Thousands of Sikhs from around the region will gather at the Singapore Expo for the local community’s largest event of the year – Naam Ras Kirtan Darbar.

Many Singaporeans who live abroad, like Mr Ashmit Singh, have taken time off work to travel here to help organise and attend the event. Its name loosely translates to “Festival of Sikh Music” but the event also features religious teachings.

For Mr Singh, 27, who lives in Shanghai, the festival will be where members of his extended family – from countries such as Japan, Thailand and India – gather this year.

“Singapore has always been our home base. It is a good chance to come back home, see each other and be part of the community again,” said Mr Singh, who works at a mobile app start-up.

The biennial event started in 2002 and this year’s celebration will be a culmination of eight months of hard work by more than 200 volunteers.

The doors will be open to the public, who will get a taste of Sikh culture and heritage.

The four-day free event, which begins today, will feature music performances and an exhibition on the history of Sikhism, as well as free vegetarian food cooked by temple volunteers.

Organisers expect more than 20,000 people to attend the festival, which will run from 5.30pm to 10pm each day.

A live feed will be streamed on Facebook for people who are unable to attend.

A mobile app, containing information like hymn lyrics, has also been developed.

This year’s event will mark the 350th birthday of the 10th Sikh guru, Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji, who was known as a literary genius.

The pitcher he drank milk from – a sacred relic more than 300 years old – will be on display as well.

Another highlight is a miniature paper replica of the Golden Temple, Sri Harimandir Sahib – the spiritual and cultural centre for the Sikh religion – in Amritsar in north-western India.

Mr Guramrit Singh, 30, an IT designer, said that apart from learning more about the religion, he enjoys the sense of community that the event provides.

“Being here with people I grew up with – that is the most fun part.”

This article was first published on Dec 23, 2016.
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The Tampines Town Council will fine lift company Sigma Elevator for a safety breach at a Housing Board block, it said yesterday.

A Stomp reader, who did not wish to be named, said that a worker from the company had been cleaning a lift shaft on Wednesday afternoon, without putting up any signs or posting a lookout to stop people from using the lift.

The lift door on the first floor was partly open during the cleaning.

The reader said: “As usual, my daughter ran towards the lift to press the button… I saw the lift door was slightly open. The gap was big enough for a toddler to fall through.”

He stopped his child from running because he was afraid that she would “peep or look through the gap” out of curiosity.

He then saw a worker using a broom to clean the lift shaft at Block 886A, Tampines Street 83.

“This is a very serious lapse of safety,” he said.

Read also: Boon Lay resident hurt when HDB lift falls and rises unexpectedly

“No warning sign, supervisor or standby person and barricade at all. Any curious toddler may fall through the gap.”

Tampines Town Council said in a statement that it “views this incident seriously as the safety breach has endangered the lift worker as well as members of public”.

There should have been a safety barricade or a lookout, it said.

The town council’s general manager, Mr Chan Wee Lee, has called the managing director of Sigma Elevator over the matter, and the town council will levy a fine on the company for the breach.

The town council has also notified the Ministry of Manpower and the Building and Construction Authority (BCA).

BCA has arranged a site visit to investigate the matter, Tampines Town Council said.

It added that it does random checks on the estate’s lift maintenance and other contractors, to ensure that they carry out their work properly.

The town council urged residents and members of public who witness any unsafe acts by contractors to alert the Tampines Town Council by calling its hotline on 6781-2222 or by e-mailing feedback@ttc.org.sg.

Read also: New permit will be required for lifts to operate: BCA

This article was first published on Dec 23, 2016.
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Planning ahead has long been the hallmark of Singapore politics, and the country is known for identifying political leaders far in advance.

When founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew passed the baton to his successor, Mr Goh Chok Tong, in 1990, the leadership handover was a low-key, efficient affair.

It was the same when Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong took over in 2004.

But in a year of political disruptions around the world that has brought into sharp focus the risks and challenges of power transitions, Singapore was, in a little sense, not spared from a small disruption of its own.

Health scares to PM Lee and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat, touted as one of the front runners to take over from him, sent ripples of concern through political circles here.

Three hours into his National Day Rally speech on Aug 21, Mr Lee, 64, sent hearts racing all over Singapore when he paused, then faltered and could not continue with his speech.

TV cameras filming the live telecast quickly panned away as his fellow Cabinet colleagues and security officers rushed on stage to help him.

Doctors later said he had suffered from vasovagal syncope, a fainting spell caused by a fall in blood pressure because of dehydration or standing too long.

This happened just three months after Mr Heng, 55, had collapsed from a stroke on May 12 during a weekly Cabinet meeting.

Mr Heng underwent emergency surgery on the same day to seal a ruptured aneurysm in his brain, and has since recovered.

Read Also: National Day Rally suspended after PM Lee appeared to be taken unwell

PM Lee recovered after resting for an hour, and resumed his speech.

It was no surprise that leadership succession was on his mind, and instead of continuing where he had left off, he said: “After what happened, I think it is more important that we talk about it (succession) now.”

While far from the scale of disruptions such as the United States presidential election and the political scandal in South Korea, the two episodes here this year still sparked jitters.

They brought into sharp focus the urgency of succession planning in Singapore, and were a reminder that even the best-laid plans can run into snags.

Read Also: Dear PM Lee, rest more and get well soon, say well-wishers

Some disruptions, like health scares, are unavoidable.

Mr Lee himself had said after returning to the stage that night: “We have got the core team for the next generation in Cabinet. But ministers or not, all of us are mortal.”

As it is, with elections becoming more hotly contested, the leadership renewal process has become less predictable as potential leaders must first be elected.

Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills) Ong Ye Kung had been identified as a potential fourth-generation leader when he was fielded in the 2011 General Election by the People’s Action Party (PAP).

Read Also: Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat suffers stroke

But his team in Aljunied GRC lost to the Workers’ Party.

He was elected to Parliament last year, four years after his peers.

Political watchers have noted that the next generation of leaders will have had less time to learn the ropes by the time they take over.

Mr Lee has said that he will step down shortly after the next general election, which is due by April 2021.

Read Also: Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat was lucky to get immediate attention

Current ministers identified as core members of the fourth-generation leadership, apart from Mr Heng and Mr Ong, are labour chief Chan Chun Sing, Social and Family Development Minister Tan Chuan-Jin and National Development Minister Lawrence Wong, who have been in politics since 2011, as well as Minister for Education (Schools) Ng Chee Meng, who was elected last year.

Mr Wong, Mr Ong and Mr Ng also did not get voted into the PAP central executive committee at party elections earlier this month.

The process of leadership changes in Singapore has been honed almost to an art.

But fourth-generation leaders do not have the benefit of a long runway. PM Lee, for instance, had been in politics for 20 years by the time he took on the premiership.

Read Also: Heng Swee Keat’s condition stable, will stay in ICU for some time: PM Lee

But what the next batch of leaders are getting is a chance to move through and be rotated among different ministries, directing and dealing with policies.

How this hothousing pans out remains to be seen.

Still, it is too early to argue whether changes need to be made to the process of how leaders are brought into government in future: Directly appoint industry veterans and tested private-sector entrepreneurs? Tap top civil servants and experienced community leaders?

But whatever the case, and whatever the need, it is clear that Singapore will not be averse to making adjustments long before the need arises.

The Government and leaders have indicated as much: that systems and processes here will evolve and adapt to deal with the country’s needs, as new economic, social and political problems and challenges emerge.

And therein lies the value of being open, adept and flexible in any period of disruption: The country has the ability to react quickly and remain in control of the process and its own destiny – and not allow disruptions to take control.

yuenc@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on December 23, 2016.
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It’s the final countdown before Christmas.

December marks the peak season for most retailers around the world hoping to cash in on the mad rush. CNBC took to one of Singapore’s most bustling retail areas, Orchard Road, to get a pulse of this year’s holiday retail trends, where shoppers were grabbing everything from shoes and homeware to makeup kits and jewellery.

Despite the plethora of new gadgets on the market this year from virtual reality (VR) headsets to action cameras, Frauke Klawunn, a mother of two, said she’s buying no gadgets this year. “We try to slow it down with our children. We’d rather they play outside than swiping on the iPad.”

“Children are quite spoiled and they have quite a list,” she added, but she’s keeping them in check.

Instead, Klawunn, who is a German expat living in Singapore said her children like books and experiences. She told her children that part of their Christmas gift would be their trip back to Germany for the holidays.

Read also: Online shops head to Orchard as rent falls

When it comes to brick and mortar versus online shopping, many CNBC met were still adamant about buying in-store.

“In store you can see the items, which ones you like and you can feel,” Cynthia Calista, said who was visiting Singapore from Jakarta, Indonesia.

“I get ideas. I was a bit lost with some people and unsure what to get them,” Klawunn said. “You really need to browse, that’s a big part of it, and I prefer that to sitting at a computer.

“Sometimes I check things out in store, then depending on the prices, maybe go online,” Dat Duong, who lives and works in Singapore, said alluding to “showrooming”, a term coined to describe the process in which consumers examine merchandise in a brick and mortar store, but then buy it online, often because it’s a lower price.

For some shoppers, it was still important to avoid the crowds.

“We’re out here on a weekday only because there’s less people, but on a weekend it can be quite crazy,” Garick Kea, a Singaporean said. “Online can be quite convenient and you don’t have to go around with a crowd, it comes straight to your doorstep.”

One gift multiple shoppers mentioned had nothing to do with long lines and shopping bag, but instead giving the gift of an experience.

“I bought my husband the flight experience where he was a pilot with his friends, and he loved it,” Andrea Hughes, a Canadian expat in Singapore said of a previous year’s gift.

Buying experiences over gifts is gaining popularity, particularly among millennials. According to Harris Interactive, a market research firm, nearly three in four millennials in the US said they’d choose to spend money on an experience or event, over material things.

Read also: Shoppers’ paradise lost? Singapore’s malls suffer as locals, tourists curb spending

The PUB has announced its choice of builder for Singapore’s fourth desalination plant, which will allow it to boost treated sea water supply by nearly 25 per cent in 2020 and bring the Republic closer to self-sufficiency.

It picked Temasek-linked Keppel Corp’s infrastructure arm, diversifying the range of companies it works with on these strategic projects.

National water agency PUB announced yesterday that Keppel Infrastructure Holdings was the “preferred bidder”, edging out six other local and international companies.

They included Hyflux, which constructed the country’s first two desalination plants.

HSL Constructors is in the midst of constructing the third, expected to be completed next year. The firm did not bid for this tender.

Both Hyflux and HSL Constructors are from the private sector.

The fourth plant in Marina East, which will treat both fresh and sea water, will be completed in 2020.

It will increase water supply by 30 million gallons per day (mgd). The first three plants produce 130 mgd.

The move will help build a more weather-resilient water supply even as the nation’s water needs are expected to more than double by 2060.

Singapore currently uses 430 million gallons each day, with around half of the demand met by imported water.

The goal is to have desalination and Newater capacities meet up to 85 per cent of Singapore’s water needs by 2060.

Mr Chua Soon Guan, PUB’s deputy chief executive of policy and development, said of the new plant: “As a source independent of weather fluctuations, it is resilient against the vagaries of climate change and bolsters the reliability of our water supply against prolonged periods of dry spells and droughts.

“We have plans to expand Singapore’s desalination capacity to meet up to 30 per cent of our future water needs.”

Keppel Infrastructure said the plant will use reverse osmosis and other “advanced membrane technology”, but said it could not provide more details until the agreements are finalised and executed.

Professor Neal Chung, principal investigator at the Environmental Research Institute, said it is important for Singapore to have multiple companies with such capabilities, such that it does not put all its eggs in one basket.

However, the challenge on the horizon, he added, is finding a way to keep energy consumed through the desalination process low.

Conventional reverse osmosis – the method used to turn sea water into drinkable water – is known to be an energy guzzler.

“The key is to produce water at low energy, hence reducing the cost as well,” said Prof Chung, who is also from NUS’ department of chemical and biomolecular engineering.

Similar to the first two desalination plants in Tuas, the fourth desalination plant will be constructed under a Design, Build, Own and Operate arrangement.

Keppel Infrastructure will sign the Water Purchase Agreement with PUB by next month. It will supply water to PUB over a 25-year period from 2020 to 2045, at a first-year price of around $1.08 per cubic metre.

PUB said the plant’s close proximity to the Marina Reservoir provides the opportunity to treat water from the reservoir or the sea.

It added that the structures will be located outside the water sports areas and so will not affect such activities.

Read also: Reducing our water dependence on Malaysia

This article was first published on Dec 23, 2016.
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