Local News

Seems the entrance of Indonesian ride hailing firm into the Singapore market cannot come soon enough. Just as they announced that they have launched the pre-registration portal for interested drivers, 86% of Grab drivers polled (out of a sample size of 1,200) said that they would want to move to Go-Jek than remain with Grab.

Go-Jek spokesman had indicated that thousands have signed up via their portal just a few hours after the launch on Monday, although he declined to reveal the actual figure. Amongst reasons given by the drivers on why they are looking forward to making the jump was that they had hoped for better working conditions in Go-Jek. Grab drivers are reportedly forced to drive 12 -18 hours daily just to make ends meet. Grab also has an unfair policy on the drivers, where they are banned fro using the Grab app for a specific period of time if they cancelled or simply choose rides, even though the rental fees are calculated on a daily basis. 

As analysts have pointed out, drivers are what make the ride hailing firms successful, thus the success or failure of both Go-Jek and Grab will be dependent on the drivers. It will be an interesting few months on how Go-Jek and Grab addresses their driver issues. 

Lawyer Eugene Thuraisingam was fined again for writing a poem that was found to be in contempt of court. He has to pay $11,000 after posting a poem on his Facebook page hours before his client, a deathrow inmate convicted for drug offences, was scheduled to be hanged. 

In his poem, Thuraisingam accused "million dollar men" for "pretending not to see" what is important and choosing instead to focus on their wealth. He alleged that the law in Singapore is cruel and unjust. He has apologised after receiving a letter from the Attorney-General. 

Although this is not the first time he has been fined for misconduct, the tribunal thinks he will not commit the same mistake again. Read the poem here:

Are Polytechnic students so difficult to work with? A NUS student confessed to NUSWhispers' Facebook page that he had a hard time doing project with a few classmates as they were not taught many things in their Poly days.

He claimed that they are bad at writing reports and can only offer to help in designing graphics, charts and drawings. 

If he is so smart, why bother discriminating against them? What are the other JC teammates doing not helping? Why not arrow them? Thankfully, some netizens responded by scolding the complainant and defending Poly students.

So much for being a smart-ass JC student? As one person said, "Maybe the problem is you". 

Despite raising more than $1 million for their lawsuit and gaining the hearts of Singaporeans, WP's Sylvia Lim, Pritam Singh and Low Thia Khiang continue to get battered in Court. Yesterday, FM Solutions and Services (FMSS) owner How Weng Fan took the stand and had ugly things to say about AHTC Chairman Sylvia Lim. 

In a recording that was revealed, How complained to a KPMG staff about Lim's mismanagement of the Town Council, which was painstakingly set up by her late husband and her. She said that Lim was aware but withheld information about improper payments to auditors. Based on her account, Lim was the one who wanted to do away with the computerised management system, AIM, instead. 

How had wanted to replace her with Low Thia Khiang but was rejected. She said that she wanted someone more experienced to tide them through the first few years as Lim was hopeless, inexperienced and only cared about herself. She felt cheated when they did not heed her request. 

In a dramatic turn, she blamed Lim for causing stress to her husband, who even had to work and calculate staff bonuses while on a holiday in Japan. He died of a heart attack. "You know I had to lose my husband... because of her". 

Is this woman ok? Things are definitely not looking good for Sylvia Lim. With our opposition members getting battered like this, what will happen to the future of politics in Singapore?

The Police has released a statement stating that warned the public of scams involving extortion via emails. Police said they had received more than 150 reports against such scams since September alone.

In the scam, the victims would receive emails from unknown email accounts, or from accounts resembling their own. The victim would be told that the scammers possessed screenshots of the victims watching porn materials. The victims were then told to make payment to the scammers by bitcoin, of their porn watching activities would be exposed to family members and friends. 

Police have advised that such blackmailing emails are to be ignored, and police reports to be made. They also advised the public to cover the camera on their computers when not in use to protect their privacy. But, the best advice would be not to watch any porn at all. 

After the failure of Uber, Go-Jek is now making their first move towards challenging the monopoly of Grab in the Private Hire ride market. The Indonesian ride hailing firm has just launched a portal on Monday that will allow Singapore drivers to pre-register themselves in order to use the platform.

Those that sign up today will be in line to be the first Go-Jek's driver partners. The platform will allow interested parties to register over the coming weeks, although there is no conformation when the firm will make its debut here. 

The company did say that there has been a huge amount of interest in SG for the drivers to be drive partners of Go-Jek.