Society: Escape to Singapore

What do Robert Mugabe and Gayus Tambunan have in common? Zimbabwe’s brutal former despot and a corrupt, mid-level Indonesian taxman, respectively, each found comfort and security in Singapore, even as their own countries were increasingly hostile to them. (Mugabe, indeed, spent his final days here.) Singapore is a fabulous place for those who may have committed crimes elsewhere. Our defanged mainstream media does no investigative journalism; strict laws around gatherings ensure no pesky protestors; a sophisticated financial sector facilitates schemes that can blur the line between (legal) tax avoidance and (illegal) tax evasion, part of a complex world of so-called “spiderweb capitalism”; and the presence of only a few extradition treaties reduces the risk for many of being sent home. Only in late 2022, for instance, did Indonesia and Singapore sign an extradition agreement, after decades of evidence that corrupt Indonesian officials were finding refuge here.

This week, Singaporeans also found out that suspects on the Interpol Red List can perhaps live freely here. Yan Zhenxing, a Singapore permanent resident (PR) in his early 40s, was detained in Batam by Indonesian authorities after he travelled there from our city state. Interpol issued the notice in July for his alleged fraud of 130m yuan (S$24m) through an online gambling platform. The notice is understood as “a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person”, as The Straits Times (ST) said earlier this year. But in a joint statement, the Singapore Police Force and the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority said that under our laws the notice “does not confer the Police with the powers to arrest a fugitive wanted by a foreign jurisdiction. The Police would only be able to do so pursuant to an extradition request that fulfils legal requirements. We had not received any request for assistance from the Chinese authorities.”

There’ve been at least three major incidents involving Mainland Chinese crooks in the past year. The money-laundering “Fujian gang”; the cybercriminal Wang Yunhe, who made almost US$100m (S$134m) by “enabling criminals over the world to steal billions of dollars, transmit bomb threats and exchange child exploitation materials” before being arrested here; and now Yan. Government critics view these as evidence of laxity; supporters as proof of its efforts to stamp them out. The paradox of criminal justice in this autocratic, tax haven is that an ostensibly harsh personal environment for ordinary people—no gum, no vaping, no protesting—co-exists with one that’s attractive to perpetrators of colossal international crimes.

Society: Apocalypse, now?

Elon Musk is worried for us. “Singapore (and many other countries) are going extinct,” he declared on X, responding to yet another report about the country’s nosediving birth rate. Apart from Trump brown-noser and reality wrecker, Musk has played doomsday prophet for a while. “Population collapse due to low birth rates is a much bigger risk to civilization than global warming,” he tweeted two years ago. A few months later, he told a captive audience of Tesla factory workers: “If people don’t have more children, civilization is going to crumble.” 

To be sure, low fertility rates continue to vex. From Taiwan and South Korea to much of Western Europe, policy wonks are at their wits’ end trying to convince people to procreate. Singapore’s own struggles are well-documented. Recently, the National Trade Union Congress (NTUC) raised the retirement age for its workforce. Couched in the language of inclusivity, the move was likely influenced in part by the need to shore up a dwindling workforce. But demographic anxiety may be exaggerated. The population of countries like Japan has been causing alarm for decades without precipitating the civilisational collapse Musk worries about. What’s more, the world’s Total Fertility Rate (TFR) continues to be above its replacement-rate, with the global population expected to peak at 10.3 billion in 2080. A well-articulated immigration policy, nuanced adoption of technology and a dialling down of the obsession with heedless growth are all part of a clear-eyed approach to a thorny challenge.

Panicked drum-beating is not. The Iranian government, spooked by the dipping TFR and never shy of barging into its citizens’ lives, has linked academic promotions to larger families. It has also cracked down on abortion while making contraception expensive. People wanting vasectomies and hysterectomies are forced into subterfuge. Someone with Musk’s unfortunate influence could nudge other, supposedly more liberal states, into taking similar action. At a far-right festival in Rome last year, he raised the spectre of Italian culture disappearing if the country relies on immigrants to prop up its population (he later claimed to be in favour of legal immigration). His pronatalism—he has at least 11 children from three mothers—combined with his ardent desire to create a colony of a million people on Mars by 2050, which experts have warned would be catastrophic, smacks of a cult. Musk’s views on women, who would take on the childbearing and rearing load in his fertile world, are troubling too. “Interesting”, was his response to an unhinged tweet claiming women, and men with low testosterone, are unable to think freely.  Overcoming low population growth requires far-sighted policy and leadership. But Musk is one seer we should steer clear of.

Society: The reintegration calculus

More businesses may be hiring people out of prison, but a persistent stigma continues to make it a challenge for some to reintegrate into society. Prejudice, for one, can often lead to mistrust from colleagues—not the most conducive environment for sustaining a job. A case in point as reported in ST: a former inmate was seen taking a white pill at the office only to later overhear a colleague comment that he looked “stoned”. Management jumped to the conclusion that he may have been using drugs. Indeed he had: a Panadol taken for a headache. 

Yellow Ribbon Singapore (YRSG), a statutory board under the Ministry of Home Affairs that supports ex-offenders partly through job placements, saw the number of partner employers rise from 5,603 in 2019 to 6,516 in 2023. Nearly 700 employers benefitted from the Uplifting Employment Credit scheme, which disbursed about S$2m between last April (when it was rolled out) and December, for the hiring of more than 1,500 former inmates. But getting a job is just the first step to reconstructing their working lives. Keeping it remains a challenge too. Over the past few years, the career retention rate of those who got a job with YRSG’s assistance has dropped: last year 79 percent were still employed after three months (down from 87 percent in 2020); and just 60 percent after six months (70 percent). A host of reasons may explain why: like needing a longer learning curve than three months and bosses who can’t afford the time for adjustments due to operational demands. 

Rehabilitation is an essential element of criminal justice systems around the world. And reintegration programmes during and after incarceration go some way to prevent recidivism—Singapore’s reoffending rates remain amongst the lowest globally. Last February, the Singapore Prison Service called for a tender to study the effectiveness of imprisonment, its various sentencing regimes and alternatives, such as community sentences. In the US, experts have recommended implementing cognitive behavioural therapy as part of correctional programming. And Norway has shifted away from a retributive, punitive “lock-up” approach to provide inmates with a sense of routine, purpose and normalcy. All the better for preparing them to rejoin life upon release. 

Still, it’ll take much more than financial incentives, a comfortable bed, yoga classes, and better qualifications to get offenders back on their feet. Without social acceptance, those who’ve served their time will never fully feel like they’ve left prison.

History weekly

Notice: Faris Joraimi, our history editor, is off until the new year. We weren’t able to find another columnist this week. Sorry. 

Abhishek Mehrotra, our head of content (and also a historian), will write it next week, our last issue of the year. Ahead of that, for your history fix this week, here’s Abhi redux: his essays for Jom in our first year, when he was still a contributor.

“Hong Lim Park: a people’s history”. Hong Lim Park is at once a space for seeking identity, making speeches, forming memories, affirming equality, and at its core, a simple patch of green for recreational purposes. How has it stood the ravages of time as a place for sketching and imprinting self and nationhood?

“History’s crossroads”. Havelock, Neill and Outram, “heroes” of the 1857 war in India, were brutal, murderous generals. Singapore’s street names offer an avenue to discover our colonial past, and also a path to understand our future.

Arts: A young actor, gone too soon, lives on

In October, the death of Shahid Nasheer, a promising young actor and budding playwright, shocked the theatre community. The 28-year-old had just started chemotherapy treatment for an aggressive form of leukemia and was determined to make a comeback. And in a way, he has. Local company Checkpoint Theatre, with whom he frequently collaborated, has just announced the Shahid Nasheer Memorial Fellowship. This year-long residency programme for an early-career Singaporean theatre-maker was funded by donations from the late actor’s family and friends. A gross annual stipend of S$35,000 makes the fellowship one of the most generous in the industry. Its recipient, in addition to shorter-term, hands-on theatrical training and mentorship, will also be considered for a longer-term associate artist post with the company. 

This isn’t the only endowed opportunity in the region created in memory of an artist with an outsized influence. In the wake of beloved actress Emma Yong’s death from late-stage stomach cancer at 37 in 2012, her loved ones set up the Emma Yong Fund to support critically ill theatre practitioners, particularly those for whom health and medical insurance was inadequate or inaccessible. A fundraising memorial concert at the Esplanade raised S$275,000 for the fund; in a rare move, the national performing arts centre sponsored the concert hall venue and ticketing platform SISTIC waived its handling fees, while performers and crew members worked for free. 

In Malaysia, the Krishen Jit Fund turns 20 next year. Managed by Five Arts Centre, the arts collective co-founded by the late theatre giant, it pledges support to experimental work across disciplines and gives out grants of up to RM20,000 (S$6,070) for anything from workshops and residencies to research and documentation projects. More recently, the Jit Murad Playwriting Competition was set up in honour of the late Malaysian playwright who died of cardiac arrest, aged 62, two years ago. The theatre stalwart, known for his acerbic humour and unflinching critique of Malaysian society, was both mourned and celebrated by his peers and proteges. Eulogies were written with his tongue-in-cheek, politically incorrect spirit in mind. Theatre director Fasyali Fadzly, who bears a passing resemblance to Jit, wrote in his: “‘I nak you buat rambut macam Jit Murad, senyum macam Jit Murad,’ kata isteri saya. Katanya lagak saya seperti Jit Murad.” [“I want you to style your hair like Jit Murad, smile like Jit Murad,” I recall my wife telling me once. She thought our mannerisms were alike.] Theatrical inheritances, it seems, take all forms. Macam-macam.

Some further reading: In “Triaging the Singapore education system: the primary care of ‘Secondary: The Musical’”, a new piece in our second print issue, Corrie Tan, Jom’s arts editor, reviews Checkpoint Theatre’s blockbuster musical—and Shahid Nasheer’s final performance.

Tech: Carousell lays off more staff

How promising or gloomy are the growth prospects for Carousell, one of Singapore’s start-up darlings? It depends on one’s perspective. The marketplace for second-hand items, which started in 2012, has announced it will lay off 76 employees, representing seven percent of its workforce. This comes on the heels of a 10 percent staff reduction two years ago. This is part of a broader trend in the tech industry, major players like Ninjavan have been forced into cuts too—suggesting continued weakness in consumer demand and a bleak fundraising climate for unprofitable tech startups. 

Despite the layoffs though, Carousell remains bullish in the potential of “recommerce” in the region, highlighting the tension between growth aspirations and operational efficiency. The company has over 25 subsidiaries and also manages other local platforms such as Refash, Ox Street, Lexicon and OneShift. Interestingly, Carousell reported revenue growth of 40.5 percent and a 39.7 percent reduction in net loss in 2023. This has probably enabled it to give departing employees severance packages that include at least three months of salary, medical and insurance coverage, and relocation assistance for foreigners. “Good move by Carousell. They need to show profits and good profits at that,” remarked angel investor Lim Der Shing on Facebook, in response to the news. “[I]t’s right that all our tech companies which got ridiculously bloated on costs due to easy investor money now are driving towards profits.”

Tech: Breathing new life into our coral reefs

Singaporeans who snorkel around archipelagic South-east Asia must wonder what our own marine life was like before the first and second industrial revolutions, and the advent of steamships and a colonial maritime industry. Even as recently as the 1960s, our waters were as clear as those of Tioman, Malaysia, according to marine experts. Land reclamation and development plunged us into this murky mess. 

But we must try and rehabilitate. The National Parks Board (NParks) will plant 100,000 corals in Singapore’s waters over the next decade. The 100K Corals Initiative aims to replenish the reefs degraded by global warming and other environmental stressors. Central to this initiative is the new ex-situ coral culture facility on St John’s Island. This facility has six tanks, each capable of rearing up to 600 nubbins—coral fragments taken from adult colonies. The nubbins are attached to frames designed to maximise the number of corals that can be grown. This controlled environment allows for the cultivation of various species, including those under NParks’ Species Recovery Programme.

The tanks will also be outfitted with an aquaculture system designed by Delta Corals. Among other things, it will help in remotely monitoring vital parameters like lighting, temperature, water quality, and water flow. Alerts will be sent if any of these are not at the optimal growth level. Almost 25 percent of aquatic life depends on coral reefs in some way, including various fish species that use them as a food source, or as protection against predators. “Without coral reefs, protein sources go down, (because) you basically lose that ability to fish, to get that protein sauce, and that becomes an existential threat to humanity,” Karenne Tun, coral reef biologist, told CNA.

The growing appreciation of this marine ecosystem is reflected in the collaborative nature of the 100k initiative. It involves academic institutions like the National University of Singapore, renowned conservationists like Jane Goodall and numerous corporate including Deutsche Bank and Takashimya, who have together contributed more than S$2m to the project. 

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