Indonesian lawmakers are calling for a military base to be built in the Natunas to boost defence in the country’s central region.

This followed a spat with China last week over the actions of a Chinese coast guard vessel in waters near the islands.

Mr Mahfudz Siddiq, chairman of a House committee on defence and foreign affairs, told reporters last Thursday that the new base would help strengthen the existing regional defence system in the eastern and western regions and improve the military’s mobility.

“The development of a military base on Natuna Islands is important for the defence system in the central region of Indonesia, which shares its borders with many countries in the South China Sea,” he was quoted as saying by Antara state news agency.

Tensions flared after Indonesia on Monday accused a Chinese coast guard patrol boat of breaching its sovereign rights by forcibly preventing the local maritime authorities from seizing a Chinese fishing boat.

China had maintained that the boat Kway Fey was “in traditional Chinese fishing grounds”, a claim which Indonesia has strongly rejected and asked China to clarify.

Indonesia is not a claimant state in the South China Sea disputes but it does not recognise the “nine-dash line” that China uses as the basis for its claims in the area.

Mr Mahfudz said the government would require 1.3 trillion rupiah (S$134 million) to develop a base on the island, far more than earlier estimated. It should be ready by 2017, he added.

But the panel’s deputy chairman T.B. Hasanudin told The Sunday Times yesterday that the base is not necessarily a post “where military personnel are placed in a particular location ready to be deployed but rather a redisposition of forces”. He said: “We are pushing for greater military presence so we want additional personnel and defence equipment in the area.”

In response to last week’s incident, the coast guard will conduct more patrols in the area, he said.

“If China’s actions were intentional, there should be international arbitration but if not, the issue should be resolved diplomatically,” he said. “Whatever it is, we will defend every inch of our territory with every means.”

Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Luhut Pandjaitan last Wednesday also proposed the idea of a military base in the Natunas.

Mr Luhut said: “Now we will do a follow-up. We will transform Natuna Islands akin to an aircraft carrier. It will become a strong military base with the navy and air force there.” He noted that President Joko Widodo was also firm on the issue. “It is part of our territorial integrity. The President told me two or three days ago: ‘Luhut, I won’t compromise.’ So that is clear.”

Other officials have also spoken against illegal fishing and condemned China’s actions as a violation of Indonesia’s maritime sovereignty.

This article was first published on March 27, 2016.
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It is where cries for help are increasingly emitted. In this city throbbing with both smartphones and intensity, more and more young people are posting suicidal thoughts on Facebook.

But suicide prevention bodies are frustrated that they cannot reach out more effectively to these users, citing a lack of resources and the social media giant’s privacy policy.

The urgent need to update and ramp up ways to connect with Hong Kongers at risk of killing themselves has become glaring in the wake of a recent spate of student suicides.

Over six months since the start of the academic year last September, 24 students have killed themselves. One was just 11 years old. Of the rest, 12 were primary or secondary students and 11 were tertiary students. This contrasts with an average of 23 student suicides annually in recent years.

The sudden spike, including four cases over five days this month, shocked the city and prompted the Education Bureau to hold an emergency meeting to discuss the issue.

It announced new measures including organising seminars for teachers and parents, improving counselling services in schools and distributing information packs.

A task force will be formed to look into other preventative solutions. It will issue a report in six months.

Education Secretary Eddie Ng announced last Monday that each government school will get HK$5,000 (S$880) to hold activities to “disseminate positivity”. He was pilloried by lawmakers for the “pitiful amount”.

While better than nothing, the measures fall short, say experts.

In particular, they note the urgent need to change outreach strategies in tandem with technology.

One clear trend is the almost ubiquitous use of Facebook among young Hong Kongers. The South China Morning Post reported that suicidal posts have appeared on the Chinese University of Hong Kong group page, CUHK Secrets.

But there are difficulties in getting to such users, says Samaritan Befrienders director Tsang Chin Kwok.

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) such as his lack resources to plough through the multitude of public Facebook pages. They also do not have access to private news feeds and messages.

In the past, said Mr Tsang, Facebook would “automatically send our helpline numbers” to those in need. “But a few years ago, it told us it was ending this co-operation due to a policy change, perhaps because of privacy issues or clients complaining.”

When contacted, a spokesman for Facebook said it has safeguards in place. If it receives reports of “troubling content”, these will be reviewed and help and resources, including helpline numbers, will be sent to those in distress, she said.

There is hope that a more proactive approach could be taken.

Professor Paul Yip, who heads the University of Hong Kong’s Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention, said he is in talks with Facebook to improve the process.

Another concern is that the popularity of social media, news sites and communication apps such as WhatsApp creates a greater “copycat effect” than before, he said.

“Whereas in the past, mainstream media could be prevailed upon to be responsible in its coverage of suicides, now it’s harder to control what gets out there.”

That said, Hong Kong’s agencies are trying to fight back, using tools familiar to young Hong Kongers.

Samaritan Befrienders is developing an app with chat-room functions to engage those at risk. This will also host a goal-setting counter and a self-assessment tool for emotions. The NGO also trawls popular forums for suicidal posters.

Ultimately though, these are measures aimed at catching people before they fall. Beyond that, Hong Kong needs to take a harder look at itself in order to address the question of why its young are prone to doing so, said those interviewed.

Hong Kong has a lower suicide rate compared with other East Asian societies such as Japan and South Korea, but it is higher than Singapore’s.

Latest statistics from the Samaritans of Singapore indicate that in 2014 there were 13 cases of suicides involving those aged 10 to 19. This year alone, there appears to have been at least three attempts.

One theme that emerges for both cities is fraying familial relations.

Hong Kong parents, especially those from the middle class, are anxious that their offspring secure good jobs and property, and pile on the stress. Yet, they “do not communicate”, said Mr Tsang. “We really need to rebuild the trust between parents and kids, and urge them not to focus only on academic results.”

Exacerbating Hong Kong’s situation is an increasingly narrow definition of success. Hong Kong has always been a competitive society, but there is now only “one path” – academic – to success, said Mr Tsang.

This is worsened by the lack of diversification in the economy, which is dominated by a few sectors, such as finance. This narrows options for youngsters.

Looking ahead, Hong Kong as a society has to relook its mindset at all levels, said Prof Yip.

FAST FACTS POPULATION

7.2 million

NUMBER OF SUICIDES IN 2014

894 (12.3 per 100,000)

NUMBER OF YOUTH SUICIDES

Ages 0 – 15: 5 Ages 15 – 24: 49

CAUSES OF YOUTH SUICIDES

• Narrow definition of success
• Lack of communication in families
• Copycat effect due to use of social media and communication apps

SOME MEASURES TAKEN

• Getting at-risk students to sign a “no suicide contract”, promising not to harm themselves and to list people they can call
• In the wake of recent spate of suicides, government giving HK$5,000 (S$884) to each school to organise activities instilling “positive energy”
• Educational psychologists to be deployed to at-risk schools
• Samaritan Befrienders developing chat app to engage those at risk
• Sources: HKU Centre for Suicide Prevention and Research; Samaritan Befrienders Hong Kong

xueying@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on March 27, 2016.
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After living in Shanghai for nine years, Mr Teng Yiye, 38, and his family moved to a small town in neighbouring Jiangsu province in late 2014. It takes Mr Teng about an hour to drive to Shanghai to attend meetings for his interior design business, but he believes he made the right decision to leave the city.

In Shanghai, home was a 40 sq m apartment, valued at 1.2 million yuan (S$253,000). His daughter could not get into a public kindergarten as she did not have a local household registration, or hukou, which is needed to enjoy public services.

After moving to Huaqiao, a small town in Kunshan city, the family now lives in a spacious 160 sq m apartment that costs 1.1 million yuan. Better still, Mr Teng’s five- year-old daughter now attends a public kindergarten near their home as the local government is welcoming of migrants. He is from central Anhui province. “It’s more troublesome for me but, overall, the pros outweigh the cons. The cost of living is lower and the quality of life is better here as there are more open spaces than in Shanghai for my girl,” he told The Sunday Times.

For decades, the financial hub’s cosmopolitan lifestyle and, more importantly, the job and business opportunities it offers have attracted migrants from all over China.

Last year, for the first time in 15 years, Shanghai saw a 1.5 per cent dip in the number of migrants to 9.81 million from 9.96 million at end-2014, according to figures released this month. This in turn led to a 0.4 per cent decline in its population to 24.15 million last year – the first decrease since China’s opening up and reform in the late 1970s.

The trend is attributed in part to the national phenomenon of migrants leaving coastal cities to return to inland provinces where opportunities are opening up, and also to the shrinking migrant population due to China’s low birth rates.

Shanghai officials have also cited reasons such as the city’s industrial restructuring efforts that phased out low-end firms and their workers, and demolition of illegal buildings that had housed migrants.

These are part of Shanghai’s efforts to support the central government’s urbanisation push, which is premised on making big cities more liveable with more sustainable population sizes. Shanghai has set a population cap of 24.8 million, which means migrant numbers can be expected to slow, if not decline.

But experts say Shanghai’s rising costs of living – especially property prices – and slow-climbing wages are also key factors pushing migrants like Mr Teng to seek a better life elsewhere. For instance, property prices in Shanghai jumped nearly 10 times in the 2000-2015 period while average wages went up almost three times from 2,033 yuan in 2004 to 5,451 yuan in 2014.

Feeling the squeeze is Ms Xie Xiaowei, 26, who is considering returning to Xiamen in Fujian province in the next one to two years. She moved to Shanghai in October 2014 to become a finance manager at an IT multinational corporation.

“I’ve been told that my rent, which already accounts for 30 per cent of my salary, will spike by 20-40 per cent. But my firm has announced a pay freeze this year and there’s no way young people like me can afford a decent-sized apartment in Shanghai,” she told The Sunday Times. Though she will have to take a pay cut of 20 to 30 per cent for a similar job in Xiamen, she believes it will even out as she has a property there and the cost of living is lower.

Even those who have just arrived in Shanghai say they can understand why the city is losing its allure.

Ms Sheng Qingwen, 25, a freelance website developer, moved to Shanghai last October to be closer to her clients in the neighbouring Suzhou and Shaoxing cities. But the Beijing native, who studied and worked in the United States for six years, said the quality of service at her apartment is lower than what she had experienced in Chicago and New York. “I’m giving myself another two to three years because there are more opportunities here. By then, hopefully other cities would have developed well and provide alternatives for me.”

For similar reasons, other big cities such as Beijing are set to see declining migrant numbers. For instance, the number of non-locals in Beijing rose by 39,000, or 0.5 per cent, to 8.22 million in 2015, the smallest increase since 1999.

Mr Song Yaoli, 43, who has worked in the capital for five years, plans to return to his home town Xi’an in northern Shaanxi within two years though it means taking possibly a 20 per cent pay cut. His wife and 13-year-old daughter have remained in Xi’an and he visits them at least once a fortnight. “The trade-off is narrowing as the standard of living and job opportunities in Xi’an are improving while Beijing has become too crowded,” said Mr Song, who is in software sales. .

Fudan University’s Population Studies Centre head Wang Guixin thinks the authorities should be concerned about the declining migrant numbers because they could have a negative impact on the big cities and the national economy.

A big city whose growth is impeded by a declining migrant pool would not be able to support its satellite cities, he said.

Also, Professor Wang noted that most migrants leaving the big cities are low-income workers like cleaners and couriers. A smaller migrant pool might lead to higher labour costs and product prices. “Just look at the inconveniences experienced by locals in big cities when migrants return home during the Chinese New Year,” he said. “Now think of it as a year- long phenomenon.”

kianbeng@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on March 27, 2016.
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