Singapore arts fest goes big for 2015 |
- Singapore arts fest goes big for 2015
- Cover Media Video: Album number two for Lorde?
- Budget 2015: An inclusive and progressive package — Devadas Krishnadas
- For ‘Frozen’ fans: Elsa, Anna and Olaf reunites in ‘Frozen Fever’
- How does Indonesia deal with returning IS fighters? — Navhat Nuraniyah
- Glimmer of hope: Jokowi ‘carefully considering position’ on Bali Nine execution
| Singapore arts fest goes big for 2015 Posted: 25 Feb 2015 05:08 PM PST
SINGAPORE, feb 26 — The Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) is spreading its wings wide — the entire island is set to become a performance venue of sorts for this year's edition. Aside from typical performing arts venues such as the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall and Drama Centre, the festival, which will run from August 6 to September 20, will include performances at four Housing and Development Board (HDB) estates and 25 homes. The performers include comedian Kumar and a selection of stand-up comics such as Sharul Channa and Zaliha Hamid, who will be holding fort at the HDB estates in the show Living Together. Meanwhile, the programme Open Homes will see theatre performances inside people's living rooms, done in collaboration with the People's Association's PAssionArts. Festival director Ong Keng Sen said having the shows in the heartlands was a way of "bringing the arts more intimately and closer to the audiences of Singapore". "The arts in the heartlands happens in certain fixed ways. It's karaoke, line dancing, mass something. So, we decided to bring Kumar and other stand-up comics to talk about how the different races live together, this sense of sharing space in this diverse landscape," he told TODAY. With the theme of POST-Empires, which looks at what the world is like after colonialism, communism and even globalisation, this year's SIFA will run for seven weeks — one week longer than last year's edition — and feature four anchor productions spread out over the weeks, instead of a single major opening show kicking off the festival. Each show will correspond to one of the four festival "lines" or threads: Transformations, Archives, POST-Empires: What Remains After? and Playing With POST-. Production details will be revealed in April, said the organisers. Last year's festival drew 22,000 people, with 86 per cent of tickets sold. Sixty per cent of the line-up will comprise local works, a conscious decision in light of Singapore's 50th anniversary celebrations, the organisers said. Among the participants are experimental musician Margaret Leng Tan as well as theatre companies Cake and W!LD RICE, which will premiere a new play, Hotel. Ong's six-hour production The Incredible Adventures Of The Border-Crossers, which debuts in Paris next month as part of the Singapore Festival in France, will also be re-staged. Other festival highlights include Nanyang — The Musical, a commissioned Mandarin musical loosely based on the lives of the Nanyang artists of Singapore such as Cheong Soo Pieng and Liu Kang, who made a groundbreaking trip to Bali in the 1950s and came back with new ideas that would influence a generation of artists. The musical is written by renowned music producers and songwriters Eric Ng and Xiao Han, arranged by Goh Kheng Long and directed by Alec Tok. Singapore's dance greats are also coming together in Homecoming, the first work by Cultural Medallion (CM) recipient and dance pioneer Goh Lay Kuan in 20 years. It will bring together Chinese, Malay, Indian and contemporary dancers who have been mentored by fellow CM recipients Som Said and Santha Bhaskar. The coming together of these influential figures and the various types of dances provides "an alternative vision to a national company", said MOng. Elsewhere, popular classical ensemble T'ang Quartet will be curating three concerts, including a collaboration with pianist Melvyn Tan; Hungary's Proton Theatre will present the play Dementia, directed by Kornel Mondruczo (whose film White Dog won top prize at the Un Certain Regard section at last year's Cannes Film Festival); and South African video artist William Kentridge will offer a multimedia rendition of composer Franz Schubert's song cycle, Winterreise. A 16-day mini dance festival will also take place during SIFA, titled Dance Marathon — Open With A Punk Spirit! Organisers said it would take place at a yet-to-be-confirmed heritage site that will be transformed into a "dance house" featuring dance artists from Japan, India and South-east Asia. SIFA's pre-festival event The OPEN will also return and will run from June 17 to July 4. While it will still include talks, film screenings and exhibitions, Ong said there will be more performances this time around. "Ideas can be exposed not just through talks, but also through experiencing performances," he said. Like the festival proper, The OPEN will have two "lines" running through it: The Young And The Restless and Augmented Reality. The latter will feature an augmented-reality tour of a heritage site via a downloadable app. The Singapore International Festival of Arts runs from August 6 to September 20, while The OPEN runs from June 17 to July 4. Ticket sales start on April 8 from SISTIC. For more information, visit http://sifa.sg — TODAY  |
| Cover Media Video: Album number two for Lorde? Posted: 25 Feb 2015 05:06 PM PST Duration: , Published 26 Feb 2015 New Zealand-based hit maker Lorde is thought to be heading to the studio any day now to start working on her next album. She doesn't have any plans for how it's going to sound; instead she's just going to start writing and see where the music takes her. ― Cover Media |
| Budget 2015: An inclusive and progressive package — Devadas Krishnadas Posted: 25 Feb 2015 05:06 PM PST
First, as a small country with an outsized economy and strategic geo-political links, Singapore needs deft political leadership that can distinguish between the noise and signals in an increasingly crowded public space, and go beyond being responsive to providing leadership with vision. What does the Budget tell us about how the Government is running the country? The significant and structural commitments in healthcare, education, public infrastructure and retirement financing needs of Singaporeans are a continuation of a persistent theme in recent Budgets. Collectively, they reflect an ability to anticipate future challenges and a willingness to tackle them in the present with well-resourced policies and plans. In Budget 2015, the Government has shown that it is prepared to run marginal deficits and commit to major outlays to help Singapore sustain her economic success and remain a liveable city for Singaporeans of all ages and incomes. Taking only one example, the S$8 billion (RM21.27 billion) Pioneer Generation Fund introduced in the previous Budget has been followed up with the Silver Support Scheme this year to provide for the retirement needs of older and needy Singaporeans. The new scheme is estimated to cost about S$350 million in the first year. The bringing in of Temasek's projected earnings into the Net Investment Returns Contribution (NIRC) shows how the Government intends to resource most of the expected jumps in expenditure over the longer term. This is the second major adjustment to the NIRC model after the constitutional amendment in 2008 that adjusted the split share formula of managing the returns on invested reserves. The latest change also signals that Singaporeans should continue to expect a low taxation system. It shows that Tharman and the Government are willing to reshape the orthodoxy on reserves management to better serve the needs of Singaporeans. Shifting priorities Second, we need to consider what the narrative is underpinning the various initiatives. The Silver Support Scheme, adjustments to the Central Provident Fund scheme, increased healthcare subsidies and the introduction of SkillsFuture programme are netted together in a narrative that places Singaporeans at the centre of policy attention. These policy commitments are costly. While adjusting the NIRC could provide the additional fiscal resources, the Government has elected to reshape the top end of the personal income tax schedule and to impose a higher duty on petrol — targeted at car owners who, given the high cost of private transport, will probably be at least middle-income earners. In doing so, the Government is underlying its vision of an inclusive and progressive Singapore. Higher-income earners will still enjoy internationally competitive tax rates, but they should be seen to be taking on a greater burden of sharing to help their fellow citizens. Budget 2015 marks another step in rebalancing the policy emphasis from an exaggerated focus on the economy and a narrow view of Singaporeans as labour units, to a stronger commitment in meeting the social needs of Singaporeans and to value them even after they are not economically active. The Government also seems to be more tightly linking the output of economic policies with social outcomes, and vice versa. Investing in the social and retirement needs of Singaporeans creates a more satisfied, better-educated citizenry and, as a derivative, a better skilled and flexible labour force, hopefully. This labour force, in turn, may benefit from higher wages, in part because of redistribution through Workfare and other targeted wage supplement schemes, but also via better market-based returns on their economic contribution in higher value-added areas. In his explanation of the intent of the SkillsFuture programme, Tharman also outlined a shift from a social-mobility model, based on largely academic achievement, to a more flexible and dynamic model based on a mix of skills, experience and academic achievement with the load biased towards the first two. This is significant — it moots a future Singapore where every Singaporean will have the opportunity to return to the workforce, upgrade to achieve more professionally, and remake their working future in line with changes in the economy and their personal goals. This sophisticated macro modelling of policy to achieve outcomes that are greater than the sum of their parts is ambitious. This is a good thing, even a great thing. Singaporeans will appreciate this if they look at the big picture and make the most of the opportunities presented, rather than settle into an entitlement mindset. That is the policy risk the Government runs with successive Budgets that are generous on social support. In the well-intentioned effort to empower Singaporeans, we could instead create a generation of entitled Singaporeans. Budget 2015's vision of a Singapore full of opportunities and support for an empowered citizenry thus has great appeal, but also carries risks. These risks can be managed only by Singaporeans. Can we retain our work ethic; sustain our drive and maintain our sense of unity? Singapore's vision can be facilitated by sound policy and strong leadership, but it can only be realised by her people. What we need is a gifted citizenry, not a citizenry always expecting gifts. — TODAY * Devadas Krishnadas is chief executive of Future-Moves Group, an international strategic consultancy and executive education provider based in Singapore. ** This is the personal opinion of the writer or organisation and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online. |
| For ‘Frozen’ fans: Elsa, Anna and Olaf reunites in ‘Frozen Fever’ Posted: 25 Feb 2015 05:04 PM PST Duration: 00:40, Published 26 Feb 2015 'Frozen Fever' is a seven minute short film that will air in theatres right before the new live-action film, Cinderella. |
| How does Indonesia deal with returning IS fighters? — Navhat Nuraniyah Posted: 25 Feb 2015 05:03 PM PST
As of last month, Indonesia's counterterrorism unit, Detachment 88, estimated that 123 Indonesian fighters have joined the war in Syria, though the actual number may be higher. Former police chief Sutarman further stated that six of them were killed in battle and at least 10 returned. Who are these fighters? What would they do if they manage to return? What could be done to mitigate the threat? Most Indonesian fighters in Syria were facilitated by existing groups including Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), the Ring Banten faction of Darul Islam, and Mujahidin Indonesia Timur (MIT). Those who go through the JI channel join Al Nusra Front and other jihadi groups that are affiliated with Al Qaeda. Fighters linked to MIT, Ring Banten, and Jamaah Ansharut Tauhid (JAT) generally fight for the Islamic State as their leaders have pledged allegiance to the militant group's leader, Mr Abu Bakar Al Baghdadi. Other fighters have made their own way to Syria and Iraq through personal contacts, social media and the alumni network of JI-linked schools currently residing in the Middle East. Four Indonesian students in Pakistan who left to fight in Syria were alumni of JI-linked schools. However, some of these entrepreneurial fighters were not known to have prior exposure to extremist milieu. One example is two Indonesian students in Turkey who made contact with Islamic State foreign fighters through social media. In July last year, South East Asian fighters with the Islamic State contacted one another over Facebook and formed a military unit called Katibah Nusantara. Foreign fighters are not a new problem for South East Asian countries, including Indonesia. About 200 to 300 Indonesians had trained in Afghan militant camps between 1985 and 1995 and more were reportedly trained and fought in Mindanao from 1996 to 2001. Although it is hard to pinpoint the threat posed by returning fighters, it is possible to identify different types of post-conflict behaviour. Reviewing the Afghan and Mindanao veterans in Indonesia, it was evident that not all of them sought to use violence as a political means in the domestic arena. Some hard-core extremists such as Imam Samudra continued to become terrorists; others helped with the cause though not directly involved in terrorist acts; while many totally disengaged from extremism. Some of the latter group have even been involved in counter-radicalisation activities. Rehabilitation is crucial Whether or not returned fighters relapse to terrorism depends on a range of factors, including domestic political contexts and their personal circumstances. It was not until the breakout of Muslim-Christian conflicts in Poso and Ambon in late 1990s that many Afghan and Mindanao veterans decided to go back to the battlefield in what they considered a defensive jihad. Perceived victimisation of Muslims, coupled with turbulent political and economic situations that created instability and massive unemployment, provided fertile ground for JI and other groups to recruit new fighters and establish military squads in the conflict areas. However, even some Afghan veterans who fought in Poso and Ambon were eventually disillusioned by the Bali bombings, which killed innocent civilians including Muslims. Disillusionment, however, did not necessarily turn them away from terrorism. The fact that JI networks were buttressed by interconnected marriages, discipleship and business relationships among its members, made it very difficult for some to totally disengage from their old networks. The availability of alternative social networks and employment were, therefore, important in rehabilitating former fighters and terrorists. The current stable political situation, combined with more experienced counterterrorism forces, will make it much more difficult for organised terror plots such as the Bali bombings to occur. The capacity of existing terrorist groups have also been significantly weakened. In addition, Muslim-Christian conflicts in Poso and Maluku that served as an extremist battleground have largely been resolved. Now the problem is intra-Muslim conflict. In 2011, hundreds of Shiahs in Madura Island, East Java, were displaced as a result of a local communal conflict. Further, the Syrian conflict has worsened existing anti-Shiahh sentiment because local jihadists and Salafists have framed the Syrian conflict as a Sunni-Shiahh war and propagated such framing on- and offline. At least three other violent clashes between Sunni and Shiah groups broke out in East Java, Jakarta and West Java recently. Law enforcement authorities and community leaders need to work hand-in-hand to tackle early symptoms of sectarian conflict that could become militant battlegrounds. Moreover, the Indonesian government is undertaking efforts to criminalise joining foreign terrorist groups. While such criminalisation is necessary, a rehabilitative approach is equally important. Previous deradicalisation programmes undertaken by the government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have seen both failure and success. One of the infamous failures is the case of employment projects for ex-terrorist inmates in Central Sulawesi in 2010. After being released from prison, Santoso — who eventually founded MIT — was granted a gutter-cleaning project in Palu, Central Sulawesi. He was allowed to employ his followers and other former inmates in the hope that employment would lead to disengagement from terrorism. However, the project not only brought the network together, but also gave them financial means to start a new group. There are also success stories such as a government-funded livestock farm run by former terrorists in Lamongan, East Java and an NGO-initiated cafe that employs former terrorists in Central Java. The more successful programmes share at least three characteristics. The first is a dual programme of material assistance and religious rehabilitation. The second is the deliberate mixing of former terrorists and their families with other community members in a business venture to expose them to more plural networks. The third is accountability and a monitoring mechanism to make sure former terrorists do not regroup or use the funding for terrorist activities. All the lessons from previous measures, positive or otherwise, need to be taken into account when designing deradicalisation programmes for returning fighters. — TODAY * Navhat Nuraniyah is an associate research fellow with the Centre of Excellence for National Security, a constituent unit of the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University. The article first appeared in RSIS Commentaries. ** This is the personal opinion of the writer or organisation and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online. |
| Glimmer of hope: Jokowi ‘carefully considering position’ on Bali Nine execution Posted: 25 Feb 2015 04:56 PM PST
Australians Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, ringleaders of the so-called "Bali Nine" drug smuggling gang, were arrested for trying to traffic heroin out of Indonesia in 2005 and sentenced to death the following year. Their appeals for presidential clemency, typically the final chance of avoiding the firing squad, were recently rejected by Widodo and a court this week dismissed a bid to challenge that decision. The looming executions by firing squad have dramatically heightened tensions between Australia and Indonesia, fraying ties that were only just recovering from a spying row, and Abbott called his counterpart yesterday evening. "Well, it was a positive sign that the conversation took place," said Abbott, who last week angered some in Indonesia by reminding Jakarta of the aid Canberra had provided during natural disasters. "The fact that the president of Indonesia and the prime minister of Australia can talk candidly about these issues is a sign of the strength of the relationship and it's a sign of the depth of the friendship between Australia and Indonesia." He said it would not help Chan and Sukumaran to detail his talks but "suffice to say that the president absolutely understands our position". "And I think he is carefully considering Indonesia's position." Widodo insisted this week that other nations must not interfere in Indonesia's right to use the death penalty and Attorney-General Muhammad Prasetyo yesterday said preparations for a new round of executions were "about 90 percent" complete. Prasetyo said that 10 drug convicts would be included in the next round and the final step before the executions would be their transfer from several cities to Nusakambangan, an island off Java where they will be put to death. The Australians are among a group of foreigners, including a Frenchman and a Brazilian, facing imminent execution. Abbott cautioned about raising false hopes after his phone call, while describing Widodo as a friend. "I don't want to raise hope that might turn out to be dashed. I don't want to reflect on Indonesia or my friend President Joko Widodo," he said. "I want to ensure that as far as is humanly possible, I am speaking out for Australians and for Australian values. But I also have to respect and defend Australia's friendships. "One of the very best of our friendships is that with Indonesia." Brazil and France have also been ramping up pressure on Jakarta, with Paris summoning Indonesia's envoy and the Brazilian president refusing to accept the credentials of the new Indonesian ambassador. ― AFP |
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