Singapore has deported eight Indonesians, after immigration officers at Woodlands Checkpoint found photos of a “shoe-bomb”, and other images related to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), on the smartphone of the group’s leader.

The men, from Bukit Tinggi in West Sumatra, had travelled to Thailand and Malaysia over the past week.

They were handed over to Malaysian authorities, and then sent to the Riau Islands on Tuesday.

The men are now being questioned by officers from Detachment 88 (Densus 88), Indonesia’s police counter-terrorism unit, said Riau Islands police chief Sam Budigusdian on Wednesday.

Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs yesterday confirmed that the men, aged between 16 and 37, were deported to Malaysia, after one of them was in possession of “images of security concern, including that of a shoe-bomb as well as fighters from the (ISIS) terrorist group”.

BOARDING SCHOOL

General Sam said the men were from a boarding school for Muslims in Bukit Tinggi and were members of Jamaah Tabligh, an Islamic missionary movement.

They left Padang, the provincial capital of West Sumatra, on Jan 3 and travelled by plane to Kuala Lumpur, to preach at Bukit Jalil.

The 37-year-old group leader, identified by the initials REH, was also there to seek treatment for an ear infection, he added.

The next two days, they travelled overland to mosques in Malacca and Perlis, before making their way to Pattani, a town in southern Thailand that is predominantly Malay-Muslim, on Jan 7.

“Then on Jan 10, they tried to enter Singapore but were denied entry and later handed over to Malaysia,” said Gen Sam.

Malaysian state news agency Bernama, reported yesterday that the group was stopped by Singapore authorities at 1.30am on Tuesday.

The Straits Times understands that Densus 88 investigators are still trying to establish what the group was doing between Jan 7 and the day they arrived at Woodlands Checkpoint.

According to Gen Sam, Malaysian investigators had concluded that the group did not embrace ISIS ideology and REH had downloaded the illicit images from a WhatsApp group, which he has since left.

“Densus 88 has a week to conduct its investigation against them, we are still trying to determine (what happened),” he added.

Indonesia’s anti-terror laws do not allow the police to detain a terrorist suspect for more than seven days for questioning.

This is the third report in the last year of Indonesians being deported by Singapore over suspected links to ISIS.

Last month, two Indonesians – a woman and a man – were deported to Batam after the woman, identified as Suriati, had planned to travel to Syria to join ISIS.

She was detained after she arrived at HarbourFront Centre on Dec 26.

The man, identified as M Nur, landed at Changi Airport that day and was questioned separately.

Both were deported the next day after it was established that Suriati had intended to travel to Syria with help from M Nur.

This came after four Indonesians from an Islamic boarding school in West Java were stopped here and deported last February after they were found to have plans to travel to Syria to fight for ISIS.

tkchan@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on January 13, 2017.
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Developers of completed condominiums are again offering sweeteners to home hunters that proved successful in shifting unsold apartments last year.

Real estate agents told The Straits Times that one of the latest projects to offer a deferred payment scheme – an attractive proposition to many buyers – is TG Development’s The Peak@Cairnhill II.

Two other projects that have been on the market for some time – CapitaLand’s Sky Habitat and Ardmore Three by Wheelock Properties – also rolled out such a scheme recently to woo buyers.

The Peak@Cairnhill II, a 60-unit freehold condo near Orchard Road, was launched for sale on Monday, offering a 15 per cent discount and an enhanced deferred payment scheme, where buyers pay a 20 per cent downpayment and have two years to exercise the option-to-purchase.

“In the meantime, they sign a master tenancy agreement with the developer which allows them to rent out the unit and get a rental income,” said PropNex Realty branch district manager Dominic Lee, who is marketing the project.

He said the property tax and maintenance fee payable during the two-year period will also be absorbed by the developer.

All units at The Peak@Cairnhill II are two-bedders, with the smallest unit type, at 829 sq ft, going for $2.085 million.

The average selling price after factoring in the discount was about $2,550 per sq ft, he said.

Good response to creative marketing schemes, including deferred payment, at OUE Twin Peaks last year had sparked similar moves by other developers to move unsold units at completed projects.

Since its sales relaunch last April, the 462-unit OUE Twin Peaks sold about 220 apartments as of the end of last month, based on caveats lodged, noted real estate agency OrangeTee.

Last June, CapitaLand rolled out its own version of a deferred payment scheme, known as the stay-then-pay programme, at two mega projects, d’Leedon and The Interlace.

CapitaLand said the programme, which was “well-received”, had been extended to its 509-unit Sky Habitat project in Bishan this month.

Units available under the stay-then-pay plan include two- to four-bedroom apartments ranging from 1,012 sq ft to 2,228 sq ft.

OrangeTee told The Straits Times that Wheelock Properties has also this month introduced a deferred payment scheme at its high-end condo Ardmore Three – which still had about 25 unsold units at the end of last month.

Two other projects being marketed by ERA Realty Network are also offering incentives.

They are Corals at Keppel Bay ($50,000 off prices of selected units) and One Balmoral (13 per cent discount on prices of all units).

Despite the prospect of more completed projects coming on the market with innovative sales schemes, analysts do not expect demand for newly launched condos to be hard hit.

The completed projects make up “a very small percentage of the primary sales market”, noted ERA key executive officer Eugene Lim.

wongsy@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on MONTH DAY, 2017.
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Service improved 30 per cent last year compared to 2015, but number of major breakdowns slightly up

The number of major service delays on Singapore’s rail network increased slightly last year.

There were 16 major breakdowns – defined as delays lasting more than 30 minutes – on the 180km network last year compared to 15 in 2015. The ageing East-West and North-South lines had the most delays – five and four respectively.

Despite an increase in the number of major service delays, rail reliability on the network improved overall last year.

Trains managed to run an average of 174,000km before a delay of more than five minutes occurred.

This is a rise of 30 per cent from 2015, when they achieved 133,000km before a delay.

Permanent Secretary for Transport Pang Kin Keong, who announced these figures at the third Joint Forum on Infrastructure Maintenance yesterday, said the improvements were a result of sharply increased investments in renewal and upgrading of assets, as well as intensified maintenance.

But he said as the number of delays lasting more than 30 minutes has risen, “more needs to be focused on this front”.

The most reliable line was the newest, the Downtown line, which clocked 260,000km.

The Circle Line, despite suffering a number of delays due to its signalling system last year, achieved 228,000km.

The North-East Line hit 174,000km, while the North-South and East-West lines averaged 156,000km and 145,000km respectively.

Reliability on the LRT network also improved from 42,000km in 2015 to 49,000km last year.

Despite the improved performance, some commuters said they regularly experience delays.

Research nurse Pang Yan, 29, said she experiences about two delays a month, some lasting more than 10 minutes, on the East-West Line.

She said the effects of delays are particularly bad at interchange stations.

“It can get very crowded at Buona Vista when there’s a delay. Sometimes people even have to stand on the staircases,” said Ms Pang, who travels daily from her home at Lakeside to her workplace at Kent Ridge.

Singapore’s network reliability falls short of Hong Kong’s MTR, which clocks 360,000km between disruptions, and Taipei’s metro, which has a reliability standard of 800,000km.

Mr Pang, however, said he was confident about meeting the Government’s target of 400,000km by next year.

The Government will spend more than $4 billion improving rail assets in the next five years, in addition to the $20 billion being spent on new rail lines during the same period, he noted.

The Land Transport Authority will also work with operators to expand its monitoring tools, including a new generation automatic system to look at track conditions.

azhaki@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on Jan 13, 2016.
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