Dear A.S.S. Editor

How come today's news say that the there will be more COEs to be offered in the February to April period, an almost 8.9% increase?

I thought the reason the government have the COE ruling is to manage the number of cars in the road? Means now the government think that the cars on the road are better able to make use of "empty" spaces in our roads? Wah, that means what, more COE, means COE might be cheaper during this period? Also means, after April, the roads and expressways will always continually have jams? More cars, but roads still remain the same.

Did the government think this through or not? Force citizens to take public transport because of traffic jams everywhere, but the MRT always have delay. How like that?

Song H. X.

A.S.S. Contributor

I refer to the article “Surbana CEO defends axing ‘poor performers’” (Straits Times, Jan 19).

It states that “”We cannot allow our 1 per cent of poor performers to continue to affect the rest of the 99 per cent of staff who are performing.”

54 poor performers – 0.79% of Singapore staff

Mr Wong in his e-mail said 54 employees were identified as poor performers – representing 0.41 per cent of Surbana Jurong’s global workforce and 0.79 per cent of its Singapore staff.

As to “The firm employs about 3,000 workers here” – 54 divided by 3,000 is 1.8 per cent.

So, is it 0.79 per cent or 1.8 per cent?

Should Straits Times apologise to Surbana?

Since this is the second time in five days that the Straits Times is saying that the company employs about 3,000 workers in Singapore – if the number is incorrect – perhaps the Straits Times should apologise to Surbana Jurong.

Also, since the Straits Times gave the correct number of 13,000 for the company’s global workforce in its article (“Dozens Surbana staff lose their jobs” (Straits Times, Jan 14)) five days ago – it tallies with the 0.41 per cent said by Surbana Jurong now.

Thus, shouldn’t the Straits Times give a clarification as to whether it has gotten the Singapore workforce number wrong twice in a row in five days?

With regard to “Mr Wong added that there were no retrenchments nor was the exercise targeted at any specific business unit, community, discipline or age.

A former employee, who left Surbana Jurong late last year, told The Straits Times: “In my case, I was given two options: To resign or be terminated once they downgrade our last performance appraisal.” He added that the company had put the two options to him without any prior warning, even though he had been meeting performance targets” – the crux of the matter may not so much be about the right of employers to terminate employees with poor performance, but rather whether by not calling terminations a retrenchment, may mean less or no retrenchment benefits.

By the way, what does “A former employee, who left Surbana Jurong late last year” mean? As late as 31 December 2016 which was just two weeks before the first Straits Times report on 14 January 2017?

What is there to prevent other employers who terminate 54 employees at one go, or 1.8 or 0.79 per cent of its workforce as the case may be – and say “there were no retrenchments”?

Perhaps it is not the company’s fault, as it may simply be following what our (weak) labour laws allow.

NTUC, MOM, TAFEP, MPs, Straits Times, media, etc – any comments please?

Leong Sze Hian
A.S.S. Contributor

I am presently facing immense financial difficulties and have been banished to a rental flat in Pasir Ris while repaying the credit bureau from debts chalked up by my ex-husband who simply walked out of my 2 kids and I for a filipina woman.

Not that I mind as I have already resigned to fate but what made me very
pissed off is, the so-called 'social safety nets' that MSF claims to be
'enhanced' and 'in place' since 2011 in a "developed Singapore". I then
approached my Pasir Ris MP's grassroots (as the MP claims to be busy with his
schedule) which without second thoughts, referred my case on a template
letter to the Pasir Ris CCC and SSO. Needless to say, my appeal was rejected
unreservedly, stating that my "per capita income" exceeds $450 for my family
of 3. Who in the right sense of mind can survive on a per capita income of
$450 these days in this country? It can't even buy an appetizer from a 5 star
restaurant!

As a last resort, my case was being referred to the Eurasian Association (EA)
and Teng Foundation based on my ethnicity as it states on the web page of the
EA that a "Family Support Service" exists to provide financial assistance to
underprivileged Singaporean Eurasians. What begun as a source of hope quickly
turned into a nightmare as my application through the Admin Manager has
stalled since last November due to the medical treatment and subsequent leave
of the only Counsellor there as well as Committee Members who have gone on
their long holidays.

I gave them a recent buzz again and was told by a Ramakrishnan that some
Committee Members have since resigned and they are waiting to revamp and
reorganize the Association which could take several months and they are thus,
not helping anymore people. I was shocked to learn of this as I can't imagine
how could a Stat Board be allowed to function with such unprofessionalism on
taxpayer dollars? I had thought that since Mr Joseph Schooling had won our
country's first ever Gold Medal at an international level, that the
government and other races will treat Eurasians a little better after
sidelining us for decades.

But this all a dream and an illusion as well as "business as usual" for this
government does not know the meaning of gratitude. If they can ignore the
plight of minorities whose ancestors quietly slogged all their lives to build
Singapore, they will definitely screw Singaporeans who gave them a massive
mandate at the last GE. It is already happening with the recent retrenchments
of Singaporean workers who received vastly imbalanced compensations which
will set to become even more pronounced after CNY.

In the meantime, it is the waiting game for EA to try and get its act
together while Teng Foundation said they can only assist through
disbursements by the EA and they themselves are waiting for the EA to give an
account of their past grants which is long overdue. I certainly hope it will
not become an AGO or CPIB case and tarnish the good name of Eurasians in the
process for the systematic failure of the Trustees.

Lizzy Garnell
A.S.S. Contributor

A passerby was shocked to see an air-con serviceman standing dangerously on a window ledge as he serviced the air-con unit at a HDB.

As the serviceman stood precariously to service the air-con, at one point, it looked like he almost lost his balance and his colleagues rushed to grab him. It was a scary scene as the serviceman was holding onto a unit with his barehands i.e. the unit was not secured.

The consequences would be dire if the serviceman had fell or/and the unit that he was holding had dropped.

Engaged Tiffanie and Alvin from Illusion Interior to renovate my BTO in 2015. After paying them 90% of the total amount, they delayed our kitchen cabinet for 4 months and did not do the rest of the carpentry works. Kept giving excuses and lying that the sub-contractors are delayed or will turn up at an appointed time but never appeared, thus wasted a lot of our time. They even gave us the sub-con numbers to ask us to call ourselves as they are busy!

Imagine having to live without a kitchen cabinet (and no wardrobe, no feature wall, etc) for months, meaning no cooking and washing with 2 small children. My children and I also had to bath in cold water because they delay installing the heater. We could not do any house-warming despite already moved in for months. So instead of having a joyous occasion of a new house, we went through months of suffering and stress, and that is not the end of the story...

After we threaten to report them to the police, CASE and Small Claim Court, they went to lodge a report against us at the SCC first stating that we had harassed their sub-con. We counter-claimed and they were told by the court to drop their claim (since they have nothing substantial and they even tried to claim the final 10% when they did not even complete the works). After spending much time at SCC, we agree to settle on a token amount so as to put the whole case behind us but the payment was delayed again and again. After
paying us only half the amount (almost 6 months later), they stopped paying us and was not contactable.

Many of the sub-cons also came to harass us as they were not paid, saying that Tiffanie told them that we are the one that had not paid them.

Now they had blocked our calls and facebook. There is no such company address at Kallang.

Hope that no one else had to suffer the same stress and suffering as my family.

Albert
A.S.S. Contributor

<Facebook post by Min>

What kind of crap lawmakers do we have here? They are quick to amend laws to censor freedom of speech and protect the PAP-govt but they allow such unfair labour laws to exist? This poor foreign worker's case highlights how pathetic our labour laws are. Our Labour Court has no teeth to enforce any directive it gives to derelict employers i.e. it can ask them to pay up but they have no power to punish those who ignore the request.

Instead cheated workers are told by MOM no less to go to State Court by themselves and pay more than $1000 to apply for a court seizure of the employer's assets and auction them off to recover unpaid wages! WTH.

And tucked away in a tiny sidebar report MOM says it gets 4,500 salary claims by foreign workers Every Year, a large number by any measure. Yet, as usual our G tried to downplay it by playing with percentages saying it is "less than 0.4%" of the foreign workforce. Lastly MOM declared "salary recover matters are civil claims" between employer and worker. Right, just imagine a powerless and penniless worker trying to go up against his big bad boss in court. We seriously have 3rd world labour laws in a 1st world country. What a poor reflection on our country #singaporelabourlaws #MOMSingapore #ministryofmanpowe #shameonMOM

Credit: Andrew Loh

MOM and perhaps MinLaw need to get their act together.

It is ridiculous for a decent honest worker to be denied his pay for 9 months, and at the end of this to be told to sort things out himself.

What are the law, the courts and the MOM for, when there is no teeth to them? Just for show?

Bottomline is employers do this - treating their foreign workers like this and ignoring the courts' orders - because they know they can get away with it.

And indeed they can, because the authorities do not care and are not interested to help.

And the poor worker has no means to bring his employer to account.

All the employer has to do is to wait it out, worker gets homesick or exhausted all means of recourse and has to go back home to his country, empty-handed.

In the end, the employer gets away with free labour, and the authorities get to cover their own backside and say well, we have tried to help him (by telling the employer to pay up, nothing more), as if that is really all that is needed to force the employer to do so.

Why not make it a criminal offence for employers to not pay their workers, especially after being ordered by the courts to do so?

You will see employers taking such things more seriously then.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, see how quickly our ministers go to Parliament to increase their salaries if they fall behind the benchmark.

It is a matter of interest and the MOM doesn't seem interested to help foreign workers in such predicaments.

I mean, these problems are not new. They have been around for years.

In the meantime, the law forbids the poor worker from seeking work while his case is sorted out.

What do the authorities expect him (and his family back home) to live on? Empty air and grass?

A reader shared this post with us.

"I bought a bolester from NTUC@Amk Centre on 31 Dec. but till just now like 23 minutes my son which is turning 5 years old told me.

Something hard in this bolester poke me.

Den I began to touch and feel I feel a long hard thing with sharp pointed. So I decided to cut it and see what is that?

End up a pull out a freaking long thick rusty wired in it... does ur staff even check on the stocks? Lucky it did not poke him hard enough to cause him bleeding on him...

FYI the boy is only turning 5 years old this year... you might want to have check on ur stocks before placing it. Photos and video as proven...."

Angela LiLing

A reader shared this post with us.

"Tried taking a picture in the MRT, forgot about the ridiculously restrictive rules. Certis cisco officer catches me and interrogates me

Officer: Mam, why are you taking pictures
Me: Because I think the framing looks nice
Officer: yeah, but why in the MRT?
Me: because I'm inside here and I just realised how nice the framing is
Officer: What are you doing?
Me: With my life? I wish I knew
Officer: Are you doing anything suspicious?
Me: I'm dressed like your average hipster the only suspicious thing about me is how I manage to afford overpriced coffee every day (my face: ಠ_ಠ)
Officer: Ma'am delete that picture
Me: I didn't take a picture yet.
Officer: Good. Stop being suspicious
Me: I'm sorry you think I'm apparently suspicious"

What do you think?

A reader shared this post with us.

Dear Sir / Mdm,

The oversight of my profession is long overdue. A profession shrouded in mystery, a gross understatement. While many of my counterparts perform their duties to the highest of standards, anecdotal evidence abounds of others who prey on the grieving to inflate fees. It puts many of our good work to shame.

An emotional purchase, families are wont not to compare and negotiate prices.
Funeral offerings come in [price] packages, with prices differing between
companies. Without adequate legislation, families find themselves in no
man’s land, without recourse. A Funeral Act is long overdue. A nation built
on enterprises would do well to also include the funeral profession.
The need to shine the spotlight on my profession which has no national
standards for training or conduct and whose pricing can too often seem
inflated and opaque is solely needed. There is neither independent regulation
nor redress in a case of complaint. In fact, you may be surprised to know
that slaughterhouses in Singapore are more heavily regulated than my
profession. The losers will only be our people. They are also, sadly, the
bereaved. Strangers they are today, they could very well be your friends and
loved ones tomorrow.

So would you cast your fleeting thoughts on my profession? My profession
needs your support; and a parliamentary motion to discuss independent
regulation and oversight, and the future of my profession would be much
appreciated. How about we also leverage on the expertise of the Competition
Commission of Singapore (CCS)?

With the prices of funerals continuing to rise, we must become less squeamish
about conversations surrounding the financing of our own eventual demise,
lest it become a burden to society and generations after us. May I urge you
to insist on greater transparency in my profession? May I also suggest that
we explore the option of setting up a bereavement account within our existing
retirement structures?

Notwithstanding the future of Mount Vernon Sanctuary, I would be interested
to hear your government’s strategic masterplan for deathscapes in
Singapore. A population white paper cannot do without the consideration of
the long term management of death

Lest I become a lone voice in the wilderness and my profession continuing to
wallow in the doldrums of third-world standards in a first world model of
development, I seek your urgent attention. I hope you share my belief that a
basic fee for a simple funeral should be agreed upon by all stakeholders and
implemented nationally. Dying is not a business like any other and the market
in funerals does not work like any other. At the very least, the bereaved
should not be penalised for being in grief.

To the honourable men and women in the Thirteenth Parliament, this is my
appeal. I humbly seek your generous consideration on this most pressing of
matter: the future of the funeral profession in Singapore.

Chen Jiaxi Bernard

I would like to feedback on the increasing bad situation on the transport, Bus 88, to the nearest MRT, i.e. AMK MRT, during rush hour.

Due to huge crowd requiring to get onto this bus service—the few buses in my area: Buangkok Crescent, Buangkok Green and Hougang St 91, that can get to AMK MRT, there are many instances where the residents around my area cannot get onto the buses. Sometimes, we cannot alight onto four buses consecutively!

This is seriously affecting our productivity. Thus I hope the RC can arrange private buses to fetch the residents to AMK MRT. I'm sure there are residents who are willing to pay slightly more—maybe monthly payments—to ensure the ease of commuting to work.

I wonder if the Town Council have any plans in work to alleviate this situation. Thanks.

Janice Lee
A.S.S. Contributor

,facebook post by Petrina Kow>

My 13 year old daughter ran out of a guest lecture in tears on Monday. It was a talk on crime prevention by a member of the Police Force. But somewhere between warning them about sexual predators and taking precautions came some very disturbing statements about how girls are 'responsible' and 'asking for it' if they wear short skirts because the boys 'can't help themselves'. Even though the students, boys included raised their concerns, the Teachers didn't step in to mediate this very dangerous narrative. The room was visibly agitated and apparently the kids got a scolding from the teacher in charge after the guest left for being 'rude' and asking him 'difficult' questions.

I am sharing this because we really need to stop this attitude that girls deserve any kind of abuse. NOBODY deserves ANY kind of abuse. And when we see it, we must empower ourselves to take a stand.

I raise this because I am appalled that such attitudes are allowed to permeate our law enforcement agencies who are supposed to protect our citizens.

I am concerned because there are girls and boys in that talk who might have suffered some form of assault who are now NOT going report the case because of this public shaming.

I share this video because this is one of the ways our well-meaning but poorly educated police officers could conduct the training/talk.

<Facebook post by Maidin Packer>

A CHINESE FUNERAL & A MALAY WEDDING: I was having lunch at the void deck of Blk 256 Pasir Ris when I saw a funeral procession passing by slowly. Some wedding guests were standing along the side of the void deck to show respect. THIS IS SO SINGAPORE!

I rushed out to photograph it. But the van carrying the deceased was about to pass there, with family members on foot. I stood still to show respect. A few of them noticed and nodded. I nodded back. By the time I walked across, the main funeral party had passed. Photo 1 was the best I could get. Photo 2 showed a bit more of both. Later, as I was driving back, I saw the procession again at the main road (photo 3).

CLEARLY, WE HAVE GROWN TO RESPECT EACH OTHER.

Dear A.S.S. Editor

The Transport Ministry has issued a statement indicating that they will discontinue the recently announced VEP charge on non-Singapore vehicles entering the country, if Malaysia remove their own VEP or start charging VEP in their other bothers, thus indicating that the charges are not discriminatory against Singapore vehicles.

While this is good, it just confirms that the VEP charge made by Singapore was simply a tit-for-tat response to Malaysia's. The two governments playing a petty game, and the result is that citizens of both country lose out.

Immediately after this was announced, Malaysia themselves announced that they will also introduce VEP charges at their border with Thailand by June this year. So, if this is true, then Singapore will pull back their VEP charge, right? Since by June, the charge would no longer be discriminatory against Singapore cars. Let's see what the authorities here do.

Wee S. Hua

A.S.S. Contributor

<Facebook post by Vicki Leong>

I actually experienced the taste of plastic rice just now at a shop we used to frequent. I told the owner about the rice and he said he was not aware of this. It is tasteless and cannot be broken up. Tried to break it up with my fingers but it stays in shape. Of course we left the rice alone. Owner didn't charge us for the rice and promised he will look into it.

I have actually received WhatsApp videos of people who have actually eaten plastic rice and how to differentiate them.

So friends please be aware of this because plastic is toxic and can cause a great deal of damage to our health..

This happened at Old Klang rd Nam Seng bakuteh

Dear A.S.S. Editor

Oh no! NEA has just announced that they expect the dengue cases in Singapore to increase in the months ahead. Apparently all the efforts made to stem the tide of dengue since last year will not be bale to stop the numbers from increasing.

Makes you wonder if the steps taken are adequate enough, or it was just a short-term measure to placate the Singaporean public. It was also reported that the number of dengue cases in Singapore last year was 13,115, which was way lower than the projected 30,000 cases. Was this a case of the short-term measure taken being super effective, or the projected number was grossly over-estimated, so it will paint a better picture when actual numbers released.

Whatever it is, hopefully, the short-term measure, if was proven successful, should be continued, and long-term solutions must be found soon. Mean time, all we can do is ensure our homes don't become breeding ground for mosquitoes.

Koh KK

A.S.S. Contributor

The Independent Singapore reported that a message urging Tamils in Singapore to assemble in Sembawang Park for a gathering has gone viral on social media. The gathering is for Tamils to express their displeasure with the Jallikattu ban in India. The organiser of the event is unknown but Tamils living in Singapore are urged to attend the friendly gathering to express their solidarity with Jallikattu.

This flouts Singapore's assembly laws which only designates Hong Lim Park as the place to hold such protests or gatherings. Even then, it is still illegal as Hong Lim Park is only for Singaporeans and foreigners are disallowed from participating in such events. This gathering at Sembawang park may constitute a breach of Singapore's Public Order Act.

<Facebook post by Punggol North Community Sports Club>

Morning! Based on MOH website, there s HFMD outbreak at a pre-school at Waterway Point currently. Refer to attached link.

As Waterway Point has a huge water play area where many children go & have fun, we would like to advise parents to refrain from bringing your young children to have water play at there for the time being. Tks

<Article for Ministry of Health>

The following are childcare centres and kindergartens with more than 10 HFMD cases or an attack rate* greater than 13%, and a transmission period of more than 16 days (prolonged transmission). This list is to help parents be more aware of whether the childcare centre/kindergarten their child is attending has prolonged HFMD transmission, which will then help them to observe for HFMD symptoms in their child.

Childcare Centre(s) with active clusters of prolonged transmission:

My First Skool @ Waterway Point 83 Punggol Central, Waterway Point, #02-12 S(828761)

Where (Transmission period > 16 days with number of cases > 10) OR (Transmission period > 16 days with attack rate* > 13%)

Dear A.S.S. Editor

Harvard professor said that giving extra maternity and childcare leave to women would never help in raising fertility rates, but instead leads to reinforcing the “gendered division of labour” in the household, where women stay at home to do housework and take care of the children while men work.

This will also leads to employers bias against hiring women, especially mothers. No need for the professor to come out and say this. For one thing, to increase fertility rate in Singapore, prices needs to be more affordable. Child care centers, prices of milk powder, diapers, all expensive, like that how to have children? Another thing, employers already have this mindset, that mothers will be more problematic when it comes to work time, compared to fathers. This happens in Asia, and of course Singapore, cannot escape from this. Thus, this mindset need to be changed first, before more women are open to raising kids.

How about increasing the paternity leave and extending more childcare leave to the men too. It will be a start towards eliminating this mindset.

Joe Tan

A.S.S. Contributor

Dear Editors,

This is a very dangerous act by Genesis Cool where one technician lost his balance because the AC bracket was not installed properly. The condenser then came off the bracket and went downwards. With the heavy weight, it could easily dragged the technician down or ripped his arm apart.

Others came to help frantically, with one even went outside with only another person holding on to his belt. This is absolutely crazy and should be reported to the authorities.

The main problem was the poorly installed bracket and as professionals, they should be using proper procedures and good quality tools to get the job done.

This could have easily claimed the lives of the reckless installers and also innocent passer-bys below as well. Such errant companies should be held responsible for their reckless practices.

John
A.S.S. Contributor

Editor's Note: The aircon condenser has the NEA efficiency tick sticker on it, this incident most probably happened in Singapore.