A court judgment that stopped a bistro from placing chairs and tables on the pedestrian walkway immediately outside it could well become a reference point for other businesses in the same quandary.

The management corporation of a mixed-use development, The Sail @ Marina Bay, had taken issue with the Raffles Place Bistro that operated on the ground floor over the matter.

The bistro had placed chairs, tables and other objects for its patrons on the walkway for a number of years, stacking up the items against surrounding walls or pillars when it was closed to curb obstruction to the walkway.

The management corporation (MC), which said the walkway was common property, went to court last year to restrain the bistro from placing its tables and chairs there.

District Judge Kevin Kwek granted the application in August last year and, in the following month, issued the judgment grounds that were released yesterday.

“In the light of the (issues raised), I find it would not be unjust to grant the mandatory injunction,” he wrote.

The bistro is no longer in operation at the development, and it is unclear if its closure is linked to the court case.

Both parties had agreed the eatery had breached the Building Maintenance (Strata Management) Regulations 2005 and encroached on common property.

But they had also agreed it could continue doing so if it posed no harm and if it would cause hardship to the restaurant not to have the extra space.

However, the lawyers for the management, Mr Joseph Lee and Mr Terence Wah, argued it was unsafe for customers, pointing out that there was a motor accident close to the premises in September 2014 in which two vehicles mounted the pedestrian walkway and crashed into a tree.

They noted the objects on the walkway also obstructed a fire escape route, and that the chairs and tables could also pose a safety risk.

An MC official also testified it could not get approval from the authorities for outdoor seating for other eateries on the first level as they encroached on the pedestrian area.

Raffles Place Bistro’s lawyers Ng Lip Chih and Tan Jie Ying described some of the claims as “gross exaggerations” and said an injunction would cause undue hardship to the eatery.

But the district judge found no evidence of economic loss and said even if there were, “this would only be a result of the defendant’s own breach”.

He noted that the original tenancy agreement provided for Raffles Place Bistro to sell only takeaway food.

“Serving dine-in food at the common property was never in the agreement between the parties” and to now allow it to serve dine-in food would be contrary to the agreement, he said.

He said the case underscored the importance of obeying by-laws for the common good.

“I accept the plaintiff’s submissions that if the injunction is not granted, the plaintiff’s authority would be withered away and other tenants would treat such a judgment as a licence to encroach on the common property with impunity,” he added.

The judge noted the MC had actually made similar applications against 11 other units which had placed items, including chairs, advertisement banners and crates and boxes, on common property.

In six of the cases, the defendants did not dispute their part and paid costs, while the other cases were settled or withdrawn after the tenants removed the encroaching objects.

But Bistro remained the only occupant that held it was entitled to leave the encroaching items on the common property, noted the judge.

He said an injunction had to be given to ensure equal treatment of all the tenants “by ensuring that all the persons are bound by the by-laws” and that a consistent message was sent.

vijayan@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on January 5, 2017.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.

A photo of an unnamed man posted on Facebook by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday morning has triggered an outpouring of appreciation for foreign workers.

Mr Lee uploaded a black-and-white photo of a man sitting alone under a tree at Changi Beach Park, which he had taken over the New Year weekend.

Read Also: Lower foreign-worker levy to promote safety training

In his post, Mr Lee said the man looked like a foreign worker calling home on his cellphone, and urged people to appreciate the contributions of migrant labourers here.

These include building housing and transport infrastructure, as well as caring for the young and elderly.

Read Also: Starbucks customer gives unsold food to foreign workers

“As we enjoy the festive days with friends and family, let us spare a thought for the foreign workers who have left their families behind to work in a distant land,” he wrote.

He added: “They slog and save to support loved ones, but at least with the Internet and cellphones they can keep in touch, and feel not quite so far away.”

Mr Lee has spoken several times about appreciating foreign workers and their contributions.

His post prompted hundreds of comments from Singaporeans and foreign workers.

Read Also: Foreign worker heroes honoured

Ms Nyo Nyo Lwin, a nurse from Myanmar working at the Ren Ci Hospital, said: “Thank you so much Mr PM for your kind thought for foreign workers. I have been working here for 10 years.”

Student Selina Xu wrote: “I’m really glad you called attention to a group of people often ignored or unseen by our society – our migrant workers are the ones who toil tirelessly to build Singapore’s landscape. But sometimes their plight and voices go unheard and the true extent of their contributions to our sprawling metropolis becomes underappreciated.”

But Indonesian maid Safira Honney said some employers still do not allow their workers to communicate with their families, even during festive holidays like Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Christmas and New Year’s Day.

She wrote: “They think the worker won’t have time for the family of the boss. This is sad.”

By yesterday evening, Mr Lee’s post had more than 26,000 likes, 2,100 shares and 700 comments.

tohyc@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on January 5, 2017.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.

A flea market featuring locally made products and second-hand items is one of the new additions to this year’s Chinese New Year festival at Chinatown, which starts this weekend.

The market, to be held on Jan 14 and 15 in a restaurant on the rooftop of People’s Park Complex, is an attempt by organisers to draw more youngsters to the festival, which tends to attract an older crowd.

Also for the first time, a section of the annual festive street bazaar, with 440 stalls this year, has been allocated to 12 entrepreneurs, who will hawk unique treats such as braised duck shabu burgers and “lucky lucky money balls”, meatballs filled with melted cheese to represent gold.

The festival draws an average of two million visitors each Chinese New Year, said Dr Lily Neo, the adviser to Jalan Besar GRC, under which the precinct falls.

“Chinese culture… is a good heritage we need to pass on to the next generation. Involving and engaging the youth is our way of reinforcing and strengthening these traditions,” said Dr Neo at a media preview of the Chinatown light-up yesterday.

President Tony Tan Keng Yam will throw the official switch for the light-up on Saturday.

As with past years, visitors can buy traditional snacks such as pineapple tarts from the stalls spread out across Pagoda, Smith, Sago, Temple and Trengganu streets.

Dr Neo said security measures have also been stepped up.

For the first time, some 40 tonnes of concrete blocks will line roads during major events such as this Saturday’s ceremony, the Chinese New Year countdown and Chingay parade. This is to prevent vehicles from entering areas where large crowds are expected to congregate.

Traditional elements of the festival that have been kept include an international lion dance competition, now in its 10th year, which will see 17 top troupes from 10 countries vie for the title of “king of the lions”.

The precinct will also be lit up by 5,500 handcrafted lanterns, the largest number made for the festival.

The centrepiece is a 13m-tall, 100m-long rooster lantern perched at the junction of Eu Tong Sen and Upper Cross streets.

The lanterns, which use environmentally friendly LED lights, were designed by 14 students from the Singapore University of Technology and Design.

One of them, 21-year-old Loo Jun Wen, said the biggest challenge was juggling schoolwork and the project.

The aspiring architect said he wanted to explore the realities of designing a public display and having to work within budget and time. His team also designed a large screen in Eu Tong Sen Street to display festive greetings from the public.

Other highlights include guided tours of Chinatown and the Chingay parade on Feb 12.

Outram Park MRT station and an MRT train will be decked out with rooster motifs and traditional Chinese couplets from Jan 15 to Feb 11.

The light-up ends on Feb 25.

UNIQUE FOOD

A special section of the festive street bazaar, with 12 entrepreneurs selling unique food such as braised duck shabu burgers and meatballs filled with cheese.

FLEA MARKET

A flea market, the YHFlea: Come Lepark edition, with over 100 curated local brands and independent designers.

Expect local handcrafted items, pre-loved items, local music performances and graffiti art.

The flea market will be held on Jan 14 and 15 from noon to 8pm at the restaurant Lepark, on the rooftop of People’s Park Complex.

mellinjm@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on Jan 5, 2017.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.

Local golf is feeling the squeeze after yesterday’s announcement about the acquisition of Raffles Country Club (RCC) further reduced playing options for golfers here.

RCC is the second golf club here to be acquired for the development of the high-speed rail project, following the acquisition of Jurong Country Club two years ago.

Coupled with the closures of Keppel Club and Marina Bay Golf Club when their leases expire in the next 10 years, there will be only 13 golf clubs in Singapore by 2030, down from 17 currently.

This is also down from 22 clubs in 2001.

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

About 15 per cent of the land now occupied by golf courses – about 219ha – will make way for housing and other amenities after their leases expire.

Singapore Golf Association (SGA) president Ross Tan said the acquisition is disappointing for golf in the country.

There are currently about 36,000 golfers with a handicap here.

“My reaction is one of disbelief. SGA’s duty, as a national sports association, to grow the sport, will be badly affected,” said Mr Tan.

Singapore Professional Golfer’s Association president M. Murugiah said he was “very sad” to hear the news. “Golfers here will have to go to Johor or Batam to play instead as more clubs close.”

Memberships there can be up to 90 per cent cheaper, said observers.

Read also: Some golfers hit by double blow​

“In Johor Baru, club memberships can go for around $3,000 to $4,000,” said Ms Madeline Choo of brokerage Active Golf Services, adding that green fees for these courses are just about $60 on weekends.

This contrasts with membership prices at even middle-rung clubs such as RCC currently going for between $32,000 and $37,000. Green fees here are also much higher.

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Singapore-Malaysia ink landmark High Speed Rail MOU

Source: The Straits Times, The Star/ANN, AFP

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Many Singaporeans are deterred from snapping up memberships in Malaysia by the prospect of encountering jams at checkpoints and paying toll charges, said Ms Choo.

Others, however, might venture even farther afield to play the game.

China, Thailand and the Philippines are increasingly popular destinations for golfing holiday packages, said Ms Lee Lee Langdale, director of brokerage Singolf.

Those who want to play regularly, however, will have to go with a local membership, she said, adding that they may choose to go to clubs with cheaper memberships such as the Warren Golf Club.

At the higher end, club memberships here can cost as much as $210,000, the current price of a Sentosa Golf Club membership, according to figures from membership broker Tee-Up Marketing Enterprises.

Read also: Golf club acquisition par for the course

Fewer options may mean a slight increase in membership prices in the coming years, said Ms Choo.

Ms Fion Phua, a Tee-Up broker, believes that given the scarcity of land here, freeing up land currently used for golf courses is a necessity.

“There really are a lot of golf courses here for such a tiny island,” she said, adding that golfers make up a small percentage of the population.

Some golfers might even choose to do without club memberships.

Ms Choo said: “It doesn’t make sense to pay so much for a membership only to have the land taken away in a few years.”

One golfer might even give up the game.

Said Ms Theresa Ng, 55, a retiree who has been a member of RCC for more than 20 years: “I have a group of golfers whom I play with on weekends, some whom I first got to know through the club. I will miss meeting them a lot, and it won’t be the same at another club. I may just accept the compensation and retire from golfing.”

Read also: Members shocked by scale of acquisition

This article was first published on Jan 05, 2017.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.

Singapore has topped the Asia-Pacific region in the International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma exams for the seventh year in a row.

And, globally, it has produced more than half of the students with perfect scores in the exams.

Fifty-seven students here scored the maximum of 45 points in the exams last November, out of 94 top scorers, said the Swiss-based IB Organisation, which conducts the exams, in a media release.

This is an increase in the number of perfect scorers at end-2015, when 48 students from a cohort of about 1,600 here achieved the full score out of 81 students worldwide.

In percentage terms, Singapore had 59 per cent of the top scorers in 2015 and 61 per cent last year.

The island has consistently had the highest number of top scorers since 2012.

In the November exam last year, 97.32 per cent of the 1,849 students here who took the exam passed, compared with the global rate of 70 per cent.

This is a slight drop from last year’s figure of 98 per cent.

The average score of students here was also higher than the global average: 38.27 points against 29.21 points respectively.

Worldwide, more than 14,070 students took the exam last year.

Twenty-two institutions here offer the IB diploma.

Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) and St Joseph’s Institution (SJI) are among the schools that will release the results to their students today.

The programme conducts two rounds of exams each year – in May and November.

Many Singapore students take it in the latter half of the year but students in the international schools take the earlier one.

The IB programme was first started in 1968 in Geneva, and is now offered by 4,580 schools in more than 150 countries and territories.

IB students take six subjects and Theory of Knowledge, a course that combines philosophy, religion and logical reasoning.

They also study a second language, do research, write a 4,000-word essay and take part in a community-service project.

Associate Professor Jason Tan, an education policy expert at the National Institute of Education, told The Straits Times that one reason local students have done consistently well in the IB may be that it is still an opt-in scheme in many local schools which admit students who are academically stronger.

For example, students at the Singapore Sports School can choose to enrol in the IB programme after secondary school or take up other options, like a diploma offered in collaboration with a polytechnic.

Those who wish to enter the integrated programme leading to the IB programme at SJI have to meet a higher minimum score at the Primary School Leaving Examination than those going for the O levels.

Prof Tan said: “This selectiveness could be one of the reasons that account for the success of our students.”

yuensin@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on January 5, 2017.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.

Members of Raffles Country Club (RCC) had been bracing themselves for the Government to take some of their club’s land, especially after the nearby Jurong Country Club was gazetted for acquisition in 2015.

Plans to renovate the club were put on hold and the management had asked the authorities about plans in the area for a few years.

But yesterday’s announcement by the Government that it would acquire RCC still came as a shock to many because of the scale of the acquisition.

“I was expecting only a portion of the land to be used for this development… Do they really need so much land?” said Ms Maria Teo, a retiree in her 40s who plays golf at the club about four times a week.

The Land Transport Authority said it would need RCC’s entire 143ha plot in Tuas to house facilities, including at-grade tracks for the 350km Singapore-Kuala Lumpur high-speed rail, as well as the Cross Island Line’s western depot.

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Photo Gallery

Singapore-Malaysia ink landmark High Speed Rail MOU

Source: The Straits Times, The Star/ANN, AFP

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The site will also hold the tunnel portal leading to the underground tunnels that will take the high-speed rail to the Jurong East terminus, as well as crossover tracks and a siding facility to temporarily house trains near the border.

Read also: Golf club acquisition par for the course

“It is a big disappointment. There won’t be any more golf courses for us in the west,” said Mr T.C. Tan, 64, who paid about $90,000 to join the club more than 20 years ago.

Said Mr S.W. Lee, a 63-year-old retiree who has been a member for more than 20 years: “It is such a pity to see one of the most scenic clubs in Singapore go. I love the views of nature here.”

RCC, which has two 18-hole golf courses and about 2,600 members, will have to hand over the land by July 31 next year.

Members said they were waiting for compensation details before deciding on their next move. Some said they are now more cautious about buying golf memberships.

Ms Agnes Tay, a retiree in her 50s who has been a member for 17 years, said: “I was also a member of Jurong Country Club for about five years. Now I have no confidence to join another club.”

Said 64-year-old retiree P.K. Tan: “It is a hard decision. Perhaps I will need to go over to Malaysia to play golf now.”

The club’s general committee members met yesterday afternoon to discuss the announcement but could not be contacted to provide details.

Read also: Some golfers hit by double blow​

RCC general committee president Paul Singh, however, said before the meeting that he was “deeply disappointed”, adding that the committee needed time to work out compensation details for members.

Also concerned about the acquisition were employees of the club.

Fu Lin Men Chinese Restaurant and Fukuya Japanese Restaurant, owned by The Passion Group, moved their operations from Jurong Country Club only about a year ago.

The group, which also runs the western LakeFront Restaurant and Pub on the first storey, has about 50 employees in total at the club.

Said the group’s owner Tam Suk Ling: “I was not expecting this. Some of my staff were reallocated here from Jurong, and now, I will probably have to arrange for them to work at our other restaurants near Chinatown. The planning will be a headache.”

Transview Golf shop manager Peter Soh said he had only recently transferred some stock from another outlet at Jurong Country Club to RCC, and he will now have a “second problem” when the shop has to vacate in the near future.

“I have three other staff working here too. I hope the club will help them get another job, maybe at another country club.”

In a Facebook post yesterday, Attractions, Resorts and Entertainment Union executive secretary Desmond Choo said the union will work closely with the RCC management to help the affected workers.

This includes ensuring that the workers are fairly compensated if they are to be retrenched, and also providing job placement assistance and retraining to them.

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

Fewer options for local golfers

nghuiwen@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on Jan 05, 2017.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.

GrabHitch has sort of gotten a bad rep recently due to one of their drivers.

Hitch unlike GrabShare, is a service run by non-professional drivers on the Grab app.

A recent bad incident came to light on Christmas Day when a Nanyang Technological University student, Rushdan Eilyaas, shared on social media about how the dog belonging to his GrabHitch driver had bitten him as he was getting out of the car.

What’s more all this culminated after an evening of unprofessional behaviour on the part of the driver.

Grab then came out to help Rushdan by refunding the cost of his trip, while also reimbursing his medical bills due to the injury when getting bitten.

It was also mentioned that the driver involved in this incident had also been suspended for “violating its code of conduct in using a car that was not registered on the Grab platform.”

Well guess what, he’s back. Now on GrabHitch

Facebook user Daniel Botak earlier today shared how he had encountered a terribly rude and unprofessional driver when he booked a GrabHitch ride to get to Mustafa Center.

Let’s break down his Facebook posts to what you need to take note of,

Blonde tattooed male – checked ✔

Pet chihuahua – checked ✔

Unprofessional behaviour – checked ✔

The incident as told by Daniel about what happened to him also largely mirrors what had happened to Rushdan as well.

The driver doesn’t pick him up at the designated point, instead telling the rider to meet him elsewhere.

When Daniel saw the dog with the driver (barking aggressively), he decided to turn down the ride fearing for his safety, especially after recalling the previous incident.

Instead of an amicable parting, he was instead met by (you’ve guessed it) severely unprofessional behaviour, with some vulgarities thrown into the mix.

From the way he articulate his post though it seems that he was unaware that it was the same driver who made the news.

This was later confirmed by people who had left comments on his post.

Another Facebook user also came forward to share his unpleasant ride with the driver, this time when the driver was still under GrabCar before his alleged suspension.

Looks like Mr Chihuahua is also a regular in Pasir Ris as this user points out when she booked a GrabHitch ride.

All we can say is, if you live in Pasir Ris and regularly take GrabHitch, look at your Grab app if you’ve been matched to a driver named “Star” and keep your eyes peeled for a white Mitsubishi Colt Cabriolet…. with a chihuahua inside.

Now the curious thing is regarding the driver in question, apparently he was suspended from GrabCar. With that in mind why was he accepted as a GrabHitch driver?

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