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saturday, 5 september 2015 M C I (P) 021/06/2015

u.s. doWnplays naval moves5 Chinese vessels seen off Alaska begin ‘return transit’hot neWs • 2

mounting chaosDivided Europe stumbles to respond to influx of migrantsWorld • 27

haZe eXpected to linger

hot neWs • 3

24-hour PSI expected to be in high end of the moderate range today as number of hotspots in Sumatra continues to fall

tomorroW: look out For today’s special sunday edition For all ge2015 neWs

MP for Nee Soon GRC K Shanmugam greeting residents during a walkabout at Chong Pang Market & Food Centre. Photo: Robin Choo

SPP candidate Benjamin Pwee for Bishan-Toa Payoh (left) looks on as Mr Chiam See Tong is helped onto the stage during a rally at Toa Payoh stadium last night. Photo: Ray Chua

US to levy sanctions on Chinese hackers ahead of Xi visit

You vote for my team, vote for them, they will stop things from going wrong and they will put things right. And things will work again!Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong

PAP team in Aljunied will set things right: PM Lee

Joy Fangjoyfangz@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE — Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong threw his weight behind the People’s Action Party’s (PAP) slate standing in the opposition-held Alju-nied Group Representation Constit-uency and Hougang Single Member Constituency last night, urging resi-dents to support what he calls a “good team” as he laid out short- and long-term plans for the area.

“I wanted you to know that I sent a good team here ... and that we are behind them, we have full confidence in them, we will support them, and to-gether if you give us the chance we will serve you well,” he said at a PAP rally held at a field near Defu Avenue 1.

Mr Lee, who is also the party’s sec-retary-general, said it was a deliberate choice to hold a rally at the Workers’ Party-held GRC, and for him to visit the PAP candidates there, because he wanted residents to know of his full confidence in the PAP team.

Describing how the area has progressed over the years, from a poor “backward place” with several kampungs to what it is today, Mr Lee said Aljunied has changed enormously because “year by year (with) the PAP working with you, we’ve transformed Aljunied”.

He lays out short- and long-term plans for estate, including new Wisma Geylang Serai civic centre

Working to transForm area again

Continued on Page 5

WASHINGTON — The White House is preparing to impose sanctions as early as next week on Chinese com-panies connected to the cyber theft of United States intellectual property.

The Obama administration has for months been preparing a raft of sanc-tions to respond to mounting commer-

cial espionage from China. Three US officials said the sanctions would prob-ably be unveiled next week, just weeks before Chinese President Xi Jinping makes his first state visit to America.

Officials have been divided over whether the administration should impose the sanctions before Mr Xi’s

visit. Proponents argue that the US needs to show China that it is seri-ous about tackling cyber espionage. But opponents worry that such tim-ing would seriously damage the visit.

The State Department had been pushing for the sanctions to come

Continued on Page 2

GE2015more reports:

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hot news2

today • Saturday 5 September 2015

US to levy sanctions on Chinese hackers ahead of Xi visitafter it, said people familiar with the situation. But law enforcement officials argued against waiting because of the serious nature of the cyber-attacks.

One official said the move would probably come next week, after the US Labour Day holiday. He said the White House wanted to avoid slapping China with sanctions immediately before the visit, to give China time to cool down before Mr Xi meets US President Barack Obama in Washington.

Officials are participating in White House meetings this week to finalise plans for the sanctions, according to people familiar with the talks.

The sanctions are expected to focus on cases involving economic espionage and theft of trade secrets, said people familiar with the cases. They will also probably be used as addition-al punishment in cases where indict-ments have already been handed down.

When Mr Xi lands in the US, he will be caught between three uncomfort-able stories: The visit of Pope Fran-cis, attacks against China on the presi-dential campaign trail, and the White House’s move to impose sanctions on Chinese companies and individuals.

China wants to boost Mr Xi’s sta-tus as a global leader, but his visit —

The cyber sanctions could really throw a spanner in things. There is no reason to embarrass the president of China. It would crater the visit.A former US official

Pentagon downplays Chinese naval moves in American waters

BEIJING — Five Chinese naval ships seen off Alaska have begun their “return transit”, and along the way appear to have come as close as 12 nau-tical miles off the United States coast, effectively putting them in American territorial waters.

The Chinese vessels “transited expeditiously and continuously through the Aleutian Island chain (south of Alas-ka) in a manner consistent with interna-tional law,” a Pentagon spokesman said yesterday. Officials also confirmed that the ships came within 12 nautical miles of the US coast.

Chief of US Naval Operations Admiral Jonathan Greenert said he did not view the Chinese deploy-ment to Alaska — an apparent first for China’s military — as unexpected or alarming. “They already had one of their icebreakers up in that area, and they weren’t that far away with an

Officials confirm ships were within 12 nautical miles of US coast

exercise, and they’ve already started their return transit,” he told Reuters.

Admiral Greenert said the ships were seen in the Bering Sea, close to some Alaskan atolls, on Wednesday, just as US President Barack Obama was in the area to push for stronger measures to combat global warming.

But despite what appears to be attempts to downplay the significance of Chinese vessels transiting in Amer-ican territorial waters, Beijing has in the past been against the passage of military planes and ships operating within its territorial boundaries.

Philippine military officials have described how China has repeatedly warned their military aircraft and ships against operating around reefs in the Spratly archipelago of the South China Sea, which are claimed by both Beijing and Manila.

The Chinese navy also issued eight

VeSSeLS NoW HeadING Home

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warnings to the crew of an American P8-A Poseidon surveillance aircraft when it conducted overflights in the disputed South China Sea in May, said CNN, which was aboard the US air-craft. China claims most of the South China Sea, through which US$5 tril-lion (S$7 trillion) in ship-borne trade

passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Bru-nei also have overlapping claims.

China has reclaimed more than 1,170ha of land as of June in the dis-puted reefs. Once the airstrip on Fiery Cross Reef — one of four new artificial territories created — is completed, Bei-jing could use it as an alternative run-way for carrier-based planes, allowing the Chinese military to conduct opera-tions with aircraft carriers in the area.

Washington, along with other stakeholders in the region, has grown increasingly concerned about rising Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea and how it could curtail the freedom of navigation.

Washington and Beijing have been engaged in a war of words over the lat-ter’s reclamation efforts. Head of the US Pacific Command, Admiral Harry Harris, criticised Chinese projects to build up islands in disputed waters in July, warning that such work could un-dermine the international norms that have supported the global economy and political order.

In response, the Chinese Defence Ministry accused the US of attempt-ing to play up China’s military threat “to sow discord between China and the littoral states in the South China Sea”.

US defence officials said the Pen-tagon was continuing to monitor the movement of the ships near Alaska, as the ships appeared to be heading away from the region. AGENCIES

which will include a 21-gun salute and a big banquet — will be overshadowed by the Pope’s, which will attract huge media coverage, and also the move to impose sanctions.

Ms Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at the Center for International & Stra-tegic Studies, said sanctions would send a message that Washington was “really serious” about cracking down on commercial espionage. Some have argued that it would spark retaliation, but Ms Glaser said the US needed to accept the risk of retaliation to show the Chinese it was serious. “If we are fearful of Chinese retaliation, then we are self-deterring,” she said.

However, one former US official said: “The cyber sanctions could real-ly throw a spanner in things. There is no reason to embarrass the president of China. It would crater the visit.”

When the US unveiled a new sanc-tions regime in April, sceptics won-dered if they would be used against en-tities in China, given the country’s deep economic ties with the US. But concern about cyber incidents emanating from China has been increasing — the FBI recently blamed China for a 53 per cent rise in economic espionage cases.

The US is betting that sanctions would have a tough effect on those tar-

geted, since it would cut them off from the global financial system. Banks and companies that do business in US dol-lars would be required to freeze their assets and would not be able to con-duct transactions with them.

The tough enforcement environ-ment has already prompted banks such as JPMorgan Chase to get out of certain businesses, such as declin-ing to house bank accounts for former and current foreign government offi-cials because of money laundering and sanctions risks.

“There was a recognition that there needed to be more tools for deterrence and to raise the costs of these attacks,” said Mr Adam Golodner, a cyber ex-pert at the Kaye Scholer law firm. “Sanctions are a powerful tool because they affect your ability to do business. There is a certain amount of symmetry in imposing economic sanctions on the actors that benefited economically.”

There has been no reaction in China to the news about sanctions. Beijing has long argued that the rev-elations by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden prove it is a vic-tim of US hacking, rather than the main aggressor. Documents released by Mr Snowden showed that the US planted backdoors in products from

big US technology companies to spy on communications.

The sanctions will exacerbate a spat between the US and China over trade barriers in high-technology industries, which has seen the US shut its domestic market to Chinese companies such as Huawei, while China has sought to insti-tute controls on foreign IT purchases, particularly from US firms.

The tit-for-tat nature of the dis-pute was made clear last year when the US indicted five Chinese army officers over cyber-related econom-ic espionage. China subsequently implemented measures such as a ban on Microsoft Windows 8, and attempt-ed to put pressure on domestic banks to forgo purchases of foreign servers.

Mr Goodwell Gong, founder of the Chown Group, a Chinese information security forum, and a founding mem-ber of China’s hacking community, said China would probably take no action until the US provided a list of individuals and entities who fell under the sanctions. “Once they publish a list ... it means they have gathered enough evidence to point their fingers, and China needs to make sure that their evidence is sufficient and solid,” said Mr Gong. “Otherwise, hacking is just an excuse for the US to issue technol-ogy barriers on Chinese companies.” THE FINANCIAL TIMES

Mr Barack Obama with traditional fishermen in Alaska on Wednesday, as five Chinese navy ships were sighted off the coast of the US state. photo: reuters

If we are fearful of Chinese retaliation, then we are self-deterring.Ms Bonnie GlaserChina expert at the Center for international & strategiC studies

hot news today • Saturday 5 September 20153

Hazy conditions in S’pore to persist in coming daysSINGAPORE — The haze that has hung over Singapore this past week is expected to linger, with the 24-hour Pollutants Standards Index (PSI) projected to be in the high end of the moderate range (51 to 100) today, the authorities said.

This is even as air quality improved yesterday, after deteriorating during the week as hot spots in Sumatra con-tinued to be detected.

As at 7pm yesterday, the 24-hour PSI was 71 to 80 and the one-hour PM2.5 was 17 to 30 mcg/m3. “The number of hotspots detected in Suma-tra decreased to 50 today from 111 yes-terday. The lower hotspot count was due to cloud cover over central parts of Sumatra. Moderate to dense smoke haze was observed in southern Sumatra,” the National Environment Agency (NEA) said.

A day earlier, the NEA had warned

of the 24-hour PSI creeping into the low-end of the unhealthy range (101 to 200) amid worsening air quality, and added the haze situation would be unlikely to change significantly in the next few days due to dry weather conditions in the region. As at 9pm on Thursday, the 24-hour PSI was between 82 and 94, while the three-hour PSI reading hit a high of 107 at 11am, before falling to 83 at 9pm.

However, conditions yesterday were less severe than expected. In the course of the week, the number of hot spots detected daily rose from 29 last Sunday to 395 on Wednesday, before falling on Thursday.

NEA chief executive officer Ron-nie Tay wrote to his Indonesian counterpart this week to “register Singapore’s concerns” and seek an urgent update on the situation on the ground. The NEA also reiter-

ated Singapore’s offer of an assis-tance package to Indonesia to help the country combat smoke haze.

Yesterday, the NEA said the pre-vailing winds are forecast to blow from the southeast today. “Singa-pore may experience occasional slightly hazy conditions. Thundery showers are forecast in the late morning and early afternoon. The 24-hour PSI for the next 24 hours is expected to be in the high end of moderate range,” the agency said.

The NEA also said people could continue with their normal activities, but the impact of haze is dependent on one’s health status, the PSI level, and the length and intensity of out-door activity. “Persons who are not feeling well, especially the elderly and children, and those with chronic heart or lung conditions, should seek medical attention,” it added.

Smoke haze remains a concern in Indonesia’s South Sumatra province, which has been battling ferocious fires. Photo: ReuteRs

The number of hotspots detected in Sumatra decreased to 50 today from 111 yesterday.

Mixed US job report keeps prospect of Sept rate hike alive

WASHINGTON — Employers in the Unit-ed States created fewer jobs than expected last month, but a drop in the unemployment rate to a near seven-

String of upbeat data offsets concerns over financial market volatility and China slowdown

and-a-half-year low and an accelera-tion in wages kept alive the prospects of a Federal Reserve interest rate hike later this month.

Non-farm payrolls increased 173,000 last month, the Labor Depart-ment said yesterday, slowing down from July’s upwardly revised gain of 245,000 as the manufacturing sector lost the most jobs since July 2013. It

was also the smallest rise in employ-ment in five months and well below the 220,000 forecast by economists in a Reuters poll. Meanwhile, the jobless rate dropped 0.2 per cent to 5.1 per cent, the lowest since April 2008, and also a level that the Fed considers to be full employment.

The latest report, however, may have been tarnished by a statistical

fluke that has bedevilled August pay-roll figures. The August totals are often lower than the revisions the government provides later, largely because of a seasonally low payrolls survey response rate from employers. August job gains have been revised higher by 79,000 during the past five years, Goldman Sachs estimates.

In another indication that the slowdown in job growth was likely not reflective of the economy’s true health, payrolls data for June and July was revised to show 44,000 more jobs created than previously reported. In addition, average hourly earnings increased 8 cents to US$25.09, the biggest rise since January, and the work week rose 0.1 hour to 34.6 hours.

The jobs report was the last major data release before the Fed meets on Sept 16-17 to discuss its first increase in interest rates in nearly a decade.

US stocks fell yesterday after the job data, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 1.3 per cent moments after opening. The key stock markets in Europe were down between 2 and 2.5 per cent in late trading. The US dollar was mixed, gaining 0.1 per cent to US$1.111 (S$1.58) per euro but fall-ing 0.7 per cent to 119.26 yen.

“The payrolls data is certainly good enough to allow for a Fed rate hike in September. The big question is still whether financial market volatility will scupper the plans,” said Mr Alan Rus-kin, global head of currency strategy at Deutsche Bank in New York.

Concerns about a slowdown in Chi-na sent stocks worldwide to their big-gest monthly loss in three years, and commodities to a 16-year low. In the wake of the sell-off, financial markets scaled back bets on a September rate hike in the past month. However, Fed vice-chairman Stanley Fischer said last week it was too early to decide whether the stock market rout had made an increase less compelling.

The latest job report also follows a string of upbeat data, including figures on car sales and housing, that has sug-gested the world’s largest economy was moving ahead with strong momentum early in the third quarter, after grow-ing at a robust 3.7 per cent annual rate in the April through June period.

A broad measure of joblessness that includes people who want to work but have given up searching and those working part-time because they can-not find full-time employment fell to 10.3 per cent, the lowest since June 2008, from 10.4 per cent in July.

In August, construction payrolls rose 3,000 on top of the 7,000 jobs add-ed in July. Mining and logging employ-ment fell by 10,000 jobs last month. Manufacturing payrolls fell 17,000, despite robust demand for autos.

The increase in hourly earnings was 2.2 per cent above last year’s level, still well below the 3.5 per cent growth rate economists consider healthy. But a tightening labour market and deci-sions by several state and local gov-ernments to raise the minimum wage should eventually give the Fed confi-dence that inflation, which collapsed with oil prices, will move closer to its 2 per cent target. AGENCIES

5.1%jOblESS RATETHE lOWEST

IN THE u.S. SINCE 2008,

EquAlS full EmPlOymENT

hot news today • Saturday 5 September 20154

No conclusion in sight for TPP talks, says Malaysian Trade MinisterKUAL A LUMPUR/TOKYO — Malaysian Trade and Industry Minister Musta-pa Mohamed yesterday cautioned that negotiations on the Trans-Pa-cific Partnership (TPP) would not be concluded anytime soon, as Tokyo expressed confidence that support was building for a second ministeri-al-level meeting on the Pacific Rim trade agreement.

“There has been progress, but we still have some issues to address. How-ever, when the TPP will be concluded is an open question,” Mr Mustapa was quoted as saying by local media.

Speaking to reporters, Mr Musta-pa revealed that fellow TPP member nations such as the United States, Ja-pan, Australia and New Zealand still had their own set of concerns over the effects that the TPP would have on their automotive, agricultural and

There has been progress, but we still have some issues to address. However, when the TPP will be concluded is an open question.Mr Mustapa MohamedMalaysian Trade and indusTry MinisTer

Indonesia scraps bullet train plan for medium-speed rail service

JAKARTA — After a much-publicised move to invite proposals from China and Japan to help build Indonesia’s first high-speed rail, President Joko Widodo’s administration has an-nounced that it will drop the plan and construct a medium-speed train ser-vice instead.

Mr Darmin Nasution, the Coordi-nating Minister for the Economy, told reporters on Thursday after a five-hour meeting with other ministers on the rail project that the President had decided that a high-speed service was not needed on the proposed line connecting Jakarta and the West Java provincial capital of Bandung.

Mr Nasution said the link is rela-tively short, at around 150km, and thus not sufficiently long for a high-speed train to sustain the envisaged top speed of 300kmh, adding that the cost for the slower service would be significantly lower.

“Although the speed could be 300kmh, the trains would not be able to reach the maximum speed, because before they do, they would need to ap-ply the brakes,” Mr Nasution said.

“So we need only trains with a speed of between 200kmh and 250kmh,” he said. “Therefore, the President decided we do not need a high-speed railway link. A medium-speed railway is enough.”

The announcement came af-ter Mr Widodo hinted earlier in the day that China’s proposal, which did not require a financial guarantee by Jakarta, might have been chosen over Japan’s.

According to Mr Nasution, the time difference between a high-speed and medium-speed service will be only around 11 minutes, while the cost for the slower train will be 30 to 40 per cent less.

To develop a medium-speed railway network, Mr Nasution said the gov-ernment would set up a team to work out terms for a contract, and Japan or China can submit new proposals.

“It will be designed as business-to-business cooperation. After (Chi-na and Japan) submit their proposals,

we will pick the better one. The more efficient and better-quality proposal will be chosen, but if (during construc-tion) the winner fails to carry out their work, the project will be taken over by the other,” he said.

Speaking to reporters yesterday in Tokyo, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secre-tary Yoshihide Suga said Tokyo would decide what it would do after receiving a detailed explanation from the Indo-nesian government about the cancel-lation of the high-speed rail project.

“We will consider measures after carefully studying Indonesia’s think-ing,” Mr Suga said.

Mr Yasuaki Tanizaki, Japan’s Am-bassador to Jakarta, yesterday ex-

pressed “regret” over the scrapping of the project.

“Japan, I believe, has the best tech-nology (to build a high-speed railway network). However, the decision has been made by the Indonesian govern-ment,” Mr Tanizaki said, adding that the Japanese government respects any decision made by Indonesia.

Only Japan and China had made comprehensive feasibility studies to enter bids for building the high-speed rail link, which aims to connect Jakar-ta and Bandung within 36 minutes.

The Chinese proposal did not call for a government guarantee, but Ja-pan’s did.

Japan was reportedly ready to be-

gin construction next year and would take five years to build the system, including a one-year trial operation period. Tokyo had also offered a soft loan to cover 75 per cent of the fund-ing needed for the project, estimating that it would cost a total of 45 trillion rupiah (S$4.5 billion).

China had said it could start con-struction a month after the ground-breaking and finish within three years. It had initially put the cost of the project at S$5.5 billion, with a lending period of 25 years and an an-nual interest rate of 2 per cent. Beijing had also offered Jakarta a partnership to jointly develop high-speed train projects elsewhere in Asia. AGENCIES

Models of Chinese high-speed trains on display at an exhibition in Jakarta last month. Indonesia has dropped plans for a bullet train service connecting Jakarta and Bandung, as the distance between the two cities is too short for such trains to run effectively. PhoTo: reuTers

dairy industries.Yet, while there were still a host of

issues that remain to be addressed, Mr Mustapa was optimistic that a deal could still be reached.

“At the moment, most countries in-volved in the talks are looking forward to a conclusion,” he said.

The TPP would stretch from Chile and Canada to Japan and Singapore, encompassing about 40 per cent of global output.

Malaysian critics of the TPP have argued that the ambitious free-trade pact would undermine the country’s right to manage state-owned enter-prises (SOEs) and the policies of pref-erential treatment for ethnic Malays and other indigenous people, known as bumiputra.

In addition, activists say the TPP would drive up medical costs, as its

provisions would curb access to af-fordable generic medicines. Critics also claim that the pact would affect rice businesses in Malaysia.

In late July, Mr Mustapa sought to allay critics’ fears by vowing to seek f lexibility for the country’s SOEs within the TPP and promising to safeguard bumiputra preferences by ensuring that the current bumiputra and small and medium-sized enter-prise preferences will be maintained.

He also warned that failing to join the TPP would come at a cost of po-tentially losing foreign investment to other countries, and that late entry would not give Malaysia the ability to shape the rules.

Reiterating his stand yesterday, Mr Mustapa said: “At the end of the day, we have the opportunity to be among the movers in shaping world

economy and trade. We will be left out if we don’t join the agreement. Then, it would be too late for us to compete and catch up.”

Meanwhile, at a news conference in Tokyo yesterday, Japan’s Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Akira Am-ari expressed confidence that support was building for the next ministerial meeting on the TPP to be held.

Last week, Mr Amari warned that the negotiations might be halted if member nations were unable to strike a broad deal before the Canadian gen-eral elections next month.

Trade ministers of the 12 TPP na-tions last met in Hawaii for four days in July, but failed to secure an agree-ment due to differences over thorny issues such as intellectual property and liberalised trade of dairy prod-ucts. AGENCIES

today • Saturday 5 September 20155 HOT NEWS General Election 2015

Rally Site Electoral Division Party

Field in front of Blk 136 Petir Road Bukit Panjang SMC People’s Action Party

Field of Former Hong Kah Primary School, 1 Bukit Batok West Avenue 2

Hong Kah North SMC Singapore People’s Party

Field in front of Blk 128C Punggol Field Walk Punggol East SMC Workers’ Party

Field of Choa Chu Kang Secondary School, 3 Teck Whye Crescent

Choa Chu Kang GRC People’s Action Party

Field along Commonwealth Ave, beside Commonwealth MRT Station

Holland-Bukit Timah GRC Singapore Democratic Party

Field in front of Blk 895A Tampines Street 81 Tampines GRC National Solidarity Party

Queenstown Stadium, 473A Stirling Road Tanjong Pagar GRC SingFirst

Clementi Stadium, 10 West Coast Walk West Coast GRC Reform Party

tonight’S rallieS

Decades of work by good men and women working with you to make this progress, but it doesn’t take long to demolish it, to waste it away.Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong

PAP team in Aljunied will set things right: PM Lee

He is familiar with the area, having served in the now defunct Jalan Kamb-ing Camp for a year. “Today the camp is gone, the Jalan Kambing is gone, the kambing (goat in Malay) also is gone, but I’m not gone — I’m back,” he said.

Mr Lee also made reference to the long-running Aljunied-Hougang-Pung-gol East Town Council (AHPETC) sa-ga, which has seen candidates from both the ruling party and WP trade barbs during their campaign trail.

Under the charge of Foreign Minis-ter George Yeo, said Mr Lee, the team ran the town council well, provided good service, and it was financially sound. It broke even and built up its reserves so that there was something for a rainy day, he added, but it did not take long for things to go awry.

“Decades of work by good men and women working with you to make this progress, but it doesn’t take long to demolish it, to waste it away,” he said.

“Four years ago, we didn’t win the elections, we handed over the town council to WP, it was in good work-ing order then ... the accounts were all properly kept, certified by the auditors, in a surplus,” he added. “But unfortu-nately, for the last four years, things haven’t gone well at all.”

That is why the PAP is sending a “good team” to contest in Aljunied, to “convince and persuade you that the PAP is a right choice”, he said. “You

vote for my team, vote for them, they will stop things from going wrong and they will put things right. And things will work again!”

In his speech, which he made in Ma-lay, Mandarin and English over 45 min-utes, he also laid out short- and long-term plans for Aljunied GRC, such as the Wisma Geylang Serai, which will be ready in two years, and the redevel-opment of the Defu industrial estate.

The PAP’s Aljunied team, compris-ing veteran Member of Parliament Yeo Guat Kwang and four newcom-ers — Mr Victor Lye, Mr K Muralid-haran Pillai, Mr Chua Eng Leong and Mr Shamsul Kamar — is attempt-ing to reclaim the GRC, but faces a tough fight against WP’s incumbent team, which includes party chief Low Thia Khiang, chairman Sylvia Lim, Mr Chen Show Mao, Mr Pritam Singh and Mr Faisal Abdul Manap.

During the 2011 General Election, the PAP’s Aljunied team, led by Mr Yeo, garnered 45.3 per cent of the votes and became the first GRC to fall into Opposition hands.

Others who spoke at the rally yes-terday included the five Aljunied GRC candidates, newcomer Lee Hong Chuang, who is contesting WP-strong-hold Hougang SMC, and former Cabi-net Minister Lim Boon Heng, who has been advising the Aljunied team.

In his speech, PM Lee also provid-ed brief anecdotes of each of the six

CoNTiNuED FRoM PAGE 1

candidates on stage, something he had also done in his first rally speech for Tanjong Pagar GRC and Radin Mas SMC on Wednesday.

Beyond local issues, Mr Lee also took pains last night to address con-cerns faced by the elderly and youth, a continuation from his first rally speech, where he had touched on the issue of cost of living. On the elderly, Mr Lee cited several programmes initiated to take care of them, such as the Pi-oneer Generation Package, to help pioneers with their healthcare costs, and the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Life scheme, which provides lifelong monthly payouts in retirement.

Pointing out that the CPF scheme — an issue often attacked by opposi-tion parties — is a “very good scheme” that helps everyone save for retire-ment, Mr Lee pointed out that in the Special Account, the first S$60,000 earns an interest of 5 per cent a year. Interest rates for Retirement Ac-

counts are even better, at 6 per cent for the first S$30,000, he said.

“I think it’s not bad, right? So why, when you go to Opposition rallies, they never mention this? Because if they mention this, nobody will vote for the Opposition. But I think I should men-tion this,” he said, adding that last year, the sum people voluntarily placed into their Special Account or Retirement Account amounted to S$500 million.

As for the young, Mr Lee said the Government has increased childcare places, upgraded preschool teach-ers, made sure every school is a good school, built more universities and in-creased the number of tertiary places, among other things.

Children are the future of Singa-pore, and they are the reason why the Government is working so hard, so that they can succeed and inherit a good Singapore, he said. “To do that we need a good government, I think you need a good PAP government.”

Plans for transforming Aljunied spelt out

Joy FANGjoyfangz@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE — In his rally speech at the opposition-held Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC) last night, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong laid out short- and long-term plans that will transform the estate.

This includes the Wisma Geylang Serai — a new civic centre that will house a community club, the Malay Heritage Gallery, and other arts and community facilities — which Mr Lee said would be “an important hub” for residents, as well as the redevelopment of the Defu Industrial estate, which will become a modern Defu Industrial Park.

The last phase of the Downtown Line, which will have four MRT sta-tions in the GRC, will make commut-ing more convenient for residents when it is ready in two years’ time, he said.

An ABC (Active, Beautiful and Clean) Waters programme is also in the works for residents, which will be like having “a mini park going through your

Stressing the PAP’s track record, PM Lee says the party has shown what it can do

neighbourhood”. Mr Lee said he has one ABC project, Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park, that is just outside his constituency — “so I pinjam from Bishan”. “If you have a good one, I think Marine Parade, Tamp-ines and Ang Mo Kio will come and pin-jam (borrow) from you,” he joked.

In the long term, the Government is moving the Paya Lebar Air Base to Changi, and this will take about 15 to 20 years to start happening. Residents will see 800ha of land opened up for de-velopment, which means many houses, factories and offices can be built there, he said, adding that houses around the Air Base that have to be built low can also be redeveloped for better land use.

“Many more homes ... you want jobs here, the jobs will also be here, you want green fields and parks here, we will also have that in Aljunied. But you need the PAP to do that, please vote for the PAP government,” he said.

Stressing his party’s track record, Mr Lee said it has shown the people what they can do. “I have been doing this for 30 years, and I think you know me, and you know my character, you know my personality. If I say can — can. If I say cannot, I’m sorry, buay sai (“cannot” in Hokkien). And I’m telling you, if the PAP team comes back here in Aljunied, eh sai (“can” in Hokkien)!”

abC WaterS programme in the WorkS, paya lebar air baSe to move to Changi

PM Lee, with Mr Yeo Guat Kwang (left) of the PAP Aljunied team and supporters after the rally for Aljunied GRC and Hougang SMC yesterday, promised more homes and jobs for the area. PHoTo: WEE TECK HiAN

today • Saturday 5 September 20156 HOT NEWS General Election 2015

Bring us home, PAP team urges Aljunied residentsLaura PhiLominlauraphilomin@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE — The People’s Action Par-ty team tasked with reclaiming Alju-nied Group Representation Constitu-ency from the Workers’ Party took its case to residents of the area last night, saying the time has come for change, and asking for support so they could be “brought home”.

Stressing their desire to serve in the area — despite being hounded and harassed during the 2011 campaign — the candidates said they had picked up a better vibe this time around, were confident that residents would give

Give support to the ‘right people’SINGAPORE— The People’s Action Party team tasked to wrest Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC) back from the Workers’ Party (WP) might not boast of any political office holders but former Cabinet Minis-ter Lim Boon Heng yesterday chal-lenged the perception that the team lacked gravitas.

Mr Lim, who has been advising the PAP Aljunied GRC team, referred to one of the candidates, Mr K Muralid-haran Pillai, who heads the litigation department at law firm Rajah & Tann. “Mr Muralidharan has over 100 law-yers reporting to him. (On the Opposi-tion side), at least three of them are law-yers. When they ask for your vote, you can ask them, ‘How many lawyers re-port to you’, can they compare against Mr Muralidharan?” Mr Lim said.

The WP is fielding its A team to de-fend the constituency, which it won in

them a fair hearing, and also offered their plans for the constituency.

Both Mr K Muralidharan Pillai and Mr Victor Lye said they continued to work the ground in Aljunied despite being given short shrift and threat-ened during the 2011 campaign.

The former has been serving in the Paya Lebar ward since 2012. He recalled how a rental flat resident re-fused rice brought to his home and said he would “only accept Workers’ Party rice”. That was not all. Verbal abuse also followed, Mr Muralidharan, a partner at Rajah & Tann, one of Singapore’s big-gest law firms, said. Eventually, more sinister forms of intimidation, such as

the placing of joss sticks and offerings — usually used for funerals — outside the PAP branch office, ensued.

Despite this, Mr Muralidharan said: “I told myself that these people need help. And I was willing to send a signal to them that I’m prepared to help them. Some of them want to in-timidate me and I want to tell them I won’t be intimidated. So I rolled up my sleeves and I tried my best to gain the trust of these people.”

To that end, he and his team raised-funds to roll out several social pro-grammes, including mobile clinics and subsidised tuition for children from low-income families. As a result, the abuse is now a memory, he said. “So I must give full credit to Aljunied residents; they know when a person is sincere, they know when a person is trustworthy and they also know when a person is a ‘wayang king’.”

Mr Lye also touched on the team’s refusal to be cowed by intimidation.

Mr Muralid-haran has over 100 lawyers re-porting to him. (On the Op-position side), at least three of them are lawyers. When they ask for your vote, you can ask them, ‘How many lawyers report to you’, can they compare against Mr Muralidharan?Mr Lim Boon HengFormer Cabinet minister

Saying he has served in the constitu-ency since 1999, he added that “we are not going to run away. We have been in Aljunied so many years. It is our home and we will not be intimidated”.

“I appeal to voters, look into your hearts, vote for people who have their hearts in the right place no matter what the other titles are that they car-ry. Look at the people who care for you, who walk the ground and serve you. Bring us home to Aljunied,” he said.

A third member of the team, Mr Shamsul Kahar, who took over as Ka-ki Bukit branch chairman last month, said some residents had expressed hope for improvements in the estate.

Some have even told him they had been neglected since 2011, he said. “So I ask you, voters of Aljunied, my team hears your feedback and concerns, we hear you loud and clear. We want you to know that we care for you. Most impor-tantly, you need to know that the team and PAP have not abandoned you since 2011. We have been here all along.”

Mr Chua Eng Leong, meanwhile, outlined plans for young families, youths and caregivers in the Eunos ward that has been tasked with serv-ing. To support young families with both parents wanting to pursue ca-reers, he promised more infant care and childcare services, as well as stu-dent care programmes for school-go-ing children. Emphasising that youths are the “pioneers of the next genera-tion”, Mr Chua said he would cham-pion enrichment, exposure and men-toring programmes for them.

Eldercare services and caregiver support groups will also be introduced to better address challenges faced by caregivers and provide them with the support they need as they care for loved ones, he added. “These are three important things I will do for you,” he promised. “We have all been walking with you over the last few years. At the PAP, we are not a wayang party. We are an action party. We know the is-sues on the ground and we also know that you want a more responsive team to look after your needs.”

2011. Three lawyers — Ms Sylvia Lim, who is also party chairman, Mr Pri-tam Singh and Mr Chen Show Mao — are on the slate. The others are party chief Low Thia Khiang and counsellor Faisal Manap.

Apart from Mr Muralidharan, the PAP team comprises seasoned cam-paigner Yeo Guat Kwang, who has served four terms in Parliament, in-surance firm chief executive Victor Lye, private banker Chua Eng Leong, and former school head of department Shamsul Kamar.

Mr Lim, who retired from politics before the 2011 GE, described the PAP slate as a “good team”, and urged vot-ers to support them.

On the national level, Mr Lim spoke about the need for Singapore to have strong leaders who can lead the coun-try through uncertain times. He also paid tribute to the leadership of found-

ing Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and former Deputy Prime Minister Goh Keng Swee.

Highlighting several potential threats — such as wars, tensions in the South China Sea, an economic slowdown in neighbouring countries, stock markets plunging, and loss of jobs brought about by technology — Mr Lim said: “Jobs change very quick-ly … it’s something that the other polit-ical parties are not discussing, but we have to discuss it because it concerns our future.”

He cited the examples of retailers and taxi drivers, whose livelihoods could be affected in the new econo-my. Traditional retailers are losing business to e-commerce while third-party taxi-booking apps are altering the dynamics of the industry. “We’re worried about what is going to happen to them, and somebody’s got to take care of them ... So far I’ve not heard the (Opposition) talking about what problems our people might face, like

our taxi drivers,” he said. Mr Lim, who had held the post of la-

bour chief during his political career, noted that with China becoming more advanced in the use of technology, jobs here could also be affected.

“In the past ... Chinese people come and learn from Singapore, but now we go to China to learn what is happen-ing,” he said. He added that issues like these are what Singapore’s leaders worry about every day.

Noting that some among the PAP slate of new candidates could be ap-pointed as Cabinet Ministers in the fu-ture, Mr Lim joked that voters should take a photograph of them before and after they are elected.

“They’ll grow a lot of white hair, just worrying about you. (These) are the kind of candidates we need to have, who are capable and can help the Prime Minister solve problems,” he said. “Your vote next Friday is im-portant, help us send the right people to Parliament.” TOH EE MING

Supporters at the PAP rally for Aljunied GRC at Defu Lane yesterday. The PAP candidates stressed their desire to serve in the area. Photo: Wee teCk hian

We have all been walking with you over the last few years. At the PAP, we are not a wayang party. We are an action party.Mr Chua Eng LeongPart oF the PaP team For aLjunied grC

today • Saturday 5 September 20157 HOT NEWS General Election 2015

Shanmugam, Low continue war of words over AHPETC

KELLY NG AND TOH EE MINGkellyng@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE — Law and Foreign Affairs Minister K Shanmugam yesterday rebutted Workers’ Party (WP) chief Low Thia Khiang’s claims that the ac-counts of the Hougang Town Council were in surplus when it merged with Aljunied Town Council in 2011, as the verbal sparring continued yesterday between the People’s Action Party (PAP) and the WP over the finan-cial management lapses at the WP-run Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC).

Speaking to reporters in Nee Soon Group Representation Constituency — where the WP also turned up to can-vass for support — Mr Shanmugam pointed out that Hougang Town Coun-cil’s annual report for the year ending March 31, 2011 showed that it had an operating deficit of S$91,800, and an accumulated deficit of S$8,700 for that financial year.

“It really troubles me that Mr Low will mislead Singaporeans … he must think that Singaporeans cannot read accounts,” said Mr Shanmugam, who spoke to the media on the AH-PETC issue on two separate occasions yesterday.

He also asked Mr Low “not to en-gage in a smoke and mirrors exercise”. “Treat Singaporeans with respect. And respect means being honest,” he said. Mr Shamugam added: “Ask (Mr Low) if he dares to read out to Singa-poreans what his auditors said about the state of Hougang’s finances as of March 31, 2011 and the concerns they express about Hougang Town Council as a going concern. I think people who understand accounts will understand what (the auditors) mean.”

Yesterday, Mr Low said he was “getting tired” of the PAP’s question-ing on the matter, and accused the rul-ing party of “going in circles” after the opposition party had already provided answers.

In response, Mr Shanmugam said the PAP was keen to focus on Singa-pore’s future in the elections but he pointed to the fact that it was the WP which had raised the AHPETC issue at its first rally on Wednesday, and the PAP had to respond because the WP had “said things which we thought were not accurate”.

“It was they who started out on their rally and spent a long time in the rally talking about it. And because they said things which we thought were not accurate, we had to respond,” said Mr Shanmugam, adding that “in-tegrity is a key issue”.

He added: “The record is there. What they have said in Parliament, what is said earlier, people can read it themselves ... In our view, the focus should be on the future, who can best serve Singapore, who can best rep-resent residents in Parliament ... If

you look at the speeches of the Prime Minister, we have been focusing and we will continue to focus on what this election means for Singaporeans.”

Mr Low, who was lending his sup-port to the WP Nee Soon GRC can-didates, said it was “unproductive”

to continue engaging the PAP on the issue. “We have actually answered the questions, but they keep on com-ing back (with) the same questions, looking at the same angle, and I think there is no end to it,” said Mr Low.

He added that the issue had already

been discussed “over and over again”, including at a two-day debate in Par-liament. “What they are coming up (with now) is basically the same thing again. I am getting tired of this ... I think it is very unproductive to do this in the election. We would like to move on to the issues we want to focus on, and our campaign theme,” he said.

Mr Low reiterated that the town council’s latest audited accounts for the financial year 2014/15 have been submitted and made public. Singa-poreans can “make (their) own judg-ment”, he said.

“Rather than we going round and round in circles and there’s no end to it ... This is an election, the election is im-portant. I expect this to be a landmark election, and our campaign theme is ‘Empower Your Future’, we want to look towards the future,” he said.

At the WP’s first rally on Wednes-day, party chairman Sylvia Lim sought to debunk what she described as “myths” about AHPETC that were spread by the PAP.

On Thursday, the Ministry of Na-tional Development issued a point-by-point rebuttal, in which it referred to an article by The New Paper which stated, among other things, that the AHPETC had tried to claw back S$450,000 from its former managing agent, FM Solutions & Services.

At a walkabout in Fengshan with other WP candidates yesterday, Ms Lim was asked by the media to com-ment on the MND’s rebuttal. She said: “I’m just appalled that the ministry is asking us to confirm a New Paper re-port which has a lot of inaccuracies.” ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY AMANDA LEE

Law Minister calls on WP chief to be honest with S’poreans; Low says ruling party is ‘going in circles’ on the issue

Treat Singaporeans with respect. And respect means being honest.

Ask (Mr Low) if he dares to read out to Singaporeans what his auditors said about the state of Hougang’s finances as of March 31, 2011 and the concerns they express about Hougang Town Council as a going concern. I think people who understand accounts will understand what (the auditors) mean.Mr K ShanmugamLAw AND FOrEIGN AFFAIrs MINIsTEr

whAT ThEY SAY

What they are coming up (with now) is basically the same thing

again. I am getting tired of this ... I think it is very unproductive to do this in the election. We would like to move on to the issues we want to focus on, and our campaign theme.Mr Low Thia KhiangwOrKErs’ pArTY cHIEF

Top: PAP candidate for Fengshan SMC Cheryl Chan during a walkabout in the area yesterday. Above: WP chairman Sylvia Lim (left) introducing her party’s candidate Dennis Tan to Fengshan residents. pHOTOs: rAY cHuA

today • Saturday 5 September 20158 HOT NEWS General Election 2015

Don’t let polls excitement cloud long-term view, ESM warns

Ng JiNg YNgjingyng@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE — Beyond the excitement generated by the hustings, Singapo-reans should be thinking about the long-term stability of the country when they head to the ballot box, said Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong yesterday as he echoed a point previously made by several People’s Action Party (PAP) leaders.

Noting that the Republic is a “very well-run, orderly society”, Mr Goh said: “The excitement comes only during GE (General Election), once in four or five years, so naturally Singaporeans are very seized by the election.”

But he pointed out: “It’s all right to have excitement over these nine days, but after Polling Day, what kind of Sin-gapore do we have?

“Do you want to have a very excit-ing Singapore, which means that polit-ically it’s not so stable, or do you want life to resume like before the election, where you go to work, take the MRT, make a living and settle into orderly Singapore?

“I’m concerned (about) our long-er-term stability, beginning with this election ... because I look at the region, and countries around us are politically uncertain.”

Mr Goh was speaking to report-

Former PM says a bleak future awaits the Republic if it is exciting but politically unstable

He urgeS voterS to enviSion tHe country 15 yearS from now

AHPETC a national issue ‘as it concerns values, integrity’Laura PhiLomiNlauraphilomin@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE — Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong yesterday argued that the Workers’ Party’s (WP) manage-ment of Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC) is a na-tional issue, not just a municipal one, as it concerns values and integrity.

“If I am in charge of a town council and I run it any way I like as long as I have not run afoul of the law ...

“Yes, there is accounting, disclaim-ers and so on, but I am not in jail … that is a values issue. Where is the trans-parency? Where is the accountability and responsibility?” said Mr Goh, re-ferring to WP chief Low Thia Khiang’s charge this week that the People’s Ac-tion Party (PAP) has exaggerated the

AHPETC issue for the past two years and that the subject has not resulted in any criminal charges.

“We’ve got to put (it) across that these values and the issue of integri-ty is what underpins Singapore,” said Mr Goh, who added that the Opposi-tion has to prove its capability in run-ning town councils before it can think about running a country.

Mr Goh was speaking to reporters after a walkabout on Serangoon Ave-nue 3, which is part of Marine Parade Group Representation Constituency (GRC).

Adding that he was not running the election campaign, Mr Goh nev-ertheless said he did not believe that the PAP’s entire campaign is focused on the AHPETC issue only.

“But it has given the PAP an advan-

tage to seek a clarification,” he said, and added that the PAP would return to the topic of leadership renewal.

“I believe the PAP must come back to what we are seeking: We are seeking a mandate for the agenda,” he said.

He added: “PAP will tell people what is it they want to do for Singa-pore over five years and 10 years, be-yond leadership renewal. Everybody knows the importance of leadership renewal, but what programmes do you have under the new leaders?”

About the mood on the ground in Marine Parade GRC compared with the 2011 GE, Mr Goh said he had no-ticed “two big changes”, which have re-sulted in citizens who are “much more open, much more supportive and much more assertive in support of the PAP”.

Older voters, who were already supportive of the PAP in the previous elections, are “very forthcoming” this time, Mr Goh said.

He felt that it could be because of the Government’s recognition of their

status as pioneers. “They came forward, shook hands,

took pictures and so on. They were very open about their feelings,” he said. “I think the recognition of the pioneers was a very important element ... It’s not the money but the recognition.”

Smartphones have also had a posi-tive multiplier effect, with people tak-ing pictures and sharing them on so-cial media platforms, he said.

Mr Goh said he sensed that most voters have already made up their minds about who to vote for.

“In the past, the (undecided) vot-ers were higher in the last election be-cause issues were ... in the air. This time I think they more or less are set-tled,” he said.

“There is still a segment of peo-ple who have not yet decided who to vote for.

“But I think most people have de-cided, either for us or for the other side. What percentage it will be, we don’t know ... but my general sense is most people have decided.”

There is still a segment of people who have not yet decided who to vote for. But I think most people have decided, either for us or for the other side. What percentage it will be, we don’t know.Mr Goh Chok TongEmEritus sENior miNistEr

ers on Serangoon Avenue 3 during a walkabout with fellow Marine Parade Group Representation Constituency candidate Seah Kian Peng.

Mr Goh, who was Singapore’s sec-ond Prime Minister from 1990 to 2004, said he is not concerned with this GE as he felt the ruling party “will do all right”.

“It’s going to be a tough fight. The PAP must fight for every vote and we cannot take things for granted. We now face more opposition par-ties ... We have to fight for every vote through sincerity, service to nation and service to people,” he said.

His concern is about the subse-quent two GEs.

“If we are written up by analysts, foreign investors, commentators, journalists as a politically unstable country 10 years from now (or in) 15 years’ time, then I think you have a big problem and younger people like you will have a very bleak future,” Mr Goh told the reporters.

Mr Goh said that he had learnt from founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew to take a “50-year view of Singapore”.

“I had sat down in a meeting be-tween Mr Lee Kuan Yew and (late China leader) Deng Xiaoping. Deng Xiaoping thinks in terms of 100 years, 200 years.

“In 1978, I met him ... he was not concerned about China in 1985 or 1990 or 2015, but China in 2050. Where will Singapore be in 2050? We all have big worries.”

Adding that he wanted to put the GE “in context”, Mr Goh said: “It is very important that at this election, we must understand the issues.

“A lot of excitement but, please, for goodness’ sake, we have to decide for ourselves how to have a stable Singapore.

“ ... It’s not in PAP’s hands. It’s in the people’s hands ... You’ve got to de-cide how to have a stable Singapore, five years, 10 years down the road for yourselves,” he said.

Marine Parade GRC candidate Goh Chok Tong during a walkabout at Serangoon Avenue 3 yesterday. Mr Goh says he thinks the PAP will do all right this GE. Photo: ErNEst Chua

today • Saturday 5 September 20159 HOT NEWS General Election 2015

Residents at centre of everything we do: PAP’s Cheryl ChanSiau Ming Ensiaumingen@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE — Drawing on her decade-long experience as a grassroots vol-unteer, the People’s Action Party’s (PAP) candidate for Fengshan Single Member Constituency, Cheryl Chan, yesterday reminded residents of the upgrades the area has seen over the years and pledged to continue improv-ing the maturing estate.

“(So) what does the PAP team stands for? The PAP team has been here and we’ve been serving the Feng-shan residents for many years. For the past few years, we have always put res-idents’ welfare first. Residents are at the centre of everything that we do and will continue to be so,” said Ms Chan.

In her maiden election rally speech delivered in Bedok North, the 38-year-old, who has lived in Fengshan for many years, said she has seen how the PAP helped upgrade lifts and homes, build sheltered walkways, playgrounds, and revamped fitness corners, among other things.

While much has been done to cre-ate a vibrant estate, she said that more can be done. For instance, all eligible blocks have been selected for the Home Improvement Programme.

“Of course, everything comes back to food. We have (also) upgraded our favourite Block 85 market,” she added,

Facilities upgrading a key plank for PAP in Hougang

CElEnE Tancelenetan@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE — Speaking at his inaugural General Election rally yesterday, the People’s Action Party (PAP) candidate for opposition stronghold Hougang Sin-gle Member Constituency made an im-passioned plea to voters, urging them to give him the opportunity to work with them to improve their livelihoods.

Mr Lee Hong Chuang, 45, stressed that the PAP’s goal has always been to care for the livelihood of the people. “We know that education is the foun-dation of livelihood, employment is the capital of livelihood, income is the support of livelihood, and social safe-guards are the social safety net of live-lihood,” he said during the rally held at an open field near Defu Avenue 1.

His rally was held in conjunction with the other PAP candidates con-testing in Aljunied Group Representa-tive Constituency. Hougang SMC has been held by the opposition Workers’ Party (WP) since 1991.

Speaking predominantly in Manda-rin, Mr Lee outlined three key devel-opment plans he had for Hougang resi-

dents: Facilities upgrading, community bonding activities and measures to strengthen the “Hougang spirit”.

The f irst plan highlighted by Mr Lee will dovetail with the demo-graphics of the mature estate by ac-celerating the pace of upgrading and enhancing the facilities to improve the ease of mobility for the elderly.

“Hougang needs more hardware and software to cater to the needs of the elderly,” Mr Lee said. “I hope to build a more convenient environment (for them).” He hopes to organise more recreational activities for residents to let them enjoy “a good life, good health, and good overall well-being.”

The second plan Mr Lee detailed was to increase the number of commu-nity bonding activities to foster greater cohesiveness among residents.

Last but not least, he spoke about strengthening the “Hougang Spirit”, which to him comprises the personal touch, being caring and having a re-silient kampung spirit.

He noted that there are low income families, single parent families and the elderly in Hougang who may require assistance. “Our neighbours help them (the less privileged), but there is a lim-it to what they can do individually,” Mr Lee said. “I encourage all residents to play a part in helping these low-in-

alluding to buzz generated by opposi-tion Workers’ Party’s (WP) chairman Sylvia Lim after she posted an Insta-gram photo of herself having oyster omelette at a Fengshan hawker centre.

Fengshan SMC has been freshly carved out of East Coast Group Rep-resentation Constituency (GRC) for the polls. Both the ruling party and the WP

will be fielding first-time candidates, with latter fielding shipping lawyer Dennis Tan, 45. This is also the first time the PAP is fielding a female elec-toral debutant in an SMC since 1988.

Ms Chan, who is the head of sec-ondary industries at The Linde Group (Gas & Engineering), started volun-teering in 2005 in grassroots organi-

Hougang needs more hardware and software to cater to the needs of the elderly. I hope to build a more convenient environment (for them).Mr Lee Hong ChuangPaP CandidaTE for hougang SMC

The PAP team has been here and we’ve been serving the Fengshan

residents for many years. For the past few years, we have always put residents’ welfare first. Ms Cheryl ChanPaP CandidaTE for fEngShan SMC

Lee also wants to hold community-bonding activities and strengthen ‘Hougang spirit’

PAP supporters at the rally at an open field near Defu Ave 1 yesterday. PhoTo: WEE TECk hian

sations at Fengshan. She pledged to help the elderly and underprivileged children going forward.

Ms Chan was supported during her rally by the PAP team contesting in the East Coast GRC, including Manpower Minister Lim Swee Say, Senior Minis-ter of State (Trade and Industry & Na-tional Development) Lee Yi Shyan and Minister of State (Defence and National Development) Maliki Osman, who at-tested to her character and capabilities.

Former Cabinet minister Raymond Lim — whom Ms Chan is replacing — for instance, said he has never known her to panic in pressurising situations and she reacts calmly to all problems.

Yesterday, Ms Chan also likened na-tion-building to running a marathon, noting that the PAP is committed to running the race with Singaporeans. “In this General Election, I urge all of you, residents, friends and supporters, to consider what is important for this nation to move forward together and what type of ... candidates do you want to put in Parliament.”

come families. Let’s all work together to strengthen the Hougang spirit.”

He said he would make full use of the resources available from the Gov-ernment, Voluntary Welfare Organi-sations and other sources to support these families. Mr Lee, who is a father of two, has been volunteering for more than 26 years. Since last September, the senior IT manager has chaired the Hougang Community Club Manage-

ment Committee. His rival is incumbent Mr Png Eng

Huat of the WP, who has held the seat since he garnered 62.1 per cent of the vote in a 2012 by-election.

“Many five-years have gone, many elections have passed. For yourself, for your family, for your children, for your future generations — I hope you will not delay (voting for the PAP) any longer,” Mr Lee said.

Ms Cheryl Chan was supported by Mr Raymond Lim (left) and Manpower Minister Lim Swee Say (right) at her maiden rally. PhoTo: raj nadarajan

today • Saturday 5 September 201510 HOT NEWS General Election 2015

Whenever I take taxis home, my driver tends to associate my home with Mr Chiam. I feel quite proud of that.Mr Low Jun WeiPotong Pasir resident

Town leaves ‘rustic’ label in the dust, leaving some anxiousVaLerie KoH valeriekohsf@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE — For a long time, Potong Pasir’s name was practically a by-word in Singapore for words such as “quaint” and “rustic”.

But in the past four years, those qualities have changed considerably. An NTUC FairPrice supermarket and a Singapore Post outlet have rolled in-to the neighbourhood, bringing con-venience to residents who once had to buy groceries from provision shops and use postal services provided by a bookstore that doubled up as a post office.

For the first time, residents also have a POSB branch and even a gym in the heart of the town.

Covered walkways have gone up and nearly all Housing and Develop-ment Board blocks have lifts that stop on every floor. A mixed-use develop-ment comprising a condominium and mall located behind the MRT station

ConStituenCy foCuS: potong paSir SmC

Continued on Page 11

from a barrier-free access project in 2011, Mr Chiam did not receive funds from the Community Improvement Projects Committee, which can be tapped by all PAP-managed town councils. That was why new ameni-ties would come with plaques or sign-boards, stating the date of comple-tion, and also to signify their pride at what they managed to do for residents despite having limited resources.

Today, few of these quirks remain, after an extensive upgrading project spearheaded by Mr Sitoh.

When TODAY visited the neigh-bourhood last month, an old signboard for the Potong Pasir Neighbourhood Park beside Block 136 was still standing. But the park, which had been demol-ished, was in the midst of being rebuilt.

During a press conference last month, Mr Sitoh presented an evalu-ation of his performance as the Potong Pasir’s Member of Parliament (MP). Since the 2011 GE, he has complet-ed more than 120 projects and pro-grammes for its residents, he said.

While covered walkways have been built, car parks on Potong Pasir Avenues 1, 2 and 3 have been refur-bished under the Neighbourhood Re-newal Programme. Forty-eight hous-ing blocks have been retrofitted with lifts that stop at every floor, a project under the Lift Upgrading Programme

is currently under construction.Potong Pasir’s residents have long

gone by without such amenities, which are deemed standard fare in other housing estates. But although they are not complaining about the added convenience provided by the upgrades in infrastructure, the extensive make-over has presented some downsides.

Drilling and clanking noises from ongoing construction work have be-come part of everyday life; so too the dust coating the floor tiles in homes. Small businesses are feeling the heat as their earnings take a hit, with de-mand falling as more people shop at the newly opened supermarket. Al-ready, at least one provision shop has had to fold.

The changes to the neighbourhood came about after a watershed General Election (GE) in 2011, in which the Peo-ple’s Action Party’s (PAP) Sitoh Yih Pin won the single-seat ward on his third attempt, by a razor-thin margin of 114 votes over the Singapore Peo-

ple’s Party’s (SPP) Lina Chiam. The seat had been held for 27 years

by Mrs Chiam’s husband, Mr Chiam See Tong, after he defeated the PAP’s Mr Mah Bow Tan in 1984.

But in 2011, Mr Chiam ventured out of Potong Pasir to lead an SPP team to contest in the Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC and failed to dislodge the PAP team led by Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen.

In next week’s poll, Potong Pasir, which is the smallest of 13 single-seat wards, with 17,389 registered vot-ers, will see a straight fight between Mr Sitoh and Mrs Chiam, 66. The constituency’s boundaries have re-main unchanged.

During his tenure, Mr Chiam, who is now 80, ran a tight ship with the town council’s funds, in order to carry out upgrading work in the es-tate, which included major rewiring work, building interaction parks and linkways, as well as repainting and re-roofing public housing blocks.

He ran a tight ship because, apart

Potong Pasir has undergone extensive upgrading under PAP MP Sitoh Yih Pin, and though residents acknowledge the benefits, they say the construction has caused much inconvenience. PHoto: Wee teCK Hian

today • Saturday 5 September 201511 HOT NEWS General Election 2015

Continued from page 10

that had cost the town council a whop-ping S$8.7 million.

About 900 flats on Lorong 8, Toa Payoh were identified to benefit from the Home Improvement Programme and the Enhancement for Active Sen-iors scheme.

More high-rise condominiums line the horizon and new amenities have brought much convenience to resi-dents. The S$7 million Potong Pa-sir waterfront lining a 400m stretch along Kallang River was opened two months ago.

Mr Sitoh’s manifesto for the next five years lists another 22 projects, in-cluding lift upgrading for a final eight blocks in Potong Pasir.

Residents whom TODAY spoke to said life in the neighbourhood has be-come easier since the infrastructur-al improvements.

Before the supermarket opened last year, residents could buy groceries only from the wet market or provision shops around the neighbourhood. If they wanted more options, they would have to traipse to the nearby Nex mall

in Serangoon or to Toa Payoh.“In the past, if I wanted to buy

meat, I would have to go to the wet market very early in the morning,” said Madam Lim Lian See, a 64-year-old retiree. “Now that there’s an NTUC FairPrice supermarket, I can go anytime I want.”

But businesses in the neighbour-hood such as Xin F&K Medical Hall, which doubles up as a provision shop, said they have seen their earnings fall after the supermarket opened.

“We’ve been affected. The super-market offers promotions for pio-neers. We can’t do that because our profit margin is already very low,” said Mr Hoe, a 50-year-old shop assistant. He estimated that the store’s takings have dropped by about 3 to 4 per cent over the past year.

Residents’ other bugbears include the inconvenience brought about by the ongoing construction.

Full-time national serviceman Leroy Lee, 21, felt that the new shel-tered walkways were a perk, but noted that many paths were also blocked be-cause of the ongoing upgrading works.

Retiree Lilian Tan, also lament-ed about the hassles that have come with the construction work: “It’s a con-struction junkyard, with all the drill-ing and building. It’s so inconvenient and dusty now.”

The Block 122 resident added that even though the car park in her estate had been rebuilt because of concrete spalls, the number of lots in it remains limited.

“Every time we come back, we have to circle round and round to find a parking lot. A multistorey car-park would have been better,” said Mdm Tan, 67.

Food choices are also limited com-pared with those offered in coffee shops and fast food joints, pointed out housewife Liew Yoke Mui, 55. She hopes to see more dining outlets open-ing in the neighbourhood.

Despite the physical changes, res-idents said the “kampung spirit” re-mains strong in Potong Pasir. Beauti-cian Sun Jing Xuan, 36, felt that the small estate stands out from other towns because it is “more intimate”.

“When I go to the coffee shop, all

the neighbours will say ‘hi’. It’s heart-warming,” she said.

Her husband Charles Lim, 48, gave another example of the strong neigh-bourly ties: Knowing that his father-in-law does odd jobs, neighbours would often ask him to collect their newspapers or paint their walls, and pay him when the job was completed.

Reflecting on the SPP’s loss of Po-tong Pasir in the previous GE, Mr Lim, who is a tour guide, mused that the town’s changing demographic might have been a contributory factor.

“There are many new residents here now, and they’re unlike the older generation who supported Mr Chiam for so long,” he said.

School bus attendant Mary Yee, 57, felt that Mrs Chiam lacked the promi-nence of her husband, and said resi-dents might be less familiar with her.

Four years after stepping down as MP, Mr Chiam’s name remains syn-onymous with Potong Pasir.

“Whenever I take taxis home, my driver tends to associate my home with Mr Chiam,” said engineer Low Jun Wei, 29. “I feel quite proud of that.”

(Clockwise from top left) A coffee shop at Block 137. A new sheltered walkway beside Potong Pasir Community Club. The new NTUC FairPrice at the community club. An old futsal court behind the basketball court, as seen from the community club. Residents say life in the neighbour-hood has become easier since the improvements were completed. photos: Wee teCk hian

today • Saturday 5 September 201512 HOT NEWS General Election 2015

SINGAPORE — There is space for great-er female participation in Singapore politics and even in the higher levels of political office, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Grace Fu yes-terday, adding that it is only a matter of time before qualified female candi-dates with the right experience will come to the fore.

Ms Fu, who is the People’s Action Party’s (PAP) candidate for Yuhua Single Member Constituency (SMC), told TODAY during a morning walk-about that the primary reason for her optimism on greater female par-ticipation in politics is that both gen-ders now enjoy equal opportunities in schools and education based on merit.

Ms Fu, who is also the Second Min-ister for Foreign Affairs and the Envi-ronment and Water Resources, said

I think it’s just a matter of time before you’ll see more women being able to take up that role (of repre-senting their constituents in Parliament).Ms Grace FuMinister in the PriMe Minister’s Office and the PaP’s candidate fOr Yuhua sMc

VOIcES chEO’S REMARkS ON MOthERS dIS-cRIMINAtORy, dISEMPOwER wOMEN 22

There’s always room for more women in politics: Grace Fu

Tin Pei Ling fires back over motherhood commenthOn JinG Yihonjingyi@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE — The National Solidarity Party’s (NSP) Cheo Chai Chen’s as-sertion that his People’s Action Party (PAP) opponent Tin Pei Ling’s status as a new mother is a “weakness” has drawn backlash from the public, not least from Ms Tin herself, who took to Facebook to refute his comments.

In a Facebook post yesterday morn-ing, Ms Tin, who faces Mr Cheo in MacPherson Single Member Constit-uency, pointed out that she went back to work two weeks after delivering her baby — on Aug 5 — because she want-ed to continue serving. “I am confident that even as a mum, I can continue to focus on my work in MacPherson,” wrote Ms Tin, maintaining that she is committed to the constituency.

She also spoke up for new mothers, saying they should not have to choose between motherhood and a career. “Women today are well educated and certainly capable of contributing in the workplace and in society. Hence, I want to build a Singapore in which more women can successfully man-age family and work responsibilities at the same time. What this needs are Government and employer support, strong family ties with husbands play-ing active roles, and societal under-standing and accommodation.”

Besides Mr Cheo, Ms Tin is also facing the Workers’ Party’s (WP) Ber-nard Chen in the single-seat ward.

When evaluating his opponents during an interview with TODAY on Thursday, Mr Cheo, who was speak-ing in Mandarin, had said: “The PAP’s Tin Pei Ling has been working very hard. But she has just given birth, so voters should let her go home and rest, and take care of her child.

“In general, mothers love their chil-

NSP candidate ‘will run town council directly if elected’SINGAPORE — If elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for MacPherson, the National Solidarity Party’s (NSP) Cheo Chai Chen will run the town council serving the constituency directly. He said this is to avoid a situation like the ongoing Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC) saga.

In a flier he distributed during a walkabout at MacPherson yesterday, Mr Cheo, noting the tussle between the People’s Action Party (PAP) and Work-ers’ Party (WP) over AHPETC, wrote that the party was very concerned.

The party will not let an incident such as “TC general manager is also the boss of its contractor” happen, he wrote. He also said he would establish a fund to support low-income groups.

Mr Cheo, 64, a former Singapore Democratic Party MP for Nee Soon Central from 1991 to 1997, is facing the PAP’s Tin Pei Ling and the WP’s Ber-nard Chen in MacPherson.

In his message, he defended the par-ty’s decision to contest in MacPherson after initially saying it would not, reit-erating what he told TODAY in an earli-er interview — that the WP was “arro-gant” for skipping the second round of Opposition talks to avoid three-corner fights last month, and for not respond-ing to the NSP when it reached out to the party for bilateral talks. “Our party promotes cooperation among all Op-position (parties), this is the (wish) of many Singaporeans,” he wrote. “But it is regretted, there is an arrogant Op-position party (that) does not want to (cooperate). Thus, we will have a three-corner fight in this coming Gen-eral Election in this constituency.”

Mr Cheo entered politics in 1988 a member of the SDP. He joined the NSP in 2006 and was part of its Marine Pa-rade Group Representation Constitu-ency team in 2011. hON JING yI

that times have changed as compared to the pre-1965 generation, when fami-lies experienced financial constraints, therefore, limiting the opportunities for women to be educated.

“If you look at literacy — only 60 per cent of women (then) were ed-ucated. During my time, only 10 per cent (of women were) in the university cohort,” she noted.

In her view, this has contributed to a limited pool of tertiary-educated women with the necessary work ex-perience in senior positions and the tested ability to serve residents on the ground, resulting in a situation where women are currently under-represented in local politics.

“(Now) almost 100 per cent of wom-en go to school, and the pipeline (of tal-ented candidates) is very strong. So, I

think it’s just a matter of time before you’ll see more women being able to take up that role (of representing their constituents in Parliament),” she said.

She highlighted that there is al-ready a trend of greater female par-ticipation in politics.

Ms Fu added that she was heart-ened to see more female candidates coming forward to contest in the cur-rent General Election (GE), from both the PAP and the Opposition.

She stressed that this was a posi-tive development for Singapore as a whole.

When asked if there is still room for empowering women in Singapore, Ms Fu said: “I think the PAP repre-sents a Singapore that has lots of op-portunities for women … We will do more to try to support women to have

both work and family.”Going forward, she said what may

be necessary is to have more child-care support, including more flexible arrangements for women.

“How do we get companies to have a more flexible work arrangement? Al-lowing women more options, encour-aging them to start a family — these are all important issues that we’re just beginning (to look into),” she added.

Commenting on her chances at the polls against the Singapore Democrat-ic Party’s (SDP) candidate Jaslyn Go, Ms Fu highlighted her decade of expe-rience working with residents in the neighbourhood, but stressed that she believed the GE is a time for everyone to reflect on their options and choices, and to look at issues with a sense of responsibility.

“It’s every vote that counts, and I’m going for every single one,” she said. tANG chEE SENG

dren, so they spend a lot of time with them. If voters choose her, she might focus more on her child than on her voters. This is her weakness.”

His comments drew criticism from some netizens, while other PAP mem-bers also waded in. In a Facebook post, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said he had spent four months as a medical house officer delivering babies and tending to recuperating mothers. “I know physically what they have to go through, just after delivery,” he said.

He said he had advised Ms Tin to do less house and market visits since she had delivered recently, but Ms Tin “is obviously not taking my advice” and has pushed on. “Mothers are strong, very strong when motivated ... Those

who dare to challenge mothers — beware!” Dr Ng wrote.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Grace Fu called Mr Cheo’s comments “unjustified and out-dated”. “The work of an MP (Mem-ber of Parliament) is demanding, but many women MPs have proven that they can be as effective as their male counterparts,” she said, citing the PAP’s Ms Sim Ann, Ms Low Yen Ling and Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar as examples. “Mr Cheo’s comment that ‘voters should let her go home and rest...’ is a reminder that our work to change societal attitudes is far from done.”

In a statement, NSP secretary-general Lim Tean assured that his party supports “mothers of all kinds”. Citing two women in his party who are mothers, Ms Kevryn Lim and Ms Nor Leila Mardiiiah Mohamed, he said: “There is no question that mothers are strong, and there is no question that any woman, mother or not, is any less able than her male counterpart.”

Ms Lim, who is standing in Sem-bawang Group Representation Con-stituency, shared the statement, adding: “I believe Miss Tin, like all mothers and myself, can also be a ca-reer woman of (her) own and man-age (her) time respectively without neglecting anyone in the family.”

At a walkabout yesterday, Mr Cheo told reporters he was jok-ing. On Thursday, he also told TO-DAY he thought the WP’s Mr Chen was “inexperienced”. Mr Chen, 29, is new to elections and is the young-est candidate fielded by the WP this time.

In her post, Ms Tin, herself the youngest candidate when she made her political debut in 2011, noted: “I should add that neither should youth be seen as a disadvantage.”

She added: “It is good that young Singaporeans are paying attention and getting involved in the GE. It shows that young Singaporeans are willing to stand up for (their) beliefs and work hard to achieve a better future for our country.”

The PAP’s Tin Pei Ling with residents in MacPherson. Ms Tin says she is ‘confident that even as a mum, I can continue to focus on my work in MacPherson’. sOurce: tin Pei LinG’s facebOOk PaGe

today • Saturday 5 September 201513 HOT NEWS General Election 2015

We are not saying that they should immediately disband the current system ... I’d like to emphasise (that this) is a very gradual process.Mr Yee Jenn JongWP candidate for Marine Parade Grc

WP proposes small start for through-train plan

nG JinG YnGjingyng@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE — The morning after the Workers’ Party (WP) mentioned at its election rally the idea of a 10-year through-train programme as an al-ternative for some students in Singa-pore’s education system, WP candi-date Yee Jenn Jong went into greater detail on how such a proposal could be implemented.

It would start small, with two schools in each zone — north, south, east and west — and with about 100 students each year.

The intention is not to overhaul the education system, but to gradu-ally move away from the stressful na-ture of schooling here, said Mr Yee, a member of the WP’s five-man team running in Marine Parade Group Rep-resentation Constituency, yesterday. He was speaking to reporters after a walkabout in Serangoon Avenue 3.

Mr Yee said he had received feed-back from Singaporeans, who want-ed to know if the through-train pro-gramme will mean overhauling the entire school system.

The WP’s 10-year programme, from Primary One to Secondary Four, would allow students to bypass the Primary School Leaving Exami-nation (PSLE). It is aimed at reducing the stress level created by high-stakes examinations.

Mr Yee added: “We are not saying that they should immediately disband the current system ... I’d like to em-phasise (that this) is a very gradual process.” In fact, the through-train programme might not be for every-body, but for those who hope for an alternative to the traditional educa-tion path, he said.

Mr Yee pointed out that only by trying out such an alternative ar-rangement would it allow parents to be aware of other routes beyond the tried-and-tested.

Data collected from the group of students who have undergone a 10-year through-train programme might also help the Government to de-cide if it might be possible to do away with the PSLE altogether in future, he added.

Mr Yee said the programme could start off with schools that already have an affiliation practice between the primary and secondary schools.

While some have pointed out that the WP proposal might result in trans-ferring pressure to the Primary One level instead of Primary Six as par-ents rush for schools with the through-train programme, Mr Yee said there is no need to introduce it in top schools. Instead, it could be implemented in neighbourhood schools.

He also pointed out a number of is-

sues with the current sorting system imposed by the PSLE, where the dif-ferent streams in secondary schools might affect the confidence levels of students who are labelled not as intel-ligent as their counterparts.

Exams are necessary to help chil-dren assess their abilities and make

decisions on their future, he stressed, but it might be more helpful to im-pose such tests when the children are older.

“The Government is also trying to move away from this overly exces-sive meritocratic system ... Over the past 20 to 30 years, we have moved

our education system into a too highly competitive one, where the grades you achieve early in life make a whole lot of difference,” he said.

Mr Yee added: “One of the ways to decelerate this is to provide some alternative ... Now, (parents) have no (other) choice.”

Plan not to overhaul system, but to move away from stressful nature of schooling here

today • Saturday 5 September 201514 HOT NEWS General Election 2015

A PAP MP may think he roars like a tiger in Parliament, but the PAP MP is a real mouse in the House, a little white mouse.Ms Sylvia LimWP chair and candidate for aljunied Grc

WP warns against return to pre-2011 ‘dark ages’

nG jinG YnGjingyng@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE — The Government has made some policy “U-turns” to im-prove Singaporeans’ lives, but Work-ers’ Party (WP) leaders last night warned voters not to take this as a cue to return to a system that is dom-inated by one party.

At its third rally of the election cam-paign — a pace only surpassed by the People’s Action Party (PAP) — WP leaders kept hammering home one message to the assembled throng: Do not choose a return to the “dark ages” of a system dominated by one party by not letting up in the push to entrench the Opposition’s voice in Parliament.

Rebutting the message put out by several PAP leaders that policy chang-es made over the past four years were in the works before the previous elec-tion, WP chair Sylvia Lim said: “The PAP has been trying in this election to convince you that many changes we see around us started before 2011. They are afraid that the WP will take credit for the changes. But the credit … belongs to the voters.”

The vote for the Opposition had forced the PAP to wake up, says Sylvia Lim

These changes, she said, including moving from a for-profit model for the public transport system, which saw overcrowded buses, to one that saw the Government spending S$1.1 billion to buy 1,000 state-owned buses. The slowing of the inflow of foreigners af-ter 2011 was another example.

The vote for the Opposition had “forced the PAP to wake up”, she said, urging voters to “keep up the pressure on the PAP and make the PAP work harder”. Ms Lim also said the PAP’s MPs would not be an effec-tive check on a PAP Government, re-peating a charge made by another WP MP, Mr Pritam Singh, on Wednesday. Citing the 2013 Population White Pa-per, she said the WP MPs had voted against it, but even though PAP MPs made speeches critiquing the paper, not one voted against it.

She then took a jibe at PAP chief Lee Hsien Loong, who called the Op-position a “mouse in the House” for its performance in Parliament.

“A PAP MP may think he roars like a tiger in Parliament, but the PAP MP is a real mouse in the House, a little white mouse,” said Ms Lim.

Party chief Low Thia Khiang, who followed Ms Lim to the lectern, took up the drumbeat. Saying that the PAP Government of today is no longer like the foresighted one of the past, he add-ed that the country should not have

a Government that flip-flops in policy and only makes last-minute adjust-ments when problems arise.

Going back to one-party rule might mean that policies can change at the Government’s whim and fancy, he said, adding: “If you vote in all the PAP MPs into Parliament, the PAP will think that you are giving them your mandate and supporting what-ever they have done.” He added: “The future of Singapore needs a strong Opposition presence in Parliament to hear the people’s voices and avoid tak-ing wrong policy approaches.”

Mr Low also charged that, contra-ry to the PAP’s statements that it has always delivered on its promises, it has gone back on its word after dan-gling certain carrots before the elec-torate during election season.

For instance, the PAP had said it had not considered raising the Goods and Services Tax before the 2006 election, he said, but did so in July the follow-ing year, and the explanation by then Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong was that the PAP would choose unpopular policies that were good for Singapore in the long term, and that it was part of politics. “I urge voters to be careful. During the election, the PAP is like a cat, but after being elected, it will be like a ferocious lion”, said Mr Low.

Ms Lim also questioned the sin-cerity of the PAP. She pointed to a

comment made by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in 2006 — which he subsequently apologised for — that if there were more Opposition members, he would have to spend time thinking of how to “fix” the Opposition, instead of running the country.

She asked: “Is the PAP being nicer to you now because they really care about you? Or is the PAP doing what PM Lee said what it would do when the Opposition number reaches 10, buy your vote? Is this why the PAP is spending so much to fix the WP?” she said.

Quoting a resident, she ended her plea for votes with a resident’s anec-dote. She said the resident likened the PAP to the white clouds and the WP to the blue sky, and said: “The white clouds can be blown here and there … (and) can turn grey and even black, but the blue sky will always be there”.

Another speaker at the rally, Hou-gang candidate Png Eng Huat, said that even after the watershed events of 2011, the Opposition was outnum-bered in the House, and its objections to policies were inevitably overruled.

Calling on voters to increase the number of Opposition MPs in Parlia-ment, and thus their effectiveness, he said: “(The Government) can pass many Bills in the House, even with half of the (PAP MPs) on holiday or eating orh luak in Fengshan.”

Supporters at the Workers’ Party rally at Yishun Stadium yesterday. WP chief Low Thia Khiang charged that, contrary to the PAP’s statements that it has always delivered on its promises, it has gone back on its word after dangling certain carrots before the electorate during election season. Photo: don WonG

today • Saturday 5 September 201515 HOT NEWS General Election 2015

(Top) Workers’ Party candidates for Nee Soon GRC, from left are Mr Gurmit Singh, Ms Cheryl Loh, Mr Kenneth Foo, Mr Luke Koh and Mr Ron Tan waving to the audience at a rally at Yishun Stadium yesterday where some innovative symbols of support were on display (above). Photos: Don Wong

WP reprises issues of 2011 to attack Govt’s performanceLoUIsA tAnglouisa@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE — In the third day of hus-tings, Workers’ Party (WP) candi-dates who spoke at Yishun Stadium yesterday tackled hot-button issues such as transport, housing and the inflow of foreigners — topics that had dominated the campaign trail in the previous General Election (GE) four years ago.

Referring to major train break-downs recently, candidate for East Coast Group Representation Constit-uency (GRC) Gerald Giam criticised transport operator SMRT and what he said was the Government’s lack of adequate planning for the renewal and replacement of rail assets.

Nee Soon GRC candidate Luke Koh, one of the WP’s new faces who spoke at the rally, also called for the nationali-sation of the public transport system.

Mr Giam added: “WP calls for a not-for-profit, Government-owned, national transport corporation to own and manage all rail and bus assets. This will minimise cost and increase efficiency … and better ensure that maintenance and renewal are done in a timely fashion, insulated from the profit pressures that other transport operators face.”

On the Central Provident Fund (CPF) savings scheme, the WP’s East Coast GRC candidate Leon Perera said he did not feel that retirees who receive S$600 to S$1,000 a month under the CPF Life Scheme could live “comfortably”.

“From Silver Support, from next year onwards, you may get S$100 more, at most S$250 more a month,” said Mr Perera. “Do you think this is

enough to retire on? I don’t, and nei-ther did most who attended the Prime Minister’s National Day Rally last year. They said they needed S$2,000 a month to retire on.”

Reiterating the party’s proposal in its manifesto, Mr Perera said that the Government should pay out to mem-bers part of the long-term difference between CPF interest rates and the in-vestment returns of Singapore sover-eign wealth fund GIC. This is because CPF monies are used by the GIC for investment.

East Coast GRC candidate Daniel Goh, who was the first to take the po-dium, dedicated most of his speech to the Government’s population policy. Rather than focusing on managing foreign labour, he said, the Govern-ment should instead concentrate on encouraging higher labour force par-ticipation among senior workers, fe-male workers wanting to re-enter the workforce and “those who have lost their confidence”.

Mr Giam chimed in, suggesting that the inflow of foreign labour should be reduced so more jobs could be filled by Singaporeans.

In what is becoming a key tenet of the WP’s policy proposals, Mr Giam and Mr Koh also called for the intro-duction of a national minimum wage of S$1,000 a month.

Mr Giam added: “The minimum wage would reduce the inflow of for-eign labour, so there will be more jobs to fill.

“Raising wages will attract more Singaporeans in the workforce to fill jobs, and will also improve productiv-ity and reduce turnover because work-ers are more motivated and less likely to switch jobs,” said Mr Giam.

today • Saturday 5 September 201516 HOT NEWS General Election 2015

PAP’s current leaders ‘have lost touch with ordinary Singaporeans’SINGAPORE — Leaders from the Peo-ple’s Action Party (PAP) are “losing touch” with the plight of ordinary Singaporeans, especially the poor, said Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) candidate Sidek Mallek at his party’s rally in Bukit Panjang last night.

The candidate for Holland-Bukit Timah Group Representa-tion Constituency (GRC) said: “(I am) angry that the Prime Minis-ter and the PAP ministers refuse to understand the plight of the low-er-income Singaporeans, who are struggling daily just to make a de-cent living here. Yet, we see them, (with) their million-dollar salaries, living in (their) ivory towers, being distant from the people.”

Mr Sidek also took issue with the PAP’s claims that “opposition parties are not credible, with no al-ternative policies”, saying that the SDP has “worked hard on our eco-nomic policy paper”. He noted that the SDP has proposed, among oth-ers, the introduction of a minimum wage and retrenchment insurance for those out of a job.

Another speaker at the rally, Mr Sadasivam Veriyah, the SDP candidate for Bukit Batok Single Member Constituency, charged

SDP supporters at a rally heard speakers talk about the high cost of living and the need for the party to have a presence in Parliament. Photo: Jason Quah

(I am) angry that the Prime Minister and the PAP min-isters refuse to understand the plight of the lower-in-come Singa-poreans, who are struggling daily just to make a decent living here. Yet, we see them, (with) their million-dollar salaries, living in (their) ivory towers, being distant from the people.Mr Sidek MalleksingaPore Democrat-ic Party canDiDate for hollanD-Bukit timah grc

SDP takes aim at PAP’s comments about healthcareneo chai chinchaichin@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE — Continuing his focus on alternative healthcare policies, Sin-gapore Democratic Party (SDP) can-didate Paul Tambyah yesterday took aim at what two People’s Action Party (PAP) candidates said about health-care in recent days.

The PAP’s East Coast Group Rep-resentation Constituency (GRC) can-didate, Manpower Minister Lim Swee Say, had said on Thursday that Me-diShield Life — a universal insurance scheme to protect against large hos-pital bills that takes effect from No-vember — would significantly reduce the burden on Singaporeans who are hospitalised.

Government subsidies will re-duce the bill for a person staying two nights in intensive care after an opera-tion, and 10 nights of recovery, from $20,000 to $30,000 to about $8,000 and $10,000, Mr Lim had said.

“If you are on MediShield, your burden will drop by about half, to about $4,000 to $5,000. Come Nov 1, under MediShield Life, it will drop to about $3,000,” he had said.

Professor Tambyah, an infectious diseases expert, said MediShield Life still requires those aged 80 and under to pay a deductible each policy year of S$1,500 for C-Class wards and S$2,000 for B2 wards — amounts that he said many elderly cannot afford. A

party SeekS ‘fair univerSal health inSurance Scheme’

deductible is the amount one has to pay before insurance kicks in.

Mr Lim also did not tell residents that co-insurance under MediShield Life ranges from 3 to 10 per cent and that there is a maximum claim limit per year, said Prof Tambyah. He main-tained that the scheme is “based on profits, not people”.

Prof Tambyah also addressed the PAP’s Tanjong Pagar GRC candidate Chia Shi-Lu’s comments that a system of free healthcare would entail a long waiting time for cancer treatment.

The SDP is not asking for free healthcare, but a “fair universal health insurance scheme”, said Prof Tambyah, who is contesting in Hol-land-Bukit Timah GRC.

Under the British system, which Dr Chia had cited, patients have to wait for elective surgery, but not emer-gency surgery, Prof Tambyah added.

Speakers at the SDP’s rally in Bukit Panjang yesterday also spoke up against the high cost of living and the need for the party to have a pres-ence in Parliament.

Secretary-general Chee Soon Juan said the SDP wants Central Provident Fund (CPF) savings returned to retir-ees, higher interest rates for CPF sav-ings, an increase of the Government’s portion of healthcare expenditure from 30 per cent to 70 per cent, and free taxi rides for those above 80 years old for essential medical appointments.

He said the SDP wants a more com-

passionate society and one with unfet-tered minds.

SDP’s Bukit Panjang candidate Khung Wai Yeen, a 34-year-old ac-count manager, spoke about a Mem-ber of Parliament’s role to scrutinise Bills. He said residents have said PAP incumbent Teo Ho Pin is a “very nice guy” and an “auntie killer” who organ-ises many social events for the elderly.

Promising he would do more for the elderly, Mr Khung said: “I will

make your children’s life less stress-ful by lowering the cost of living. I will make them less worried about high healthcare costs. I will make them happier by making HDB (flats) truly affordable.

“When your children... are less stressed, less worried and happier, they will have the time to spend with you. Is that better than going for a line-dancing class or a trip to Malay-sia to eat durian?”

that the PAP is “no longer the same”.A similar claim had been made

by Singaporeans First candidate Dr David Foo, who said that the current PAP leaders fell short of their prede-cessors, such as founding Prime Min-ister Lee Kuan Yew and former Dep-uty Prime Minister Goh Keng Swee.

At SingFirst’s rally at Jurong Sta-dium on Thursday, Dr Foo had said: “The PAP of old had foresight ... Now, what (has) happened?”

SDP’s Mr Sadasivam said while Singapore is a “rich and developed country”, it was due to the work of past leaders. “The leaders of the past were committed ... they were concerned about you, they cared for you.”

He also told the crowd at the rally that he was a former PAP grassroots leader, working for its former Mem-ber of Parliament Dr Tan Cheng Bock, whom he called his “mentor”.

Dr Tan lives in Holland-Bukit Timah GRC, where the SDP is facing a PAP team led by Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Dr Vivian Balakrishnan.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, Dr Tan said he had attended the SDP rally at Choa Chu Kang, where he met its candidates. He also said he would be attending a PAP rally last night. AlfREd ChuA

today • Saturday 5 September 201517 HOT NEWS General Election 2015

NSP urges voters to keep their focus on national issues

HON JING YIhonjingyi@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE — The People’s Action Party (PAP) is trying to make this election about municipal issues, but Singapore-ans must not fall into this trap and lose sight of the national issues at hand, said National Solidarity Party (NSP) acting secretary-general Lim Tean at his first rally speech yesterday.

Mr Lim, who was the last of nine speakers at the party’s first rally, which took place on Woodlands Drive 75 in Sembawang Group Representation Constituency (GRC), called on voters to elect candidates who will best rep-resent them on critical issues such as the rising cost of living.

“If we were electing estate manag-ers to run your estate, I will be the first to admit I am not qualified,” said Mr Lim, who is standing in Tampines GRC.

Describing the PAP manifesto as one that dwelt upon “misguided nos-talgia” for the past 50 years and fear-mongering, Mr Lim said: “Do not fall into the trap of the PAP, who are trying to persuade you to ignore national is-sues and to concentrate on local issues.”

He added: “When you forget na-tional issues, when your Members of Parliament do not speak up for you in Parliament on national issues, what do you get? You get an influx of for-eign workers, you get overpopulation, you get (the) relentlessly rising cost of living, and you get policies like no withdrawal of CPF (Central Provident Fund) upon hitting 55, which is what all Singaporeans agreed to originally,” said Mr Lim.

In subsequent NSP rallies for the rest of the campaign period, Mr Lim said he would be elaborating on issues

and Tampines GRC candidate Se-bastian Teo, who called the Pioneer Generation Package an attempt by the PAP to woo older voters back into sup-porting them.

NSP candidate for Sembawang GRC Ms Kevryn Lim, who at 26 years old is the party’s youngest candidate, criticised the PAP for failing to listen to the people and for leaning too much on its past achievements.

“I am very young, and I have my own opinions, but that doesn’t mean that I only do what I want to do. I like to listen to the opinions of others, whether it’s from people who support or oppose me, because I know I can learn more, and learn how to solve problems,” said Ms Lim in Mandarin. “But the Government now does not listen to you. That is why you have to vote us into Parliament, so that we can be your voice.”

She added: “The PAP keeps prais-ing itself for what it has achieved these past 50 years and how well it has done. We thank them, and without them we wouldn’t have Singapore as we know it today. But now, it is the year 2015. We should set our sights on the future.”

Mr Spencer Ng, who is also stand-ing in Sembawang GRC, also urged people to vote for the Opposition, add-ing that Singaporeans should not let the PAP “have the absolute power to do whatever they want, whenever they want, in Parliament”.

“If we keep condoning the PAP’s policies to carry on, then we deserve to be replaced by foreigners ... com-monly known as foreign talent, be-cause we are not doing anything to defend our own rights. It is your duty and my duty to make sure this does not happen,” said Mr Ng.

such as the CPF and the influx of for-eigners and their impact on Singapo-reans’ job security.

“We will allow PAP to talk about is-

sues that are not relevant to people’s lives if they want to,” said Mr Lim.

The NSP candidates who spoke yesterday included party president

Ruling party criticised for using grassroots to engage with residentsLEE YEN NEEleeyennee@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE — The National Solidarity Party’s (NSP) Sembawang Group Representation Constituency (GRC) team has been walking the ground to personally address residents’ needs, unlike the People’s Action Party (PAP), which depends on their grassroots leaders to engage with the community.

This was the message of NSP Sem-bawang GRC candidate Eugene Yeo, who spoke at his party’s first rally yes-terday in the constituency.

“(The PAP Members of Parliament) tell us they remain here and work for us, but their actions often do not re-flect that statement,” said Mr Yeo, who is also head of the party’s youth wing.

A visit to a Meet-the-People session entails a few hours’ waiting time, only to be greeted by a grassroots leader, who notes the issue on paper and has the MP or minister countersign.

“The minister comes, drops by, says ‘Hi’ to you, (has) a good hand-shake with you and says, ‘Thank you for your time’,” said Mr Yeo.

Adding that he and his team have the heart and commitment, he said:

“We apologise for only starting to walk the ground (in) the last one to two months, (but) we walk the ground ourselves and don’t depend on grass-roots people.”

Describing his team, Mr Yeo not-ed that three of them are aged 40 and below — Mr Spencer Ng, Ms Kevryn Lim, and himself. Pointing out that the median age range in the constituency is 30 to 48 years old, he said the team can understand the needs of the many young families living in Sembawang.

He said that NSP candidates Ab-dul Rasheed and Mr Yadzeth Haris, meanwhile, bring with them experi-ence and can also relate to the minor-

ity communities in the area. “We’re a very balanced team with

different ethnic groups, different age groups,” he said.

Mr Yeo also called for more opposi-tion presence in Parliament. He noted that although the PAP garnered only 60.1 per cent of the votes in the 2011 General Election, they continue to dominate the House with 90 per cent of the seats.

Mr Cheo Chai Chen, the NSP’s can-didate for MacPherson, also said at yesterday’s rally that one-third of the MPs should be from the Opposition. This will allow more robust debates on government policies and prevent the PAP from dominating the discussions. His call echoed that of Singaporeans First chairman Ang Yong Guan, who on Thursday said that 30 opposition MPs will make the Parliament more balanced, and that of Workers’ Party chief Low Thia Khiang, who said that at least 20 opposition MPs are needed in the House.

Meanwhile, other NSP candidates continued to raise of the issue of the inflow of foreigners, warning of its consequences on cost of living and pressure on infrastructure.

Mr Choong Hon Heng, NSP candi-

date for Tampines GRC, described life in Singapore as fish living in a tank, and questioned why other fish did not live in the South China Sea.

“Honestly, we’re just one red dot. How can you crowd us with so many other fishes ... ?” he said. “We know who is a Chinese Singaporean, and who is a Chinese from other countries.”

The presence of immigrants has also pushed up prices of daily com-modities, and the increase in cost of living is a burden on many Singapo-reans, he said.

“This overcrowding will also affect our jobs ... In Singapore, all the small, obedient fishes, we’ll be replaced by foreign talent not only from the higher echelon, but also from the middle level and lower income level,” he said.

Mr Yadzeth said that the income levels of Singapore citizen households have not caught up with the rise in cost of living here. In particular, the Malay-Muslim community has lagged behind, he said.

“Minister Yaacob Ibrahim said more can be done to help raise the education level of the Malay-Mus-lim community and to help youth at risk, but what have they done?” said Mr Yadzeth.

Mr Cheo Chai Chen, the NSP’s candidate for MacPherson, at the National Solidarity Party rally opposite Block 687A, Woodlands Drive 75 yesterday. Mr Cheo said at yesterday’s rally that one-third of the MPs should be from the Opposition. PHOtO: KOH MuI FONG

NSP Sembawang GRC candidate Spencer Ng at the party’s rally opposite Block 687A, Woodlands Drive 75 yesterday. Mr Ng said voters can defend their own rights by electing the Opposition. PHOtO: KOH MuI FONG

today • Saturday 5 September 201518 HOT NEWS General Election 2015

(Above) Candidate Bryan Long speaking at the rally held at the Toa Payoh stadium yesterday as an SPP supporter (right) reacts during a speech. Photos: Ray Chua

MPs should speak up for citizens first: PweeSPP candidate slams Minister of State (Transport) Josephine Teo for not speaking up for citizens over train breakdowns

VaLERIE Kohvaleriekohsf@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE — Likening Members of Par-liament (MPs) to middlemen between the Government and citizens, Mr Ben-jamin Pwee said their focus should be airing constituents’ concerns before trying to explain policies, as he took a potshot at his team’s competition in Bishan-Toa Payoh Group Representa-tion Constituency.

While train breakdowns have stayed in the public spotlight in the past four years, Mr Pwee criticised his People’s Action Party opponent Josephine Teo for not speaking up for citizens. Mrs Teo is Senior Minister of State (Transport and Finance).

Speaking at a rally at Toa Payoh Stadium, Mr Pwee, who is part of a Singapore People’s Party (SPP) slate, said: “The role of MP is a person who understands the issues that you have, turns and faces the Government, and tells them (what) the issues that our constituents are not happy about, and where policy changes need to be made.

“There are times when the MP needs to turn and face the people, and represent the Government and explain the policies to you, but I think that must happen only after an MP first has heard you.”

Another candidate, Mr Law Kim Hwee, spoke about the plights of un-employed mature professionals, man-agers, executives and technicians (PMETs), and suggested setting up a registry to help them find jobs.

“If you’re a PMET (and) you’re prepared to work for a lower pay, we

form among ourselves a group and say, ‘Bosses, if you want to employ someone with experience ... but (is) prepared to accept lower pay, then come to us’,” said Mr Law, 55, a for-mer marketing manager.

He also suggested establishing a pension scheme for all Singapore-ans aged 65 and above, and pay them S$200 monthly.

Mr Pwee took to the stage after rally-goers were roused by a short speech by veteran opposition politi-cian and SPP chief Chiam See Tong, who showed up with his wife to sup-port the team. The 80-year-old, who was MP for Potong Pasir for 27 years, but is not contesting in this election,

was greeted with loud cheers and ap-plause when he arrived.

While he had initially planned to sit and speak, Mr Chiam, who suffered two strokes in recent years, went to the podium and delivered a 10-minute speech on Central Provident Fund is-sues. “Singaporeans must not stop asking the Government when they can pay back all the money that they’ve gotten back to the people of Singa-pore,” he said.

“I’m sorry I start and stop because of my sickness. Thank you very much. The people of Bishan-Toa Payoh for-ever,” he said, drawing raucous cheers from the crowd as he raised his fists.

SPP chairman Lina Chiam, who

is running in Potong Pasir Single-Member Constituency, also took aim at transportation issues.

“The transport problem is only a symbol of all that is wrong with the PAP. But it’s also a red warning sign,” said the 66-year-old.

“I ask that tonight you support the team of Bishan-Toa Payoh the same way as you’ve placed your faith and trust in Mr Chiam.”

Winding up the three-hour rally, Mr Pwee said: “Every one of us here on stage ... is honoured to continue with Mr Chiam’s legacy. And the only way that this legacy can continue is if you put us in Parliament and continue the legacy and work of Mr Chiam.”

today • Saturday 5 September 201519 HOT NEWS General Election 2015

SingFirst’s second rally to turn spotlight on PAP’s strategy, slogan

VALERIE KOHvaleriekohsf@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE — The Elections Depart-ment (ELD) has said political parties are free to put up posters with their leaders’ photos in whichever constitu-encies they are contesting, although these count towards the quota allowed for the particular area.

The clarification comes after two Opposition candidates asked over the past few days if electioneering rules allow the pictures of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who is secretary-general of the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP), to be used in all constit-uencies that the party is fielding can-didates in.

Singapore People’s Party chair Lina Chiam was the first to cry foul over Mr Lee’s posters being tacked in the Potong Pasir Single Member Constituency (SMC) she is running in. On Tuesday, she posted a picture on her Facebook page showing a post-er with Mr Lee’s face under her cam-paign poster, accompanied by a cap-tion, “Is the Prime Minister standing in Potong Pasir SMC?”.

Mrs Chiam is facing off against the PAP’s Sitoh Yih Pin, who defeated her in the last election in 2011 with 114 votes.

Mrs Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss, a candidate from Mrs Chiam’s party, went further in challenging if the move was fair. She said on her Facebook

Two SPP candidates have questioned if electioneering rules allow the pictures of Mr Lee Hsien Loong, the PAP’s secretary-general, to be used in all constituencies that the party is fielding candidates in. TOdAy FILE PHOTO

I will talk about the PAP’s strategy, their slogan, what it means, and whether there is any sincerity in it or not.Mr Tan Jee SaySEcRETARy-gEnERAL OF SIngAPOREAnS FIRST PARTy

Elections Dept clears the air on PM’s photos on campaign posters

SINGAPORE — The Singaporeans First (SingFirst) party will turn the spot-light on the People’s Action Party’s (PAP) plan of action and slogan at its second rally tonight, party leader Tan Jee Say said yesterday.

“I will talk about the PAP’s strat-egy, their slogan, what it means, and whether there is any sincerity in it or not,” said Mr Tan.

At SingFirst’s first rally on Thurs-day, Mr Tan defended his party’s pro-posal to introduce monthly cash allow-ances for elderly citizens.

He also took issue with comments from the PAP’s Indranee Rajah about the Government placing Singapore-ans front and centre of its policies, and criticised the Government’s move to reduce the target for productivity growth to 2 per cent from 3 per cent midway through its 10-year economic restructuring plan.

Mr Tan’s latest comments came ahead of a walkabout at Strathmore

Avenue under the Tanjong Pagar Group Representation Constituency (GRC) yesterday. SingFirst is making a bid for the GRC, which has not been contested in 24 years.

The Opposition party’s five-man team is up against the People’s Action Party team helmed by Mr Chan Chun Sing, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office and labour chief.

As a new party that is making its first impression with voters, Sing-First is working doubly hard to reach out to voters in Tanjong Pagar, said Mr Tan’s running mate Fahmi Rais. The Opposition candidates aim to go door to door, covering the entire GRC, to reach out to residents.

Mr Fahmi indicated that the recep-tion from residents has been encour-aging. He said: “Nobody (has) said we are not welcome, everybody gives us a smile. There may be one or two who may be indifferent, but by and large, they are excited (to be voting).”

Mr Tan added: “There was this old lady who asked us, ‘What do we do? Where do we go (to vote)?’ It is a basic right of a citizen. To be deprived of a vote for 24 years is just not right for a modern, democratic society.”

SingFirst is fielding 10 candidates this General Election. Its other five-man team is contesting in Jurong GRC. ALFRED CHUA

From left: Mr Melvyn Chiu, Mr Fahmi Rais and Mr Chirag Desai of the SingFirst party. Mr Fahmi has said the reception from residents has been encouraging. TOdAy FILE PHOTO

Statement comes in response to Opposition asking if use of PM Lee’s campaign photo in all constituencies is against rules

page on Thursday that she had writ-ten to the ELD to ask if the practice follows “the spirit of the legislation”.

The candidate in Mountbatten SMC added: “This issue is a matter of princi-ple (that) I feel strongly needs to be ac-counted for. It potentially impacts oth-er constituencies across the country, although I only have standing to write in as the candidate for Mountbatten.”

Responding to queries, the ELD said yesterday: “Under the law, the face of the political party’s leader can

be used in the posters for the candi-dates standing for that political party, since voters would be able to identify the political party leader with that po-litical party. This has been the prac-tice in past elections.”

It added that the specific quota for each constituency applies to all the posters and banners put up by the party, regardless of whose picture they carry.

Mrs Chong-Aruldoss, who is fight-ing against the PAP’s Lim Biow Chuan

in a rematch of the 2011 election bat-tle, also asked why SG50 billboards featuring the PAP’s candidates are not taken down during the hustings, given that National Day was three weeks ago and these billboards are being paid for with taxpayers’ monies.

In response, the ELD said: “The SG50 billboards do not fall under elec-tion advertising. The rules governing the display of election posters and ban-ners under the Parliamentary Elec-tions Act would, therefore, not apply.”

Its election posters caught the eye with their short, snappy slogans when they went up this week. now, the Singapore democratic Alliance (SdA) has cried foul at the removal of a number of them along Pasir Ris drive 1.

About 20 posters from at least 12 poles have disappeared, the SdA said yesterday. “It’s very disappointing to see such acts of sabotage in an effort to undermine our hard work. We urge residents to work with us and report any suspicious characters to the police,” SdA chairman desmond Lim said in a press release.

The SdA said the posters will be replaced, and while its volunteers are on the ground, it urged residents to help by being on the lookout, too. When contacted, Mr Lim said the SdA will decide whether or not to make a police report.

The party is “not dampened by the foul play”, however, and said it has made “significant progress” in the contest for Pasir-Ris Punggol group Representation constituency (gRc).

Besides its home visits to collate “grievances” and build rapport with constituents, the SdA said its outreach included accompanying senior citizens from Pasir Ris West to their dental appointments and giving out packets of rice to needy residents.

The SdA has put up 2,500 posters in the gRc where it won 35.2 per cent of the votes in the 2011 general Election.

Besides the usual candidate portraits, the poster designs include slogans such as “55, return cPF” that touch on perceived hot-button issues. AMANDA LEE

SDA CRIES FOUL AFTER CAMPAIGN POSTERS REMOvED

today • Saturday 5 September 201520 HOT NEWS General Election 2015

RP chief slams Han Hui Hui for adopting ‘creative approach to truth’SINGAPORE — Reform Party chief Ken-neth Jeyaretnam yesterday repudi-ated independent candidate Han Hui Hui’s reason for contesting in Radin Mas Single Member Constituency, ac-cusing her of adopting a “creative ap-proach to truth”.

At her rally on Thursday, Ms Han had said there was a risk the constitu-ency would have seen a walkover be-cause the RP’s candidate Kumar Ap-pavoo was lacking an assentor for his nomination until the 11th hour.

Discrediting her yesterday, Mr Je-yaretnam in a press release described Ms Han’s account as a “character as-

sassination” on Mr Kumar, and gave his version of what had happened on Tuesday. Mr Kumar’s paperwork was in order and he had arrived ahead of nominations opening, he added.

“There were two returning officers seated at the counters. Ms Han went to one and was observed by our can-didate to be taking a very long time to put in her paperwork. This may well be because she was assisted by So-cialist Front Chairman Mr Ng Teck Siong, who notoriously failed to get his nomination papers in on time for Tan-jong Pagar in (the 2011 General Elec-tion),” said Mr Jeyaretnam.

He was referring to how a team of independents fronted by Mr Ng was disqualified from standing in Tan-jong Pagar GRC after submitting their nomination papers late, making the constituency the only walkover that time. Mr Ng also took to the podium during Ms Han’s rally.

Ms Han’s account, Mr Jeyaretnam added, was “wholly fabricated from start to finish”.

He said: “Her reasons for failing to find a place within an Opposition par-ty, and therefore her reason for being sent by Socialist Front into a three-cornered fight, are just a smear. It is

ironic that this team is now fabricat-ing a story in order to take credit for preventing a hypothetical walkover in Radin Mas.”

While the RP had been “very sup-portive” of Ms Han and her rallies on the Central Provident Fund system, Mr Jeyaretnam said her “creative ap-proach” to the truth was a reason RP had decided not to field her.

Earlier this month, Ms Han was seen taking part in the RP’s walka-bouts in the Teck Ghee ward under Ang Mo Kio GRC, but did not say out-right if she had intended to join the party. KELLY NG

Her reasons for failing to find a place within an opposition party ... are just a smear. Mr Kenneth JeyaretnamRefoRm paRty chief, on ms han hui hui

CPF issues dominate Reform Party rallySINGAPORE — The Central Provident Fund (CPF) system was the dominant theme at the Reform Party’s (RP) first rally yesterday, with six out of the par-ty’s 10 speakers expounding on how the national savings scheme is inad-equate for retirement.

Known for his critique of CPF is-sues, the RP’s candidate for Ang Mo Kio Group Representative Constitu-ency Roy Ngerng devoted some 20 minutes on the podium to calling for reforms to the scheme, as many elderly Singaporeans still “cannot save enough to retire”, said the 34-year-old blogger.

Singaporeans should be allowed to withdraw their CPF savings at age 55 and with higher returns, said Ngerng, who repeated previous speakers’ calls for greater transparency on how CPF monies are being used. Ngerng was successfully sued by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong for defamation for a blog post in connection with how funds in scheme are managed.

The RP has also pledged to give elderly Singaporeans an additional

S$500 per month to ensure retire-ment adequacy, should the party be elected into Parliament. The party is contesting 11 out of a total of 89 seats.

Ngerng also reiterated the RP’s vi-sion to make public housing more af-fordable, so that Singaporeans will not have to fork out too much from their CPF savings to pay for housing loans.

“If you believe in equality … then you have to create policies that are equal,” he said. “I believe that we can see a Singapore where everyone is united regardless of who you support, that we will help one another to move along in society.”

Ngerng also recounted his experi-ence as a former healthcare worker when he met low-income patients who were unable to apply for Medifund due to the cumbersome and time-con-suming application process. Many of them stopped treatment because they “needed to earn enough money”, he said. The Opposition must be voted into Parliament to “fight for (Singapo-reans) and make policies that protect

them”, he said.Refuting Emeritus Senior Minis-

ter Goh Chok Tong’s earlier comment that the People’s Action Party (PAP) is its “own check”, Ngerng said: “Who does the PAP check? The PAP does not check itself. It only knows how to check Opposition … If we wait for PAP to do their own check, then sooner or later, the PAP will checkmate on Singaporeans.”

Mr Ngerng’s team-mates M Ravi, 46, and Osman Sulaiman, 40, also spoke about what they felt was the ruling party’s fear-mongering tactic.

The PAP government rules by fear, said Mr Ravi. “They tell us our neigh-

bours are there to get us, they tell us that globalisation will affect us and the Opposition will ruin Singapore and you must give (the PAP) all the power,” he said, calling for people to “fight for their democratic rights”.

Ms Osman said the Government “propagates fear” among the people by drawing parallels between Singapore and Greece. “Let us make no mistake. We are not Greece. Greece overspends by the billions. Singapore underspends on our social safety net as compared to other developed nations.”

The Reform Party will hold its sec-ond rally at Clementi Stadium today. KELLY NG

From left: Reform Party candidates Mr Jesse Loo, Roy Ngerng and Mr Kenneth Jeyaretnam at the RP’s rally at Yio Chu Kang Stadium last night. Six of the party’s 10 speakers touched on how the CPF scheme is inadequate for retirement. photo: Robin choo

today • Saturday 5 September 201521 HOT NEWS General Election 2015

SDA’s list of grievances: CPF, population, educational systemSINGAPORE — In its first rally at these hustings, the Singapore Democrat-ic Alliance (SDA) rolled out a list of grievances it has against the rul-ing party’s policies, with the Central Provident Fund (CPF), the Population White Paper and the educational sys-tem featuring prominently.

Candidate Harminder Pal Singh said the SDA’s stand on the CPF was “very simple”: Singaporeans were promised their hard-earned money at the age of 55, but now have to wait increasingly longer.

Saying that Singaporeans have told him that they may never be able to stop working because the Mini-mum Sum keeps increasing, he pro-posed that they be given the option to get their money back from the age of 55.

Mr Sunny Wong, another member on the SDA’s slate for Pasir Ris-Pung-gol GRC, questioned whether the Gov-ernment thought Singaporeans can-not handle their finances at that age. “Are we idiots? Are we stupid? No, we’re not,” he said.

In his brief address to supporters

There will always be younger, cheaper foreign PMETs who

want to come to Singapore. Do you want them to replace our own PMETs?Mr Goh Meng SengSecretary-general of the PPP, to the crowd at yeSterday’S rally

Unchecked population growth the mother of all problems: PPP

tan weIZhenweizhen@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE — Unchecked population growth is the “mother of all prob-lems” in the Republic, and its impact can be seen in the country’s job mar-ket, infrastructure and housing sec-tor, charged People’s Power Party (PPP) secretary-general Goh Meng Seng yesterday.

Speaking at his party’s maiden ral-ly held at Bukit Gombak Stadium last night, Mr Goh stressed that the PPP is not xenophobic or against foreign-ers, but that it opposes the People’s Action Party (PAP) government’s “ruthless, irresponsible population growth policy”.

He added: “In all aspects of our lives, our jobs, our public spaces, our MRT breakdowns are because of overpopulation; our hospitals; our housing problems.”

The PPP team comprising market research director Syafarin Sarif, as well as newcomers Mr Lee Tze Shih, a property consultant, and finance manager Low Wai Choo is pitting it-self against the PAP in Chua Chu Kang Group Representation Constituency.

Mr Goh also said local profession-als, managers, executives and techni-cians (PMETs) have been affected by foreigners coming to Singapore.

“They want Temasek Holdings and GIC to invest in places like China and India. They sign free-trade agree-ments with them. In return, we open our doors wide ... There will always be younger, cheaper foreign PMETs who want to come to Singapore. Do you want them to replace our own PMETs?” he asked.

Mr Goh also spoke out against what he called efforts by the ruling party to “smear” the Opposition, referring to the PAP’s attempts at raising town

Impact Seen In job market, InfraStructure, houSIng Sector

town council. Ask the PAP, is it sure that all the Members of Parliament under its slate can run a town coun-cil? I don’t think all of them can. They employ people to do it. So what’s the big deal?” he asked.

Continuing on his rhetoric against the impact of foreigners entering the country, Mr Lee spoke about the com-petition faced in the workplace by local students who cannot gain entry into Singapore’s universities or afford to further their studies abroad.

“The PAP has told us that they al-low only 20 to 25 per cent of univer-sity places for you and your children ... Those without the means to study over-seas have to fight with foreigners who graduate from second-tier, third-tier universities, or even people with fake degrees or degrees from degree mills. They are making our people disadvan-taged,” he said.

Noting that property prices have risen faster than incomes, he called for a shift away from treating housing as asset enhancement tools. Residential property should be viewed as places to live in, and not used for speculative investment, he said.

Mr Lee also called for the scrap-ping of some housing rules, such as re-strictions on selling within five years.

In her speech, Ms Low said she would fight for subsidies for single parents, as she is one herself. She al-so noted that the current lack of sub-sidies for tertiary education.

last night, SDA chairman Desmond Lim took up the cudgels against im-migration, citing how crowded the trains have become over the years and offering a bleak vision of the rights of local-born citizens should the popula-tion reach 6.9 million.

Adding to the issue, Mr Wong said

the party was not against foreign tal-ent, but was concerned about competi-tion for jobs: “We’re against those here who take the jobs away from us when our locals actually have the capabili-ties (needed).”

The SDA also wants to see changes in the educational system, with its call

to do away with streaming one of the few policy alternatives emerging from its rally at Pasir Ris Park, which was delayed for almost 45 minutes because of “lighting issues”.

“We need to abolish (these) systems of testing that are making our popula-tion divided,” said Mr Singh, who add-ed that those who do well academical-ly “have a ... sense that they’re better, and on the other side, those who don’t do well are losing their self-esteem”.

The SDA yesterday also criticised Social and Family Development Min-ister Tan Chuan-Jin for his Facebook comments in July about old folks who collect cardboard for a living and how some may “treat it as a form of exer-cise”, according to a student project.

Relating his observations overseas, SDA candidate Arthero Lim said: “I hardly see the situation (in China as) I have seen in Singapore — old folks with sicknesses (who) cannot afford medication and have to clean tables, work as cleaners, push cardboard.”

The SDA is expected to host an-other two rallies during this campaign period. AMANdA LEE

(From left) The SDA’s Mr Ismail Yaacob, Mr Ong Teik Seng, Mr Abu Mohamed, Mr Arthero Lim, Mr Harminder Pal Singh, Mr Desmond Lim and Mr Sunny Wong at yesterday’s rally at Pasir Ris Park. Photo: daryl Kang

Mr Goh Meng Seng thanking a supporter after the rally at Bukit Gombak Stadium yesterday. He said the PPP is not against foreigners, but that it opposes the PAP government’s population growth policy. Photo: erneSt chua

council management issues dur-ing its campaign. Various ministers have spoken out about poor financial management by the Workers’ Party-run Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East

Town Council, attacking the opposi-tion party for continuing to “mislead” and “run away” from answering im-portant questions.

“The PAP will say we cannot run a

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today • saturday 5 september 2015

Cheo’s remarks on new mothers discriminatory, disempower womenAs a new mother who plays multiple roles as a social entrepreneur, profes-sional speaker, author and full-time master’s student, I read with disap-pointment the report “Tin Pei Ling’s new status as a mum is a weakness: Cheo” (Sept 4).

Women have fought hard to be on an equal footing, and for their contri-butions to the workforce and family to be recognised, with their male coun-terparts.

However, MacPherson candidate Cheo Chai Chen’s words indicate that equal status between men and women in Singapore, a globalised city, is still a mirage.

His words sounded discrimina-tory and seemed to imply that moth-ers, new or otherwise, cannot focus on both career and motherhood. I beg to differ.

With help from my supportive hus-band, family and friends, I returned to

Opposition must say how it will support seniors who lose savings

Decades ago, many Singapore-ans who were ill-informed about the Central Provident Fund (CPF) were sceptical about the scheme.

Thus, some of them colluded with their bosses to contribute less to their CPF in the belief that their take-home pay would be higher.

Ironically, I have met a few of them who wished they could have contributed more to their CPF in their working life, seeing the huge lump sum they received when they retired.

Regrettably for some, their fi-nancial independence was short-lived when they lost their lump sum in business ventures, help-ing relatives or spending on enter-tainment. The reality is: A few of us may be money savvy, many of us are not.

Political parties who suggest, say, returning CPF savings ear-lier should also suggest how they would support those seniors who lose those savings in one way or an-other in a short span of time.

CPF scheme offers security, unworthy of Opposition’s enmity

Political parties should not harp on the Central Provident Fund (CPF) is-sue, as no other investment is safer than the CPF.

Nonetheless, a coin has two sides: There are bound to be stakeholders who support the system and some CPF contributors who are against it, because they wish to have full control of their money.

Thoughtful CPF contributors would look to the unexpected rainy days as we age.

If we have more than the Basic Re-tirement Sum and have monthly with-drawals to cater for our simple daily expenses, we can stand upright and live honourably.

If we do not have any secured CPF sum, the burden on either our fam-ily members or the country would be great.

The probability of our living long after the retirement age is high, since Singapore has been able to offer one of the best medical facilities and services in the world.

If we do not have any CPF savings, I would not be surprised if our grand-children may have to support three

work, speaking before a 400-strong au-dience at a women’s conference, the mo-ment my baby turned two months old.

I am grateful that my talk was well

generations: Their children, our chil-dren, who will be old by then, and us. Eventually, the family may become divided.

Some would inevitably be neglect-ed and become a liability to the com-munity in particular and the nation in general.

I would not be surprised if a big percentage of retirees use up all their withdrawn CPF savings within a few years should they not know how to manage their money wisely.

It is not uncommon to hear of re-tirees who had been wowed into high-risk investments by financial planners and lost all their savings.

How is this not a lesson to others, especially the “spenders”?

Rather than spend more than S$5 for a cup of coffee, we seniors enjoy a cup of nice Hainanese coffee for just S$1.

It may be harsh to say that spend-ers are not worth helping if they face poverty in old age because of their ex-travagance previously, but let us be fair to taxpayers.

Finally, with the amendments to enhance the different CPF struc-tures, these issues should not surface again.

received, and nearly 100 copies of my books were sold, with extra funds raised for a non-profit. It was not easy, especially without domestic help, but it was fulfilling.

Such comments about working mothers are disempowering to wom-en, undermining the important role of fathers in raising children, and dis-empowering to the ideals that Singa-pore is trying to champion: A country where children are well cared for and families are supported.

At a familial level, raising a child requires teamwork — the collabora-tive efforts of the father, mother and other relatives who function as car-ers. At a national level, it is a collab-orative effort between the state and the family.

That is where Mr Cheo comes in, if elected. And regardless of the election outcome, it is imperative that his heart is in serving the residents he repre-sents and in giving a voice to those who have none.

correctionsin “WP still trying to mislead and run

away from answering questions: PaP” (Sept 4), we reported National Development Minister Khaw boon Wan saying that the aljunied-hougang-Punggol east town Council has been trying to “claw back S$45,000 from FMSS (its formerr managing agent)”. this figure is incorrect. it should be S$450,000.

in “opposition’s call to freeze foreign manpower not realistic: Swee Say” (Sept 4), we reported Manpower Minister lim Swee Say saying that the number of foreign PMes (professionals, managers, executives) on employment Passes and S-Passes dropped from 45,000 a year to 30,000 last year. The latter figure is incorrect. it should be 13,000. And the Manpower Ministry has clarified that Mr lim meant that the numbers refer to the annual growth.We apologise for the errors.

If we do not have any CPF savings, I would not be surprised if our grandchildren may have to support three generations: Their children, our children, who will be old by then, and us. Eventually, the family may become divided.

Macpherson opposition candidate cheo chai chen (left) seemed to imply that mothers cannot focus on both career and motherhood. todaY File Photo

From haj mohamed

From teh oh Kian

From vanessa tan yu bee

today • Saturday 5 September 201523

singapore24

today • Saturday 5 September 2015

Through senior volunteerism, we can harness the immense creativity, energy and talents in our older Singaporeans.President Tony Tanat the opening ceremony of the national Senior Volunteer month 2015

Senior volunteer finds joy in making others happySINGAPORE — Thrice a week, 66-year-old Lily Kow can be found either teach-ing Sudoku or conducting information technology classes for senior citizens, or training caregivers on various chair exercises for wheelchair-bound elderly folk.

Such volunteer activities are part of her weekly routine since the mother of two retired at the age of 55.

Ms Kow, and another active vol-unteer, Ms Noorjahan Kamaruddin , 55, were cited by President Tony Tan Keng Yam during the opening cer-emony of this year’s National Senior Volunteer Month held at the HDB Hub in Toa Payoh yesterday.

Ms Kow started volunteering as a young adult, helping out at the Sin-gapore Association for the Visually Handicapped (SAVH).

While she stopped volunteering af-

ter she started working and got mar-ried, her passion for helping others re-mained strong.

“I found joy in sharing my knowl-edge and bringing happiness to the less fortunate,” she said.

Following her retirement, Ms Kow started to be active in volunteer work again. For the past 10 years, she has been involved in several voluntary welfare organisations (VWOs) includ-ing the SAVH; Women’s Initiative for Ageing Successfully (WINGS); Tsao Foundation; and the Retired and Sen-ior Volunteer Programme.

For Ms Kow, her biggest challenge as a volunteer is not about learning new skills and conducting training, but managing her time to help the various VWOs. “Sometimes, pro-grammes from the VWOs may coin-cide, but I need to choose various pro-

grammes (to volunteer) and manage my schedule,” she said.

One of her many memorable mo-ments during the past decade as a volunteer is while teaching a Sudoku class at WINGS.

Ms Kow recalled having a par-ticipant who did not know anything about the puzzle game, but ended up being addicted to Sudoku by the time the class ended. “Seeing them happy, makes me even (happier),” she said.

Throughout her years of volun-teering, Ms Kow said she had met senior citizens who were not keen on volunteering because of family com-mitments or disapproval from their spouses. Ms Kow said: “I will always ask them to search themselves and (discover) what they enjoy doing, then find the happiness to do it (voluntar-ily).” MARISSA YEO

S$40 million targeted to aid growth of senior volunteerism movementSINGAPORE — A Silver Volunteer Fund will be established to champion a national senior volunteerism move-ment, with the Tote Board pledging S$10 million for the next five years.

The fund will support the training of seniors as volunteers and build ca-pabilities in various community or-ganisations to recruit, develop and support seniors as volunteers.

The S$10 million has been matched by the Government, and the Presi-dent’s Challenge will throw its weight behind the movement to raise another S$10 million in donations. This will al-so be matched dollar-for-dollar by the Government, which would bring the fund to a targeted size of S$40 million.

The President’s Challenge’s sup-port was announced by President Tony Tan at the opening ceremony of the National Senior Volunteer Month 2015 yesterday.

This is the first initiative under the Action Plan For Successful Age-ing unveiled by Minister Gan Kim Yong, Minister-in-Charge of Ageing and chairman of the Ministerial Com-mittee on Ageing last month.

The fund will also support pro-grammes that offer volunteer oppor-tunities to seniors, volunteer training, establishment of volunteer manage-

firSt initiative under action plan for SucceSSful ageing

ment systems, as well as provide rec-ognition for volunteers.

It can also serve as a platform for organisations to offer seniors volun-teer opportunities in areas such as aged care, health and wellness, arts and heritage, horticulture, learning and community development.

To encourage more seniors to come forward as volunteers, the Na-tional Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre will introduce a new senior volunteerism category in the annual President’s Volunteerism and Philan-thropy Awards for deserving senior volunteers.

In his speech at the ceremony yes-terday, Dr Tan said: “Many in our pio-neer generation will continue to play an important part in nation building. Though Singapore is faced with a rap-idly ageing population, our seniors in the next one to two decades will be healthier, more active and more tal-ented. We are already seeing the emergence of a generation of “mod-ern active agers” in Singapore — older Singaporeans who are more educat-ed, more confident and with so much more to offer.”

He added: “Through senior volun-teerism, we can harness the immense creativity, energy and talents in our

older Singaporeans. Through senior volunteerism, older Singaporeans can be a positive new social force in our na-tion building beyond SG50, helping to drive our nation forward in the years to come.”

In a media release, Ms Anthea Ong, the president for Women’s Initiative for Ageing Successfully (WINGS), a volunteer host organisation that helps women to embrace ageing with con-fidence, said: “We want to do more to engage our community of more than 6,000 WINGS women to vol-unteer for WINGS and our mission partners. With the Silver Volunteer Fund, we can now build more capac-ity and opportunities in meaningful volunteerism.”

Mr Edmund Song, executive direc-tor of Retired and Senior Volunteer Programme (RSVP) Singapore, who organised the National Senior Volun-teer Month this year, said: “The setting

up of this fund will give a much needed boost to the growth of senior volunteer-ism in Singapore. It is a strong signal by the Government to encourage our sen-iors to keep active and healthy through meaningful volunteer activities, which will also at the same time create a giv-ing and caring Singapore society.”

The President’s Challenge Silver Volunteer Fund will be administered by the Council for Third Age. More de-tails on the fund application process and eligibility criteria for volunteer host organisations will be released next year.

The national senior volunteerism movement was one of the initiatives included in the whole-of-nation Action Plan. The aim of starting the move-ment is to encourage seniors to age ac-tively through volunteerism, and the target is to reach out to an additional 50,000 seniors to participate in volun-teer activities by 2030.

Senior volunteers from RSVP Singapore performing at the opening ceremony of the National Senior Volunteer Month. They joined members of the Urban Street Team for a freestyle football performance. photo: preSident tony tan / facebook

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singapore today • Saturday 5 September 201525

Mr Tan Cheng Hwee has won the S$30,000 grand prize in the TODAY Shop to Win draw.

Having seen the advertisements in TODAY, he decided to try his luck, and has been taking part in the draw since last year.

Mr Tan, who spent S$34.40 on groceries at FairPrice Xtra in nex, said: “I didn’t think that I would win as the chances were very slim. I’m elated. This is the first time I’ve won such a big prize. I want to thank the organisers.”

Thirteen weekly winners and one grand prize winner were drawn during the Shop to Win campaign, which ran from May 25 to Aug 30. Those who spent at least S$30 in two receipts at participating outlets or brands stood to win S$10,000 in the weekly draw and S$30,000 in the grand draw. PHOTO: KOH MUI FONG

Ang Mo Kio case is third murder reported this weekSINGAPORE — A 39-year-old man has been arrested following a murder that took place in Ang Mo Kio yesterday, and will be charged in court today.

According to the police, a call re-questing for assistance along Ang Mo Kio Avenue 8 was made at about 8am. Upon the arrival of the officers, a

TODAY Shop to Win grand draw

48-year-old man was found lying mo-tionless at the location.

The police added that the victim was taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital, where he was pronounced dead about an hour later. The suspect will be charged with murder, which carries the death penalty.

paramedics at around 1.19am on Mon-day morning.

On Thursday morning, the body of a 23-year-old woman was found in a mul-ti-storey car park in Toa Payoh.

The suspect in the case, a 24-year-old man, will also be charged in court with murder today.

The Ang Mo Kio case is the third murder to be reported this week.

On Tuesday, Vivien Teoh Yi Wen, 26, was charged with the murder of her husband in their home in Bukit Panjang. Gordon Yeo Han Tong, 33, sustained slash and stab wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene by

50 trees planted to offset carbon footprint of Green Building WeekSINGAPORE — The Building and Con-struction Authority (BCA) added 50 trees to Bedok Town Park yes-terday to offset the carbon footprint of events held during the Singapore Green Building Week.

The carbon-friendly planting came amid the week-long green building event, which is now into its seventh run and set to end on Sunday. The Building Week plays host to more than 30,000 participants from more than 55 countries, attending 24 events.

Over at Bedok, 90 tree planters marked the SG50 festivities and com-memorated a decade of green build-ings in Singapore.

The tree-planting event was jointly organised by the BCA, the Singapore Green Building Council, Reed Exhibi-tions and Marina Bay Sands.

It was also part of the National Parks Board’s Clean and Green SG50 Mass Tree Planting initiative, which aims to plant 5,000 trees from end-September to October this year.

world26

today • Saturday 5 September 2015

Faltering Russia, China economies strain friendship between Putin, XiBEIJING — They have met more than

a dozen times and stood shoulder to shoulder during the military parade here. But the once-vaunted relation-ship between the Chinese president, Mr Xi Jinping, and Russia’s leader, Mr Vladimir Putin, has come under strain as the economies of their coun-tries have faltered.

Two landmark energy deals signed last year for Russian natural gas to flow to China have made little progress and were barely mentioned when the two men met for talks after watch-ing the show of weapons on Thursday on Tiananmen Square. The bilateral trade that was predicted to amount to more than US$100 billion (S$142 bil-lion) this year instead reached only about US$30 billion in the first six months, largely because of a reduced Chinese demand for Russian oil.

Mr Putin has enjoyed basking in the stature of Mr Xi, who leads one of the world’s largest economies. But with the recent stock market turmoil in China and the slowest economic growth in a quarter-century, Beijing will be unable to provide the ballast Putin has sought against economic sanctions imposed on Russia by Eu-rope and the United States after its annexation of Crimea, not to mention plummeting oil prices worldwide.

“Russia was dependent on China growing and driving the demand for its commodities: Oil, gas and miner-als,” said Ms Fiona Hill, a Russia spe-cialist at the Brookings Institution in Washington. “China was an alterna-tive to Europe.”

The linchpin of the relationship be-tween Mr Xi and Mr Putin was a May 2014 accord on a 30-year deal for China to buy natural gas from fields in East-ern Siberia, for a reported US$400 bil-lion with first delivery between 2019 and 2021. During the signing in Shang-hai, Mr Putin bragged that the deal was an “epochal event”, and expressed relief that Russia, under pressure from European sanctions, would be able to diversify its gas sales.

But the price was never formally announced, and it is possible that with plunging energy prices, the deal will have to be renegotiated, said Mr Jon-athan Stern, chairman of the natu-ral gas research programme at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies in Britain. The Chinese wanted the gas for its depressed north-east re-gion, and the Russians had started to prepare for its delivery, but there has been only limited drilling, he said.

Another deal, for natural gas from Western Siberia, was initialled by the two leaders in November in Beijing, but

Natural gas deals between two countries run into pricing, funding and other problems

financing iSSueS JeopardiSe completion of beiJing-moScow faSt rail link by 2018 world cup

a formal contract that was expected to be signed in Beijing during Mr Putin’s current visit appears to have fallen by the wayside, Mr Stern said.

“This is the contract which Putin could have signed this week, but we un-derstand will not, partly because Chi-nese gas demand now looks much low-er than previously thought,” he said.

Further complicating that deal is Russia’s inability to pay for the pipe-lines, and the question of whether China needs the Russian gas badly enough to finance their construction, said Mr Edward Chow, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Inter-national Studies in Washington.

“China will have to pay for the con-struction, one way or another, given Russia’s financial crunch,” he said.

A Chinese expert on Russia, who is usually sanguine about the relation-ship with Moscow, said the deal had also run into pricing problems.

“The negotiations face many diffi-culties due to the plunge in the price of gas,” said Mr Zhao Huasheng, director of the Center for Russia and Central Asia Studies at Shanghai’s Fudan Uni-versity. “We have to recalculate all the costs and try to push for a price cut.”

In Moscow, similarly, optimism about China substantially helping Russia out of its economic problems has faded. “The big hope that China is going to provide a lifeline to sustain

Russia through the sanctions and the falling oil price is not working,” said Mr Alexander Gabuev, an analyst of Russian-Chinese relations at the Car-negie Moscow Center.

“It is a symbolic relationship with a small, volatile economic base,” he said. The Kremlin elite was “disappoint-ed that nothing has materialised as quickly as the Russians hoped”.

Russian demand for Chinese man-ufactured goods is down 40 per cent, from this time last year, Mr Gabuev said. The volatile ruble has made Chi-nese investors wary, and attempts to get the countries’ banking sectors to work together have not borne much fruit, he added.

Because the goal of US$100 billion in trade with China looks impossible to reach this year, the US$200 billion the countries had projected by 2020 might also prove overly optimistic, Russian officials say.

The big energy deals are not the on-ly victim of the economic slowdowns.

A fast rail link that China had said it would build to Beijing from Mos-cow is in doubt because China, which is an expert at such construction, is demanding that Russia pay for it. The nearly 800km first leg, between Mos-cow and Kazan, was scheduled to open before the 2018 World Cup in Russia. But work has yet to start, and it is un-likely to, Ms Hill said.

“The Russians won’t have the mon-ey to pay for it, and the Chinese are not going to do it for free,” she said.

The friendship between Mr Putin and Mr Xi has been striking and cap-tured the attention of both countries, because each man likes to project an image of power and even daring. At global gatherings, they almost strut on the stage together. At a meeting of Asian leaders in Bali in 2013, Mr Xi presented Mr Putin with a birthday cake. In Beijing in November, Mr Pu-tin demonstrated for Mr Xi the finer points of a Russian mobile phone.

Their apparent mutual admiration has been all the more noticeable be-cause of the long and rocky relation-ship during the Cold War between communist China and the Soviet Un-ion, when the countries were ostensi-bly on the same side but nearly came to a nuclear showdown in 1969 over a border war. The tenure of Mr Mikhail Gorbachev at the helm of the Soviet Union sent shudders through the Chi-nese Communist Party, and still does.

“There has never been a close rela-tionship until recently,” Ms Hill said. “The success of China has bred the interest of Russia.” Even though Chi-nese growth was slowing, China still seemed “brighter” to the Russians rel-ative to the downswings in Europe and Ukraine and to their own economic problems, she said. THE NEW YORK TIMES

Russian President Vladimir Putin (centre) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) at a parade commemorating the 70th anniversary of Japan’s surrender during World War II, at Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Thursday. The friendship between the two men has been striking and captured the attention of both countries, because each man likes to project an image of power and even daring. Photo: AP

world today • Saturday 5 September 201527

Migrant chaos mounts while divided Europe stumbles for responseLONDON — The struggle among Euro-pean leaders to develop a coherent response to the spiralling migrant crisis has intensified as fresh calls for a bloc-wide plan were met with re-criminations about the continent be-ing swamped with Muslims.

Even as wrenching photographs of a drowned three-year-old Syrian boy riveted world attention and gal-vanized public demands for action, the leaders’ first fumbling efforts seemed only to highlight Europe’s divisions, as they bickered over who should take responsibility for the migrants rather than unifying around a new policy.

The chaos was searingly illustrat-ed by a daylong standoff in Budapest and its outskirts, where hundreds of migrants crammed into trains they thought were bound for Austria and Germany, only to be herded into camps.

The hundreds of thousands of migrants pouring into Europe this summer have posed a third great challenge to the continent in the last decade. Yet, neither of the first two, the euro crisis and the war in Ukraine, posed the same degree of divisiveness

— between left and right, rich and poor, east and west. And both, for all the anger and debate they sparked, seemed ultimately manageable.

The migrant crisis seems differ-ent. With war, instability and poverty spreading through Africa and the Mid-dle East, a prosperous and peaceful Europe is proving a powerful attrac-tion to potentially millions of people who have wearied of the constant tur-moil and day-to-day struggles. There is little sign the flow will soon subside.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, where thousands of desper-ate migrants remain stranded, deliv-ered a series of incendiary comments on Thursday, saying that “Europe’s Christian roots” were being threat-ened and insisting “the problem is a German problem”, not Europe’s.

“Nobody would like to stay in Hun-gary,” he told reporters in Brussels. “All of them would like to go to Germany.”

German chancellor Angela Merkel, rejected Mr Orban’s assertions, saying Germany was doing only what “is mor-ally and legally required” of every Eu-ropean Union country in accepting its

fair share of the migrants. She urged others to do their part, with “quotas and rules that are fair and take into ac-count what is possible in each country.”

French President Francois Hol-lande said he had reached agreement with Ms Merkel on “a permanent and obligatory mechanism” to allocate mi-grants across the bloc, saying: “I be-lieve that today what exists is no long-er enough. We will need to go further.” But there is no consensus. Mr Orban rejected the idea of mandatory quotas, as did the Polish and Slovak govern-ments, which said they would accept only Christians, and in small numbers.

British Prime Minister David Cam-

eron at first rejected the idea of manda-tory quotas, but yesterday announced that the UK will provide resettlement to “thousands” more refugees in light of the worsening humanitarian crisis. Mr Cameron said on Thursday that “as a father I felt deeply moved” by the boy’s death and that Britain would ful-fil its “moral responsibilities”.

Hungary has emerged as a potent symbol of Europe’s struggle to come to terms with the migration crisis, as well as its lack of preparedness to cope with an influx of migrants from Af-rica, the Middle East and elsewhere.

The migrants have no desire to stay in the country, where Mr Orban’s centre-right government has made it abundantly clear they are unwelcome, and would prefer to travel to Germany.

Under EU rules, however, migrants are supposed to file for asylum in the country where they enter, before mov-ing on to their final destination. In practice, the migrants are often giv-en no final destinations and become the responsibility of the country that registered them.

After first encouraging migrants to pass through the country, he changed course on Thursday, following the let-ter of the law while complaining that the system was broken.

“We Hungarians are full of fear,” he added. “People in Europe are full of fear, because we see that European leaders, among them the prime minis-ters, are not capable of controlling the situation.” THE NEW YORK TIMES

The president of the European Commission (EC), Mr Jean-Claude Juncker, whose proposal for mandatory quotas for migrants was rejected in June, is considering allowing some countries to provide money instead of taking migrants. The EC is preparing proposals for setting up reception and screening centres in Italy and Greece and is making another effort at pushing member states to share the burden. But in a fashion typical of the bloc, the process is cumbersome and slow. Only after a preparatory meeting of interior and justice ministers on Sept 14 will a summit meeting of European leaders be considered.

A migrant holding a sign yesterday in Hungary, which lacks preparedness in coping with the migrant influx. PhOTO: REuTERS

business28

today • Saturday 5 September 2015

Rumi HaRdasmalanirumih@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE — Succulent chicken braised in soya sauce, well-blended sour-and-spicy chilli sauce, fragrant rice cooked in chicken stock, ginger and pandan leaves, with just the right amount of oil. The quintessentially Singaporean dish, chicken rice, now finds itself at the core of 7-Eleven’s strategic game plan as the convenience store giant strives to remodel its business, with a keen focus on its ready-to-eat aisle.

“We quietly tested it in two stores last month, and it has sold four times more than our bestseller,” Mr David Goh, chief executive officer of 7-Elev-en, told TODAY. “It is the first product launch under our ‘change in direction’

Introducing the next meal-time hotspot: 7-ElevenThe convenience store giant is restructuring its business, with a keen focus on its ready-to-eat aisle

retail revamp caterS to buSy lifeStyleS

business plan. Our renewed focus on ready-to-eat meals is the key pillar of our new business strategy.”

This focus on ready-to-eat meals takes a strong leaf out of the store’s counterpart in Japan, where 7-Elev-en is one of the top three players in the ready meals market. In addition to stocking a 24/7 selection of bento boxes, onigiri, sushi, ramen sandwich-es and other prepared meals, Japan’s 7-Eleven even offers a meal delivery service via its website, 7meal.

Given the trend towards busier life-styles in Singapore, strong consum-er appreciation of the convenience of ready meals will ensure that retail volume sales growth remains robust here, Euromonitor noted in a report in April.

“Earlier, we used to go with our meal producers’ ideas on new launch-es, but this time we looked at what locals are eating every single day. We went around looking for the best chicken rice in Singapore, tasted lots of it with experts ... (and) created a

better-quality version of it than what is available at coffee shops and hawker centres,” added Mr Goh. By the end of September, the ubiquitous dish of local hawker centres, restaurants and even some high-end hotel cafes will be rolled out in 100 7-Eleven stores, and in all stores come November.

The bid to become Singapore’s next meal-time hotspot comes amid challenging times for 7-Eleven, which — faced with a tight labour market, high rentals and more stringent liq-uor regulations — has shuttered about 60 stores in the last two years.

7-Eleven, which is the largest play-er in the convenience store space with a market share of about 60 per cent, currently operates about 500 stores, down from its peak of 600 stores five years ago.

“In the last few years, we have closed more stores than we (have) opened,” said Mr Goh. “This has now stabilised. Having consolidated and

redeployed resources, we may be opening as many, if not more, stores than we closed over the next couple of years.”

7-Eleven was hit hard when the new liquor laws restricting the retail sale and public consumption of alcohol were introduced in April.

“Overnight, we saw a 30 per cent decline in alcohol sales,” said Mr Goh. “Some of our franchises handed stores back to us as they could not sustain (them).” Alcohol accounts for about 10 per cent of 7-Eleven’s sales, he added.

To expand its offering, 7-Eleven is aggressively restructuring its opera-tions to reinvigorate its entire busi-ness model, as it seeks to move beyond merely being a convenience store.

In a sharp departure from its earlier portfolio, which largely com-prised confectionery products, drinks, snacks, magazines and liq-uor, 7-Eleven is now making space for more household items, too. These include dry groceries such as cook-ing essentials, canned food, laun-dry basics, stationery, personal care items, and healthcare products.

The company has been rolling out this product portfolio revamp at about 50 neighbourhood stores since July, and is presently reviewing the product strategy for its stores in commercial and tourist hubs.

“We have an ageing population. Our family household size has become smaller, we do less cooking at home, and people are more pressed for time. We are aligning ourselves with these trends. It is an opportunity for us to create a store that provides for every-day needs,” said Mr Goh. “Space is (at a) premium, hence there is a greater need to rationalise and free up space for the top 20 per cent of items that contribute 80 per cent of (our) sales.”

At the same time, the company is implementing other changes such as store expansion, layout redesign, sales process redesign, and automation.

“Our system changes and automa-tion plans, aimed at reducing lost sales opportunities due to a lean workforce, will be implemented in the third and fourth quarter of this year. Through process redesign, we are trying to simplify work for our salespeople, oth-erwise it will be difficult for us to re-tain and recruit (salespeople),” noted Mr Goh. Almost all of 7-Eleven’s stores are staffed by one person.

Furthermore, in a move to beef up its services portfolio, which large-ly includes bill payments and phone card top-ups, 7-Eleven is in talks with domestic as well as private banks to enhance its cash withdrawal servic-es. At present, it has tie-ups with DBS and POSB for consumers to make cash withdrawals from their bank ac-counts at 7-Eleven stores islandwide.

(Top) The new Heat and Eat section at 7-Eleven at Shell Paya Lebar with its expanded culinary selection, which is key to the convenience store’s business plan, says 7-Eleven CEO David Goh (above). PHotos: Jason Ho

sports29

today • Saturday 5 September 2015

In the big games under pressure, one glaring error can make the difference, so that consistency in a pressurised environment is what every coach wants.Martin Johnsonformer england captain and team manager

Martin Johnson says battle for the Webb Ellis Cup will be fascinating

All BlACks not invinCiBlE, sAys EnglAnd rugBy lEgEnd

world cup holderS and favouriteS ‘have vulnerabilitieS’

noah tannoahtanyw@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE — World No 1 New Zealand may be favourites to win the Rugby World Cup again this year after their 2011 triumph at Auckland’s Eden Park, but the Sep 19 to Nov 1 tourna-ment could throw up a few surprises for the fans.

Former England captain Martin Johnson believes the All Blacks, cap-tained by star flanker Richie McCaw, are far from invincible, with Austral-ia, France, South Africa and England expected to post strong challenges to the defending champions’ bid to win the coveted Webb Ellis Cup for the third time.

Johnson, Australian try-scoring ace Joe Roff and former Welsh stal-wart Tom Shanklin were in town yesterday for “An evening in the lock-er room” hosted by MasterCard at the St Regis Hotel.

“New Zealand are the favour-ites for the tournament, but they’re definitely beatable,” said Johnson, who captained England to their sole World Cup triumph, in Australia in 2003. “They’re used to dominating and winning games, but their recent

loss (27-19) to Australia at the Rug-by Championship last month showed that they have vulnerabilities, and it gives other teams hope of beating the mighty All-Blacks as well.

“A lot of teams will be eyeing the World Cup and thinking that this year could be their year. Australia have done well and shot up the rankings so they’re one to look out for, while the likes of France and South Africa will also fancy their chances, and even England as well. It’s really unpredict-able and we could see a few shock re-sults during the tournament.”

Roff, a World Cup winner in 1999, also echoed the sentiment as he add-ed yesterday: “There aren’t many chinks in their (All Blacks) armour,

they are a very good side and they deserve to be the benchmark. They showed what they can do against Australia (in the Bledisloe Cup) and in a 10-minute period put away a match with such clinical precision and that’s what they call the psychol-ogy of the All Blacks aura.

“They will cruise through the pool matches then hit the finals when teams will lift themselves because they’re playing the All Blacks. I don’t see them as an unbeatable team, and it’s the most even World Cup we’ve ever seen.”

World Cup hosts England endured a disappointing campaign in 2011, when they crashed out to France in the quarterfinals, and the world No 6 team

will face another stern challenge this year after being drawn in the “Pool of Death” alongside world No 2 Austral-ia, Wales (5), Fiji (9) and Uruguay (19).

With only the top two teams in each of the four pools advancing to the next stage, Johnson admits his coun-trymen, who are coached by Stuart Lancaster, will have to be at their very best right from the get-go in order to have any hope of progressing far.

“It’s going to be a tough time for England because both Wales and Australia are very strong teams who have the ability to win the tourna-ment,” said the 45-year-old, regard-ed as one of the best locks to have played the game. “So England will have to perform in every match, al-though homeground support could be the deciding advantage for them.

“They have competent players, with good experience in certain are-as, as well as strength in depth. They can go a long way this year, but will have to be at the top of their game in order to succeed.”

Among England’s 31-man squad for the World Cup are captain Chris Robshaw and flanker James Haskell, but it is the controversial inclusion of centre Sam Burgess that has set tongues wagging.

Burgess was called-up to Lan-caster’s squad despite having only played one international match since making the cross-code switch from rugby league 10 months ago.

But Johnson, who was manager of England’s national side from 2008 to 2011, threw his support behind Bur-gess’ selection. “They must have been really confident in Burgess’ abilities since they decided to choose him,” he said. “Admittedly, it’s a gam-ble, but it could pay off. Maybe they will start him off on the bench but it wouldn’t surprise me if you see him starting games in due time.”

(From left) Joe roff; deborah goldingham, MasterCard head of marketing for south-east Asia; Martin Johnson and tom shanklin in singapore yesterday in conjunction with MasterCard’s ‘An Evening in the locker room’ event. photo: mastercard

rElEntlEss roBshAW thE right ChoiCE For EnglAndLONDON — Chris Robshaw is not many people’s idea of a star man, least of all the England captain himself, yet game after game and year after year, when the analysis is done, it is the flanker whose numbers routinely come out on top.

From the day he was appointed as coach Stuart Lancaster’s first cap-tain four years ago — reputedly only because Tom Wood was injured — Robshaw has been relentlessly writ-ten off as a “natural openside”, not to be mentioned in the same breath as the likes of Richie McCaw, David Pocock and Sam Warburton.

Coach Warren Gatland did not even think him worth a place in his

2013 British and Irish Lions squad.Even if Robshaw were to lead Eng-

land to World Cup glory this year, there would undoubtedly be crit-ics complaining that somebody else would have hoisted the trophy with more panache.

Robshaw, always calm, always polite, has never shown the slight-est public annoyance at the relent-less questioning of his pedigree, responding instead by going out and doing his job to the best of his ability.

Like fellow flanker Richard Hill, one of the unsung heroes of Eng-land’s 2003 World Cup-winning team, much of Robshaw’s work is the unglamorous grunt of ruck, smother,

spoil, and his personal tally of more than 500 tackles in four years under Lancaster is more than double that of any other player in the squad.

It is true that he is not a natural ball-snaffler at the breakdown, but he almost never gives away penalties in such situations, something few of his more high-profile rivals could ever claim, and that makes him so highly prized by coaches.

Martin Johnson, the only play-er from outside the southern hemi-sphere to lift the Webb Ellis Cup, was never a man for Churchillian speeches and says he appreciates the way that Robshaw leads primar-ily through performance.

“He came into the job very young, he had some tough decisions early on and got some criticism for it, but he’s come out and done very well,” said

Johnson. “Most importantly he’s con-sistent. We get very carried away with what player X can do but Chris does his job very well and that’s what you want.

“The guys who can flash occasion-ally, but can also drop right down, they kill you at Test-match level.

“In the big games under pressure, one glaring error can make the dif-ference, so that consistency in a pres-surised environment is what every coach wants, and people see Chris maintaining his performance lev-els whatever the situation and know they have to match that.”

For all his supposed weaknesses, Robshaw has led his team to victories over every team in the world apart from South Africa, and with Lancas-ter still juggling options all over his pack, having a go-to, uber-reliable performer is gold dust. REUTERS

sports today • Saturday 5 September 201530

Iceland defeat the Netherlands and Wales beat Cyprus in two big upsets

SurprISeS galore at euro 2016 qualIfIerS

LONDON — Unsung Iceland and Wales took big steps toward qualifying for the European Championships on Thursday (yesterday morning, Singapore time), and they do not intend to take the long road to the expanded 24-team tournament just because there are more ways to qualify.

Iceland stunned 10-man Neth-erlands 1-0 in Amsterdam and lead Group A, while Gareth Bale scored a late goal for Wales in a 1-0 victory in Cyprus to give the British squad a three-point lead over Belgium atop Group B.

Iceland have never qualified for a major tournament, while Wales’ only appearance came at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden.

“We know what we have to do,” said Bale, 26.

“We are a strong team, we are to-gether. We know what our capabili-ties are. We have earned the right to be in this position.”

Meanwhile, Graziano Pelle saved Italy from embarrassment against Malta again, securing a 1-0 win against their 160th-ranked oppo-nents to move the Azzurri in com-mand of Group H.

Pelle also scored in a 1-0 victory at Malta in October.

The top two finishers from the nine groups qualify automatical-ly for next year’s tournament in France.

The best third-placed team also qualify automatically, and eight more teams can qualify through a playoff.

A look at Thursday’s Euro 2016 qualifying matches

GROUP A

Arjen Robben’s (picture) first match as Netherlands captain was over inside a half hour as he limped off the Amster-dam Arena pitch injured and had to watch from the sideline as his team lost 1-0 to group leaders Iceland.

Danny Blind’s debut as national coach went from bad to worse in the 33rd minute when referee Milorad Mazic showed defender Bruno Martins Indi a direct red card for making a striking movement with his arm as he fell to the ground in a tackle with Kolbeinn Sigth-orsson. Blind was highly critical of Mar-tins Indi, calling his foul “unbelievably unprofessional”.

Gylfi Sigurdsson converted a 51st-minute penalty for Iceland’s only goal af-ter Gregory van der Wiel brought down Birkir Bjarnason. In other qualifiers, the Czech Republic came from behind to beat Kazakhstan 2-1 to stay second, and Latvia drew 1-1 with Turkey.

GROUP B

Wales are one win from qualifying for their first major tournament in 58 years after Gareth Bale (picture) powered in an 82nd-minute header to clinch a 1-0 vic-tory in Cyprus.

Wales, who reached an all-time high ninth in FIFA’s rankings hours earlier, have a three-point lead over Belgium. Marouane Fellaini, Kevin De Bruyne and Eden Hazard gave Belgium a 3-1 victory over Bosnia-Herzegovina.

With three games remaining, Israel stayed two points further back after routing Andorra 4-0.

Beating Israel on Sunday will secure Wales’ first trip to a tournament since the 1958 World Cup.

SINgapore’S afC u-16 C’ShIp dream eNdSS I N G A P O R E — Fol low i n g Nor t h Korea’s convincing 7-0 rout of Cam-bodia in their opening match of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Under-16 Championship qualifiers on Wednesday, many had expected Singapore’s Under-15 squad to suffer the same fate when the two teams faced off at the Jalan Besar Stadium last night.

Instead, the Republic’s young footballers put on a determined dis-play to give the Koreans a real run for their money, before they were eventually beaten 3-0 by the defend-ing champions.

The defeat was the Singapore Under-15s’ second of the tourna-ment after their 5-0 loss to Thai-land two days ago, effectively ending their hopes of advancing to the next stage of the championship. Only the top team from each of the 11 groups, and the four best runners-up, will earn their tickets to the final in India next year.

Despite the loss, Singapore U-15 head coach V Selvaraj was happy

with the team’s performance. “This is possibly the best perfor-

mance that I’ve seen from my team in terms of work rate, spirit and togetherness,” he said.

“I played a few new boys and they showed a lot of courage and we were defensively much better. But we played against a better team who was tactically and technically stronger.

“There are still areas of improve-ments, especially in front of goal, because we still have the problem of putting the ball into the back of the net.”

Flush with confidence follow-ing their win over Cambodia, the North Koreans flew out of the blocks against Singapore, but failed to make their early possession count as they squandered several opportunities early in the match.

Despite taking a while to find their feet, Selvaraj’s charges came close to opening the scoring through Afiq Ehwan, but the midfielder failed to connect with Daniel Matin’s dan-

gerous right-wing cross into the box. The deadlock was eventually bro-

ken in the 15th minute when North Korean defender Yun Min fired in a pinpoint free kick from just outside the box that left Singapore goalkeep-er Kevin Wong with no chance.

Singapore’s fierce resistance was broken twice more in the second half, with midfielder Kye Tam volleying into the top corner in the 70th min-ute, before substitute striker Ri Song Jin added gloss to the scoreline with a third in stoppage time.

“I appreciate the individual tac-tics and teamwork of Singapore, they played positively and were quite good,” said North Korea head coach Kim Yong Hun. “We need to improve on our attack and teamwork for our next match against Thailand.”

In the night’s earlier match, Cam-bodia’s journey in the competition also came to an end as they fell 1-0 to Thailand.

North Korea will next battle Thai-land for top spot of Group H on Sun-day, while Singapore will hope to end their campaign with a win when the team faces Cambodia in their final group match. NOAH TAN

North Korean captain Kim pom hyok taking the fight to Singapore under-15 players afiq arzhy (No 23) and Khairul hairie (21) in their match at the afC under-16 Championship qualifier yesterday. Photo: Raj KiRan Chobey / VoxsPoRts

GROUP H

Italy took command of the group after scraping out a 1-0 win over Malta with a second-half goal from Graziano Pelle (picture).

It appeared that Pelle used his shoul-der or arm to redirect in a cross from An-tonio Candreva in the 69th minute. But it was not clear if the goal should have been disallowed.

Italy are level on 15 points with Croa-tia, who were held 0-0 in Azerbaijan and are likely to lose a point for fan trouble pending an appeal.

Norway, who won 1-0 at Bulgaria, are next with 13 points, followed by Bulgar-ia with eight, Azerbaijan with five, and Malta with one.

In Azerbaijan, the closest either side came to scoring was a shot off the cross-bar from Croatia’s Ivan Perisic in the sec-ond half. AP

sports today • Saturday 5 September 201531

McIlroy to race Day, SpIeth for No 1 Spot

Driver attacks 5psi increase to be made at this weekend’s Italian Gp

F1’s chief executive is a strong supporter of Pirelli, in part because

of the millions it spends on trackside advertising. It seems almost certain that Pirelli will win the contract to supply tyres from 2017 onwards instead of Michelin.

pIrellI’S plaNS to chaNGe tyre preSSure a DISaSter: haMIltoN

LONDON — Rory McIlroy faces a fight from Jordan Spieth and Jason Day to retain his world No 1 ranking at the Deutsche Bank Championship — which started in Boston yester-day — but will do so recognising that currently he is third best of the trio.

McIlroy lost the No 1 tag to Spi-eth in the last tournament the North-ern Irishman appeared at, the US-PGA two weeks ago. But courtesy of the vagaries of the ranking system, McIlroy regained it last week with-out even playing — as he rested his left ankle following the torn ligament that forced him to skip the Open — when Spieth missed the cut at The Barclays in New Jersey.

Not only does Spieth have another chance to usurp McIlroy, but Day, the Australian who followed up his USPGA breakthrough with a six-shot victory on Sunday, can also scale the summit should he prevail at TPC Boston and McIlroy and Spi-eth both finish third or worse. These permutations have given the second

MONZA — Lewis Hamilton has said that Pirelli’s plans to improve safe-ty by increasing tyre pressures will be “a disaster”, just as Bernie Eccle-stone issued a thinly veiled rebuke to the drivers for criticising the belea-guered tyre manufacturer.

Though Sebastian Vettel has offered his support to Pirelli and markedly softened his tone after his fierce criticism of its tyres in Bel-gium, Hamilton spoke out against changes planned for this weekend’s high-speed Italian Grand Prix. Pire-lli is planning to increase tyre pres-sures to alleviate the issues seen in Spa-Francorchamps, something Hamilton strongly opposed.

“In terms of putting the pressures up, I don’t think it’s the right thing,” said the world champion. “But I don’t think any of us have tried 5psi more because they are not designed to have 5psi more, they work in a range.

“So we will be moving out of the optimum range of the tyre, we’ll be using a different part of the tyre, which means more wear, less grip. It’s going to be a disaster.”

Vettel had accused Pirelli of threatening his life after a spectacu-lar blowout in the Belgian Grand Prix, but here he was much more concilia-tory. “We’ve been looking very closely into the issue we had,” he said.

“They have been very, very profes-sional, have handled it with extreme care, very seriously, things are going the right way, and our target now is

event of the FedEx Cup play-off series an enthralling backdrop, with McIl-roy possessing an obvious chance to restate his credentials. “I’m sort of holding this ranking based on how I played last year,” said McIlory. “But if you went on a one-year system, you’ve got to say Jordan (is the world No 1), and then Jason.”

McIlroy also requires a decent finish because of the FedEx stand-ings. With Day leading and Spieth in second, McIlroy is 15th and only the top five will be guaranteed the US$10 million (S$14.2 million) bonus if they win the season-ending Tour Championship in Atlanta.

The 26-year-old has set himself this ambition, together with retain-ing the Race To Dubai, the Europe-an Tour’s equivalent. On Wednesday, Keith Pelley, the European Tour’s chief executive, allowed McIlroy to remain eligible for the Order Of Mer-it, despite the player not planning to fulfil the minimum 13 events.

McIlroy has only played nine so

far and will only tee up in three of the four tournaments that comprise the Final Series.

Pelley said he arrived at the con-troversial verdict because he was “convinced that he (McIlroy) could not commit to any further tourna-ment participation without risking

further injury and persistent weak-ness to the ankle.” But McIlroy sug-gested his wish not to play more than two events in a row had little to with his injury. “Obviously, there’s a physi-cal element to it, but previously and going forward it’s more mental,” said McIlroy. The DAiLy TeLegrAph

advice when setting their race strat-egy and tactics, and if they do not it is at their own risk. We are entirely satisfied that Pirelli was not at fault for any tyre-related incidents during the Belgian Grand Prix.”

F1’s chief executive is a strong supporter of the Italian manufac-turer, in part because of the millions it spends on trackside advertising. It seems almost certain that Pirelli will win the contract to supply tyres from 2017 onwards instead of Michelin.

Most of the drivers, including Nico Rosberg, who also suffered a blowout in Spa, backed Pirelli but said more needed to be done. Jenson Button confirmed he and other driv-ers had been in constant dialogue with Pirelli, Ecclestone, and motor-sport’s governing body FIA.

However, Button conceded that if the issue was cuts in the tyre, caused by debris or kerbs — as Pirelli said on Thursday in its full explanation of Vettel’s blowout — he could not understand why changing tyre pres-sure would make any difference.

Romain Grosjean, who was fol-lowing Vettel two laps from the end of the race when the German’s tyre exploded, was far more strident in his criticism. “I don’t think it’s a good explanation,” he said. “I don’t think anyone is happy with the fact that it’s a cut. Seb didn’t go off track, there are kerbs and you can use them.” The DAiLy TeLegrAph

to improve the situation and make progress.”

Formula One management fol-lowed his remarks with a rare state-ment that absolved Pirelli of blame for the terrifying tyre explosion in Spa-Francorchamps.

Sent under Ecclestone’s direc-tion, the release instead implied that Ferrari and Vettel were at fault.

The statement read: “Within the

constraints of safety considerations, which are always paramount, Formu-la One encourages Pirelli to provide tyre compounds with performance limitations because tyre degrada-tion contributes to the challenge and entertainment of a Formula One race.

“Pirelli provides strong guidance to competitors about any perfor-mance limitations of the tyres. Com-petitors should heed Pirelli’s expert

ferrari technicians testing a pit stop at the Monza racetrack in Italy on thursday. pirelli has blamed debris on the track and prolonged usage for tyre cuts in Belgium. Photo: AP

McIlroy requires a decent finish at the Deutsche Bank championship to retain his world No 1 ranking against challenges from Jordan Spieth and Jason Day. Photo: Getty ImAGes

sports today • Saturday 5 September 201532

Fourth seed Wozniacki exits, Konta delivers upset of the day against Muguruza

Favourites crash out oF us openlower-ranked contenderS topple big nameS

NEW YORK — As her second-round match against Garbine Muguruza on a hot Thursday afternoon dragged on, Johanna Konta caught herself glanc-ing at the courtside clock. “Oh, okay,” Konta recalled thinking. “We’ve been here for a while.”

The longest women’s match in US Open history consumed 3hrs 23min on Court 17, where Konta, a 24-year-old Briton, nibbled on bananas. She recalled the teachings of Juan Coto, her mental coach. And she ultimately persevered through the conditions to oust the ninth-seeded Muguruza, 7-6 (7-4) 6-7 (4-7) 6-2.

“I left everything out there,” said Konta, ranked No 97.

Fa ns who gathered at the USTA Billie Jean King National Ten-nis Center might have expected the tournament to settle into a predict-able rhythm after three days of rel-ative chaos and scorching temper-atures, but Konta was among the players who continued to surprise.

American women again made their mark: Seven were assured of advancing to the third round, including Shelby Rogers, a 22-year-old qualifier ranked 154th, who defeated Japan’s Kurumi Nara in straight sets.

Among the American men, No 13 John Isner and Donald Young won

second-round matches. Isner defeat-ed Mikhail Youzhny in straight sets, while Young — a onetime prodigy who has found mid-career stability at age 26 — again played well, easing past Aljaz Bedene, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2.

No 28 Jack Sock was not as fortu-nate. Up by 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 1-2 against Ruben Bemelmans, Sock appeared

to faint early in the fourth set and was forced to retire as trainers tend-ed to him. About three-and-a-half hours after the match, Sock said in a statement that he was feeling better.

Shortly after Sock’s incident on the Grandstand, Denis Istomin retired from his match against Dom-inic Thiem, bringing the total retire-ments in the men’s singles draw to 12, a record for a Grand Slam event in the Open era.

No 3 Andy Murray survived a sec-ond-round scare, coming back from two sets down to defeat Adrian Man-narino of France, 5-7, 4-6, 6-1, 6-3, 6-1, at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Roger Federer made short work of his second-round opponent, Ste-ve Darcis, winning 6-1, 6-2, 6-1 in 1hr 20min and ripping 46 winners to just eight by Darcis, a Belgian veteran.

Fourth-seeded Caroline Wozni-acki also lost, falling in a marathon match, 6-4, 5-7, 7-6, to 149th-ranked Petra Cetkovska in 3hr 2min in the last match of the night session.

Cetkovska, a crafty Czech who had upset Wozniacki at Wimbledon in 2013, led by a double break at 4-1 in the second set before her nerves and Wozniacki’s steely resolve extended the match into a third set.

But Wozniacki, the Open runner-up last year, could not capitalise on the momentum, and she failed to con-vert any of her four match points. Cetkovska dominated the tiebreaker, which ended with Wozniacki hitting a backhand into the net.

“I said it’s now or never,” Cetko-vska said in an on-court interview of saving the four match points. “And I just went for it.”

The upset of the afternoon belonged to Konta, who prolonged a string of recent disappointments for Muguruza, who has won only one match since reaching the final at Wimbledon in July. “I think I am very tough on myself sometimes,” said Muguruza, who committed 59 unforced errors. “It’s hard when you lose. It’s always been like this.”

Against Muguruza, Konta sur-vived plenty of stressful situations and some adversity at the end of the second set.

Trailing in the tiebreaker by 5-3, Konta was serving when Muguruza’s return was called long. The ruling was overturned after a successful challenge by Muguruza. But rather than have the two players replay the point, the chair umpire awarded it to Muguruza, saying that the orig-inal out call had been late enough that Konta — who had missed her next shot — should not have been impaired by it.

Konta was upset, but Muguruza closed out the tiebreaker to send the match to a third set. Given the circumstances and the heat, Kon-ta could have folded like a souffle. Instead, she broke Muguruza’s serve to start the third set and then broke her again to race out to a 4-0 lead.

The victory was the most sig-nificant of her career. In the third round, she is scheduled to face No 18 Andrea Petkovic.

“I really am just enjoying compet-ing,” Konta said. “I’m happy I get to be in the third round of the US Open. There aren’t that many people in the world who can say they’ve done that.” THE NEW YORK TIMES

heWitt goes doWn With a Fight in neW YorK FareWellNEW YORK — Lleyton Hewitt waved goodbye to the US Open on Thurs-day, with the tenacious Australian dragged kicking and screaming to the Flushing Meadows exit by coun-tryman Bernard Tomic.

A player who constructed a career around a relentless fighting spirit that became his calling card, Hewitt

was never going to leave the US Open without a struggle and went down swinging until the very end, falling 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 5-7, 7-5. “I left it all out there again,” said Hewitt, a two-time Grand Slam winner. “A great atmos-phere, it was nice to be able to turn it into a decent match.”

Set to retire after next year’s Aus-

tralian Open, Hewitt may have lost a step and his groundstrokes are not as ferocious as they once were, but the 34-year-old showed he has lost none of his combativeness during an enthralling 3h, 27min second-round slugfest.

Hewitt gave Tomic, and the other young Australian players who have made headlines for all the wrong rea-sons in recent weeks, a demonstra-tion of what it takes to be a winner, battling back from two sets down to give his fans one final thrill.

“I’m just very competitive. I pride

myself on getting the most out of myself,” said Hewitt, who is set to take over as his country’s Davis Cup captain. “I was able to some-how find a way. That’s what I’ve been renowned for in my career.”

Playing on the grandstand court in the shadow of the Arthur Ashe Stadium where he won the 2001 US Open final against Pete Sampras, Hewitt arrived sporting a no-non-sense expression and his trademark worn-backwards baseball cap.

While Hewitt’s will to win remains intact, his skills have dulled, unable to convert two match points when lead-ing 5-3 in the fifth to seal what would have been a fairytale victory.

“I knew from the point when he was coming back, it was not going to be easy because I kept thinking about watching his matches in the past, how he got out of them,” said Tomic, who moves on to meet 12th-seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet.

“He is a huge legend to me. I always looked up to him. I am sure a lot of people think he is a great leg-end, not just myself, so for me it was a privilege.” REUTERS

hewitt showed the gritty spirit for which he is famous and made tomic work hard for the win. Photo: ReuteRs

Wozniacki (picture, top) lost to cetkovska while Muguruza (picture, above) was beaten by Konta. Photos:

Getty ImaGes, aP

Saturday, 5 September 2015

TherealesTaTeThe hidden sTories of joo chiaT unveiled in a new guide 34

Feted Musiciandick lee’s concerT

was a nice reminder of The man’s work 35

Quick eatsready meals can

be healThy and flavourful 35

the right tiMesinger-songwriTer

kevin maThews releases new ep 36

arTwork: crys lee

culture&lifestyle34

today • Saturday 5 September 2015

Jeweller Choo Yilin unloCks the seCrets of the neighbourhood with a guide and aCtivities

Serene Limserenelim@mediacorp.com.sg

what does luxury ar-tisan jewellery have to do with Nyonya dumplings? Plenty, when you’re locat-

ed in the heritage neighbourhood of Joo Chiat.

That was exactly what the found-er of eponymous jewellery store, Choo Yilin, thought about when she opened her outlet there in May last year.

With the support of Singapore Tour-ism Board’s (STB) Kickstart Fund,

Choo has created a walking trail guide and map called The Secret Joo Chiat, which was launched earlier this week.

The guide is aimed at visitors who might be coming for the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix season this month and who want to check out the neighbourhood’s best-kept secrets when it comes to food and shopping.

Along with the usual Joo Chiat sus-pects featured (such as Katong Antique House and Chin Mei Chin Confection-ery) are smaller and newer businesses such as floral shop The Bloom Room, brass and silver jewellery makers Stale & Co and Malay-Muslim cake store Kak Wan’s Kitchen. In addition, a host of activities have been lined up, rang-

ing from an afternoon of tea and tour at Kim Choo Kueh Chang to a water-colour painting lesson of objects such as Peranakan kuehs and shophouses.

“We’ve always felt that Joo Chiat is a hidden gem, offering experiences that could not be replicated in any part of the world,” explained Choo. “Holding this during the F1 season was a natural choice because of the increased footfall of cosmopolitan tourists. We wanted to demonstrate that Joo Chiat was as worthy a place for a visit as Orchard Road or Marina Bay Sands.

“We personally felt that if done right, Joo Chiat would offer an expe-rience that was completely irreplace-able, even to the most cosmopolitan

tourists, given the strong heritage in-fluences of the neighbourhood.”

The STB’s Cultural Precincts Development director Kenneth Lim said Secret Joo Chiat “is in line with STB’s approach to Quality Tourism”, in which locals engage visitors and help shape the Singapore experience.

Similar initiatives supported by the STB include the heritage walk-ing tours of Chinatown organised by the Kreta Ayer-Kim Seng Citizens’ Consultative Committee during key festivals such as Chinese New Year and Mid-Autumn; and Artwalk Little India, a three-year public art project in collaboration with LASALLE Col-lege of the Arts that tells the precinct’s

Photo courteSy of choo yiLin

culture&lifestyle today • Saturday 5 September 201535

Healthier ready meals are a reality

Local brand Prima Taste hopes to change approach to on-the-go eating

SINGAPORE — Prima Taste’s local food sauce kits have long been a lifesaver for the Singaporean expatriate living abroad since they debuted in 2000.

But now, the homegrown brand hopes to change the way consumers here think about convenience food — and it is do-ing so with its latest range of products, which they launched this week.

Called Prima Taste Ready Meals, the products are rice-and-protein meals based on Prima’s popular sauce kits al-ready on the market, sealed in reheatable pouches.

There are currently four offerings, retailing at S$6.50 each at select Fairprice outlets: Curry Chicken With Rice, Nonya Sambal Chicken Rice, Beef Rendang With Rice and Chicken Claypot Rice. Major supermarkets will carry the products from next month.

In addition to being targeted at busy Singaporeans for whom “eating is part of enjoying life”, said Lewis Cheng, general manager and executive director of Prima Food, the meals are designed to be healthy too.

The rice used is a combination of white (75 per cent) and wholegrain basmati (20 per cent), as well as multigrains such as millet and barley, which make up the remaining five per cent. The products also contain prebiotics and are MSG-free, and, like all the products in the brand’s range, are certified Halal.

“We have seen research data that shows consumers going for healthier food products is a growing trend,” Cheng said.

As part of its push in the direction of healthier products, the company launched its Wholegrain LaMian in July, an instant noodle made using its Superfine Wholegrain Flour, available in laksa and curry flavours.

“Prima started as a flour mill, so we went back to what we do best,” Cheng said.

It took the company two years of research and devel-opment to produce a fine flour from wholegrains, which yields noodles that are soft without being brittle. These new products were launched with the hope of helping consum-ers rethink some of their views on eating.

“There are two perceptions: One is that healthy food does not taste good. The other is that convenience food is not healthy and not tasty. These are the two main percep-tions we are trying to break,” said Cheng, who hopes that these ready meals will not be thought of as “something you eat because you have no choice”.

“You eat it because you want to eat it,” he added. The possibilities, Cheng said, are limitless because the

ready meals do not require refrigeration, so “even people on yachts” can depend on them. They can be heated in the mi-crowave or by steeping them in boiling water. “It’s even more convenient than chilled or frozen food,” he said.

However, he acknowledged that “it will take a bit of time” to educate consumers and let them experience the product. “Someone might look at this and say, ‘Oh, is it shelf stable? Is it because it contains a lot of preservatives?’” said Cheng, adding that that is not the case, thanks to advancements in heat sterilisation technology which affords the meals a shelf life of up to 12 months.

These meals are just the beginning for Prima Taste. Cheng said the company “will be introducing new prod-ucts in phases” with more food flavours already in the works. MAY SEAH

Prima Taste Ready Meals’

chicken claypot rice.

story through installations, films, mu-sic and other creative works.

“Travellers to Singapore are in-creasingly seeking in-depth experi-ences, including the exploration of our precincts that offer rich heritage and culture. We saw the development of a self-guided map as a good way to gal-vanise the businesses to come together in telling the unique story of Joo Chiat, which many visitors find fascinating,” added Lim.

“The additional tours, promotions and workshops held will help drive footfall to Joo Chiat and offer visitors a deeper appreciation of Singapore’s multicultural heritage.”

CElEbRAtING SINGAPORE, CElEbRAtING JOO CHIAt

One common theme for the stores and eateries featured in The Secret Joo Chiat is the fact that these busi-nesses have “one local heritage inspi-

ration”. While it might be obvious for institutions such as popiah skin shop Kway Guan Huat or Peranakan mu-seum The Intan, others take a subtler but no less Singaporean approach.

For example, at leather craft store J Myers Company, the owners work with leather supplied from a local tannery to support a fellow Singapo-rean business, while pet store Bubbly Petz stocks pet outfits designed and sewn in Singapore. Getting these busi-nesses on board with the project also proved that the kampung spirit is very much alive in Joo Chiat.

“It actually wasn’t tough at all as the community here at Joo Chiat is incredibly supportive,” said Choo. “We’ve built friendships with the dif-ferent vendors around the area dur-ing our time here, so they were really quite excited to be involved.”

What was most challenging in-stead was nailing the map of Joo Chi-at. It was created from scratch using

watercolour illustrations and contains details and anecdotes about each busi-ness. Choo and her team walked up and down Joo Chiat consistently to fa-miliarise themselves with every turn and corner since June this year.

Choo declined to reveal the cost of the project, saying that she was glad to get The Secret Joo Chiat done with the STB’s backing.

And The Secret Joo Chiat doesn’t end when the chequered flag is waved at the F1. There are plans to do more during the Christmas period, including bringing a piece of Joo Chiat to town.

In the meantime, anyone can get a piece of Joo Chiat thanks to a digi-tal version of the map, which is avail-able for download on the Choo Yilin website. “Joo Chiat continues to sur-prise every day,” summed up Choo. “Those who have been living in the neighbourhood for over 20 years also tell us that they continuously discover fresh things ever so often.”

Madly, Dick Lee

Music review: The AdvenTures Of The MAd chinAMAn upsized

The singer’s updated show tracks a career that spans four decades

SINGAPORE — “Fried rice paradise, nasi goreng, very nice, that’s her specia-ya-lity, ninety-nine varie-ties…” In case you’ve forgotten, Dick Lee is more than just the guy who wrote Home. Since his first album Life Story in 1974, which contained the heartfelt title track, the singer-songwriter’s career has spanned an impressive four decades.

And there is no better showcase for Lee’s stellar musical journey than The Adventures Of The Mad China-man. During its first iteration in 2011, he recounted his beginnings as a wee piano-loving lad in the 1960s all the way to the debut of his iconic alter ego The Mad Chinaman in 1989.

For the “upsized”, SG50 version held at the Esplanade Concert Hall on Thursday night, Lee extends the story by including his highly success-ful forays into Japan and Hong Kong in the 1990s as both a performer and songwriter, which is still unmatched by any other Singaporean artiste to this day.

In the sold-out, one-night-only show, Lee took the audience (both young and old, although judging by those who sang along, mostly the lat-ter) on a two-hour trip down memory lane. Backed by a six-piece band, the now much grey-haired-yet-still debo-nair singer looked dapper in a tailored pink suit with a tiny yellow flower pinned on the jacket lapel.

As in all his one-man shows, Dick talks a lot on stage. Then again, hear-

ing him talk about his past— as we watch black-and-white photos and short films from his childhood — and what Singapore fashion was like dec-ades ago was always bound to bring on the laughs.

But it wasn’t all talk, of course: The best of Dick Lee is most evident in the song interludes. He kicked off with 1989’s The Mad Chinaman and drew the audience in with the haunt-ing Bunga Sayang from 1994, which was incidentally used by film-maker Royston Tan in his segment in the ac-claimed SG50 film 7 Letters.

He then performed a disco medley with Melbourne-born soul/funk musi-cian Dru Chen, complete with a Barry Gibb-like falsetto (although you could say that the 59-year-old showed his age somewhat in some of the disco moves).

And there were lots more, includ-ing a repertoire of songs that made his name (from his first single, Life Story, to the title track of his acclaimed 1984 album Life In The Lion City), and a medley of songs he “loves to hate”, such as Boney M’s Hooray! Hooray! It’s a Holi-Holiday.

The most rib-tickling bits, though, were the National Day songs, which

MARGueRITA TANfeatures@mediacorp.com.sg

Lee had ingeniously tweaked to come up with Standing Trial In Singapore, One People, One Nation, 1MDB (an “ode” to our neighbours up north) and, in time for next week’s Gener-al Election, Count On Him (PM Lee), Singapore.

Elsewhere, you had a lively rendi-tion of the Indian-flavoured Musta-pha, featuring homegrown musician Govin Tan on the tabla, while Sukiyaki and Lover’s Tears reminded the audi-ence of Lee’s successful stint overseas, where he would write hits for the likes of Jackie Cheung and Sandy Lam. De-spite his questionable Cantonese ac-cent, Dick gamely and commendably performed two of his Hong Kong hits without, he quipped, understanding a word he was singing.

The memorable night ended with perhaps his most memorable songs: Fried Rice Paradise and Rasa Sayang — banned on Singapore radio when they were first released because of “improper use of English”, he said — and the enduring Home for his encore.

Dick Lee thoroughly deserved the standing ovation he got in the end — here’s to more adventures, upsized or otherwise.

Dick Lee performed his familiar hits at the Mad Chinaman Redux concert.

SINGAPORE — The Singapore Chinese Orches-tra (SCO) is collaborating with students from Nanyang Academy Of Fine Arts (NAFA) for a free concert titled Beyond Music on Sept 23, 7.30pm, at Lee Foundation Theatre in NAFA Campus 3.

Led by SCO resident conductor Quek Ling Kiong, the programme will feature autumn-

themed pieces in conjunction with the up-coming Mid-Autumn Festival. These include: Hao Wei Ya’s Flowers On A Moonlit Autumn River, Pin Wei Chang’s Autumn Moon Over A Placid Lake and Peng Xiu Wen’s Songs Of Au-tumn. NAFA’s plucked strings section will be performing Liu Qing’s Dancing In The Moon-lit Night, while NAFA chamber music will perform Xie Peng’s Ling Long, which won the 2002 Chinese Chamber Music gold award.

The finale will see the SCO and NAFA stu-dents performing together two acclaimed Chinese orchestral pieces: Lo Leung Fai’s Autumn and Peng Xiu Wen’s Moon On High.

The collaboration is part of SCO’s ini-tiative to promote arts development in Singapore. To register for free tickets, visit http://beyondmusic1509.eventbrite.sg.

S’pore Chinese Orchestra collaborates with NAFA students for concert

culture&lifestyle today • Saturday 5 September 201536

Being in the present New Music

Musician Kevin Mathews’ new release is all about living in the moment

SINGAPORE – Mention Singaporean singer-songwriter Kevin Mathews’ name to young, aspiring indie musi-cians here, and what you will see are looks of admiration.

It is not only because Mathews is a music man through and through. The 54-year-old founded bands such as The Watchmen and Popland back in the 1990s and has come up with some memorable songs such as the No 1 hit My One And Only, as well as I Love Singapore, The High Cost Of Living and Pasir Ris Sunrise.

He has helped with the music for films such as Eric Khoo’s Mee Pok Man, as well as Invisible Children, Lucky 7 and The Carrot Cake Con-versations, among others.

He has been instrumental in the music scene as a mentor under the National Arts Council’s Noise Mu-sic Mentorship Programme and for the Esplanade Youth Budding Writ-ers Programme, and as a judge for the 2009 and 2010 editions of the Baybeats Festival.

He also runs artiste management company KAMCO Music, through which he helps manage the careers of Singapore music acts such as TypeWriter and Lydia Low. Along the way, he has helped curate various mu-sic showcases such as Stagefright and Original Sing; and is the man behind events such as the upcoming Power Of Pop Songwriters Gallery that show-cases up and coming musicians. He even finds time to run pop culture blog Power Of Pop.

In the past few years though, Mathews has been channelling a

large part of his energies to cre-ating his own new music, includ-ing 2013’s full-length release Emo FASCISM and 2014’s four-track EP #alpacablues.

He will be releasing his latest al-bum Present Sense, which he said is his best record yet. Mathews will launch the album at Artistry Cafe on Sept 18.

The album’s title ref lects what Mathews always tries to remind himself — to enjoy the present and to relish being able to live a life filled with music.

“I am worried about the future con-stantly, it’s part of my personality,” he said. “Especially in the last five years, when there’s been a bit of uncertainty about what happens next. But I’ve also learned how to live in the moment.

“That’s what Present Sense is all about — to live in the moment.”

And at the moment, the best thing about his work in the music business is the fact that he gets to meet like-minded folks.

HON JING YI honjingyi@mediacorp.com.sg

“The advantage of having done stuff for more than 20 years, and finding people who first heard my music when they were 12 or 13 years old, is that I have met a lot of people, and their stories are quite interest-ing,” said Mathews, who has men-tored acts such as Obedient Wives Club, In Each Hand A Cutlass, Lost Weekend, Cashew Chemists, Pleasantry, Adia Tay, Jaime Wong, JAWN, The Little Giant, Joie Tan and Theodora.

“One of the guys who is playing with me now, Nelson Tan (who al-so plays in progressive rock band In Each Hand A Cutlass), said he was inspired to become a musician because of my music. Previously, (music director) Jonathan Lim al-so came up to me and said, ‘Kevin, your CD was the first CD I bought’.

“That was, to me, mind-blowing. And it is very humbling, because you feel a sense of responsibility, and you feel people do look up to you. It is very important to use that influence because there is so much talent here,” he added.

Still, Mathews admits that his musical journey has not been an easy one. Since he quit his job as a lawyer five years ago to pursue mu-sic full-time, Mathews, who doubles up as a teacher at Republic Poly-technic and Temasek Polytechnic, has been “looking over (his) shoul-der — financially”.

“I do everything freelance now, so, technically, there is no security, and there is a bit of uncertainty,” he mused. “But that is what makes it interesting. Everything is new and everything is different.”

However, Mathews has no re-grets. “I was in the legal industry for 20 over years, whether it was in practice or corporate. I quit mainly because I couldn’t handle the stress anymore, I was practising very long hours and couldn’t commit to be-ing in the music scene. It was very hard. It all came to a head, and I just decided to quit and do some-thing different.”

He added: “It’s tough, but also satisfying and rewarding.”

SINGAPORE — Election fever may have swept through the country, but things have been busy in the arts scene, too. There were a handful of announcements about events tak-ing place in November: A “darker” Beauty World, directed by Dick Lee, will feature television actress Jeanette Aw as Lulu; the Afford-able Art Fair Singapore’s “teaser” for its year-end edition is an ongo-ing exhibition of young artists; and details were revealed regarding the sixth edition of the M1 CONTACT

Contemporary Dance Festival. Meanwhile, the National Arts

Council (NAC) held its annual Pa-tron Of The Arts Awards ceremony, which included 21 recipients of a spe-cial SG50 Arts Patron Award. It was announced that S$53.8 million were donated to the arts sector last year. There were organisational chang-es, too, with the appointment of the 13th board of council members for the NAC and a new chairperson for the National Library Board: Chan Heng Kee replaces Yeoh Chee Yan, who steps down after six years. Else-where, Epigram Books announced that 68 writers had submitted en-tries for the Epigram Books Fiction Prize, Dick Lee held a one-night only concert and the Singapore Interna-tional Festival of Arts continued its run by bringing a “circus” into town. MAYO MARTIN

PHOtO: SCO

Kevin Mathews will release his new record Present Sense this month.

Kevin Mathews/The Groovy People will perform at Artistry Cafe on Sept 18. Tickets at S$20 and S$30 (from kevinmathews-artistry.peatix.com).

Turning secrets into art

PHOtO: NICOla aNtHONY

SINGAPORE — That secret you have been keeping to yourself for the longest time could now become a work of art.

British artist Nicola Anthony is currently inviting members of the public to share their secrets — anonymously — for a new art installation. Titled Secret In-gredient, the site-specific light-and-language installation will comprise secrets shared by the public and “geographical secrets” of Telok Ayer.

The public’s private thoughts will be handwritten by Anthony and will take the shape of paths she had mapped while walking around the neighbourhood.

The artwork will be part of her eponymously titled exhibi-tion, which is curated by Danie-la Beltrani. It will run from Oct 15 to Nov 30 at bistro and art space SPRMRKT.

Interested members of the public can share their secrets through confession slips available at SPRMRKT (until Oct 6) or direct-ly to the artist (on Oct 11); on the artist’s website (http://www. nico-laanthony.co.uk/confessions); or as a public post on the Secret In-gredient event page on Facebook.

For more info on the event, visit https://www.facebook.com/SPRMRKtfeatures.

listings today • Saturday 5 September 201537

How to Play

Fill in the grid so

that every row, every column, and every 3x3 box contains

the digits 1 through 9.

YesterdaY’s solution

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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2015 14

A R T S & D E S I G N

THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY

By CHRISTOPHER D. SHEA

WESTON-SUPER-MARE, En-gland — Rain appropriately pelted down for much of a Sunday after-noon on the late August weekend that marked the opening of “Dis-maland,” the anti-Disneyland cre-ated by the artist Banksy in this beachside town.

“They’re intentionally being so rude,” said a visitor, Andrea Grif-fiths, 28, of “Dismaland” “staff members” who greet visitors with an angry pat down.

“It is hilarious because I mean, we’re British, we’re so polite,” Ms. Griffiths said.

“Dismaland,” a satirical take on a theme park, features grumpy guards, funereal games and art by about 60 artists, including Banksy, Damien Hirst and Jenny Holzer.

The exhibition, which runs through late September, includes new and old artwork by Banksy, including a pool with mobile boats full of figurine immigrants in what apparently is the English Channel. One installation on the site — billed as only for children — features a trampoline and a stand offering small loans with interest rates of several thousand percent.

The exhibition also has an un-doubted political edge: the artist Shadi al-Zaqzouq rolled a sheet over his artwork and scrawled “R.I.P. GAZA” across it.

Naomi Woodspring, 66, an aca-demic visiting from nearby Bristol, contrasted Banksy’s show with an installation based on Thom-as More’s “Utopia” in London. Banksy’s exhibition is “a vision-ing of real change,” she said, “It pushes us to envision a whole other way of being, and to begin to live that way of being.”

Shortly after the website for “Dismaland” went up before the opening, the ticketing function crashed, prºompting speculation

that the ticketing issues were part of Banksy’s doom-and-gloom concept. Clare Croome, a spokeswoman for Banksy, said the site had crashed after receiving six million hits per minute.

Banksy is mostly known for graf-fiti works that pop up in unexpected urban locales. His last major display was a series of political murals that he unveiled in Gaza in February. In 2009, he staged an exhibition fea-turing dozens of his own artworks at the Bristol City Museum. That

show was also kept secret before it opened.

Details on how “Dismaland” came together have not been dis-closed. In an email, Zaria Forman, a New York artist with work in the exhibition, said that Banksy had approached her around eight weeks ago about participating in the show, and that she was given a “general idea” of what the exhibition would include. She said she had been in-structed not to answer certain ques-tions about Banksy.

In a wry and somewhat elliptical interview with The Guardian about the exhibition, Banksy called “Dis-maland” “a theme park whose big theme is — theme parks should have bigger themes.”

He also said, “I asked myself: What do people like most about go-ing to look at art? The coffee. So I made an art show that has a cafe, a cocktail bar, a restaurant and anoth-er bar. And some art.”

By JEREMY EGNER

“Say yes to your life,” Nancy Reagan commands near the end of the first episode of Netflix’s new series “Narcos.” It’s a moment from the “Just Say No” speech that she delivered with her hus-band, President Ronald Reagan, in 1986. “And when it comes to drugs and alcohol,” she continues, “just say no.”

Cut to a drug dealer kneeling in a Colombian field who pleads “No, no, no, no, Pablo, no,” before being shot in the head.

It’s a sequence that encapsu-lates both the style and substance of “Narcos,” a series about the bloody rise of the Medellín cartel in Colombia in the 1970s and ’80s. Shot in Colombia and produced by the Brazilian filmmaker José Padilha, the show mixes news clips with fictional portrayals to recount the birth of cocaine traf-ficking and the morally ambigu-ous efforts to fight it by authorities in both Colombia and the United States.

“Pablo,” of course, is Pablo Escobar, the drug kingpin, here played with simmering menace by the Brazilian actor Wagner Moura.

For Netflix, “Narcos” rep-resents another ambi-tious, international un-dertaking as the service seeks new subscribers outside of the United States. Currently avail-able in over 50 countries, the service aims to be in 200 by the end of 2016, and in the past year it has added expansive in-ternational productions like (the mostly admired) “Sense8” and (the much less so) “Marco Polo” to its lineup. (“Club de Cuervos,” Netflix’s first Spanish-language show, debuted last month, and “Marseille,” a French-language series, will go into production soon.)

In Mr. Padilha, Netflix has part-nered with a former documentari-an (“Bus 174”) who kept his didac-tic edge when he moved into narra-tive films. His “Elite Squad” mov-ies, Brazilian blockbusters that starred Mr. Moura as an ethically erratic police commander, offered an entertaining but cynical — and controversial — look at corruption. (The depictions of police brutality riled both law enforcement offi-cials, who found them unfair, and many residents, who thought they glorified violent cops.)

“Narcos” is similarly pointed. It implicates traffickers like Esco-bar, depicted as a megalomaniac smuggler who stumbled upon a product with profits as large as his self-image but also an American drug policy that declared “war” on the suppliers without doing much to address the demand. “Once you construe a ‘war’ on drugs, you see

it as a police matter — something you’re going to handle with weap-ons,” Mr. Padilha said. “You’re gonna put a lot of people in jail and you’re gonna kill a lot of people.”

The men charged with stopping Escobar are Steve Murphy and Javier Peña, portrayed by Boyd Holbrook and Pedro Pascal. The characters are based on the actu-al Drug Enforcement Administra-tion agents who helped Colombian police track Escobar, who was ul-timately killed in 1993.

Though “Narcos” is largely fictional, Mr. Padilha noted the broad strokes are historically ac-curate and based on research as well as input from the agents.

An international cast includes performers from Brazil, Argenti-na, Chile and Colombia, several of whom spent time in Bogotá during its violent nadir in the late 1980s and early ’90s.

More broadly, the Latin Ameri-

can actors in the cast relished the opportunity to tell the Medellín story through a native prism. “You’re going to see the Colombi-an heroes of the story,” Mr. Moura said.

Shot primarily in Bogotá, much of the show features subtitled Spanish dialogue.

For the actual D.E.A. agents, “Narcos” represents another crack at a story they felt was poor-ly told in reports like “Killing Pab-lo,” the 2001 book about the hunt for Escobar, which Mr. Murphy said implied, inaccurately, that he and his colleagues collaborated with Colombian vigilantes.

Mr. Padilha hopes the Medellín story will be only the first chapter in a multiseason series that tracks the illegal drug trade through the succession of cartels that have controlled the supply to the Amer-ican market, up to the present day troubles in Mexico.

“You just renew the gangsters and play out the same drama,” he said.

Banksy’s Bleak Take on Theme Parks

Series on Drug Wars For Netflix Viewers

ONLINE: NO MICKEY MOUSEA slide show on Banksy’s vision of the anti-Disneyland:nytimes.com Search Dismaland

PHOTOGRAPHS ABOVE AND BELOW BY TOBY MELVILLE/REUTERS

DANIEL DAZA/NETFLIX

Netflix aims to be in 200 countries by late 2016. A scene from ‘‘Narcos.’’

Portraying the battle against the Medellín cartel.

YUI MOK/PRESS ASSOCIATION, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS

Exhibits at “Dismaland,” which runs through late September in a beachside town in England.

A R T S & D E S I G N

13 SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2015THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY

By JON PARELES

Sometime around 2011, Keith Richards was ready to retire from his life in rock ’n’ roll. Approach-ing half a century with the Rolling Stones, he had done it all. “I know what luck is. I’ve had a lot,” he re-flected in an interview.

He’s the archetypal rock guitar-ist: the genius wastrel, the unim-peachable riff-maker, the architect of a band sound emulated world-

wide, the survivor of every excess. Onstage, he is at once a flamboyant figure and a private one, locked in a one-on-one dance with his guitar, working new variations into every song.

“I never play the same thing twice,” he said. “I can’t remember what I played before anyway.”

With the Stones in “hibernation” after a tour that ended in 2007, Mr. Richards took two and a half years to write (with James Fox) a

best-selling memoir, “Life,” that re-examined his tours, trysts, ad-dictions, mishaps, arrests and ac-complishments. After “Life” was published in 2010, he was enjoying being a family man and a grandfa-ther. Retirement was a real possi-bility.

“I thought, that’s the craziest thing I ever heard,” said Steve Jordan, Mr. Richards’s longtime co-producer and drummer on his solo projects. “He felt comfortable with where he was,” Mr. Jordan said. “But knowing Keith, to not have him pick up an instrument and play, it was weird. When you’re a musician, you don’t retire. You play up until you can’t breathe.”

Mr. Jordan nudged Mr. Richards in a different direction: back into the recording studio to make his first solo album in 23 years, “Crosseyed Heart,” to be released September 18. “I realized I hadn’t been in the studio since 2004 with the Stones,” Mr. Richards said. “I thought: ‘This is a bit strange. Something in my life is missing.’ ”

It’s a straightforwardly old-fash-ioned, rootsy album that could have appeared 20 years ago. The instruments are hand-played, the vocals are scratchy growls, and the songs revisit Mr. Richards’s favor-ite idioms — blues, country, reggae,

Stonesy rock — for some intriguing storytelling. The album was re-corded on analog tape. “I love to see those little wheels go around,” Mr. Richards said.

Eased onto a couch at his man-ager’s Manhattan office, Mr. Rich-ards, 71, alternated between a Marl-boro and a drink. He was wearing an ensemble only he could pull off: a striped seersucker jacket over a black T-shirt decorated with a Captain America shield, black cor-duroy jeans and silvery-patterned running shoes. A woven headband in Rastafarian red, gold and green held back his luxuriantly unkempt gray hair. A silver skull ring was, as usual, on his right hand as a remind-er, he has said, that “beauty’s only skin deep.”

In a conversation punctuated by his wheezy, conspiratorial growl of a laugh, he was a man at ease with himself as a rock elder. “It’s all a matter of perspective and which end of the telescope you’re looking at,” he said.

“Nobody wants to croak, but nobody wants to get old,” he said. “When the Stones started, we were 18, 19, 20, and the idea of being 30 was absolutely horrendous. Forget about it! And then suddenly you’re 40, and oh, they’re in it for the long haul. So you need to readjust, and of

course kids happen and grandchil-dren, and then you start to see the pattern unfolding. If you make it, it’s fantastic.”

Mr. Richards’s solo career start-ed amid strife in the Rolling Stones, a period in the late 1980s that he has called the band’s “World War III.” Mick Jagger, his partner in song-writing and producing, had chosen to make solo albums with younger collaborators. Mr. Richards de-cided to dig into his own, bluesier music, anchored by Mr. Jordan on drums.

His enduring attachment is to music, and to his guitar. “I get into a very warm relationship with the guitar. I sleep with it at times,” he said. “There would be no ‘Satisfac-tion’ if I hadn’t been sleeping with the guitar in the bed that night. Apparently I woke up in the middle

of the night and hit a button on this new thing at the time, a cassette machine. But I did this all either in a dream or in my sleep and wrote ‘Satisfaction.’ Without the guitar being right next to me I wouldn’t have done it. Not that I sleep with it every night — the old lady would complain.” (He has been married to Patti Hansen since 1983.)

A new documentary, “Keith Rich-ards: Under the Influence,” will be shown via Netflix beginning Sep-tember 18. It includes recording sessions for “Crosseyed Heart” and glimpses of the Rolling Stones’ past. In the documentary, he observes: “I ain’t a pop star no more, y’know? And I don’t want to be.”

Pop fame, he now insists, was never his goal. “I only did it by ac-cident,” he said. “All I wanted to do was play.”

By JON CARAMANICA

Earlier this year, the Internet grabbed hold of “It G Ma,” a video by South Korean rapper Keith Ape, and spread it wide.

Then the controversy started. The clear precursor to “It G Ma”

(meaning “never forget me”) was “U Guessed It,” by the young Atlan-ta rapper OG Maco.

“I’m aware of the Koreans that mocked me and took my sauce. I’m not impressed. I’m not inspired. I think it’s kinda lame. To each his own,” OG Maco wrote on Twitter earlier this year. “I didn’t have grills or extra jackets and lean cups,” he added, “so why did they? Black ste-reotypes. Lame.”

Keith Ape, 22, who has been rap-ping for only a few years, got a bet-ter reception at recent show in New York. Until his trip to the United States, he’d only interacted with American rappers online. When he met them, they “embraced me with open arms,” he said recently, speaking through a translator. He’s spending most of his time in Los An-geles, working on music with Amer-ican rappers and producers.

When he was 17, he dropped out of school, hoping to make hip-hop his career. His parents are in the arts — his father is a music professor, his mother a painter.

He’d listened mainly to South Ko-rean hip-hop before being exposed

to Nas’s 1994 album, “Illmatic.” The more he researched American hip-hop online, the more he became infatuated with its rowdier side, es-pecially the music from the South.

He suggested that “It G Ma” was an implicit response to the increas-ing absorption of hip-hop into Ko-rean pop music, or K-pop, from boy bands and girl groups to novelty acts like Psy.

“Obviously, I didn’t grow up in that American social structure, around people slinging drugs or things like that,” said Keith Ape. “It G Ma,” he added, is “not necessarily a rap about struggle, but it’s defi-nitely using the method of a turn-up to appeal to people who are antiso-cial, people not accepted in what’s considered mainstream, people who feel alone and disconnected.”

The initial version of “It G Ma” wasn’t sold anywhere, partly be-cause of legal concerns. Keith Ape and his Cohort rappers didn’t con-tact OG Maco or any other artists whose songs they’d been remaking because, he said, “we never imag-

ined it would become as big or popu-lar as it did. We weren’t trying to sell these records — it was a fun thing to do.”

Since “It G Ma,” American artists have been in touch about collabo-rating with Keith Ape. After he re-leases a handful of new songs, there are plans for an extended version of “It G Ma” with distinct new sec-tions. One will feature rapping by the K-pop star CL, one of the most famous faces and voices in all of

K-pop. She and G-Dragon of Big-Bang are K-pop’s global ambassa-dors — artists who’ve incorporated the sounds of American pop and hip-hop and fed it back out with signa-ture panache.

Keith Ape and OG Maco met at the South by Southwest festival in Tex-as in March.

“He was being sincere,” OG Maco said. “I took a certain joy in that he was able to succeed doing his ver-sion of something I made.”

It likely helped that an arrange-ment was soon reached: OG Maco would be credited with part of the publishing royalties of “It G Ma.” He declined to be on the song’s remix, though.

At South by Southwest, after he and Keith Ape spoke, they posed for a picture together, middle fingers extended for the camera, and posted it to Instagram.

“That’s how cultural exchange is supposed to happen,” OG Maco said.

K-Pop Makes Incursion Into Hip-Hop Territory

Solo Rock ’n’ Roll, and He Likes It

HEDI SLIMANE

The genius wastrel and survivor of every excess, Keith Richards, 71, is releasing a new album.

CHAD BATKA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

The South Korean rapper Keith Ape performing at a club in New York in April.

‘I can’t remember what I played before anyway.’

An unauthorized remake hit alerts the rap world to Korea.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2015 12

P E R S O N A L I T I E S

THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY

S ÉGO L È N E R OYA L

Steady Companion for a French Leader

SA M E L L I OT T

Prototypical Cowboy Broadens His Repertoire

By ELAINE SCIOLINO

PARIS — François Hollande, the president of France, and Ségolène Royal, a senior cabinet minister who once ran for that post herself, have an exceptionally complicated relationship.

The two lived together for 25 years, raising four children over that time. Then they broke up in 2007 over an infidelity that Ms. Royal made public a month after she had lost that year’s election for president.

Ms. Royal nonetheless cam-paigned for Mr. Hollande, 60, when he ran successfully for the presidency in 2012, even though the other woman in that romantic triangle, the journalist Valérie Tri-erweiler, was his official live-in companion.

Ms. Royal also kept her sang-froid when Ms. Trierweiler reportedly demanded that the long-time political and personal partner of Mr. Hollande be kept out of his government.

But now Ms. Royal, 61, is back in the corridors of power. During a cabinet reshuffle in April 2014, she was named minister for ecology, sustainable development and en-ergy, the third in cabinet rank after prime minister and foreign minis-ter. And, unofficially, she fills other job descriptions.

The position of vice president does not exist in France; neither does a role like that of the first la-dy of the United States. But armed with ambition, raw political intu-ition and large doses of charm, Ms. Royal seems to have slipped into both roles.

“She’s the imaginary vice presi-

dent and the imaginary first lady,” said Gérard Miller, a psychoana-lyst and filmmaker whose docu-mentary on Ms. Royal was shown on France 3 television recently. “Sometimes the imaginary can be-come real. She’s perfect in the two roles, because it doesn’t cost the French an extra centime.”

Increasingly, she has been seen as Mr. Hollande’s stand-in for state occasions and his compan-ion for others. When Pope Francis touched down on French soil for the first time in his papacy with a visit to the European Parliament in No-vember, Ms. Royal was the senior French official there to greet him. After the deadly attacks against a satirical newspaper and a ko-

sher supermarket last January, she traveled to Israel to represent France at the memorial services.

She accompanied Mr. Hollande on an official trip to Cuba and the Caribbean in May, and when the king and queen of Spain came to Paris for a state visit in June, she was next to Mr. Hollande to greet them on the steps of the Élysée Palace, standing where a first la-dy might. (And Ms. Trierweiler? She has now exited from both the Élysée and Mr. Hollande’s life, re-placed by the actress Julie Gayet.)

Ms. Royal cites her life in politics and her presidential candidacy as evidence of her international standing, and takes on subjects far from her dossier. At a dinner at the residence of Ambassador Gérard

Araud in Washington in May, the former United States Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright questioned her about President Vladimir V. Putin, Ukraine and the nuclear negotiations with Iran. While other ministers may have asked the ambassador to take over, Ms. Royal did not hesitate to give lengthy, and diplomatically vague, responses.

Ms. Royal has so dramatical-ly expanded her authority that the magazine L’Obs featured her, smiling and with arms crossed, on a cover in May with the title “La Vice-Presidente.”

Just don’t call her the de facto first lady. “No, I’m not the first la-dy!” she said. “I’m not the queen of

France, either, even if my name is Royal.”

Even Ms. Trierweiler, 50, has acknowledged the un-breakable Hollande-Royal bond. “They share an un-

bridled taste for politics,” she said in an interview with the newspaper Le Parisien. “Power is their reason for living, their mutual obsession.”

Ms. Royal does not see herself as a French Hillary Clinton, who sur-vived the infidelity of her president spouse to emerge as a political fig-ure in her own right. “Hillary came into politics because her husband was in politics. Not I,” she said. “I had my own political identity from the beginning.”

She also brushes off as irrelevant all questions about her personal life.

“All the personal setbacks, they matter nothing to me,” she said. “What’s important is my political identity, not my identity as a wom-an.”

By CARA BUCKLEY

MALIBU, California — Not too long ago, the actor Sam Elliott, who has spent much of his 46-year ca-reer being typecast as America’s cowboy, was referred to as a “male ingénue.”

At 71, Mr. Elliott is not young, and anyone who’s witnessed the know-ing gleam in his eyes wouldn’t for a second peg him as innocent. But with lauded performances this year in three indie films and guest spots in two acclaimed television series, Mr. Elliott is clearly doing well.

In May, he was named best guest performer in a drama series at the Critics’ Choice Television Awards for his work on FX’s “Justified.” The film “I’ll See You in My Dreams”

drew crowds despite its limited re-lease. (It was a co-star of that film, Mary Kay Place, who slyly called Mr. Elliott an ingénue.) He ap-peared in another Sundance indie, “Digging for Fire,” and in February returned to the television series “Parks and Recreation” to play the vegan hippie Ron Dunn.

But it is Mr. Elliott’s turn as a spurned lover in “Grandma,” which stars Lily Tomlin, that has gar-nered him some of his warmest re-views yet: He brought a ferocious emotional rawness to the part that caught critics and even the director off-guard. Variety’s Scott Foundas raved that Mr. Elliott had, in 10 min-utes on screen, created “a fuller, richer character than most actors do given two hours.”

“What he does in that moment in some ways became the emotional core of the film,” said Paul Weitz, who wrote and directed “Grand-ma.” “You’re not used to the idea that this person is going to expose himself as an actor.”

Mr. Elliott’s resonant baritone growl, which still weakens the knees of female fans, and mustache, rendered in multiple shades of han-

dlebar, have, over the decades, be-come synonymous with stoic, steely dudes: usually cowboys, followed by bikers, pilots and military men. That Mr. Elliott has been able to re-main the man guys want to be and gals want to be with is a testament to his indisputable charm.

In “Grandma,” Mr. Elliott said, he was able to stretch beyond the char-acters he normally plays. “It was a real catharsis, in a positive way,” he said.

Mr. Elliott and his wife, the ac-tress Katharine Ross, have been living here in their rambling, South-western-style seaside home for some 40 years, first in a house that burned to the ground, then in a trail-er, and finally in this home.

It is hard to pinpoint when Mr. Elliott became Holly-wood’s prototypical cow-boy, but for Mr. Elliott, it was in the late ’90s, in “The Big Lebowski.” By that time, he was eager to switch things up. He recalled thinking: “ ‘Even in a Coen brothers movie, I can’t play one of their wacky characters, I gotta play a cowboy.’ ”

Since then, Mr. Elliott said, his resistance to play-ing cowboys has softened to gratitude. “I used to grouse about it,” Mr. Elliott said of the typecasting. “I really realized it was noth-ing but good fortune to be in any kind of a box in this business. You know what I mean?”

Tall, slim and as tooth-some as ever, he still fits the part. Mr. Elliott exudes

old-fashioned assuredness and calm.

“Gentlemanliness comes natural to me. That’s the way I was raised,” he said. “That’s part of the deal.”

Mr. Elliott always knew he want-ed to act, and after singing in cher-ub choirs and appearing in small theater productions and musicals — “My voice became bass very early on,” he said — he moved back to California at age 20. (His early childhood was spent in Sacramento before a move to Oregon.) He had a breakout role of sorts, as the lead in Paramount’s “Lifeguard,” from 1976.

During fallow career periods, Mr. Elliott cashed in on his rich baritone, doing voice-overs for various adver-tisers — Ram Trucks, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and Coors beer.

Mr. Elliott feels he’s done his best work in ages in the three indie films. But the one thing he still dreams of doing is singing in a stage show; he passed on a chance to be in “Annie Get Your Gun” with Reba McEntire years ago, and is still haunted by it. “I’d love to do a musical,” he said. “I could pick it up real quick.”

“Gentlemanliness comes natural to me. That’s the

way I was raised.”

ED ALCOCK FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

BRYAN SHEFFIELD FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

“No, I’m not the first lady. I’m not the queen of France, either.”

P E R S O N A L I T I E S

11 SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2015THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY

By LIZ ROBBINS

As Dan-el Padilla Peralta toggled fluidly between worlds for much of his life — ancient and modern, poor and privileged, Dominican and American — there were times when he could forget he was a child with-out a country.

He found refuge in New York’s libraries, the Greek and Latin texts speaking to him even before he could speak their language. He would copy entire orations, memo-rizing for inspiration.

But always, the fear would return: He could be deported. His mother brought him to the United States from Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, when he was 4, and they overstayed their tourist visas. He has wrestled with the consequences ever since.

“The drumming of papeles was the background music to my life,”

Dr. Padilla said, intoning the Span-ish term for legal documents.

Now he hopes that by telling his life story, he will be able to further the discussion on immigration poli-cy, which has become a contentious issue on the American presidential campaign trail. In “Undocument-ed: A Dominican Boy’s Odyssey From a Homeless Shelter to the Ivy League,” he recounts the extraor-dinary arc from poverty to the elite all-boys Collegiate School in Man-hattan, to an Ivy League school, Princeton University in New Jer-sey, then Oxford, where he earned a master’s in philosophy, and Stan-ford University in California, where he earned a doctorate in classics.

At age 30, Dr. Padilla is at Colum-bia University in New York as a postdoctoral fellow in humanities, and, next summer, he will return to Princeton as an assistant profes-

sor of classics. He has a work visa, but is not yet a citizen, a status he hopes will soon change because, in March, Dr. Padilla married an American whom he had dated for six years. He is still waiting for his green card application to be consid-ered.

His mother, Maria Elena Peral-ta, came to New York for the end of her high-risk pregnancy when she was carrying Dr. Padilla’s brother, Yando. The boys’ father, frustrated by his low-paying jobs, returned to the Dominican Republic three and a half years later. She risked stay-ing illegally when she saw how her oldest son was already excelling in school.

The family had little to eat and lived in homeless shelters and sub-sidized housing. But her oldest son was happy if he was learning. He rescued reading books from the

trash, she recalled. At age 8, after finishing “Peter Pan,” he tried to re-tell the plot, lecturing his 3-year-old brother.

A volunteer art teacher at a home-less shelter noticed young Dan-el reading a book about Napoleon. The teacher, Jeff Cowen, befriended him and steered him to his alma mater, Collegiate.

When Dan-el started Latin as an eighth grader at Collegiate, his teacher, Stephanie Russell, was taken aback at how he had not only read Plato, but also had thoroughly absorbed it.

“His intellectual gifts were what jumped out at me,” Dr. Russell said.

Dr. Padilla’s life story has in-spired a musical, “Manuel Versus the Statue of Liberty,” written and produced by a Princeton alumna, Noemi de la Puente.

Dr. Padilla said that his wife, Mis-sy, a social worker, was teasing him recently that he still could not enjoy his success. To explain his pessi-mism, Dr. Padilla cited Homer’s Ili-ad, where two jars stood on the floor of Zeus’ palace, one containing bad things, and the other a mixture of good and bad. There was no vessel of all good things.

“I live, in part because of the con-ditioning of my childhood and ado-lescence, in this state of expectation that something really bad is about to come our way,” Dr. Padilla said.

M I ST Y CO P E L A N D

Pioneering Ballerina Draws New Fans

By MICHAEL COOPER

Misty Copeland was becoming the most famous ballerina in the United States — making the cover of Time magazine, being profiled by the news program “60 Minutes,” growing into a social media sensa-tion and dancing ballet’s biggest roles on some of its grandest stag-es. But another role eluded her: She was still not a principal dancer.

That changed June 30 when Ms. Copeland, 32, became the first Afri-can-American woman to be named a principal in the 75-year history of American Ballet Theater.

Even as her promotion was celebrated by her many fans, it raised questions about why Afri-c a n -A mer ic a n dancers, partic-ularly women, remain so underrepresented at top ballet companies in the 21st centu-ry, despite the work of pioneering black dancers who broke racial barriers in the past. And it showed how media and communications have changed in dance, with Ms. Copeland deftly using modern tools — an online ad she made for Under Armour, a sports clothing company, has been viewed more than eight million times — to spread her fame far beyond traditional dance circles, drawing new audiences to ballet.

At a news conference when the announcement was made, Ms. Co-peland spoke about taking her first

dance lessons at a Boys and Girls Club, and recalled her early doubts when she first realized, some-what to her surprise, how few Afri-can-American women had made to the top ranks of the country’s lead-ing ballet companies.

“I had moments of doubting my-self, and wanting to quit, because I didn’t know that there would be a future for an African-American woman to make it to this level,” she said. “At the same time, it made me so hungry to push through, to carry the next generation. So it’s not me

up here — and I’m constantly saying that — it’s everyone that came before me that got me to this position.”

Over the past year, whenever Ms. Copeland danced leading

roles with Ballet Theater, her per-formances became events, drawing large, diverse, enthusiastic crowds to cheer her. After she starred in “Swan Lake” with Ballet Theater — becoming the first African-Ameri-can to do so with the company at the Metropolitan Opera House — the crowd of autograph-seekers was so large that it had to be moved away from the stage door.

In a break with ballet tradition, Ms. Copeland was unusually out-spoken about her ambition of be-coming the first black woman to be named a principal by Ballet Theater, one of the country’s most presti-

gious companies. She wrote about her goals and struggles in a memoir published last year, “Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina.”

Leading dance companies and schools, including Ballet Theater, have begun efforts to increase di-versity in classical ballet, but there is a long way to go. Jennifer Ho-mans, the author of “Apollo’s An-gels,” a history of ballet, said that ballet had fallen far behind other art forms — making what she called the “phenomenon” of Ms. Copeland all the more important.

The dearth of black women in top ballet companies has been attribut-ed to a variety of factors, from the legacy of discrimination and linger-ing stereotypical concepts of what

ballerinas should look like to the lack of exposure to training oppor-tunities in many communities.

In ballet, principals earn not on-ly the respect of the dance world but are also paid more, dance big-ger roles and see their photos in programs, as well as their names in larger type. Ms. Copeland last seemed on the verge of promotion in 2012 after a breakthrough per-formance in the title role of Stravin-sky’s “The Firebird,” but she was sidelined by injury.

During a performance of “Swan Lake,” cheers for Ms. Copeland re-peatedly stopped the show. Smart-phones came out to record her cur-tain calls. Afterward, girls carried copies of her illustrated children’s

book, “Firebird,” to be signed, and several adults held copies of the memoir she wrote with Charisse Jones. The crowd cheered when she emerged from the theater. A man shouted: “Principal! Principal, Misty! Principal, dear!” A wom-an called out, “Congratulations, Misty!”

Before signing autographs and posing for pictures, Ms. Copeland addressed the crowd in a quiet voice choked with emotion.

“Thank you so, so much for your support — it means so much to me to have you all here,” she said. “It’s such a special day for me, and for so many people who have come before me. So thank you for being here on this amazing day.”

DAMON WINTER/THE NEW YORK TIMES

“So it’s not me up there … it’s everyone that

came before me that got me to this position.”

JULIETA CERVANTES FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Misty Copeland and James Whiteside in ‘‘Swan Lake’’ with American Ballet Theater.

DA N - E L PA D I L L A P E R A LTA

From a Lack of Documents to a Doctorate“The drumming

of papeles was the background music

to my life.”

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2015 10

S C I E N C E & T E C H N O L O GY

THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY

By KATE GALBRAITH

SAN DIEGO — In 1942, at the height of World War II, a young military scientist learned of the Allies’ plans to invade northwest-ern Africa by sea to dislodge the nearby Axis forces.

The scientist, Walter Munk, hastily did some research and found that waves in the region were often too high for the boats carrying troops to reach the beach-es safely. Disaster could loom. He mentioned it to his commanding officer.

“‘They must have thought about that,’” Dr. Munk, now 97, recalled being told. But the young scientist persisted, calling in his mentor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanog-raphy to help.

They devised a way to calculate the waves the boats could expect to face. Their work helped the boats land in a window of relative calm, and the science of wave predic-tion took off, becoming part of the planning for the D-Day landings in 1944.

Such feats explain why Dr. Munk is sometimes called the Einstein of the oceans. Colleagues describe him as a courtly man with an un-canny ability to search out import-ant problems at just the right time.

In addition to wartime wave forecasting, Dr. Munk has done pi-oneering research in ocean sound transmission, deep-sea tides and even climate change, though some of his work in the field has been controversial.

Even today, well into his eighth decade of scientific work, he con-tinues to tackle projects ranging from using underwater sound sig-nals to measure warming ocean temperatures to how wind causes the Gulf Stream.

Born in 1917 to a banking family of Jewish heritage, Dr. Munk grew up in Vienna. His parents later di-vorced, and his mother sent him to a school in upstate New York in 1932.

After taking night classes at Co-lumbia University in New York, he decided to leave banking and gained admission to the Califor-nia Institute of Technology, where he studied applied physics. While spending the summer of 1939 near a girlfriend in the oceanside com-munity of La Jolla, part of San Di-ego, he landed a job with Scripps (now part of the University of Cal-ifornia, San Diego), where he has worked most of his career.

His seafaring work includes some notable moments in world history. Days before nuclear tests were performed at Bikini Atoll in 1946, Dr. Munk and a colleague dropped dye in the water to assess

how quickly radioactive materials would flush out of the lagoon.

Near the test site of the far more powerful hydrogen bomb on Eni-wetok Atoll in 1952, he monitored the ocean for a potential tsunami. It did not happen, though Dr. Munk and his crew were doused by ra-dioactive rain and had to toss their clothes overboard.

The high point of his career, as Dr. Munk calls it, came in 1991, when he traveled to Heard Island, a remote spot in the Southern Indi-an Ocean, to test long-range sound signals in the ocean.

The goal of the Heard Island ex-

periment was to determine wheth-er a sound generated from the South Indian Ocean could be heard in other corners of the world. The speed at which the sound signals traveled could provide useful data on warming ocean temperatures, Dr. Munk reasoned, because the sound would travel slightly faster as the ocean warmed.

Hours before the experiment was to begin, Dr. Munk was awak-ened by a call from Bermuda. From thousands of kilometers away, the listening post had already heard the sound. As it turned out, the Bermuda post had heard the brief sound check that technicians had made while preparing for the full test.

“And that was the best news that I’ve ever heard,” Dr. Munk said.

The Heard Island broadcasts be-came known as the “sound heard around the world.”

But Dr. Munk’s zeal for using ocean sounds to measure climate change created trouble a few years later. In 1994, as part of a Scripps project, he sought to install a sound transmitter in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary off the coast of California to help measure ocean temperatures changing over time.

But environmentalists feared that the broadcasts would hurt whales, which navigate and find food by means of their own sonar and feed in the sanctuary. The Natural Resources Defense Coun-cil asked for and received a public hearing in an effort to halt the proj-ect.

“What happened here was a head-on collision between Wal-ter Munk and whales. And that was the perception,” recalled Joel Reynolds, a council lawyer.

Dr. Munk and Scripps agreed to move the listening post farther off the coast and prioritize a study of the sounds’ effects on marine mammals.

Dr. Munk still yearns to use sound to measure the warming ocean. “I am convinced that you can do good underwater acoustics without hurting the whales, with some sensible precautions,” he said.

Nowadays, as he forges ahead on wind, waves and other projects, he occasionally forgets the times of meetings and gets around with a walker. But he remains a frequent presence in Scripps, walking the halls of a building that now bears his name. The secret to his longev-ity?

“I like my work and I like my life, and I enjoy doing it,” he said.

How Parents Pass On Their Math Anxiety

Scientist Answers Oceanic Riddles

By JAN HOFFMAN

A common impairment with life-long consequences turns out to be highly contagious between parent and child, a new study shows.

The impairment? Math anxiety. Means of transmission? Home-

work help.Children of highly math-anxious

parents learned less math and were more likely to develop math anxiety themselves, but only when their par-ents provided frequent help on math homework, according to a study of first- and second-graders, published in Psychological Science.

The more the math-anxious par-ents tried to work with their chil-dren, the worse their children did in math, slipping more than a third of a grade level behind their peers.

“The parents are not out to sabo-tage their kids,” said Sian L. Beilock of the University of Chicago. “But we have to ensure their input is produc-tive. They need to have an aware-ness of their own math anxiety.”

Comforting a homework-dis-tressed child, by saying, “ ‘I’m not a math person either, and that’s O.K.,’ is not a good message to convey,” she said.

Math anxiety, some studies show, can afflict 10 percent to 20 percent of adults. Math anxiety affects not only test taking and grades but also self-esteem.

Mark H. Ashcraft of the Univer-sity of Nevada, Las Vegas, said the condition can feed upon itself. “On challenging math problems that require a lot of working memory, math-anxious people fall apart,” he said. Their working memory is con-sumed by worry and anxiety, “and they don’t have enough left over to do the math.”

Many adults identify mid-dle-school algebra as the onset of math anxiety. Research has shown that it can begin earlier.

In a 2010 study, Dr. Beilock’s team found one significant factor, partic-ularly for young girls: math-anxious elementary schoolteachers, almost 90 percent of whom are female.

But the effect of math-anxious, homework-helping parents is a new-ly discovered factor.

Parental math anxiety is exacer-bated whenever schools introduce new methods of learning math, said Harris Cooper, a professor of psy-chology and neuroscience at Duke University in North Carolina.

“Educators can’t take math, turn it into Greek, and say, ‘Mom, Dad, will you help your kid with this,’ and not expect to get a ‘wha?’ ” he said.

On the Facebook page of The New York Times, Theresa Ellson of Sand-point, Idaho, described her anxiety while helping her daughters with Common Core math: “I’ve taken to labeling math homework by how many glasses of wine it takes me to peel myself off the ceiling after I’m done. ‘That was a two-glasser,’ after whatever it is we’re calling long di-vision. And that’s for fourth-grade math homework.”

A small comfort: The home-work-helping, math-anxious par-ents did not have a negative effect on their children’s reading ability, the new study said.

How can math-anxious parents help their children at math? Dr. Cooper suggests that parents cre-ate a math-positive environment by modeling “math behavior.” The game plan: Tell your child, “‘You have your math homework, and I have mine,’” he said, and show them whenever you “count your change, calculate when dinner will be ready, look at prices in a grocery store.”

Then there are the extremes that

Tara Sweeney went to.Mrs. Sweeney, of Floral Park,

New York, acquired her math anxi-ety in the third grade, when she had to stand in front of the class and re-cite multiplication tables. When her older son was in the third grade, she would scan his math homework and email it to her husband, who was working in Europe.

“He would conference-call us be-cause I was so paralyzed with anx-iety,” Mrs. Sweeney said. “I would yell, ‘I’m done with it, I can’t do it!’ ”

Finally she said to herself, “Math isn’t going away.”

So she studied the school’s math curriculum. She asked teachers for manuals and lesson plans and watched videos.

“Some of the other moms are an-noyed at me,” Mrs. Sweeney said. “But I didn’t mind putting in that time, because I needed to feel con-fident. I don’t want my sons to be as math-anxious as me.”

“And,” she noted, “in the last year or so, I actually think the math has gotten a little easier.”

Homework help can lead to worse outcomes in school.

SANDY HUFFAKER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Walter Munk, top, standing, preparing an instrument raft in 1952 near Eniwetok Atoll, the hydrogen bomb test site, where he measured the ocean for a potential tsunami. Left, Dr. Munk at home.

BOB STAAKE

Walter Munk helped win a war and spur climate research.

SPECIAL COLLECTIONS & ARCHIVES, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO

S C I E N C E & T E C H N O L O GY

9 SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2015THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY

By NICHOLAS WADE

It may be hard to imagine a ménage à trois, satisfactory to all, in which one tries to dislodge another with a toxic gas and a third eats the offspring of the other two. But such an arrangement exists.

The story begins with the Large Blue, a butterfly that lays its eggs on the wild oregano plant. The cat-erpillar munches on the plant’s flower buds for two weeks and one night drops to the ground. Then, the caterpillar gets adopted by a red ant known as Myrmica. The caterpil-lar tricks an ant into thinking it is a stray grub from the ant’s nest by adopting the grub’s posture and ex-uding a scent that mimics that of the ant’s species.

Taken underground to the Myr-mica nest, the caterpillar gorges on the ants’ larvae for 10 months, in-creasing its weight nearly 50 times until it is time to turn into a pupa and

then a butterfly.The Large Blue’s association

with ants has been known for more than a century. Only recently have researchers started to explore how the butterfly pulls off the feat of de-tecting the underground nests of a single species of ant to which its cat-erpillars are adapted. (The butter-fly, widespread in Europe, seeks out a single species of the Myrmica fam-ily of ants, but the particular species varies from one region to another in the Large Blue’s territory.)

Researchers led by Dario Patri-celli and Emilio Balletto at the Uni-

versity of Turin in Italy and Jere-my A. Thomas of the University of Oxford have developed evidence that the oregano plant is the crucial mediator between the ants and the Large Blue butterfly.

To fend off ants and other threats, the oregano plant exudes toxic fumes. But Myrmica ants have evolved the ability to detoxify car-vacrol, the principal ingredient of the oregano’s defense system. The Myrmica ants may not particularly like carvacrol, but they do like living near oregano plants because the po-tent chemical keeps ant competitors away.

The oregano plants are less pleased when a Myrmica ant col-ony tunnels beneath them. They double their output of carvacrol, Dr. Thomas’s group reported recently in Proceedings of the Royal Soci-ety B. And this, the scientists say, is the cue for female Large Blues

to lay their eggs. An extra strong whiff of carvacrol signals the fact that beneath this plant is a nest of Myrmica ants.

The Large Blue-oregano-Myrmi-ca system holds advantages for all. The oregano sacrifices more than a dozen of its flower buds to each Large Blue caterpillar, but benefits because the growing caterpillar can wipe out the ants that are irri-tating its roots. The Myrmica ants

may lose a few colonies to Large Blue caterpillars, but the oregano provides protection against ant ri-vals. The Large Blue ex-ploits the oregano-Myr-mica association to gain safe underground nurs-eries for its brood.

The Large Blue belongs to the lycaenids family of butterflies, which orig-

inated some 80 million years ago. The first lycaenids most likely had a close relationship with ants, said Naomi E. Pierce of Harvard Uni-versity. Most lycaenids today retain some kind of relationship with ants. And several species, including the Large Blue, have independently evolved the ability to twist the usu-al food-defense relationship into a predatory association with their protectors.

By WILLIAM J. BROAD

In April 1815, the most powerful volcanic blast in recorded history shook the planet in a catastrophe so vast that, 200 years later, investi-gators are still struggling to grasp its repercussions. It played a role, they now understand, in icy weath-er, agricultural collapse and global pandemics — and even gave rise to celebrated monsters.

Around the lush isles of the Dutch East Indies — modern-day Indonesia — the eruption of Mount Tambora killed tens of thousands of people.

More surprising, investigators have found that the giant cloud of minuscule particles spread around the globe, blocked sunlight and pro-duced three years of planetary cool-ing. In July and August 1816, killer frosts in New England ravaged farms. Hailstones pounded London all summer.

A recent history of the disaster, “Tambora: The Eruption That Changed the World,” by Gillen D’Arcy Wood, shows planetary ef-fects so extreme that many nations and communities suffered waves of famine, disease, civil unrest and economic decline. Crops failed glob-ally.

“The paper trail,” said Dr. Wood, a University of Illinois professor of English, “goes back again and again to Tambora.”

“The year without a summer” was how 1816 came to be known.

The gargantuan blast — 100 times bigger than Mount St. Helens’s in Washington State— and its ensu-ing worldwide pall have been the subject of increasing study over the years.

Before it exploded, Tambora was the tallest peak in a land of cloudy summits. It lay atop the tropic isle of Sumbawa, its spires rising nearly five kilometers. Villages dotted its slopes.

On the evening of April 5, 1815, flames shot from its summit and the earth rumbled for hours. The volca-no then fell silent.

Five days later, the peak explod-ed with a roar heard for hundreds of kilometers. Rivers of molten rock ran down the slopes. Days later, the mountain collapsed, its height sud-denly diminished by 1,500 meters. An estimated 100,000 people died.

The repercussions were global, but no one realized that the wide-spread death and mayhem arose from the eruption. It was scientists who began to stitch together the big picture. Dr. Wood expands the por-trait in his book, which is due out in paperback this month. It lays bare three years of planetary mayhem, as well as the origins of fictional de-mons.

The exploding mountain heaved some 50 cubic kilometers of earthen

matter to a height of more than 40 kilometers. While coarse particles soon rained out, finer ones traveled the high winds in a spreading cloud. The global veil reflected sunlight back into space, so the planet cooled and tempests arose.

The particles high in the atmo-sphere also produced spectacular sunsets, as detailed in the famous paintings of J.M.W. Turner, the En-glish landscape pioneer.

The story also comes alive in lo-cal dramas, none more important for literary history than the birth of Frankenstein’s monster and the

human vampire. That happened on Lake Geneva in Switzerland, where some of the most famous names of English poetry had gone on a sum-mer holiday.

By 1816, Switzerland was begin-ning to reel from the bad weather and failed crops. Mobs stormed bakeries after bread prices soared.

That June, the cold and stormy weather sent the English tourists inside a lakeside villa to warm themselves by a fire and exchange ghost stories. Mary Shelley, then 18, was part of a literary coterie that included Percy Shelley, her future husband, as well as Lord Byron. Wine flowed, as did laudanum, a form of opium.

Mary Shelley came up with her lurid tale of Frankenstein, which she published two years later. And Lord Byron hit on the outline of the modern vampire tale, published

later by a compatriot as “The Vampyre.”

Dr. Wood’s book documents ma-ny other repercussions of the plan-etary chill, devoting a chapter to a cholera pandemic of 1817 that began in India and globally killed tens of millions of people.

He also profiles the wintry chill in Yunnan Province in China, a land of mountains and jungles. Rice crops there quickly failed, and famine gnawed deep for years. In July 1816, Dr. Wood noted, the province had “unprecedented snows.”

Dr. Wood’s portrait of global vol-canic ruin offers a kind of medita-tion on the difficulty of uncovering the subtle effects of climate change, whether its origins lie in nature’s fury or the invisible byproducts of human civilization.

It is, Dr. Wood remarked, “hard to see and no less difficult to imagine.”

The Butterfly, the Ant and the Oregano

Volcanic Eruption Darkened the World, and the Arts

A giant, engulfing ash cloud cooled the globe for years.

ROBERT THOMPSON/BUTTERFLY CONSERVATION, VIA EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY

IWAN SETIYAWAN/KOMPAS, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS; LEFT, THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD

The eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia in 1815 obscured the skies and influenced artists like the creator of Frankenstein.

A bad relationship that works wonders for three species.

The Large Blue butterfly fools ants, eating their young.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2015 8

M O N E Y & B U S I N E S S

THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY

By FARHAD MANJOO

The great philosopher Homer Simpson once memorably described alcohol as “the cause of and solution to all of life’s problems.” Internet advertising is a bit like that — the funder of and terrible nuisance baked into everything you do online.

Advertising sustains most of the content you enjoy on the web. But ads and the vast, hidden, data-suck-ing machinery that they depend on to track and profile you are routine-ly the most terrible thing about the Internet.

Now, more and more web users are escaping the profusion of on-line advertising by installing an ad blocker. This simple, free soft-ware lets you roam the web with-out encountering any ads. With an ad blocker, your web browser will generally run faster, you’ll waste less bandwidth downloading ads, and you’ll suffer fewer annoyances when navigating the Internet.

Ad blocking has been around for years, but adoption is now rising steeply. That has spurred a debate about the ethics of ad blocking. Some publishers and advertisers say ad blocking violates the implicit contract that girds the Internet — the idea that in return for free con-tent, we all tolerate ads.

But in the long run, there could be a hidden benefit to blocking ads for advertisers and publishers: Ad blockers could end up saving the ad industry from its worst excesses. If blocking becomes widespread, the ad industry will be pushed to pro-duce ads that are simpler, less inva-sive and far more transparent about the way they’re handling our data — or risk getting blocked forever if they fail.

“It’s clear to us that the ads eco-system is broken,” said Ben Wil-liams, a spokesman for Eyeo, the German company that makes Adblock Plus, the most popular ad-blocking software. “What we need is a sea change in the industry to get to a place where we have a

good amount of better ads out there, ads that users accept.”

The industry may not have much time to wait. Adobe and Page-Fair, an Irish start-up that tracks ad-blocking, recently estimated that blockers would cost publish-ers nearly $22 billion in revenue this year. Nearly 200 million people worldwide regularly block ads, the report said, and the number is grow-ing fast, increasing 41 percent glob-ally in the last year.

Today, ad-blocking is mostly re-stricted to desktop web browsers. But iOS 9, Apple’s latest mobile op-erating system, will include support for blockers when it becomes avail-able in the fall. Several ad-blocking firms are now creating apps for the new OS.

“What’s likely to happen is that of the 200 million people who use ad blocking now, let’s say half of them have iPhones — they’re all going to install one of these things,” said Se-

an Blanchfield, the chief executive of PageFair. “Then they’ll start telling all their friends about this amazing app that saves your battery, saves your data and speeds up the web, and it’s likely to go viral.”

It’s important to note that Page-Fair has its own stake to consider, and some have accused the compa-ny of self-interested alarmism. The company also sells technology that allows web publishers to determine if users are running blocking soft-ware — and then serves them ads anyway, going around the blockers.

PageFair’s strategy to mitigate users’ outrage is that it will only show ads that aren’t “intrusive,” Mr. Blanchfield said. That means the ads won’t feature animations, won’t block content, and won’t load “trackers” that report what you do on a web page.

PageFair is just one of the firms trying to create an ecosystem that produces better ads. AdBlock Plus created “Acceptable Ads,” which sets a standard for ads that the soft-ware will let users see despite hav-ing ad-blocking turned on. Ghostery makes a plug-in that lets users find and block online tracking tools — the code in a page that sends data about your surfing habits to mar-keters.

The Interactive Advertising Bu-reau has been working to create clearer guidelines for the trackers’ coded web pages. Scott Cunning-ham, the general manager of the bureau’s technology lab, said, “As we’ve watched the incidence rate of ad blocking, we’ve said, ‘O.K., it’s time for us to put the clamps onto some of the areas we haven’t ad-dressed yet.’ ”

Kenneth Rogoff has long warned of a potential financial crisis in China.

Mr. Rogoff, a professor of eco-nomics at Harvard University, ac-

curately predicted the eurozone debt crisis and for years has been telling anyone who would listen that China posed the next big threat to

the global economy. He is starting to look right, again.

“In economics, things take lon-ger to happen than you think they will, and then they happen faster than you thought they could,” Mr. Rogoff said recently, repeating a favorite line from Rudi Dornbus-ch, the German economist.

Mr. Rogoff, who is a chess grandmaster, has made a career of studying financial crises. After the 2008 financial crisis, Mr. Rogoff co-wrote “This Time Is Different,” a seminal book that examined eight centuries of financial crises. Every finan-cial crisis, he and his co-author, Carmen M. Reinhart, concluded, stems from the same simple prob-lem: too much debt.

To understand the wild machi-nations of the stock market in re-cent days around the world, look no further than China’s astound-ing debt load and sputtering econ-omy — and its ability to infect the rest of the world.

“China is the classic ‘This time is different’ story,” Mr. Rogoff said, rattling off all the different rationalizations for why the coun-try convinced itself — and many others — that it could load up on debt but was somehow immune to the laws of economic gravity. He cited the government’s control over the markets, the hundreds of millions of workers migrating to cities and the country’s saving rate of about 30 percent of dispos-able income as just some of the reasons China was said to be im-pervious to a severe downturn.

“It’s very vulnerable,” Mr. Ro-goff added. “There is a lot of debt.”

How much debt remains an open question, given the opacity of China’s market. The country’s debt load rose to $28 trillion by mid-2014 from $7 trillion in 2007, according to a report by the consulting firm McKinsey & Company, China. “At 282 percent of G.D.P., China’s debt as a share of G.D.P., while manageable, is larger than that of the United States or Germany,” the McK-insey study said. “Several factors are worrisome: Half of loans are linked directly or indirectly to China’s real estate market, unregulated shadow banking accounts for nearly half of new lending, and the debt of many local governments is likely unsus-tainable.”

The question becomes, how in-

terconnected is China’s economy to the rest of the world? That’s exactly what investors have been trying to determine as China’s government has devalued its cur-rency and tried — and failed — to stabilize its plummeting stock market. The drop has been wors-ened, in part, by debt as overex-tended Chinese speculators who borrowed money to buy stocks are now being forced to sell, cre-ating a vicious cycle.

“How does all that ricochet to emerging markets?” Mr. Rogoff said in discussing the effect of China’s slowdown on commodity producers like Brazil, whose economy is in a tailspin.

“Look at Russia. It’s amazing they haven’t had a financial crisis yet.”

Mr. Rogoff is not the first per-son to identify China as a poten-tial risk. Earlier this year, Henry M. Paulson Jr., the former United States Treasury secretary, said, “Frankly, it’s not a question of if, but when, China’s financial system will face a reckoning and have to contend with a wave of credit losses and debt restructur-ings.”

There are significant political reasons China needs to convince

the world and its own citizens that it can manage its convulsing financial markets and slowing economy. “Financial meltdown leads to a social meltdown, which leads to a political meltdown,” Mr. Rogoff said. “That’s the real fear.”

Mr. Rogoff pointed to another factor that has contributed to Chi-na’s financial woes.

“The crisis in Tianjin fed into the mix,” he said, referring to the deadly explosion on August 12 in the port city, which killed more than 100 people. Mr. Rogoff said the explosion had undermined the credibility of the Chinese gov-ernment because so many ques-tions remained unanswered.

So, does Mr. Rogoff believe that China is headed for a terrible “hard landing” that will lead to a global recession?

Mr. Rogoff says he believes the last several weeks have raised the prospects of a meaningful crisis. But with China’s trillions of dollars in reserves, he thinks the country may have sufficient tools to prevent a calamity that spreads across the globe — at least for now.

“If you had to bet,” Mr. Rogoff said, “you’d still bet they’d pull it out.”

Ad Blockers Imperil Web Economics

A Warning on China Seems Prescient

ANDREW ROSS

SORKINESSAY

Viewing the cause of financial crises as too much debt.

STUART GOLDENBERG

PAULO NUNES DOS SANTOS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Sean Blanchfield of PageFair, which tracks ad blocking, says people ‘‘are going to get accustomed to having an ad-free mobile experience.’’

Nearly 200 million people use software to avoid online ads.

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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2015 6

W O R L D T R E N D S

THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY

By MARC SANTORA

MASAI MARA NATIONAL RE-SERVE, Kenya — Each summer, 500,000 wildebeests die along the treacherous migration from the Serengeti National Park in Tan-zania to the Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. And with death come the scavengers, none more important than the vulture.

But the population of the birds that once feasted on that misfortune are collapsing, part of a broader de-cline that throws off ecosystems and illustrates the far-reaching effects of poaching, poisoning and other human interventions.

“The overall global picture for vultures is abysmal,” said Darcy Ogada, the assistant director of Africa programs at the Peregrine Fund, an organization dedicated to saving birds of prey.

In the first major study of the 30-year decline of Pan-African vul-tures, scientists found that popula-

tions of eight species of vultures had declined an average of 62 percent. Seven of those species had declined at a rate of 80 percent or more over three generations.

In some parts of Africa, vultures are slain by poachers who poison carcasses hoping to kill the birds so they will not circle overhead and sig-nal park rangers. A vulture can spot a dead elephant in less than 30 min-utes, but it can take a poacher more than an hour to hack off ivory tusks. No vulture, no warning.

Here on the Mara, one of the greatest natural strongholds left on the planet, the vultures are the unintended victims of poisoning of carcasses that is meant to kill large carnivores, like hyenas, in an effort to protect Masai livestock.

Across Africa, the threats to wild-life are myriad, but much of the at-tention is focused on the stately an-imals of the savanna, like lions and elephants.

“Everyone forgets about the Ugly Bettys of this world,” said Munir Z. Virani, who directs the Africa and South Asia programs for the Pere-grine Fund.

Anthony Ole Tira, who is Masai and the co-owner of the Matira Bush Camp in the reserve, stood by a river and pointed to scores of rotting car-casses. One week earlier, 900,000 wildebeests had plunged headlong into the river in a panic. Thousands were trampled to death.

That was normal. The rotting re-mains were not.

“Ten years ago, this would have been cleaned by now,” he said. “There are a lot of places along the Mara River that are not as clean as

they once were because there are not enough vultures.”

Over tens of millions of years, vul-tures have evolved into the most ef-ficient cleaners in the natural world. Because of their highly acidic gas-tric juices, they can eat flesh infect-ed with a variety of diseases without getting ill. When the vultures feast on diseased meat, picking the car-cass clean, the threat of wider infec-tion ends.

Dr. Virani hopes that the popu-lation decline can be halted and re-versed before it reaches the kind of critical situation found in India and other parts of the world. “It is not too late,” he said.

The Peregrine Fund has started a program with the Masai people to change attitudes about using poi-sons. Ole Sairowa, 67, a village elder, said that the use of poisons started two decades ago when the govern-ment provided “a dangerous white powder” to kill feral dogs. A decade

later, he started to notice fewer vul-tures.

“Now we are worried they are not coming back,” he said.

Dr. Virani cited the effort to bring electricity to communities across Africa through the construction of wind farms and power plants as one that, if not carried out carefully, could endanger vultures and other birds.

For now, the vultures continue to play their role in the natural drama that unfolds during the migration.

On a recent morning, it took them 20 minutes to pick the bones of a wil-debeest carcass clean.

It seemed efficient. But Mr. Tira said the job used to be accomplished much faster, by many more vul-tures.

“In five minutes, they would be done,” he said. “If the vultures con-tinue to disappear, can you imag-ine? This whole beautiful place will become one stink pit.”

By JODI RUDOREN and ISABEL KERSHNER

OFRA, West Bank — Yehuda Etzion does not regret helping plant bombs in the cars of Palestinian mayors and plotting to blow up the Dome of the Rock in the 1980s, nor does he express remorse. But he has reconsidered the role of violence in the quest for a Messianic kingdom of Israel as he contemplates a new generation of radicals he sees as bastardizing their shared ideology.

The aging right-wing extremist, along with much of the Jewish world, was outraged by the firebombing in July in the West Bank village of Du-ma that killed an 18-month-old boy and his father.

Mr. Etzion, 64, said he takes “par-tial responsibility” for not reach-ing out to the young zealots “to try

and straighten out their thinking,” which he described as a “childish,” “distorted” and even “vulgar” inter-pretation of Jewish texts.

Having spent the decades since he was released from prison in 1989 mostly writing and editing books, this force of the Jewish Under-ground issued a one-page declara-tion, gave an interview to a conser-vative newspaper and went on tele-vision to condemn the Duma arson.

Mr. Etzion said if he knew the per-petrators, he would turn them in to the police, prompting a backlash from some friends.

“I can hardly find words strong enough to say how I distance my-self from them and reject them,” Mr. Etzion said at his home in Of-ra, the West Bank settlement he helped found 40 years ago. “Vio-

lence has no role now,” he said. “On the contrary, what’s needed now is some quiet, an environment for let-ting a seedling grow. You need con-ditions, and violence contradicts those conditions.”

Mr. Etzion always opposed at-tacks on random Arabs: He saw the mayors as legitimate targets, “the heads of the snake,” but argued against his comrades’ 1983 gun-and-grenade attack on the Islamic college in Hebron.

To visit with Mr. Etzion is to see the differences and connections between the old underground and

the current youth, against a back-drop of an Israel growing more re-ligious and settlements ever more entrenched.

The extremists of the 1980s were educated army veterans — fathers in their 30s with a lot to lose. The Israeli authorities describe today’s as mainly dropouts who do drugs, recruited as young as 13 and gener-ally unmarried. But they share their predecessors’ goal of replacing the democratic state with a post-Zionist theocracy as well as some of their tactics: Duma and the maiming of the Arab mayors marked the end

of the 30-day mourning period for Jews killed by Palestinians.

Sefi Rachlevsky, a columnist for the leftist Haaretz newspaper who wrote a book about Jewish Messian-ism, said he “wouldn’t really be-lieve” Mr. Etzion’s mea culpa.

“To say that somebody who is still working to make the biggest flames about the Temple Mount, that he changed something about his ideas, that’s nonsense,” Mr. Rachlevsky said.

Mr. Etzion described as “coward-ly” the attacks today’s radical youth carry out against Palestinians.

Still, Mr. Etzion blamed Israel’s evacuation of Gaza Strip settle-ments a decade ago for inciting the ire. “The young people ask them-selves, ‘Who is the state?’ Is the state on the side of the house that was built in the land of Israel, or on the side of the bulldozer that has come to destroy it?” he said. “The more the youth decide the state is the bulldozer, they say, ‘I’m against,’ and ‘I’m ready to throw a firebomb at the bulldozer.’ ”

An Extremist Criticizes Raids on Palestinians

AHIKAM SERI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Vulture Populations Wane in Africa, Poisoned by ManONLINE:SAVANNA’SJANITORSA video on the decline of the vulture in Africa:nytimes.com Search vultures

PHOTOGRAPHS BY BEN C. SOLOMON/THE NEW YORK TIMES

“Violence has no role now. On the contrary, what’s

needed now is some quiet.”

YEHUDAETZIONan Israeli right-winger

Human actions threaten the future of the vulture. In a Kenyan reserve, zebras crossing a river and vultures feeding on wildebeest.

W O R L D T R E N D S

5 SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2015THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY

Thessaloniki, Greece, about $1,900, includes travel by car to and from each side of the border with a two-hour walk across. “We have cars go-ing every day,” the trafficker boasts. One user asked whether there was a family discount for multiple passen-gers. And in case one doubts the of-fer’s veracity, the post has 39 “likes.”

The Trafficking to Europe group, with about 6,000 members, is merely one corner of a new world of social media available to Syrians and oth-ers making the perilous journey to Europe.

Syrians are helped along their journeys by Arabic-language Face-book groups like Smuggling Into the E.U., with about 24,000 members, and How to Emigrate to Europe, with about 39,000.

The discussions are both public and private, requiring an invitation from a group administrator. Mi-grants share photos and videos of their journeys taken on their smart-phones.

The groups are used widely by those traveling alone and with traf-fickers. In fact, the ease and autono-my the apps provide may be cutting into the smuggling business.

“Right now, the traffickers are losing business because people are going alone, thanks to Facebook,” said Mohamed Haj Ali, 38, who works with the Adventist Develop-ment and Relief Agency in Belgrade,

Serbia’s capital — a major stopover for migrants.

Originally from Syria, Mr. Ali has lived in Belgrade for three years, helping migrants and listening to their stories. At first, he said, most migrants passing through Serbia had paid traffickers for most or all of their trip.

But as tens of thousands complet-ed their journeys, they shared their experiences on social media — even the precise GPS coordinates of ev-ery stop along their routes, record-ed automatically by some smart-phones.

For those traveling today, the prices charged by traffickers have gone down by about half since the beginning of the conflict, Mr. Ali said.

The only part of the journey that most migrants still pay traffickers for, he said, is the crossing from Turkey to Greece. Many migrants now feel able to make the rest of the journey on their own with a GPS-equipped smartphone and without paying traffickers.

Mr. Ali noted the popularity of Facebook groups such as “Smuggle

Yourself to Europe Without a Traf-ficker.”

“Syrians are not idiots,” he said.Mr. Aljasem, encountered in the

park, said he kept in touch with his 21 siblings in five countries through WhatsApp, which requires only an Internet connection.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has distributed 33,000 SIM cards to Syrian refugees in Jordan and about 85,000 solar lanterns that can be used to charge cellphones.

“For the U.N.H.C.R., there is a shift in understanding of what as-sistance provision actually is,” said Christopher Earney of the refugee agency’s innovation office in Gene-va.

Pawel Krzysiek of the Interna-tional Committee of the Red Cross in Damascus, Syria, said smartphones enabled refugees to exchange infor-mation and interact with interna-tional agencies rather than just re-ceive information passively.

A popular Facebook page in Syria

reports real-time counts of mortar rounds falling on Damascus and maps of their locations, allowing users to avoid certain areas, Mr. Krzysiek said.

Mohammed Salmoni, 21, from Ka-bul, Afghanistan, who had stopped to charge his phone at a newspaper kiosk in Belgrade, credited it with saving his life.

He used it to navigate a 40-hour walk across the Afghan province of Nimruz to Zahedan, Iran. “It was very dangerous,” he said.

masculinity affected their experi-ence.”

Dr. Kimmel is the founder and director of the Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities at Stony Brook University on Long Island, New York, which will soon start the first master’s degree program in “masculinities studies,” (plural) to acknowledge that there is “more than one way to be a man,” Dr. Kim-mel said.

For 40 years, Dr. Kimmel has been promoting the understanding of men and boys. He is the author of more than a dozen books, among them, “Angry White Men,” “Man-hood in America: A Cultural Histo-ry,” “Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men” and the “Cultural Encyclopedia of the Pe-nis,” of which he was a co-editor.

The case for women’s studies has long been clear. The first programs were founded in the 1970s during the height of the women’s move-ment. Women’s studies produced research, theory and activists who worked to write women into the history books from which they’d been largely absent. It’s safe to say

that without women’s studies, we would not have many of the gains that women have made over the last 45 years, said Barbara J. Berg, an American history scholar.

“Our job was to give people new ideas and to persuade them that they were true,” said Catharine R. Stimpson, one of the pioneers of women’s studies programs, and dean of the graduate school of arts and sciences at New York Univer-sity. “It was to prove the pay gap between men and women, and to show the disparity in money spent on men’s and women’s health. The mere fact that we count the number of women in state legislatures — that we go through that exercise — is because of women’s studies.”

But until recently, men’s studies never really seemed necessary. Lit-erature was essentially a study of the things men wrote, art history an exercise in what men painted. “The joke was that men’s studies already existed,” said Dr. Berg, the author of “Sexism in America: Alive, Well, and Ruining Our Future said.” “It was just history.”

But a program for the study of masculinity, Dr. Kimmel said, would incorporate scholarship across dis-

ciplines — from social work to liter-ature to health. It would ask ques-tions like: What makes men men, and how are we teaching boys to fill those roles? It would look at the ef-fects of race and sexuality on mas-culine identity and the influence of the media and pop culture. It would also allow scholars to take unrelat-ed phenomena — male suicide and the fact that men are less likely to talk about their feelings, say, or the financial collapse and the male ten-dency for risk-taking — and try to connect the dots.

“We’re looking at it as a science,” said Daphne C. Watkins, the presi-dent of the American Men’s Stud-ies Association, the first woman to hold that post. “Many men still de-fine masculinity as someone who can provide for his family, who can wrestle a tiger and protect.

“What I would love to see is for us to broaden those definitions,” she added.

Masculinities studies brings with it varying degrees of skepticism. Some academics have suggested that it’s too trendy to be of serious academic inquiry. Others fear that it could siphon money away from women’s studies.

But Dr. Kimmel’s audience is growing. U.N. Women, the United Nations arm dedicated to gender equality, is going to work with Dr. Kimmel to develop a series of work-shops for men on college campuses. In May, the American Men’s Studies Association held a three-day work-shop on “Teaching Men’s Studies” simply because the demand to teach it is suddenly so high, the organiza-tion said.

That urgency is the product of a few things, Dr. Kimmel said. For starters, the discus-sion of women’s equal-ity seems to be every-where, with new atten-tion being paid to the role men play in helping women achieve equali-ty, and why it’s good for them, too. Over the last 40 years, there’s been a shift in gender roles, yet most academic study has focused solely on its impact on women. A recent survey found that four in nine men said it was harder to be a man today than it was in their fathers’ gener-ation, with most citing women’s economic rise as the reason.

If we had a better understanding of men, how many of the world’s ills could we solve — or, at least, attempt to?

“There is a Pentagon document,” Dr. Kimmel said, “in which Lyn-don B. Johnson is quoted saying he didn’t want to pull out of Vietnam because he wouldn’t be viewed as manly.

“This is the president of the Unit-ed States proving his masculinity.”

Men’s Studies Is Suddenly in DemandCon tin ued from Page 1

PETER NICHOLLS/REUTERS

A charging station at a migrant camp in Calais, France. Next destination: Britain, many hoped.

OWEN SMITH

Con tin ued from Page 1

Apps and Social Media Are Migrants’ Lifelines

Real-time updates on arrests, routes and border guards.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2015 4

W O R L D T R E N D S

THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY

LENS

Poignant life lessons can come when you least expect them, and at any age. Just take the recently acquired, post-60 mantra ad-opted by the blogger Dominique

Browning: “I’m too old for this.”

It partly applies to physical tasks that the body is less able to handle with age but is

mostly about the mind. “I spent years, starting before I was a teenager, feeling insecure about my looks,” Ms. Browning wrote in The Times. Now, she doesn’t allow herself to get caught up in such destructive thoughts.

If she happens to put on a few kilos: “No big deal. Nothing to lose sleep over.” She is also, she noted, “too old to try to change people.” So when toxic people or “sour, spoiled people” make their

way into her life, “I’m simply walking away.”

This way of approaching things is liberating, Ms. Browning wrote: “I spare myself a great deal of suffering, and as we all know, there is plenty of that to be had without looking for more.”

This approach applies at any age, and the same can be said for a revelation shared by the Times writer Nick Bilton: We should always do our best work, because we never know the role it might play in someone else’s life.

He took that lesson from an anecdote involving Steve Jobs and a waitress, in which the Ap-ple co-founder did not hesitate to insist on top-of-the-line service

from her. She had chosen wait-ressing as her profession, Mr. Jobs reasoned, and therefore “she should be the best.”

That notion came to Mr. Bilton’s mind this spring when he was car-ing for his mother, who had cancer. After she was given a prognosis of having just two weeks to live, he devoted that time to serving as her personal chef and put his heart and soul into the work.

She particularly loved shrimp. So when she was craving it one night, he ordered some from a nearby Thai restaurant. Arriving to pick up the food, Mr. Bilton observed in the restaurant “a dozen men and women franti-cally slaving over the hot stoves and dishwashers, with busboys and waiters rushing in and out” — and Mr. Jobs’ words came to mind. To those employees, the day must have seemed like any other. What they had not known is that the meal they cooked for Mr. Bilton’s mother that night would turn out to be her last.

Of course, doing your best work is easier said than done when so many jobs are tedious. Part of the problem, as the psychology professor Barry Schwartz wrote in The Times, is that work is often “structured on the assumption that we do it only because we have to.”

It doesn’t have to be this way, he argued, because most people prefer jobs that are meaningful. Employers benefit, too: Research has shown that “workplaces that offered employees work that was challenging, engaging and mean-ingful, and over which they had some discretion, were more profit-able than workplaces that treated employees as cogs in a production machine,” Mr. Schwartz wrote.

He proposed giving employees more say in how they do their jobs, giving them opportunities to learn and grow, and listening to what they have to say. Most of all, he wrote, it should be clear to each employee how her job im-proves people’s lives — with the caveat that the work should, in fact, improve people’s lives.

Bosses, take note.TESS FELDER

By SABRINA TAVERNISE

RAMENSKOYE, Russia — A ba-sic barometer of economic activity in this tidy town south of Moscow is the pirozhok, a small pie filled with cabbage and meat that is a staple of the Russian diet.

In good times they sell briskly, snapped up by hungry commuters at Arina’s Hangout, a shop near the train station. But sales are down by almost half, a reflection of Russia’s economic slump.

“There were just physically fewer people,” said Irina A. Safonova, the owner of the shop, which on a recent weekday was serving pies to a trick-le of customers. “We used to have lines. Now look at it.”

Russians are experiencing the first sustained decline in living stan-dards in the 15 years since President Vladimir V. Putin came to power. The ruble has fallen by half against the dollar, driven by the plunging price of oil, the lifeblood of Russia’s economy. As a result, prices of im-ported goods have shot up, making tea, instant coffee and children’s clothes suddenly, jarringly expen-sive.

Making matters worse are the re-taliatory bans that Russia placed on food imports after the United States and the European Union imposed sanctions for its actions in Ukraine, a policy that last month saw the government destroy thousands of tons of what it said were illegally imported foodstuffs. The reduced supply means that what remains costs more. Russians are paying a third more for sunflower oil, a fifth more for yogurt and three-quarters more for carrots compared with a year ago, according to government statistics. (The Western sanctions have driven up the cost of borrow-ing for Russian companies, but they have not had a direct role in the in-flation that is raiding Russian pock-etbooks.)

Inflation has reduced the pur-chasing power of Russian wages by more than 8 percent in the second quarter, compared with the same period last year, according to Rus-sia’s Central Bank. And in a sign that the worst is far from over, the economy contracted by a steep 4.6 percent in the second quarter, com-pared with last year, and officially entered its first recession since 2009.

“It’s horrible,” said Elena Shcher-bakova, a 47-year-old shoe sales-woman whose income, based in part on commissions, has fallen nearly a third since last year. She says she now shops at discount su-permarkets, buys the cheapest kind of sausage and carefully counts con-tainers of yogurt instead of throw-

ing them into her cart the way she used to.

Russians have an immense ca-pacity for stoicism. And Mr. Putin’s popularity ratings have remained high since last year’s annexation of Crimea.

Still, the math is proving tricky. In a draft budget released in July, the Ministry of Finance proposed halt-ing the practice of raising pensions to keep up with inflation, a move that would deliver a blow to Mr. Putin’s most loyal base. Investment has col-lapsed since the Western sanctions, which also blocked Russia’s ability to borrow on global markets.

“They have no way out,” said Ser-gei Guriev, a professor of economics at Sciences Po in Paris. “Unless oil prices go up, they are really looking at a dead end.”

Mr. Putin’s opponents argue that

the nationalist talk washing over Russia is designed to distract at-tention from the fragile economic situation. They describe it as a bat-tle in every Russian home between the television (the source of propa-ganda) and the refrigerator (whose shrinking contents could eventually prompt discontent).

In Moscow, some in the educat-ed upper classes agree. “All that Ukrainian noise covers up our internal problems,” said Maria Novychkova, a manager in a textile company, where employees are on four-day workweeks.

The crisis in Ramenskoye has been gradual but destructive. The town has tried to modernize in re-cent years, with a new airport and a PepsiCo juice factory.

Ms. Safonova first noticed a drop in business last fall. There were few-er commuters to Moscow, and those who remained spent less freely. The checkout clerks at the Kopeika supermarket had their wages cut. Then in March, PepsiCo announced that the juice factory in town was closing, citing the bad economy.

By summer, the pie shop’s sales had dropped by nearly half, and Ms. Safonova had to lay off four of her eight employees.

Across Russia, the crisis has prompted a collapse in consump-tion. International airline travel has fallen almost a fifth since last year, and car sales are down 36 percent in the first half of this year.

Still, the discontent seems to by-pass Mr. Putin.

“Honestly, we are so proud he is our president,” said Vyacheslav, 75, a retired factory manager, who refused to give his surname, as he steered a mostly empty grocery cart through a Kopeika supermar-ket. “Thanks to him, we have all of this,” he said, gesturing toward a glass display case of beet and potato salads, fried eggplant and chicken.

Then he called his wife to tell her that they were out of the cheapest hot dogs.

A matter of when to insist on rigor and when to just let go.

When Insight Strikes

For comments, write to nytweekly@nytimes.com.

BRIAN BLANCO FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Russians Feel Inflation’s Squeeze

Alexandra Odynova contributed reporting.

SERGEY PONOMAREV FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

A pull between propaganda and empty refrigerators.

The Russian economy has entered a recession. Customers at Arina’s Hangout.

A friend watched

Steve Jobs insist on

good service from his waitress. She had

chosen the work, Jobs reasoned.

W O R L D T R E N D S

3 SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2015 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY

Trash, and Anger, Pile Up in Lebanon

Myanmar Crusader Alienates Supporters

By THOMAS FULLER

YANGON, Myanmar — Framed photographs of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel laureate, cover the walls of his small living room, but U Myo Khin, a longtime democra-cy activist, has harsh words for the woman he idolized for years as a crusader against dictatorship.

“The goal is still democracy, but her behavior is authoritarian,” said Mr. Myo Khin, who was a political prisoner for 12 years. “She is losing people like us who have been strong supporters.”

It was taboo for years among de-mocracy activists in Myanmar to speak ill of Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, who became a global icon of democ-racy and a symbol of resistance against oppression when Myanmar was ruled by a brutal military junta. Any criticism of The Lady, as she is known here, was seen as abetting the generals.

But as elections approach — contests described by some as a once-in-a-generation opportunity for democratic forces — Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi is being criticized by activists, commentators and in-tellectuals. They accuse her of an uncompromising approach to managing her party. They question her decision to ally herself with a now-marginal-ized former general. And they say she is missing an opportu-nity to build a grand coalition of democratic forces, including minority ethnic groups whose support may be crucial after the election.

“She has made enemies with the people she needs,” said U Sithu Aung Myint, a columnist with a reputation for nonpar-tisan commentary. “She lacks strategic thinking, and she is not a clever politician.”

For a woman who sacrificed the better part of two decades fighting dictatorship, much of that time under house arrest, it is deeply paradoxical that a word increasingly used to describe her is authoritarian, even among her allies in her party, the National League for Democracy.

Asked what he thought of the term, U Nyan Win, the party’s spokesman, did not hesitate.

“I agree,” he said.But he said that Burmese political

culture has long featured hierarchi-cal decision-making, and her party is no exception. He painted a pic-ture of Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, who turned 70 in June, as overworked, struggling to delegate power and not always getting accurate infor-mation about the day-to-day deci-sions within the party.

Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi declined to be interviewed for this article.

Her party came under its heaviest criticism during the selection pro-cess of candidates for the Novem-ber 8 election. Some of the leaders of the democracy movement, former political prisoners known as the 88

Generation, were largely passed over. Those decisions prompted anger and defections. A number of defiant members of the party were expelled.

As the controversy grew, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s response came across to some as imperious and condescending. “The N.L.D. is a po-litical party, and we have rules,” she was quoted as saying. “If you can’t follow these rules, you can’t work for the N.L.D.”

The country’s Constitution, writ-ten by the military junta before it handed over power to a quasi-civil-ian government in 2011, allocates one-quarter of the seats in Parlia-ment to the military. This means democratic forces, if they do not al-ly themselves with the army, must gain two-thirds of the elected seats to have a simple majority.

Moreover, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi is barred from the presidency by a clause in the Constitution that disal-lows anyone with a foreign spouse or children from becoming president. Her husband, who died in 1999, was a British citizen, and so are their two sons.

Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s critics say her alliance with Thura Shwe Mann, a former general in the junta who leads one faction of the military establishment but is widely dis-liked by other factions, rattled the military’s top brass. In August, Mr. Shwe Mann was purged as the head of the Union Solidarity and Develop-ment Party by the president and his backers in the military.

Daw Nyo Nyo Thin, an indepen-dent member of the Yangon regional Parliament, says she has been “con-fused” by Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s decisions.

Is the Nobel laureate authoritar-ian? “We have many stories,” Ms. Nyo Nyo Thin said. “But this is not the time to speak out.”

By ANNE BARNARD

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Moham-mad Rizk sat glumly in his sand-wich shop, waiting for customers. The scent of roasting chicken min-gled with the stench of a trash pile just outside. The garbage heap now dominated the curb where his drive-by clients once idled.

Mr. Rizk, 39, has a degree in eco-nomics. Yet without clout in any of Lebanon’s sect-based political parties, he said, he could not get a job in that field, and found himself making shawarma in a hole-in-the-wall shop. It was a lot he accepted until this summer, when political gridlock halted trash collection, a relatively reliable public service in a country with precious few of them, and sent protesters into the streets.

“Enough. This is enough,” said Mr. Rizk, declaring that he would join the demonstrators if only he could afford to leave the shop. “No electricity — we said, O.K. No wa-ter — we said, O.K. But the trash?”

The mounting garbage piles are one indignity too far, the ultimate physical manifestation of a failed political system that has left the state unable to perform even the most basic functions — so goes the central complaint of the demon-strators, who call their movement “You Stink.”

After a bloody 15-year civil war ended in 1990, power and resourc-es in Lebanon were essentially divided up among the former com-batants in a system of sectarian political patronage. The perpetual inertia of the government, ranked the fourth least efficient on earth by the World Economic Forum, ob-

structs everything from the grand to the mundane.

That is bad enough in ordinary times, but these are not ordinary times: The chaotic, murderous conflict next door in Syria has forced Lebanon, a nation of four million people, to shelter more than 1.3 million refugees.

“They told us that this system was preventing civil war, and that’s why the Lebanese people tolerated it,” Maroun Khoreish, a retired general, said at a demon-stration, where he joined a group of young activists from a range of backgrounds at a sidewalk ta-

ble in front of a cigar shop. “But these young people say enough is enough. And they are right.”

The garbage crisis is only the latest sign of political dysfunction. There has not been a president for more than a year, but Lebanese barely notice, they often joke, since the government does so little for them normally.

For instance, the country cannot generate enough power to meet its needs, forcing people to pay for pri-vate generator subscriptions or go without power for hours each day.

No new power plant has been built for decades. Among the rea-sons: The political parties cannot

agree on who would reap the spoils, and in part because the network of generator operators — politically connected, of course — would lose money.

And in a nation whose water re-sources are the envy of some of its neighbors, municipal water flows only at certain hours on certain days. You can tell which hours — because that is when streams of water from unrepaired pipes flow down the street.

Many families use salty well wa-ter to make up the shortfall, or buy water to fill tanks for daily use. It is delivered in trucks by private com-panies. People also pay for bottled drinking water.

Teachers regularly go on strike; otherwise, said Dalal Zawawi, a protester, they simply would not get paid on time. Communities south of Beirut arose in protest after a landfill near the town of Naimeh exceeded its capacity and the government failed to come up with a solution. Demonstrators blocked the road to the landfill, touching off the trash crisis.

Even Syrians fleeing war pro-nounce themselves shocked at the lack of infrastructure in Lebanon.

In Basta, a woman stepping through garbage while out shop-ping said she had gone to demon-strations not only because food was rotting in her refrigerator be-cause of power cuts, but because economic woes were forcing her family to live apart: Two of her five children had gone abroad to find work and another was about to leave.

“I’m suffocating,” she said. “We are living in stagnation.”

MOHAMED AZAKIR/REUTERS

Garbage in Beirut reflects the government’s inability to manage basic services, stirring protests.

A system that fails to provide steady water or electricity.

A party stumbles in its push for democratic change.

YE AUNG THU/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES

The leadership style of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel laureate, has been called authoritarian.

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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2015  2

W O R L D   T R E N D S

THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY

Cairo

At the end of June, Egypt’s back-logged courts found time to try and convict Reda al-Fouly on charges of “inciting debauchery.” Less than a month later, two other women were jailed on the same charge, after complaints accusing them of out-raging public decency.

All three women are belly danc-ers whose supposed crime was to perform in “immoral videos” on YouTube. The women danced in costumes that revealed a lot of leg and cleavage

In much of the Middle East, “in-citing debauchery” is like violating national security. It is a catchall flexible enough to use against a variety of moral opponents and is mobilized to unite people in righ-teous indignation. Recent cases in Egypt, Sudan and Morocco are a reminder that women and gay men are often targets. Prosecuting such “moral crimes” enables conserva-tive regimes and their societies to congratulate themselves on their ability to control women.

The day after Ms. Fouly was sentenced to a year in prison (later reduced to six months), Egypt’s top

prosecutor was assassinated by a car bomb. Then, in July, jihadist insurgents in the northern Sinai region staged an audacious series of attacks on security forces. Now President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has issued a counterterrorism law that includes a controversial measure prohibiting journalists from report-ing anything about the militants’ attacks that deviates from the offi-cial line.

Given this backdrop of a secu-rity crisis, when Egypt’s mili-tary-backed regime and its oppo-nents of armed militants are locked in a deadly struggle, involving arbitrary arrests and sham trials, bombings and assassinations, YouTube videos of belly dancers are hardly what comes to mind as a prime example of dangerous “in-citement.” But instead of throwing out the cases against the dancers as an absurd waste of time and money, the courts pursued them.

To be sure, Egypt is not the only majority-Muslim country in the region obsessed with policing wom-en’s bodies. In neighboring Sudan in June, 10 students — women from the ages of 17 to 23 — were charged with “indecent dress” after being arrested outside their church in Khartoum. The women, who were from the civil-war-torn Nuba Mountains region of the country, were all wearing long-sleeved shirts and either skirts or trousers

— customary forms of dress for Christians in their native South Kordofan. If convicted, they could be sentenced to 40 lashes.

Article 152 of Sudan’s criminal code allows Sudan’s “morality po-lice” to punish women for going un-veiled or even for wearing trousers. Such laws are socially divisive: Sudanese women from affluent or politically connected backgrounds can often escape flogging and just pay a fine. Less advantaged women bear the brunt.

Morocco, a monarchy with an elected Islamist government, has seesawed between relatively pro-gressive social positions and strict adherence to morality provisions in its penal code — at times, with an apparent political motivation. In April, for example, Hicham Man-souri, an activist with an organi-zation that supports investigative journalism, received a 10-month prison sentence for adultery. (The woman reported to be his partner,

who told the court she was sepa-rated from her husband, received a similar sentence.) Mr. Mansouri’s supporters said the arrests were a retaliation for their investigation of state surveillance.

But Morocco has also provided a refreshing antidote to the per-ils of morality laws. In July, two Moroccan women were acquitted of charges of gross indecency for wearing skirts that were said to be too flimsy and skintight. They were arrested in Agadir after shopkeep-ers, who had heckled and harassed the women, reported them to the police. Under Moroccan law, an of-fense involving “public obscenity” carries a penalty of up to two years in prison. The charges incited a na-tional outcry. Hundreds of lawyers offered to defend the women, more than 27,000 Moroccans signed a pe-tition to free the women and thou-sands more held rallies in Agadir and in Casablanca.

At a time when murderous thugs

behead, rape and sexually enslave in the name of their self-declared Islamic State, you would think that hemline heights and décolletage would rank lower on the Middle East’s list of moral outrages.

It is a mistake, though, to think that only Islamist movements like the Muslim Brotherhood obsess over morality. Nominally secular regimes will often outdo religious conservatives in the “decency” contest. Rights groups say the current regime in Egypt has car-ried out the harshest crackdown against the gay community since the Mubarak era — far worse than anything that occurred under President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood during his year in office.

The lesson is that “respectability politics” has the power to unite mil-itary regimes and religious zealots alike.

We will truly be free only when morality and decency no longer depend on policing the length of a woman’s skirt, criminalizing sug-gestive videos or trapping vulner-able groups with the catchall of de-bauchery accusations. What is more indecent: torture, beheadings, car bombs and mass incarceration — or a glimpse of a woman’s skin?

The reality is that we are all in chains so long as we punish those whom society judges “debauched” and “deviant.” It is time to rid the Middle East’s penal codes of these morality laws that serve only the hypocrites and misogynists.

By ELLEN BARRY and MANSI CHOKSI

PUNE, India — All week, people streamed in and out of the hand-some bungalow where the Lodha family lives.

On a bed in a corner of a large sit-ting room, surrounded by a crowd of reverent visitors, the family’s 92-year-old patriarch, Manikchand Lodha, was fasting to death. It was the culmination of an act of san-thara, a voluntary starvation un-dertaken every year by hundreds

of members of the austere, ancient Jain religion.

Three years earlier, a fall left Mr. Lodha bedridden. First he re-nounced pleasures like tea and tobacco. Then things he loved, like television. He gave up medicine, even refusing an air mattress to ease his bedsores. On August 10, he took the ancient vow and gave up food and water. When he died August 16, the house was festooned with bunting.

“Look at us — do we look like we

are in mourning?” said Sunita, Mr. Lodha’s daughter-in-law. “We are celebrating, because one of our fam-ily members has achieved some-thing great.”

Mr. Lodha took the vow on the same day that a high court judge in the state of Rajasthan declared the fast to be a form of suicide, which is illegal under Indian law.

This is a thorny constitutional question for India, which enshrines the right to both life and religious practice. Religious rituals are in-terwoven with everyday life. Indian leaders, from Gandhi to Narendra Modi, have observed fasts.

On August 31, the nation’s Su-preme Court suspended the ban. The stay will probably remain in place for at least four years until the decision comes up for a hearing.

Jains, who number around six million, are prominent in Indian business circles — they dominate

the diamond industry — but they al-so occasionally choose to cast it all aside to live as barefoot, wandering monks, renouncing family and busi-ness and relying on charity for food.

In 2006, an activist named Nikhil Soni filed a court petition arguing that santhara violated the Indian prohibition of suicide. He also con-tended that the practice was used to free families of the burden of caring for the elderly.

Jain leaders are mobilizing to ap-peal to the Supreme Court, and led protests across the country.

In the meantime, families are no longer publicizing their relatives’ fasts the way they once did, in news-papers and posters.

Babulal Jain Ujjwal, who publish-es a newsletter on Jain affairs from Mumbai, has counted an average of 450 santharas a year over the last six years, but he said that reports had dropped off sharply this spring, perhaps because families were keeping them secret.

“Santharas are happening, there is no doubt about that, but they are happening quietly,” he said.

Fasting-to-Death Ritual Clashes With Indian Law

SERENA DE SANCTIS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Manikchand Lodha, a member of the Jain

religion, took a vow of santhara and fasted

until he died in August. A judge has declared

the practice suicide.

INTELLIGENCE/MONA ELTAHAWY

The Morality Police Of the Middle East

Mona Eltahawy is the author of “Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution” and a contributing opinion writer. Send comments to intelligence@nytimes.com.

FADEL SENNA/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES

Moroccans protesting against the arrest of two women over their dress at a market in Agadir, and against the assault of a gay man in Fez.

Copyright © 2015 The New York TimesMCI (P) 047/07/2015

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2015

INTERNATIONAL WEEKLYIn collaboration with

By JESSICA BENNETT

Michael Kimmel stood in front of a classroom. “What does it mean,” the 64-year-old sociology professor asked the group, most of them un-dergraduates, “to be a good man?”

“Caring,” a male student in the front said.

“Putting other’s needs before yours,” another young man said.

“Honest,” a third said.On a whiteboard, Dr. Kimmel

listed each term under the heading Good Man. “Now,” he said, “tell me what it means to be a real man.”

“Take charge; be authoritative,” a sophomore said.

“Take risks,” a sociology gradu-ate student said.

“It means suppressing any kind of weakness,” another offered.

“I think for me being a real man

meant talk like a man,” said a young man who’d grown up in Turkey. “Walk like a man. Never cry.”

Dr. Kimmel pointed to the Good Man list, then to the Real Man list. “Look at the disparity. I think Amer-ican men are confused about what it means to be a man.”

This is men’s studies: the aca-demic pursuit of what it means to be male in today’s world. Each day, it seems, there is another news sto-ry about men in crisis: mental ill-ness, suicide, terrorism, rape, mass shootings, jetliner crashes or young black men being killed by the police.

“We have a mass shooter in the U.S. every few weeks,” Dr. Kimmel said. “And every time it happens, we talk about guns. We talk about men-tal health. But we don’t talk about how all of these mass shooters are male. We need to understand how

Trying to learn why mental illness and violence afflict men.

INTELLIGENCE

Crackdown on how women dress. PAGE 2

Men’s Studies Is Suddenly In Demand

Con tin ued on Page 5

WORLD TRENDS

An idol is criticized in Myanmar. PAGE 3

MONEY & BUSINESS

Crisis in China is seen as inevitable. PAGE 8

ARTS & DESIGN

Keith Richards making his own music. PAGE 13

ANGELOS TZORTZINIS/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES

Technology has transformed this refugee crisis. Migrants checked their phones after arriving on the Greek island of Kos.

Phones Are Lifelines for Migrants By MATTHEW BRUNWASSER

BELGRADE, Serbia — The tens of thousands of migrants who have flooded into the Bal-kans in recent weeks need food, water and shelter, just like the millions displaced by war the world over. But there is also one other thing they swear they cannot live without: a smart-phone charging station.

“Every time I go to a new country, I buy a SIM card and activate the Internet and down-load the map to locate myself,” Osama Aljasem, a 32-year-old music teacher from Deir al-Zour, Syria, explained as he sat on a broken park bench in Belgrade, staring at his smart-

phone and plotting his next move into northern Europe.

“I would never have been able to arrive at my destination with-out my smartphone,” he added. “I get stressed out when the bat-tery even starts to get low.”

Technology has transformed this 21st-century version of a refugee crisis, not least by mak-ing it easier for millions more people to move. It has inten-sified the pressures on routes that prove successful — like this one through the Balkans, where, the United Nations said recently, about 3,000 people a day were crossing the border from Greece into Macedonia.

In this modern migration,

smartphone maps, global posi-tioning apps and social media have become essential tools. Migrants depend on them to post real-time updates about routes, arrests, border guard movements and transport, as well as places to stay and pric-es, while keeping in touch with family and friends.

The first thing many do once they have successfully navigat-ed the watery passage between Turkey and Greece is pull out a smartphone and send loved ones a message that they made it.

Much of the change is driv-en by the tens of thousands of middle-class Syrians who have

been displaced by war. Such tools are by no means limited to them, and are also used by migrants from Africa and the Middle East to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Traffickers advertise their services on Facebook like any legitimate travel agency, with dynamic photographs of des-tination cities and generous offers.

On the Arabic-language Facebook group Trafficking to Europe, one trafficker offers a 50 percent discount for children under 5. The 1,700 euro price of the journey from Istanbul to

Con tin ued on Page 5

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