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Union leaders should not be afraid to strike out on their own and defy conventional wisdom as they seek solutions to problems, said labour chief Chan Chun Sing.
They also should not sugarcoat the problems for workers or take the easy way out by pursuing policies that do not benefit workers in the long run, he added at a May Day dinner last night. “We need leaders with the correct attitude,” he said.
Mr Chan, who is the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) secretary-general, cited minimum wage as an example of a policy that the labour movement rejected.
Instead, it came up with its own progressive wage model for low-wage workers like cleaners and security guards, that sets a wage ladder where workers can get higher pay as they upgrade their skills.
In his speech, Mr Chan also rejected calls for unemployment insurance for those who lose their jobs. The best insurance for workers is to ensure that their skills are relevant and they remain employable, he said.
Turning to tripartism, Mr Chan noted that the three-way partnership between the Government, NTUC and Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) is strong and the partners will “step up the gear” in several areas. These include drawing up manpower plans for 25 sectors, and helping workers plan their careers and settle disputes.
“The NTUC is like a three-pin plug, plugged into the tripartite government ministries,” said Mr Chan, referring to the Manpower Ministry that is headed by former labour chief Lim Swee Say, the Ministry of Trade and Industry, and the Ministry of Education. NTUC’s relationship with the ministries ensures it has the resources to implement its programmes.
Union leaders agreed that when it comes to explaining policy decisions to workers, it is important to help them see the long-term benefits, even if it is a hard pill to swallow in the short term. “We should not sugarcoat and let them feel that it is a good medicine. As the Chinese believe, bitter medicine will allow a person to recover faster,” said Mr Andy Lim, deputy secretary- general of the Singapore Manual and Mercantile Workers’ Union, which has some 96,000 members.
United Workers of Electronics and Electrical Industries general secretary Tan Richard said he works with branch officials to communicate initiatives to around 66,000 members. “As long as we can put it across and make it clear to members and workers, once they understand and capture what the labour movement is doing, we can work it out together,” he said.
In a separate speech, NTUC president Mary Liew said the NTUC will continue to help workers grow by enhancing their employability and working with employers to ensure there is fairness at workplaces.
The May Day dinner last night, attended by some 1,600 union leaders, business leaders and government officials, kicked off the annual May Day celebrations. NTUC also gave awards to 91 individuals and organisations that contributed to the labour movement. Topping this year’s list is Ms Diana Chia, NTUC’s first woman president, who held the post from 2011 to last year. She received the Distinguished Service (Star) Award.
Mr Chan said: “There is much that we can learn from her and she is a powerful testimony to what we union leaders should all aspire to.”
Tomorrow, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will speak at the annual May Day Rally.
This article was first published on Apr 30, 2016.
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A new fast-response police unit trained to react swiftly to armed threats across Singapore will be up and running from June to beef up the counter-terrorism strategy.
The Emergency Response Teams (ERTs), which were unveiled yesterday at the annual Police Workplan Seminar and Exhibition, will be the first wave of responders in the event of a terrorist attack.
Each team comprises four or five officers, who will be the first on the scene within 15 minutes to engage and neutralise the attackers. The ERT officers are selected from the six major land divisions, where they will also be based. Equipped with HK MP 5 sub-machine guns and trained in counter-assault skills, they will focus on containing threats quickly while minimising casualties.
The enhanced weapons are now used by the special forces and have more range and ammunition. The ERT officers will also don bullet- resistant helmets and vests.
On a day-to-day basis, the ERT officers will patrol selected public areas, such as shopping centres, as deterrence. That will allow them to be familiar with the areas and work closely with stakeholders in joint response plans.
The move is part of a comprehensive approach to addressing the threat of terrorism by enhancing the security response, said Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam, who spoke at the event.
He stressed that the ERTs will “respond faster, more effectively and decisively to attacks”.
The enhanced efforts will also include adding about 300 officers to the Special Operations Command (SOC) to form the Rapid Deployment Troops (RDT) as a second wave of response. Officers in the RDT, which will be ready by next July, will be able to hop onto tactical response motorcycles to navigate through traffic gridlocks.
“For all operations within Singapore, the police will take command,” said Mr Shanmugam, but depending on the scale and nature of the attack, other agencies may provide support. “For example, in a large-scale attack where additional forces… are needed, the police may call upon the Singapore Armed Forces for its specialised forces such as the Special Operations Task Force to support and reinforce the ERTs and SOC.”
Vigilance is also a key pillar of counter-terrorism, and police cameras will be rolled out to places like town centres and bus interchanges from the second half of the year, said Mr Shanmugam, who also outlined the community’s role in alerting police to major crises.
This article was first published on Apr 30, 2016.
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Hallyu star Lee Min-ho finally opened up about his military enlistment, in an interview with a Chinese media outlet, Friday.
Although the agency had asked the interviewers not to bring up the topic of “enlistment,” Lee opened up about it on his own.
“I heard that a fan shaved her hair as a sign that she would wait for me during the years as a soldier,” he said.
“I was really touched by her meaningful actions. But unfortunately there are no specific details or plans regarding my enlistment yet. Her hair might have grown back by then.”
Lee Min-ho is to return to the big screen with a Chinese film “Bounty Hunters” set to hit cinemas on June 9.
“At least 14 million straight women in China are currently, or have been, trapped in false marriages with men who are gay,” Zhang Beichuan, a retired professor with the Medical School of Qingdao University, and a pioneering researcher on LGBT (lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender) issues, tells China Daily Website.
The phenomenon of Tongqi (wives of male homosexuals) has been in the shadows for decades due to Chinese traditional cultural customs, which strongly pressure adults to get married at certain ages, Zhang said. However, in the past two years, this special group has been under the spotlight and stirred public debate extensively as more victims stand out to vent their plights.
“Tongqi’s cries of marriage misery represent the development of society and women’s conscience of equal rights; it also reaches the physical and mental limit wives married to gay men can tolerate,” Zhang said.
Many women were deceived into such bitter relationships by their gay partners as the later just need such marriages of convenience as a buffer between themselves and family and social pressure. Fei Yan (pseudonym), a 41-year-old white-collar woman living in Changsha, Central China’s Hunan province, said her unwitting marriage to a gay man led to a lifetime of woes.
“Before he confessed to me, I had no idea what happened between us,” Fei said.
The couple had two children – the elder is now 10 – and husband and wife have decent jobs. It seems a happy, middle-class family.
“However, when we’re alone, he’s not willing to get close to me or touch me. I thought I had done something wrong. That has been a huge blow to me in the past decade,” Fei said.
According to Zhang’s investigation, about 80 per cent of the estimated 20 million homosexual men in China are currently or have been in a fake marriage.
“It’s seriously immoral to intentionally and rashly deceive an innocent woman into a sham marriage,” the professor said.
As a moderator of a tongqi group on QQ, an instant chat platform, Ru Meng (pseudonym) found two reasons behind this phenomenon after two-years of research about such marriages. First, homosexuality still carries a strong stigma in China. So the marriage is used as a shield to protect homosexual men. Second, under the pressure of filial ethics, gay people tend to find wives to have children to inherit the family’s fortune.
An online report, Plight of the Chinese Tongqi, stirred outrage and sympathy towards the gay people and their wives.
“However, it’s hard for those wives to walk out the cursed binding,” Ru Meng said.
Many women choose to quit their jobs and become full-time housewives after marriage, making them financially dependent on their spouse. Once the wife realises the truth, she may decide to keep silent and maintain the sham marriage to give their children a stable family.
“I did not want my children to grow up without a father. But I did not want them to grow up in a dysfunctional family either,” Fei said. Some do find the courage to divorce their husbands, but divorce is still considered as a shameful issue, according ingrained custom.
“The law in China does little to assist those women who are at a disadvantage when they try to plead for compensation during divorce proceedings.” Professor Zhang said.
“A lack of sex education in Chinese schools has contributed to the tragedy of tongqi and the hostile social attitudes towards gays,” Zhang said. Gay people usually feel ashamed to admit their sexual orientation and thus they choose to keep silent so they won’t be viewed as a “monster”.
“Same-sex relationships should be tolerated and respected by more people. And the stereotype about same-sex marriage may also be diminished, thus the tongqi tragedy could be terminated,” Zhang said.
HONG KONG – It’s a girl, finally, for TVB stars Aimee and Moses Chan.
The couple welcomed their third child in three years on Wednesday (April 27), a daughter weighing 3.24kg and named Camilla, said Apple Daily.
Aimee, 35, and Moses, 45, married in 2013, had their first son at the end of that year, and their second son early last year.
They had kept the gender of their third child under wraps until a press conference in Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital on Friday, which they attended without their newborn.
Aimee said: “Having a baby is a God-given joy, having a daughter is God completing my life. One big family.”
A reporter asked whether the couple would stop at three – or, in Cantonese slang, whether the actress would “seal the belly”.
She answered: “I don’t like this word. We’re happy now.”
This article was first published on Apr 29, 2016.
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SINGAPORE – White spots found on the underside of prawns is part of their reproductive organs, and not due to a viral disease, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) has clarified.
AVA said in a Facebook post on Friday (April 29) night that it had provided the wrong information to a consumer earlier.
Ms Winnie Tan had shared on Facebook on Wednesday two photos of prawns with white spots on them. She had bought them from Pontian, Johor.
They were captioned with a reply from the AVA: “The whitish material is caused by the infection of white spot disease. This is a viral disease which attacked the shrimp. You may wish to discard the shrimp away.”
Her post was shared more than 2,700 times.
But AVA on Friday clarified that the prawns were safe to eat.
It said in a Facebook post: “We apologise for providing the wrong information prematurely, before investigations are complete. The initial assessment was based on photographic evidence provided by the consumer.
“However, subsequent investigations based on samples collected have determined that the white spots are actually part of the reproductive organ, and are not due to a viral disease.”
It added that “there is no cause for alarm”.
Ms Tan replied to AVA’s post: “Thank you for your further investigation and clarification.”
This article was first published on April 29, 2016.
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SINGAPORE – The President of the Bundesrat – one of the five constitutional bodies in Germany – and Minister-President of the German state of Saxony, Mr Stanislaw Tillich, called on Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Friday (April 29).
He was hosted dinner by Mr Lee, during which they discussed opportunities to expand economic cooperation between Singapore and Saxony.
They also exchanged views on regional and international developments, according to Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Minister-President Tillich is in the Republic on a working visit from Thursday to Saturday.
He has also met Speaker of Parliament Halimah Yacob and Minister for Trade and Industry (Trade) Lim Hng Kiang.
This article was first published on April 29, 2016.
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SINGAPORE – This month is on track to be the warmest April since records began in 1929, the Meteorological Service Singapore (MSS) confirmed on Friday (April 29).
As of Thursday, the mean monthly temperature for the month stood at 29.5 deg C – 0.3 deg C above the highest ever mean monthly April temperature, which was recorded in 1998.
The highest daily maximum temperatures also exceeded 34 deg C on most days.
In addition, the daily maximum of 36.7 deg C recorded at Seletar on April 13 was the second highest ever recorded temperature in Singapore.
The highest was 37.0, recorded at Tengah on April 17, 1983
The highest daily maximum temperature has reached 35 deg C or above on 13 days this month.
Almost all parts of Singapore also received below average rainfall.
However, thundery showers are forecasted for Singapore over the next two weeks.
Short thundery showers are expected in the afternoons of seven to nine days, while thundery showers with gusty winds are expected in the pre-dawn and morning hours on one or two days, according to the MSS.
Rainfall for the first fortnight of next month is expected to be near average and the daily maximum temperatures are likely to range between 33 and 35 deg C on most days.
For weather updates from AsiaOne, click here:
This article was first published on April 30, 2016.
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The walk-up building along Tanjong Katong Road needs to be demolished to make way for Amber Station on the Thomson-East Coast Line, but owners of five units want more compensation.
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