In response to the many calls to make Thaipusam a public holiday, the Ministry of Manpower has responded explaining that it'd be too difficult.

Here is their full letter:

We appreciate the perspectives shared by many Singaporeans on whether Thaipusam should be reinstated as a public holiday.

As many have noted, Thaipusam was a public holiday until 1968. The prospect of the British withdrawal and the need to compete for a living in world markets necessitated many changes in the country. The government decided to reduce the total number of public holidays, amongst other things.

The decision on which public holidays to give up in 1968 was reached only after careful consultation and discussions with various religious groups. The Muslims chose to give up Prophet Muhamed’s Birthday as well as an extra day for Hari Raya Puasa. The Christians, who had to give up two days as well, chose to give up the Saturday after Good Friday and Easter Monday. The Hindus had to choose between retaining Thaipusam or Deepavali as a public holiday, and chose the latter.

These were difficult decisions for the leaders of each faith, with something of value being given up by each group in the larger interest. The Buddhists, who comprised the largest faith and had only one public holiday to begin with, Vesak Day, were not asked to offer any cuts. Some groups continued to celebrate religious events of significance to them, such as Vesakhi for the Sikhs and Lao-Tzu’s Birthday for the Taoists, without these being public holidays.

The resulting 11 public holidays that we now enjoy is neither high nor low when compared to other countries. It is the same number enjoyed by New Zealanders, Canadians and the French, among others. Our closest neighbours, Malaysia and Indonesia, enjoy a few more days than we do, but we have a few more than developed countries like the United Kingdom and Germany.

Responding to a question in Parliament, Minister of State for National Development Desmond Lee shared that his ministry has approved 38% of appeals from private property owners to buy HDB Flats.

He said that between 2013 and 2014, there were 1,587 appeals made by private property owners to buy a HDB while still holding onto their private property.

The applicants were Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents but approval was only given to Singapore citizens 

A total of 606 appeals were granted so that such people were allowed to buy a HDB flat as a second home.

Most (1,101) of the applicants owned private property overseas while 486 owned private property locally.

Education Minister Heng Swee Keat, who was speaking in Parliament under Parliamentary privilege, accused the Workers' Party of betraying the people's trust. 

He said that they had mishandled town council funds, and failed to keep proper tabs on their managing agent. 

He noted that the residents had trusted Workers' Party to give them a good deal. However, he pointed at the AGO report which found that the managing agent had been charging high fees and said that WP had failed. 

Mr Heng accused the Workers' Party of cronyism saying that they had only engaged the managing agent, FMSS, because they wanted to help their friends, who owned FMSS. 

The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued a statement today reminding the public that it will be taking action against anyone who misrepresents what happened last week during the Thaipusam incident.

They clarified that police always want to strike a balance between facilitating activities and ensuring public safety and explained their position in terms of the Thaipusam procession and the ban on musical instruments.

MHA also cited rumours online and offline about the procession saying that where they decide that such rumours are inciting enmity between different communities and races, the police will investigate and take firm action.

The Ministry of Home Affairs statement is as follows:

MHA’s general approach to events is to strike a balance between facilitating the activity while ensuring public safety and law and order. Religious foot processions pose a higher risk to public order. Unlike assemblies in a fixed location, they involve large crowds moving along an extended stretch of public roads, in close contact with other members of public, often impeding and crossing traffic flows. Emotions can be easily aroused when religious sensitivities are offended, which can trigger disorder and even violence. A general ban on religious foot processions was imposed following the racial riots in 1964, which had started as a peaceful procession but ended with the loss of lives. Police’s assessment remains that we must continue to manage religious foot processions sensitively and carefully, because of the potential impact on law and order. The reactions to the incident in this year’s Thaipusam show that race and religion continue to be sensitive issues.

The Government recognises the religious significance and the sanctity of Thaipusam for the Hindu community. An exception has therefore been made to allow foot processions for Thaipusam, as well as two other Hindu religious events, Panguni Uthiram and Thimithi (the fire-walking festival). Applications for other religious foot processions have generally not been allowed, with seven such applications from various religious groups rejected in the past five years.

RULES AND REGULATIONS

The Thaipusam foot procession presents unique challenges for maintaining law and order. Each year, about 9,000 to 10,000 devotees carry kavadis or paalkudams (milk pots).
The event also attracts thousands who walk with the devotees in the procession, and other onlookers. The 3km route goes through major roads in the heart of the city with some road closures. The entire event stretches over 26 hours, with processions taking place through the night.

The Police work closely with the Hindu Endowments Board (HEB) every year to ensure that the event is well organised and can proceed in a peaceful, smooth and safe manner, while minimising the disamenities to the public at large. The rules for maintaining law and order and public safety are clearly spelt out in the permit conditions for the Thaipusam procession. The organisers (HEB) have also kept participants informed of them every year.

One of the permit conditions is the restriction on the playing of musical instruments along the route. This restriction was introduced in 1973 because of a history of rivalry and fights between competing groups that disrupted the procession. The playing of musical instruments also slows down the pace of the procession, sometimes causing friction between participants, which in turn could lead to public order issues and disruption to other members of public.

The vast majority of devotees and their supporters have been complying with these requirements. When a breach is detected, the temple marshals would first advise the participant to abide by the rules. If a person ignores the marshal’s advice, or if he is unruly, the Police would then intervene to maintain law and order, and allow the procession to continue for the benefit of the rest of the participants.

There have been recent instances where individuals had refused to heed Police’s advice and warnings. In 2013, nine persons were arrested after they were observed to be shouting secret society slogans, and playing drums within the procession route despite being advised not to do so. This year, one person was arrested for possession of offensive weapons, apart from the three men who are being investigated for disorderly behaviour and assaulting a police officer.

WHY MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS ARE ALLOWED AT CERTAIN EVENTS

The ban on musical instruments applies to all religious foot processions. However, musical instruments have been allowed at events that do not involve foot processions including at social, cultural and community events. These include drums for Chinese lion dances, kompangs at Malay events, and Nathaswaram and Thavil for Hindu community events such as Pongal. Musical instruments have also been permitted at events that might involve a limited foot procession in a certain locality, but are primarily cultural and community events, such as the Chingay Parade and the St Patrick’s Day Parade. The scale, duration, and nature of these events are very different from Thaipusam, and they pose smaller law and order risks.

GREATER ACCOMMODATION AND FLEXIBILITY

PAP Fusses over AHPETC's $6.6 Million Transactions while Refusing the Disclose about its $800 Billion Reserves 

Over the last two days, Singaporeans have seen a big show being played out in Parliament about the "Major lapses" in the management of Aljunied Hougang Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC).

Many PAP Ministers and MPs have stepped forward in Parliament to throw mud at the Workers' Party.

Fierce words have been exchanged with PAP calling the WP a wide range of names and made claims that they were irresponsible, evasive, cheating the people, had a serious rot, and more, all under parliamentary privilege where the MPs and Minister know that there is no way that action can be taken against them for what they say.

The government has made a big deal out of the lapses highlighted in the AGO report, especially over $6.6 million worth of transactions between the AHPETC and its related managing agent FMSS.

They pointed out that FMSS is owned by two senior officials from the AHPTEC and in some instances, these directors had approved payments from AHPETC to their own company FMSS. 

The PAP has hounded on the WP for this lapse despite WP's Low Thia Khiang and Sylvia Lim explaining that there was not actually any contracts awarded without tender and them also explaining that any cheques between FMSS and AHPETC had to be co-signed by an elected MP.

What is perhaps most entertaining about this whole show however, is the fact that there is a huge hypocrisy on the part of the PAP.

Singapore is still one of the top destination for the world's Ultra High Net Worth Individuals (UHNWI), according to a study on global luxury residential property.

This is despite the fact that the government has introduced several cooling measures and regulations recently to slow the rapid growth in property prices.

The study, run by Wealth-X and Sothebys ranked Singapore as 7th in terms of the number of foreign ultra luxury home owners.

The study found that many UHNWI are buying luxury properties in Singapore despite there being few of such super rich actually staying here.

The countries were Singapore's foreign super rich come from include Indonesia, China and India with average age being 59 with backgrounds in finance, banking and investment. 

In his parliamentary speech on the AHPETC AGO Audit, WP MP Png Eng Huat pointed out that there were many other Ministries and government agencies which were aso revealed by the AGO to have lapses.

He questioned why only the WP was being targeted for small lapses involving much smaller amounts of money than other ministries.

"Over the years, the AGO has found sad instances of over payments, payments without evidence that goods and services were delivered, duplicate payments and in one instance amounting to $18.6 million, and etc in many ministries and organs of states it audited." he said.

He went on to list more specific examples including:

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was cited for not having complied with Government procurement principles of transparency, open and fair competition, and value for money when an overseas mission was audited."

"The Public Service Division was also flagged for informing a bidder that it had secured a contract worth $455,000 13 days before the Tender Board made the award decision."

MP Png also managed to take a shot at Khaw Boon Wan's earlier speech suggesting that the WP MPs should commit hara-kiri (suicide by cutting ones own stomach) (http://goo.gl/KNe65X)

"Some of these lapses were small in financial values while others were serious and the list goes on. Like what the ministers said yesterday, in some country, the CEO would take a deep bow, apologise, and resign but I guess this is not in our culture."

The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) has announced that 4G is now available at 100% of all street-level areas around Singapore between all three telcos.

They said that Singtel and M1 provide 4G at 99% of all street-level locations around Singapore with Starhub having 98.95% 4G coverage at street-level.

The IDA said that their survey showed that this was achieved already, ahead of the deadline of June 30 2016.

Despite the good results for street-level coverage, IDA said that there is still room for improvement in underground tunnels.

Starhub has the best underground coverage with their 4G services available in most road and train tunnels but M1 only has coverage in 2 tunnels and Singtel in 4 tunnels. 

IDA noted that 4G coverage is very important in Singapore given that Singapore has one of the top smartphone penetration rates in the world and rates of 4G subscription are increasing every month.

Workers' Party MP Pritam Singh explained in Parliament that contrary to media reports, their town council's managing agent, FM Solutions and Services (FMSS) was never involved in the award or review of AHPETC's contracts and tenders, especially when they were also one of the tenderers. 

He explained that FMSS was kept at an arm's length when they were involved in tendering for contracts with the town council.

He said that evaluation of such tenders was done soley the the elected and appointed members of the town council. He highlighted that these elected members had no interest in FMSS. 

"The decision making to award the tender in such a case would be the sole remit of the tenders and contract committee. No staff member of the managing agent is privy to the evaluation or decision making process in this case. The secretary of the town council, Mr Danny Low and its general manager, Ms How Weng Fan, are not involved in this process at all," he said.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong presented free money to needy residents in his ward in Teck Ghee today to help them with expenses over the festive period.

Over 400 needy families received red packets with $150 in cash and $50 in Sheng Siong vouchers.

Mr Lee’s wife, Ho Ching, was also present giving out goodie bags containing 4 bottles of chicken essence and 2 mandarin oranges.

The handouts were part of the annual Hong Bao presentation ceremony with the funds coming from the Teck Ghee Citizens’ Consultative Committee Community Development & Welfare Fund.

While it is good that the government is reaching out to needy citizens and giving them help, it is questionable whether it is appropriate for PM Lee to be the face of the handouts.

The Community Development Councils are under the People’s Association and are supposed to be community grassroots organizations.

According to Eu Yan Sang, they have seen a 40% increase in the number of children visiting their clinics over the past 4 years.

They explained that Traditional Chinese Medicine is not only for the older generation as more and more parents are bringing their children for treatment.

Eu Yan Seng also opened up an 8th child-friendly clinic in Simei which has extra features such as play areas for kids, toys and better waiting areas. 

They also said that they have physicians in these clinics who specialise in treating children up to 12 years.

This includes knowing the correct dosage for young children as well as being aware of the correct pressure to apply in massage and acupuncture.

The PAP has been on the all out attack against Workers Party and one of the issues which was highlighted in parliament was the fact that the Workers' Party's Managing agent fees were much higher than that of all the other PAP town councils' managing agent fees.

The PAP also pointed out that the Managing Agent, FMSS, for the workers party was owned by WP members.

In fact, this is not an uncommon practice and there are other PAP town councils which are also managed by related agents. (Common Practice for Town Councils to Deal with Related Parties) 

On the issue of higher MA fees, WP's Sylvia Lim had already explained that one issue was that FMSS was a small company and it did not enjoy economies of scale as the other PAP MAs did. She also shared how their town council had failed to get any tenders from the PAP town council managing agents as no body wanted to deal with them.

What is more curious is that an old letter from the PAP's Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council's managing agent is now circulating online suggesting that this managing agent drastically dropped their fees just a year before the PAP launched an attack on the WP for their "high fees":

This letter shows that in 2011 to 2013, the fees at the Pasir Ris-Punggol TC were $6.11, $6.20 and $6.25 each year. The fees for commercial properties was even higher at $11.50. With inflation, you would expect this figure to continually increase for 2014 as this was also the trend for the previous three years.

However, according to the table of town council managing agent fees shown in Parliament by Shanmugam, the fees that this managing agent apparently charged in 2014 was $5.50 for both residential and commercial properties:

A civilian was killed and three police wounded on Saturday when a masked gunman sprayed bullets into a Copenhagen meeting attended by a Swedish artist threatened with death for his cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.

Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt said Denmark was on high alert after a "terrorist attack" police said was aimed at artist Lars Vilks, who stirred controversy in 2007 with published drawings depicting the Prophet Mohammad as a dog.

The attacker escaped in a car that was found later in the outskirts of Copenhagen. Danish police were put on high alert.

The cafe complex was hosting a cultural event called "Art, Blasphemy and Freedom of Expression". French ambassador to Denmark Francois Zimeray, who was attending the event, likened the shooting to the attack on the Charlie Hebdo newspaper in Paris by Islamist militants that killed 12 people last month.

"We feel certain now that it was a politically motivated attack, and thereby it was a terrorist attack," Thorning-Schmidt told journalists close to the site of the attack.

European Council President Donald Tusk called the attack "another brutal terrorist attack targeted at our fundamental values and freedoms, including the freedom of expression."

The event's main speaker was Vilks. He and Zimeray were unharmed.

Witnesses said one or more gunmen had tried to shoot their way into the venue before guards returned fire.

"I heard someone firing with automatic weapons and someone shouting. Police returned the fire and I hid behind the bar. It felt surreal, like in a movie," Niels Ivar Larsen told Danish TV2.

The police said at first they were seeking two men who had sped off in a getaway vehicle, but later said they were looking for one man and issued a photograph of a suspect wearing a thick coat and maroon bobble hat. His face was obscured by a scarf.

"I'm still a bit stunned. I was inside, I had just sat down after my speech and then I heard shots," Zimeray told French news channel TF1.

"We all dove to the floor as we heard the gunshots and tried to protect ourselves, and we crawled to the emergency exit."

Media reports and witnesses on Twitter described the attack, saying between 20 and 40 shots were fired from an automatic weapon. Television footage showed windows of the arts center and cafe riddled with bullet holes.

"The security guards shouted 'Everyone get out!' and we were being pushed out of the room," Helle Merete Brix, organizer of the event, told Reuters. "They tried to shoot their way into the conference room ... I saw one of them running by, wearing a mask. There was no way to tell his face."

Sound technician Palle Vedel told Danish DR news channel that the meeting had been opened by the French ambassador, who praised Denmark for the support following the Charlie Hebdo shootings.

Denmark itself became a target after the publication 10 years ago of cartoons lampooning the Prophet Mohammad, images which led to sometimes fatal protests in the Muslim world.

PM Lee has been diagnosed with prostate cancer and he will be undergoing surgery to remove his prostate gland on Monday.

The procedure will be a robot-assisted key hold prostatectomy and will be carried out by a lead urologist at the Singapore General Hospitals (SGH).

According to a media release from the PMO, a MRI on his prostate had found suspicious lesions in January.

A biopsy performed shortly afterward found that 1 out of 38 samples had cancer cells.

Lee Hsien Loong will be on medical leave for 1 week and DPM Teo Chee Hean will be acting prime minister during this time.

This is not PM Lee’s first encounter with cancer. In 1992, he was diagnosed with lymphoma but after chemotherapy, the cancer went into remission.

Patients with a similar medical profile as PM Lee have a cancer-specific survival rate of 99% after 15 years.

This is PM Lee’s status update on the issue:

According to the Chinese Media, a dispute at Jurong West Hawker Centre has resulted in a “cleaner strike” with many tables left messy with scattered cutlery and leftovers as cleaners decided not to turn up for work.

The dispute started as the stallholders had been unhappy about a proposed fee increase and the cleaners had apparently started a “strike” to show that the stall holders needed them. The stall holders had been told that the cleaning fees would be increased by up to $150 a month a week earlier.

Many stallholders were unable to bear the cost increase and explained that the contractor had wanted to increase fees by $3 to $5 for cutlery collection and $2 for cutlery washing. The current rates were already $15 and $25 respectively.

The problems really started on Wednesday (11 Feb) evening when the cleaners didn’t show up for work. The following day, cleaners still didn’t come and stall owners resorted to using disposable cutlery

According to some stallholders who were interviewed by the Chinese Media, they spent over $100 on the cutlery and customers complained that it was very dirty and also complained when prices were raised 20c to cover the cost of the disposable cutlery.

The teaser trailer for the SG50 movie 1965 has been released online featuring several scenes from the movie and showcasing the many local actors and actresses who are inside the film.

The film is premiering this year at hte iconic Capitol Theatre and it cost $2.8 million to produce, 40% of which was financed by MDA.

It is intended to be a tribute to Singapore's 50 years of independence and it focuses on the racial riots of the 1960s.

Some familiar faces in the movie trailer include: Nichole Seah, Joanne Peh, Qi Yuwu, Deanna Yusoff (Malaysian), Mike Kasem and Sezairi Sezali.

The trailer did not feature Lim Kay Tong who is playing the part of Lee Kuan Yew.

The film's executive producer, Daniel Yun, explained that they have been working on the idea of the film for over 5 years and they finally came up with the strong themes of racial tension and social friction last year.

See the teaser trailer here: 

Dear TRS,

I wanna share about this conman!

Happened to me last week at Woodlands HDB. He cheated my mom to buy 4 durians that cost $252!

He's rounding at HDB block for people to buy his durian. But will come back with his 'guni' bags of durians.

He'll tell you 1kg cost $15.

He will say once he peeled the skin, must take. He will keep on peeling the skin. Until the fourth one, he'll take the weight of the durian and tell you the cost!

Ridiculously, for my mum case, cost $252!

Over 1,600 senior citizens living in Chong Pang have been given Red Packets for Chinese New Year this year.

The total value of the red packets is $69,000 and they were given out to elderly residents by the Chong Pang Community Club as part of the annual tradition of recognising the elderly. 

The Hongbaos were given to those aged 65 and above from all races.

Those aged 65 to 89 each received a $40 hong bao while those aged over 90 received $120. Residents on public assistance also received an additional $200 each.

Resident were also given commemorative PAssion Cards which entitle holders to a free hour-long session at a participating Community Club on top of other discounts at various participating retailers. 

The free money was given out by the People's Association's Community Development Council funds.

One good thing about this handout in Chong Pang is that it was given out by PA and was kept partially free from politics.

The Real Singapore has been alerted to a blog online which is showcasing many illegally taken videos of upskirt shots around Singapore.

The videos featured on the blog also show feeds from spycams in the female changing rooms of malls in Singapore.

In many instances, the victims are young girls. 

We would like to remind our readers to be very careful and aware of your surroundings when in public and to check the changing rooms that they use. It seems that even public toilet cublices are not safe as the blog features videos of women using public toilets.

None of the videos bother the censor the face of the victims and they are proudly uploaded online.

The serial up skirt videographer has taken videos on Singapore buses, shopping mall escalators and even stairs along sheltered walkways:

He has then uploaded them online in a huge collection onto his tumblr blog.

Yesterday, it was announced that PM Lee had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and would be undergoing surgery today.

See: PM Lee Diagnosed with Prostate Cancer, Has a 99% Chance of Survival

When he updated his facebook about the issue, many well wishes came in from his followers wishing him good health.

Interestingly, many of the comments seemed to be left by foreigners:

What do you think?