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Politics
Covid deaths spike, but Singapore stick to re-opening plans
By Ivan Lim Former AJA President, Contributor to AsiaN SINGAPORE: The figures tell a staggering story that smacks of a runaway pandemic. However, the authorities are looking at the bigger picture and taking the explosion of the Delta mutant cases in stride. Since mid-September, new daily caseloads have hovered between…
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East Asia
Rise of Eco-cities: An Asian model of sustainable development
By Ivan Lim Former AJA President, Contributor to AsiaN SINGAPORE: The search for an Asian eco-culture is in line with the international discourse on a new global ethical agenda for the New Millennium, focusing on religion, language, values and rights of minorities and indigenous people. It is marked by…
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Politics
Singapore keeps an eye on Kabul after aiding refugee pull-out
By Ivan Lim Former AJA President, Contributor to AsiaN SINGAPORE: During the last acts of the United States’ precipitous retreat from Afghanistan in mid-August, Singapore got a piece of action -helping in the historic, if chaotic, airlift of thousands of Americans and Afghans fleeing the Taliban forces closing in on…
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People
Funding-surge for blogger in Singapore PM’s defamation case
By Ivan Lim Former AJA President, Contributor to AsiaN SINGAPORE: Critics have decried the outcome of a defamation case in which a political blogger has been found to have impugned the reputation and integrity of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in an article. Mr Terry Xu, chief editor of…
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Politics
Singapore lifts quarantine for German and Brunei visitors
By Ivan Lim Former AJA President, Contributor to AsiaN SINGAPORE: From September 8, fully vaccinated travellers from Germany and Brunei will be able to visit Singapore for leisure without having to serve a 14-day quarantine. Under this Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) scheme, they will only be required to take four…
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Business
Reincarnated Straits Times unlikely to see government grip easing
By Ivan Lim Former AJA President, Contributor to AsiaN SINGAPORE: A government-backed rescue exercise was mounted recently to save Singapore’s flagship English newspaper, The Straits Times, from possible demise as it found itself unable to reverse advertising revenue losses and a decline in readership subscription. And fortuitously, it took the unseen…
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Business
Covid-19 upsurge derails Singapore’s normality push
By Ivan Lim Former AJA President, Contributor to AsiaN SINGAPORE: Just when things seemed to be looking up, a sudden surge in Covid-19 cases has pushed Singapore off course from the government’s much-heralded plan to move into an endemic phase of living with the presence of the virus as a form…
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Culture
Run-ins with Lee Kuan Yew cut short young activist’s career
By Ivan Lim Former AJA President, Contributor to AsiaN SINGAPORE: On Sept. 27, 1957, a bright 26-year-old activist, Arun Mahadeva, Maha for short, was invited to meet Lee Kuan Yew,34, a United Kingdom-trained lawyer and up-and-coming politician who was soon to become Singapore’s Prime Minister. At the meeting in…
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Cautious easing of tightened Covid-19 curbs in Singapore
By Ivan Lim Former AJA President, Contributor to AsiaN SINGAPORE: Singapore is moving cautiously to ease some heightened restrictions following a drop in community cases in the past week. From June 14, five people, instead of two, can gather publicly. However, they will not be allowed to sit down in…
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Politics
Learn to live with covid-19 in our midst, Singapore PM Lee warns
By Ivan Lim Former AJA President, Contributor to AsiaN SINGAPORE: Get ready to live dangerously with the Novel Coronavirus in your midst — this is the new normal into which you have to transit. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, seeking to drive home the stark reality to all Singaporeans, warned…
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