Local News

A Japanese man, who was working here as a warehouse manager, admitted to entering a female toilet at Far East square 6 times within half an hour in October 2017, with the intention of molesting a female unlucky enough to be in the toilet.

The 26 year old, named as Murase Wataru, saw the unfortunate 20 year old woman on his 6th visit to the toilet, washing her hands. He proceeded to step behind her and slipped his hand into her top to grope her breasts. The victim screamed and squatted, in her effort to ward off her molester, but Wataru still persisted in molesting her. He eventually fled the toilet, which was located at level 1 of Far East Square between Starbucks and Subway. 

The victim made a police report subsequently, and Wataru was identified via CCTV footage. He will be sentenced at a later date.

Henry Thia's twin brother and most times Transport Minister, Khaw Boon Wan announced that Singapore's MRT network is on its way to meet the target for reliability, with the number of train delays and faults reduced. This announcement was made during the 7th Joint Forum on Infrastructure Maintenance. 

In his speech, he said that during the first three quarter of 2018, the MRT network underwent 660,000 train km between any delays, compared to 180,000 train km for the whole of last year. 

However, Singaporeans are not impressed. Most opined that the praising of the reliability of the train was suspiciously timed to coincide with the news that transport fares are going up again. While Khaw have been saying that the reliability have improved, on the ground, commuters noted that the delays are as frequent as before. The only difference was probably the delays were for less than 5 minutes, whereas the measurement that Khaw used is measured for delays of more than 5 minutes.

Former Chairman of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), Mr Gandhi Ambalam, has passed away from cardiac arrest. He helmed the SDP from 2007 to 2011 and ran for elections at Jalan Besar, Jurong GRCs. 

Mr Ambalam used to work in Mediacorp as Chief Editor of News and producing current affairs content. He also helped out with SDP's newspaper before retiring in 2011. With his extensive journalistic experience, he was naturally concerned with freedom of speech and press freedom. On many occasions, he fought for the freedom to hold peaceful public assemblies as well as for workers' rights. It is thanks to him that we have a Speakers' Corner today.

"Members of the SDP mourn his demise. We honour his contribution to the party and, more importantly, to the struggle for democracy in Singapore. We send our deepest condolences to his family." 

Pritam Singh, Sylvia Lim & Low Thia Khiang have received about S$1,130,552.07 in donations. On 1 Nov 2018, a post was made on the ingoodfaith site where they give updates on how much was contributed and what the contributed funds are being used for. 

They have deposited a total of S$1,000,000 to their lawyers. On 31 Oct 2018, the Lawyers deducted a sum of $195,807.31. The balance deposit with the Lawyers thus stands at $804,192.69. This sum will remain with them for payment of further bills for work done. 

Pritam Singh, Sylvia Lim & Low Thia Khiang has been very open and clean about what they do with the funds. Can we say the same about the Parleement? Where are they getting the money to fund the lawsuit against them? 

Are you for or against the death penalty? A netizen shared an open letter to Mdm President Halimah Yacob which asked her to be more sympathetic towards death row inmates. 

The letter explained that many drug offenders commit crime because of their difficult situations and thought it unfair to slap them with a death penalty. 

"Take 40 year old Madam Djawani Bte Saradewi for example, who will be hanged later this year. She who was not receiving financial support for from her ex-husband to care for their schooling son and her ailing mother, while struggling with drug addiction and unemployment. I am not arguing that she is not responsible for her choices and is a victim of her circumstances, but that the role of the situation not be overlooked, and that the punishment be proportionate to the crime."

The writer begged our Madam President to be more like former President Wee Kim Wee, who cared enough to sign clemency requests for prisoners to get life imprisonment instead of death sentences. 

"Dr Wee Kim Wee signed all requests for clemency for drug traffickers sentenced to death during his terms without altering the rates of drug trafficking in Singapore significantly. I read that perhaps it was because he lost his parents when he was young, and he did not want the same thing to happen to a young Singaporean unnecessarily. He was courageous enough to let the ultimate human value of compassion guide his decision, showing an understanding of what it is like to be poor, desperate and to make mistakes; to be human. His realisation that perhaps laws of the past need to be reviewed, and above all his kindness, won the hearts of many Singaporeans.

I have faith that you too are a leader of such quality, and would consider deeply the clemency requests for drug traffickers like Madam Saradewi."

Does our government's position on the death penalty reflect our progress as a nation? If so, just how progressive are Singaporeans and Singapore?

Singapore police have strongly refuted news reports carried by the Indonesian press that a boat belonging to the Singapore Police Coast Guard had collided with an Indonesian vessel carrying fishermen in waters between Singapore and Indonesia.

The news report also alleged that after the collision, the PCG vessel had left the scene without offering any assistance. It was alleged that the Indonesian vessel suffered extensive damage to its left side and caused the engine to be detached, while the fisherman onboard that Indonesian vessel suffered a broken leg and injuries to his waist, where he subsequently fell into the waters.

The injured fisherman was rescued by his friends who were on the other boats, and he was taken to an Indonesian hospital. However, in respond to queries from the media, the Singapore Police strongly refuted the reports from Batam News, stating that all PCG vessels are equipped with CCTVs, and none of the CCTV captured any sort of collision. There were also no markings on the boat to indicate any kind of collision. However, PCG confirmed that the boat was pursuing a cluster of fishing boats who were intruding into Singapore waters. They noticed that one boat subsequently capsized, but the man was rescued by the others before the PCG boat could get to them. The intruders were then warned by the PCG officers against entering and fishing in Singapore waters illegally.