The Egyptian DJ at the centre of a storm involving the son of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has responded to claims that he was asked to end his set early at Zouk on March 6 so that the VIP guest could play.

He said that he was not asked to end his set early, but was asked to stop playing as Zouk’s new owner wanted Mr Norashman to play.

DJ Fila, one half of Egyptian trance duo Aly & Fila, and whose real name is Fadi Wassef Naguib, gave his account of what happened that night in a statement released on Facebook yesterday morning.

He was responding to a Zouk statement on Monday that said it did not ask DJ Fila to end his set prematurely.

on Facebook

on Facebook

He said that he arrived at the club at 1am for an interview and started his set at 1.40am.

He was also introduced to the “VIP Guest and the new owner of Zouk”. He did not name them.

Zouk was acquired by conglomerate Genting Hong Kong (Genting HK) last year for an undisclosed amount.

While it is headquartered and listed in Hong Kong, with a secondary listing in Singapore, Genting HK is an affiliate of Malaysian conglomerate Genting Group, which Genting Singapore is a part of.

The club is now helmed by Mr Lim Keong Hui, Genting Hong Kong’s executive director; Mr Andrew Li, the firm’s vice- president of lifestyle and food and beverage concepts; and Zouk’s former general manager-turned- managing director, Mr Benny Heng. It is not clear which person hosted PM Najib’s son.

DJ Fila said that he was contractually obliged to play from 1.30 to 3.30am but Mr Byden Lian, Zouk’s DJ bookings manager, told him that he could “play till the end”, that is, finishing at 4.30am.

At 3.30am, the DJ said, Mr Lian asked if he was willing to play back to back with the VIP guest. DJ Fila refused.

“I continued playing, then 15 minutes after, Byden came to me and he told me that I will have to stop as the new owner wants the ‘VIP guest’ to play,” he said.

“I just wanted to let our fans who paid money to see me know the reason why I stopped my set and I didn’t play the three hours like every time I have been there.”

The Straits Times contacted Zouk to verify DJ Fila’s account, but the nightspot did not respond at press time.

Aly & Fila, who made it to No. 42 on DJ Mag’s Top 100 DJs list last year, have played in Zouk several times.

Ms Wong Wei Jean, 27, a Zouk regular who has been going to the club for almost 10 years and was there on March 6, said she went to see DJ Fila because “he’s known for playing past his contracted time”.

“Most DJs just play for a bit and leave, and there’s not really much interaction with the crowd.”

She added that she left after DJ Fila left and Mr Norashman took to the decks.

The digital marketer said: “We got a table for Aly & Fila, we didn’t get a table to see this VIP play. Who are you to stop people from getting what they paid for?”

Other guest DJs at Zouk, including Danny Tenagalia and Sven Vath, have been known to play past their scheduled set times.

Zouk’s former marketing manager Andrew Ing said that he does not know the circumstances of the incident, but added: “I don’t think we would have allowed that to happen under my watch.”

In a video posted by Facebook user Derrick Low on Sunday that was widely shared, DJ Fila is heard telling the crowd: “I will see you somewhere in the future, not in Zouk anymore, because I won’t play in Zouk any f***ing more.”

He went on to say: “They insulted me, but I love you guys.”

Malaysia’s Malaysiakini news website has quoted the aide to PM Najib’s wife Rosmah Mansor, Mr Rizal Mansor, as denying that Mr Norashman, 26, had asked to perform at Zouk.

Mr Rizal said that Mr Norashman “was invited by the club’s management to perform as the finishing act due to his turntable skills”.

He added: “Taking into account that it was an acknowledgement of his talent and hobby, Ashman agreed to do the performance.”

This article was first published on March 9, 2016.
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SEMANGAT keharmonian kaum jelas semakin semarak di kalangan penduduk Singapura.

Sekumpulan warga emas berbilang bangsa dirai dengan jamuan McDonald’s dalam sesi sarapan bersama Anggota Parlimen (AP) GRC Marine Parade, Dr Fatimah Lateef, dengan kerjasama persatuan Cina dari kuil Dou Mu Xing Jun Sheng Gong semalam di Pusat Riadah Haig Vista.

Ia merupakan kegiatan bulanan yang dilakukan bersama golongan perintis dan warga tua yang berpendapatan rendah dan dijalankan secara bergilir-gilir setiap bulan di estet yang berbeza.

Selain menikmati sarapan tajaan persatuan tersebut yang diagihkan oleh wakil dan sukarelawan mereka, golongan tersebut daripada kalangan wanita juga diberikan sekuntum bunga teluki (carnation) sempena Hari Wanita Sedunia.

“Sesi ini memberi peluang kepada mereka bergaul dengan jiran berbilang bangsa, mengenali mereka dan luangkan masa bersama. Mereka juga dapat melihat kemajmukan masyarakat Singapura apabila persatuan Cina hulurkan bantuan kepada masyarakat lain,” kata Dr Fatimah lagi.

Seorang warga tua, Cik Zabiah Ahmad, 81 tahun, turut merasakan ini merupakan peluang mengenali jiran tetangga.

“Sertai kegiatan sebegini membolehkan saya luangkan masa dan lebih mengenali jiran kerana agak sukar jumpa mereka, masing-masing tutup pintu apabila duduk di rumah flat,” kata beliau yang menetap dengan anak perempuannya dan seorang cucu di blok berhampiran.

Cik Wee Lily, 68 tahun, juga gembira apabila dapat meluangkan masa bersama jiran kerana lazimnya beliau hanya turun ke bawah ke pasar atau bersenam sahaja.

This article was first published on March 09, 2016.
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Forget traditional enrichment classes to learn ballet or play the piano. More children are being sent for computational thinking and coding lessons as parents increasingly see the value in starting them early in a manpower-hungry industry.

Coding schools The Straits Times Digital spoke to said they have seen more parents signing their children up for such classes over the past three years, and that demand continues to grow steadily.

Miss Juliana Ung, who runs The Kid Coders, said: “Parents recognise that coding is useful and important, as the world and future will be driven by more and more computing technology. There is also the appreciation that technology helps children in school work. It’s the latest education trend.”

Mr David Lee, founder and principal trainer of Computhink, said more parents want their children to be better prepared for the future, especially one in which the Government has envisioned Singapore to be a Smart Nation, where technological skills will be highly sought after.

“There are many parents who understand the importance of programming and they want their children to be prepared for the future,” he said.

IT project manager Ng Chee Wee is among those who subscribe to the view. The 43-year-old sent his two daughters, aged eight and 10, for holiday coding classes last year.

“Programming lessons train them in logic and clear thinking. It’s a valuable skill that helps in everyday life and any industry that deals with computers; they don’t necessarily have to become programmers to benefit from classes,” he said.

And parents are willing to pay a premium for the skills coding lessons can impart. Classes can range from $300 to $500 per month for weekly classes, while workshops start from $280 and go up to $1,400.

The rising demand for coding lessons has led these schools, which previously offered workshops during the holidays, to provide either regular weekly classes or workshops throughout the year.

“Registrations have increased sixfold,” said Miss Ung. “This year, parents are also committing to holiday workshops much earlier than in previous years, an indication that we’ll be seeing more full houses in mid-year and end of the year.”

For instance, coding school Saturday Kids was launched in 2013 with only two workshops during the June holidays for about 20 students.

Last June, the number rose to 90 students over nine workshops, and the centre now holds workshops in Scratch programming every month.

Scratch is a programming language based on visuals and animation, making it more accessible to children, unlike traditional languages that are lines and lines of code.

Singapore’s demand for coding lessons has also attracted the attention of overseas schools, such as Hong Kong-based First Code Academy.

The centre used to provide coding workshops only during the holidays when it opened here last year, but has started to offer regular lessons due to the increased demand here after its workshops were regularly oversubscribed.

“More young parents think of coding as an essential life skill that prepares their children for the future and have come to terms with the fact that technology is here to stay,” said founder Michelle Sun.

Many of the schools that cater to young children teach Scratch. But demand for lessons in more conventional coding languages, such as Python, JavaScript and Ruby, has also increased among older teenagers.

Early Coders Academy, which started in December, runs lessons for teens aged 13 to 17 years, with emphasis on coding competitions and hackathons.

lesterh@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on March 09, 2016.
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Thousands of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras islandwide have helped deter loan sharks, nab litterbugs and stop illegal parking, according to government figures.

And residents generally welcome the reassurance that such surveillance provides, said Members of Parliament.

“I quite often receive requests to put cameras up. I haven’t received any to take cameras down,” said Holland-Bukit Timah GRC MP Liang Eng Hwa. Most of the Housing Board blocks in his area now have CCTV cameras.

This is due to the police’s nationwide push to have cameras in every HDB block by the end of this year.

Since 2012, over 52,000 police cameras have been installed in 8,600 blocks, Dr Teo Ho Pin said in Parliament in January. He is coordinating chairman for the town councils run by the People’s Action Party.

Ang Mo Kio GRC MP Gan Thiam Poh said: “I do notice that there are improvements, especially in the cases of loan-shark harassment that used to be quite common.”

Potong Pasir MP Sitoh Yih Pin used to get loan-shark harassment cases at his Meet-the-People Sessions every month, before cameras were installed.

“Now I haven’t got any for quite a while,” he said.

Police figures released last month showed that blocks with cameras see fewer unlicensed moneylender harassment cases involving property damage. The number of such cases reported at 2,152 blocks with police cameras plummeted from 1,617 in 2013 – before those blocks had cameras – to just 426 last year.

Toa Payoh resident Tan Li Choo has noticed more CCTV cameras appearing, but does not consider them an invasion of privacy. “It’s okay if they are for safety purposes only,” said the unemployed 38-year-old.

Footage from police cameras has led to the arrests of unlicensed moneylenders in 360 cases of harassment since 2012, according to the police Annual Crime Brief 2015 released last month.

Town councils also install CCTVs of their own inside lifts. “It does help against anti-social behaviour such as littering, urination and vandalism,” said an East Coast-Fengshan Town Council spokesman.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) has its own eyes too, with almost 3,000 cameras in HDB estates to catch high-rise litterbugs, Senior Minister of State for the Environment and Water Resources Amy Khor said in Parliament earlier this month. Litterbugs are successfully identified in about a third of cases caught on camera, she added.

In January last year, for instance, NEA’s cameras helped nab a 38-year-old Sengkang resident who threw 34 cigarette butts out of his flat window over four days. He was fined a record $19,800.

Meanwhile, more than 300 parking enforcement cameras have been put up by the Land Transport Authority (LTA), helping to cut cases of illegal parking by as much as 90 per cent, the LTA told The Straits Times last September.

Traffic Police speed cameras also discourage reckless driving, said Mr Sitoh, who heads the Government Parliamentary Committee for Transport. “By and large, Singapore drivers are very responsible. But I think having the cameras there does help, it’s a good reminder to our motorists to drive carefully,” he said.

However, Associate Professor Lee Der-Horng, a transport researcher at the National University of Singapore, noted that drivers might slow down when they see a speed camera but speed up again afterwards. This is unavoidable unless actual mindsets can be changed, he said. “Before that overall awareness is there, the existence of cameras is still very much necessary.”

NUS sociologist Daniel Goh noted that anti-social behaviour is usually opportunistic.

“Thus camera surveillance, if effective, tends to displace the behaviour to other locations rather than change the behaviour.”

Still, cameras can be useful as one tool among others, he added. They can help create the habit of proper behaviour – which can then be reinforced with education about “communal norms of right and wrong”.

“Fear of being caught by camera surveillance inculcates a habit, and if the person is educated with the norms, the camera will then subsequently remind him of the norms,” he concluded.

janiceh@sph.com.sg

Additional reporting by Veena Vinod

This article was first published on March 09, 2016.
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The family of the late Dominique Sarron Lee, who failed in a bid to sue the military over his death in 2012, will see their $22,000 legal bill slashed.

Relatives of the 21-year-old full-time national serviceman attempted to sue the Singapore Armed Forces and two officers in relation to alleged lapses in a 2012 training exercise in which he died after suffering an allergic reaction to fumes from smoke grenades.

The High Court threw out the lawsuit last Thursday, ordering Private Lee’s family to pay the legal costs for the three defendants.

But the Defence Ministry and one of the officers, Captain Najib Hanuk Bin Muhamad Jalal, said last night they would waive legal costs amounting to $16,000.

Pte Lee’s family may still have to cough up the remaining $6,000 if the other officer, Major Chia Thye Siong, decides to enforce the cost.

The case sparked a public outcry on social media, with many calling for legal costs to be waived and stiffer penalties for the defendants, found guilty in 2013 of negligence in their duties during the exercise.

Family of dead soldier sues SAF, two officers

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The Straits Times, The New Paper, facebook

Mindef confirmed it would waive the $10,000 bill owed, a day after Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen urged his ministry to do so in a Facebook post on Monday.

Dr Ng said though the judgment in awarding Mindef costs is based on sound legal grounds and precedents, there was no need to “add to the pain and anguish of the family of the late Pte Lee”.

Responding to media queries, Mindef said it provided a one-off welfare grant, usually given to families of servicemen who die or become totally disabled, amounting to $20,000 to Pte Lee’s mother in 2012. In addition, Mindef has offered compensation awards to Madam Felicia Seah based on the “full extent of the compensation network”. This is generally two to four times the amount provided under the Work Injury Compensation Act, said a Mindef spokesman. “We understand that no amount of compensation will be sufficient.”

Mr R. S. Bajwa, the lawyer acting for Capt Najib, the platoon commander who threw the smoke grenades, said his client agreed to waive the cost because “he feels the loss of Pte Lee’s family”.

It is not clear if Maj Chia, then the exercise chief safety officer, will also waive the remaining $6,000 in legal fees. His lawyer, Mr Laurence Goh Eng Yau, could not be reached.

A Committee of Inquiry and Coroner’s Inquiry found that Capt Najib threw six smoke grenades instead of two, flouting the SAF’s training safety regulations.

On Monday, the Singapore Army sought to clarify issues regarding Pte Lee’s death and said both Maj Chia and Capt Najib were convicted of negligence in a summary trial in 2013. No criminal charges were brought against the men because Pte Lee’s allergic reaction was “not reasonably foreseeable”. It was the first such death since the SAF started using smoke grenades in the 1970s.

Mindef said last night both servicemen were redeployed to appointments that did not supervise soldiers in training or operations. Pte Lee’s uncle, Mr Sean Seah, said the family has not been approached on the cost waiver and are still considering whether to appeal against Judicial Commissioner Kannan Ramesh’s decision.

They also clarified in a Facebook post yesterday that they have not accepted any compensation offer from Mindef or the SAF, and rejected offers from the military to discuss monetary compensation.

“We would like to clarify that this law suit has never been about money. It has always been about getting answers to our questions,” the family added.

jermync@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on March 09, 2016.
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