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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

The Discretionary Death Penalty For Drug Couriers In Singapore: Four Challenges, Siyuan Chen Apr 2017

The Discretionary Death Penalty For Drug Couriers In Singapore: Four Challenges, Siyuan Chen

Siyuan CHEN

In 2012, Singapore amended its Misuse of Drugs to give courts hearing capital drug trafficking cases the discretion to replace the default death penalty with life imprisonment and caning, provided that the accused person can show that he was merely a drug courier and the prosecution certifies that he had substantively assisted the authorities in disrupting drug trafficking activities. The Singapore High Court and Court of Appeal have since made important pronouncements on the 2012 amendments, but several challenges remain: first, whether the privilege against self-incrimination has been further eroded; secondly, whether an accused person can invoke the statutory relief …


'In The Interests Of Justice' As The New Test To Exclude Relevant Evidence In Singapore: Anb V Anc [2014] Sghc 172; Wan Lai Ting V Kea Kah Kim [2014] Sghc 180, Siyuan Chen Apr 2017

'In The Interests Of Justice' As The New Test To Exclude Relevant Evidence In Singapore: Anb V Anc [2014] Sghc 172; Wan Lai Ting V Kea Kah Kim [2014] Sghc 180, Siyuan Chen

Siyuan CHEN

In 2012, Singapore’s venerable Evidence Act (EA), which is based on Stephen’s Indian Evidence Act of 1872, underwent major amendments for only the third time in 120 years. Previously, conflicting case law had created long-standing confusion as to whether the Singapore courts possessed any discretion to exclude evidence even when was found relevant under the EA. The main reason driving this jurisprudential inconsistency was that while the relevancy provisions in the EA were meant to provide exhaustive definitions of admissibility, Stephen’s then-revolutionary ‘inclusionary’ approach to relevance was simply at odds with modern conceptions of relevance and modern litigation practice. Thus, …


Visionaries, Architects And Pioneers: Conceptualising Smu, Pin Pin Yeo, Patricia Meyer Aug 2015

Visionaries, Architects And Pioneers: Conceptualising Smu, Pin Pin Yeo, Patricia Meyer

YEO Pin Pin

The Singapore Management University (SMU) Library was tasked with documenting the early history of SMU by the chairman of its board of trustees. An oral history project to interview the pioneers involved in the formation of the university began in 2011. The project team included the Library, the Information Technology department, and a researcher/interviewer who was familiar with SMU. It was a steep learning curve for the team. As they conducted and processed the interviews, they learned about and made decisions on interviewing, recording, transcribing, storage, website design, discoverability, usability, and sustainability. The resulting oral history website presents the interviews …


Microblogging For Engaged Teaching And Learning, Thomas Menkhoff, Kok Siew Benjamin Gan, Charles Jason Woodard, Yue Wah Chay Apr 2015

Microblogging For Engaged Teaching And Learning, Thomas Menkhoff, Kok Siew Benjamin Gan, Charles Jason Woodard, Yue Wah Chay

C. Jason Woodard

In this paper, we report how we put a newly developed Twitter application to work in the context of a Knowledge Management course taught at the Singapore Management University (SMU) allowing students to post and view relevant tweets in an organized manner for the benefit of collaborative class discussions and learning. Innovative elements of the ongoing project include the explorative usage of social media such as Twitter in the higher education context, student participation in providing initial evidence and qualitative feedback that tweeting is pedagogically meaningful and a newly built-in feature which can resolve tweeting challenges which occurred in class …


Singapore: Forward Operating Site, Christopher Rahman Jan 2015

Singapore: Forward Operating Site, Christopher Rahman

Chris Rahman

Historically, Singapore functioned as a major naval hub supporting the British Empire's position in the Far East. The island was viewed by Admiral Sir John "Jackie" Fisher as one of the world's five key locations enabling Britain's global naval superiority. The fortification of the British strategic position on Singapore reached both its zenith and its nadir with the development in the interwar years of the "Singapore Strategy," which was designed to buttress the empire's Far Eastern defenses agajnst possible Japanese aggression. That controversial plan failed miserably in the breach. However, the island continued to host a significant British military presence …


Political Values In Singapore: A Confucian Perspective, Vicente C. Reyes Jr Jan 2015

Political Values In Singapore: A Confucian Perspective, Vicente C. Reyes Jr

Dr. Vicente C Reyes Jr

In the ASEAN Charter, all member states are committed to common political values such as human rights, fundamental freedoms, democracy and the rule of law. These political values, as well as related political institutions and structures, are predominantly of Western origin. There is a need to recognize alternative models of organizing state and normative orders in Asia. One alternative is the political values that are derived and adapted from Asian philosophies. This paper critically discusses political values in Asia with a focus on the relevance of Confucius’ philosophy to the ASEAN political security community. The paper begins by examining the …


Evolving An Information Systems Capstone Course To Align With The Fast Changing Singapore Marketplace, Chris Boesch, Benjamin Kok Siew Gan Jul 2014

Evolving An Information Systems Capstone Course To Align With The Fast Changing Singapore Marketplace, Chris Boesch, Benjamin Kok Siew Gan

Chris BOESCH

Every year, around fifty-five undergraduate teams of four to six students are required to complete a capstone course for the School of Information Systems at Singapore Management University. Each team spends approximately five months working with an industry sponsor using the latest tools and techniques. Students actively learn by implementing the system to solve a real world problem. In addition to delivering value to the local sponsor, our students learn specialized skills currently needed in the marketplace, which might not yet be incorporated into electives and core courses. In this paper, we discuss the tradeoffs of providing students and project …


Housing Policies In Singapore: Evaluation Of Recent Proposals And Recommendations For Reform, Sock Yong Phang, David K. C. Lee, Alan Cheong, Kok Fai Phoon, Karol Wee Jul 2014

Housing Policies In Singapore: Evaluation Of Recent Proposals And Recommendations For Reform, Sock Yong Phang, David K. C. Lee, Alan Cheong, Kok Fai Phoon, Karol Wee

David LEE Kuo Chuen

The Singapore housing market is unusual in its high homeownership rate, the dominance of HDB housing, and the extensive intervention of the government in regulating housing supply and demand in both the HDB and private housing sectors. Recent rapid population increases in a low interest rate and high global liquidity environment has resulted in accelerated house prices increases in Singapore. Earlier this year, the government launched “Our Singapore Conversation” of which discussion on housing policies constitutes one major component. This “conversation” comes in the wake of several consecutive rounds of measures to stabilize housing prices using various instruments. This paper …


Academic Paper Supports Housing Curbs For Prs, Foreigners, Mindy Tan, David Kuo Chuen Lee Jul 2014

Academic Paper Supports Housing Curbs For Prs, Foreigners, Mindy Tan, David Kuo Chuen Lee

David LEE Kuo Chuen

No abstract provided.


Reit To Deal With Hdb Demand-Supply Challenges, Chor Hao Ong, David Kuo Chuen Lee Jul 2014

Reit To Deal With Hdb Demand-Supply Challenges, Chor Hao Ong, David Kuo Chuen Lee

David LEE Kuo Chuen

A group of academics from the Singapore Management University (SMU) and a noted property consultant are making the case for a REIT comprising Housing and Development Board (HDB) residential and commercial units.


Milestones For Animal Welfare: Public Prosecutor V. Ling Chung Yee Roy, Alvin W. L. See Jul 2014

Milestones For Animal Welfare: Public Prosecutor V. Ling Chung Yee Roy, Alvin W. L. See

Alvin W-L SEE

Animal law is a little-known subject in Singapore. However, the increase in public awareness and concern about animal welfare issues demand that more attention is directed at the legal aspects of such issues. An opportunity to examine this area of the law arose in the case of Ling Chung Yee Roy. The District Court, presided by District Judge Ng Peng Hong, had to decide whether the accused was guilty of an animal cruelty offence under s. 42(1)(e) of the Animals and Birds Act. The majority of animal cruelty complaints were against pet owners, of which a significant number concerned the …


Review Of The Singapore Companies Act: Consultation On Draft Legislative Changes To Companies Act, Wai Yee Wan Jun 2014

Review Of The Singapore Companies Act: Consultation On Draft Legislative Changes To Companies Act, Wai Yee Wan

Wai Yee WAN

In October 2013, MOF and ACRA sought further public consultation (“Second Consultation”) on the second part of the Draft Companies (Amendment) Bill 2013 that covers legislative amendments relating to foreign companies and other aspects of the Companies Act, including those relating to enhancing the powers of the Registrar of Companies to strike off companies and to share buyback limits. This note discusses some of the more controversial, as well as the significant, changes that are proposed in the Second Consultation.


Coping With Growth Transitions: The Case Of Chinese Family Businesses In Singapore, Wee-Liang Tan, Siew Tong Fock Jun 2014

Coping With Growth Transitions: The Case Of Chinese Family Businesses In Singapore, Wee-Liang Tan, Siew Tong Fock

Wee Liang TAN

Families control more than half of the corporations in East Asia. The contribution of family businesses to Asia's economic growth is predicated upon successfully growing their businesses. Many family businesses in East Asia, spanning countries such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia, are Chinese owned and managed. Some claim that these businesses will never develop into full-fledged multinational enterprises because of their cultural heritage (Redding, 1990). However, some Chinese family businesses have successfully made the transition.This paper presents an in-depth study of five Chinese family businesses in Singapore that have successfully made the transition in growth and size …


Singapore's New Discretionary Death Penalty For Drug Couriers: Public Prosecutor V Chum Tat Suan, Siyuan Chen Jun 2014

Singapore's New Discretionary Death Penalty For Drug Couriers: Public Prosecutor V Chum Tat Suan, Siyuan Chen

Siyuan CHEN

The article offers information on the history, evolution and significance of the new discretionary death penalty legislation for drug couriers in Singapore under the application of the Misuse of Drugs Act (MDA). It discusses the judicial decision of the Singaporean High Court in the case of Public Prosecutor v. Chum Tat Suan in which the Court convicted the accused with chareges of importing of more than 94.96g of diamorphine into Singapore that was punishable under section 33 of the MDA.


Following English Footsteps? An Empirical Study Of Singapore's Reported Insurance Judgments And Disputes Between 1965 And 2012, Christopher Chao-Hung Chen Jun 2014

Following English Footsteps? An Empirical Study Of Singapore's Reported Insurance Judgments And Disputes Between 1965 And 2012, Christopher Chao-Hung Chen

Christopher Chao-hung Chen

This article presents an empirical study of the development of Singapore’s insurance contract law in relation to English law. The gene of Singapore’s insurance law is very English. The empirical data show a lack of momentum in driving insurance law forward by case law. This may justify further legislative reform to address not only the known doctrinal issues inherited from English law but also the specific problems facing consumer insurance. Singapore’s competitiveness in the global insurance market will be an instrumental factor to determine how far Singapore continues to follow English law in the future.


Measuring The Transplantation Of English Commercial Law In A Small Jurisdiction: An Empirical Study Of Singapore’S Insurance Judgments Between 1965 And 2012, Christopher Chen Jun 2014

Measuring The Transplantation Of English Commercial Law In A Small Jurisdiction: An Empirical Study Of Singapore’S Insurance Judgments Between 1965 And 2012, Christopher Chen

Christopher Chao-hung CHEN

This article seeks to measure the development of law after transplanting common law and statutes from another country by conducting an empirical study of the citation of precedents and demography of disputes of insurance cases in Singapore. This article recognizes that there are justifications for Singapore to transplant English insurance law. However, this research shows that the transplantation of English commercial law into a small jurisdiction, even within the common law family, may cause the law to be in a static state if courts do not have enough cases to maintain the development of law or to consider new development …


Social Sensing For Urban Crisis Management: The Case Of Singapore Haze, Philips Kokoh Prasetyo, Ming Gao, Ee Peng Lim, Christie N. Scollon Mar 2014

Social Sensing For Urban Crisis Management: The Case Of Singapore Haze, Philips Kokoh Prasetyo, Ming Gao, Ee Peng Lim, Christie N. Scollon

Ming Gao

Sensing social media for trends and events has become possible as increasing number of users rely on social media to share information. In the event of a major disaster or social event, one can therefore study the event quickly by gathering and analyzing social media data. One can also design appropriate responses such as allocating resources to the affected areas, sharing event related information, and managing public anxiety. Past research on social event studies using social media often focused on one type of data analysis (e.g., hashtag clusters, diffusion of events, influential users, etc.) on a single social media data …


Exporting Expertise: A Note On Singapore's Gambit In Bangalore, India, Caroline Yeoh, Amrit Vaidyanath, Siang Yeung Wong Sep 2013

Exporting Expertise: A Note On Singapore's Gambit In Bangalore, India, Caroline Yeoh, Amrit Vaidyanath, Siang Yeung Wong

Caroline Yeoh

Infrastructure can be unreliable and administration subject to corruption in Asia’s rapidly emerging economies. This context presented Singapore with unique opportunities to export its ‘positive reputation’ to locations where these attributes are less certain, through the provision of superior infrastructure, the ability to negotiate investment concessions and, where existing, through the links to influential business groups in the investment location. This strategic initiative is premised on the perception that Singapore’s good relations with multinationals, as well as “connections” with Asian business networks, will give the industrial-township projects a marketing advantage. To complement the extensive literature on Singapore’s flagship projects in …


Embedded Co-Operation In The Context Of Singapore's Regionalization Program: The Batamindo Experiment Revisited, Caroline Yeoh, Adeline Kwan, Siang Yeung Wong Sep 2013

Embedded Co-Operation In The Context Of Singapore's Regionalization Program: The Batamindo Experiment Revisited, Caroline Yeoh, Adeline Kwan, Siang Yeung Wong

Caroline Yeoh

The development of Singapore-styled industrial parks has resided on the country’s ability to negotiate investment concessions at inter-government level, to provide superior infrastructure, and where existing, through the links to influential business groups in the investment location. Singapore’s first transborder industrialization project in Batam (Indonesia) reflects this stratagem. This paper revisits the debate on the attractiveness of the low-cost investment enclaves for multinational investments, with insights from Batamindo Industrial Park. Through evidence from on-site interviews and case studies, this paper concludes that while the project’s progress to date has been largely overshadowed by socio-political uncertainties in the host environment, its …


Regionalisation And Singapore's Transborder Industrialisation: A New Perspective On Suzhou Industrial Park, Xun Cai, Lu Gao, Caroline Yeoh Aug 2013

Regionalisation And Singapore's Transborder Industrialisation: A New Perspective On Suzhou Industrial Park, Xun Cai, Lu Gao, Caroline Yeoh

Caroline Yeoh

The dynamics of international economic competition have prompted governments to re-examine accustomed policies, and search for alternative strategies, in order to re-position their economies for the future. This paper takes a look at Singapore’s search for a competitive positioning in the global marketplace, and focuses on the city-state’s much-publicized, and controversial, flagship project in China, viz, the Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP). This strategic initiative is premised on the perceptions that Singapore’s positive reputation with multinational corporations, and ‘guanxi’ (or connections) with regional governments, will give the regional sites a strategic advantage in the competition for foreign investments. Earlier studies have …


Embedded Co-Operation In The Context Of Singapore's Regionalization Program: The Batamindo Experiment Revisited, Caroline Yeoh, Adeline Kwan, Siang Yeung Wong Aug 2013

Embedded Co-Operation In The Context Of Singapore's Regionalization Program: The Batamindo Experiment Revisited, Caroline Yeoh, Adeline Kwan, Siang Yeung Wong

Caroline Yeoh

The development of Singapore-styled industrial parks has resided on the country’s ability to negotiate investment concessions at inter-government level, to provide superior infrastructure, and where existing, through the links to influential business groups in the investment location. Singapore’s first transborder industrialization project in Batam (Indonesia) reflects this stratagem. This paper revisits the debate on the attractiveness of the low-cost investment enclaves for multinational investments, with insights from Batamindo Industrial Park. Through evidence from on-site interviews and case studies, this paper concludes that while the project’s progress to date has been largely overshadowed by socio-political uncertainties in the host environment, its …


Staying Ahead Of The Competition: Insights From Singapore's Manufacturing Enclave In Vietnam, Caroline Yeoh, Di Kun Goh, Wilfred Pow Ngee How Aug 2013

Staying Ahead Of The Competition: Insights From Singapore's Manufacturing Enclave In Vietnam, Caroline Yeoh, Di Kun Goh, Wilfred Pow Ngee How

Caroline Yeoh

The apparent success of Singapore-styled industrial parks in attracting foreign investments into the emerging Asian economies to capitalize on cheap and abundant resources has led, pari passu, to a mushrooming of similarly-patterned competitor parks in close proximity to the flagship projects. Many of the competitor parks offer either similar or comparable facilities, lower rates, or, in some cases, both. The ensuing dynamic competitive interactions between the competitor parks and the Singapore-styled parks have forced a re-examination of the viability of the Singapore advantage in navigating the economics of competition, and in sustaining competitive advantage. The Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP), unsurprisingly, …


The Singapore "Advantage" In India: A Perception Or A Premium?, Alexandra Si-Lan Wee, Ai Lin Leong, Caroline Yeoh Aug 2013

The Singapore "Advantage" In India: A Perception Or A Premium?, Alexandra Si-Lan Wee, Ai Lin Leong, Caroline Yeoh

Caroline Yeoh

Singapore’s regionalisation strategy has been applied in various countries, such as China, Vietnam and India, through the establishment of industrial parks. The parks are marketed as a winning combination of the host country’s unique location advantages and Singapore style efficiency and management know-how. Singapore’s foray into India was marked by the setting up of the ITPL in Bangalore, and furthered by its venture into a future phase of HITEC City, based on her success in Bangalore. However, with global businesses shifting interests towards India, and competing industrial parks emerging to meet the increasing demand, ITPL is faced with stiff competition …


Economics Of Competition': A Study Of Low-Cost Manufacturing Enclaves In Batam Island, Indonesia, Caroline Yeoh, Feng Hao Chua, Sylvie Tan Aug 2013

Economics Of Competition': A Study Of Low-Cost Manufacturing Enclaves In Batam Island, Indonesia, Caroline Yeoh, Feng Hao Chua, Sylvie Tan

Caroline Yeoh

Singapore’s transborder industrialization projects in China and India have received much attention. This regionalization initiative was intended to set in place a strategic configuration for the city-state to restructure its domestic industries and, pari passu, retain important linkages with contiguous, low-cost environments. Our study reports on Singapore’s pioneering, albeit lesser-known, project - Batamindo Industrial Park – in neighboring Batam Island, Indonesia, and finds that the strategic intent of this policy gambit remains stymied by non-economic, socio-political complexities in the host environment, and the economics of competition from other industrial estates in the vicinity of this prototype, remains to be addressed.


Exporting Expertise: Singapore’S Gambits In The Middle East, Caroline Yeoh, Wilfred Pow Ngee How Aug 2013

Exporting Expertise: Singapore’S Gambits In The Middle East, Caroline Yeoh, Wilfred Pow Ngee How

Caroline Yeoh

Singapore’s regionalization stratagem points increasingly towards the influence of both the sociopolitical environment and the economics of competition, in a business environment with an ever-growing number of competitors; to the extent that other forces, particularly political ones, are often sidelined. A more in-depth study of the above two influences is best performed in a context comparatively free of the implicit complex political facets but with sufficiently rich environments to challenge internationalizing firms, and distinct influences to draw pertinent conclusions from. For this purpose, the continually expanding business environments and the unique cultures of the Middle East provide the perfect context …


Internationalization Into The Gcc: Singapore In Retrospect, Caroline Yeoh, Wilfred Pow Ngee How, Hong Hao Chong Aug 2013

Internationalization Into The Gcc: Singapore In Retrospect, Caroline Yeoh, Wilfred Pow Ngee How, Hong Hao Chong

Caroline Yeoh

As internationalization becomes, increasingly, the chosen method of (ironically) competing for competitiveness among firms, new and rich frontiers for business come into ever-expanding demand. Among the foremost of these frontiers, the countries of the GCC represent both fertile ground and uncharted waters for internationalizing firms, with cultures as rich as their markets and sometimes byzantine yet fascinating socio-political forces presenting a plethora of challenges to erstwhile investing firms. As a culmination of our research into this region over past years, then, we examine in this paper, as a case study of sorts, the experiences of Singapore firms in the various …


The Singapore-India Connection: A Tale Of Two Industrial Parks, Caroline Yeoh, Wongso Kevin, Wee Tan Aug 2013

The Singapore-India Connection: A Tale Of Two Industrial Parks, Caroline Yeoh, Wongso Kevin, Wee Tan

Caroline Yeoh

In recent times, Singapore has, as part of its regionalisation strategy, established industrial parks in various countries, including China, Vietnam, and India. The parks are marketed as a winning combination of the host country’s unique location advantages and Singapore-style efficiency and management know-how. Singapore’s foray into India, in particular, was marked by the setting up of the ITPL in Bangalore; a development that met with great success. However, with global businesses shifting interests towards India, and competing industrial parks emerging to meet the increasing demand, ITPL is faced with stiff competition from other industrial parks; and Singapore has since announced …


Transborder Industrialization And Singapore's Regionalization Strategy: Singapore's Industrial Parks In Indonesia And China - Boom, Bane Or An Ongoing Game?, Caroline Yeoh, Charmaine Jialing Cai, Julian Ching Wei Wee Aug 2013

Transborder Industrialization And Singapore's Regionalization Strategy: Singapore's Industrial Parks In Indonesia And China - Boom, Bane Or An Ongoing Game?, Caroline Yeoh, Charmaine Jialing Cai, Julian Ching Wei Wee

Caroline Yeoh

Singapore’s regionalization program is centred on a number of industrial township developments in China, India and several Southeast Asian countries. These townships are led by Singapore government-linked companies and are premised on the perception that Singapore’s positive reputation with multinational corporations, for efficient industrial infrastructure and stable, corrupt-free administration, will give the townships a marketing advantage. Their progress is a litmus test of Singapore’s ability to export its efficiency in industrial park development and management outside its borders. This paper discusses the origins and progress of the four largest and most advanced townships, two in Indonesia and two in China. …


The Singapore 'Advantage' In Suzhou, China: Premium Or Perception?, Caroline Yeoh, Di Kun Goh, Victor Sim, Norhanna Yumi Aug 2013

The Singapore 'Advantage' In Suzhou, China: Premium Or Perception?, Caroline Yeoh, Di Kun Goh, Victor Sim, Norhanna Yumi

Caroline Yeoh

This paper revisits Singapore’s industrial development in Suzhou, China, which has been in operation for more than a decade. We aim to glean insights from this experiment and more importantly, to verify recent claims of it generating political gain and economic capital for Singapore. The flagship project took on an identical framework as the other Singaporean transborder industrialization ventures in the region by adopting Singapore’s expertise and reputation for an efficient and stable government and investment environment. These measures were coupled with the combination of local-specific advantages in the region, such as availability of cheaper labour and market access. Singapore’s …


Do Singaporeans Spend Too Much On Housing?, Sock Yong Phang Jun 2013

Do Singaporeans Spend Too Much On Housing?, Sock Yong Phang

PHANG Sock Yong

According to a 2011 IMF study, Singapore's level of government intervention in housing finance is the highest in the developed world (Slide 3). This level of intervention in housing finance has correspondingly produced the highest level of homeownership amongst advanced countries. This housing outcome is the result of our very unique HDB-CPF housing framework – an institutional framework that was established in the 1960s during the formative period of our country?s history (Slides 4 and 5). Singapore was, at that particular point in time, faced with a situation of chronic housing shortage, low homeownership rates and an underdeveloped housing mortgage …