As Singapore marks 50 years of national service (NS), all national servicemen – past and present – will be eligible for a free commemorative NS50 PAssion card.

While this is a token of appreciation for their contributions, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said yesterday, “nothing can replace the hours that they have spent defending Singapore”.

At separate appreciation ceremonies yesterday, Dr Ng, Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam and Second Minister for Defence Ong Ye Kung gave out NS50 recognition packages, including S$100 in vouchers and also application instructions for the card.

The ministers stressed the importance of NS, which has fulfilled Singapore’s need for security since 1967 and allowed it to progress.

“Without the SAF (Singapore Armed Forces) and NS to protect our sovereignty and way of life, there can be no progress,” Dr Ng said at a ceremony in Toa Payoh.

He was citing comments by the late Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew at a 2012 meeting with SAF officers on how a strong SAF was needed to ensure Singapore’s sustained security and economic future.

The NS50 PAssion card offered by the People’s Association (PA) comes with a five-year membership – which costs S$10 to S$12, depending on age profiles – and can be used at community clubs, Water Venture outlets and PAssion card merchants.

EXISTING CARD HOLDERS

Those with existing PAssion cards can still apply and use their cards concurrently.

Separately, real estate giant CapitaLand yesterday unveiled various privileges for national servicemen.

For instance, it will offer them an exchange of their NS50 vouchers for CapitaVouchers, which can be spent at more than 2,000 retail outlets across 17 malls here.

More than one million men have served NS since 1967 in the SAF as well as in the police and civil defence forces, as part of the Home Team.

Read also: What the gift set for post-SG50 babies will contain

Among the first to receive the NS50 packages were more than 500 national servicemen, including father-and-son pairs, who attended the ceremonies yesterday.

Over these two months, the PA will be organising 52 ceremonies to hand out the packages. Many others will receive theirs by mail later this year.

On the father-and-son pairs, Dr Ng said yesterday that the idea fits the NS50 theme, From My Generation To Yours.

“It is a simple theme, my generation to yours. There can be no stronger representation of one generation to another than fathers and sons,” he added.

A common theme touched on by the ministers was how all of society – including the family and grassroots organisations like the PA – plays a part in keeping Singapore safe and secure from threats like terrorism and cyber attacks.

This article by The Straits Times was published in The New Paper, a free newspaper published by Singapore Press Holdings.

At 102, Mrs Therese Stewart is the oldest Eurasian in Singapore – four years older than even the Eurasian Association.

Yesterday morning, the sprightly woman stood on her feet and patted Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on the shoulders when she met him at the Eurasian Festival at Tampines Hub, before hugging him.

Moments earlier, Mr Lee had paid tribute to her late husband Stanley Stewart – a former head of the civil service who died in 1992 – and other prominent Eurasians who have left their mark on the country.

While the Eurasian community may be one of the smallest ethnic groups here, it has made many contributions to Singapore, said Mr Lee at the festival.

He also cited other prominent Eurasians such as Singapore’s second president Benjamin Sheares, the first female Judge of Appeal, Justice Judith Prakash, the country’s first law minister E. W. Barker, jazz musician Jeremy Monteiro, and Olympic gold medallist Joseph Schooling.

Mr Lee said he was happy to see a new generation of Eurasians doing well in many professions across society, establishing and making a name for themselves.

“I have no doubt that you will make many more great contributions to Singapore in time to come,” he added.

Eurasians have been in South-east Asia for 500 years, the descendants of Europeans from countries including Portugal, Holland and Britain.

These pioneers intermarried with locals and, over time, evolved their own culture and characteristics, and became a distinct community.

There were about 8,000 Eurasians in Singapore before World War II, Mr Lee noted. The community has grown to nearly 17,000 now.

He highlighted the work done by the Eurasian Association, which he said has been active in rallying the community to serve one another.

The association provides aid to students through scholarships, bursaries and mentorship programmes, while its family support services arm also helps many disadvantaged families and seniors, he said.

It is also making a special effort to preserve Eurasian tradition and culture for all Singaporeans, and yesterday’s festival organised together with the People’s Association is a good step forward, he added.

Mrs Stewart, who was with her daughter Olivia, 74, said events such as the festival showed how people must be “open to other cultures and embrace others”.

Eurasians such as Mr Kevin Martens Wong, 24, hope that more people will get to learn about little-known aspects of Eurasian culture such as the language Kristang, a creole comprising Portuguese and local dialects.

This article by The Straits Times was published in The New Paper, a free newspaper published by Singapore Press Holdings.

From paying fees to granting permission for activities, parents can soon settle their children’s school matters online.

They will be able to carry out these tasks and more on a new digital platform known as the Parents Gateway, which aims to bring them greater convenience.

The concept, one of the citizen-friendly initiatives announced at the launch of the Government Technology Agency – the agency behind tech transformation in the public sector – last October, has since been tested out at five schools.

It is now undergoing further review before being progressively rolled out to all schools from the later part of next year, the Ministry of Education (MOE) said.

Available via mobile devices or on a Web browser, the platform will allow parents to engage with their children’s schools.

For instance, they can receive information about school events, grant permission for their children’s participation in activities and carry out transactions such as making payment for school-related programmes.”

“The Parents Gateway provides an alternative to paper forms and enables parents to interact with schools more conveniently on key administrative and financial issues,” an MOE spokesman said.

The parents interviewed largely welcomed the initiative.

Ms Lim Ren Sing, 45, who has four children aged between eight and 15, said it will streamline the parents’ transactions on their children’s school matters.

“Sometimes, the kids may forget to ask us to sign their consent forms or they may lose those documents,” said Ms Lim, a music teacher.

Mr Loh Tian How, who has three sons aged 10, 13 and 16, said the platform could help parents keep track of activities their children are involved in, such as co-curricular activities and remedial classes.

“The good thing is that everything can be consolidated onto a single platform and retrieved at the click on a button,” added the 44-year-old director of an education centre.

“However, a platform is still a platform. The most important thing is how judiciously schools put in the effort to share information.”

Observers believe this digital platform is a step in the right direction.

Dr Timothy Chan, director of SIM Global Education’s academic division, said schools have to keep pace with the digital world parents live in.

“Parents would like to have access to regular feedback on their child’s development in school on a continual and timely basis, which an online system can make possible,” he said, adding that the platform can also be a powerful tool to engage busy parents.

National University of Singapore lecturer Kelvin Seah said the online system will likely cut down manual administrative work and reduce the costs incurred by schools.

“Teachers will be better able to focus on their primary roles as educators, rather than be burdened by administrative tasks like collecting consent forms.”

This article by The Straits Times was published in The New Paper, a free newspaper published by Singapore Press Holdings.

SINGAPORE – Water pipe leaks in the Jurong area has shoved up part of the road surface on the Ayer Rajah Expressway (AYE) .

A part of the expressway near Corporation Road about the size of a bus is now tilted up to about 1 metre at its highest point, Lianhe Wanbao reported on Sunday (April 9)

National water agency PUB said it was informed of water flowing over a turf area next to the AYE into a drain on March 29.

Two nearby pipelines were found to be leaking and they were isolated on the same day.

“These pipelines convey Industrial Water and NEWater, which are used by non-domestic customers mainly for cooling and process purposes,” PUB said. “Water supply to our customers is not affected.”

PUB said that “ground upheaval” was observed at the bus bay access along AYE.

“The affected section of the bus bay ingress has been cordoned off as a safety precaution,” it said.

Other motorists along AYE are not affected, but the Land Transport Authority (LTA) is monitoring bus routes along this stretch to mitigate any inconvenience to bus commuters.

The cause of the upheaval and leaks is still unknown.

“LTA and PUB are jointly investigating the ground upheaval. The cause of the pipe leaks is also under investigation,” PUB said.

Clearance work is being carried out at the site where the pipes are located so that PUB can proceed with repair work.

This article was first published on April 09, 2017.
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