It did not come as a surprise that the ruling party didn’t manage to get majority seats in parliament this year - given the various upheavals last year - ranging from the discourse from the Chinese on the advantage that the Malays in Malaysia get to the discrimination of Indians in the Malay-majority community. Not only did the ruling party failed to retain all of its 12 states, it also didn’t manage to get the state it’s been eyeing on - Kelantan. Apparently, they tried a rather familiar method used in Singapore - dangling the carrot - promising to throw in millions of top dollars for better development of the Kelantan state.

That, unfortunately, didn’t go on as planned.

Earlier in the day, one would have thought that the ruling party would have gotten at ;east 2/3 majority of the parliament seats - which according to Singapore’s ruling party, is still a strong mandate (2/3 = 66.7%). However, near closing, the ruling party only got 137 out of 222 seats, which is just 61.7% - about 5% shy of the majority they need. Even if they get the remaining 3 seats, it’d still just be about 63.1%. Still no strong mandate.

Ultimately, what this means in Malaysia’s politics is that the ruling party will not be able to change the constitution as and when they want - which requires a 2/3 majority vote in parliament and that everyone in the ruling party is supposed to follow the party whip.

Of course, at this time, PM Abdullah is still showing no signs of distress - and only God knows how long he’d be able to keep this up. While some people expect him to step down from the party, it seems unlikely that he’d do so.

This election broke the party’s 50-year rule and is representative that of the people’s fatigue against the ruling party. Indeed, the people has shown that they wanted better change - a change they can believe in amidst inflation and rising crimes. This is also a means of quiet demonstration - where the disgruntled do not head out to the streets like the Indians did last year, but rather, they decide to cast their votes where their views are.

So, how does this affect Singapore?

Every single thing, of course. Malaysia is Singapore’s closing neighbour and legislation on trade and economy sometimes have a direct effect. Whether it’s for the better or for the worse is speculative. On the other hand, things may just remain status quo as long as Abdullah remains as PM.

From a deeper perspective, these kind of results is something that will not be witnessed in Singapore. Besides having mouse memory, Singaporeans tend to be a forgiving lot whenever honest mistakes were made by the ruling party. In addition, dangling carrots will probably wash off all bad memories that any people have of the government.

For the next election, eyes will be on the Potong Pasir ward - where incumbent Chiam See Tong had been maintaining his stronghold for 6 terms. He had been pushing hard for upgrading in his precinct, which has always been delayed. In addition, he is said to have suffered a minor stroke this year, which may be detrimental against him when the next election comes. It is therefore important for political parties to bring in fresh blood and present them to the public as soon as possible - to ensure that faces will not be too new when the next election comes.

Besides the Potong Pasir ward, the ruling party also had near misses in various wards, including Aljunied and Cheng San. Some have thought the near misses to be wake-up calls for the government to pull up their socks, while others thought that it could just be freak results. If the latter is true, then there is a chance that the people will be more cautious of their votes in the next election.

All in all, Singapore is seen to have a weak opposition and it is unlikely that there will an upset similar to that seen in Malaysia in this recent election. However, I am sure that the Singapore government is not letting up and will be coming up with more plans to ensure that they get most, if not all seats in parliament. his usually comes in the form of dangling carrots, after giving the stick for that few years in between elections - some of which includes raising ERP gantries, GST, and non-intervention in rising inflation. However, these may always be measures that only the government can understand.

Yeah… there isn’t a typo here - man is "man" with a small "m" and not a big "M" which generally refers to mankind (meaning men and women and all). Why do I say so, gee… I guess the screen shot tells a thousand words.

The people at Google Korea do know what’s most important/best for men, since by any order, the first match should have been the second match instead.

Ed: This is not the AutoComplete feature in IE. This is the AutoComplete feature on the Google site.

How many of us are actually aware that we are constantly told that whatever bad that happens, it’s none of others’ business? This is especially evident whenever we are making use of facilities made available for the public and it comes in the form of standard disclaimers that we see everyday - in buildings, in playgrounds, in carparks… and a whole lot of other places. While it’s quite understandable for them to have such a disclaimer - least they be sued for every single thing, what happens when the fault is on the part of the organization?

I am not sure if the disclaimer actually covers every single thing, but what happens when the fault is clearly on the end of the organization’s? Such as leaking pipes, electric shocks, or leaking roofs that results in some personal damage? Is this still covered by the disclaimer? I had always thought that the disclaimers only covers acts done by someone else, but apparently, CAAS decided that they day they built their carparks, they decided that it’s none of their business even if a pipe falls onto you car.

Of course, in the letter from a reader to the Straits Times, it’s just a leaking pipe that destroys paintwork.

Car paintwork spoilt by pipe leaks at T3 but…

I PARKED my vehicle overnight at Changi Airport Terminal 3 carpark B in mid-January. When I checked my car, I was surprised to find that the pipes above my car had leaked an unknown substance onto it, damaging the car’s paintwork.

The terminal manager on duty confirmed the damage to the paintwork and took pictures when he investigated my complaint. He advised me to file a report with Wilson Parking, which was the carpark provider for T3. I sent my car to a workshop, had it resprayed and filed a police report.

I called the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) to find out about my claim. Months later, I received a reply, telling me that the authority was not responsible because I did not have an IDAC report on the damage done to the car, did not source for the cheapest workshop to respray my car and that the signs in the carpark had clearly stated that owners parked their cars at their own risk. I am dismayed by the reply. I do not understand why I had to source for the cheapest workshop to respray my car. The fault wasn’t mine. All I wanted was to be reimbursed for respraying my car. I did not claim for loss of use despite the fact that my car spent a week in the workshop.

Neither do I understand why the CAAS justified its reply by saying that there were signs telling owners that they were liable for the risk of parking the cars in a CAAS carpark. The leak from the pipe was not my doing but was the result of CAAS’ negligence. Furthermore, the intent of the sign warning owners that they park at their own risk is meant to address criminal cases such as car thefts, break-ins and vandalism.

Gabriel Lin

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 8th March 2008

Seriously, I don’t think he’d be caught anytime soon. In fact, I was watching The Fugitive (previously starred by Yong from NKF and originally starred by Harrison Ford), there were some scenes that resembles what the SPF are going through right now - especially the part where he escaped from an ambulance and just “disappeared” despite the police combing both ends of the tunnel.

Of course, if all goes according to the script, there’s little chance that the SPF will catch him anytime soon and that the only time left to catch him is when he’s come out from hiding and getting himself comfortable. Of course, this means he’d probably have the next plan to bomb up Singapore up and running by then.

Mas is really giving us a lot of problem. First the causeway jams, now the fingerprints. Singapore is beginning to turn into another US in paranoia. However, I don’t deny that it’s a need instead of just pretending that everything is gonna be ok… or everything’s gonna be alright.

ON Day 10 of the hunt for fugitive Mas Selamat Kastari, added security checks have been enforced at all checkpoints - which means showing your passport may no longer be enough.

As straitstimes.com found out, officers from the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) at all land, air and sea exit and entry points have also started scanning travellers’ fingerprints.

Whether this is only done randomly or enforced on all travellers is unclear.

Taxi drivers ferrying passengers to Johor, plus some bus and lorry drivers, told straitstimes.com that checkpoint authorities started doing this in the last two days.

Taxi driver Tan Ah Tee, 54, who has been ferrying passengers across Woodlands Checkpoints for the last three years, said it is the first time he has encountered such a procedure.

He told straitstimes.com that both his passengers and himself have had to provide a fresh fingerprint for each trip he makes out of Singapore.

When asked for comment, ICA said: “Security has been enhanced at all checkpoints. We are unable to give further details due to operational concerns.”

“Further checks will be conducted on travellers, vehicles and baggage where necessary. This includes the scanning of fingerprints.”

With the weekend approaching and the March school holidays starting on Saturday, ICA expects throngs of vehicles to start flocking to Woodlands and Tuas Checkpoints from Friday evening.

They have advised people to plan their trips around peak periods in the morning and evening to avoid the traffic crunch.

Those who have to make the trip during the busy periods are advised to practise lane discipline to ease congestion. Car pooling and taking the public transport are among other recommended ways to beat the jams.

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 7th March 2008

This is really funny. I am not sure if the facility actually has the means to prevent an outward Armageddon but by publicising the location, doesn’t that make it a nice target for Mas "Limping Terrorist" Selamat and the likes? Of course, unless you are saying that there are no ammunition in the facility and all it does is just for people to practise their shooting… which I highly doubt so.

Speaking of Mas Selamat, he’s really made life inconvenient for a lot of people, especially for the poor lorry drivers who are stuck at the causeway. I’d be really pissed as well if I were stuck in an 80cm x 120cm compartment with carbon dioxide for "fresh air" and soot for "dessert toppings". Today’s the start of the weekend. I wonder how things will be like.

SINGAPORE achieved another milestone on Friday, with the commissioning of the world’s most modern underground ammunition facility at Mandai.

Minister for Defence Teo Chee Hean officiated at the commissioning of the Underground Ammunition Facility (UAF), which is also Singapore’s first large-scale underground containerised facility to be designed and developed within a densely developed and urbanised area. It is equipped with the latest ammunition storage technology and systems.

Apart from safety and operational requirements, efficient land use and space management were key considerations in the design of the UAF, said a Ministry of Defence statement, which describes the UAF as ‘an engineering achievement which has set new standards in underground storage, safety and efficiency’.

By building an underground facility instead of a conventional above-ground facility, UAF freed up about 300 hectares of land - or about 400 football fields or half of Pasir Ris New Town.

Through good systems engineering, the UAF has also achieved efficiencies beyond land use.

‘The UAF requires 20 per cent less manpower to operate than a conventional facility by leveraging on IT and automation. The natural insulation provided by the granite caverns also achieves a 50 per cent reduction in the energy required for cooling compared to a conventional depot,’ said Mindef.

The team behind the UAF won a Defence Technology Prize last October.

The engineering team comprised members from the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), the Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA), and SembCorp Design and Construction. Other research centres which collaborated on the project include the Nanyang Technological University and the National University of Singapore, as well as Sandia National Laboratories in the United States, FOI - the Swedish Defence and Research Establishment, and the Norwegian Defence Estate Agency.

The underground storehouse is carved from solid granite. A warren of subterranean road tunnels - big enough for container trucks to drive through - leads several storeys underground to 100m by 26m chambers.

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 7th March 2008

Haha.. it seems like we’ll never have enough of airport terminals, do we? Or have we gotten into an obsession of building these terminals? Apparently, a new Terminal 4 is in the pipeline. At the same time, a budget is set aside to upgrade the current budget terminal to cater to 7 million visitors when SEA routes are being liberalised in the near future.

Strange thing was that I was told the budget terminal is actually a temporary structure and that a "proper one" will be built in due time. Is the "upgrade" going to give rise to a more permanent structure, or will we end up building more temporary structures?

Hmm… don’t really know what’s happening in the east…

TO fend off competition from other airports in the region, Singapore will be building a fourth passenger terminal at Changi Airport, said Minister of State for Transport Lim Hwee Hua in Parliament.

Speaking during the debate on her ministry’s spending plans, Mrs Lim said Changi needs to expand its capacity since its status as an global aviation hub is now under strong challenge from bigger competitors like Dubai, Bangkok and Beijing.

It was only in January that Changi Airport opened the $1.75 billion Terminal Three. $500 million have also been set aside to upgrade Terminal One, while the $240 million makeover for Terminal Two has already been completed.

And now the ‘master planning’ for Terminal Four, said Mrs Lim, has already started.

Changi’s passenger traffic hit a record 36.7 million last year - 4.8 per cent higher than in 2006.

But regional and international competition for passengers has also intensified.

Beijing airport’s $3.8 billion third terminal, bigger than all five terminals at London?s Heathrow, opened its doors on Feb 29.

At the same time, Dubai also plans to spend $33 billion to build the world’s largest airport, which will be able to handle 120 million people a year when it’s ready in 2012.

In recent years, newly expanded terminals have also sprung up in Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur.

And on the budget terminal

SINGAPORE’S Budget Terminal for low-cost carriers will undergo a S$10 million upgrade that will more than double its handling capacity.

The expansion, which will start in July, will raise the terminal’s annual handling capacity from 2.7 million passengers to 7 million when the upgrade is completed in early 2009, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) said on Thursday.

The terminal will also get three more boarding gates, additional baggage handling equipment as well as an extra seven check-in counters, it said in a statement.

The kerbside at the arrival hall will be widened for arriving passengers waiting for vehicles to pick them up.

CAAS chief executive Lim Kim Choon said the upgrade will allow the terminal to cope better with an expected rise in traffic when restrictions on flights between Southeast Asian capital cities are lifted by the end of the year.

‘With increased air transport liberalisation in this region, airlines, including low cost carriers, have now greater opportunities to rapidly expand their air network and increase their flight operations,’ Mr Lim said.

‘The expansion of the budget terminal to increase its handling capacity is timely as we expect passenger traffic to increase further with Asean’s goal to remove all restrictions on passenger flights between Asean capitals by December 2008.’

‘The increased handling capacity can last us through the next few years.’

CAAS said the budget terminal’s number of weekly flights has increased from 124 in March 2006 when it began operation to 248 last month.

About 1.77 million passengers passed through the termal last year. It has served about 2.9 million passengers since it opened on March 26, 2006.

‘After almost two years of operations, the terminal’s expansion is necessary to keep ahead of the air traffic growth,’ said a CAAS statement.

Singapore-based Tiger Airways and Cebu Pacific of the Philippines are the two carriers using the budget terminal.

The Budget Terminal is located less than two km away, or a 5-minute drive, from Changi Airport’s Terminals 1, 2 and 3.

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 6th March 2008

I’m not sure if the company gave politically correct replies or did they really mean what they said - but basically, it’s just one of the endless things that I read that says "suck thumb" again. Haha… apparently, sucking thumb seems to be the latest thing in town, or at least it seems to be =P

These 2 poor chaps (in article) were charged in court for trying to remove evidence from their office premises. Strangely, these 2 were just employees of the company and no mention of the tax evasion probe was on them. While the company agreed to continue to retain them for work, they said that the fines that were imposed on the 2 employees will not be borne by the company because they acted on their own personal capacity.

Haha… so much for blinded loyalty.

TWO men working for a large parallel importer pleaded guilty yesterday to removing evidence that had been seized by Singapore Customs officers in a probe into a case of suspected tax evasion.

In the first case of its kind here, Ng Chee Siang, 25, was fined $12,000, and his accomplice Chua Wee Meng, 38, $8,000 in a district court.

The offence took place last June, when a party of Customs officers armed with a search warrant raided the Auto Touch Credit office in Kampong Ubi. The pair, employees in the company’s purchasing department, had tried to leave the premises with a file that had been seized.

They could each have been jailed for up to 18 months for what they did.

Auto Touch Credit is the main company behind Pinnacle Motors, a retailer of parallel imported cars, which posted sales in excess of $250 million last year.

The statement of facts by a Customs prosecutor said that the officers seized several files during the raid, on suspicion that the company was under-declaring the value of its car imports to evade taxes.

During the operation, Ng, holding one of the seized files, was spotted heading for the exit. A Customs officer stopped him and retrieved it.

A few hours later, Chua, Auto Touch’s purchasing manager, was seen leaving the office with the file. Ignoring a Customs officer who shouted at him to stop, Chua ran for a staircase, where he handed the file to Ng. The pair headed for the carpark via different exits, but a Customs officer intercepted them and retrieved the file.

They were arrested three months later.

District Judge Toh Yung Cheong, handing down the sentence yesterday, said Ng and Chua would have received jail terms if any evidence had been destroyed.

In his mitigation plea, the men’s lawyer, Mr Foo Cheow Ming of KhattarWong, said his clients were ‘not rogues, but utter fools’. He said they were ‘hardworking, upcoming and basically decent young men’ who had acted ‘out of a misplaced sense of loyalty to the company’.

Pinnacle managing director Valerie Tan said yesterday that Ng and Chua will keep their jobs, but that the company would not pay for their fines ‘because they acted in their personal capacity’.

She could not say why they tried to retrieve the file, which she claimed had ‘nothing to do with new car imports’.

The tax evasion probe is still under way.

Article obtained on 5th March 2008

If you do not wish to be picked up by the police, then you might want to avoid wearing anything beige or brown - doesn’t matter if it’s top or bottom; after all, a top can become a bottom and a bottom can become a top

At least from a woman’s perspective.

Sometimes, I wonder what’s the point of publishing such information since he’d be changing clothes anyway. Speaking of which, I saw a wan bao article that probably caught the concerns of some heartlanders. It scream: "Be careful, he may steal your car"…

I think that was enough to get people on the lookout. After all, human *are* selfish creatures. =)

ESCAPED terrorist Mas Selamat was last seen wearing greenish grey baju kurong when he bolted from the Whitley Road Detention Centre last Wednesday afternoon, said police on Tuesday.

He could also have worn them over a white round-neck T-shirt and brown long trousers, which are the standard uniform for detainees at the detention centre where he had been held since 2006 under the Internal Security Act. Police said detainees are allowed to wear civilian clothes on family visits day.

Releasing details on what the fugitive was last seen in for the first time since his escape, Police Assistant Commissioner (AC) Wong Hong Kuan told reporters on Tuesday morning that Mas Selamat was wearing the baju kurong - a very loose blouse with just a small neckline, worn over a sarong usually wrapped around the lower part of the body - while he was being taken to meet his family last Wednesday.

While being led to the family visit room, the detainee asked to go to the toilet and fled from there. As the fugitive has been on the run for almost six days, police said he might have discarded the prison garb and baju kurong and changed into something else. The public is asked to look out for these discarded items and report to police.

AC Wong said police believe Mas Selamat is still in the country and urged the public to help look out for him. Police have received more than 600 calls and 170 emails from members of the public in recent days, providing leads for the round-the-clock search by police, military and Special Operations Command forces.

Noting that some of the information provided by the public was two or three days old, AC Wong said anyone with leads or tips-off should call the police immediately and not hold them back. He reiterated that no tip-off was too small for the police to chase up.

Asked if extra reserves will be brought in to track down the escapee, AC Wong said the current search forces are able to cope.

On Tuesday morning, about 100 Gurkhas and security forces were combing through the Bukit Timah nature reserves and the Dairy Farm area. Police also carried out massive searches in the Choa Chu Kang and Woodlands areas overnight till the early hours on Tuesday, after a man was seen running away from the security forces.

The fruitless hunt was called off after about six hours. On-going search will focus on forested areas and residential homes fringing these, as well as vacant buildings.

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 4th March 2008

As soon as I thought my last post on Mas Selamat is going to be my last, someone found this and forwarded it to me. I was like… "what the… ?!?!" I just couldn’t believe it. Mas Selamat actually has a Facebook account! But for obvious reasons, I wasn’t able to see who his friends are.

Hmm… and apparently, there is an anti-Mas group as well, with wishful hopes of getting rewards on his head. Early ORD? Heh heh, not even S$50, I think. The ministry (or was it Wong Kan Seng) already made it clear that is was "not their practice". Darn, I can’t find that article any more. Haha…

A few earthquakes had been waking up residents in the South Asia region in the past few weeks - way one too many for most to be comfortable with. While Sumatra/Indonesia sits on the Pacific Rim of Fire, but the recent episodes of earthquakes seem to be a sign of a larger one to come. This is somehow similar to the study on Old Faithful Geyser at Yellowstone National Park in the United States, where geologists believe that there is a huge volume of magma beneath the springs - just waiting to explode and swallow all the tourists in.

In Indonesia, they probably have it worse because most of the victims will be domicile to the place. Let’s just hope the worst won’t come.

JAKARTA - A POWERFUL earthquake measuring 6.3 struck off Indonesia’s Sumatra island early on Monday, officials said.

The quake struck at sea at 9.37am (10.37am Singapore time) some 34 kilometres below ground, Indonesia’s metereology and geophysics office said in a brief telephone text message on Monday.

There were no reports of damage or injuries and there was no tsunami alert.

The United States Geological Survey put the quake at a strength of 6.4.

The quake’s epicentre was nearly 160 kilometres southwest of the town of Painan in West Sumatra province.

Sumatra’s western coast has been repeatedly jolted by strong earthquakes since last month.

On Feb 20, a 7.5-magnitude quake rocked Aceh province, at the tip of Sumatra, killing three people and seriously injuring 25 others on the remote island of Simeulue.

The sprawling Indonesian archipelago sits on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire where continental plates collide, causing frequent and volcanic activity and earthquakes.

Indonesia was the nation worst hit by the Indian Ocean tsunami in December 2004, which killed some 168,000 people in Aceh alone. — AFP

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 3rd March 2008