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President Nathan running for 3rd term?

 

President S.R. Nathan

MAURITIUS: Singapore’s President S R Nathan says he has not decided if he will run for a third term in office, adding that age is a factor.

President Nathan, 87, was speaking to Singapore media at the end of his state visit to Mauritius on Tuesday.

Potential candidates have stepped up to the plate in the contest for the presidency.

But the President himself is in no hurry.

Mr Nathan said: " When I decide, I will tell you."

But age will be one factor for Mr Nathan, who will be 87 years old on July 3.

He said: " People say ’this old man, what the hell is he still there, wanting to do it?’ Some others think I’m doing nothing, so it’s a waste of time for them to think of me.

" But all this noise will always be there in the world. You have a sense of what you want to do and you just do it because if you listen to the world, your work will never be done."

While some have criticised him for not doing enough to safeguard the reserves, Mr Nathan said his approach has been more subtle.

" There are voices saying that, but I can’t answer them. I know the limitations of the Constitution and what you have to do. So I’m not there in a boxing match. Although I’ve been quiet, I’ve been doing work," he added.

Asked to elaborate on the difficulties faced in his 12 years in office, he said they would be laid out in his memoirs, due out in September.

Some potential candidates, including former chief of NTUC Income Tan Kin Lian, have come up with proposals to expand the role of the Elected President.

Mr Nathan said it would not be fair to comment, but cautioned they would have to face the realities when they enter office.

" Mr Tan, or whoever, can have all the ideas about what to do, but ... you must remember that the presidency operates on the Constitution — and what is possible and what is not possible is determined by that. So I won’t want to belittle his enthusiasm — if he can do it, good luck to him."

Mr Nathan described the Elected Presidency, which was created in 1991, as a new institution that needs time to strike roots. It is not the same as the executive arm of government.

But he said it will have to evolve as society changes, especially one with an increasing desire for political participation.

— CNA/ir/al

The clout of cloud [COC]

As data grows, so do storage sites

SAN FRANCISCO

one or two computers, file sharing was not a

big worry. Now, as people gain an arsenal of

computers, smartphones and tablets, it has

become a chore.— When people had only

best way out of debt trap

LONDON — Greece’s exit from the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), a choice European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet described as the “worst possible option”, may yet be the best solution to the nation’s financial and economic plight.

The top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, Mr Richard Shelby, has criticised Mr Diamond, saying he lacks monetary policy experience.titled When a Nobel Prize isn’t Enough.

Mother of three jailed for forging cheques worth S$1.3 million

SINGAPORE

After all, Samantha Chiam Hwee Theng had more than S$1.3 million to spend — the amount that she had embezzled by forging her former boss’ signature on cheques.

For her crime, the former personal secretary was yesterday jailed 59 months.— She would spend thousands of dollars at Louis Vuitton and Chanel each time she entered the stores.

Is it wise for relatively new properties to be encouraged to go en bloc?

Letter from Francis Chan

SHOULD the authorities take another look at their policies for en bloc sales, particularly of newer properties?

In the light of an urgent need to keep a check on rising property prices, is it wise for relatively new properties to be encouraged to go the en bloc route?

The immediate impact is an increased demand for both the purchase of replacement properties, affecting both the HDB resale and private property markets, and demand for new rental units.

For the latter, it is not uncommon for most of the newer properties to be investment-owned and tenanted, hence there is a multiplier effect that heats up the entire property market.

Besides, the continuing demand drives up construction costs and the need for more foreign workers.

While this may be good for our GDP, is the quick rise in property prices what the nation needs?

What drives the private property market ultimately impacts the HDB market, in terms of land cost, construction cost, and HDB resale prices.

Given that a major part of our national wealth is our land bank, and that they are revalued based on current market prices, the longer term risk of an asset bubble cannot be dismissed.

Perhaps, it is time to re-examine the merits to place a cap on the age of properties that can be put up for en bloc sales.

More concerted effort from all fronts (prevention of initiation, law enforcement, cessation support and protection of nonsmokers) is needed to bring the true smoking prevalence down to 10 per cent.

Letter from Liu I-Chun

Cigarette smoke wafts into the flat above

How about a smokers’ corner at every apartment block at ground level?

Letter from Srinivasan Gopi

MY FAMILY and I have been putting up with the regular smoking habit of neighbours one floor below us.

We cannot afford to keep our balcony glass doors open for fear of the strong and suffocating smell of cigarette smoke pervading our entire home.

We have asked our neighbours several times not to smoke on the balcony. Their response has been: “This is our balcony and we will do whatever we want here you close your windows”.

Do we really have to put up with this kind of inconsiderate behaviour? What right has anyone to pollute the surroundings of others, keeping his own home free of smoke by puffing out on the balcony?

The Government has made painstaking effort to protect non-smokers from the perils of passive smoking by ensuring smoke-free zones many public places. It is high time that a review is done and laws enacted to prevent people from affecting their neighbours.

As in factories, we can allocate a smokers’ corner in every apartment block at ground level where smokers can puff away, no matter how detrimental it may be to their own health.

These people are aware that the management committees of condominiums are powerless to enforce a non-smoking rule as long as people smoke inside their homes.

As such, they behave with no concern for the health of others.

If they enjoy the smoke so much, they should keep the smoke within their own homes by closing their balcony doors.

What right do they have to demand instead that all others close their balcony doors while they puff away happily?

Want creative workers? Loosen the reins, boss

Daniel Goleman

Mr Phillip Glass, the contemporary composer, works on his new compositions only between 11am and 3pm.

That is the time, he says, when his creative ideas come to him. When film-maker George Lucas needs to write or edit a script, he sequesters himself in a small cottage behind his house where he gets no calls or visitors.

The usual method for devising a competitive strategy is to come up with an idea and then analyse its value.

The trouble is, no one tells you how to come up with that idea in the first place.

three, says Wildlife Reserves S’pore

Some visitors wrongly charged last week due to ‘internal miscommunication’

Neo Chai Chin

chaichin@mediacorp.com.sg

Meeting today between MP, LTA and residents to work out solutions

three, says Wildlife Reserves S’pore

Some visitors wrongly charged last week due to ‘internal miscommunication’

Neo Chai Chin

chaichin@mediacorp.com.sg