Singaporeans should continue to stand united and live in harmony at a time when terror attacks across the world seek to divide societies, three ministers said yesterday.

Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean emphasised the importance of racial and religious harmony in preventing, and dealing with, a possible terror attack here.

“We focus on what we have in common and what unites us as Singaporeans, rather than be drawn apart by what makes us different,” he told residents in a speech at the 12th Punggol North Racial and Religious Harmony Street Parade and Family Carnival.

“The intention of any terror attack is not just to take lives, but also to strike fear and to divide society.

“We cannot stop every possible way in which terror attacks can be carried out, without locking down our whole society and preventing ourselves from living our lives as normally as possible,” said Mr Teo, who oversees security matters across various agencies as Coordinating Minister for National Security.

“The solution has to come from our hearts, and from our minds, that we have decided that we want to live together in peace and harmony and that we will make sure that our society, our neighbourhoods, remain that way,” added Mr Teo, an MP for Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC.

His comments come a day after Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told Singapore reporters that the recent spate of terror attacks globally underscores the severity of the threat.

Singaporeans have to be prepared to hold together as a society and carry on as one nation in the aftermath of an attack, he added.

Yesterday, some 12,000 Punggol residents attended the parade in Punggol Field Road, which featured musical performances, a multi-religious food fair and a showcase of festivals and weddings from different nationalities.

Mr Teo’s words were echoed by Acting Minister for Education (Schools) Ng Chee Meng, also an MP for Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, who cautioned against taking racial and religious harmony for granted.

“We must always be mindful of the delicate balance necessary to maintain racial and multicultural harmony,” he said.

“This is something we must not take for granted and we should build on the many years of friendships and solidarity. We must constantly remind ourselves of the need always to be tactful and respectful of each other’s race, culture and religion.”

DPM Teo also urged residents to alert community leaders and the authorities if they know of anyone who might be going astray in this regard.

“Tell someone, and we will work together to help to save him from doing damage to himself, his family, the society and our country,” he said.

At a separate event to recognise the contributions of volunteers for Malay/Muslim self-help group Mendaki yesterday, Communications and Information Minister Yaacob Ibrahim also highlighted the need to promote racial and religious understanding.

“Racial harmony is a work in progress,” he said. “We don’t wait for an event to jump into action, we have to continue to reach out to others to strengthen the core.”

“Credit must go to the various communities – we’ve been working together, we’ve been running programmes for inter-faith understanding,” added Dr Yaacob, who is also Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs.

Pressing on with such efforts to deepen trust and understanding between people from various communities is especially crucial, he added, as Singapore’s population is constantly changing and becoming more diverse with new immigrants.

feliciac@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on July 18, 2016.
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Walking a rough equivalent of the distance from Singapore to Penang is quite an achievement for a young person, let alone a 75-year-old.

Last month, retired civil servant Robert Tan completed an 800km trek on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela route – normally taken by Catholic pilgrims on trails running westwards across Spain.

Walking around 20km a day for 38 days, Mr Tan, however, did not walk the trail for religious reasons but to “seek adventure”.

“The two things that attracted me were the idea of doing something unknown and the prospect of attaining any spirituality,” he told The Straits Times in his semi-detached home off Loyang Avenue.

The walk was not just for his personal satisfaction. By putting the word of his attempt out to his friends and relatives, the former director for sports excellence at the Singapore Sports Council raised more than $20,000. He has donated the money to the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, which provides for the needy.

Mr Tan was an avid sportsman in his younger days, dabbling in sailing, tennis and golf. He was also the swimming captain in his secondary school in East Coast.

Before he spent 25 years at the Singapore Sports Council, he was a physical education teacher with the Ministry of Education after winning a British Council scholarship.

The determined senior continued walking despite a minor fall in the first week, and a cold and cough.

He found it physically and mentally challenging. Although he was on the route with other trekkers, Mr Tan said he felt “alone”. It was also the first time he felt he had gone outside his comfort zone. “Everything I had was in my haversack,” he said.

Mr Tan filmed himself on his walk, and sent the videos to his wife, two children, grandchildren and friends whenever he could find an Internet connection.

“After hours of walking, I still had to walk around to find an albergue (hostel),” he said. “If you were late, there’d be no space. On those days, I slept in churches, on mattresses packed like sardines.”

Mr Tan heard of the walk about five years ago. He brought just one spare set of clothes and no detergent as it would increase his backpack load. To prevent blisters, he wore plasters and a lining in his socks, and broke in his shoes three months before the trip. Training involved walking 10km for breakfast.

“I underestimated the whole thing,” he admitted. “The terrain was not the same as during my training here and it was extremely cold on some days.”

Even a 70 per cent blocked coronary artery and stress haematuria, a condition that acts up with strenuous exercise, did not stop him. He made sure, however, to get his doctor’s permission .

“I almost gave up, but after I finished it all, I realised that the human spirit can do wonders.”

While the hike ranks high on the list of difficult tasks he has accomplished, he is no stranger to pushing himself to the limit for charity.

In 2014, he was part of a trio who cycled 2,000km from Bangkok to Singapore to help Filipinos here whose families were left destitute and homeless by Typhoon Haiyan. They took three weeks and traversed the eastern coasts of Thailand and Malaysia, raising $12,000.

But Mr Tan has not always been this active. At one point, his career took up all his spare time. Even after he left the Singapore Sports Council, he continued working as the general manager of a golf club.

When he retired at the age of 68, he resumed exercising by walking and cycling. “My life started after I retired. I feel like I am much fitter than I was at 40 or 50,” he said.

Not one to idle, Mr Tan said he has many “crazy ideas” and that he is always thinking of what to do next for charity.

Another brainchild of his is to salvage old bicycles, restore them and donate them to needy people in Singapore, Batam, Bintan and Johor Baru – and also teach them how to refurbish their own bikes.

Inspired by a quote from Mother Teresa, he said: “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”

jalmsab@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on July 18, 2016.
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Spring Singapore is investigating a local gadget retailer’s alleged infringement of safety regulations, after customers complained about identical safety marks that were found on different models of AC adaptors sold by the shop.

The retailer, PassionGadgets, sold the adaptors together with electric scooters. It has been instructed by Spring to recall the unregistered adaptors, the regulatory body for consumer product safety and weights and measures told The Straits Times on Friday.

PassionGadgets is owned by a company called iPassion Group.

“We wish to highlight that controlled goods, such as adaptors, need to be registered and affixed with the safety mark before they can be sold in the market,” a Spring Singapore spokesman said.

A product’s safety mark – containing an eight-digit registration number unique to the product – can be found on the body of the product or on the product’s packaging.

Examples of such products include IT accessories, electrical kitchen appliances and gas appliances.

Some consumers such as sales assistant Tan Hong Tat, who bought an e-scooter from PassionGadgets, are worried about the fake safety marks. “Putting safety marks on unlicensed adaptors is (akin to) cheating customers and isn’t safe,” said Mr Tan, 32.

He added that the adaptor which came with his e-scooter did not have a safety mark. “I tried to contact PassionGadgets, but I couldn’t get through to them. My scooter battery has no more power but I don’t dare to use the adaptor now.”

PassionGadgets did not reply to queries by press time.

Assistant Professor Pritam Das from the National University of Singapore’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering stressed the importance of having adaptors comply with safety specifications. “The current that the battery receives has to be limited or the battery will overheat and can explode. The chemical content of the battery will spread and come in contact with human bodies, which can be life-threatening,” said Prof Pritam.

Gadgets catching fire have been in the news recently.

On July 6, the Consumer Product Safety Commission in the United States announced the recall of more than half-a-million hoverboards after scores of incidents in which the two-wheeled personal transporters erupted in flames.

Ms Kelita Yeo, marketing executive at electric scooter distributor Falcon PEV, believes complying with safety requirements is important in order to sell products here.

She said: “We put in all (our) effort to submit relevant documents for Spring’s approvals as we believe in giving our customers the confidence in buying from us.”

Retailers who supply unregistered controlled goods – such as AC adaptors – can be liable to a fine not exceeding $10,000, imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or both.

racheloh@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on July 18, 2016.
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A workplace accident left Chinese national Tang Zengshun blind in one eye. But nearly two years later, he has yet to get a cent in compensation from his employer.

Last September, a labour court granted the 51-year-old construction worker $93,000 in compensation over the accident. However, his employer, construction company Yao Xing, did not pay up.

Last Wednesday, the amount was increased to more than $122,800 in injury compensation and lost wages and Yao Xing was given 21 days to stump up the money.

But the construction company’s director, Mr Lu Xiuqi, claims he cannot afford the payout because he had not insured the worker.

If he fails to pay up in time, he could be prosecuted by the Manpower Ministry (MOM) and fined up to $10,000, jailed for up to a year, or both.

In October 2014, Mr Tang had been working on the renovation of a terraced house in Jurong West.

Another worker on the scaffolding above him was using a rivet gun, and as Mr Tang looked up, a piece of metal from the gun fell into his left eye, slicing through the cornea.

He underwent surgery at Changi General Hospital and again at Singapore General Hospital. But last January, his left eye became infected and vision was eventually lost.

A spokesman for Healthserve, one of the migrant worker groups supporting Mr Tang, said such a delay is unusual. In most work injury cases its assists with, the employer usually pays up within a couple of months.

An MOM spokesman said investigations revealed that Yao Xing did not have a valid insurance policy to cover its liabilities as Mr Tang’s employer under the Work Injury Compensation Act (Wica).

Employers are legally required to buy Wica insurance for foreign workers to secure their work permit. Failure to do so can result in a fine of up to $10,000, up to a year’s jail, or both.

Insurance is only scrutinised by the authorities when the work-pass term starts, according to Migrant Workers’ Centre (MWC) executive director Bernard Menon. Afterwards, it is managed as a contractual relationship between employer and insurer.

A failure to service the insurance policy or other lapses might go unnoticed until something befalls the worker.

The MOM convicted one employer for not insuring workers last year, down from two in 2014 and four in 2013.

In a letter to MOM’s Work Injury Department in January, Yao Xing’s Mr Lu said it is beyond the firm’s means to pay Mr Tang’s compensation or medical fees.

He also claimed Mr Tang’s condition was partly due to “possible neglect” on the part of doctors in the hospitals that treated him, and said he had lodged a complaint with the Singapore Medical Council.

The Straits Times was unable to reach Mr Lu for further comment.

Migrant worker groups said they see a handful of cases each year in which an injured worker is uninsured, but this could be just the tip of the iceberg.

Humanitarian Organisation of Migration Economics operations manager Luke Tan has seen 10 such cases this year. He said these are of “serious concern” as the injured workers are likely to end up going home without compensation.

The MWC, which has sheltered Mr Tang for the past nine months, saw one other such case this year. The worker was owed $32,000, but ended up accepting a smaller sum and has since left Singapore.

Mr Tang is not sure he can stay in limbo for how much longer.

Floods hit his village in Jiangsu earlier this month, and he has lost touch with his family. He worries about them, especially his 90-year-old mother and grandson, three. “I can’t do the work I used to,” he said. “My home is gone. I have nothing left.”

oliviaho@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on July 18, 2016.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.