CNA (Page 104)

Right after Anna got married, her husband insisted on knowing about all the transactions in her bank account, even when the activity did not concern him. 

He told her that as her husband, he should oversee all their money. He also said that he wanted to take care of her, and didn’t want her to work or worry about finances.

But this wasn’t the case, in reality. Anna found it difficult to ask her husband for money – he would question her and make her feel guilty for wanting to buy anything. 

“Once, my shirt was torn and he asked whether I really needed a new shirt and kept grumbling that it was a waste of money to buy a new one for me,” Anna said. 

“I had no money except for the rare times he would give me cash to spend at the supermarket and I could keep the change,” Anna added. “Or when he’d give a little more than what I’d spent in a single receipt. Whatever few coins I could get, I would save secretly.”

When the couple had kids, it became even more difficult for Anna to ask her husband for money.  

“I had to be the one taking care of the kids and buying them things,” she said. “But I wasn’t given any money for baby essentials like food and diapers or new clothes.”

She had to wait for her husband to buy what the kids needed or, when the situation was desperate, scrape together whatever she had from her secret stash to pay for them herself. 

“Throughout those years of my marriage, I was so stressed and anxious yet I felt powerless,” Anna said. “I felt as though he was questioning me all the time for every single thing I needed to get for me, for our household, for our family — I always felt wrong to ask.”

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SINGAPORE: A day after Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam again emphasised his independence, fellow presidential hopeful Ng Kok Song reasserted his lack of political affiliations, while at the same time declaring that one’s present cannot be easily separated from their past.

Mr Ng, who threw his hat into the presidential race a week ago, was speaking to the media after a visit to Geylang Serai Market on Thursday (Jul 27) morning.

Apart from the 75-year-old Mr Ng, former Senior Minister Tharman, 66, and businessman George Goh, 63, have also indicated their intention to run for the presidency.

Mr Tharman officially launched his platform for his presidential bid on Wednesday. When questioned by reporters about his independence, the former politician stressed there was a difference between “independence from any past affiliation with a political party” and an “independence of mind”.

In direct reply to that when asked by CNA, Mr Ng said: ““I think we are who we are. Our present is related to our past. We cannot easily separate our present from our past.”

Mr Ng started out as an investment analyst at the Ministry of Finance’s overseas investment department before moving on to the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and finally ending his 45 years in public service as the chief investment officer of Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC.

“And Mr Tharman served many years in (politics),” he said with a smile. “You draw your own conclusion.”

Since announcing his intention to run for President, Mr Ng has spoken about his lack of political affiliations, and that Singapore needs a president who is “independent of any political party to safeguard the integrity of our institutions”.

He reiterated that as he commented on Mr Tharman’s proclamation the day before on wanting to be “a president for a new era”.

“I think when we talk about a new era, perhaps we are talking about a new equilibrium in the governance of Singapore,” Mr Ng said, adding that “a balance between the presidency … and the government” would be one of the key features in this new era of governance.

“I think the people of Singapore would like to see this balance in this new era … where the President has no political affiliation.”

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SINGAPORE: Whenever my family makes plans to eat at a Chinese restaurant, I brace myself for the dreaded task of making a reservation in Mandarin.

Rightly or wrongly, I assume that speaking English will result in difficulties. So, firstly I have to look up the word for “reservation” in Chinese, because I can never remember. Then I rehearse my lines aloud.

I take a few deep breaths before dialling. When a staff member picks up – sometimes sounding very irritated – I panic and my Mandarin comes out in a garble.

The long pause that follows makes me die a little inside. Then the killer blow: “Huh? Shuo shen me? (What did you say?)”

I weigh my options: Do I make another attempt to speak Chinese, or abort and ask for an English-speaking server?

If your Mandarin is as bad as mine – or if you can’t speak it at all – you can probably relate. Recent incidents that went viral in Singapore have highlighted the intricacies of language in our multicultural society, sparking spirited discussions on English proficiency as a marker of social integration and whether English should be the main language used in public.

A Malay delivery rider shared on TikTok in March that he was late on an order because he couldn’t locate the food stall – it had Chinese-only signage that he could not read.

A week before that incident, a customer took to social media to complain about an NTUC FairPrice employee not speaking English, arguing that the Mandarin-speaking employee should not be in a customer-facing role.

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“GRANDFATHER OF ALL RATS”

Most residents CNA spoke to said areas where the rats appeared were clean and that estate cleaners were doing a good job.  

Ms Angela Sabapathy said she used to see rats under block 273 and near the rubbish chute, when renovation works were ongoing at the ground floor from late last year to a few months ago.

“That area was a problem. And they’re gutter rats so they’re quite big,” the 66-year-old retiree said. 

“The one I saw was the grandfather of all rats … It was scary.”

Apart from the size of the rats, their boldness – appearing in daylight and near humans – was also a concern, Ms Angela said. 

“We are not a slum … But the fact that you see a rat running around, scurrying, and not at all afraid of you – they are too familiar already.”

Mr Tan suggested that the pest problem might be exacerbated as more people start to dump their trash directly into chutes instead of bagging them up, in a bid to avoid using plastic bags.

Large supermarket operators began imposing a plastic bag charge earlier this month. 

“In the future more and more people will just throw it through here … the rats and cockroaches are happy that the food is there. I think this is another issue coming up,” he said.

The town council spokesperson said rodent control measures in the area have been enhanced under a Rat Attack Programme.

“This includes area-specific burrow treatment plan, implementing comprehensive bait and trap measures, building modifications to prevent further habitat from forming, intensified night culling methods and other long term control measures,” the spokesperson said. 

He added that Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council has also been working with the Resident’s Network community to educate and spread awareness to residents to continue to maintain an environment that does not actively sustain rodents with food and habitat resources.

“We will continue to intensify the rodent control measures until the rodent population and burrows are eradicated.”

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According to the Singapore Cancer Registry’s 2020 report, it is the second most common cancer for men aged 40 to 49, and the third most common cancer for men aged 30 to 39. It is the ninth most frequent cause of male cancer deaths.

Besides having a higher incidence among men, nose cancer has a genetic predisposition to the southern Chinese ethnicity, said Dr Eu.

According to the Singapore Cancer Society, nose cancer is also associated with the consumption of salted soy beans, vegetables, fish and meat. The cooking of these preserved foods release fumes that contain nitrosamines, which are considered carcinogenic. 

SYMPTOMS AND DETECTION

In the early stages, nose cancer may have no to minimal symptoms, said Dr Tan Chee Seng, senior medical oncologist at OncoCare Cancer Centre.

Early signs include nose bleeding, headaches, the sensation of blocked ears, nasal blockages and blood-stained phlegm.

As the disease progresses, patients may experience neck lumps and double vision. In more advanced stages, the cancer may spread to the bones and lungs, causing pain and breathing difficulty.

“The difficulty with nose cancer is that it is particularly silent in its onset,” said Dr Eu, pointing out how Mr Liang, the MP, had the “fairly innocuous” symptom of muffled hearing.

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SALARY CLAIMS

One such employee who successfully retrieved his pay was a driver who preferred to be known as Jason Tan.
 
Months after he resigned, Mr Tan was still owed S$1,800 in outstanding salary. His employer ignored his repeated attempts to recover his wages.
 
“I felt very helpless, it was painful. I needed the money for my living expenses. (They) held my salary for so long. That should not have happened. Us workers, what do we work for? To live. This money will help my family survive,” he said in Mandarin.
 
Mr Tan was among 6,000 others who sought help from TADM last year, which is jointly set up by tripartite partners MOM, National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF).
 
“I made an appointment with TADM and told them everything. They said they can help me resolve this problem. They emailed and called my former boss, and told him to return the money he owes me,” he said.
 
After nearly two months, Mr Tan managed to recover his salary.
 
MOM said mediation is the most effective solution in resolving such cases.

WHAT HAPPENS DURING MEDIATION?

Mediators handling a claim will speak to both the employer and employee involved. They assess evidence such as employment contracts, salary slips, attendance records and CPF statements.
 
Correspondence between parties involved, such as phone messages and emails, are also helpful to mediators in verifying claims.
 
“As mediators, we are a neutral party, we don’t take sides, whether it is the worker or the employer. Our role is to guide both parties to work towards a common goal, to resolve their dispute effectively and fairly,” Ms Faye Kee, a senior mediator at TADM, told CNA’s Singapore Tonight.
 
If both parties agree to settle a claim after talks, they will sign a legally-binding agreement.
 
If the initial mediation at TADM fails, the alliance will help claimants lodge their claims with the Employment Claims Tribunal (ECT).  
 
“We understand that at the ECT, they may try another round of mediation. If that’s not successful, the case will be heard by an ECT judge and there will be a decision made on the claim,” said TADM’s general manager Ng Hwei Min.
 
“In some cases, there are employers who are very willful, they have the means to pay but they refuse to do so. But of course, these are not in very large numbers – they make up less than 1 per cent of the claims that we see.”
 
MOM said it investigates such employers, with a view of taking enforcement action against them.

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