While employees at the Al-Mustafa Restaurant were working yesterday, they did not know a fire was raging above.

Even their diners were unaware about the blaze until passers-by alerted them.

The restaurant in a two-storey shophouse, located at 11 Lembu Road, off Desker Road, sells Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi food.

There were about five customers and three employees inside when the fire broke out in the attic above.

Chef supervisor Islam Shahidul, 40, went out to take a look and called his boss, Mr Tariqul Islam, 48, the owner of the restaurant.

An elderly woman was seen rushing out of the building, Mr Shahidul told The New Paper.

“About two to three minutes later, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) arrived and evacuated everyone nearby.”

One person was rescued from the attic and taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital for smoke inhalation, the SCDF said.

It said it was alerted to the fire at about 10.35am and sent two fire engines, a Red Rhino, two fire bikes and an ambulance to the scene.

The fire was confined to the attic and burnt through the roof. It was extinguished by the SCDF with a water jet.

Mr Tariqul estimated the damage at about $10,000.

“Even though the shop was not burnt, the water seeped through the false ceiling and flooded our shop,” he said.

“We are not sure when will we be able to re-open either.”

The cause of the fire is being investigated.

Building and Construction Authority (BCA) engineers inspected the shophouse and found that the fire had damaged part of the timber roof structure.

The adjacent buildings were not affected by the fire.

In the interest of public safety, BCA has directed the building owner to close the affected shophouse.

The building owner is also required to engage a Professional Engineer to carry out a detailed assessment of the building and recommend permanent rectification works.

huienl@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on February 17, 2017.
Get The New Paper for more stories.

If you have not already noticed, each time we are told how the public transport system is now better, two things happen.

One, a series of breakdowns will ensue, almost immediately. In the days following the release of the 2016 Public Transport Customer Satisfaction Survey results last Monday, there were no fewer than six rail disruptions.

Two, there will be widespread disbelief, going by the comments on social media ridiculing the finding that 96.4 per cent of commuters last year were satisfied, a marked improvement from 91.8 per cent in 2015.

Even industry players were surprised.

“What happens when it reaches 100 per cent?” one senior manager of a service provider asked.

Other than attributing it to pure coincidence, explaining the first phenomenon is probably next to impossible.

There is, however, a good explanation for the second.

First, it is not uncommon to find differences between perception and reality. A popular perception here is that the public transport system is completely broken.

In reality, it is not, even if the rail system does not rank as high as those in places such as Hong Kong, Taipei and Tokyo.

The disconnect between statistics and sentiment is less puzzling if we know how satisfaction surveys are done.

Typically, respondents are asked to rank a service on a scale of one to 10.

The rankings are then weighted against the importance they attach to qualities like safety and reliability.

Anything from 6 is considered “satisfied”.

Herein lies the nub of the issue.

Does a 6 qualify as “satisfied”?

Sure it does. But it does not qualify as “fully satisfied”.

So, it might be more accurate to say that 96.4 per cent of commuters were “moderately or mildly satisfied”.

That would certainly gel better with other realities, such as the number of rail breakdowns here, which has not changed much.

But such a term would be unwieldy and certainly less snappy than saying 96.4 per cent were “satisfied”.

Separately, respondents in the latest poll gave public transport a score of 7.6, up from 7.2 in 2015 and 7 in 2007.

Now, this paints a slightly better picture.

In spite of its shortcomings, our public transport system ranks pretty decently compared with other countries’ systems.

IMPROVEMENT

And since 2011, many improvements have been put in place.

The public bus fleet has been bumped up by nearly 30 per cent; two stages of the Downtown Line have opened to bring MRT accessibility to several new precincts; and a massive upgrading of the older rail systems is over half completed.

With more stringent service standards prescribed, a higher satisfaction level – and, indeed, a 7.6 score – is thus believable.

The results show that if enough will and resources are applied to fix a problem, it is only a matter of time before success will follow.

But as Public Transport Council chairman Richard Magnus says: “The work certainly does not stop here.”

Part of that work should include tracking how the public transport system is doing.

Satisfaction surveys can be useful if they are well designed.

On that score, a separate recent poll, which showed commuters were more satisfied with private-hire services such as Uber and Grab than they were with regular taxis, may have compared apples with oranges.

The two forms of point-to-point transport operate under vastly different regulatory regimes and financial models, with the private-hire players having seemingly endless sources of funds and not having to pay heed to the bottom line.

The business model is unsustainable.

For one, the freebies they are heaping on commuters will have to end sooner or later.

It would thus be risky to conclude that one is better than the other on the basis of a poll that does not take into account both side’s fundamental differences.

Can we say the same about the Public Transport Customer Satisfaction Survey?

To be clear, it is not a perfect indicator (few surveys are).

But its consistency makes it a useful barometer.

If the numbers rise, it means that the public transport system is on the right track.

If they fall, it means something is amiss.

As it turns out, the public transport system is indeed on the right track, even if the end point is nowhere as near as the 96.4 per cent figure suggests.

christan@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on February 17, 2017.
Get The New Paper for more stories.

ICA reports fewer contraband, illegal immigrant cases

Smugglers have been using new ways to hide contraband, with more concealing them in luxury cars and even in common household items to avoid detection at checkpoints.

Releasing its statistics for last year yesterday, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said: “These methods of concealment remain a cause for concern, especially in the current security climate, as they could be adopted by terrorists to smuggle dangerous materials into Singapore…”

In August, 2,180 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes were seized from a consignment labelled “children’s play mats”.

The next month, 347 cartons and 530 packets of cigarettes were found hidden in various parts of a new luxury car.

But the number of contraband cases detected dropped by 8 per cent from 95,677 in 2015 to 88,050 last year.

In February last year, ICA officers at the Woodlands Checkpoint refused entry to four Indonesians – three men and a 15-year-old – at the bus arrival hall. They were believed to have been en route to the Middle East to join the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and were handed over to Indonesian police.

ICA commissioner Clarence Yeo said: “As the nation’s first line of defence, ICA will continue to conduct stringent checks on people, goods and conveyances while enhancing border clearance through innovation, collaboration and partnership.”

Fewer illegal immigrants and overstayers were arrested last year.

Following a recent downward trend, the number of illegal immigrants caught dropped from 310 in 2015 to 217 last year, while overstayers fell from 1,591 in 2015 to 1,061 last year.

Fewer homeowners and employers were also found offering lodging and jobs to immigration offenders last year, after a 59 per cent spike the year before.

Last year, 306 harbourers were arrested, down from 416 the year before. The number of errant employers dropped from 91 in 2015 to 45 last year.

Fewer people were convicted of marriage of convenience offences, with the number dropping from 64 in 2015 to 43 last year.

byseow@sph.com.sg

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

​

Hoping to stay competitive in his job despite various commitments and a busy schedule, engineer Mohamed Johannes Wahid took up a modular course in maritime and offshore operations two years ago.

The 36-year-old, who learnt about the activities carried out in the oil and gas industry, and the financial and safety requirements, completed the short course at Singapore Polytechnic (SP) last April, after about five months.

He now applies what he had learnt from the classroom to his job in a subsea services company.

Mr Johannes, who has two children and is expecting his third, said such courses are ideal for working adults who may have work and family responsibilities.

“I believe lifelong learning is better in short courses, as working adults… might not be able to commit to long-term programmes.”

Like him, Singaporeans hoping to stay relevant in a fast-evolving economy can look forward to more bite-sized courses, making it easier for them to learn at their own pace.

These skills-based modular courses, aimed at working adults, may be stacked up towards qualifications such as diplomas and degrees.

There were more than 500 – or 513 to be exact – modular courses last year, up from 338 in 2015.

On average, these courses, offered at the polytechnics and universities, can be completed within three to six months.

The Education Ministry (MOE) will work with institutions to offer more such courses this year.

It said such courses offer flexibility to those juggling upgrading with personal and work commitments.

“Enrolment is not high yet, but it is steadily rising,” MOE added.

“Beyond modularity, it is more important that the courses meet industry needs,” it said.

The ministry noted that institutions need to keep abreast with industry changes, and rope in practitioners to work with them to develop relevant courses.

Institutes of higher learning are seeing growing demand for these courses.

Some institutions, such as SP, National University of Singapore and Nanyang Polytechnic, said that the short courses are an incentive for workers to keep learning.

Others, such as Singapore Management University, Republic Polytechnic and Singapore Institute of Technology, added that the flexibility these learning options offer is a draw.

Helping workers acquire and use deep skills was one of the seven strategies spelt out by the Committee on the Future Economy (CFE) to prepare Singaporeans for upcoming challenges.

As jobs are likely to change at a faster pace, “we must go beyond the pursuit of the highest possible academic qualifications early in life, to seek knowledge, experience and skills throughout life”, said the CFE.

It acknowledged that there would be a challenge in acquiring such skills, as working adults would have to balance personal development with other priorities.

That is where modular courses could be one of the ways to enable them to get up to speed in a world of constant disruptions.

calyang@sph.com.sg

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

Key report for last year shows income inequality in Singapore is lowest in a decade

The median monthly income for employed households grew last year, but at a slower rate than in 2015, statistics released by the Government yesterday showed.

The median monthly income grew from $8,666 in 2015 to $8,846 last year – a 2.1 per cent rise in nominal terms, or a 2.6 cent rise in real terms once inflation is taken into account, said the Department of Statistics in its annual Key Household Income Trends report.

This growth, however, was lower than the 4.5 per cent nominal and 4.9 per cent real growth recorded in 2015.

Economists told The New Paper that the slower wage growth was in line with Singapore’s slower economic outlook.

Singapore’s GDP growth for 2016 is estimated at 1.8 per cent, reported The Business Times earlier this month, which is among its weakest levels.

Mr Vishnu Varathan, a senior economist at Mizuho Bank in Singapore, told TNP that the moderated economic growth could have trickled down and led to slower wage growth.

“We continue to have weak employment creation and rate of creating new jobs which impact wage growth as there aren’t as many people moving around jobs and the demand is weak.

“With business prospects bottoming last year and continuing to be uncertain in this situation, employers have a tendency to keep the costs low and that includes wages,” he said.

Households across all income groups earned more per household member last year, but the growth was at a slower rate than in 2015, said the report.

Last year, the average household income from work per household member in real terms grew by between 0.2 per cent and 4.3 per cent, depending on the income group.

This was lower than the range of 5.7 per cent to 10.7 per cent in 2015, and consistent with the slower wage growth last year that the Manpower Ministry recently announced.

Mr Varathan predicted that wage growth will stay the same over the next few years.

CIMB Private bank economist Song Seng Wun said wage growth would increase only if global demand picks up.

“In this climate, if there’s any positive real income growth, we should just take it,” he said.

One reason for cheer was that Singapore’s income inequality last year was the lowest in a decade.

The Gini coefficient, which measures income inequality, was recorded at 0.458 – out of 1 – last year, down from 0.463 in 2015. This was Singapore’s lowest score in 10 years.

Mr Song said this was consistent with the Government’s efforts and policies to improve the wages of the lower income group.

Mr Varathan added: “A wider income inequality may see the ultra rich spending their money abroad. But if income is more evenly distributed, there’s a greater chance more of the spending is done here and that money is recycled within and grows our economy.”

rloh@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on Feb 17, 2017.
Get The New Paper for more stories.