CNA (Page 287)

SINGAPORE: The penguins from Jurong Bird Park have finally completed their move to Bird Paradise at Mandai Wildlife Reserve.

The 32 birds were among the last few to move over, Mandai Wildlife Group said in a media release on Tuesday (May 2). 

The penguins were transported on Apr 28 to their new habitat, the Ocean Network Express Penguin Cove. They consist of four species: Gentoo, Humboldt, King and Northern Rockhopper.

“To ensure the penguins were fit for the move, the veterinary healthcare team conducted physical checks which included weighing each individual before they entered their customised transport crates,” said Mandai Wildlife Group.

The Humboldt, Gentoo and Northern Rockhopper penguins, which are smaller in size, were “gently cradled” by the keepers and placed in compartmentalised crates, while the larger King penguins were “ushered along” to enter their own crates. 

“The crates were packed with ice at the bottom to keep them cool before they were loaded into a truck that maintained a temperature below 12 degrees Celsius, similar to their old penguin exhibit,” said the group, adding that minimising temperature fluctuation prevents thermal stress and ensures a safe and smooth transition.

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His team will then be able to analyse the challenges to see if there are interventions that will benefit all. 

They keep track of the progress at the agencies and if it is not as fast as intended, they will engage them to find out why. 

“Agencies will then be able to be very frank about some of the challenges and sometimes the challenges are not within the capabilities or regulations or the scope of the single agency,” he said. 

“That’s where as a GCSO, I can hear the challenges of different agencies and be able to make sense and sometimes bring together multiple agencies to come together to solve problems.” 

ADDRESSING THE CHALLENGES OF AGENCIES 

He sees his role as a conductor, he said. 

“The policy planners compose the music, individual agencies playing their sections (implementing), and as the conductor, I oversee the different parts to ensure coordination and harmony to bring out the best in every part.” 

“If we address the agencies’ challenges in the journey, it will help us to understand the challenges that the rest of the society will face,” said Mr Lim. 

He added that they have engaged corporate partners, who have shared their ideas. 

“We were also able to point them to the right agencies … (and) they can take some of these ideas and go to the next step,” he said. 

Mr Lim, who served as the chief science and technology officer at the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment (MSE) before being appointed to his current position, spoke about the role the public sector can play. 

THE ROLE OF THE PUBLIC SECTOR 

With the public service having many large emitters like wastewater and incinerators, there is potential to further cut carbon emissions, he said. 

Since the public sector is a big buyer of goods and services too, Mr Lim believes government procurement and standards may be an avenue to get others to go green faster. 

This belief is being applied to the construction and information and communications technology sectors, which Mr Lim said are typically large accounts in terms of expenditure that have “significant” opportunities in terms of emissions reductions. 

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It was also her first time taking part in the dynamic four-way open category, as she wanted to “try something new”.

While she has flown with her teammates individually before, this was the first time they were coming together in the category on the world stage, said Kyra.

She said flying with three other people is more difficult and different from what she was used to.

”We all share the same tunnel. It’s kind of like four different cars driving at the same time trying to maneuver around one another. However, there’s no roads, there’s no lines on the roads, and there’s not even any traffic lights,” she said.

“So the precision that we have has to be 120 per cent, because we have to fly around one another, over and under one another and even avoid (one another), at the same time flying in unison together.”

Kyra said the team members brought their individual strengths and it all came together nicely, as they took bronze.

Of course, there were some bumps during training as the team familiarised themselves with the routine.

“Definitely when we were training together, we’ll have some bumps against one another,” said Kyra.

“But because we had a coach and we always have an instructor at the door, it never got to a point where it was serious. It was always about just flying our own lines and being a 100 per cent into it and putting in our effort.”

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NLB chief executive officer Ng Cher Pong said: “While we are sad to leave the Esplanade, we are excited by the opportunities of creating a new, consolidated arts resource right in the heart of the Civic District

“In addition to the strong performing arts collection carried over from the library@esplanade, patrons can enjoy the convenience of accessing NLB’s rich arts collections under one roof at the National Library Building.”

Esplanade CEO Yvonne Tham said this is not the end of its strong partnership with NLB as it will continue to work in synergy with NLB to further arts and cultural education and learning despite the move.

“Esplanade will further our national role in developing the cultural sector by creating much-needed studio spaces for small-scale performances, public workshops and talks, masterclasses and rehearsals,” she said.

Part of the space will be converted into an office space for the Singapore Symphony Group, which manages the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and its affiliated performing groups.

She added: “Visitors can also look forward to new food and beverage offerings as part of Esplanade Mall’s unique positioning as an arts-meets-lifestyle destination in the Civic District and Marina Bay precincts.”

Ahead of its relocation, NLB will host a series of events at the library@esplanade in June, including performances and movie screenings.

An “Intermission Party”, open to the public, will also be held on Jun 30. Details will be available on the LearnXArts Facebook page in the coming weeks.

FACILITIES, MATERIALS FOR PUBLIC USE

By the second half of 2024, students, researchers, arts practitioners and academic institutions in the Bras Basah-Bugis precinct can look forward to art programmes and collections of materials, both for borrowing and reference.

This includes collections of books, music scores, play scripts and CDs, as well as recordings of films, operas, dance performances and theatre productions.

A piano practice room and a silent studio where musicians can hold jamming sessions and a new programming zone that is fitted with a baby grand piano will continue to host a variety of performing arts programmes. 

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SINGAPORE: Three friends from China flew to Singapore for a holiday and to gamble, but conspired to steal casino chips using super glue on their palms if they lost money gambling.

The thief who had hatched the plot bought two bottles of super glue online and handed them to his accomplice, who had an eye condition. 

The latter was to tell authorities that the bottles contained eye drops if any questions were raised.

After visiting the casino for multiple days in March 2023, the thief who had come up with the plot was caught red-handed by another gambler, who grabbed his hand and saw the chip stuck to his palm.

Huang Chunsheng, 50, was sentenced to eight months’ jail. Zheng Jiansheng, 64, who had the eye condition and stole the most chips, was given 10 months’ jail. Jiang Renjing, 55, received seven months’ jail.

THE CASE

The court heard that the three men had arrived in Singapore on Mar 6 this year on social visit passes that allowed them to stay for only 14 days.

Before arriving in Singapore without return tickets, Huang hatched a plan to steal chips if he lost money gambling by applying super glue to his palm.

His modus operandi involved him passing his palm over a casino chip, so the chip stuck to the glue, allowing him to conceal the chip from view and pocket it.

Huang shared his plan with Zheng and Jiang at the Guangzhou airport in China. He handed two bottles of super glue to Zheng, who had an eye condition and could not see in one eye.

He knew that Zheng’s condition required him to apply eye drops every day to prevent infection, so he got Zheng to carry the bottles and say they contained eye drops if questioned by customs officers.

When they landed in Singapore, they went to the Marina Bay Sands casino every day for six days until they were caught.

At their hotel on Mar 7, Huang showed the other two men how to use super glue to “stick” a casino chip onto his palm. The two men watched and practised the technique with bottle caps and casino chips. They had both lost money at the casino and wanted to recoup their losses.

At first, they planned to divide the profits equally, but later decided that each thief was to keep whatever money he stole.

The trio went to the casino every day from Mar 6 to Mar 11, going their separate ways after reaching the venue.

They would steal casino chips from other patrons after using up their own chips, using the super glue technique. They would apply the glue on their palms in the toilet before heading out to gamble.

The three men targeted gamblers who had placed large bets with a whole stack of chips, so it would be harder for them to realise some chips were missing.

HUANG CAUGHT RED-HANDED

Huang was eventually caught red-handed by a gambler on Mar 11. The victim realised that his casino chip had gone missing after Huang placed his hand near his stack of chips.

The victim immediately grabbed Huang’s hand and realised that the chip was stuck onto Huang’s palm. The victim told the dealer what happened, while Huang hurriedly retracted his wager and left.

He told Zheng and Jiang that he could not go back as he had been caught, and suggested heading to the casino at Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) instead.

The three men were arrested at RWS Casino on Mar 11, 2023. In total, they had stolen S$1,575 worth of casino chips.

The trio pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiring to steal. Zheng also pleaded guilty to two other charges of cheating while gambling under the Casino Control Act – where he also used the super glue method.

The prosecutor sought seven to nine months’ jail for Huang and Jiang. For Huang, she asked for between eight and 10 months’ jail.

The offence was premeditated and involved a “high level of sophistication”, she said. 

There is a very strong public interest in deterring criminal activities in casinos, which are “potential hotbeds” for such activities, said the prosecutor.

In mitigation, Zheng said via a Mandarin interpreter that he was lowly educated and did not know how to express himself well in words.

Zheng, who applied eye drops regularly throughout the hearing, said he knew that he had broken the law. He asked for leniency, saying he had cooperated with the police.

Jiang said this was his first time travelling overseas and his first time in Singapore. He asked the court to consider that he was a first-time offender and be lenient.

Huang pleaded for leniency, saying he had two elderly parents in their 80s and a child in primary school to support.

The judge said he had considered the case and while the prosecution had asked for the same sentence for the theft charge, each person played different roles and had different levels of criminality.

He told Zheng that he had the most instances of cheating at casinos and stole the largest amount of money, and a distinction must be drawn.

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SINGAPORE: A taxi driver who bought a flat in Tampines applied for joint tenancy with his China national wife after she attained permanent residency in Singapore.

After he died, his sister turned to the court seeking shares of the flat that would otherwise go solely to her brother’s widow.

In a judgment published on Tuesday (May 2), Justice Mavis Chionh dismissed the sister’s bid entirely. She ruled that the widow owned the flat absolutely, and that her sister-in-law is to return to her all keys to the flat.

THE CASE

The taxi driver, Mr Ho Fook Tuck, bought the Housing Board flat at 458 Tampines Street 42 in his sole name in 1988. 

Several of his family members stayed with him in the flat at various points, including his mother until her death, his estranged father for a brief period before his death, and two sisters. One of them later moved out when she got married, but another sister continued to live with him and had issues with his wife.

In July 2009, Fook Tuck met China national Ms Wang Kai Qing, when she visited Singapore for a holiday. He was 48 and she was 10 years his junior.

The couple got married in China in 2010. According to Ms Wang, Fook Tuck told her after they got married that his younger sister had lived with him in the flat for many years, and that she appeared to prefer living there rent-free despite having S$300,000 in her bank account post-retirement.

According to his wife, Fook Tuck did not know how to tell his younger sister to leave. Fook Tuck also purportedly told his wife that his sister had a temper and often “bullied” him, such as by refusing to let him use the washing machine.

Fook Tuck was concerned that his sister would also bully his new wife if the latter moved in, and arranged for them to live elsewhere, renting a room for this purpose.

According to Ms Wang, Fook Tuck would stay with her in their rented room but return to the Tampines flat to sleep at night so he did not disturb his wife’s sleep when he woke up for his graveyard shift as a cabby.

If they did go to the Tampines flat, they did so quietly so as not to disturb Fook Tuck’s younger sister, who had a habit of sleeping in the day. If they ran into her, she was openly hostile to Ms Wang, the latter said.

Fook Tuck gave his wife about S$1,500 every month for rental and living expenses. He found her a job as a waitress at first, but later enrolled her in a business administration course, paid her tuition fees and ferried her to school until she graduated in 2012.

In 2014, Ms Wang successfully became a Singapore Permanent Resident after her husband made an application on her behalf. He also found a job for her as a masseuse and drove her to work every day.

HE ADDED HER NAME TO THE FLAT

Two months after Ms Wang became a permanent resident, Fook Tuck told her that she could now own a HDB flat and that he would be adding her name to the Tampines flat.

He took her to an HDB branch office and listened to the officer explaining that since they had chosen “joint name holding”, whoever of the two of them was still alive would get the flat automatically.

Fook Tuck told his wife that the flat was fully paid for and that she had nothing to worry about. He said that if anything happened to him, she could stay in the flat or sell it and retire to China if she wished.

In 2015, Fook Tuck decided to get a divorce in China so they could get married in Singapore after hearing from a friend that their marriage in China was not valid in Singapore.

They registered their divorce in China in June 2015 and went to Singapore’s Registry of Marriages a month later, completing the online application for a Notice of Marriage. They also bought wedding rings and formal clothes.

However, they did not go through with the solemnisation as Fook Tuck heard a claim from a friend that Singapore records would show they were husband and wife since the divorce in China had not been registered in Singapore.

Ms Wang said that married life with her husband did not change after the on-paper divorce in China. 

In October 2015, Fook Tuck’s younger sister brought her boyfriend to live with her in the Tampines flat.

Fook Tuck was displeased and told his wife that it was time for his sister to leave the flat. Ms Wang said that the sister, perhaps embarrassed about her live-in boyfriend, told Fook Tuck that he could take Ms Wang home to live in the flat.

Around this time, Fook Tuck and his wife began making plans to rent out the bedroom that had been occupied by his late father. However, his sister insisted that any tenant would have to use the master bedroom toilet that was used by Fook Tuck and his wife.

Upset that the sister was making things difficult for them, Ms Wang refused to move into the Tampines flat. Fook Tuck was upset and angry and suggested that he get his elder brother’s help to sell the flat so that he and his wife could move into a smaller flat.

However, his plans to sell the flat did not materialise, as he became ill. He did not want his wife to accompany him for check-ups, telling her that “everything was fine”.

He continued to work despite his illness and died in September 2016. His wife found out about his death when he did not meet her as usual that day.

She claimed that she wanted to rush down to hospital, but was told to go to the funeral home the next day instead.

AFTER HIS DEATH

After Fook Tuck was cremated, the claimant, his eldest sister Ho Woon Chun, told Ms Wang that she would be putting a stop to Fook Tuck’s Central Provident Fund payments for Ms Wang’s hospital insurance premiums.

After the funeral, Ms Wang returned to China to grieve. When she returned to Singapore, she buried herself in work to cope with her grief.

According to Ms Wang, Woon Chun never informed her about a notice from HDB about the Home Improvement Program, nor about an application for letters of administration for Fook Tuck’s estate.

Instead, Woon Chun’s lawyers contacted Ms Wang in an attempt to get Ms Wang to sign a declaration about the flat. In June 2022, Ms Wang received another letter from Woon Chun’s lawyers.

In the letter, Woon Chun said she took the position, as legal representative of the estate, that the Tampines flat belonged to the estate and that Ms Wang was holding the flat “on trust” for the estate. Ms Wang was to take “immediate steps” to transfer the flat to the estate, the letter read.

In cross-examination, Ms Wang testified that she did not dare to visit the flat after her husband died as she was afraid of his “very fierce” younger sister.

She also said that she did not want to go to court to chase the sister out of the flat, as the latter was still family and that her husband had not tried to chase her out when he was alive.

THE ELDEST SISTER’S CASE

Woon Chun said that her brother had paid for the flat and maintained it, and that Ms Wang did not visit the flat after Fook Tuck died nor broach the topic of the flat at any time.

Woon Chun said her brother’s marriage was “a short marriage of five years which produced no children”, with no family member attending the wedding or knowing about it.

She said Ms Wang did not have a close relationship with any of the siblings, attending only one family gathering during Chinese New Year in 2011, when the siblings learnt of the marriage.

Woon Chun contended that it was a “sham marriage”, and the younger sister who lived in the flat claimed that Fook Tuck and his wife would never close the door of the room when they were at the flat.

Woon Chun also said she was the one who took her brother to his medical appointments, and that the siblings made all arrangements for his wake and funeral while Ms Wang was the last to find out about his passing.

She claimed that her brother always intended to retain the entire beneficial interest in the flat for himself, even when he added his wife as joint tenant.

Therefore, Ms Wang holds the entire beneficial interest in the flat on behalf of the estate.

In the alternative, she asked for the flat to be split five ways – among the four siblings and Ms Wang.

But Justice Chionh found that Woon Chun did not have “sufficient and compelling evidence” for her case.

“It appears to me highly improbable that the deceased would have decided his siblings should each get 20 per cent of the flat without bothering to tell any of the siblings,” she said.

She found that the couple had been in a genuinely loving relationship and affirmed that the flat was to go wholly to Ms Wang.

She ordered Woon Chun to return the original lease as well as all keys to the flat.

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SINGAPORE: A warehouse supervisor who took loans of S$1 million (US$748,000) to repay his losses from gambling and cryptocurrency turned to taking SK-II products from his company and selling them to his own buyers. 

Singaporean Foo You Ann, 50, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years’ jail on Tuesday (May 2). He pleaded guilty to one count of criminal breach of trust by dishonest misappropriation.

The court heard that Foo worked as a warehouse supervisor at Luxury Ventures (Beauty) for about two years.

He was stationed at Hotel Michael in Sentosa and was the only person at the warehouse, in charge of receiving the goods and sending them to stores. 

In early September 2022, Foo lost money in gambling and cryptocurrency and took loans amounting to S$1 million to repay his debts.

He decided to take products from the warehouse and sell them to earn money, as he knew that the company had just done a stock take in August and the next one would take place in December.

Foo knew two buyers who were selling beauty products online, so he contacted them to ask if they wanted any products from SK-II. After reaching an agreement, he would meet the buyers at the hotel lobby and pass them the items in exchange for cash or payment via bank transfer.

From September 2022 to Nov 17, 2022, Foo took nearly S$698,000 in SK-II products from the warehouse. He received about S$150,000 to S$250,000 from the two buyers, and used the money on repaying debts or other personal uses like gambling.

The crimes were uncovered when an assistant manager went to the warehouse and realised that some products were not in their boxes. When she asked Foo if the boxes had been empty before arriving at the warehouse, he did not answer.

Foo then asked the assistant manager to check with the general manager if he could buy the boxes from the company at a cheaper price.

The assistant manager told the general manager, who confronted Foo. Foo admitted to the offences and the police were called in. No restitution was made.

The prosecutor asked for four-and-a-half to five years’ jail for Foo. He has convictions dating as far back as 1988, for offences like affray, theft, cheating and drug possession.

Foo, who was remanded, asked for leniency through a Mandarin interpreter. He told the court that he was an only son, and his mother is more than 70 years old.

“She is staying alone. She has been in and out of hospital and she requires my MediSave for her hospital bills,” said Foo.

“I’m pleading for your leniency for light sentence so that I can take care of my mother as soon as I’ve finished serving my sentence.”

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The SEA Games will take place in Cambodia from May 5 to May 17.

But the younger athletes are not fazed by the challenge, and are looking to rise up to the occasion.

DEPTH OF TALENT IN TEAM

The Singapore Badminton Association, the sport’s governing body here, said the scheduling clash is a good sign.

It shows that the team is now qualifying for major events, with enough depth in talent to send other players for another competition, its technical director Martin Andrew told CNA.

Among the younger players called up is 21-year-old Nur Insyirah Khan.

She is no stranger to the SEA Games, having been involved in three previous editions.

While she was previously involved in the women’s team events, the upcoming games will see her make her singles debut.

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DIFFICULT CHOICES ON WAGES AND FOREIGN LABOUR

Consider this: In labour-lean Singapore, in fact millions of dollars have been put aside through various government programmes to skill, reskill, and upskill workers; attract more to return to the workforce and remain past retirement age. Mr Wong, who is also Finance Minister, has said that this system of skills development, including SkillsFuture, will be made more effective, especially for those who now only have basic vocational capabilities.

That effort must undergird the near-universal implementation of the skills and wage ladder system of the Progressive Wage Model at this time of recovery which places a double burden on employers. As businesses struggle to survive, restructure and develop new streams of value, they also have to do right by local workers. They will not be allowed to grasp for the easier route – to have the foreign workers they need or want.

The policy choice has been to ensure that firms needing workers will also need to pay a “local qualifying salary” before they are allowed to tap foreign labour – this from Work Permits to professional Employment Passes.

At the higher end, foreign professionals can be scored on four or up to six stringent criteria in the Complementarity Assessment Framework, recently enhanced to recognise the needs for strategic growth sectors, before they are assessed to be qualified for work here.

In his speech, Mr Wong shared stories of three multinational firms to illustrate his grasp of the sort of competition Singapore faces in securing more wealth-creating investments and the strategies employed for a win-win-win equation among the tripartite partners for the long-term.

What he did not mention much of are the local businesses that need “home” to be the best place to start, grow, and take off. They cannot outbid the big boys here for the requisite resources, which is why there are NTUC programmes tailored to this critical market for talent and manpower. It is the foreign-local nexus among businesses that will benefit greater attention as we move ahead.

The 4G leaders led by Mr Wong must mediate this complex set of demands and expectations between labour and employers, tapping on the “inherited” political asset they have, as they take over the reins from PM Lee and the other senior Cabinet members. The more explicit, honest, and emphatic they can be about what these considerations are, the deeper and more robust the political compact across government to employers, workers, and citizens as the world presents us with a more uncertain future.

Dr Gillian Koh is Deputy Director (Research), Institute of Policy Studies, National University of Singapore.

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