April 03, 2016 4:43 PM
SINGAPORE – Whether Singapore can make it to SG100 will depend on whether its people have a strong sense of national identity as well as the reasons they have for staying put, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Chan Chun Sing said on Sunday (April 3).
No one was injured in the incident, which took place on the ECP towards the city, just before the entrance of the Marina Coastal Expressway.
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April 03, 2016 4:05 PM
SINGAPORE – He had to give up his bid to become the first athlete with a prosthetic leg to conquer the gruelling Tenzing-Hillary Everest Marathon in 2015 when the Nepal earthquake struck in April.
When sailor Justin Liu and his partner Denise Lim were in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, earlier this year for a regatta, he marvelled at the famous sight of the Christ the Redeemer statue overlooking the Guanabara Bay.
The Singaporean pair, both 24, will be back in the South American nation come August, after the Singapore Sailing Federation (SSF) confirmed its nomination of the duo in the Nacra 17 class for the Rio Olympic Games.
The pair, who are also dating, finished 20th in the Trofeo Princesa Sofia Regatta in Spain yesterday, which was one of the two events earmarked by the SSF for internal selections for that boat class.
The other event was the Nacra 17 World Championship in Florida in the United States in February, when they finished 29th.
Also, the women’s 49er FX pair of Griselda Khng and Sara Tan beat Kimberly Lim and Cecilia Low and secured their Olympic nomination yesterday after finishing 11th in Spain.
The two Singapore pairs now join windsurfer Leonard Ong (men’s RS:X) in the Republic’s Olympic sailing team, with spots in the Laser, Laser Radial and women’s 470 to be confirmed.
While Lim and Liu were the only pair gunning for Olympic nomination in their class, they still had to perform to SSF’s internal standards at the two selection events to secure their ticket.
Liu said: “We were more focused on improving ourselves and getting ready for Rio in this regatta, than seeing it as a selection trial.
“We are both very happy with the confirmation of our nomination… it’s a culmination of all the hard work our team – Denise and I, as well as our coach Toni (Rivas) – have put in.
“It is just amazing that we have managed to do what we have done so far.”
The seeds of their Olympic dream were planted after they failed to qualify for 2014 Asian Games.
In the 15-month journey leading up to their victory at the Isaf World Cup event in Qingdao last September, the pair have had to sleep in cars in Europe, and spent virtually all their savings, with the SSF providing some funding and the $24,080 boat they sail in.
Since their qualification last year, Liu and Lim have since joined the SSF’s training squad, and have spent months away from Singapore, training and competing in Europe, the US and South America.
IMPROVEMENT
Liu said: “We have improved a lot sailing full-time in the past six months, with a full-time coach in Toni. We are really looking forward to continuing this hard work and growth towards the Olympics.”
Their Isaf world ranking in the multi-hull event, which is making its debut in the Rio Olympics, is now 27th, a vast improvement from the 108th placing in July 2014.
But the Singaporean pair are aiming big – they want to break into the top 10 by the Olympics, which Liu reckons would even give them a shot at a medal.
He said: “In our class of boats, anything can happen at the Games but, realistically, anyone within the top 10 has a chance to win a medal.
“In the next few months, we’d be trying to close the gap with the top contenders. We have been closing the gap in the past months and they still have a slight edge over us in terms of speed and technique in the boat.”
Training and competition beckon for Liu and Lim in the coming months, before they move to Rio late next month or early June for their final preparations for Rio.
Liu said: “The real moment, where everything will sink in, is when we reach the Games Village (during the Olympics).
“That is when the magic will begin.”
sayheng@sph.com.sg
This article was first published on April 3, 2016.
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But ‘don’t read too much into the $3m earnings’ because there are hidden costs, says Singapore’s No. 1 golfer
He’s been Singapore’s No. 1 golfer for more than 10 years.
Yet a cold wooden bench was his bed, his hand-carry bag serving as his pillow, one cold night at Incheon Airport in Seoul some five years ago.
On another weekend in Dubai about eight years ago, he slept on the floor in a hotel room of a good friend.
Both times he missed the cut at major events and could not get a flight back to Singapore.
Mardan Mamat is Singapore’s most successful professional golfer, yet he travels economy or budget for tournaments abroad.
And in Singapore, unless his multi-talented wife Siti Nazariah is free to drive him around in their five-year-old Kia Sorento SUV, he takes public transport, the MRT being his favourite mode of travel.
We are talking about a down-to-earth sportsman, now touted as the $3-million man, who stays in a five-room HDB apartment in Jurong West.
With his 37th-place finish in the recent Hero Indian Open, where he bagged US$10,956 ($14,800), he surpassed the $3-million mark in earnings between the two Years of the Monkey.
And the booty came through prize money alone, bearing in mind that he has a generous annual Yonex sponsorship.
From 2004 to 2016, Mardan, naturally, had more highs than lows, the three best years being 2006 when he earned US$246,018, in 2010 when he amassed US$263,109 and in 2012 with $247,647 from the Asian Tour and co-sanctioned events.
MISLEADING
But, while pleased with his performances so far, Mardan, who will be 49 in October, says reading too deeply into those dollar figures alone can be misleading.
“These earnings were made over a long pro career. Professional golfers like me have to pay a 3 per cent levy from our earnings to the Asian Tour and, for tournaments, we have to cough up money for flights, accommodation, meals and other incidentals,” he tells The New Paper.
“Like, I have a tournament coming up next month in Mauritius, where the hotel accommodation can cost me £200 ($380) daily.
“What if I miss the cut, and cannot get a flight back quickly?” he asks.
He then quips: “Any sponsors?”
His predicament, though, is a microcosm of what Singapore’s professionals face, for he plays in 60 per cent more tournaments than any other local golfer, offering him opportunities to win prize money.
Coming from a humble, poor beginning, frugality had been induced in the father of five children (aged 17 to 28) at a very young age.
And he made the virtue his trademark in his relatively successful 22-year pro career that began with a boom.
In his debut pro event at Tanah Merah Country Club’s Garden course, he shot a hole-in-one and won a Jaguar XJS convertible worth $350,000 without COE. He sold the car to a doctor for $270,000.
That is a princely sum for any local sportsman, especially so for Mardan, an affable personality who used to earn $8 a day as a caddie at age nine.
Then, studies at Boon Lay Primary School was a drudgery, and golf was a dream sport.
The fifth in a family of eight children of an engineering supervisor and a housewife, Mardan’s decision to quit school came naturally as money was hard to come by.
His mum objected, but Mardan said: “We weren’t a rich family, so I did not want to impose on my parents for financial help. But, overall, my family was supportive of my decision to pursue golf.”
So at 13, he joined his elder brother Mazlan as a caddie at Jurong Country Club (JCC), where he also honed his golf game.
Whenever he had no caddie duties, he would sneak in at hole No. 4 and armed with only one club – a six-iron – and a bag of balls he fished out from the course’s ponds, he would play from tee to green.
Other caddies and some members were aware of what he was doing, but they closed one eye.
And the likeable Mardan would even play past dusk, the dim light provided by street lights on the adjacent Jurong Town Hall Road, allowing him to spot the balls.
He recalls: “The six-iron followed me wherever I went. From the family home in Teban Gardens to the caddie hut at Jurong, the club was my companion. And I would practise my swing whenever time permitted.”
When he was 15, in 1982, he got his first set of clubs – used MacGregors handed over by a JCC member.
“I was a 12-handicapper at 18 and, when I was 22, became a scratch player,” says Mardan whose work ethic is exemplary.
“My biggest breakthrough came when I was selected to play in the Eisenhower Trophy – the world amateur team championships – in 1989.”
Five years later, Mardan turned pro and there was no looking back as he continued to ply his trade on the Asian Tour, European Tour and occasionally in Japan.
He has had considerable success in his pro career and has also played in Majors, three times at the British Open but without success.
MILLIONAIRE
In May 2004, Mardan became Singapore’s second sports millionaire after footballer Fandi Ahmad.
Boosted by his biggest career pay cheque of US$50,000 for the 2004 Indian Open win, he surpassed the million-dollar career earnings mark.
As he looks ahead to the horizon now that he would qualify to play in the Seniors in 18 months’ time, he is also working out his plans.
“Owning a golf academy sounds good,” says Mardan, who over the years has had big backers, namely golf company Pan-West and former Jurong captain AC Wong, his mentor who had helped him morally and financially.
“Some friends have encouraged me to be a coach or instructor, that’s not a bad proposition either,” adds Mardan.
His big goal now is to qualify for the Rio Olympics in August with some good lead-up showings that would help him push up his qualifying rankings from 50th (the final cut-off).
For that aim, there would not be a different practice routine for the disciplined Mardan, who has kept his focus on golf, and family.
Many golfers marvel at his work ethic, built around morning or evening runs, occasional rounds at Raffles Country Club, time at the range and chipping and putting areas, a strict protein and carbo diet, the occasional yoga stretches and meditation.
AC Wong once observed: “They say you don’t really know a person until you’ve lived together.
“We went to the Hiroshima Asian Games in 1994 and it was there that I realised how dedicated a golfer he is.
“He would wake up at 4am for runs. In the room, he could not keep still and would take out his putter and practise.”
These are the attributes that allow Mardan, a devout Muslim, to play through even the Ramadan month of fasting.
Singapore Professional Golfers’ Association president M Murugiah says: “I’ve always been fascinated by Mardan’s professional approach to the game.
“He’s always been focused, follows a strict regimen and leads a disciplined life.
“And talking about fasting and playing, mind you he’s also won tournaments during the fasting month and put some of us to shame.
“He’s a great role model to my fellow professionals and all local sportsmen. We are truly proud of him.”
So should Singapore be.
Biodata
Name: Mardan Mamat
Date of Birth: Oct 31, 1967
Family: Married, with five children.
Turned pro: 1994.
European Tour wins: 1
Asian Tour wins: 5
Others: 9
Tour earnings (from 2004):
2004 – US$149,157
2005 – US$93,197
2006 – US$246,018
2007 – US$109,845
2008 – US$201,803
2009 – US$217,154
2010 – US$263,109
2011 – US$70,856
2012 – US$247,647
2013 – US$107,432
2014 – US$219,972
2015 – US$177,117
2016 – US$57,458.
Note: Mardan also earned $9,400 from SPGA events in 2015. He has also won prize-money in several other local tournaments and ADT events.
The money game
Career earnings that first crossed the $1 million mark:
Saimee Jumaat (jockey)
Fandi Ahmad (footballer)
Mardan Mamat (golfer)
Career earnings nearing/crossed the $1 million mark:
Baihakki Khaizan (footballer): Reportedly will earn $1.5m in his four-year deal with Johor Darul Ta’zim II alone, signed in end-2013
Shahril Ishak (fooballer): Doubled his five-figure monthly salary when he signed for JDT II in 2014
Hariss Harun (footballer): Reportedly earns US$30,000 ($42,000) a month with JDT under a new deal that started this season. Would have earned $813,840 from JDT in the past two seasons alone.
From MAP Awards alone:
Li Jiawei (table tennis): $1.27m
Feng Tianwei (table tennis): $1.003m
Tao Li (swimming): $783,750
Remy Ong (bowling): $666,000
Wang Yuegu (table tennis): $572,000
Joseph Schooling (swimming): $435,000
godfrey@sph.com.sg
This article was first published on April 3, 2016.
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MANILA – A rare power outage plunged a major section of the Philippine capital’s main airport into darkness overnight, forcing flight cancellations that stranded thousands on Sunday.
As many as 78 flights by the country’s largest carrier Cebu Pacific were cancelled, affecting nearly 14,000 passengers, the company said in a statement.
Flag carrier Philippine Airlines also said some of its flights were cancelled or delayed but could not immediately say how many.
The blackout hit Terminal 3, which services mostly domestic flights, late on Saturday and power was not restored until before dawn on Sunday.
Exhausted passengers sprawled on the floor as check-in counters and luggage carousels shut down. Long queues formed outside the terminal as entrances were closed until power was restored.
Terminal 3 of Ninoy Aquino International Airport, named after the assassinated father of incumbent President Benigno Aquino, handles an average of 350 domestic and international flights daily, according to data from the transportation ministry.
It is one of four terminals in a complex that was once dubbed by the travel website Guide to Sleeping in Airports as the world’s worst due to leaking toilets and creaking facilities.
“We are looking into the root cause of this problem,” Terminal 3 general manager Octavio Lina told DZMM radio.
Manila power retailer Meralco said a transmission line tripped briefly but was restored in minutes, suggesting that the problem could be with the airport’s systems.
The four Manila airport terminals were designed for 17 million passengers annually, but overuse has made the airport notorious for flight delays.
Plans to build a new airport outside Manila have not materialised under Aquino. An excruciatingly slow infrastructure overhaul has led to chronic commuter train breakdowns and traffic jams.
BEIJING – Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE will replace three top executives, the WSJ reported, in an apparent bid to see US restrictions on its business lifted after it was accused of violating sanctions against Iran.
Washington slapped restrictions on ZTE and three linked companies last month for illicitly re-exporting controlled items from the United States to sanctioned countries, including Iran.
The curbs require ZTE to have specific licences before shipping US-made items to the parent company or the other three named firms.
ZTE’s chief executive Shi Lirong, in place since 2010, and executive vice presidents Tian Wenguo and Qiu Weizhao are expected to step down, pending approval from the ZTE board, the Wall Street Journal said Saturday.
The board is scheduled to meet on Tuesday and Wednesday to green light the management changes, and also discuss the company’s financial results for 2015, the newspaper said.
Chief Technology Officer Zhao Xianming is expected to take over as the CEO and chairman of the company, the newspaper added.
According to documents published by the US Department of Commerce, Tian and Qiu were in charge of ZTE’s plans to allegedly avoid the US export rules starting from 2011, by setting up shell companies to circumvent the US sanctions, the WSJ said.
The newspaper added that as part of a deal between the US Department of Commerce and ZTE to temporarily remove the sanctions, the company executives involved in the alleged violations should be removed from senior roles.
Washington in January eased several restrictions on doing business with Iran following an international agreement over its nuclear programme.
But sanctions linked to accusations that Tehran supports terrorism remain in force, still largely blocking US companies from doing business with Iran.
ZTE is China’s second-biggest telecoms equipment maker with customers in more than 160 countries.
SINGAPORE – From famous poster boy to groom.
According to a Facebook post by Tan Shiwei, Assistant Superintendent (ASP) Ryan Koh, whose image on a standee graces many a shop and street, got married yesterday (Apr 2) at St Andrew’s Cathedral.
The post, which read “Sorry ladies.. poster boy is taken today”, includes two photographs of the married couple posing alongside the standee which had made ASP Koh the subject of multiple news stories.
Sorry ladies.. poster boy is taken today
Posted by Tan Shiwei on Saturday, April 2, 2016
Indeed, reactions to the Facebook post were wide-ranging – from user Suwanti Tan’s “NO!!!!!” to Chen Ks’ “my wife is soooo sadddddd” and Cynthia Oh’s “Hahaha so cute!”.
The details of ASP Koh’s wife are not known.
According to The New Paper, the officer has over 800 anti “shop-theft” standees in Singapore and has become popular with the public – so much so that netizens bestowed the nickname “Yan Dao (handsome in the Hokkien dialect) Policeman” on him.
In the report, ASP Koh said that he rarely gets recognised in public probably because he does not “wear the peaked hat and do that (stern) expression all the time”.
He added that friends and family update him whenever his standee is featured in new memes. He also said that he felt that the standee was a “new and unconventional method” of getting the word out on crime prevention.
On ASP Koh’s marriage, Facebook user Benny Loy Hui Xiong probably said it best: “The only crime the bride (committed) was stealing his heart. Congrats to both of them”.
prabukm@sph.com.sg
One of the family rules found on the refrigerator in the home of Ms June Lim reads: “Anything that can be reused or recycled cannot be thrown away.”
She and her family do not pay lip service to being green. The 31-year- old mother of three and her husband have a recycling bin in their three-room HDB flat in Bedok for used paper, plastic, metal and glass.
Ms Lim would also take some other kinds of items – such as electronic products, ink cartridges and lightbulbs – to designated recycling points in other parts of the island. Unwanted clothes and household items are given away.
From the age of two, Ms Lim’s sons – now aged eight, six and three – have been taught to throw unwanted items, starting with plastic and paper packaging, into the recycling bin.
Over the past three years, she has been an active member on the sgfreecycle Facebook group, which aims to reduce waste by connecting people who are giving things away to those who are looking for those things. She is also a member of Singapore Glove Project, where people meet to pick up litter on their walks or jogs.
Ms Lim, a freelance actress and emcee, says she was brought up by her mother to be frugal and the habit stuck. A YouTube video she watched a few years ago about seabirds dying after ingesting plastic from the sea also left an impression on her.
“It made me want to do my part for the environment,” she says.
But she and her family appear to be an exception to the norm among households here. Domestic waste, mostly from households, made up 2.1 million tonnes out of the 7.5 million tonnes of waste generated in 2014. But while the overall recycling rate of all types of waste is around 60 per cent, only 19 per cent of domestic waste gets a new life.
Mr Eugene Tay, founder of environmental group Zero Waste SG, believes that few households recycle because it is convenient for residents to just throw their waste down rubbish chutes.
He says: “They might not know where their waste ends up or understand the need to recycle. Also, residents pay a fixed waste disposal fee regardless of the amount they throw away.”
But families have a role to play in boosting the recycling rate here.
Mr Tay says that as the top three types of waste in Singapore are plastics, food and paper, families can start by minimising these types of waste in the first place.
To reduce plastic waste, they can buy products with less plastic packaging and avoid using takeaway disposable containers and cutlery.
To avoid buying too much food, families can draw up a shopping list of what food to buy before they go shopping. They should also store their food properly to minimise spoilage, and keep and cook any leftover food.
To reduce paper waste, Mr Tay says families can switch to online bills and statements, use cloth for cleaning instead of paper towels, and recycle paper.
For Ms Agatha Lee, 42, and her husband, practising the three Rs of reduce, reuse and recycle is a no-brainer. She says: “We don’t want a home full of things we don’t need.”
The family keep their food waste to a minimum, use recyclable shopping bags and repair or upcycle old clothes.
Their 11-year-old son knows how to sew and has made new shorts out of old trousers. He also knows how to replace the elastic band in his shorts when it is stretched loose.
Ms Lee, who also runs an environmental website, Green Issues by Agy, says: “Practising the three Rs also saves money and the Earth.”
leawee@sph.com.sg
This article was first published on April 3, 2016.
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The divisive, populist politics that has gripped the United States and other parts of the world of late could become a Singapore problem too, if people start to feel similarly disenfranchised, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
Speaking to the Singapore media as he wrapped up a week-long working visit to the US, Mr Lee said the mood on the ground in America has soured against the political establishment because citizens no longer feel that current systems are addressing their needs.
“It’s because the population feels anxious, feels unsettled, feels angry and doesn’t feel that the existing political leadership and process are articulating or addressing those emotions,” Mr Lee explained.
“They may be emotional; they may not actually be helping to solve the predicament they are in, but there are real concerns which people have and which the governments have got to try and solve.”
Singapore, he said, is not immune to such pressures.
“These are pressures which build up and they could build up in Singapore because, as a developed economy, we face some of the same challenges as they do.
“And if we are unable to address that, people will feel like there is no other avenue to have their concerns seen to, and their feelings spoken for. Then I think we can have a problem,” Mr Lee said.
The Prime Minister had similarly raised concerns about the political climate in the US during an interview last week with The Wall Street Journal editorial board.
He said the presidential campaign thus far had put forward the most “extreme menu of choices” he has seen in a US election, and expressed worries that the country could retreat from its leadership position in the world.
He said he is now cautious about the prospects of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement, which was signed in February this year by 12 countries, including Singapore.
“What is very clear is that the mood in America is very troubled. That’s why you have candidates expressing very extreme views, because it’s not really a solution… it’s just that ‘I’m very angry, I’m hitting out and I want satisfaction’,” Mr Lee said, in reference to some of the rhetoric in the US presidential campaign.
“In that mood, I think it’s not easy to make a case why a complicated agreement 1,000 pages long is good for America.
“It’s much easier for people to raise anxieties and negatives, and sour the public support.”
Mr Lee said it is now unlikely the deal will even be put up for ratification by the US Congress before the presidential election in November, leaving a two-month window in the lame-duck session that follows to get it passed.
“But it’s a very short period of time, the congressmen have not focused on this and you will have to make a very big decision as a lame-duck Congress. It’s not easy,” he said.
When questions turned to Singapore’s politics and the upcoming Bukit Batok by-election, Mr Lee would not be drawn on when the polls might be.
“When it happens, you will know,” he said with a smile.
jeremyau@sph.com.sg
This article was first published on April 3, 2016.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.
