She pleaded guilty to one charge each of voluntarily causing hurt with common intention and of consorting with a person possessing an offensive weapon.
A third charge of behaving in a disorderly manner in public was taken into consideration for sentencing.
The court heard that Siow was a part-time waitress at a pub at the time of the offence. In the early hours of Jul 2 last year, she met her friends and the other co-accused parties and went club-hopping.
They ended up at the Naughty Girl Club on the second floor of Orchard Towers. There, Siow’s co-accused Joel Tan Yun Sheng ordered two towers of beer and continued drinking, while Siow played a drinking game with another co-accused, Tan Sen Yang.
Tan Sen Yang is the only one of the seven accused persons in this case to still face a murder charge.
The court heard that Siow had teased Tan Sen Yang during the drinking game after he lost two rounds. Tan then took out a karambit knife from his pocket and slammed it on the table. A karambit knife is a small curved knife resembling a claw.
Joel saw the knife and covered it, telling Tan Sen Yang not to show it around. Both Joel and Siow saw Tan Sen Yang keep the weapon.
At about 6.20am, Siow and her friends decided to leave the club, but faced congestion at the doorway where there was another group of about five people.
Taunting broke out between the two groups and security officers stepped in to intervene. Tan Sen Yang took out his karambit knife and swung it at the people there, slashing a security guard on the finger and cutting the face of a passer-by.
When Siow saw the fight, she had the urge to join in, said Deputy Public Prosecutors Ang Feng Qian, Dora Tay and Benedict Teong.
She dashed at the people in the doorway and jumped at them. She also flipped a table positioned near the club entrance onto the floor, and had to be pulled back repeatedly by her friends.
Satheesh Noel Gobidass died on Jul 2, 2019. (Screengrab: Facebook/District Singapore)
After some scuffling, someone shouted “police” and Siow’s group left, taking the lift to the ground floor.
While they were walking towards the exit, the victim, 31-year-old Satheesh Noel Gobidass, descended the escalator and confronted co-accused Ang Da Yuan, who was in Siow’s group.
The victim and Ang shoved each other and both Joel and Tan Sen Yang went to help Ang, with Tan Sen Yang brandishing his knife.
A scuffle ensued and Siow rushed forward towards the victim. Tan Sen Yang slashed the victim a few times, drawing a lot of blood.
Joel punched the back of the victim’s head, and Siow tried to kick the victim, swinging her arm at him a few times.
The victim retreated, and Siow advanced to try and kick him, but was pulled back by her group.
The victim was bleeding profusely by this time. Ang continued to attack the victim, punching him in the facial region.
Eventually, Siow’s group left Orchard Towers. After they left, the victim walked a few steps towards the exit, before collapsing face-first on the floor.
Siow later realised she left one of her slippers behind and went back to retrieve it. She walked past the victim who was lying on the floor.
Passers-by helped the victim and an ambulance was called, but he died shortly after, with a stab wound to the neck certified as cause of death.
PUBLIC DISQUIET CAUSED: PROSECUTION
The prosecution said while the death of the victim was not attributable to Siow’s actions, there were significant aggravating factors including public disquiet and group violence.
Siow’s defence said Siow initially faced a capital charge, which was “extremely harrowing” for her. Her guilty plea is a sign of her remorse and repentance, said the lawyer.
Siow’s sentence comes after Joel and Ang were sentenced in March. Joel received four weeks’ jail for charges similar to Siow’s, while Ang was given eight months’ jail and six strokes of the cane. The other cases are pending.
For voluntarily causing hurt with common intention, Siow could have been jailed for up to two years, fined up to S$5,000, or both. For consorting with a person with a dangerous weapon, she could have been jailed for up to three years. She cannot be caned as she is a woman.
The Government will be providing one-off additional support for newborns to help aspiring parents cope with the Covid-19 pandemic.
This comes after the worry of financial uncertainty and job layoffs due to the Covid-19 pandemic, propelling some to postpone their parenthood plans.
According to Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat in a ministerial statement on Monday (Oct 5), the one-off support measure will be on top of the Baby Bonus Cash Gift, which provides eligible parents up to $10,000 in benefits.
More details about the amounts and how they will be paid will be announced at a later date, Minister Heng who is also the Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies and Minister for Finance said.
He adds that Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Indranee Rajah will share further details soon.
In his statement, Minister Heng also pledged to continue supporting households, alongside support for businesses and workers hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.
He pointed out that this month, eligible households will receive more rebates on their utility bills through the goods and services tax voucher (GSTV) U-Save scheme.
Singapore’s biggest street festival is back for its third run, only this time it’s going digital.
Due to the current global health crisis, Culture Cartel will be taking place as a free-to-all virtual event on Dec 5, 2020 from 1pm to 12am SGT. PHOTO: Facebook/culturecartelcon Touted as the “longest live virtual street culture event” in Singapore, Culture Cartel will be taking shape online in the form of a custom-designed 360-degrees rotatable interactive digital booth with pop-ups that provide visuals and videos of the participating brands.
Guests can catch product launches, exclusive campaign highlights, as well as 3D renderings of products on offer.
Leading up to the event, guests will be able to purchase Culture Cartel raffle tickets priced at $2 each via Klook’s website.
SINGAPORE – Digital platforms, like local mass media websites, surged in importance during this year’s general election that many have dubbed an “Internet election”, according to a survey commissioned by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS).
At the same time, there was a decline in the proportion of voters who tapped traditional media, such as television, print and radio, for information at least once a day, compared to GE2015, said IPS senior research fellow Carol Soon, who presented the survey findings at an online forum on Internet and Media Use on Thursday (Oct 8).
Social networking sites like Facebook and instant messaging (IM) platforms such as WhatsApp were the two most popular modes of political engagement among the 2,018 voters surveyed.
The forum was organised by the IPS, which a week ago, presented the findings of its survey on the GE2020 results at a similar forum.
The think tank had conducted similar polls after the 2011 and 2015 general elections.
In GE2020, the People’s Action Party’s (PAP) vote share shrank by almost nine percentage points to 61.24 per cent, compared with the 2015 election.
A Sunday outing on Pulau Ubin landed a Filipino domestic worker in intensive care for 10 days, during which she underwent two operations on her swelling brain.
Ms Calapini Marilou Garcia, 50, had gone cycling on the island with two friends on Sept 27.
After the friends reached the bottom of a slope, there was no sign of Ms Marilou.
After waiting for a while, they backtracked and were shocked to see Ms Marilou lying on the ground in a daze next to her rented bicycle.
The three friends did not wear bike helmets.
Two passers-by who stopped to help called the police.
One of the friends, Ms Clarissa Rigdao, told The New Paper: “She was still conscious. There were no bruises or bleeding, but she kept saying that she was feeling giddy as she was lying on my lap.”
While they were waiting for the police to arrive, Ms Clarissa knew something was seriously wrong when Ms Marilou started vomiting.
Her employer, Madam Jeanette Mok, told TNP that Ms Marilou was conscious when she was taken to Changi General Hospital, but her condition deteriorated quickly.
SINGAPORE: To soak in the sights, sounds and scents of distant lands. To close business deals. To be with family and loved ones during special moments. Or to be at the bedside as a last breath is taken.
These are but some of the many reasons why we have taken a flight at some point in our lives. But it has not been possible to do so in the last six months ever since governments closed their borders to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
We don’t know when COVID-19 will be eradicated. The development of an effective and globally recognised vaccine is an important step. But it will take time for it to be produced and distributed around the globe.
Until that happens, we need to live with COVID-19 while taking precautions. This applies to re-opening borders and restoring aviation connectivity around the world.
Doing so will help with economic recovery and preserve the 65.5 million jobs globally that depend on the aviation industry.
A series of flight cancellations seen on screen at Changi Airport (Photo: Jeremy Long)
MASS TESTING IS KEY TO OPENING BORDERS
Even though some countries have since re-opened their borders, albeit cautiously, many people are still not traveling.
The fact is quarantine discourages travel. In a recent 11-market survey of travellers, 83 per cent indicated that they will not travel if there is a chance of being quarantined at their destination.
We recognise governments have imposed quarantine measures to prevent the importation of COVID-19 into their countries. Even if borders reopen, maintaining a 14-day quarantine has the same net effect of closing borders.
If the travel and tourism sector is to recover from the COVID-19 outbreak, an alternative to quarantine is needed.
That is why IATA has called for the systematic testing of all international travellers before departure. Pre-departure testing will reduce the risk of importing COVID-19 and be an alternative to quarantine.
It can also reassure travellers that their fellow passengers on the same flight are not infected.
Travellers say they are willing to accept testing. In the same survey, 84 per cent of agreed that testing should be required of all travelers, and 88 per cent agreed that they are willing to undergo testing as part of the travel process.
We did not come to this decision lightly. The integration of systematic testing in the travel process will present logistical challenges and impact how people travel.
We will need testing manufacturers to develop tests that can be deployed that are fast, accurate, scalable, affordable, and easy to use.
And considering the potential scale of testing required, non-medical personnel will need to be able to operate it effectively. Governments and health authorities will also need to agree on common standards so that tests administered in the departure country are accepted on arrival.
FILE PHOTO: A health worker administers a nasal swab to a patient at a testing site for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) installed at the Bassin de la Villette in Paris, France, August 25, 2020. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo
Much still needs to be done to achieve 100 per cent testing of all travellers prior to departure. We are working through the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which is leading efforts to develop and implement global standards for the safe operation of international air services amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
We recognise that air transport is not the only sector with a critical need for testing. The needs of medical personnel must be the first priority. We hope testing for air travel will be made a priority after medical needs have been met.
Singapore’s transport Minister Mr Ong Ye Kung told parliament on Oct 6 that Singapore is planning to establish air travel bubbles and replace the 14-day quarantine with COVID-19 testing. These are positive steps and will help the recovery of the aviation sector.
Aviation has a track record of pulling together to meet major challenges. We did it with security after 9/11, on the environment and on safety.
It is a matter of time we will deliver an effective alternative to quarantine that will be accepted by governments and their health authorities.
LOW RISK OF INFLIGHT TRANSMISSION
I have spent almost 40 years in the airline industry, and a question I am often asked is whether it is safe to fly.
1.2 billion people have travelled since the beginning of the year, with 44 cases reported where secondary transmission on board the flight potentially occurred.
That’s one case for every 27 million travellers. We recognize this may be an underestimate, but even if 90 per cent of the cases were unreported, it would be one case for every 2.7 million travellers.
The data is telling us that the risk of onboard transmission is low when compared to other public indoor environments.
There are reasons why the risk is low. There are factors in the cabin that naturally limit the spread of droplets – everyone faces forward, the seat backs act as a barrier between rows, people generally don’t move around very much on a flight, and the air in the aircraft cabin circulates from the top to the bottom of the cabin (instead of along the length of the fuselage).
FILE PHOTO: A view of the economy class cabin inside an Emirates Airline Boeing 777-200LR plane following its arrival at Mexico City International Airport during its first route from Dubai via Barcelona to Mexico City, Mexico, December 9, 2019. REUTERS/Henry Romero/File Photo
The quality of the air on board is also much better than most indoor environments. Cabin air in modern aircraft is 50 per cent fresh air from outside the aircraft and 50 per cent recirculated air, which goes through High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters that are 99.993 per cent effective in removing bacteria and viruses such as COVID-19.
The HEPA filters are of similar performance to those used in a hospital operating theatre or industrial clean room. And the air in the cabin is refreshed 20 to 30 times an hour, about 10 times more than most office buildings.
Besides the cabin characteristics, the industry has also taken steps to further lower the risk of transmission.
FLYING DURING A PANDEMIC
Safety is the aviation industry’s number one priority. That includes bio-safety. Following the COVID-19 outbreak, airlines have made changes to the travel experience to keep their passengers and crew safe.
If you board a flight today, you will be required to wear a face mask throughout the flight. Even the crew are doing so.
Masks are an important line of defence as they can, when worn properly, reduce the spread of COVID-19. This protects others on the flight in the event a person is infected and asymptomatic.
The inflight service has also been simplified. This is to reduce interaction between passengers and the crew. Congregation of passengers in the cabin is also reduced, for example, no queues to use the washrooms.
Free antibacterial wipes are available at LaGuardia Airport in New York on June 10, 2020. There are many new changes to air travel across the globe. (Chang W. Lee/The New York Times)
To minimise the risk of virus transmission through contact, airlines are performing deeper and more frequent cleaning to sanitise common areas. Common touch items, such as inflight magazines, have also been removed from the seat pockets.
These measures are part of ICAO’s take-off guidelines to restart aviation, which provides guidance for the entire travel process including the departure and arrival airports.
PASSENGERS HAVE A ROLE TO PLAY
Passengers too have a role to play to prevent the transmission and importation of COVID-19, and protect themselves and their fellow travellers. Besides wearing a face mask properly throughout the entire travel process, it is important to practice good hand hygiene.
That means washing your hands regularly with soap or an alcohol based hand sanitiser. Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth, especially after contact with commonly touched surfaces on the aircraft.
Given the characteristics of the aircraft cabin, the implementation of the take-off guidance across the industry, and precautions taken by passengers, we will be able to fly safe despite COVID-19.
And when COVID-19 testing prior to departure is implemented, it will give passengers even greater assurance.
This crisis has demonstrated how much is lost when the world cannot travel. Some have said that travel is forever changed or reduced. I don’t think so.
For sure, business travelers will question their travel habits. And leisure travel will be impacted by economic uncertainty.
Although we are connecting through Zoom, Teams, Skype or other technologies, it is not the same as being there in person – to hug a loved one, to experience a new culture, or even to assess the body language of a potential client or partner when negotiating a business deal.
That is not something people forget or lose their desire for. We will see measures that mean people can fly again, and not restricted to essential flights only, and when we do so, you can be assured that it will be done safely.
Conrad Clifford is the Regional Vice President, Asia Pacific of the International Air Transport Association (IATA)
SINGAPORE: Food and beverage outlets are seeing fewer cases of customers flouting COVID-19 restrictions, but some people are still taking the rules lightly, said restaurant representatives.
Under Phase 2 of Singapore’s reopening, each table or group must be limited to a maximum of five people, with at least 1m spacing between tables.
Groups of more than five people are not allowed even if they are split across multiple tables – unless they are from the same household.
Customers must have their masks on before the food or drink comes and after finishing their meal, but diners often forget to do this, F&B operators told CNA, adding that diners have also tried to mingle between tables.
About two Sundays ago, employees at Fat Prince at Peck Seah Street in the Tanjong Pagar area had to ask a man to leave after he refused to wear a mask despite repeated reminders and turned aggressive, said Mr Michael Pekarsky, director of operations for the group which runs Fat Prince.
Mr Pekarsky said he has also encountered people trying to make reservations for more than five people and asking the restaurant to place them at separate tables. He has had to refuse, telling them it is against the law.
“Most understand and say ‘I’ll take my business elsewhere’, which we understand,” he added.
When CNA visited dining hotspots in Bugis, Clarke Quay, Tanjong Pagar and Holland Village on a Saturday evening, groups of people were spotted breaching COVID-19 rules.
On several occasions, there were groups of more than five seated together outdoors or talking across tables.
Groups of more than five were also seen standing outside food outlets.
For example, there was a group of seven waiting outside a Korean barbecue store along Amoy Street at around 7pm. They had separated themselves into two lines, but stood less than 1m apart from the other group and chatted with each other.
More than five people were seated at a table along Baghdad Street on a Saturday night.
More than five people were seated at a hawker centre at Holland Village on a Saturday night.
Outside a bar along Haji Lane at about 9pm, a group of six people was seen smoking together.
And as groups of diners waited for seats outside another food outlet, most stood less than 1m away from other parties.
Mr Mohammad Asgar, who runs tea stall Bhai Sarbat where CNA observed a group of more than five women seated together, said that he did not see them.
He stressed that he would have asked them to leave if he had seen the situation.
It is not the first time he has encountered customers trying to flout the rules. Most would split up or leave once he approaches them, but others have turned hostile and hurled vulgarities at him, he said.
“We can’t fight such people,” he added.
Mr Eric Khor, the co-partner of Mei Heong Yuen Dessert’s Liang Seah Street outlet, said that the weekend crowd is heavy and sometimes there is a sudden surge of customers. CNA had shown him a photo of a queue outside his shop. Groups were not standing 1m apart.
He explained that the line could have been of people waiting to make a reservation, as customers who have already done so are not allowed to wait outside for a table.
To manage the crowd, an employee is deployed outside to take down customers’ mobile phone numbers, and they are supposed to wait for the call before approaching the outlet to get seated, Mr Khor said.
F&B establishments fined or ordered to close for not enforcing the rules have been in the news from time to time, as authorities step up checks. Errant outlets include those which served alcohol in teapots after 10.30pm.
According to Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu, 846 F&B establishments were inspected in the past few weeks, and as of Oct 5, 16 of them were ordered to close for 10 days.
Forty-six outlets – or about 5.5 per cent of those inspected – were fined.
In addition, fines were issued to 53 customers for not observing safe management measures.
The ministry said the numbers refer to checks conducted between Sep 12 and Oct 5.
“In taking enforcement actions, agencies will also take into account whether the operator has taken effort to advise or deter the patron on non-compliance of safe management measures,” said Ms Fu in a written parliamentary reply on Oct 6.
“Dining in F&B establishments involves considerable public health risks because it typically entails gathering in enclosed spaces, without masks on, and for a prolonged duration,” she added, urging people to take the rules seriously.
DINERS NOW MORE AWARE OF RULES
F&B operators said incidences of customers disregarding the rules have tapered off since the end of August, attributing it to the news reports of restaurants and customers being suspended or fined. At the same time, most diners are now used to the COVID-19 protocols.
“I think the adjustments have now become part of people’s ‘going-out’ DNA,” said Mr Pekarsky.
“It has been much easier lately as customers are now more aware and educated on the dining rules,” added Mr Damien Tan, the chief operating officer of Benjamin Barker, which runs The Assembly Ground branches at The Cathay and Cathay Cineleisure.
When there are customers that are “a bit (more of a) challenge to deal with”, his employees would explain that it is not the cafe’s restrictions but the Government’s rules that they are enforcing, and that the shop would get into trouble if they do not comply, Mr Tan said.
Most of them comply after that, he added.
At Sanobar, located at the corner of Bussorah and Baghdad Street, about 80 per cent of its customers keep to the rules, said operations manager Maja Iskandaria. The other 20 per cent tend to be people coming in groups of more than five and insisting that their tables be placed side-by-side or close to each other, he added.
Customers tend to comply after Mr Iskandaria and his team explain the situation, “because (at the) end of the day they know that wherever they go, it’s going to be the same scenario”, he said.
“Most of them, they just try their luck, and if they really cannot, they just give you one kind of face and you just have to put up with them till they finish their dinner,” Mr Iskandaria told CNA.
Ms Angeles Herrero, the owner of Kazbar along Church Street, recalls a recent incident involving a group that made two separate bookings. Her employees had to tell them twice to stop talking to each other and threatened to kick them out before they listened.
It was an unpleasant experience, she said. “(We) need(ed) to get to that point, which is not our job … we don’t want to be known as the place that tells you that you have to leave.”
Ms Wilyawati Tiju, the founder of Korean restaurant group Seonggong, said that based on feedback from her employees, there are now far fewer instances of people socialising across tables compared to when Phase 2 first started.
Her company runs food brands 9PM Kkochi, Seorae, Patbingsoo and Hongdae Oppa.
But her employees are still having to constantly remind customers to keep their masks on before and after their meal. Sometimes, they would hear excuses like “it’s hot. I need to remove my mask for a while” or “I’m about to order more food”, she said.
Ms Tiju added that the need to remind diners about the mask rule can be quite taxing on her employees, noting that safe distancing officers have approached her staff members to get customers to put their masks on.
Outlet managers said they are not letting their guard down even as the situation has become easier to manage.
Around the start of August, Ms Herrero hired two part-timers who solely enforce safe management measures in her restaurant, such as checking the diners in, reminding them to wear their masks when they go to the toilets, as well as making sure guests from different tables do not communicate.
Ajay Singh Panoo (in black) is a part-time in-house safe management officer at middle eastern restaurant Kazbar. It’s owner, Angeles Herrero, said they hired two people for the role at the start of August – there is always at least one of them on-site, she said – to make sure customers comply with the COVID-19 rules. (Photo: Rachel Phua)
“Oh my god, it scares me so much,” she said of the news about restaurant closures and fines. “We have always tried to follow the rules, but we have to step up on the monitoring because we need to tell the customers constantly (to follow the regulations).”
Sanobar’s owner Nabil Baroudi said: “Sometimes maybe it is hard to monitor maybe in the first one minute, two minutes, five minutes. But for me, no, when I see there (are groups) sitting down (in) two, three tables … I don’t allow that.
“I’m at the corner of Arab Street, Bussorah (Street). Even if let’s say I don’t care about the law, somebody will see it because I’m at the corner. So I have to be really tough about it,” he added, stressing that he had to raise his voice at a customer last week who insisted on moving to another table so that he could sit closer to his friends.
When CNA pointed out that people from two adjacent tables were seen interacting with each other, Mr Baroudi said “maybe I did not see them” at that moment.
“I will ask him to stop, definitely,” he said.
Ms Hererro said it is a “shared responsibility” between diners and restaurants to keep to the rules, and urged customers to do their part too.
“It’s regulations, and it’s for your own safety, for our safety, and for our staff,” she said. “You as a customer, you come and you interact with one person. We interact with 200 people.”
Mr Pekarsky echoed her sentiments, sharing what he tells customers who try to make bookings that flout the rules: “Please understand that these are strange and unfamiliar times and we’re doing our best to make sure that we keep our business (and) keep all of our guests and our staff safe.”
SINGAPORE: The butterfly effect is the idea that small changes, like a butterfly flapping its wings, can catalyse huge changes that have massive ramifications for complex systems.
Since Singapore entered DORSCON Orange in February, work began its long migration into homes, with split team arrangements implemented by firms as a preventive measure to mitigate the spread of the disease.
And after the circuit breaker was imposed in April, work-from-home (WFH) became a default mode for work, alongside home-based learning for schools.
Many corporate leaders and tech giants like Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Google will allow staff to work remotely until early 2021 when chances of a vaccine being developed and distributed are higher. A handful, like Twitter, have even gone further to extend WFH arrangements to staff indefinitely.
Those butterfly effects have been felt immediately in Singapore’s once vibrant Central Business District.
Some offices have emptied since the circuit breaker when white-collar workers and executives were mandated to stay home.
Despite Education Minister and Multi-ministry taskforce co-chair Lawrence Wong urging companies to let workers return to the office on Sep 24, working remotely from home has become a new normal and will persist in a post COVID-19 world, even if only for a few days a week.
This go against decades-long trend of agglomeration, where face-to-face interactions fuelled collaboration, learning and innovation, leading over time to the high concentration of firms in high-rise skyscrapers in city centres around the world and feeding sky-high rents in those districts.
View of the central business district in Singapore, Apr 13, 2020.
Yet, overnight, work decentralised into homes, aided by video-conferencing platforms and communications technologies, like Zoom, Webex and Teamviewer.
Another leap was made when the necessity of remote working paved the way for a change in mindsets in employers who experienced first-hand productivity gains.
“I don’t fear any slowness as we work to distribute our workforce now, and I do think we have to build a company that’s not entirely dependent on San Francisco,” Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said.
In Singapore, the idea of a distributed workforce is not new, and somewhat aligned with the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s strategy since its groundbreaking Concept Plan of 1991 to set up regional centres in Jurong East, Woodlands and Tampines to move offices out of the congested city centre and closer to residential estates.
There have been successes in getting corporates to shift out prior to COVID-19. Google moved its local headquarters out from Asia Square 1 to the city fringe into Mapletree Business City 2 in 2016.
If more firms relook their WFH policy and review the need for big office spaces in the CBD, this decentralisation could cool demand there and even hasten the exodus of firms from the city centre, leaving behind excess building space.
While owners of older buildings, such as AXA tower and International Plaza, may be pressured to convert these to mixed-use developments and take advantage of URA’s CBD Incentive Scheme, the current economic downturn due to COVID-19 may delay such redevelopment plans.
But in the longer term, these trends underway will unleash a new wave of changes in the urban structure of CBD, accelerating its reconfiguration, now a predominantly business and financial district, into a more integrated work-live-play place.
Urgent rethinking is needed to realise plans for the 360 ha in the Marina Bay’s downtown and the 2,000 ha in the future Greater Southern Waterfront into this reality. In fact, the planned 20,000 more homes to be added there as part of the 2019 URA Master Plan may even need to be revised upwards.
The 15-hectare Pasir Panjang Power District will be the first redevelopment under the transformation of the Greater Southern Waterfront. (Photo: Urban Redevelopment Authority)
If so, more schools, social and recreational amenities, and better transport connectivity will be required.
As workers have more WFH days, they may be less willing to pay for expensive housing space in the core central region (CCR).
And if workspaces are distributed more permanently to the outside central region (OCR), price differentials for private houses in OCR and CCR may come down.
The modern Singapore home is not really suited for WFH where homes have been designed for rest, retreat and dining, with little remaining space for work.
According to the Department of Statistics, the average household size for HDB 4-room flat is 3.22 with a typical floor area of 90 sqm – meaning around 28 sqm per person.
This number is lower for families who live in compact shoebox units with a typical floor area of around 50 sqm.
Many have repurposed the dining table for work but even that can be challenging with video calls and home-based learning happening simultaneously.
Separate study areas where each family member can focus on work or school is ideal, beyond bedrooms providing this makeshift segregation. Some households may prefer an additional purpose-built study room.
In retrospect, the 2018 URA guidelines requiring a minimum average unit size of 85 sqm for new developments in OCR and 100 sqm in selected areas, which may have been intended to reduce infrastructure strain in neighbourhoods, now look prescient where they mandate developers to provide larger spaces for residents.
Beyond the need for more space, the trouble is homes are built differently from offices. Residential flats tend to be built with a north-south facing to minimise sun glare and heat coming into flats, whereas offices have glass facades to permit natural lighting.
Residential buildings are less well insulated acoustically to cut off noise. Traffic noise, noisy neighbours, and people movements can pose unhelpful distractions when working from home.
But simple improvements, like ensuring stable and reliable high-speed broadband networks, installing day curtains and setting up a home office space with a comfortable, table, chair and monitor, can vastly improve productivity.
We will also likely see more Singaporeans invest in making their homes work-friendly.
US online remodelling platform Houzz reported a 50 per cent surge in leads for home renovations after lockdowns were imposed. People channelled funds usually saved for holidays to remodel home offices, kitchens and undertake other improvement works to make homes more liveable.
MORE MICROBUSINESSES
As more Singaporeans experience income uncertainty and job losses, we may also see more set up their own microenterprises.
While microbusinesses have been allowed to run from homes under the Home Office Scheme (HOS) since 2001, in recognition that home-based entrepreneurship scheme promote the creation of business and entrepreneurship, these have been limited mostly to certain professional services such as consultancy, insurance and financial planning services.
HOS had led to the creation of new businesses by 23 per cent, a 2019 study Professor Sumit Agarwal and two other colleagues found. More may take up the scheme, as an alternative to co-working space providers.
After all, WeWork and JustCo typically charges S$200 to S$500 for a hot desk. Saving on rent can reduce business costs and help a good number of firms survive. Our past research shows firms set up after 2001 that were able to utilise HOS are 29 per cent less likely to exit compared to firms set up before 2001.
As Singapore residents spend more time at home, neighbourhood shops will see a bigger boost in demand.
While WFH has adversely impacted restaurants, food joints, cafés and pubs in the CBD, where businesses are dependent on office workers, coffee shops, eating houses and supermarkets in residential estates saw an uptick in business.
Food delivery services, such as Panda, Deliveroo, Grab, offering island-wide delivery and providing key lifelines to downtown eateries, have seen a surge in demand.
But our bet is that big brand names, cafes and new-fangled dining concepts may find residential estates more attractive locations for a second outlet.
Despite conventional wisdom that COVID-19 has decimated F&B, nearly 201 new F&B entities have been formed in the three months (June to August) after the reopening of the economy based on Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority data.
There was also a net increase of 96 F&B entities in the first half of 2020 alone, which include restaurants, cafes, food caterers, food kiosks and bars, according to data analysis firm Handshakes.
Safe distancing measures in effect at a eatery at Eastpoint mall, Mar 22, 2020. (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
More cloud kitchens have popped up near residential estates during COVID-19. Jollibee recently opens its first shared kitchen dedicated to delivery orders at Tampines Smart City.
Some big brand names in retail are also moving into neighbourhood malls. Don Don Donki opened their largest outlet at JEM earlier this year and IKEA is opening a 3-storey outlet in the same mall next year.
As Singapore readies to shift into Phase 3 of our reopening, we may have to adjust and adapt to a new normal that brings “live, work and play” closer to home.
Current land use patterns may undergo significant structural shifts if WFH becomes a default modus operandi for most firms and office workers.
It sounds like a very small change but this butterfly may stir up a storm.
The CNA Leadership Summit 2020: Navigating the Post-Pandemic World will discuss through a series of TV programmes and webinars how businesses and organisations have reacted to the pandemic and applied innovative practices.
Kwok Tian Long is Research Associate at the Department of Real Estate (DRE) and Institute of Real Estate and Urban Studies (IREUS), and Professor Sing Tien Foo is the Head of DRE and Director of IREUS at the National University of Singapore.
The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not represent the views and opinions of the National University of Singapore or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) announced on Wednesday (Oct 7) that more co-curricular activities (CCAs) will be allowed to resume after the year-end examinations are over.
This is in-line with the government’s move to improve its capabilities to improve Covid-19 detection and case-tracing.
“We now have improved capabilities to detect and trace new cases quickly, and also have effective safe management measures in our schools.
”With these conditions in place, we will be able to resume more school activities and programmes safely,” education minister Lawrence Wong said in a statement posted on Facebook.
A Qxpress delivery man was on his way to deliver parcels to two units in Balestier Point when an angry resident stopped him in his tracks and confined him within a lift yesterday (Oct 7).
The resident had allegedly taken issue with him entering the condominium when she opened the gate.
In a now-deleted viral video, originally uploaded by the deliveryman, the woman was heard yelling at a security guard: “I opened this gate. How can he like that go in? I’m not open door for him [sic]!”
While she continued to kick up a fuss, the resident planted herself firmly against the lift’s doors, refusing to let them close.
When the deliveryman tried to step out of the lift, she immediately stuck her leg up against the door, blocking him and trapping him inside.
His attempts at explaining that he was only there to make deliveries only seemed to make her more agitated.
“I’m not open for you! Why you like that go! You’re so rude [sic]!” she railed.
