Blog Posts by Shah Salimat

[UPDATE 4 May, 1.10pm: Added details of Freedom House report]

Singapore fell 14 places to a record 149th position in terms of press freedom, according to an annual report by non-governmental organisation Reporters Without Borders (RWB).

Coming ahead of World Press Freedom Day, which was observed Friday, the report showed this is the city-state’s worst performance since the index was established in 2002.

On the list, Singapore is wedged in between Russia and Iraq, with Myanmar just two places behind. The former junta-led country jumped up 18 spots in this year’s ranking.

Neighbouring Malaysia dropped 23 places to 145th over repeated censorship efforts and a crackdown on the Bersih 3.0 protest in April. Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea stayed at the bottom three, while Finland stayed on top of the list followed by the Netherlands and Norway.

Mali was the biggest jumper, moving 74 spots down amid a military coup and subsequent media bias. Malawi was the biggest riser, moving 71 spots up,

Two valet staff members of a Singapore hotel allegedly took a patron’s Ferrari out for a joyride in Sentosa in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.

Police confirmed that a report on the incident has been filed with them and they are investigating.

According to The Straits Times, at around 2am on 30 April, the valets of Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) were given the keys to a Ferrari 458 automobile owned by 61-year-old retiree Preston, who was out to dine with a friend.

A video showed the valets then driving the car around the RWS premises, going at speeds of up to 80 kmh. This is twice the speed limit on roads in Sentosa, including those in RWS premises.

At 3.30am, Preston returned to the carpark to find his car missing. The car had been parked in front of Hotel Michael and he had given two warnings to valet staff not to move his car.

It is understood the car is not covered by insurance when driven by a valet.

An RWS spokesperson confirmed the hotel has been "made aware of this incident by the

[UPDATE 30 Apr 3pm: Former AMP board director Nizam Ismail has pulled out from speaking at the May Day protests "as a personal protest against untruths on my purported political objectives".

In a Facebook post Tuesday morning, Nizam clarified that his pull-out reinforces how he is not seeking "political mileage" after deciding to drop his position at the Malay/Muslim self-help group and speak at the upcoming protests instead.

As Nizam rubbished suggestions he was using AMP for political gains, he said he is in favour of a strong civil society and diverse views for Singapore to be resilient.

"This will also allow my family and I to take a step back and have some quiet time on May Day for us to heal and to restrengthen our bonds," said Nizam.]

The charitable organisation from which a Muslim civil society leader resigned as director over alleged government efforts to stifle his airing of critical views declined to make further comment on the issue.

A spokesperson for the Association of Muslim

Nizam Ismail (right) was one of the speakers at the Workers' Party Youthquake Seminar (Yahoo! photo)

A Muslim civil society leader in Singapore resigned from his posts in two charitable organisations on Monday after allegedly receiving government pressure to curb his critical views.

In a post on his personal blog Wednesday, Nizam Ismail explained why he decided to quit as board director of the Association of Muslim Professionals (AMP) and chairman of the Centre for Research on Islamic and Malay Affairs (RIMA) effective earlier that Monday.

Nizam said that AMP chairman Azmoon Ahmad called him on Saturday to say that he received separate phone calls from two government ministers expressing concern over Nizam's participation as a speaker at next week’s May Day protest at Hong Lim Park.

The protest, organised by Gilbert Goh of transitioning,org, is to be a follow-up to an earlier protest criticising the Singapore government’s top range projection of a 6.9 million population by 2030.

The ministers were also said to be concerned about Nizam's participation as a panelist at a Youth Wing

Certificate of Entitlement (COE) prices for small cars and commercial vehicles rose slightly, whereas prices for big cars and those in the open category dropped in the latest bidding exercise on Wednesday.

Compared to the prices in the previous bidding two weeks ago, the premiums for big cars dropped by slightly more than S$5,000 to $62,000. Prices fell by roughly the same amount to the same figure in the open category, typically reserved for bigger cars.

Premiums for motorcycles fell by 1.1 per cent to S$1,791.

Premiums for small cars rose 2 per cent to S$62,497. This is the first increase in small car premiums since February.

Premiums for commercial vehicles also rose to S$58,502. The increase was more than S$2,400 from the previous bidding exercise.

[UPDATE 24 Apr, 3.30pm: When asked by Yahoo! Singapore to clarify what claims are statutory and non-statutory, a MOM spokesperson replied, "Examples of statutory claims are non-payment of salary or overtime pay; or unauthorised deductions made from salary. Examples of non-statutory matters are disputes over wage increment or bonus payments".

In a forum letter on English daily The Straits Times Wednesday, AGC chief prosecutor Aedit Abdullah said that "even if the Trade Unions Act had applied - which it did not - the ultimate decision on the charges is within the prosecutorial discretion of the Public Prosecutor."

Aedit added that in the prosecution's submission, "whether the (four SMRT bus drivers) were trade union members or not was not a relevant consideration, given that their conduct clearly contravened the Criminal Law (Temporary Provisions) Act, and that any sentence imposed had to reflect the gravity of their conduct."]

Panelists at a public forum on Sunday to discuss last

[UPDATE 29 Apr 9.30am: Clarified details of film's theatrical run]

The ruling to reclassify Singapore movie Sex.Violence.FamilyValues with edits was to “throw a sop” to a segment of the population that had sent in complaints about the movie’s trailer in the motto of “political correctness”, says a member of the Films Appeal Committee.

Professor Walter Woon said this on Thursday evening at a five-member panel forum organised by the Tembusu College in the National University of Singapore. The forum, “Porn Masala – Balancing Artistic Freedom and Racial Harmony”, was moderated by Professor Tommy Koh, the rector of the college.

The made-in-Singapore anthology had originally been given an M18 rating before being banned three days before its theatrical release last October. The movie was finally given an R21 rating in January, accompanied by edits to the dialogue of a Chinese director mocking the Indian accent.

The movie made S$10,000 on opening weekend and had its theatrical run extended for two

When the ruling over Section 377A was passed in the High Court Wednesday, some cheered jubilantly online while others voiced disappointment and anger.

It left me wondering: would reaction be different if this debate online on the rights of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders (LGBT) takes place offline? What if the blanket of sexual discrimination was removed in the real world to expose individual tales of struggle and hope that lie beneath?

What if you turn around and suddenly realise your best friend is gay? That one of your parents might be gay? That your sibling is contemplating suicide because society does not accept him or her? That in each anonymous story on Gay SG Confessions, the writer hopes to be equal with others?

Will the shaming of the LGBT community for being deviants and lawbreakers give way when the whole differs from the sum of its parts?

What seems to be missing from the debate surrounding Section 377A is that this law is about individual human beings who are