While the CPF Board retains Members' money at 55 for the purpose of the CPF LIFE annuity scheme, Members will only be able to obtain monthly payouts after the "payout eligibility age" at 65 from CPF Life, and only after making an application to the CPF Board as illustrated by Mr Zol earlier.

Singaporeans "want to keep working and save more", possibly unwise to "reduce payout eligibility age": Manpower Minister Josephine Teo

Despite the statistics listed in the 2017 Report on Registration of Births and Deaths, the Government's stance regarding the CPF payout eligibility age appears to be firm and unwavering.

Manpower Minister Josephine Teo told Parliament on 15 Jan that an "early withdrawal an option for all, then in effect, it is really a reduction of the pay-out eligibility age".

She added that while "a Tripartite Workgroup on Older Workers was formed to review, among other things, the longer term relevance of and the next moves on the retirement and re-employment ages", her Ministry does not plan to lower the CPF payout eligibility age as it "was raised to 65" last year.

"The Medical Grounds Scheme will also continue to be available to eligible members who may need to withdraw or start their payouts earlier than age 65," said Mrs Teo, adding that the criteria of eligibility "include being permanently incapacitated, terminally ill, or having a severely impaired life expectancy due to illness".

"Such applications have to be accompanied by the relevant doctors’ certification," she said.

Responding to Nee Soon Member of Parliament Lee Bee Wah's question regarding the percentage of successful appeals for earlier withdrawal of payouts by CPF members who had to retire early in the past three years, Mrs Teo revealed that "about 65% of applications under the Medical Grounds Scheme were successful" during the period, while "the remaining 35% were not successful because applicants did not meet the eligibility conditions". 

"Unsuccessful applicants were referred to other avenues of help, such as Workforce Singapore (WSG) and the Social Service Offices," she added.

Mrs Teo also argued that "the introduction of re-employment legislation in 2012" has "made it possible for many Singaporeans to work beyond the age of 62".

She suggested that lowering the CPF payout eligibility age would be unfair to Singaporeans who want to continue working at a later age in order to receive greater payout sums from age 70 onwards.

"In the last decade, the employment rate for residents aged between 60 and 64 has risen from 47.2% in 2008 to 60.4% in 2018.

"The unemployment rate for the same age group has remained consistently below 3% in the past five years.

"Of those eligible for re-employment and who wished to continue working, over 98% were offered re-employment.

"In 2017, the re-employment age was raised further from 65 to 67," she noted.

Dr Lee had also asked the Manpower Minister on behalf of her constituency's residents as to whether the CPF Board "will consider another option" in allowing CPF Members to make early withdrawal in circumstances where there are no "medical grounds" to do so.

She queried if there will be an option for CPF Members to instead do so on the grounds that they do not currently have enough money and are thus in need of withdrawing their CPF money earlier than the eligible payout age, even if it results in lower monthly payout sums.

Mrs Teo replied: "May I ask the Member whether she thinks that it is possible for us to do that – allow some people to have a lower age, and then require other people to stick to the pay-out eligibility age of 65? The option has to be made available to all?"

Dr Lee nodded in agreement, after which Mrs Teo elaborated: "I think we have explained it before. If you make early withdrawal an option for all, then in effect, it is really a reduction of the pay-out eligibility age.

"Today, the pay-out age can already be voluntarily deferred to 70 but the pay-out eligibility age remains at 65. That is the earliest that the person can withdraw," she stressed.

Consequently, Mrs Teo argued that Dr Lee's suggestion "is really not an option but a reduction" in essence.

She added that the new CPF payout eligibility age at 65 "is not unusual at all" by "international standards".

"Among the 35 OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] countries, well over half have pension withdrawal age at 65 or above.

"In fact, the highest today, as far as I know, is 67.

"In the light of increasing longevity, people living longer and the likelihood of them working longer, some countries have already set in motion the raising of the pension withdrawal age.

"In the case of the Netherlands, for example, the pension withdrawal age will go up from 66 to 67 in the year 2021.

"In the case of Denmark, it will go up, if I recall correctly, from 65 to 67 in 2022. In the case of Germany, it will go up to 67 by 2031.

"Against such a backdrop, we must really ask if it is wise to lower our own pay-out eligibility age for all – there will be no option, it will have to be for all – especially considering how we now have re-employment legislation that puts an obligation on the employers to offer work up to 67," she said.

Mrs Teo argued that on top of longer lifespans amongst workers being a strong justification for not lowering the CPF payout eligibility age - and in fact for raising it last year - Singaporeans have demonstrated that they "want to keep working and save more".

"In the last few months since we started the tripartite workgroup on older workers, I have met many union leaders.

"At the NTUC's suggestion, we did this in clusters – aerospace, logistics, healthcare, financial services and even the public sector – a very diverse group of workers. We talked about many things.

"The CPF pay-out eligibility age did not come up very much at all. What has been said very clearly is that the workers want the opportunity to work longer.

"This is also consistent with the focus group discussions that we held with members of the public. They want to keep working and save more. I hear these workers and I understand them. I want to be able to help make it happen.

Mrs Teo also highlighted that the Ministry of Manpower's "main priority" currently "is to build a tripartite consensus on the way forward" on "the retirement age which is currently 62, the re-employment age up to 67 today"

"In this process, we take reference from what we have always done in the past, which is the workers express their views, the employers express their views, and we try to find a common ground for the best way forward. That is how we did it with the re-employment age of up to 65 and then subsequently to 67.

"If we can have a good new tripartite consensus on the retirement age and the re-employment age, it will point the way forward for all of us that is helpful. I ask for some time to get this done," concluded Mrs Teo.

Government recommendation to raise CPF withdrawal age "unreasonable": NTUC, 35 years ago

The controversy surrounding the raise of the minimum CPF withdrawal age can be traced as far back as 35 years ago when the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) reportedly branded a Government recommendation regarding the matter as "unreasonable".

The Business Times reported in an article titled "Raising CPF withdrawal age unreasonable, says NTUC" dated 28 Mar 1984 that while the then-Health Minister Howe Yoon Choong reportedly "urged Singaporeans to concentrate on the wider issues" highlighted in the report made by the Committee on the Problems of the Aged, Singaporeans mainly focused on the "proposed change" to raise the age of CPF withdrawal in stages from 55 to 60, as solving "problems of an aging population" require a sense of urgency.

NTUC added that "consideration should be given to raising the withdrawal age from 55 only when the retirement age had been universally raised by employers", according to BT.

"The suggested annuity scheme mentioned in the report was a new concept that needed to be explained to many workers who did not understand it in principle", said NTUC.

However, BT reported "some industrialists" as saying, in support of the recommendation, that the change in the CPF withdrawal age "would delay any pressure put on the CPF by mounting repayments".

"An executive in the oil industry" told BT that "there was a large number of workers aged between 40 and 45 who had contributed since the scheme's inception in 1955, and that CPF would face a heavy outward flow of cash as they begin to retire in 10 years".

Such an argument, however, might not be very popular with workers, BT suggested, as they "might feel disgruntled at the prospect of having to wait longer than expected for the return of their savings".

"Some said that the idea would increase fears amongst Singaporeans that they might not live to collect their money," added BT.

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This Monday (4 Feb), Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong sent a Chinese New Year greeting message to all Singaporeans.

"This year, we are commemorating the Singapore Bicentennial," he said. "200 years ago, Stamford Raffles arrived in Singapore. That marked a crucial turning point in our history, including for our Chinese community. While Chinese junks had traded in Singapore as far back as the 14th century, large-scale immigration started only after Raffles established a free port here."

He wrote that the Chinese immigrants came from as far away as Canton, Swatow and Amoy to seek their fortunes in Singapore and also to support their family back in China. Some eventually returned home but others stayed in Singapore, he said.

"Most immigrants arrived in Singapore in debt, and did back-breaking work here as plantation workers and coolies. When Chinese New Year came, they were too poor to travel back home. Instead, they celebrated with fellow labourers and clan members in Chinatown, and re-created whatever traditions they could (in Singapore)," PM Lee added.

British trafficking of opium in China was one of the causes of Chinese miseries

It is interesting that PM Lee mentioned the British founding modern Singapore and attracting large-scale immigration of Chinese to come here. In reality, many were fleeing from abject poverty rampaging China then. As what PM Lee had mentioned, many had to borrow money to buy their way coming to Singapore so as to work as coolies, supporting their family back home.

In part, many in China became poor due to the rampant addiction and proliferation of opium in the Chinese society then - thanks to the British East India Company, the company that Raffles worked for. In an article published by SCMP last year, it described the situation in China at that time:

By the early 18th century, the British had so taken to drinking tea that some in the British government called it a “necessity of life”. The tea came from the southern Chinese city of Canton, designated by the Qing government as the only place where trading with foreigners was allowed. By 1725, the British East India Company was importing 250,000 pounds of tea per year. This ballooned to 24 million pounds per year by 1805. Unfortunately for the British, the Chinese bought few British products, and worse, they wanted to be paid only in silver. Thus, between 1710 and 1760, Britain paid 26 million pounds of the precious metal for its tea.

Britain soon ran out of silver and ideas of how to pay for its tea until it stumbled on the one item the Chinese liked and became addicted to – opium. In 1773, the East India Company secured a monopoly on the production and sale of opium grown in India. And so, through subterfuge and underhanded tactics such as using smugglers, the British flooded the Chinese market with opium – paid for in silver, of course – even though it was banned by the Qing government. In the last decade of the 18th century, 200 chests of opium, each weighing 64kg, went from India to China. By 1838, this grew to 40,000 chests, and the trade deficit had reversed in Britain’s favour.

Opium addicts selling wives and kids

In those days, few knew the addictive nature of the substance until its effects became apparent. Some looked thin and pale; they shook convulsively when their dependency attacked. Some would beg, steal, and even sell their wives and children in order to sustain the habit. Whatever meager money a family earned had to be used to feed the opium addiction of family members, making the family poorer. Some deteriorated quickly and missionaries wrote about "the rapid career of the opium-smoker, from health and affluence to decrepitude and beggary".

Some died openly on the street when they were too poisoned by opium. What was alarming for the Qing government was that the Manchu military machine was being reduced to its former shadow, as "seven out of ten" soldiers smoked opium. As the habit of smoking opium spread from the idle rich to ninety per cent of all Chinese males under the age of forty in the country's coastal regions, business activity was much reduced, the civil service ground to a halt, and the standard of living fell. Millions of Chinese became addicts, including women too.

More imports of opium also meant an increasing outflow of silver out of China to the British. For example, in 1839, it was calculated that Chinese opium smokers consumed 100 million taels' worth of opium while the entire spending by the imperial Qing government that year was only 40 million taels. That is too say, the national consumption of opium had reached epic proportion of 2.5 times of government's spending.

The decreasing circulation of silver reduced tax income; it sent many local governments into financial difficulties as they found it hard to run their departments and pay salaries, which in turn, increased corruption. Between 1821 and 1837 the illegal importation of opium (theoretically a capital offence) increased five fold. Social problems mounted.

Hence, it was under such social circumstances in China that many were forced to seek opportunities outside China. And to add insult to injury, Raffles founded Singapore essentially because the British wanted a new port in the Straits of Malacca to protect its India-China trade.

In his letter to Lord Hastings on 8 Jan 1819, Raffles clearly feared that the Dutch "will extend their influences over the whole of the ancient territories of Johor" and stated his belief that the island of Singapore would be a better place for a port settlement as it is more conveniently located "for the protection of our China Trade and for commanding the Straits than Rhio (Riau)". And of course, a large part of its China trade involved trafficking opium to China.

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The son of billionaire Sam Goi, Ben Goi, 43, died on Sunday (3 Feb) from a heart attack. Ben Goi married former TV actress Tracy Lee two years ago.

The media reported that several PAP ministers were at the wake, which is being held at Mr Goi’s home in Bukit Timah. They included ministers Heng Swee Keat, Vivian Balakrishnan, Masagos Zulkifli and Josephine Teo.

Former foreign minister George Yeo was also there, together with Mediacorp artistes. MP Teo Ser Luck was also at the wake. He and Ben Goi were on the same company board.

In 2017, Ben Goi's wedding made headlines, with guests including celebrities and VIPs such as former Singapore president Tony Tan Keng Yam and his wife, ESM Goh Chok Tong and Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen.

Who is Sam Goi?

According to Forbes, Ben Goi's father, Sam Goi, 70, is a billionaire. He is ranked 14th among Singapore's 50 richest persons last year with a net worth of US$1.8 billion.

Forbes revealed that Sam Goi owns Tee Yih Jia Food Manufacturing, the world's largest maker of popiah skins, which are used for spring rolls. He also has real estate interests through his stakes in listed firms GSH and KOP. In 2017, he sold a 28-story office tower for US$512 million to a Chinese buyer. He is also said to collect French antiques and Chinese artworks.

And according to Bloomberg, he also holds positions in multiple corporations:

1. Executive Chairman of Tee Yih Jia Food Manufacturing Pte Ltd
2. Executive Chairman of GSH Corporation Limited
3. Vice-Chairman of JB Foods Limited
4. Non-Executive Vice-Chairman of Super Group Ltd
5. Non-Executive Vice-Chairman of Envictus International Holdings Ltd
6. Non Executive & Non-Independent Director of Tung Lok Restaurants
7. Director of Acelink Logistics Pte Ltd
8. Director of Chinatown Food Corporation Pte Ltd
9. Director of Eduplus Holdings Pte Ltd
10. Director of Hydrex International Pte Ltd
11. Director of Jhs Holding Pte Ltd
12. Director of Junhe Investment Pte Ltd
13. Director of Maker Food Manufacturing Pte Ltd
14. Director of Oregold Pte Ltd
15. Director of Ryushobo (S) Pte Ltd
16. Director of Sun Resources Holdings Pte Ltd
17. Director of Super Elite Holdings Pte Ltd
18. Director of T&T Gourmet Cuisine Pte Ltd
19. Director of Twin Investment Pte Ltd
20. Director of Tyj Group Pte Ltd
21. Director of Tyj International Pte Ltd
22. Director of Tee Yih Jia Food Manufacturing Sdn Bhd
23. Director of Desaru Property Development Sdn Bhd
24. Director of Fujian Mingwei Food Enterprise Co., Ltd
25. Director of Fujian Guanhui Food Enterprise Co., Ltd
26. Director of Fujian Ryushobo Food Co., Ltd
27. Director of Yangzhou Junhe Real Estate Co., Ltd
28. Director of Yangzhou Junhe Property Development Co., Ltd
29. Director of Junhe Real Estate (Jiangsu) Co., Ltd
30. Director of Tianjin Investment Co., Ltd
31. Director of Changzhou Care Real Estate Co., Ltd
32. Director of Changzhou Care Real Estate Development Co., Ltd
33. Director of Guan Hui Food Enterprise Company Limited
34. Director of G City Limited
35. Director of Tyj Holdings (Hk) Limited
36. Director of Jsl Foods
37. Director of Inc Main On Foods (Usa) Corp
38. Director of Super Dragon Enterprises Limited
39. Director of Ace Speed Group Limited
40. Director of Smart Time Enterprises Limited
41. Director of China World Agents Limited
42. Director of Dominion International Asia Ltd
43. Director of Tyj Land Ltd
44. Director of Eduplus Language Centre Pte Ltd
45. Director of Bright Films Pte Ltd
46. Director of Rediffusion (2012) Pte Ltd
47. Director of Care Property Holdings Pte Ltd
48. Director of China World Investment Pte Ltd
49. Director of Run Da Holdings Pte Ltd
50. Director of Jiangsu Care Thw Real Estate Co., Ltd
51. Director of Jiangsu Hengshun Seasonings & Foods Co., Ltd
52. Director of Yangzhou Tianwei Co., Ltd
53. Director of Zhenjiang Gentle World Real Estate Co., Ltd
54. Director of Dominion International Asia Ltd
55. Director of Super Dragon Enterprises Limited
56. Director of Super Elite Group Limited
57. Board Member of Singapore University of Technology and Design
58. Board Member of Tan Kah Kee Foundation,
59. Honorary President of Enterprise 50 Club’s
60. Honorary Chairman for the International Federation of Fuqing Association
61. council member for the Singapore Zhejiang Economic & Trade Council
62. Regional representative for Fuzhou City and Fujian Province at IE Singapore

Awards:

• State Award of Panglima Gemilang Darjah Kinabalu (PGDK), which carries the title of Datuk, from the Head of State of Sabah
• "Businessman of the Year" at the Singapore Business Awards (2014)
• "SG50 Outstanding Chinese Business Pioneers Award" (2015)
• Asia Enterprise Asia’s Lifetime Achievement Award (2015)
• Asian Strategy & Leadership Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award (2016)
• Honoured by the People’s Tribune Magazine in Beijing (2017)

In addition, he has been appointed to a number of government committees.

Long time PAP member

Sam Goi is also a member of the ruling party, PAP. In 2015, he received the Long Service Award from PAP.

He was also a long time grassroots leader at Ulu Pandan. In 2014, he was conferred the Public Service Star (Bar) (BBM (L)) at the 49th National Day Awards by the president of Singapore for his "contributions to the community".

For a while, he was the Chairman of Ulu Pandan Citizens Consultative Committee (CCC). Typically, many CCC members would happen to be also important senior PAP cadre members, who are eligible to elect PAP Central Executive Committee (CEC) members.

He recently stepped down as chairman of Ulu Pandan CCC but was appointed Singapore's non-resident ambassador to Brazil last year.

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Crematorium workers who take red packets from grieving families and funeral directors who pass them on to workers are now in trouble with the authorities for this practice at the government-run Mandai Crematorium.

Last week, more than 20 employees from private funeral businesses and crematorium workers have reportedly been questioned by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB), said Shin Min Daily on Friday (1 February).

If that is not all, checks by The Straits Times (ST) also found that at least three workers from different companies were called in for questioning by the CPIB last week, while another two were brought in as witnesses of the practice. The three were later released on a bail of S$20,000 each.

The CPIB and National Environment Agency (NEA), which runs the Mandai Crematorium, acknowledged that investigations are being carried out.

NEA revealed that it received news late last year that some Mandai Crematorium staff had allegedly been accepting red packets from funeral directors while at work. “NEA takes a serious view of these allegations and immediately reported the matter to the Corrupt Practices Investigations Bureau (CPIB) for their follow-up,” said a spokesman.

However, some industry insiders wondered why investigations are happening now, as the illegal practice has been rising discreetly for decades, and the funeral directors merely pass the red packets to workers on behalf of families.

Chinese and Indian families voluntarily give such packets, as it is seen as an auspicious gesture to “bless” the workers with good luck, funeral directors told ST. Generally, families give sum ranging from S$2 to S$50, although they are expected to give about S$20 or S$24, which is the “market rate” for such red packets, they added.

The funeral directors emphasised that they do not prompt the families to give the red packets, and some of them give packets without even asking. In addition, funeral directors do not receive any benefits from passing these packets to the crematorium workers, and there is no preferential treatment given to those who do so, they claimed.

“The whole process of cremation is very systematic. It’s not as though by giving them an “ang pow”, we will get better times (for cremation) or better treatment,” said a funeral director.

President of the Association of Funeral Directors Ang Zi Sheng, claimed that he found out about the investigation only from the Chinese papers.

“We encourage members and public to comply with regulations set out by NEA of not giving any gifts of any nature to crematorium staff,” said Mr Ang.

Upon reading this news, many netizens have expressed their disagreement towards this matter. They all felt that it was the families' way of appreciating the workers and they're giving out red packets out of goodwill.

However, Facebook user Chen Hwey Fang feels that this practice is not right and the workers should not accept bribes as they're paid a salary for the job that they're doing.

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The Land Transport Authority (LTA) is investigation an incident involving a Go-Jek driver whose passenger accused him of taking her hostage.

On Tuesday (5 Feb), the LTA said that it needed to hear both sides of the story to better understand the matter.

"LTA is looking into the incident. To get a more comprehensive understanding of the matter, LTA will need to meet up with both the driver and the passenger to hear their respective accounts of the incident," said LTA in response to Channel NewsAsia's queries.

Separately, Go-Jek told CNA that they were cooperating with LTA’s investigation and that it ‘would not be appropriate to comment further at this stage’.

The incident, which was captured on video has since gone viral on social media. The driver, Kamaruzzaman Abdul Latiff, appeared to have recorded the exchange on his mounted mobile phone. In the video, the passenger could be heard accusing the driver of trying to cheat her after he apparently took a route that passed an Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) gantry and required her to pay a fee.

As she continued to complain and even made a phone call to what appeared to be the Go-Jek customer service line, the driver said he would simply drive to the police station so they could settle the matter. Toward the end of the video, the driver stopped the car and asked someone off camera (seemingly a police officer) for directions to the nearest station.

At that point, the woman tried to get out of the car but the door was locked. She accused him of taking her ‘hostage’, even when Mr Kamaruzzaman attempted to explain that the door was only locked because of the vehicle’s auto-lock function, a common function found in more cars these days.

On 31 January, Mr Kamaruzzaman had posted the video on his Facebook page, saying: "After a few days of thinking, I guess I better let it out.

"Pax (sic) accused me of kidnapping her just because of ERP. I have already made a police report and reported to Go-Jek. Be care (sic) to all PHV drivers."

He added: "She kept telling that I was trying to cheat her. I asked her to tell me if she knew how to avoid the ERP, but she couldn't direct me..."

The video was reposted on the Roads.sg Facebook page where it has since racked up nearly 800,000 views.

A few days after the video went up, Mr Kamaruzzaman posted another photo of what appeared to be a letter from the LTA requesting him to attend an interview. The letter acknowledged that a complaint was filed against him concerning the above incident which happened on 29 January.

"We are now investigating the matter," the letter stated, adding that Mr Kamaruzzaman was "required to attend an interview" with the assistant manager for investigation and appeal of LTA's bus licensing division.

In the letter, Mr Kamaruzzaman was asked to attend the interview today (Thursday, 7^th February) and bring along with identification documents, the recording device, and it’s recording as well as any other relevant evidence.

On Monday, LTA said it was looking into the incident and directed CNA to its guidelines on inward-facing in-vehicle recording devices which states that taxis, private hire cars and buses ‘"must not have any audio recording function so that the passengers' conversations are not recorded".

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Malaysia has been ranked as the world’s best destination for healthcare according to the International Living (IL) Annual Global Retirement Index 2019.

Scoring 95 out of 100, the healthcare services in Malaysia is described as ‘simply world class with up-to-date and sophisticated infrastructure’.

According to IL, Malaysia’s 13 Joint Commission International (JCI) – the gold standard in healthcare assessment around the world – accredited hospitals and the fact that almost all doctors are fluent in English having trained in the UK, US or Australia, makes it a top medical tourist destination and perfect for expat retirees.

The IL said that expats can choose both private and public hospitals to suit their needs. They said, ‘The private hospitals tend to be a bit more expensive but are more up to Western standards than the public hospitals’. They also noted that costs at the private hospitals are affordable for minor visits, even. And prescriptions costs only ‘a fraction’ of what expats – presumably western expats – would pay for at home.

Another thing that IL loved about Malaysia’s healthcare is that you don’t need an appointment or a referral from a general practitioner to see a specialist. Instead, “It’s as simple as registering at a hospital of your choice and waiting in line to see your specialist of choice.”

But beyond the cost, IL also said that the service is attractive as well. “The pharmacists, like the rest of Malaysia’s medical staff, are well trained and informed. Malaysians are friendly people, but it’s the genuine interest that they take which impresses,” they said.

Singapore not on the list 

Each year, International Living assesses a number of different countries on various categories to decide which is the best place for retirement (it has to be noted that this is more for Western retirees than anyone else). This year, 25 countries were looked at and Malaysia ranked as the 5th best place to retire.

Singapore, however, was not part of the 25 countries that were assessed.

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In an article about how certain apps use ‘session replay’ technology to record how users interact with the app, Tech Crunch noted that many of these iPhone apps do not even ask for a user’s permission to do this.

The popular iPhone apps they mentioned include apps from hoteliers, travel sites, airlines, cell phone carriers, banks and financiers such as Air Canada, Hollister, Expedia and even Singapore Airlines.

The worst part, says Tech Crunch, is that these ‘session replays’ inadvertently expose sensitive data.

Apps like Abercrombie & Fitch, Hotels.com and Singapore Airlines apparently use a customer experience analytics firm called Glassbox which allows developers to embed this ‘session replay’ technology into their apps. This technology essentially takes screenshots when you use their app and sends those back to the companies.

This allows developers to record your screen to see how you interact with the app – mainly used to detect errors and to enhance user experience. This technology allows every tap, button push, and keyboard entry to be recorded and sent back to the app developments.

Or, as Glassbox said in a recent tweet: “Imagine if your website or mobile app could see exactly what your customers do in real time, and why they did it?”

The scary part is that a mobile expert, The App Analyst, found that certain apps weren’t properly masking the session replays, thus exposing sensitive information. The app that this expert looked at was Air Canada’s iPhone app. When masking of the replay session failed, information such as passport numbers and credit card were exposed. Air Canada said that its app experienced a data breach which exposed over 20,000 profiles.

The App Analyst said “This allows Air Canada employees — and anyone else capable of accessing the screenshot database — to see unencrypted credit card and password information.”

Tech Crunch subsequently asked the Analyst to look at a sample of apps that Glassbox had listed on its website to see if these other apps have the same problem.

Using Charles Proxy, a man-in-the-middle tool used to intercept the data sent from the app, the researcher examined what data was going out of the device.

According to the expert, not every app was leaking masked data. So, not too bad. But none of the apps they examined made it clear that they were recording a user’s screen or that they were relaying those recordings to each company or to Glassbox’s cloud.

This, the expert said, could be a problem if there was inadequate masking of data. “Since this data is often sent back to Glassbox servers I wouldn’t be shocked if they have already had instances of them capturing sensitive banking information and passwords,” he said.

He found that apps like Expedia and Hotels.com which opted to send the data back to a server on their own domain mostly obfuscated the data but there were some instances where email addresses and postal codes were exposed.

The researcher said Singapore Airlines also collected session replay data but sent it back to Glassbox’s cloud.

Importantly, Tech Crunch noted that it’s impossible to know if an app is recording your screens when you use their app. In fact, they didn’t find any mention of that in fine print of their privacy policies.

While apps that are submitted to Apple’s App Store are required to have a privacy policy, Glassbox themselves doesn’t require any special permission from App or the User to record their screens. So really, there’s no way to know.

Tech Crunch noted that neither Expedia nor Hotels.com or even Air Canada mentioned recording screens in their policy. Neither did Singapore Airlines.

Tech Crunch reached out to these companies where in their privacy policy does it says that they recording this data but only one company responded.

Ambercrombie (sister company of Hollister) confirmed that Glassbox “helps support a seamless shopping experience, enabling us to identify and address any issues customers might encounter in their digital experience.”

They made no comments on session replays.

When asked, Glassbox said it doesn’t enforce its customers to mention its usage in their privacy policy.

“Glassbox has a unique capability to reconstruct the mobile application view in a visual format, which is another view of analytics, Glassbox SDK can interact with our customers native app only and technically cannot break the boundary of the app,” the spokesperson said, such as when the system keyboard covers part of the native app, “Glassbox does not have access to it,” the spokesperson said.

Scary, right?

So basically, with the help of Glassbox and other similar session replay services, companies are essentially monitoring every move you make on their app.

From a user experience perspective, this makes sense. Especially in high-revenue situations, this kind of data can help a company understand how and why their apps might not be working properly which could be costing them a hefty loss of profit.

On the other hand, the fact that most of these companies do not make it clear that they use this technology in the first place is an indication that even they know how dodgy it is to be recording their users’ every move. They’re also likely aware that masking isn’t always effective in protecting their users’ data, so of course they’d be reluctant to admit that they’re doing this.

Unfortunately, this isn’t something that’s going away any time soon – or probably ever. Companies rely on this kind of technology for their survival.

In which case, the App Analyst suggest that users take a more active role in how they share their data. The first step, he says, is having companies be more honest about how they collect their users’ data and who they share it with.

What does SIA do with your data?

We reached out to Singapore Airlines to ask if they can point us to the section in privacy policy that says they do this kind of data collection and they did.

An SIA spokesperson said, "The data we collect is in accordance with our privacy policy which includes the use of customer data for testing and troubleshooting issues. This is specified under Clause 3 of our privacy policy which is available on our website".

So I checked it out has here's what I found:

Clause 3 (How we use your customer data) says, "As it is in our legitimate interests to be responsive to you, to provide customised services and marketing and to ensure the proper functioning of our products, services and organisation, we will use your Customer Data to improve the Website and to ensure content from the Website is presented in the most effective manner for you and your device; and administer the Website and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes."

Clause 3 also mentions monitoring and recording calls for training and quality improvement purposes, sending you surveys by email and more.

That's not exactly clear, right? Plus there's no mention of the mobile app in Clause 3.

So I checked out the other clauses and in Clause 2 (the types of customer data we collect), I found this paragraph:

"SIA also collects Customer Data from third parties which are located in various countries. This includes, but is not limited to, travel agents, our KrisFlyer partners (including, amongst others, airlines and non-airlines such as Hilton, Avis, Hertz, American Express, the Economist and Esso), our service providers, other airlines including our subsidiaries to facilitate travel on code share or multi-airline flights, or through our Website, mobile services, any posts on our SIA-specific pages on social media websites and other channels including our ticketing counters and airport operations."

That's a little clearer, perhaps? They do mention collecting data from third parties - in this case Glassbox - but they do not explicitly mention Glassbox nor do they specify that your every move on the app is being recorded.

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Twenty-five drivers lured by online advertisements to smuggle duty-unpaid cigarettes into Singapore, who got caught in 2018, were sentenced by the State Courts to imprisonment terms of between 10 weeks and six months.

The Singapore Customs (SC) noted in a press release on Thursday (7 February) that the vehicles, which included cars and vans with modified compartments, used to smuggle the duty-unpaid cigarettes into Singapore were seized

The online advertisements on social media platforms such as Facebook and WeChat typically offer a payment ranging between $100 and $600 for every smuggling trip into Singapore.

In a recent case, Singaporean Law Hwa Peng, 45, was sentenced by the State Courts on 21 January 2019 to 20 weeks’ imprisonment for smuggling duty-unpaid cigarettes into Singapore.

SC said that Law came across a Facebook advertisement offering a high payment for drivers. He responded to the advertisement and was offered $400 for every trip to smuggle dutyunpaid cigarettes from Malaysia into Singapore. Law accepted the offer and he was provided a car, which he drove into Malaysia for duty-unpaid cigarettes to be loaded into various modified compartments of the vehicle.

Law attempted to drive the car into Singapore on 16 November 2018 but he was arrested at the Woodlands Checkpoint. A total of 144 cartons and 1,143 packets of duty-unpaid cigarettes were found in the car. The duty-unpaid cigarettes and the car were seized. The duty and Goods and Services Tax (GST) evaded amounted to about $22,050 and $1,610 respectively.

In another case, a 25-year-old Malaysian, Ku Kai Chien, responded to a Facebook post advertising for drivers, and he was engaged to drive his own van into Malaysia for the syndicate to load duty-unpaid cigarettes onto the vehicle. He was asked to drive the van back to Singapore and if he succeeded in smuggling the cigarettes, he would be paid $400.

However, Ku was arrested at the Tuas Checkpoint on 21 March 2018. A total of 201 cartons and 790 packets of duty-unpaid cigarettes were found concealed in various modified compartments of the van. The duty-unpaid cigarettes and the van were seized. The duty and GST evaded amounted to about $23,910 and $1,750 respectively.

Ku was sentenced by the State Courts on 9 July 2018 to six months’ imprisonment for smuggling duty-unpaid cigarettes into Singapore.

“Drivers who are hoping to make easy and quick money from the syndicates by smuggling duty-unpaid cigarettes into Singapore should think twice. They will end up paying a higher price when they are caught,” said Assistant Director-General (Intelligence & Investigation) Yeo Sew Meng.

“We strongly advise the public not to fall prey to such online advertisements. We will take firm actions against those who respond to these advertisements to smuggle duty-unpaid cigarettes into Singapore.”

Buying, selling, conveying, delivering, storing, keeping, having in possession or dealing with duty-unpaid goods are serious offences under the Customs Act and the GST Act. Offenders can be fined up to 40 times the amount of duty and GST evaded and/or jailed for up to six years. Vehicles used in the commission of such offences are also liable to be forfeited.

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In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Istana, one of Singapore's oldest National Monuments, President Halimah Yacob launched an Istana Souvenir Series of Medallions and Flashpay cards at the Chinese New Year Istana Open House.

In a press release on Wednesday (6 February), the Istana said that the collaboration between the President’s Office and the Singapore Mint, the Istana Souvenir Series consists of five unique medallion designs featuring the architecture of the buildings within the Istana compounds and significant highlights of the Istana.

It stated that the designs of the series create a unique opportunity for Singaporeans to know more about the history and heritage of the Istana.

The Istana noted that part of the proceeds from the sale of the Istana Souvenir Series will be donated to the President’s Challenge.

A Singapore Mint stated in its website that the key highlight of the series is the exclusive Istana 150th Anniversary 2oz 999 Fine Silver Proof-Like Medallion, which features the frontal view of the Istana Main Building on the obverse.

The Presidential Crest is presented on the reverse, it stated, adding that it is the only medallion in Singapore to feature this highest honor.

A total of eight different silver medallion and card products with limited mintages are available in the Istana Souvenir Series. This includes five single silver medallions, one card and two special silver medallion sets consisting of various medallion combinations.

The post Special edition Istana 150 Souvenir Series of Medallions launched by President Halimah Yacob to commemorate 150th anniversary of the Istana appeared first on The Online Citizen.

The losing candidate from People's Action Party from GE2015, Lee Hong Chuang, informed the public through his Facebook page that he distributed food rations and red packets to the poor at the Poh Teck Siang temple in Hougang on Tue (5 Feb).

He said he was there to wish them "a prosperous Chinese New Year".

(Photos from Lee Hong Chuang's Facebook page)

In 2015 GE, PAP sent IBM senior IT manager, Lee Hong Chuang, to contest in Hougang SMC against WP candidate Png Eng Huat.

At the time, referring to WP MP Png Eng Huat, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said, "We want to tell Hougang voters that their current MP is not serving them as well as he could or should, whether in the town council or in Parliament. Hong Chuang, backed by the PAP, can do much better."

Despite Lee Hong Chuang has been an active PAP grassroots leader in Hougang, Mr Png beat him in the 2015 GE to become the official MP for Hougang.

However, even though Mr Png is the MP for Hougang, he cannot tap onto the resources of People's Association (PA), which is funded by the public, to help the residents of Hougang. PAP's losing candidate Lee Hong Chuang, however, is allowed to. This is because he was installed as the Hougang's grassroots adviser by the PAP government, even though he lost in 2015 GE.

Given the goodie bags given out to the elderlies states Poh Teck Siang temple, it is uncertain whether Mr Lee financed the distribution or simply there for publicity purposes.

Chan: PAP grassroots advisers to guide PA

Last year, Minister Chan Chun Sing explained in Parliament that grassroots advisers are appointed by the government to guide PA grassroots organisations so as to "promote social cohesion and to connect people and government".

PA is meant to support the elected government in implementing its policies and programmes, Chan said. The PA also explains and gathers feedback on government policies so that “we can be a responsive and responsible government” he added.

Hence, grassroots advisers are appointed to guide PA grassroots organisations in carrying out this mission.

CPIB investigates crematorium workers and funeral directors for receiving red packets

Speaking of red packets, last week (1 Feb), the media reported that funeral business and crematorium workers have been questioned by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) for accepting red packets. Some were released on bail after questioning.

NEA, which runs the Mandai Crematorium, accused some of the workers for allegedly accepting red packets from funeral directors during work. "NEA takes a serious view of these allegations and immediately reported the matter to the Corrupt Practices Investigations Bureau (CPIB) for their follow-up," said a spokesman.

However, some industry insiders wondered why investigations are happening now, as such practice has been happening for decades, and the funeral directors were merely passing the red packets to workers on behalf of families.

Bereaved families do voluntarily give such packets, as it is seen as an auspicious gesture to “bless” the workers with good luck, funeral directors told the media. Generally, families give sums ranging from $2 to $50.

The funeral directors told reporters that they do not prompt the families to give the red packets, and some of them give without even asking. In addition, funeral directors do not receive any benefits from passing these packets to the crematorium workers, and there is no preferential treatment given to those who do so, they added.

"The whole process of cremation is very systematic. It’s not as though by giving them an 'ang pow', we will get better times (for cremation) or better treatment," said a funeral director.

Many netizens are perplexed why the government is investigating such mundane matters as it was the families' way of appreciating the workers and they're giving out red packets out of goodwill.

The post PAP losing candidate of GE2015 giving out red packets to residents in Hougang appeared first on The Online Citizen.

The recent accidental death of actor and reservist Corporal First Class (National Service) Aloysius Pang – which follows a string of other tragic deaths by accident in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) – has led to questions being raised about the safety protocols and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in the military.

A Committee of Inquiry (COI) was convened to look into the circumstances which led to the death of Aloysius Pang who was severely injured while carrying out repair works inside a Singapore Self-Propelled Howitzer while training in New Zealand.

As you can imagine, social media has been blowing up with many unhappy and concerned citizens demanding for SAF to take responsibility for these string of deaths.

Following Pang’s death, the SAF said it will be lowering its training tempo across all services with the intention of giving commanders and troops the time and space to review its system and process and well as to focus on safety.

But the public were not satisfied by this and questioned why this was not done sooner, before such tragic accidents happened. They also questioned why safety hasn’t been SAF’s top priority all this while.

The public were also quick to slam a pro-PAP Facebook page that appeared to be supporting the SAF and that implied the SAF was not to blame for these deaths.

In what appears to be an attempt to mitigate the flood of angry comments and postings, a message has been circulating around via WhatsApp and other text messaging services that appeared to be from the Army Information Centre (AIC) which lists out a number of positive social media postings by netizens who were showing support for the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and National Service.

The AIC apparently compiled those social media postings into a WhatsApp for ‘easy reference’ and encouraged people to read it and share those positive postings on their own social media accounts.

MINDEF has confirmed to TOC that the message did in fact originate from the AIC.

MINDEF said, “The intent of the message was to share encouraging stories from the ground, on the importance of NS and what is at stake.”

Here is the screenshot of the message:

Below is a list of the social media postings that AIC highlighted in their message. Some of these individuals are full-time servicemen with the SAF, while the rest are former servicemen. Singapore Matters, on the other hand, is a publicly known pro-PAP fanpage:

1. Sean Son
2. Chase Yap Baofa
3. Singapore Matters
4. Marcus Valentino Lee
5. Christopher Immanuel Goh
6. Ken Tng
7. Charn Lim
8. Ryan Goh
9. YC Choy
10. Teoh Ren Shang

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The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) announced on Thursday (7 February) that it will impose a financial penalty of S$100,000 on Singapore Post (SingPost) for its failure to meet the delivery standards of local basic letters and registered mail on nine events in 2017.

The authority said that “this was not the first instance that SingPost failed to comply” with the Quality of Service (QoS) standard.

IMDA also noted that it also considered SingPost’s effort to redeliver the delayed mail which ensured late deliveries “were successfully redelivered within one week”.

Ms Aileen Chia, IMDA’s Deputy Chief Executive and Director-General (Telecoms & Post), said, “IMDA expects SingPost to deliver reliable public postal services to consumers and businesses, in compliance with its licence obligations. IMDA has been closely monitoring the performance of SingPost’s postal services, and will take firm action against SingPost for any breaches of the public postal licence requirements and QoS standards.”

Ms Chia added, “The recent service lapses by SingPost indicate gaps in SingPost’s processes and we require them to implement measures urgently to meet the public’s evolving postal needs.”

IMDA said it is assessing the postal company’s quality of service for last year and it will publish the outcome by the middle of this year.

Under the regulator’s Postal Quality of Service standards, SingPost is required to deliver between 98 and 99 per cent of local basic letters within one working day, and 100 per cent within two working days.

This is among several indicators that come under quarterly review by IMDA, and inability to achieve this can result in a fine up to S$50,000 a month for each indicator.

Notwithstanding the above, IMDA noted that it also considered SingPost’s efforts to redeliver the delayed mail, which ensured late deliveries were successfully redelivered within one week.

Having considered all factors, IMDA stated that it has imposed a financial penalty of $100,000 on SingPost for the nine incidents of non-compliance with IMDA’s QoS standards in the period from January to December 2017.

In response to IMDA’s decision, SingPost’s Group Chief Executive Officer Paul Coutts said in a statement: “We deeply apologise to our customers for our service failures. We have heard their complaints and feedback; we feel their frustrations and seek to win back their trust.”

He also revealed a series of measures to improve its service, such as hiring 100 addition postmen and extending mail delivery slots to weekday evenings and on Saturdays.

“The immediate measures we are announcing today will address the most pressing issues and provide improvement in service quality over the next three to six months,” he added.

Of late, the company has been seen making negative publicity, including the latest incident last month when a SingPost postman was arrested for allegedly discarding mail into a dustbin without delivering them in Ang Mo Kio.

On Thursday, the authority reiterated that it will be investigating this incident — separate from the police probe — and “firm action will be taken” against such behaviour which is an offence under the Postal Services Act.

Under the Act, it is an offence for “any officer, employee or agent of a postal licensee to destroy or throw away any postal article or anything contained therein”. If convicted, the offender can be fined up to S$10,000, jailed for not more than three years, or both.

Many went to mainstream medias comment section to question the amount of the fine.

Timothy Low wrote, "$100,000 is too cheap for them."

Simon Shum wrote, "Don't tickle them on their toes leh! $100,000 slap so itchy."

Lynx Ng wrote, "$100,000 fine after $50 million profit."

Jackson Xu wrote, "They haven’t talked about prepaid mail products such as (Smartpac and AM mails).. $100,000 fine doesn’t do anything to Singpost."

Koo Hansen wrote, "SingPost CEO: ‘It has been an exceptional quarter’
$50 million net profit, $100k not even a peanut."

Some also expressed their disappointment when using the company's service.

Sumiah Buang wrote, "Dear Singpost, my parcel to Madagascar arrived almost 2 months later
after weeks of complaining of bad service. So it becomes a Chinese New Year 2019 parcel instead of Christmas 2018 parcel."

Jaycee Llemos Santos wrote, "I paid $10 for shipping of my item, singpost didnt deliver it to my home address instead kept it in Thomson Post office. I only realized that i have a parcel after 10 days. Singpost returned it back to Japan when i was about to collect it.
Singpost you should compensate me as i have to ask them to resend my item which cost me $17 bucks!"

Wong Uripekepenak Tangganepanasatine wrote, "Oh no wonder my letter never come about 2 month from LTA until the LTA call me. Have you received my letter? I answer nope. Good if they fine. I hope government give tighter enforcement to Singapore Post. Last time I sent a package overseas but when my overseas family received it, the box was broken and some of the things were missing. Not honest!"

Karen Tan wrote, "For the pass 4 months, i didn't receive my SingTel bill, I called SingTel and they told me the bill was sent a few weeks ago, so may i know what happen, SingPost?"

Paul Kin Lim wrote, "This is really bad and embarrassing. I sent a post card from Hanoi to a relative here in spore; it took 23 days to be delivered. And this via AirMail. Very keen to know when did SingPost received it and what was the turnaround duration in Singapore. Another time from KL, it took 5 weeks."

Dennis Teo wrote, "I have not received some of my credit card statements since 2017 until now! And I had to pay the late penalty. SingPost are you going to pay me back?!"

Musetta Woo wrote, "For me, letter stamp 10/01/19, however I only received this on 17/01/19. For local mail need one week delivery. I did write to SingPost compliant delay, they reply was only that they will try the best."

Cloud Red wrote, "SingPost, I was at home during delivery but the postman didn’t even bother to knock, I have to waste time travelling to cc to collect my parcel more than once."

Edwin Tey wrote, "IMDA, you are talking rubbish, I had so many mail from 3 days to 1 month then received. There is no such thing as receiving the letter the next day."

AlwaysreadyJoh Hiahui wrote, "Hmmm. Recently we had been receiving letters after 3 weeks. Higher fines for 2019?"

Kim Chi Na wrote, "I ever got a parcel from my sister from America but the parcel disappear and I never receive it many years ago."

David Caled wrote, "It also happen in 2018,even regular mails were not delivered on time. It took 4-5 days for the base to process and send it over the next day which is after 1 week for a parcel that was already in Singapore."

Maggie Tan wrote, "2018 too. My mails either never arrived or they were super late."

IAn Lau wrote, "I was wondering why my bills always reach my mailbox on the due date itself. Initially, I thought because mine is a new estate. Haiz!"

Johann Low wrote, "Second working day? I rememebre the letters I got were one to two weeks late."

Fion Lim wrote, "Hello. It's not that you didn't deliver mail on time. You DID NOT deliver at all! You know I kanna late fines few times (can't waive) just because I didn't receive those credit card bills or not?!"

Nicki Dhaliwal wrote, "Sometimes mail not delivered to the doorstep but delivery acknowledgement card is found in the mail box."

Nicki Dhaliwal wrote, " Yes, I didn't even receive my parcel properly. It was mail with an empty opened box and items taken out. Frustrating!"

Brien Lee wrote, "I receive sms notification that my parcel is out for delivery 4 days ago but it has not arrived!"

Josephine Ong wrote, "4 ASOS parcels never arrive within a 3-month period. Call up to complain the reply was: they have no such complaints from other customers."

A Sun Ducati wrote, "Nowadays, a normal letter take 3 days to deliver. If you don't believe you can try to post letter to yourself and see it take how many day. The one thing the post box which state to deliver next working day need to change."

Kelvin Lin wrote, "Not only that I saw the delivery van left the van engine running for more than 20 minutes while they collecting the mail from the branch."

Annie Ong Siew Leng wrote, "Haiz my letters are always missing lor! It's always in others letter box or never be seen. But my mom witness these aunties sitting at the void deck floor with letters all over. Too bad she didn't have a phone with her otherwise can take pictures."

Rashed Yb wrote, "I still received my neighbor's letter residing above my unit. Many times, I send it myself but looks like why bother, definitely the letter will be send for, and best its insurance letter."

SJ Misson wrote, "No wonder today, a postman knocked on the door for 30 seconds while I secured my dogs. I opened the door, he was about to take photo of my gate. I see. For proof. Ah I see."

Imran Becks wrote, "Full of problems. Last year they didn't deliver to my place because apparently they couldn't locate my address when it's written correctly and clearly on the package. Said so on the tracking that they couldn't locate my address. Pathetic really. Had a stressful time talking to their customer service because of this. It was eventually delivered a couple of days later.

Also recently, a package was left inside my riser by my house without the postman letting me know. Tracking said it was delivered and signed but I didn't receive anything. Thought it was sent to the wrong person. Found out the next day that the package was in the riser all these time."

The post IMDA imposes financial penalty of $100,000 on Singpost for not meeting 2017 QOS standards; Consumers remark “too cheap” for the company appeared first on The Online Citizen.

Housing & Development Board (HDB) will provide an option for flat buyers to book remaining flats from the Re-Offer of Balance Flat (ROF) pool at any time of the year, which will start around the middle of the year, with the first batch of about 120 flats.

In a blog post, Minister of Development Lawrence Wong shared that every year, about 20,000 Singaporean households buy a flat from HDB.

Many do so through the Build-To-Order (BTO) or the Sale of Balance Flats (SBF) exercises, he noted.

He recalled that in 2017, the Government introduced the ROF exercise, where all unsold HDB flats are offered in a common pool.

Under the ROF exercise, applicants need not indicate the flat type and location when they apply for a flat, and can book any available units according to their eligibility. This benefits homebuyers who may be less particular about location and other flat attributes, or who have more urgent housing needs.

Mr Wong said that ROF exercises have been popular, with about 2,500 households booking a flat since they were first launched. Nearly two-thirds of these households have already collected the keys to their flats.

Currently, the ROF is offered twice a year. He noted that HDB then conducted a study if there is a way to make the sale of such flats even more accessible to potential homebuyers.

With effect of the new arrangement, flat buyers can apply online anytime on a first-come, first-served basis, and book a flat by the next working day, which will effectively reduce their waiting time to book a flat to just one day.

"With the increased range of options available, I hope that it will be easier and more convenient for potential homebuyers to find a flat that meets their different needs, preferences, and budget," he ended.

Even though this is a good news for home-hunters, many are skeptical towards the new arrangement.

Wallacen Tan wrote, "Huh, unsold new BTO since when?
I queue for 2 years and still in waiting list."

Kwan Alice wrote, "Desperate to sell them off? Who would buy when Prices keep going up, adding/changing Stamp Duty fee whenever you feel like. Why don’t you limit those who can afford more to buy HDB when they already have a private property?"

Wot Da Fug wrote, "What bulls**t, I have applied for balanced flat 5 times, all kanna rejected."

Vincent Teo wrote, "Long overdue. The process was never efficient in the first place. Ridiculous waiting time."

Sazali Ahmad wrote, "ow then they implement such things. Used to apply 3 times and wait for their sales of balance flat then I got my flat."

Jaydenannabelle Jaybelleminimode wrote, "I have been trying for 2 years yet didn’t get any, good luck every one!"

Dan Wee Loh wrote, "Soon there will be even more old HDB with less than 60 years lease left waiting for buyers if loan policy does not change."

Yoong Yew Cheong wrote, "How come got so many unsold balance flat when every new flats they built is always over subscribed as reported?"

ZieMie Ahmad wrote, "How to purchase even if HLE is not being approve by HDB Credit?"

Some said that this is only happen because election is coming on the doorway.

Koh Hock Leong wrote, "When election is nearing, pattern more than badminton."

Mani Maran wrote, "Trying to please voters before GE. Explain ownership or lessee 1st."

Some mentioned the levy and asked it to be reviewed as well.

May Tan YL wrote, "I'll buy if you don't charge me the levy."

Roshni Shan wrote, "Please write off the LEVY. Then all 2nd timer can take up the unsold and not taken flats."

The post Lawrence Wong: New option to get HDB flats even sooner appeared first on The Online Citizen.

Thai media, The Nation, reported on Wed (6 Feb) that the Bangkok Metropolitan Police has arrested a 51-year-old French man, who is a Singapore MOE teacher, for buying sex with teenage boys.

Subsequently, MOE confirmed yesterday (7 Feb) that their teacher Jean-Christophe Quenot, a French teacher at its Language Centre, is indeed being investigated by Thai authorities.

"Jean-Christophe Quenot is a teacher in the French department at MOE Language Centre," said MOE in response to local media enquiry. "We are doing internal checks, and note that this matter is being investigated by the Thai authorities."

The MOE teacher was arrested on 4 Feb in a hotel room. A computer notebook, a memory card, two hard disks, a camcorder, camera, cell phone, eight packs of Kamagra oral jelly (a cheaper version of erectile dysfunction-treating Viagra) and 36 condoms were seized, Thai police disclosed.

He allegedly picked up boys aged 13-15 at the Huay Kwang Stadium to have sex with him. A father complained that his teenage son had gone missing and police say they traced him to the foreigner’s hotel. The suspect was allegedly caught with two boys aged 14, who were not the missing boy.

Thai officers said they found a tripod in the room and a computer with pornographic movies for the boys to watch with him. They also found a video of the suspect having sex with a teenage boy. Two boys reportedly told police they were invited on Facebook by the suspect to have sex with him for Bt800-Bt1,000 (S$35-43).

The MOE teacher has admitted to recording sex videos with a boy but insisted it was for his own viewing. Thai police are checking for the videos online, which could lead to additional charges.

MOE teacher has gone to Thailand 10 times

Investigations further revealed that the teenagers at the stadium had an unusual amount of cash because they were "going out with a foreigner".

The MOE teacher told Thai police that he taught French in Singapore and has over a year ago befriended boys at the stadium by "volunteering to teach them English and football".

As he grew closer to the boys, he invited them to have sex with him for cash and would record it, the police said.

Immigration records showed that the suspect had entered Thailand 10 times before, with the previous trip in mid-2018, each time staying in Bangkok for around 5 days.

Thai police initially charged the man for "taking away" minors under 15 from their parents or guardian and raping children. Investigations continue.

According to a French social network site, he listed his marital status as "celibataire" (single):

The post MOE teacher arrested for alleged child sex in Thailand appeared first on The Online Citizen.

With the recent revelation that the personal information of 14,200 HIV-positive individuals were leaked in a data breach of Singapore’s HIV Registry, discussions have been reignited about the struggles of people living with HIV in Singapore, particularly as it pertains to employment.

Chief Editor of New Naratif, Kirsten Han shared on her Facebook page about gulf between what the law states and what actually happens on the ground for people living with HIV.

In an article by the Straits Times, a Ministry of Manpower (MOM) spokesperson said that the Employment Act protects employees from being terminated on the grounds of their HIV-positive status.

"Singapore has employment laws to protect employees from wrongful dismissal, including on the grounds of HIV," she says.

However, Singapore law does not expressly prohibit companies from asking job applicants about their HIV statues. The Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) says that HIV status should not be explicitly asked for in any declaration of medical condition and no one should be expected to declare their HIV status. SNEF adds that It adds that employees should not face any repercussion if they are found to have omitted declaring they are HIV-positive, as their HIV status should not affect their employability.

Unfortunately, this is merely a guideline that companies are not legally compelled to follow.

In response to queries by TODAY, both MOM and the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (Tafep) said that employers should treat employees fairly and based on merit, and not discriminate against any employee just because of his or her HIV status.

“Employers should… assess candidates based on their ability to perform the job. Therefore, if a candidate’s medical condition does not affect his or her ability to perform the job, the medical condition should not be included in the employer’s selection criteria,” a Tafep spokesperson said.

In reality, that is easier said than done. Even though the MOM says that people living with HIV are protected from being terminated due to their status, there is nothing to stop employers from terminating them for failing to disclose their status.

Today Online shared the plight of a person named John (not his real name) who said he was terminated via text message two years ago after the F&B company he worked for found out that he was HIV-positive.

The ground for termination that the company cited were that John was not honest in declaring his health status when applying for the job.

The 27-year-old said, “As much as I want to be honest with myself and also to people, I realise that certain things you can’t be open about it, people are not ready to accept yet.”

You see, the Employment Act simply protects an employee from ‘wrongful dismissal’. In the case of John, he was dismissed not for his HIV-status but for being dishonest on his job application.

But let’s assume John did reveal his HIV status to a prospective employer. Judging by the strong stigma still present in Singapore society surrounding HIV and people living with the virus, John is unlikely to get the job he applied for anyway. The company may not specify that his medical status is the reason they’re passing him up and it would be tough for him to prove it in Court as well.

So maybe we should shift the conversation towards whether or not employers should be demanding such disclosures from their employees and job applicants in the first place. Should a person be compelled to disclose his HIV-status to a prospective employer, even when it’s not material to the job they are applying for?

And in terms of tackling the stigma, we should do more to educate ourselves and society at large about HIV and AIDS. When we better understand what the virus is, how it’s transmitted and what it’s like to live in Singapore as a person with HIV, we can be better neighbours who defend the people in our community facing discrimination in any way, shape or form.

The post Is the Employment Act sufficient to protect people living with HIV from discrimination? appeared first on The Online Citizen.

Singapore Post Limited (SingPost) has announced that it is holding a fundamental review of SingPost’s mail operations is underway to raise reliability and service standards, and to meet the demands of the evolving postal landscape over the years.

In a press release on Thursday (7 February), it stated that it accepts the financial penalty imposed by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) for missing its Quality of Service standards in 2017 and, therefore, announces immediate measures to improve service quality, as part of a broad review of its postal operations.

Mr Paul Coutts, Group Chief Executive Officer, said, "We deeply apologise to our customers for our service failures. We have heard their complaints and feedback; we feel their frustrations and seek to win back their trust."

"The immediate measures we are announcing today will address the most pressing issues and provide improvement in service quality over the next three to six months," he added.

SingPost stated that changes in the postal landscape are driven by the rapid rise of eCommerce that has injected large volumes into the traditional mail infrastructure because of cheaper postage, which has raised the postman’s workload with a significant rise in package deliveries being made to doorsteps, over and above the delivery of mail to letter boxes.

According to the compan, during the seasonal eCommerce surge in the last few months, each postman on average carried out between 50 and 60 doorstep deliveries per day.

In view of this, SingPost said that it is reassessing the job of its postmen, to ensure that they are resourced and equipped to handle the eCommerce boom, without compromise to their safety and well-being.

Currently, SingPost is working with Government agencies and the Union of Telecoms Employees of Singapore (UTES) to upgrade the skill-set of its postal workers and significantly expand its workforce to meet the requirements of rising eCommerce volumes.

Alleviating the workload of the postman is therefore one of the key thrusts in the immediate measures that SingPost is undertaking to improve service quality. Other measures include:

• Increasing the postal delivery workforce by hiring an additional 100 postmen and redeploying 35 mail-drop drivers to become full-time postmen;
• Enhance postmen’s remuneration with incentives for successful deliveries of trackable items to the doorstep. Launched on 1 February 2019, this will be part of a broader salary structure review to ensure remuneration is better aligned with the requirements of the job and the industry as a whole;
• Reduce missed deliveries by extending mail delivery slots to weekday evenings and on Saturdays, with overtime pay for postmen who volunteer for these after-hours slots;
• Improve parcel collection experience by increasing the number of dedicated counters and staff at post offices for parcel collection. Since the start of the year, volunteers from SingPost’s corporate office have been helping out on weekends; and
• Focus the postal service on core mail delivery by reducing non-core mail businesses such as advertisement mail to improve service levels on core mail delivery.

Mr Coutts said, "These are the first steps currently taken to address our customers’ immediate pain points and to rebuild the trust we have lost. Please bear with us as we look into longer-term measures that address other issues that customers have raised. We will continue to explore harnessing new technology and infrastructure to enhance our delivery process – and most importantly, investing in the welfare of our workforce. "

“SingPost has been Singapore’s national postal service provider for 160 years. We are part of the community with a national duty to Singapore and the people of Singapore. This is the core of our business, and 160 years on, it will continue to be our commitment to the community, and to Singapore,” Mr Coutts added.

Expensive services by SingPost, say customer

Mr Wayne Wen wrote a comparison between SingPost and Qoo10.

He wrote, "A comparison of Qoo10 against SingPost parcel delivery service.

Qoo10 charges about S$4.50 for parcel delivery less than or equal to 5kg. They offered door step collection of parcel with delivery of parcel at least next working day itself.

SingPost charges S$3.35 for parcel more than 1kg to less than or equal to 2kg. You will have to travel to the nearest SingPost office to park the parcel with them for delivery."

Some users of SingPost's service share their views on the matter

Jacen Khoo wrote, "Currently, postmen are given commission for successful parcel delivery. However, my repeat encounters are that notification notices are not left behind - latest being the postman 'forgot' after 'standing outside my unit for 45mins'.

Notices issued are not tracked by Singapore Post, which means if the postman didn't feel like it, he could return to base with the same number of parcels without even have to visit any of the units - which I think was what my 'forgetful' postman did.
This comissions based system serves only the postman and not customers."

Sandy Heng wrote, "Issues with SingPost are not new, and with a very poor customer feedback channel, the complains are not looked into, and left to fester. Slowly, the decay spreaded to an extent that it warrants a system wide review, and harsh changes. Otherwise, it would just be another plaster over the wound, and not treating the wound."

Diana Tan wrote, "Problem is the lapse in service did not happen only in November/December last year! E-commerce mails have been there for years and it's only now that SingPost realize they can't cope? Most clothes e-retailer don't even use SingPost anymore because mails kept getting lost. If November/December is a surge period for SingPost, it's the same for other courier companies but they are still able to deliver within 1 to 3 biz days. If these newbies can predict the surge and plan resources accordingly, SingPost being the veteran in mail services fail to plan ahead? I get super annoyed each time my mails get missing or when i re-direct my registered parcels to another post office for pick up, it either got delayed or the staff tells me they have no idea where are my parcels. Can SingPost consider putting registered mails into the nearest pop-stations or parcel santa boxes if owners are not home? Then we wont need to waste time queuing at post office and that also increase the efficiency at the post office."

Es Lim wrote, "Just like SMRT, they are not putting effort, manpower and resources on their core business. Business model needs to change."

Foh Sin Kong wrote, "Make it a law for SingPost to compensate all missing parcel or cost incur to people because of their late or missing mail."

Yanny Ree wrote, "English lesson must given to the new recruit as most are FT and they have little knowledge of written and spoken English. Issue compound fine or summon and expel them back to their country if found guilty of discarding mails or due to laziness. But reward those with full responsibility and diligent post man"

Some also asked the company to hire Singaporeans rather than hire foreign workers to do stuffs that can be done by local staff.

Andrew Lim wrote, "No offence to any particular race, I've encountered many post man of other countries origin and they really had a hard time speaking and reading simple English. This resulted in sending the mail to the wrong place. So they simply "dumped" other tenants mail in our company HR dept and expect us to deliver to our tenants. Thus doesn't occur when the previous postman was a local. Just my observation and my views."

Vasugi Ais wrote, "Nothing goes missing if thy employ only Singaporeans like those old and golden age dys of SingPost. Even during that period of hard times no letters or parcels ever go missing no matter how far it came from. So, SingPost, please, buck up!"

HP Tan wrote, "Hiring more local people!!! There were no incidents before when local in charge."

Daniel Tang wrote, "Stop hiring cheap labours and raise pay for local chaps. If the pay and incentives are good, locals will wanna work for you."

Zubaidah Rahiman wrote, "Go and call back your good workers which they resigned because of your rules towards long service workers. Purposely hor you want foreign workers to apply!"

Others asked the management to treat the employee fairly.

KY Lin wrote, "Underpaying freelancing postmen and trying to squeeze every drop of blood out of them. Treat your staff fairly, get the job done properly and there will be no need to try to make yourself look good by publishing your internal staff benefits in the news except for recruitment purposes"

CloudyApple Ong wrote, "Looks like all employees should look up to SingPost.
And all employers should give incentives to employees so they have the motivation to complete their basic job scope."

While some also demanded the authority to deal with the top management.

James Tio wrote, "SingPost needs to fire its CEO for poor management oversight that attributed to this collapse of quality of service which is confirmed and penalised by the government.
This is an affront and embarrassment to a national service provider. Similar issue with former SMRT CEO who was too focused on profits before service and safety issues cost her the job."

ウ ォーロック wrote, "Just reading the snippet: incentives to deliver... umm, it is called a salary?"

Jael Gan wrote, "Why should there be incentives for successfully delivering items to the doorstep? Isn’t delivering items to the doorstep part of the job requirement? I take the pay to do the work well, that’s the responsibility and if I exceed expectations, I will get incentives. And not I take the pay regardless whether I do or not do my work well, and if I do it well to the supposedly “duty”, I get more incentives."

Some even asked for the government to end the monopoly of SingPost.

Jacquie Zhang wrote, "SingPost is monopoly. We need another SingPost to compete. Why there are 3 or 4 Telco, but only one SingPost?"

The post SingPost announces immediate measures to improve service quality; Consumers not buying the promise appeared first on The Online Citizen.

US President Trump announced in his State of the Union address that the second US-North Korea summit will be held in Vietnam on 27-28^th February. A specific location has yet to be announced but the speculation is that either Hanoi or Danang would play host.

The first historical summit between the two world leaders took place in June last year in Singapore. The summit caused a media friendly on the island as hordes of reporters arrived to cover the meeting.

The public however, were less than satisfied as the summit had cost the country approximately S$16 million. Still, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said that the final bill was less than the estimated S$20 million.

Of the amount spent, the biggest component was on security. According to the Observer, Singapore spend about S$8 million on security alone. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong mentioned that the security effort involved “all-round protection and in-depth protection – air, sea and land – against attack and against mishap”.

Apart from that, the Republic also spent S$3.5 million to set up a media centre at the Formula One track to accommodate over 2,500 reporters, journalists, and media crew from across the globe.

On top of that, Singapore also shouldered the cost of accommodation for Kim Jong Un’s staff as the US refused to foot the bill for North Korean officials. Singapore’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan announced the Singapore government would be paying for the North Korean contingent’s hotel bill as it was “hospitality that we would have offered them.”

For the third richest country in the world according to the International Monetary Fund, this cost was comfortably absorbed. At the time, PM Lee said it was a cost that the country was “willing to pay”.

For Vietnam, however, this might not be the case. Sure, the second summit will probably create less of a media buzz, but it’s still a major political event which will attract many media representatives. They’ll have to accommodate the horde. And while the crowds will boost the country’s hospitality industry and garner plenty of media attention, there’s still a hefty bill for them to pay at the end of the day, especially if the US and North Korea do the same thing they did with the summit in Singapore.

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The Gojek driver involved in the viral ‘kidnap’ video will be allowed to drive – for now.

Mentioning this to the Straits Times (ST) on Thursday (7 February), Kamaruzzaman Abdul Latiff said that the Land Transport Authority (LTA) has given him the green light to drive for the ride-hailing company until “the decision is out”.

He said that the interview went well and he would wait for LTA’s decision on this matter. Earlier on the same day, he went for an interview with an LTA official at its Sin Ming Drive premises in relation to a 29 January incident.

Last Thursday (31 January), Mr Kamaruzzaman uploaded a seven-minute clip of a heated argument he had with a passenger, on the Go-Jek Singapore Community page. He said the female passenger was upset that he took the Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) gantries during the journey.

He added that during the interview with the authorities, he was asked what had happened before the recording, why he recorded the incident, why he had posted the video online and why he drove to the police station.

Responding to this, an LTA spokesman said it has requested to meet the passenger so it can have a fuller picture of the incident.

According to ST, it was reported earlier that LTA had sent a letter dated 4 February summoning Mr Kamaruzzam to an interview on Thursday for investigation after complaints were filed against him.

In the letter, the Gojek driver was asked to bring his NRIC, vocational licence, driving licence, as well as “the recording device, its recording and any other evidence”. The letter ended by stating that his attendance is compulsory under traffic rules.

“To get a more comprehensive understanding of the matter, LTA will need to meet up with both the driver and the passenger to hear their respective amounts of the incident,” LTA said in response to ST’s queries.

On the other hand, a Gojek spokesman had noted that the company is aware of LTA investigations, which it is cooperating with “on an ongoing basis”.

After the seven-minute video went viral, it appears that appeals for donations have been made “on behalf” Mr Kamaruzzaman. Once the driver found out this petition was seeking donation for him, he apologised for the “trouble” and posted on Facebook: “I was told someone is collection $4 donation of behalf of me”.

"(Please... please... please...) stop donating as I'm not aware of this and never asked (for) any donations or asked someone to do it for me,” he wrote.

Separately, when asked whether they would consider meeting to solve the problem, both the driver and the passenger, who wanted to be known only as Jovina, seemed not keen to the idea.

Mr Kamaruzzaman told that he had “no answer” to the question. “I am willing to forgive but I don’t think I can forget,” he added.

As for Ms Jovina, the 25-year-old responded via an e-mail and said that “there was no misunderstanding to begin with to be cleared”.

"I told the driver my destination and told him I do not wish to take the more expensive route. We did not come to an agreement in Bishan and I asked him to return me to pick-up point or drop me at any safe spot but he refused to drop me off while we were still in Bishan. The rides that I have taken have always not incurred ERP cost."

She added that such a route ran from Bishan to 1 Coleman Street (via Thomson-Bugis).

Upon reading this news, netizens felt that it was good that Mr Kamaruzzam recorded the incident as it served as a good evidence for his case, and having a camcorder is essential.

Yeoh Henry wrote that it would be interesting to see how LTA is going to handle this case. He hopes LTA will do the right thing and "dispense justice".

However, another Facebook user felt that Ms Jovina has all the right to explain her side of the story as it was not recorded. "It always take two or more persons to create a problem," the user wrote.

On the other hand, both William Goh and Ben Teng expressed that the only mistake that the driver made was to upload the video online.

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by ValueChampion

TikTok's viral growth has been superbly impressive. But what does its success mean for more established competitors like Snapchat and Facebook's Instagram? We've analysed the latest download trends to assess potential outcomes.

Tiktok's huge rise in popularity is no secret. In fact, it has been so successful in gaining users that its owner Bytedance overtook as the most valuable startup in the world only a few months ago. However, what might be less fully appreciated is just how much impact TikTok could potentially have on more established social networks like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. Below, we examine the latest download data of these apps and discuss a few potential outcomes that could result from this app's explosive growth.

TikTok Overtaking Instagram in Asia, Catching Up in the Western Hemisphere

In parts of Asia, TikTok is already beginning to overtake Instagram in terms of downloads. For example, TikTok ranked as the most downloaded Photos & Videos app on Apple App Store in India from November to January, while Instagram lagged behind at 3rd place behind Youtube. In other Asian countries like Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong, Instagram and TikTok were neck and neck in terms of their download rankings, further demonstrating that Instagram's dominance over this category of apps no longer remains unchallenged in the region.

Average Daily Download Ranking (Photo & Video App Category)

To make matters worse for Instagram, this trend seems to be spreading even to the western hemisphere. For instance, even in Instagram's homemarket in the US, these two apps were essentially tied at second place in terms of their app store download rankings for the month of January. Given TikTok's global reach and easily relatable content, it's not unthinkable to foresee its success spread to other countries in Europe as well.

Facebook: Buy or Clone?

Such a widespread and rapid growth of TikTok should at least raise a few eyebrows in Facebook's board room. As a social network, Facebook competes for consumer's time, and any other app that sucks away a large number of users and their time away from Facebook's apps naturally creates a headwind for the company's growth prospects. This is exactly why Facebook acquired Instagram and Whatsapp, and also why it attempted to buy Snapchat numerous times before eventually copying Snapchat via its Stories functionality.

Furthermore, given that Bytedance is a Chinese company with global ambitions, it's uncertain whether an acquisition of TikTok is even a possibility for Facebook, even if it were willing and able to accept Bytedance's $70bn valuation. On the other hand, Facebook has a very good chance to deter this threat by copying TikTok's features onto its various apps. TikTok's main features include a "newsfeed" of short videos, various social features like follow, like, share and message, and an easy to use tool for creating videos with background musics. Facebook and Instagram already have most of these besides the last one, which shouldn't be too difficult to add on to its existing functionalities. Sure, whether this will actually succeed in deterring TikTok's growth is a different question; however, Facebook has a decent chance given its success in growing Stories at the expense of Snapchat, a lesson Bytedance should heed before making a decision.

Snapchat Left in the Dirt

While Facebook may be relatively well protected from TikTok, Snapchat's situation seems starkly different. Snapchat is already struggling to remain relevant and grow its user base. That another competitor is doing so much more successfully, especially with young demographics, is a terrible news for the company. In the US, TikTok already outranks Snapchat in download rankings in Photo & Video app category, while it's catching up rather quickly in Europe. As for Asia, the region has long been a lost causefor Snapchat, as we've written previously.

This was first published at Value Champion's website, "TikTok's Rise: What Does It Mean for Facebook and Snapchat?".

The post TikTok’s Rise: What does it mean for Facebook and Snapchat? appeared first on The Online Citizen.

In a shocking move, Thailand’s Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya Sirivadhana Barnavadi has been nominated a prime minister for the country’s long-delayed general elections by Thai Raksa Chart, a party founded by allies of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

The registration of the 67-year-old, the elder sister of King Maha Vajiralongkorn, as a candidate on Friday (8 February) means this is the first time in the country’s history that a royal family member has directly become involved in politics and run for office.

The princess was stripped of her royal title when she married an American man in 1972 but she returned to Thailand in the late 1990s after getting a divorce. Although her royal title was not restored, she is still seen and treated as royalty by people in Thailand.

It was not known yet whether the nomination of Ubolratana had the approval of her brother, King Vajiralongkorn.

The princess is also known as a long-time friend of the Shinawatra family, which has an influence in the upcoming election through its proxy political parties, although they have not fielded a family member directly this time.

“This had never happened before in Thai politics; the royal family has always been seen as being above politics even though everyone knows that it’s the most powerful body in Thailand,” said Al Jazeera’s Wayne Hay, who is reporting from Bangkok.

On the other hand, Prayuth Chan-ocha, the head of Thailand’s military government, said in a statement on Friday, that he would also be contesting in the elections as a prime ministerial candidate for the pro-army Palang Pracharat party.

Prayuth is the army chief who seized power after the military toppled the administration of Yingluck Shinawatra, Thaksin’s sister, in a 2014 coup and made himself prime minister.

With him contesting in the election, this means that he is expected to be one of Princess Ubolratana’s main opponents.

Thailand has been a constitutional monarchy since 1932 but the royal family has wielded great influence and commands the devotion of millions.

The post Thai king’s sister to contest in March 24 election as PM candidate appeared first on The Online Citizen.