong, who is 25 now.
Ong Ting Yong struggled in a polytechnic and switched to a JC midway.
Experts advise students to cast their nets wide, in view of the increasingly diverse range of education options.
Mr Tan said: “I think it’s vital for all secondary school students to equip themselves with the ways in which the (education) landscape has changed, to get to know more about their options.
“They could, for example, attend open houses, or talk to friends or relatives who have studied in JCs or polys, to find out more about what their courses are like.”
Nine Mae Hong Son police-men have been dismissed from the civil service and put under serious disciplinary investigation after being implicated in the northern province’s underage prostitution scandal.
They could also face legal action for their alleged involvement in the teenage vice ring, deputy national chief Srivara Ransibrahmanakul said yesterday.
The nine officers include alleged racket operator Pol Senior Sgt Major Yutthachai Thongchat of Nam Piang Din police station, three officers under Kong Koi police station who face charges of gang-raping of a minor, and five policemen for whom summonses were issued for over accusation that they paid to have sex with minors.
Srivara said police investigators were gathering evidence against seven more suspects – including several state officials, a soldier and a local politician – and hoped to make arrests soon.
He was speaking at Chiang Mai’s Provincial Police Region 5 office where he presided over a meeting to discuss an anti-human trafficking crackdown.
Srivara said the Mae Hong Son investigation saw local police handle 37 cases – 29 of human trafficking, seven of buying sex services, and one gang rape of minor – while the Anti-Human Traffic Division (AHTD) handled one human trafficking case in which all eight suspects had been arrested, including Yutthachai.
Earlier yesterday, Srivara went to Mae Hong Son to check progress in the investigation. He met some of the four police who showed up in response to summonses yesterday, but a teacher who reportedly moved away from the province failed to show up.
Photo: The Nation/ANN
The fifth police officer, a deputy superintendent who is a lieutenant colonel, also did not appear, claiming he was preoccupied with work. But his supervisor said he had not been assigned with any mission.
Although the officer, who also now faces an investigation for omission of duty, is believed to have fled, investigators issued a second summons for him. If he fails to respond by May 15, an arrest warrant will be obtained.
Srivara also visited a police flat where the missing officer allegedly took a minor for sex but it was empty.
Also yesterday, a master sergeant under the Internal Security Operations Command, identified by victims as “Uncle Pan”, went to the Mae Hong Son police office to report to Srivara and hand over documents he said proved his innocence, but missed him. However, he caught up later at Mae Hong Son airport.
“Uncle Pan” said he knew the girls but his involvement with them was for intelligence-gathering purposes against the prostitution ring.
Although the AHTD earlier said there was no evidence that Mae Hong Son governor Suebsak Iamwichan was involved in human trafficking, Srivara said police would continue to investigate if he was guilty of buying sex services.
He said two witnesses who passed a lie detector test testified against the governor, which contradicted an Interior Ministry probe that initially cleared the governor. He said police would ask for more details of the interior ministry’s investigation.
Before Srivara left for Chiang Mai, the Civic Council of Mae Hong Son, presided over by Prasert Pradit, submitted its resolution on tackling human trafficking and prostitution to Srivara in the wake of the scandal. The council wants Srivara to pass the resolution on to the Prime Minister to request the province be turned into a pilot area for the government’s serious tackling of human trafficking, illegal lotteries, illicit drugs and corruption.
They also proposed three phrases of problem solving.
The short-term solution included protection and help for victims, clear and fair investigations, and police actions to punish those involved.
The medium-term solution included a follow-up process for this scandal and any similar cases in future, a symbolic campaign against human trafficking, promotion of whistle-blowing against illegal activities in the area, and regular checks by authorities on establishments that have been involved in human trafficking.
In the longer term, the council said there must be a campaign to promote proper values, as well as support for the province’s attempts to curb poverty and become a model in social and economic development.
BANGKOK – Thailand has revoked the passport of an heir to the Red Bull fortune who has been accused of a deadly hit-and-run but has several times failed to turn up in court.
Vorayuth “Boss” Yoovidhya, 32, left Thailand for Singapore on April 25, two days before he had been ordered to report to prosecutors to be formally charged in court – the eighth time he has missed a summons since legal proceedings began in 2016.
Thai police on Thursday said Vorayuth had left Singapore after abandoning his private jet and disappeared.
He faces charges of speeding, hit-and-run and reckless driving causing death over an incident in 2012 when he allegedly crashed his black Ferrari into a policeman on a motorcycle in Bangkok and fled the scene, dragging the officer’s body for several dozen metres with his car as he did so.
The case is being closely watched in Thailand where it has raised questions as to whether the justice system favours the rich and famous, allowing them to break the law with impunity.
“The foreign ministry has revoked Vorayuth’s passport, effective immediately,” ministry spokeswoman Busadee Santipitaks told Reuters on Friday (May 5).
Busadee declined to say whether Vorayuth held other passports.
An arrest warrant for Vorayuth was issued last week.
Vorayuth is a grandson of the late Chaleo Yoovidhya, creator of the Kratin Daeng, or Red Bull, energy drink.
Chaleo, 88, was listed as the third richest person in Thailand at the time of his death in 2012, with an estimated net worth of US$5 billion (S$6.9 billion), according to Forbes magazine.
Vorayuth has spent much of the past five years abroad, including in London, where his family owns a home, and Singapore, according to social media posts.
He has previously cited work commitments abroad as a reason for not showing up in court.
SINGAPORE — Rising from a spartan fleet with two wooden ships into a modern maritime force in the span of 50 years, the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) is set to play an even more important national security role going ahead given growing global trade and ongoing maritime disputes, defence analysts say.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong alluded as much when he spoke at the RSN’s Golden Jubilee last Friday (May 5).
“Because we traded with the world, and the sea was and still is our lifeline,” he told several generations of navy servicemen gathered at the Changi Naval Base, some of whom were present at the Telok Ayer Basin 50 years ago when the force was first created.
“We needed a strong maritime force to protect our sovereignty, defend us from seaborne threats, and keep trade — our lifeblood — flowing.”
The RSN took another major step forward towards that objective last Friday with the commissioning of the first of its eight Independence-class Littoral Mission Vessels. Built and designed in Singapore, it is the first of the navy’s next generation warships.
Designed for speed, versatility and efficiency, each LMV can be operated with 23 sailors. This compares with over 40 sailors needed for a conventional warship of a similar size.
The RSN has indeed come far from its birth on May 5 1967, when it had just a handful of volunteers and two seaworthy ships, wooden ones at that. A third ship, the RSS Singapura, was moored to serve as the navy headquarters.
“What our pioneers lacked in technology and resources, they made up for in their determination and resourcefulness,” said Mr Lee.
THE ‘EUREKA’ MOMENT
Singapore has owed its rapid development over the decades in no small measure to being located astride the world’s key and busiest shipping lanes. With no natural resources, Singapore is highly dependent on seaborne trade for survival — almost all of our energy and 90 per cent of our food reach us via the sea.
The Republic is also a crucial node in the global maritime system as it handles half of the world’s crude oil supply, and over US$2.2 billion (S$3.1 billion) worth of trade passes through local waters daily, noted defence commentator David Boey.
Any threat to the sea lanes which connect Singapore to the rest of the world would therefore endanger the city-state’s socio-economic well-being.
(The Fearless-class patrol vessel RSS Independence. The ship was decommissioned earlier this year, but the name lives on with the new LMV, seen on the left. TODAY file photo)
“The navy is designed for the protection of Singapore’s sea lines of communication, which we depend on for trade and for much of our basic needs of food and energy,” said former head of civil service Peter Ho, who is now Senior Advisor to the Centre for Strategic Futures in the Prime Minister’s Office.
Added Dr Collin Koh, a research fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS): “Safe and secure access to the global maritime commons are thus needed for Singapore’s continued prosperity and survival.”
The less visible role of the RSN compared to the army and the air force means that it is often being overshadowed by the other two branches of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF).
One other contributing factor could be that that military displays at National Day Parades tend to feature fighter jets, helicopters, tanks, and other armoured vehicles.
“There may be something in the perception of the army and air force as being the ‘sexier’ branches of modern militaries today, especially since when we have seen recent US-led wars in the Middle East being waged predominantly by ground and air forces,” said Dr Graham Ong-Webb, a research fellow at RSIS.
“This perception doesn’t do justice to the RSN.”
Mr Ho, who began his career as a naval officer, wrote in the RSN50 commemorative book — A Maritime Force For A Maritime Nation: Celebrating 50 Years Of The Navy — that during the early 1980s, there were calls to prioritise the building up of the air force over the other two services.
Mr Ho was then a staff officer in the navy’s headquarters and he remembered the navy trying to argue for more missile gunboats, but the idea was dismissed by the then Minister of Defence Howe Yoon Chong, who wanted more F-16 fighter jets instead.
Mr Ho became Head of Naval Plans Department in 1983 and he recalled having his “eureka” moment when he discovered that the value of Singapore’s trade — much of which was seaborne — was four times the size of its gross domestic product.
He then wrote a paper on the utility of the navy in protecting Singapore’s trade routes that won over the powers that be, and the RSN received a larger budget thereafter.
THE RSN TODAY
From what was essentially a small-craft navy during its initial stages, the RSN has evolved to become a force that is capable of sustained operations beyond Singapore’s immediate neighbourhood, experts say.
At the forefront of the RSN’s force-projection capabilities are its six Formidable-class stealth frigates, four Endurance-class landing ships tank (LSTs), and four submarines. In addition, Singapore has ordered two Type 218SG submarines equipped with the air-independent propulsion system that significantly prolongs their underwater endurance and reduces their detectability.
The defence ministry is also mulling the acquisition of the Joint Multi-Mission Ship, which is essentially a small helicopter carrier.
“Over the decades, Singapore’s navy has transformed steadily into a balanced force capable of handling a wide spectrum of security challenges at sea, all while having to confront persistent structural issues such as manpower,” said Dr Koh.
“It is not just able to take care of the country’s security in a traditional sense, but do so effectively in cooperation with its regional and international partners within immediate Asia-Pacific and further afield.”
(The RSS Intrepid, a Formidable-class stealth frigate being welcomed at the Qingdao Naval Jetty. Photo: MINDEF)
Operation Blue Sapphire, Singapore’s ongoing contribution to multinational counter-piracy efforts off the coast of Somalia, is the most prominent of the expeditionary operations undertaken in recent years under the SAF/RSN ambit.
For this operation, the RSN has deployed its Formidable- and Endurance-class ships for months on end to the Gulf of Aden, some 7,000 km away from Singapore.
Other high-profile operations undertaken by the Singapore navy include the deployment of three LSTs to, Indonesian waters in the aftermath of the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami, as well as the search-and-rescue effort following the crash of AirAsia flight QZ8501 in 2014.
Such is the level of sophistication and professionalism of the RSN today that experts regard it as a premier fighting force in Asia-Pacific.
“We have a first-class navy in the region on the basis of our cutting-edge platforms, training, and operational readiness,” explained Dr Ong-Webb.
While having both quality hardware and personnel is important, just as crucial is the ability of a particular military service to work together with other services in the multi-domain and networked operations commonplace in today’s geostrategic environment.
“One key factor for the RSN being able to hold its own against regional navies is the level of ‘jointness’ that it is able to achieve with other branches of the SAF,” said Mr Ho, who was a permanent secretary at the Ministry of Defence for almost 10 years starting in the mid-1990s.
“The navy is trained to operate, not as an individual service, but as part of an integrated fighting force together with the army and air force.
“This ability to think and act jointly with the other services is a critical edge that the navy and the SAF as a whole possess.”
WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS
Going forward, analysts believe that the navy could play an even more crucial role in Singapore’s national security.
Professor Geoffrey Till, a naval expert at King’s College London, told TODAY this is so because most of the ongoing territorial disputes in the Asia-Pacific are predominantly maritime in nature.
(The RSS Steadfast (left), and the RSS Vigilance seen during the 2010 Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) annual bilateral exercise, held in South-east Asia to strengthen relationships and enhance force readiness. US Navy file photo)
“The slow crawl towards South-east Asian economic integration will also provide the RSN with more potential regional contributions to make, alongside the submarine rescue as well as the humanitarian assistance and disaster relief initiatives it has taken part in so far,” he added.
However in a world that is becoming increasingly interconnected as globalisation develops apace, militaries face more diffuse and multi-faceted challenges.
“Globalisation means an increasingly complex threat domain that the RSN has to confront. Singapore’s continued dependence on access to the seas (for prosperity and survival) would see more actors coming into the picture with a more complex set of capabilities,” Dr Koh explained.
Such actors could even include non-state ones like militant groups.
The RSN will have to be forward looking in order to better respond to these challenges, said Mr Barry Desker, a distinguished fellow at RSIS.
As challenges such as maritime terrorism could often be transnational in nature, a multilateral approach to tackling them should be adopted over a unilateral one.
“The RSN will need to work with its friends and partners, at home and abroad. An effective response will ensure that the RSN plays a critical role in securing our maritime nation in the years ahead,” Mr Desker said.
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SINGAPORE: Co-founder and director of Singapore’s first mobile virtual network operator Circles.Life, Rameez Ansar, has been described as a maverick for introducing mobile data plans that a year ago, would have been unimaginable. The virtual telco does not operate any physical assets, and leases its infrastructure from M1, all in the name of keeping prices low for customers.
Targeting a younger, tech-savvy demographic, Circles.Life claims to offer the best no-contract mobile plan, with a S$20 20GB plan making recent headlines. On a larger scale, the company also says it is on track to achieving its market share target of 4-6 per cent in a few years, and intends to expand overseas to markets such as Hong Kong and Indonesia.
But nearly one year after its launch in May 2016, the picture isn’t rosy. The delivery of SIM cards, botched number porting, and customer service responsiveness are just some issues it has had to deal with.
Rameez went On the Record with Bharati Jagdish about what it has been like so far running his own business, disruptive business models and the recent customer complaints.
Bharati Jagdish: In media interviews, you talk about serving customers often, but recently there have been a lot of complaints about your services. There were complaints about the delivery of SIM cards, there were complaints about botched number porting, customer service responsiveness issues. What’s going on? Why so many issues?
Rameez Ansar: If one customer, five customers, or ten customers have a problem, it’s a problem for us. To put this in context, the delivery of the SIM cards is like the delivery of your groceries. If you miss it or not, this is going to cause you a huge amount of stress. We understand that.
The other thing is that Facebook is our customer service channel. What you see is real customers talking about real customer issues, so we actually opened up a channel up for customers to talk to us directly, that’s how we make sure we address every single one of them. So, yes, there are issues.
When we launched 20/20 (20GB for S$20 data plan), we had been overwhelmed and humbled frankly, with the kind of reaction we got. We are probably the fastest-growing telco in Singapore right now. That comes with its own set of challenges, especially if we are trying to always serve every single one of the customers.
But if you go look at the Facebook page today, you would see that every single one of those queries has been resolved satisfactorily, or at least satisfactorily to the customer, which is the most important thing.
Bharati: But why were there so many problems to begin with? Are you saying that you weren’t prepared to deal with that sort of demand, (which) is why there were service lapses?
Rameez: I think it is a combination. In the telco process, there are many things: there is the issue of how you get on the network, whether you have the network capacity, how you deliver the SIM cards and we use partners to deliver the SIM cards. Then there is porting and porting depends on the other telcos working with us, or middle parties working with us. So we need to work not just with ourselves, we need to work with a group of 12 entities to make sure the experience works perfectly. That is true for other telcos as well when porting happens.
Bharati: But you can’t expect a customer to consider all of this. For them, it’s simple – I applied for your service and you failed me. If there’s an issue with the middlemen that you work with, perhaps you need to find new people to work with. Also as a person who is not your customer yet, seeing those complaints makes me think: I never want to be your customer. So the damage is done.
Rameez: In some ways. But the other way to think about it is, today, tens of thousands of customers are still coming to the network. What that means is that there is an inherent understanding of the problem, but also there is an inherent understanding of the value proposition and the fact that there must be a majority of the people; in our case we know the numbers, like 95 per cent plus, for whom it was the most seamless process you have ever seen.
Bharati: You say you’ve been achieving industry standard customer service ratings of “well above” 90 per cent, while averages for the telco industry hovers between 60 per cent and 70 per cent. You’ll understand if some customers don’t believe you.
Rameez: I know how frustrating it can be. We really have been working on it.
Bharati: You have to fix the messes.
Rameez: Yes, continuously, so since that case, we introduced self-service. So once you order, you can go online and keep track of your order exactly, and you can reschedule the delivery, say if you don’t know that you are going to be there on a particular day. We also introduced self-collection options for customers because that is in demand as well. You can reschedule porting or you can do it yourself. This, we introduced as a reaction to all the problems.
We have a 24/7 customer service hotline and online chat function. There are certain types of chats available. For critical inquiries it’s available all the time. So if you wanted to reschedule something and the delivery is today, we will address it right away. If it is a generic non-critical issue, we will address it within 3 working days. That is the model that most companies in the telco space also follow.
Bharati: People on your FB page have been saying that the hotline is not responsive. PMs are sometimes not dealt with in a timely manner.
Rameez: It can be frustrating, but we deal with each and every query or issue on the FB platform. And we will continue working on the responsiveness.
Bharati: What are you planning to do to fix the PR fallout that has occurred?
Rameez: We are reaching out to people to help them understand that there are two things. First is, all the measures that we talked about in terms of introducing self-collection, etc. Then there is the whole technology we pushed out to the users and our service. That’s the beauty of the new world. I think our biggest ambassadors are our customers. Today, 30-40 per cent of our users come from referrals. So there is a bit of a proof point there. Yes, we’ve had some issues, but not all our customers had them. Some did and we acknowledge that and of course we need to keep improving.
If you set yourself a mission that you are going to improve customer service and you spend all your time talking about it, and you have a drop of five customers, that’s not good and we realise that and it kept me up at night. We are a regulated entity under IMDA and we have to abide by the same level of quality of service. We need to prove we can deliver that quality of service.
A NEW BUSINESS MODEL IN THE TELCO SPACE
Bharati: Why did you want to go into the telco space in the first place?
Rameez: There are very few industries in the world that touch everyone. I think transportation is definitely one. I think utilities, power services probably, but telco services are definitely in there. When you look at that space and you have a passion in making a change – changing something, improving someone’s customer experience so that they can be happier during the day, frankly, very few things were left in the world.
We just thought that telco is one of those industries that is large enough, pervasive enough to touch everyone in the world and in which you can make a difference. I have been a consultant before, I have been a banker before, I have been in private equity before, and I’ve looked at all these industries from a very different perspective. Whether it’s as a consultant or investment advisor, it’s great to give advice, it’s great to invest in companies. But the true heroes of the world are entrepreneurs who shake the world, who try to make it better, who try their best to make it better.
I have been lucky to have the group of mentors that I had who followed the similar path. For me, it boils down to that one thing: I wanted to have a shot in becoming one of those. I am following my role models in that way.
When you look at the consumer space 17 years since StarHub came on, nothing much has happened in the telco space. And what we had seen is that in many different countries, different kinds of advancements have taken place. What we realised is that despite all the advancements that have happened in technology, we hadn’t really gotten to a point when we are using all of the technology in the telco space.
Bharati: Much of the way you market your service has to do with its flexibility and the lack of it in the telco space before you came along. Why do you think this gap wasn’t filled sooner?
Rameez: I think some of this has to do with the structure of the industry. When you go into an industry where it’s not easy for other players to get in, I think innovation is challenging for current players. Let’s imagine that I were a traditional telco and I have invested a considerable amount of money in the infrastructure and the computing system years ago. I have to see them through. I can’t instantly get up this morning and say: I am going to redesign the entire structure of the company.
In some ways, that’s the incumbent’s dilemma. But when you come from outside with a blank piece of paper and say: I am going to use whatever in terms of technology and deliver a model in terms of what a customer wants, it gets easier.
It’s easier for you to use technology and innovation to bring it out. For instance, our entire platform is built on the cloud, which is an innovation by itself because anything above the towers is up there and it’s easily scalable. It’s better for the customers because it’s faster and more agile and better able to serve customers.
Bharati: We’ve seen a number of disruptive players enter the market in other industries. For instance, in transportation, there are the private-hire car services. You might be seen as their equivalent, but in the telco industry. They’ve had to accept some regulation and scrutiny in their industry. Do you fear that in your industry, you may have to deal with additional regulations which may be suitable for traditional telcos but unsuitable for your business model?
Rameez: The parallel you use is very interesting from an innovation point of view, but if you look at our model, we are still much more regulated than the Uber and Grab cars of the world for the same reason you talked about. We need to ensure there are subscribers at the end of the line, ready to make sure we deliver the quality of experience that is expected. So we need to get the basics right. In that way, we are already regulated in a quality and service perspective, we are already regulated in the capitalisation perspective so we don’t anticipate that it’s going to be more. The current regulations are reasonable.
In fact, we think that we are going to be able to prove to the regulators and in fact many other parties in the space in saying that this is actually the future of the telco industry.
We are saying that if you are going to build a company today, you’d rather innovate in the middle layer, the network layer, the intelligence layer, as well as how you face the consumers, rather than worry about the assets, the towers, the buildings.
Bharati: But you still need the assets, the towers and the buildings, don’t you? You will still need the likes of the incumbents, because you need someone to lease these assets from.
Rameez: Yes, in the same way anyone needs an apartment for the AirBnB reservation. In the same way someone needs a car for an Uber or a Grab. But where does the value get created? Who retains the value? The value would be retained if you think about these 3 sections: the front end, the middle, as well as the tower. It’s the cloud platform and how you serve through e-com and smartphone apps. It’s those people and those things that would create not just value for the company, but value for the customer.
I think one day it will be possible for companies to exist that are just tower companies. I think there is a role for telco companies to exist to do just towers and I think there is a role for companies like us where we only focus on the front-end. The value would still be driven by the front-end, the way you deliver the service and the way customers have the experience. Because at the end of the day, the rest is more like infrastructure, much like the same way we did in broadband. So you have many more broadband players, but still the infrastructure is done by a single company and everyone rents the infrastructure from there.
Bharati: How did you convince M1 to do this with you?
Rameez: The biggest driver for them is that it’s going to happen anyway. It may not happen in Singapore first, may happen in other markets, but in Singapore someone else would do it anyway. When we thought of that, we pitched them the idea of an innovative partnership where we would say: look you do get a benefit, because the subscribers who come up to our system get double-counted as subscribers on your system as well. In terms of the revenue we generate, we have a wholesale rate with M1 so they benefit financially, they benefit in terms of the subscribers, they could become the number two telco company in Singapore because of the fact that we are rolling on their network. That is a huge deal. From a strategic point of view, it’s a great competitive edge for any competition to come in. If another telco comes in, guess what, M1 has benefits from two other telcos, one is their own and one is Circles.Life. So a bit of strategic, a bit of financial, a bit of logical rationale around these things.
Bharati: So do you expect competition in the next few years, not with conventional telcos, but with virtual telcos like yours?
Rameez: It’s possible. But it’s not just the regulation they have to cross first. It’s also the telco stack. We actually build the technology in-house, in Singapore. If they can do this, they need to build the technology stack, but clearly they can take many routes to get there. If they can do it through competition we welcome that, because at the end of the day they have to serve the customers. I think for the next 12 months, the traditional telcos will be the likely competition for the space, and they need to get the data-savvy customer right, and they need to get the technology right.
Bharati: We are going to see a telco enter the space soon – TPG of Australia. Is Singapore a big enough market for these players, including yours?
Rameez: I think it’s difficult for someone if they step into the market now and say: I want to be a 15-20 per cent market player. It can happen. It has happened in the market, but I think it’s the probability of reality. So that is unlikely, but I think it’s likely that you would get players that would target to get about 5-6 per cent of the market, much like what TPG has said. I think it’s possible, it’s possible for that same reason. I think there is still a lot of pent-up demand for a better customer service telco company.
DISILLUSIONED CONSUMERS
Bharati: You will be expanding to other Asian markets, but let’s talk about Singapore. A lot of consumers are quite disillusioned. Even with new players entering the market, they wonder whether competition would indeed result in better deals and service for customers. It seems eventually all the players end up offering similar deals, the same contract terms. In the end, will there really be a positive impact on the consumer as a result of competition? What do you have to say to that?
Rameez: If you approach competition from a very price-focused perspective, I think I agree with you. Eventually, everyone is going to match the pricing. But if you approach competition from the perspective of saying: not only do we have to be competitive in terms of price, but we have to think of ways to make it better for the customer. So let’s say, improve the experience of buying, improve the experience of using the service, improve the experience of reaching out to customer service, improve the experience of flexibility and power and control. If someone steps in and says: you know what, I want to give you a better pricing, I can say: no, I have a better experience here. That is what matters at the end of the day.
Bharati: How sustainable are your plans and packages? To what extent can you continue offering such competitive packages and turn a profit in the long term? Several cynics have said this is all merely promotional and temporary. Your response?
Rameez: That’s the beauty of technology. It allows you to do things at a lower cost and our business model as you’ve explained, allows us to do that – save costs, hence offer better deals. Our digital model makes us asset light, enabling us to create innovative offerings in a sustainable long term way. Our newest product offering of 20 GB for $20 Data Plus option is not a promotion, but a product offering here to stay. We noticed a big gap in the market regarding data needs – everyone wanted data in quantity rather than more minutes and SMSes thrown their way. So it’s about customisation as well. Launching the product was our way of filling this gap for our data-savvy target market. We can understand how people might be surprised given that these things don’t happen to telco customers in Singapore often. They were equally surprised when we launched Caller ID free as well, which for some reason still exists with incumbents in the market today.
Bharati: I mentioned the transport sector earlier. When new players such as the private-hire cars came into the market, the incumbent cab companies actually got really upset. They were even upset with the government for allowing these services to enter the space. Speaking generally, not just about the industry that you are in, what needs to happen in order for these tensions to be diffused, as more and more of these disruptive players enter various industries in Singapore?
INCUMBENTS NEED TO COLLABORATE WITH DISRUPTORS
Rameez: We like the idea of innovation. When you think only of disruption, it can get you into the loop that you want to disrupt and destroy everything and create something new. On our end, we think “innovation” is the right word, because “innovation” has a tone of collaboration with certain parties, much in the same way we are collaborating with M1 in this case. I think when you enter the market with an innovative mindset, your objective is not to obliterate everyone else. Your objective is to raise everyone else to the next level, to be the role model to say look, we can do this.
Bharati: Not all the incumbents see it that way. Some see it that way eventually, but not at first.
Rameez: They need to allow it to happen. Who is to say what is the future, but for sure, today’s not going to be like tomorrow. In that way, they need to see that someone else would be doing it anyway, so incumbents need to think more like: ok, somebody needs to do it, why don’t we work together and figure out a solution? And the new players need to think about it differently too: why do we need to obliterate everything? Why can’t we just work with these guys, because that is what is going to happen – people renting cabs from car companies or taxi companies, but using an app to connect to customers. Why can’t you think about that from the start? That would be more collaborative in taking care of the drivers, taking care of the services, no disruption in services for the customers – things like that.
Does the government have a role to play in it? I think the government only has to come in when things are not working. Otherwise, let it happen. But when people talk about regulating spaces, it usually means the businesses have failed in working together to find a collaborative way, so someone has to backstop the situation.
For us, the right balance is usually light-touch regulation, so keep your alerts on but don’t step in too early. I have seen the government do this in the transport space and that should be the Singapore way. Stepping in too early is not a good sign from a capital market perspective, and I think the Singapore government has done a fairly good job of it.
I think it’s also the responsibility of stakeholders and the industry, especially the incumbents, when they realise that it’s going to happen some other way. Even if you have the best regulations, best government, can we stop WhatsApp for example from coming in and disrupting the revenue of the telco companies? We couldn’t have. Why can’t everyone realise that tomorrow is different and work together to find a solution? Let’s raise the level for everyone.
EMBRACING DISRUPTION
Bharati: We are in an age of disruption, but lot of people are not able to embrace it. What will it take for this type of mindset to become more pervasive?
Rameez: If you compare today to ten years ago, I think things are already much better. I think people just need more role models. People need to know that if they jump out of their safety nets, and leap into something, they are going to be ok. From the Singapore ecosystem, a lot more people are coming out and actually doing that. The help from the Singapore government totally helps. The first meetings for this idea, Circles.Life, were done in Block 71, which is a government ecosystem in Buona Vista. So we have benefited from it. The ecosystem definitely helps. It creates spaces for people to come together and create the whole environment where you see more mentors and more people who have done it before. That ecosystem helps, but frankly at the end of the day we have to recognise something. The recognition is the fact that if you don’t change, it’s going to happen anyway.
If Singapore doesn’t change, if we don’t change, somebody else is going to do it. Much like in the telco industry. Yes, telco did not innovate, but does that stop Skype? Does that stop WhatsApp? In the same way, I think we can’t afford to be taking a back seat in any of these things and we need to be promoting both kinds of models: entrepreneurship outside, and also entrepreneurship within organisations. Because people need to realise the same thing. It’s not a culture from 20 to 30 years ago. You don’t sit there, get the job done and it would be fine, because as a global city, you get attacks from every place.
With Circles, you go back to what was passion really driving this thing. We, as customers ourselves, we are not getting what we really wanted from a telco. What are the global champions we are able to build? We need to see more of those. Would this be a telco champion that is built, made and envisioned in Singapore? And could we take it to different markets? That is really the ultimate ambition.
Bharati: What made you feel that stepping out of your safety net would be ok?
Rameez: Nothing. In fact to me I would say that it’s a realisation of all these things, but you can sit there and keep talking about these things and one day you wake up and say: you know what, are you going to keep talking about these things are or you going to jump? Frankly there are those things. In those moments people are going to tell you: it’s ok if you jump. If you fall what is the worst that is going to happen? You can probably go back to working for someone else. I can’t pinpoint a specific moment or a specific reason why I decided I had had enough of this thinking and I am going to jump. The reality is the second you jump, the whole world looks different. In my case for example, one would say: in about 12 months, 24 months, I am going to achieve this, achieve that, and that was very traditional to my consulting, banking background.
Have a growth plan in place and we are going to achieve these things. The reality is that once you jump into entrepreneurship, the line is not straight at all, it goes up and down, up and down, and if you hang on to a very traditional view of: this is my 1-year path and this is my 2-year path, then you would miss the innovative opportunities.
One day, you may be going down a path and say, this doesn’t work. But maybe you’re one day away from making it work brilliantly. So you have to give up that sense of certainty. That is hard to do. If you can conquer that sense of certainty and uncertainty, that is a true skill to the path of entrepreneurship and you cannot imagine that unless you step in.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP – EASIER FOR SOME THAN OTHERS?
Bharati: You had a successful career as a business consultant and have even worked at Temasek Holdings. To what extent do you feel that was what gave you the confidence and even the financial security to take the plunge into entrepreneurship? Not everyone has that benefit.
Rameez: You have to go back and remember: what is financial security? It’s getting more and more expensive to live even a basic life, but I think the key trick that comes from one of my mentors, is that your biggest albatross is going to be the lifestyle you maintain. If I upgraded my lifestyle the way I was getting upgraded in my corporate career I am going to have a much tougher time. I am lucky to have non-excessive needs. That allows you to maintain a lifestyle whereby you are not worried.
What I realised, which I didn’t see three or four years ago, is that when you are so engrossed in your passion, you really don’t care. Because for me, this is a much better fight. When your vision is so strong, so surreal and so personal to you, you forget about everything else. I can live in a one-room apartment if I have to as long as I am doing what I am doing. It comes with the same thing, as I’ve talked about the “why”. Unless your “why” is clear, none of this is clear.
Bharati: Earlier you said, “If I had upgraded my lifestyle the way I was getting upgraded in my corporate career…” you would have a much tougher time. You’re less financially stable now?
Rameez: When you build a business like this, you put everything you have into it. So everything, whatever you have, everything is in it. Because that is the only way, if you believe in something, you’ve got to do it that way. When I started, I was slightly more comfortable than some other entrepreneurs when they started, but nobody is truly comfortable in this thing. If it’s really about the money, I would have just stuck to my job. It just made a lot of sense to continue in that. I had figured out the map. I had figured out how to navigate in that world.
Circles.Life co-founder and director Rameez Ansar.
GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO STEP BACK
Bharati: What do you think about the government’s efforts to promote and support entrepreneurship? You’ve benefited from all this yourself.
Rameez: I think we need to also recognise that the government should not do too much. I think the government has done a good job in the sense that they are pushing a lot but they are also backing off now, saying that now we need private sector people coming in and making an objective analysis of whether certain things are working or not.
I think we have to do things more independently, so that companies realise that they need to try out and seek out more venture capital that is more independent; versus going for: “I have a great idea. I am 35, 40 or whatever. What is the government scheme that exists that is going to help me start a business?”
We have to get out of that. One of the reasons you want to find independent and financially-driven investors is the fact that they would be more critical about the idea and make sure you achieve your ideas and plans accordingly. That is one thing we could try to do.
Bharati: You have independent investors, but while you say the government needs to step back and companies need to be less reliant on government, you yourself had a lot of government support to get to the place you’re in now. You talk about Block 71. You also had support from the National Research Foundation.
Rameez: I believe there needs to be a balance. We’ve done both. 10 years ago, there wasn’t a balance. But today, I think the government has gone above and beyond to spark the innovation ecosystem – systems, spaces, funding, kindling a debate about risks and easy funding. The onus now should be on entrepreneurs to take a step back from the relatively easier route of government support and instead test their ideas against the higher bar of private investors. After all, globally competitive local champions will need to grow beyond Singapore where such favourable conditions will not exist. Leveraging too much of the local government support makes you less competitive if the world is your stage. All stakeholders must recognise that.
Bharati: Some feel that the education system in Singapore needs to change to influence the young to be more adaptable so that people become better-equipped to deal with change and uncertainty and actually thrive, whether as entrepreneurs or workers. What do you think?
Rameez: I think the answer is everyone has to play a role. The government has to play a role. No question about it, because it is the biggest entity responsible for the education system. I think parents have to play a big role in telling them not to get the A grades or A-stars for everything. A-stars don’t help you create a telco company in Singapore.
I did get the A-stars but I don’t think it has much to do with that.
I think the flipside is that a lot of people get too hungover on the idea of entrepreneurship. I think what we have to do is to focus on critical thinking. Critical thinking can lead you to form a company. Critical thinking could lead you to become an MP, could lead you to do something completely different in marine biology.
So really the most important is that critical thinking. It needs to come with the fact that, ok, the traditional benchmarks for success are going to be thrown out the window in this new world. Whatever your parents did, they cannot do the same for your kids and this generation. If you really recognize these principles, then you could play a part to find your own meaning in things. When you see more examples – and this is a tough one because it’s a chicken-and-egg problem – like your cousin, your brother, someone who has taken the critical path journey and succeeded, you will see that it’s ok, you can go do those crazy things for like a year, and then come back later.
SUCCESS IS ACTUALLY AN OBSTACLE
Bharati: We talked about the need to adapt. What do you think is standing in the way of some businesses changing?
Rameez: Success.
Bharati: Explain that.
Rameez: If you are making money, it’s just so hard to say that whatever I know, whatever I’ve learnt, whatever used to make this money could be wrong or could become obsolete.
But the reality is that in today’s world the pace is changing so fast that someone is going to eat your lunch anyway, eventually.
And if you don’t see that, you won’t build the skills for tomorrow. That’s the thing. If you are not going to anticipate that tomorrow is going to be a different day, you are not even preparing for it for let alone being ready for that day. If you are not preparing and not ready, you will not lead the day. That is really hard, that’s why successful businesses’ number one problem is, who is going to come in and innovate in their space? If you can pick up some trends that are different, whether you are talking about retail at Orchard Road, or other industries, the one thing that is true is that besides the fact that you always have to innovate, always have to think that tomorrow is going to be different, you cannot think that you are a successful company, even if you are a successful company.
Bharati: What are the most important personal lessons you’ve learnt in the last year since Circles.Life was launched?
Rameez: Sometimes I have great days, and almost like Buddha, you have to say, I don’t care about these great days. Don’t get too excited. Because then you have really bad days and at that point of time you really have to remember: Don’t get too worried, it’s ok, think about why you are doing it, as long as the direction is right, as long as the vision is right, it is ok.
If you think you are going to do something great without having those journeys that are gut-wrenching that would make you wake up in the middle of the night with a tear on your face, you’re wrong. But that is a sign that you are onto something that is interesting and great enough. The reality is remembering that, remembering how to deal with those ups and downs by figuring out why, why are you doing this thing.
Sometimes it’s easier to handle the downturns. What’s harder is to say: don’t get excited on the upturns. Because that throws you off as well. Puts you on a fake sense that you achieved anything; but frankly half the reason you get anything done is sometimes luck. You have to be humble to the reality of things.
Bharati: What has made you wake up in the middle of the night with a gut-wrenching feeling?
Rameez: I think it’s mostly been about: “Can we deliver this vision that we had?” Can we create a team that can deliver this model? So we have a lot of responsibility. If I go out and keep talking about customers, but I let 5 customers down, 10 customers down, how can I live with myself?
Bharati: In terms of what you’ll be doing next, aside from internationalising, what’s on the cards in terms of technological advancements that could improve the customer experience?
Rameez: If you take a 10-year horizon, there is so much that can happen. Why are we still using 2-way SIM cards? Why haven’t we gone to electronic SIMS. Why can’t I provision your phone the second you press buy on the e-com website? But the core of all these is the technology stack we built, what we developed in Singapore is good for us to take it multiple markets. That’s what we depend on. When you build something, build it for the world. Don’t celebrate success just because you are successful in Singapore. Unless you have proven that the model actually works in multiple markets, you have not proven anything.
