An unemployed woman who conned at least 15 victims of $3.9 million by perpetrating multiple scams was sentenced to 12 years’ jail yesterday.

Kalimahton Mohamed Samuri, 55, had a previous brush with the law.

She was sentenced to 6½ years’ jail in 2000 for criminal breach of trust of $7 million worth of jewellery.

Then dubbed the “pawnshop princess”, she called herself Datin Sharinah and had pawned the jewellery in various pawnshops between 1997 and 1999, leaving behind a complex trail that took the police years to unravel.

Years after her release, she was back to her old ways.

Between 2012 and 2015, the undischarged bankrupt cheated multiple victims including taxi drivers, crane operators, a fishmonger and a scuba instructor.

RUSE

The court heard that in her main ruse, she would tell the victims that she could offer favourable exchange rates for foreign currencies.

She also told them that money was needed for storage and taxes of the foreign currencies, or that she could exchange cash notes into special SG50 commemorative notes and that the victims could make a commission on this change.

She also said she had wealthy buyers in Malaysia who were interested in luxury goods which could be bought in Singapore.

She would then sell the goods and pocket the money.

Kalimahton, who was in a wheelchair in court, admitted to 20 of 69 cheating charges.

Calling her a “career cheat”, Deputy Public Prosecutor Thiam Jia Min sought a high sentence of 12 to 14 years.

On each charge, Kalimahton, whose sentence was backdated to Nov 21, 2015, could have been jailed for up to 10 years and fined.

This article was first published on January 7, 2017.
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When they discovered that they both knew injured people who had to use wheelchairs that could cost up to $2,100, Mr Keldrick Tan, 19, and Miss Chua Xin Yan, 20, decided to create a cheaper version of the device.

The Temasek Polytechnic (TP) students managed to turn an office chair into a wheelchair with just a clamp and two wheels.

It cost only $61 to build, said Mr Tan. And if mass produced, it could cost as low as $41, he added. Their product even won the gold award at the Cool Ideas for Better HDB Living Competition last August.

The duo also produced a modified mop and pail for the elderly, where users would not need to bend over to pick it up. It bagged a merit award at the same competition.

‘VIABLE’

Their supervisor, Mr Hong Geok Hua, 59, a senior lecturer at TP’s School of Engineering, said: “They had to understand the problem very well, and it had to be very simple, very low-cost and viable.”

The two students were also part of a team of eight students who developed a smart wheelchair for dementia and elderly patients.

It won the bronze and $3,000 at the Land Transport Authority’s Engineering Challenge last year.

Their motorised smart wheelchair is equipped with motion sensors and Global Positioning System technology.

Team member Dylan Berlandier, 20, said the wheelchair can take its user home at the flip of a switch.

It can also follow a caregiver walking in front of it.

Mr Berlandier said that besides being in school from 9am to 5pm, they often stayed until midnight to work on the project.

He said: “It was a good feeling for us to finally sit and not control it.”

Mr Hong said: “It is very enriching working with young people. It is good they are not easily satisfied with a solution.”

The team said their aim was to give back to society.

The Straits Times had earlier reported that dementia affects an estimated one in 10 people aged over 60 here.

By 2030, the number of citizens older than 65 will have more than doubled from the current level to 960,000. And 92,000 of them will live alone.

Team member Nicholas Ng, 19, said: “If no one helps them then who will? By helping them, maybe we will help ourselves in the future. Everyone grows old.”

A total of 55 projects were exhibited yesterday as part of TP’s annual open house, which ends at 6pm today.

tnp@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on January 7, 2017.
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When Mr Arnest Ng and his brother, Mr Spencer Ng, were teenagers, they were so into collecting toys that one of them worked as a karaoke disc changer at a pub to finance their hobby.

They collected and filled their bedroom with so many toys that they had to sleep in the living room of their four-room HDB flat.

Eventually, they decided to cash in on their ever-growing prized possessions to fund more toy purchases.

But running a brick-and-mortar shop never took off.

Then, last April, they turned to e-commerce to market their collection of vintage toys and items online.

Today, the brothers’ business, Collectors Baze, is booming, raking in about $20,000 in sales a month. Their customers, mostly repeat ones, are mainly between 25 and 40 years old.

Mr Arnest Ng, 39, said: “We were seeing retail businesses shift online and we thought to tag along.

“We are now constantly getting calls from other collectors and customers.”

The brothers, who also run a business transporting food packaging, spoke to The New Paper at their office at industrial development Eco-tech @ Sunview in Jurong.

Their two-storey office unit was filled with glass cupboards of vintage collectibles, such as old Transformers robot models, space robots, Ultraman figurines and even Vespa vintage pedal scooters.

Mr Arnest Ng said their toy-collecting hobby started when he was 16 and his brother 12.

He said: “My brother and I used to frequent the flea markets at Clarke Quay and we would buy the toys on sale.

“These were toys we couldn’t get when we were even younger because our parents were busy working and we did not enough money then.”

Mr Spencer Ng, 35, said they even took up part-time jobs, such as being a waiter and a karaoke disc changer at a pub, so that they had money to buy more toys.

“I earned about $1,000 a month, and I would spend $800 on toys,” he said.

They collected so many toys they filled out their bedroom.

SHOP

Their first foray into selling their toys was in 1994 when they rented a shop for $500 a month in Clarke Quay.

But their business was badly hit in 2003 due to the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) epidemic.

It was in 2012 that the Ng brothers decided to revive their business by featuring their vintage toys at the Singapore Toy Game and Comic Convention.

Mr Arnest Ng said all they had that year was a shelf to feature their toys.

He added: “But the response was amazing. Many wanted to buy our toys, yet we had to turn them down as we did not plan to sell any.”

So they rented an exhibition booth the following year to sell their vintage toys, while relaunching their business, this time on social media.

Last April, they launched an online store on their website and a mobile app for iOS and Android.

Their items mostly cost between $150 and $7,000 apiece.

One of their customers is serial entrepreneur Ivan Lee, 41, the founder of restaurant chain Thai Express.

He paid between $15,000 and $20,000 for a Gatchaman figurine set, a first-generation Optimus Prime model and a Voltron robot.

Mr Lee told TNP: “These were toys I once had or couldn’t have as my father said they were too expensive when I was a kid.

“They represent more than my childhood. They showcase the history, culture and art of their time. Owning one again is like getting a piece of history.”

Mr Arnest Ng added: “With e-commerce, there are no boundaries. We are getting customers from Thailand, the US, Taiwan, and more. What may be available in one country may be rare in another.

“We hope to connect people with pieces of their childhood and that’s what keeps us going.”

rloh@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on January 7, 2017.
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For the past year, labour MP Melvin Yong has been visiting electronics manufacturing plants all over the island, gaining insights about productivity.

Mr Yong, the executive secretary of the 65,000-member strong United Workers of Electronics and Electrical Industries, now hopes to share these ideas with other industries which need help in the upcoming Budget debate.

In an interview with The New Paper at NTUC centre yesterday, Mr Yong said that leveraging on technology to improve productivity is “part of the DNA” of these workers.

He said: “Productivity improvement is apparent and key to these companies because it has a direct impact on their output. It is a culture.”

Mr Yong added that the floor workers are usually the ones who give suggestions on improving productivity and the management are usually willing to listen and implement them, which encourages even more suggestions.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Trade and Industry, export-oriented industries like manufacturing tend to fare better in productivity compared with domestic-oriented industries like retail, food and beverage, and construction.

From 2010 to 2015, the productivity growth of export-oriented industries was 3.2 per cent, compared with 0.2 per cent in domestic-oriented businesses.

Mr Yong thinks that these domestic-oriented industries can learn some “good practices” from the manufacturing sector.

In addition, he suggested funding to be targeted at sectoral projects – instead of individual companies – and to involve property owners or retail chains for industry transformation.

Other ideas include a greater drive for asset pooling by identifying areas of collaboration for clusters of companies with similar products or services.

Another suggestion is the identification of “champion companies” within each sector, possibly MNCs, on productivity projects to drive changes in their respective sectors.

In a blog post yesterday, Mr Yong stressed the importance of learning new skills to remain competitive and helping companies stay competitive.

He raised the example of Ms Wang Mui Sin, 54, who has worked at Yokogawa Electric Asia for the past 36 years and has “adapted”with the electronics industry.

Ms Wang joined the company as a machine operator, was transferred to the IT department after going through training and is now a production planner.

She told TNP in Mandarin yesterday: “Change is always difficult and I was scared that I would not do a good job at first.

“But times have evolved, it is important to be willing to change your mindset or you could be replaced.”

linheng@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on January 7, 2017.
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Cabbies plying the roads have been given a fresh start this year.

Trans-Cab drivers who are one-man operators have had their daily rents slashed since the start of the year.

Also introduced from last Sunday were changes to the taxi availability framework.

The 250km minimum daily mileage has been scrapped, and taxi operators no longer have to ensure that cabs ply the roads during the shoulder peak period of between 6am and 7am and between 11pm and midnight.

Both changes are seen as levelling the playing field between taxi and ride-hailing services.

Head of Grab Singapore Lim Kell Jay, 32, thinks it spells good news for the industry.

“This updated framework is a testament to the successes we have seen with our GrabTaxi business,” he told The New Paper.

DOMINANT

These changes come three years and three months after Grab first broke into Singapore’s market. Today, Grab is one of the dominant ride-hailing platforms.

Valued at US$1.6 billion (S$2.3 billion) by Fortune magazine, it competes with Uber, a US$69-billion behemoth.

But don’t call Grab an underdog. Mr Lim said: “It is all relative. Our competition may have raised money globally, but how much are they going to allocate to this part of the world?

“I think we’ve raised quite a bit for this part of the world. We’re not by any means in an underdog position.”

Every dollar will be put to good use, he emphasised.

Mr Lim said: “With the capabilities that we have built, especially around data, we are able to make much smarter decisions.”

The company operates in six countries, including Singapore. Here, it offers four ride options: cab-hailing service GrabTaxi, private car-hailing service GrabCar, social carpooling service GrabHitch, and most recently, commercial carpooling service GrabShare.

In April 2015, it launched a US$100 million research and development centre – a 4,500 sq ft centre at Cecil Street that can accommodate more than 200 engineers and data analysts. It has nearly 150 job openings, including for data scientists and engineers.

This year, Grab will focus on the area of payment – think GrabPay, credits and cashless payment methods (such as AliPay).

When asked if there will be more options rolled out on the platform going forward, Mr Lim was coy.

He said: “If you look at how we have evolved, almost every year we have (added) a new service…

“And we’ll continue to do that because we have an ambitious goal, to make point-to-point transport extremely reliable.

“Not only that, we want to get you a ride within three minutes.”

So how far away is Grab from that three-minute target?

Said Mr Lim: “If you talk about getting a car to you in three minutes, almost every car on the road needs to be part of the Grab platform…

“We won’t stop until we get every single vehicle in Singapore on the Grab platform.”

He hopped into waiting taxis to persuade drivers

Disrupt, or be disrupted – that is the catch phrase printed on the back of Grab employees’ name cards.

It is also the ride-hailing platform’s mantra in this competitive industry.

More than three years on, and rebranded from its GrabTaxi days in 2013, Grab continues to grow in an industry that saw early competitors, such as MoobiTaxi and EasyTaxi, pack up and leave.

And this is despite Singapore being an unintentional part of its plans in South-east Asia.

Singapore had a fairly organised cab operator system while Grab worked best in a fragmented space, said head of Grab Singapore, Mr Lim Kell Jay.

But with the encouragement of its investors, Grab went ahead anyway.

Every day, for the first six months, Mr Lim – then GrabTaxi’s general manager – woke up feeling uncertain.

Before getting people to become Grab users, he had to first convince taxi drivers to come on board.

Sometimes, he even hopped into taxis that were lining up at Changi Airport to talk to the drivers.

THICK SKIN

“One common excuse the drivers gave was them having seen similar apps before that failed… But first of all, you need to have thick skin, right?” he said.

Then he realised that while ComfortDelGro drivers were fully utilised during crunch time, the other drivers were relatively free in comparison.

He added: “To increase our success, other than working really hard to sign up drivers and to market to passengers, we also started out with a small team to manually allocate passengers to drivers… We kept doing that until we had enough supply (of cars).”

By April 2014, some six months later, more than 20,000 taxi drivers were on the Grab platform.

Today, it has over 50,000 drivers on board and four ride options that maximise the car supply on the road.

Hinting at more ride options to come, Mr Lim said the options is one way to outserve customers and set Grab apart from its rival Uber.

It is also what Mr Lim thinks will keep Grab sustainable.

To stay on top of the game, Grab allocates half its resources to new technologies.

The other half goes into addressing current issues, such as price, allocation and quality of service.

Mr Lim said: “We have a ‘one foot (in the door) today, one foot in tomorrow’ approach.”

fjieying@sph.com.sg

Over the past two years, pay-per-use study areas have sprung up in Singapore.

Much like co-working spaces, they offer amenities like Wi-Fi and access to power points – but are targeted at the student budget.

For an average of $1 an hour, students can choose to stay as long as they like.

Some are even open 24 hours a day.

It is an entrepreneurial solution to an issue that has long hogged headlines here during exam season – students depriving customers of seats at cafes and fast-food restaurants while they revise there.

Still, some wonder whether forking out around $10 a day is too much to pay for a space to study.

Free study spaces abound here.

Most universities and polytechnics keep their doors open during revision season.

Some schools and junior colleges even offer night study programmes.

And neighbourhood libraries and community centres also offer free space.

So it is perhaps not so much the shortage of these spaces that has convinced some to pay for such facilities, but rather the unhealthy Singapore spirit of “kiasu-ism” and the tendency to “chope” resources.

The Singaporean practice of revising intensely for exams has become so prevalent that it has even earned its own moniker – “mugging”.

But if we are serious about the push to transform our students from paper-chasers into problem-solvers and creative thinkers in the future, then the need to selfishly reserve free spaces to “mug” should be lower if assessments involve less regurgitation of content and more practical work.

This does not mean that study areas, whether free or paid, will become obsolete.

Instead, they should evolve, becoming community spaces that encourage networking, collaboration on hands-on projects and the exchange of ideas between both students and working adults.

yuensin@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on January 7, 2017.
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Golfers in Singapore can be forgiven for feeling their sport is under siege.

If anything, the Singapore Land Authority’s (SLA) shock announcement this week that it was acquiring the Raffles Country Club (RCC) property in Tuas has simply added to this sense of uncertainty.

On Wednesday, the SLA gazetted the acquisition of the 146ha site occupied by the club along Jalan Ahmad Ibrahim to house facilities for the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR), the Cross Island Line’s (CRL) western depot and other transport-related needs.

The Land Transport Authority and SLA emphasised that the RCC site was found to be the most suitable location to run at-grade HSR tracks immediately after the bridge crossing and to place the tunnel portal leading to the underground tunnels that would take the HSR to the Jurong East terminus.

The site will also be used for required HSR crossover tracks and an HSR siding facility to temporarily house a train near the border for safety or operational reasons, if necessary.

Read Also: 5 interesting facts about Raffles Country Club, second golf club to make way for S’pore-KL high-speed rail

This comes over a year after the Government announced the acquisition of the 67ha 18-hole Jurong Country Club (JCC) site just down the road from RCC.

The authorities have also refused to renew the lease on Keppel Club’s property at Bukit Chermin, forcing it to shutter in 2021.

And the popular Marina Bay Public course will make way for development in a few more years.

Over at the Singapore Island Country Club (SICC), members are still digesting the fact they will lose their beloved Sime Course to the NTUC (to replace the Marina Bay public course).

And SICC is also likely to be forced to give up its Bukit Course, which is rumoured to be earmarked for NTUC-controlled Orchid Country Club in 2030 (when the latter’s land at Yishun is acquired for development).

Meanwhile, the expansion of Changi Airport has already seen National Service Resort & Country Club (NSRCC) lose its Air Force layout, while Tanah Merah Country Club’s (TMCC) Garden course has seen a drastic realignment and shortening.

All in all, not a rosy scenario for golf or golfers in Singapore.

NOT INTERESTED

In reality, the sport faces two critical challenges here.

First, it has to compete for land against other economic uses.

Second, it has not been able to spark enthusiasm among the young.

As far as land is concerned, the SLA and other relevant agencies have been constantly reviewing Singapore’s land use as the nation’s population heads towards the 6 million mark and beyond.

New technology and increasing demand have meant that previously unusable land – which was allocated for golf clubs – can now be used more productively.

Keppel Club’s land will ultimately be used for housing development, as will Orchid CC.

JCC and RCC will give way for transporation and other infrastructure.

Marina Bay will make way for the extension of the CBD.

Even land that courses such as Warren Country Club and the nine-hole Changi Golf Club stand on could potentially face competition for other uses.

Given such circumstances, no golf club in Singapore is assured of retaining its real estate for eternity.

And those who do manage to get lease renewals may have to pay premium pricing reflecting the enhanced economic value of the land.

Read Also: Raffles Country Club to give up site for KL-Singapore High Speed Rail

The question is: Given that most clubs do not make money anyway, how many will be able to afford significantly higher lease renewal charges?

Then there is the second factor that is impacting the game in Singapore.

Some call it the “squash” effect.

Remember the 1970s and 1980s when the game of squash was the most popular racquet sport in Singapore, and perhaps around the region?

Remember squash stars such as Zainal Abidin and Peter Hill?

But where is squash today?

Who are its stars today?

How many people play the sport here any more?

While golf is not in such dire straits yet, interest in the game among the younger set has yet to match that in the 1990s and into the 2000s when the Tiger Woods phenomenon swept the world.Golf club membership brokers, equipment-makers and sports retailers note a steady decline in demand for memberships and golf-related products from today’s younger executive crowd.

Most millenials are too busy building their careers and have no time for five-hour sessions on the fairways.

Running and other high-intensity sports seem to be the in-thing with the 30-something crowd.

Internal market research by golf equipment manufacturers shows demand coming largely from existing golfers, mostly in their late 40s, 50s or 60s, rather than new entrants to the sport.

Not surprisingly, with falling numbers of new young entrants to the sport, most clubs here are faced with a membership profile which is ageing rapidly.

The average membership age is almost 60 years, with many having bought their memberships in the late 1980s and 1990s.

The phenomenon is not unique to Singapore.

In the US, which is the world’s largest golf market, the National Foundation of Golf reported that falling enthusiasm for the sport has resulted in about 160 of the country’s 14,600 18-hole facilities being shuttered last year – marking the eighth consecutive year of net closures.

So, as Singapore goes through another stage of transition, the outlook for golf courses and the sport itself looks uncertain.

Today, Singapore has 13 clubs catering to some 30,000 members.

By some estimates, the value of investments in golf club memberships here exceeds $3 billion.

In about three years, at least four existing clubs would have disappeared.

While one cannot argue with the strategic needs of land-scarce Singapore, golfers will nevertheless be hoping to continue enjoying access to a fair number of courses here, even as the sun seems to be setting on their beloved sport.

ven@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on January 7, 2017.
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On the first day of her International Baccalaureate (IB) examinations last year, she was struck with chicken pox that lasted the entire infection period.

Two days ago, it all became a distant memory for Miss Leong Kit Yan, 19, who emerged as one of the top performers in her cohort, scoring 40 points out of 45.

“I was screaming and I was just so elated and excited, I can’t describe the feeling,” the netball player told The New Paper yesterday.

Miss Leong has come a long way. Her PSLE T-score was 198, among the lowest in the cohort that enrolled in the Singapore Sports School’s express stream in 2010.

Referring to her tough time in primary school, she revealed she had difficulty understanding the subjects, especially mathematics.

“I paid attention in class, but I just couldn’t understand. I even scored 26 out of 100 for mathematics in the prelims,” she said.

“I couldn’t memorise anything. I was sleeping for one hour and studying half an hour.”

Using her PSLE result as motivation to work harder, she started reading her textbooks even before stepping into her new school at Woodlands.

Her hard work at the Sports School paid off.

She started off in the lowest-ranked class in Secondary 1, but eventually found herself in the best class in Secondary 4.

She had a net score of 10 points for her GCE O levels – one of the top five scorers in her cohort – and opted to join the IB programme.

As a netballer, Miss Leong had to juggle studies and sports.

In Year 6 in 2015, with the IB exam looming, she had to prepare for two competitions, the Netball Super League and Asian Youth Netball Championships, held in March and December, respectively, that year.

She described the period as a “difficult and depressing” time, as she had to study on her train rides to and from the Sports Hub, where she trained.

She credited her school for supporting her – classmates loaned her their notes whenever she missed out and her teacher even made ginseng drinks for her during the exam period.

She is currently studying economics at the Singapore Management University (SMU) and plays for the Opens national team and the national Under-21s.

Miss Leong said: “Optimism has been a key factor in my success. The only way not to have any insecurities is to be better.

“I was determined to prove to other people that I could do it as well.”

tanpya@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on January 7, 2017.
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