Asian Studies Commons^™

2016: A Year Of Looking To The Future, David Chan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Six major events caused Singaporeans to ponder over the future and what it will bring. As 2016 comes to a close, it is timely to reflect on the past 12 months, which I would summarise as "a future-focused year" - one filled with events and issues that made people ponder about their own future and that of the country. It is useful to revisit the way we approached the key events and issues. After all, when it comes to thinking about the future, how we think is as important as what we think.

Small Infrastructure Has Big Impact In China, John A. Donaldson

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

It is a familiar dilemma to policymakers around Asia: How much infrastructure, and what kind, is enough? How should developing economies prioritize when the needs are so great? China’s experience offers a surprising answer. While large-scale infrastructure sometimes generates GDP growth (it often does not), smaller is often better for poverty reduction.

Grab Taxi: Navigating New Frontiers, Mei Lin, Christopher Dula

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In mid-2016, Anthony Tan, the CEO of Grab, an on-demand transportation-app company serving Southeast Asia, was locked in a high stakes struggle to win the hearts and minds of drivers, passengers and regulators alike. Valued at an estimated US$1.5 billion, Grab (known among consumers as ‘GrabTaxi’) had become one of Asia’s most successful start-ups.

Catalyst Asia Issue 04, Institute For Societal Leadership

Catalyst Asia

STORIES FROM THE GROUND

Toiling Away on Land Issues

Leading the Blind

A Leading Secret

The Road Less Travelled

Migrant Rights' Fighter

Power of Youth

A Ground-up Initiative Picking Up The Pieces A Friend to Farmers Four Dollars, Well Spent Bottom-Up Revolution

IN THE HOT SEAT

The Heart of an Uncommon Leader

Help For The Exploited

When Social Revolutions Begin with #Hashtags

Lending His Magical Touch

Fighting Malaria

PERSPECTIVES FROM THE TOP

Steward Leadership

Understanding Societal Leadership

Reflections from A Work Stint with a Difference

New Skills At Work: Managing Skills Challenges In Asean-5, Kim Song Tan, James T. H. Tang

Research Collection School Of Economics

The dynamic economies of Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines (ASEAN-5) boasts a growth rate of close to 5% a year despite the sluggish global economy. However, whether ASEAN-5 can grow to be significant players in the global economy will depend critically on their abilities to train workers with relevant job skills required by growth-driving industries. This challenge requires governments and employers to work together and develop coherent policies and targeted incentive structures for workers to acquire general and job-specific skills. The report Managing Skills Challenges in ASEAN-5 provides insights and recommendations on how the ASEAN-5 countries can respond …

Catalyst Asia Issue 03, Institute For Societal Leadership

Catalyst Asia

STORIES FROM THE GROUND

Grooming The Bright But Underprivileged For A Better Future

A Gift From The Forest

No Ordinary Clinic

Helping The Most Vulnerable In A Thai Border Town

Fighting To Change The Fate Of Street Children In Vietnam

Voices That Must Not Be Forgotten

Giving Children A New Lease Of Life

Leading The Long Road To Recovery

Helping Girls In Myanmar Find Their Voices

Cambodia’s Growing Mental Health Problem

Saving Babies One At A Time

Gone Adventurin’ For Good

IN THE HOT SEAT

Rohingya – A Forgotten People

Want To Help, Will Travel

Coffee Against Cultural Colonisation

Empowering …

Customer Satisfaction Index Of Singapore 2016: Q2 Results, Institute Of Service Excellence, Smu

Research Collection Institute of Service Excellence (2007-2024)

The Customer Satisfaction Index of Singapore (CSISG) computes customer satisfaction scores at the national, sector, sub-sector, and company levels. The CSISG serves as a quantitative benchmark of the quality of goods and services produced by the Singapore economy over time and across countries. This is the CSISG’s tenth year of measurement.

Pathologies Of Development Practice: Higher Order Obstacles To Governance Reform In The Pakistani Electrical Power Sector, Ijlal Naqvi

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Development actors are regularly aware of the shortcomings of governance interventions before, during, and after development assistance is introduced, yet those programmes continue and are even revisited. Why? This paper uses the Pakistani experience with power sector reforms to illustrate how the donor-led reform agenda had readily apparent shortcomings. A new wave of development thinking responds to such failures by drawing on complexity theory and moving toward more local, iterative and experimental approaches. However, by highlighting how the awareness of problems with reforms isn't sufficient to avoid them, this paper points to a higher order of obstacles which remain unaddressed.

Singapore: Real State Control, Sock Yong Phang

Research Collection School Of Economics

The author explains how the government of Singapore has taken on the role of land use planner and housing developer to ensure affordable housing. Numerous instruments have been devised by governments to provide affordable housing. These can be classified into four broad categories: taxes and subsidies, land use and market regulations, public-private partnerships, and institutions that supply housing or provide financing.

Singapore: From Planned Chaos To A Distinctive City, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In a commentary, SMU Associate Professor of Law Eugene Tan highlighted that Singapore is a living laboratory by which its development and urban planning experience and expertise can be studied and harnessed by other cities in the urbanisation and human development journey. He noted that while Singapore's urban planning experience may not be directly relevant to other cities, its experience suggests that political will with public support, innovation, and boldness can make a vital difference in urban planning outcomes. He added that all these require thoughtful decisions on resource allocation and policy choices that deeply engage all stakeholders.

Thinking Through The Meteoric Rise Of Middle-East Carriers From Singapore Airlines' Vantage Point, Terence P. C. Fan, Mats Lingblad

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The rise of Middle East carriers in the past decade has been nothing less than meteoric. Based on the notion of generic strategy, we analysed the potential for competitors of the leading Middle East carriers to respond in terms of market scope and product characteristics, using Singapore Airlines as a reference. We found that it was generally difficult for Singapore Airlines to compete in terms of market scope, and thus it should concentrate on offering different degrees of differentiation in its products. While the latest small, long-haul aircraft could help increase Singapore Airlines' market scope, this impact would be marginal …

Singapore's Vision Of A Smart Nation, See Liang Foo, Gary Pan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

With a population of 5.4 million and land area of 718 square kilometres, 94 percent of Singapore’s population live in high-rise apartments, of which, 82 percent dwell in public housing. As an ultra-dense city-state, effective and innovative urban development is a social and economic imperative intricately intertwined with Singapore’s competitiveness and quality of life. Harnessing information and communications technology (ICT) is not only essential to achieving this, but also serves as a template for answering some of the global challenges faced by urban centres around the world–particularly in regard to economic development, social cohesion, better city administration and infrastructure management.

Patrol Scheduling In An Urban Rail Network, Hoong Chuin Lau, Zhi Yuan, Aldy Gunawan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper presents the problem of scheduling security teams to patrol a mass rapid transit rail network of a large urban city. The main objective of patrol scheduling is to deploy security teams to stations of the network at varying time periods subject to rostering as well as security-related constraints. We present several mathematical programming models for different variants of this problem. To generate randomized schedules on a regular basis, we propose injecting randomness by varying the start time and break time for each team as well as varying the visit frequency and visit time for each station according to …

Refining The Prize: Chinese Oil Refineries And Its Energy Security, Inwook Kim

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Since China became a net oil importer in 1993, oil refineries have played integral roles in China's quest for oil security. And yet, the capacity, security, and configurations of refineries were rarely featured in the discussions about China's oil policy. To fill this gap, this paper explains the basics of refinery economics and technology, and details the development in China's refining industry since the early 1990s. By taking refineries into consideration, it then revisits and reassesses the existing literature regarding the motives and drivers behind China's foreign oil policy, its effectiveness, and the political interactions between China and crude oil …

Full Report On Roundtable On Place Management And Placemaking In Singapore, Su Fern Hoe, Jacqueline Liu

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In Singapore, the government has adopted a strategy it calls “place management” to inject“heart and soul” into the city. These efforts include the greening of streets, providing benches,closing roads for pedestrian access, and public activities and arts-centred events such as thei Light Marina Bay festival and the Singapore Night Festival. Cities like New York and Parishave also attempted a similar strategy known as “placemaking” to develop human-centredplaces and improve the quality of life for their residents. “Creative placemaking”, a relatedconcept, has also emerged to refer to the use of arts and culture to animate public spacesand neighbourhoods. However, despite their …

Professionals And Soldiers: Measuring Professionalism In The Thai Military, Punchada Sirivunnabood, Jacob Ricks

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Thailand's military has recently reclaimed its role as the central pillar of Thai politics. This raises an enduring question in civil-military relations: why do people with guns choose to obey those without guns? One of the most prominent theories in both academic and policy circles is Samuel Huntington's argument that professional militaries do not become involved in politics. We engage this premise in the Thai context. Utilizing data from a new and unique survey of 569 Thai military officers as well as results from focus groups and interviews with military officers, we evaluate the attitudes of Thai servicemen and develop …

Saravanan Gopinathan [Singapore, Dean Of National Institute Of Education], Saravanan Gopinathan

Digital Narratives of Asia

Former Dean of National Institute of Education, Saravanan Gopinathan, sees his decades of contribution to education as a unique journey closely linked with the development of the Singapore state. He discusses the need to re-mould the current schooling for the new economic environment, and presents his critiques on some aspects of the system.

Use Our Diversity To Strengthen Social Cohesion, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Two Cabinet Ministers recently offered a sobering view of the state of ethnic relations in Singapore, against the backdrop of rising religiosity and global terrorism. Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam spoke of four threats to social cohesion, including Muslims growing more distant from the rest of society and feelings of Islamophobia among non-Muslims. Environment and Water Resources Minister Masagos Zulkifli reiterated the importance of practising religion suited to the local context and for Muslims not to be influenced by radical foreign ideologies — often easily spread through social media.

Interpreting China’S New Urban Spaces: State, Market, And Society In Action, Shenjing He, Lily Kong, George C. S. Lin

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Chinese urbanism has long historical roots and has profoundly influenced world civilizations. Yet, the Chinese city has not, until very recently, attracted sustained or intense global attention. In the post-reform era, especially after 1992, the scale and speed of China’s urbanization, and the intricacy of its dynamics and socio-spatial consequences have dwarfed those of other countries in the world. The latest reform era of urban China is characterized by a renewed and thriving urbanism, which manifests itself in the sheer scale of new urban space (re)production and the intricate interrelationships among the state, market, and society. The proliferation of new …

Zainul Abidin Rasheed [Malaysia, Minister Of State For Foreign Affairs], Zainul Abidin Rasheed

Digital Narratives of Asia

Former editor of Berita Harian, who rose to become head of Mendaki, and then Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Zainul Abidin Rasheed, tells DNA how his experiences during the 1964 racial riots had shaped his political views. He recalls how Lee Kuan Yew retracted from closing down Nanyang University, and Mr Goh Chok Tong's consensual style that welcomes the contributions of the Association of Muslim Professionals.

Public Vs. Private Schooling As A Route To Universal Basic Education: A Comparison Of China And India, William C. Smith, Devin K. Joshi

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This article examines whether focusing primarily on public schooling can lead to more rapid achievement of universal basic education (UBE) than relying on a mixture of public and private schooling. Through a structured, focused comparison, we find China's greater emphasis on public schooling has contributed to higher enrollment, attendance, graduation rates, gender parity, and proportion of students entering higher education than India, the country with the world's largest private sector in primary and secondary education. This comparison suggests that greater emphasis on public schooling in developing countries may lead to more rapid UBE attainment than encouraging privatization.

Building Participatory Organizations For Common Pool Resource Management: Water User Group Promotion In Indonesia, Jacob I. Ricks

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

States are increasingly striving to create participatory local organizations for joint management of common pool resources. What local conditions determine success of such state efforts? What effect do these efforts have? Drawing on controlled comparisons between three districts in Indonesia and an original survey of 92 water user groups, I demonstrate that local political contexts condition the effectiveness of participatory irrigation policies. When irrigation is politically salient, local politicians pressure bureaucrats to better engage with farmers. The data also show that training programs are not as effective at increasing water user organization activity as frequent contact between bureaucrats and farmers.

Ideas, Interests And Practical Authority In Reform Politics: Decentralization Reform In South Korea In The 2000s, Yooil Bae

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper explains the reason why the hitherto statist country, Korea, has carried out significant decentralization since the 2000s. In explaining the motivation for decentralization, extant literature has focused on the role of parties, bureaucratic politics, democratization, or territorial interests. Yet there is still limited explanation of how the decentralization laws in Korea could be successfully passed in the 2000s, while cental stakeholders still persisted. By tracing the process of decentralization reform in the 2000s, this article demonstrates how structural factors created favourable circumstances and discursive background for institutional change, and how the idea of decentralization, through the idea diffusion …

Public Vs. Private Schooling As A Route To Universal Basic Education: A Comparison Of China And India, William C. Smith, Devin K. Joshi

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This article examines whether focusing primarily on public schooling can lead to more rapid achievement of universal basic education (UBE) than relying on a mixture of public and private schooling. Through a structured, focused comparison, we find China's greater emphasis on public schooling has contributed to higher enrollment, attendance, graduation rates, gender parity, and proportion of students entering higher education than India, the country with the world's largest private sector in primary and secondary education. This comparison suggests that greater emphasis on public schooling in developing countries may lead to more rapid UBE attainment than encouraging privatization.

Education As The Weakest Institutional Link In Japan's Nuclear Regulation, Hiro Saito

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Debates over the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster pointed to a set of institutional and organizational failures in Japan’s nuclear regulation as a primary cause of the disaster. While the Japanese government has implemented reforms to strengthen nuclear regulation, I argue that these reforms have largely left out the education system as a key institution that produces and distributes expertise necessary for nuclear regulation. First, the Japanese education system has traditionally produced only a small number of experts in the fields related to nuclear regulation, aligned top-ranked experts with the pro-nuclear government, and weakened the civil society’s capacity to mobilize counter-experts. …

Getting To The Heart Of Great Public Spaces, Su Fern Hoe, Jacqueline Liu, Tan Tarn How

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) has flaggedthe start of car-free Sundays in the Civic District and Central BusinessDistrict this year.This move to make the area people-friendly is part of a $740 millionplan, announced in the 2015 Budget, to revitalise the Civic District andtransform it into "an integrated arts, culture and lifestyleprecinct". Highlights of the plan include the Jubilee Walk - an 8km trailthat wraps around landmarks from the National Museum to the Esplanade - and thenewly opened National Gallery Singapore