Dear A.S.S. Editor

Anyone read REACH's poll where they stated that more than half of Singaporeans welcomed Budget 2017’s initiatives to support families and build a more inclusive society, but many disagreed with the move to increase water prices.

The poll had randomly chosen 1,111 Singaporeans aged 20 and above, and they were polled by phone. The surprising thing? 32% of those polled agreed with the water price hike, 43%disagreed and 24% were neutral. 32% agreed with the water price hike? Who did they poll? These people who never have to pay for the water bills, or those who have so much money that a 30% increase in price hike is small change to them?

This is really unbelievable. The fact that people agreed to any price hike is already incredible, 32% actually agreed to the excessive price hike?

Angry Singaporean

A.S.S. Contributor

Dear Editors,

I refer to your article about a REACH survey claiming that 30% of Singaporeans agreed with the water price hike. I find the results of the survey unbelievable.

https://www.allsingaporestuff.com/article/32-polled-reach-agreed-water-p...

No Singaporean in their right mind should agree to such a huge water price hike especially after the slew of price increases the PAP implemented in the past one year.

The PAP has been taking back the entire chicken after giving away chicken drumsticks just before the 2015 General Elections. Can't these 30% dumb Singaporeans see the hypocrisy of the PAP? Who are these 30%? The rich or the blind sheeple who follow PAP to the very end?

They are filthy rich but yet they ask for more money to refresh our water infrastructure. Why do you need to suck more money from the people when you have billions in reserves? It makes no sense. We are all frogs in the boiling water, soon we will die without knowing why.

Chandra
A.S.S. Contributor

It was reported recently that Ms Chang Hwee Nee will be appointed as the National Heritage Board's (NHB) chief executive officer (CEO) with effect from May 1. It is well known that Ms Chang is also the wife of Finance Minister Mr Heng Swee Keat. Mr Heng has been touted as one of the potential candidate to be Singapore's next PM.

Is there any rules of guidelines regarding conflict of interest in the public service, especially in this case where the husband is a very senior politician and the wife is also a very powerful civil servant? Is the Finance Ministry robust enough to ensure that the Minister does not show his spouse favoritism or "give chance"?

Would this couple be another power political couple like our PM Lee Hsien Loong and his wife Ho Ching?

Huei Ching
ASS Reader

Hi, this is Raymond representing Fineline Design Pte Ltd. Please help us to share, this con man is still cheating around. Hope you can help us to educate ID firms and home owners, many thanks.

https://www.facebook.com/pg/FINELINE.FDS/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1469...

To All ID Firms/Dream Home Seekers,

We would like to warn the public with regards to the following guy Mr Lum Yew Khuin(a.k.a Eric Lum who is currently in his forties). The Police have reviewed and we noted that this serial 'con man' have been
associated with a number of similar scams with different ID firms, their staffs, suppliers, contractors, sub-contractors and unfortunately the customers. He was recently employed under our firm since Nov 2016, and during his stint here, he had been discreetly borrowing money from fellow colleagues and workers alike in the context that his feeble old mother is in the hospital and required immediate medical treatment.
Suspicion arose when he started giving excuses for not showing up at work, and missed important appointments with customers. We also made multiple calls to him, but he remained uncontactable to our calls. It was only when we made a visit to his registered address to check on his well-being, that we found out that Eric Lum had sold the unit years ago. The current owner also informed us that there had been a number of unknown visitors that came knocking and looking for this same person named Eric Lum.

After further investigations, we found out that he was also employed by another ID firm whilst being under Fineline Design's employment. He had been using the same tactics to con customers and absconded with the deposit, from the basis that he can get cheaper material elsewhere thus for the cash/cheque payment to be made to his name directly. His line is currently still available and it seems like he still can be
contacted via his mobile (HP : 8543 3132). Therefore we have reasons to believe that he might still be under the employment with other ID firms who are still in the dark, and possible individual home owners that might be still dealing with him.

After serious consideration, we decided that it is only appropriate that we share this unfortunate incident to warn the public against him. We have lodged a police report as well and it is currently under investigation. We would also to take this opportunity to inform all home owners out there to never ever issue any cash or cheque payment payable directly to any Sales Designer (be it with Fineline Design or with any other ID Firms). The only way to protect and safe guard your interest is to strictly issue cheque payment payable directly to the Company's name. Please verify and check through all terms and conditions thoroughly when signing the contract as there will always be important information on the appropriate payment method and procedure.

Lastly, please be informed that Eric Lum is no longer a staff associated with Fineline Design. For affected customers, we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused and will work towards completing your project. Please note that as this case is already under police investigation, we shall not make further comment after this post. Thank you for sharing.

Fineline Design Pte Ltd

Hardwarezone forum user xplayer shared that his China-born colleagues allegedly told him in order to game the Singapore system and get the most out of it, only one of them needed to become a new citizen while the other could just be a Singapore Permanent Resident. This way, they get to enjoy the full benefits of the Singapore system yet allow their child to avoid NS.

If the situation turns sour in Singapore, they can still pack up and return to China since one of them was still a PRC citizen. However, this arrangement isn't new and our Malaysian foreign workforce has been using this tactic to game the Singapore system too.

Should foreigners be blamed for gaming the system or should Singaporeans criticise the Govt's policies instead? After all if you were a foreign talent in a foreign land, you would game the system and milk it too right?

<Credits: xplayer>

"PRC collick couple say 1 become citizen , the other only PR , lidat can game the singapore system!

can get all the benefits of singapore citizenship liao. no need to convert both to citizen. if anything just pack up and go home since one of them still is china citizen.

even son can choose remain in china citizen, no need serve NS.. song bo singkie?"

<Credits: Peoples Association Facebook>

"There have been some posts questioning the motivations of grassroots volunteers. We would like to place on record our deep appreciation to volunteers who, out of the willingness of their heart, selflessly give of their time, talent and resources to help our residents and the less fortunate amongst us, building up a sense of neighbourliness and care for one another, all to strengthen the community spirit, and not expecting anything in return.

Standing as exemplary men and women, we are indebted to all grassroots volunteers for having stood fast in their selfless dedication to tirelessly forge a cohesive nation."

Responding to PA's firm defense of its grassroots volunteers, some have taken issue with the way Opposition party The Workers Party took aim at the volunteers who sacrificed their personal time and resources to help residents out. They felt it was unfair towards the men and women doing a tiring and thankless job.

Ms Julie Chin commented:

"Those who insult the grassroots volunteers obviously are the type who are way too lazy and selfish to even lift a finger to help the community.

These volunteers spend so much of their time away from family and sometimes taking time off work to reach out and help the residents. Selfless acts that are sometimes unappreciated until you actually need them.

Workers Party, ELECTED into Parliament supposedly to 'speak up' for the people are showing their LOW class by insulting these volunteers, who are our friends and neighbours, by their insinuations of less than genuine and altruistic motives of these volunteers. Shame on you WP! Shame on you!"

<Credits: Arisara Lau>

At blk 322 Hougang Ave 5.. a road accident involving a heavily modified e-bike and another bicycle caused a massive jam.. The bikes were sprawled on the road and this blocked up 2 lanes of the road.

An ambulance was sent to the scene but it is unclear if the rider's injuries were life threatening. Hoping all the bikers are ok.

Dear A.S.S. Editor

The Hong Kong Customs are likely to press charges against the shipping company and the captain of the container ship which was involved in transporting the nine SAF Terrex vehicles from Taiwan.

HK Customs confirmed that the transportation was done without a required licence, and they would be charging the company, APL under criminal charges for a suspected breach of the law.

Not sure how our MINDEF is going to answer this. No doubt the company is not under MINDEF's purview, but they were obviously hired to transport the Terrex back to Singapore. Surely proper licensing had to be done. After all, they were carrying our nation's asset. How could MINDEF let this lapse occur?

Meaning to say MINDEF hire this company to transport assets, and they just wash their hands off and hope these vehicles make their way to Singapore?

Peter Ling

A.S.S. Contributor

Dear A.S.S. Editor

The survey about salary increases in Singapore really brings out the stark reality between what employees want, and what employers are willing to give.

Seems like 20% employees polled indicated that they expect a 6-10% increase in their salary, while a further 14% expect a 10% or more increase. This is in stark contrast to employers, where only 8% of employers expect to award a 6-10% increase, while only 3% plan on awarding more than a 10% increase.

This poll basically shows what we already know. While most of us expect a pay rise with the expectation that price hikes are coming, we are only going to get negligible pay increase, if at all. Maybe it really is time for an individual to work two jobs, just to make ends meet.

Ai Ling

A.S.S. Contributor

Dear Editors

I refer to the article “500-bed rehab hub next to TTSH to open in five years” (Straits Times, Mar 22). It states that “Tan Tock Seng Hospital’s (TTSH) new 500-bed rehabilitation complex, right next to the main hospital in Novena, opens in five years and will add to the growing number of healthcare facilities that cater to the needs of an ageing population.”

S’pore’s hospital beds increased 13% from 2001 to 2015? The number of total hospital beds in Singapore was 11,936 in 2001 and only increased by about 13 per cent to 13,490 (13,490 divided by 11,936 beds) from 2001 to 2015. Against this, the population has increased by 35.1 per cent from 4.1 million in 2001 to 5.54 million in June 2015.

Hong Kong’s ratio of hospital beds double S’pore’s? There were a total of 31,819 hospital beds in Hong Kong (Number of Hospital Beds in Hospitals in Hospital Authority 27,805 + Number of Hospital Beds in Private Hospitals 4,014) for end 2015. This works out to a hospital beds to population ratio of 44 hospital beds per 10,000 population (31,819 beds divided by 7,305,700 population).

In contrast, Singapore’s 13,490 hospital beds in 2015, according to the Department of Statistics’ Yearbook of Statistics 2016 – works out to a ratio of only 24 beds per 10,000 population (13,490 divided by 5,540,000). So, does it mean that Hong Kong’s ratio is almost double (44 divided by 24 = 83 per cent more) Singapore’s?

Taiwan’s ratio of hospital beds triple S’pore’s? For Taiwan, the ratio was 66 (2013). So, does it mean that Taiwan’s ratio was almost triple (66 divided by 24 = 175 per cent more) Singapore’s?

Leong Sze Hian

Dear A.S.S. Editor

Minister Yaacob Ibrahim, speaking during the opening ceremony of the new HQ of Palo Alto Networks in the Asia Pacific region, said that the cyber security sector in Singapore is going to grow by as much as $900m by 2020. He also said that the sector has the potential to create 2,500 new jobs by 2018.

That is a lot of new jobs in the next year. The question is, will these jobs be offered to Singaporeans, or are they going to go to foreign talents? We all know that the cyber security sector is a brand new area, where there might not be enough qualified Singaporeans yet, or locals experienced enough to jump into this industry straight away.

Does this mean the jobs created will be another avenue for more foreigners to come in? After all, this time, they cannot be stealing our jobs, when we are not qualified nor experienced enough to actually get the job in the first place.

Adam A

A.S.S. Contributor

<Facebook post by Tan Kin Lian>

S'poreans still buy the PAP narrative that min wages will breed a lazy dependent class and drive costs + prices, leading to job losses. It is difficult to combat this when most people are not interested in researching the other developed nations with min wages.

The updated view is that min wages (when set properly) help to raise welfare without exacting very costly knock on effects on the labour market and prices. That is the modern up to date view of the role & impact of min wage legislation on labour markets.

i agree with this view. The argument put forward by PAP is hollow.

<Credits: HOME: Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics>

These workers paid between $15,000 to $20,000 in recruitment fees to work in Singapore only to find themselves out of a job after their employer stopped paying them since last September. Later, the employer pressured them individually to sign payslips for those months in his office. For those who agreed to sign on the pay slips, he only gave $100- $120, a far cry from what was stated on the payslips.

They have not been able to recover their hefty recruitment fees as they have worked only 8 months to a year. Their claim was filed at MOM and they are allowed to look for a new employer while MOM investigates the matter.

If your company has vacancies and your company has a need for workers with Aluminium formwork, Hacking, Painting, Plumbing, Waterproofing, Glass cladding installation, Electrical, Tiber flooring (T.F.I), and rigger and signalman certifications, do contact us on our facebook or contact@home.org.sg.

Dear A.S.S. Editor

Singtel has warned all its subscribers that there is a fake billing email going around that is supposedly sent by Singtel, telling subscribers that their bills are ready for download. However, Singtel has said that they did not send such email, and that the emails were probably phishing emails, out to obtain sensitive information from users, such as passwords.

Singtel also confirmed that once they were informed of such emails going around, they immediately took "prompt action to take down the malicious sites linked to these e-mails and to block them". Singtel also advises recipients of suspicious e-mails "not to respond to or click on any links in the message" and to delete such e-mails immediately.

Good to see that for once, they acted decisively and swiftly. In this day and age, we always have to be extra careful when it comes to our online security. Any emails or websites that sound suspicious, we should not anyhow click on them.

How to tell that emails and websites might be fraudulent? Normally, they can be identified by misleading e-mail and website addresses as well as spelling mistakes and requests for personal information. So, be warned!

Nigel Sim

A.S.S. Contributor

<Credits: Stella Tan>

Mr Tan Yang Hang is missing and last seen in Seng Kang Polyclinic on 22 March 2017. He has nothing with him except his senior citizen concession pass. A police report has been lodged.

If you find him, kindly assist to bring him to the nearest police station please. Thank you so much for helping

Dear A.S.S. Editor

Another bike sharing app has hit the Singaporean market, the third such app to appear here in this year alone. Mobike was launched yesterday, following on from the Chinese-owned ofo, and oBike, a Singapore venture. And similar to this other two bike sharing app, Mobike, another Chine owned company, uses a dockless bike-share system and users can unlock its bicycles by scanning a QR code on it.

For someone who wants to use a Mobike, the user has to pay $1 for every 30 minutes of use, and when a rider reaches his destination, he simply has to park the bike and secure the smart lock. Each bicycle comes with a proprietary "smart lock" containing GPS technology, which allows the company to locate and track the position of each bicycle.

Now, the question is where these bikes can be parked. Some town councils have already said that public bicycle racks are not to be used for commercial purposes, even though the companies have said that their business is for the benefit of users. Actually, this is more for the benefit of the companies, isn't it? No need to pay any rental space for their bikes, that's why can charge low cost for use of the bikes. Because, at the end of the day, any money that comes in in the rental of the bikes, those are just profits.

But, in Singapore, if something is not done for profit, then it would not sound right, true? We are a profit driven society, where money matters, and all other things like community service, are put to one side.

Isa H

A.S.S. Contributor

Yishun is in the news again, but netizens staying in the district are not the least bit happy about it.

American online streaming media company Netflix has produced a promotional video for its horror series, Stranger Things. In the 11 second video, a still of a Yishun MRT station sign appears on screen, with a dark, shadowy and eerie color scheme to match. According to regular viewers of the show, the dark coloring for the scene suggests that this version of Yishun is set in the Upside Down realm, a monster filled, spore-filled parallel dimension which houses "The Monster", also known as Demogorgon.

The caption in video reads: “Is Yishun cursed, simply unlucky or struck by something stranger?”

Yishun has been in the limelight in recent weeks due to the large number of shocking occurrences taking place in the estate. These incidents range from murders to cat killings and other inexplicably shocking crimes.

According to online sources, the Upside Down realm has been described as:

"The Upside Down is a dimension existing in parallel to the dimension inhabited by humans. The Upside Down contains the same locations and infrastructure, but it is much darker, colder and foggier; it is overgrown with ropy, root-like tendrils and webs of biological matter which cover practically every surface, with spores floating in the air. The Monster is native to this dimension."

Stranger Things will be returning for its second season on Halloween this year.

Dear A.S.S. Editor

The London attacks last night was a stark reminder that any acts of terrorism can happen anywhere, anytime. One does not need a cache of weapons to start a terror attack. Just a car as a weapon would do. Singapore, like the rest of the world, has rightly condemned the attack.

No matter who the perpetrator is, or whichever race or religion he claims to represent, this was clearly a cowardly act, and no race or religion will stand for such attacks. How can anyone defend an attack by mowing down defenseless pedestrians, and killing of a policeman who was just doing his job? This was no act of bravado, just senseless killing.

The area of the attack was a place where tourists congregate. Thankfully, no Singaporean was involved. It is a stark reminder to all that an attack can happen anywhere, so we need to stay vigilant and ready at all time.

Wu A C

A.S.S. Contributor

Singaporeans will get to go home by flying taxis in the future, says the Ministry of Transport.

According to a spokesperson, MOT is already taking initial steps to make this futuristic mode of transport a reality. Companies are already in talks with the ministry to start trials on drones that carry passengers.

These details were revealed on Wednesday at the second Business Times Leaders' Forum, where permanent secretary Pang Kin Keong gave out some of the trends and technologies the MOT was looking at for Singapore's future transportation network.

To solve issues of manpower and land constraints, the MOT will be looking at growing its range of urban mobility ranges for different kinds of journeys. Mr Pang said in the future it may be possible for a person to ride in a driverless pod to work, cycle to the gym after work and take an aerial taxi home.

"There is going to be a significant shift in the public mindset from one of ownership of transport assets - which is the mindset today - to one of procurement of transport services as and when you need them."

Human carrying aerial drones are one mode of transport that the MOT is considering. The Hoversurf Scorpion by a Russian startup, the Volocopter VC200 from German company e-volo, and the Ehang 184 autonomous aerial vehicle from China are among the companies in talks to start trials in Singapore. Dubai is already planning to fly the Ehang 184 as an aerial taxi as early as July.

"In 2030, you bet your money that aerial transport will also be a means of urban mobility," he said, but did not disclose further details beyond the ministry being in talks with some companies about putting human-carrying drones through tests.

Dear A.S.S. Editor

The cheek of the sales executive who tried to appeal against her 14 months jail sentence for abusing her maid. Ang Lilian, who had subjected her maid to abuse almost daily for a period of three weeks, had asked for the judge to commute her sentence to a day in jail or a fine.

In which alternate universe does she think this appeal has any merits? The judge did what was right, and increased her sentence to 16 months in jail instead. JUdge said Ang had shown a total lack of remorse and had capitalized on her maid's vulnerability.

Ang was originally sentenced for hitting her maid with her fist as well as objects such as a dustpan, a shower head and a cane. She also pulled the victim's hair, threw her to the ground and slapped her face repeatedly for any slight mistake. After all these, not sure how she can even ask for a lighter sentence. She must think all this was a joke. Good for her to be given a longer sentence.

Reflect on your self-centredness and your inability to comprehend what you did to your maid was a grave and heinous act. You have 16 months in jail to reflect on that.

Sam Ang

A.S.S. Contributor