International and Area Studies Commons^™

Singapore’S Covid-19 General Election: Political Breakthrough Amid A Generational Crisis?, Eugene K. B. Tan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In the 13th general election since independence, the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) – which has governed Singapore since 1959 – won 83 out of 93 seats, with a popular vote share of 61.24%, its third lowest on record. The Workers’ Party (WP) won 10 seats, including an unprecedented two multi-member electoral constituencies, cementing its standing as the leading opposition party. Not only did this outcome fall short of the strong mandate the PAP had sought, it was arguably its worst electoral performance since independence as the PAP’s control of elected seats dipped below 90% for the first time. In …

Despite Eld’S Lengthy Statement On Ge2020, Some Key Questions Remain Unanswered, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Singaporeans went to the polls on July 10 amid an unprecedented set of public health and safety precautionary measures put in place to prevent the spread of Covid-19 infections. Among other things, GE2020 would also be remembered for long queues at some polling stations and the less than positive voter experience. There was also the first-ever extension of polling hours nationwide by two hours to 10pm.

Shareholders’ Rights And Corporate Meetings Post Covid‐19, Christopher Chao-Hung Chen

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This short paper reflects on corporate governance and shareholders’ rights during and following the COVID-19 pandemic. The lockdown has affected the way companies’ organs operate. It is unfortunate that the pandemic took place around the critical time of year when most companies hold annual shareholders’ meetings (or general meetings). How, then, can shareholders exercise their rights? How can the board of directors and senior management function during the lockdown period? Technology naturally provides a solution, similar to online teaching and working from home. However, do virtual and remote meetings serve the purpose of having those meetings? Even when we get …

“In Case Of Emergency, Break Contract”? The Case For A Unified Regime For Changed Circumstances In Singapore Contract Law, Nicholas Liu

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

It has been accurately observed that the incremental nature of the common law’s development makes it inherently unsuited to dealing with unprecedented crises.208 This is particularly true of what I shall refer to (for convenience) as the law of changed circumstances, which in the common law regime comprises the doctrine of frustration and the operation of force majeure clauses, but could potentially encompass other doctrines and issues as well.209 I suggest that in this area, the flaws of the common law run deeper and broader than its inability to respond quickly to unprecedented crises. Rather, from a lay user’s point …

Exorcising The Ghost In The Wills Act, Hang Wu Tang

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Ingenious lawyers all over the Commonwealth are dreaming up rigmaroles for the signing of wills amid the pandemic. An English law firm has suggested that the will should be signed at a park bench, with witnesses lurking nearby, ready to rotate around the document. Another option allows for the will to be signed at the person’s doorway while the witnesses stand outside, using the services of a well-trained pet to deliver the signed will to the witnesses. Singapore has passed many sensible temporary measures in response to COVID-19 disruption, including marrying couples remotely so that the newly-weds, witnesses and solemniser …

Pragmatism In The Pandemic: The Protection Of Commercial Tenants In Singapore, Edward Ti

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The COVID-19 epidemic has not spared any country, not least a densely populated country like Singapore. The government has been working tirelessly developing new policies and laws to mitigate the human and economic devastation brought on by the virus. The COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) Act 2020 (COTMA) is intended to tackle some of the negative effects brought about by COVID-19. With an initial application period of 6 months which can be amended at the Minister’s discretion, the COTMA covers a wide range of issues. Summarily, the COTMA provides for public health controls necessary to manage the health crisis, increases bankruptcy and …

Covid‐19 As A Frustrating Event Under Singapore Contract Law, Yihan Goh

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

COVID-19 has had an unprecedented impact on commercial arrangements around the world. This would appear to fit the textbook definition of a frustrating event under Singapore contract law. Alternatively, one might expect COVID-19 to be covered by the doctrine of force majeure. This commentary will provide a brief overview of the contractual issues arising from COVID-19.

Massive Covid‐19 Infections In Foreign Workers Dormitories: The Dog That Did Not Bark In Singapore’S Fight Against The Covid‐19 Pandemic, Eugene K. B. Tan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In the ongoing battle to combat the massive COVID-19 infections in the foreign workers’ dormitories, the focus and dominant narrative, unsurprisingly, has been on overcoming the clear and present public health issues there. The imperative is to safeguard the wellbeing and interests of the foreign workers who reside there (and including those who have been moved out), which is also fundamentally about protecting the rest of the community.

The Ideals Of Law In A Health Crisis: Singapore’S Legislative Responses To Covid‐19, Benjamin Joshua Ong

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Situations like the COVID-19 pandemic pose a dilemma. One might argue that such a crisis is a time for people to sacrifice their legal rights for the common good and submit to heavy restrictions on one’s liberties, surrendering individual liberties to a benevolent, though powerful, state. On the other hand, for every situation in history where an emergency has required people to accept such restrictions, there are many more situations in which an unscrupulous government has used a pretend emergency, or a real but exaggerated one, as an excuse to arrogate to himself sweeping arbitrary powers and refuse to let …

Defeating The Scourge Of Terrorism: How Soft Law Instruments In Singapore Can Develop Societal Trust And Promote Cooperative Norms, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The maintenance of a ‘moderate, mainstream’ Muslim community as a bulwark against the fraying of harmonious ethnic relations has become a key governance concern in multiracial, multi-religious societies post9/11. In light of the global concern, and often paranoia, with diasporic Islam, Islamic religious institutions and civil society have been portrayed in the popular media as hotbeds of radicalism, promoters of hatred, and recruiters for a “conflict of civilisation” between the Muslim world and the modern world. Singapore has taken a broad-based community approach in advancing interreligious tolerance, including a subtle initiative to include the putative Muslim civil society in advancing …

Universal Minimum Wage Is Not Suitable For Singapore, Zhengxiao Wu

Research Collection School Of Economics

In a commentary, SMU Senior Lecturer of Statistics Wu Zhengxiao examined the concept of a universal minimum wage, and discussed how it is not suitable for Singapore.

Public Cleanliness Satisfaction Survey [2019], Paulin Straughan, Mathews Mathew

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The Singapore Management University undertook the third wave of the Public Cleanliness Satisfaction Survey (PCSS) with 1716 Singapore resident respondents providing responses before the start of the Circuit Breaker.

The 2019 wave of the PCSS continued to reflect the overall satisfaction with public cleanliness in Singapore. Satisfaction with cleanliness and cleaning services has improved substantially across all domains.

Ninety three percent of survey respondents were satisfied with the cleanliness of public spaces that they had recently visited, a 9% increase from the findings in 2018.

There was a substantial increase in satisfaction with the cleanliness of food and beverage (F&B) …

The Future Of Work Now: The Multi-Faceted Mall Security Guard At A Multi-Faceted Jewel, Thomas H. Davenport, Steven M. Miller

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

One of the most frequently-used phrases at business events these days is “the future of work.” It’s increasingly clear that artificial intelligence and other new technologies will bring substantial changes in work tasks and business processes. But while these changes are predicted for the future, they’re already present in many organizations for many different jobs. The job and incumbents described below are an example of this phenomenon. Steve Miller of Singapore Management University and I co-authored the story.

The Hunger Report: An In-Depth Look At Food Insecurity In Singapore, Tania Nagpaul, Dalvin Sidhu, Jinwen Chen

Lien Centre for Social Innovation: Research

This report provides a detailed account of the first nationally representative study on the largely hidden problem of food insecurity in Singapore.

Laden With Great Expectations: (Re)Mapping The Arts Housing Policy As Urban Cultural Policy In Singapore, Su Fern Hoe

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The arts and artists need space to thrive. However, as much of the land in Singapore is state-owned, the finiteness of space – literally and figuratively – remains a key challenge. Yet there is a rich variety of arts infrastructure in Singapore today, from exhibition spaces to performing arts venues and state-subsidised artist studios. This infrastructure comes at a cost - these arts spaces are positioned as policy interventions capable of achieving a broad confluence of cultural, urban, economic and social outcomes for Singapore.

This article aims to provide an understanding of how arts spaces in Singapore has been framed …

News Media Influence On Public Trust In Bike-Sharing Operators In Singapore, Leonard Wong, Lyon Tan, Rachel Wong, Su Lin Yeo

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Purpose: The overnight introduction of tens of thousands of dockless bike-share bicycles in Singapore with its indiscriminate parking drew the attention of the media, which generated extensive news reports on the activities carried out by bike-sharing operators. Given the meteoric rise and fall of the industry, this study examines the influence of agenda-setting of news reporting on the public’s perception of the industry and the impact on the firms’ corporate reputation. Design/methodology/approach: Utilizing the Reputation Quotient Index, the study content analyzed 147 textual data of online reports which were crawled over two years between 2017 and 2018 from six mainstream …

14th Parliament Has Weighty Duty Steering Singapore Into Post-Covid-19 Future, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In more ways than one, the five-year term of Singapore’s 14th Parliament has been and will be defined even before it begins. How this institution of the people’s representatives leads the nation amid the raging Covid-19 global pandemic and positions Singapore for the post-Covid world matters immensely.

Preparing First Year Students For Online Learning In Digital Academia: Smu Libraries’ Peer Advisors Step Forward, Zhenyan Li, Constance Tan, Shubhangi Gupta

Research Collection Library

With the new normal being online learning or a hybrid thereof, the academic community is quickly trying to upskill themselves including librarians. But what about incoming first year students? Who and what support networks are being created to help them navigate the different facets of online learning? In this presentation, participants will learn about SMU Libraries’ Library Peer Advisors (LPA) initiative. LPAs provide peer-to-peer support by students for students in areas such as citation help, effective use of databases and introducing new students to the physical libraries through tours. Research shows that peer-assisted learning is beneficial in providing supportive social …

Attitudes, Behaviours, And The Well-Being Of Older Singaporeans In The Time Of Covid-19: Perspectives From The Singapore Life Panel, Paulin T. Straughan, William Tov, Seonghoon Kim, Terence Cheng, Stephen Hoskins, Micah Tan

ROSA Research Briefs

COVID-19 has affected all Singaporeans, regardless of age and socioeconomic status (SES). Many measures have been implemented by the government to control the spread of this disease, including restrictions on social gatherings, restrictions on overseas travel, and making it compulsory to wear a mask. Measures have also included a partial lockdown – known as the ‘circuit breaker’ – which began in April 2020. This forced Singaporeans to quickly adapt to a new normal with some doing better than others. This research brief provides an overview of how COVID-19 and its related measures have affected seniors in Singapore using data from …

How A Young University Can Launch And Grow A Digital Repository, Pin Pin Yeo

Research Collection Library

Learn how SMU, a young university under 50, launched a digital repository back in 2010 and opened their research and scholarship to discovery by the world.
Get tips on how to improve the visibility and profile of your institution’s research and scholarly publications, to provide access to full text articles (wherever possible), to organize the university’s records for research and publications and how repositories discoverability drove some great individual successes for the faculty. This case study is very useful to better understand the importance of a good repository.

Tort Law, Amirthalingam Kumaralingam, Gary Kok Yew Chan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This review examines the ten most significant decisions in tort law for 2020. It was an interesting year for the range of significant decisions in tort law handed down by the courts on matters including limitation period, medical negligence, the scope of duty in negligence, breach of confidence, conspiracy, and defamation.

Legal Constraint In Emergencies: Reflections On Carl Schmitt, The Covid-19 Pandemic And Singapore | Symposium On Covid-19 & Public Law, Wei Yao, Kenny Chng

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The controversial legal theorist Carl Schmitt’s challenge to the possibility of meaningful legal constraint on executive power in emergencies could not be more relevant in a world struggling to deal with Covid-19. Scrambling against time, governments around the world have declared states of emergency and exercised a swathe of broad executive powers in an effort to manage this highly infectious disease. In times like these, if Schmitt is indeed right that emergencies cannot be governed by law, we are on the cusp of (or perhaps have already entered) a post-law world – where the business of government is characterised by …

Ge2020 Commentary: Assessing The Voters’ Message To Pap (And Other Parties), Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Despite the “crisis of a generation”, the 2020 general election results point to a considered flight from the status quo, rather than a flight to safety. Singaporean voters, through their 2.54 million ballots cast, sent a nuanced message to all political parties and election candidates. It was a renewed, urgent expression of a vote for change, more so than in the 2011 election.

Family Law, Wei Jing Tricia Ho, Siyuan Chen

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Two salient trends emerge from the decisions issued by the Singapore courts in 2019. First, cases with international elements are featured increasingly, with the Court of Appeal adjudicating its first case on financial relief consequential on foreign divorces and the High Court releasing a decision on sham marriages to obtain an immigration advantage. It is evident that the law is evolving to cater to the needs of a changing community in Singapore. There is a recognition of the increase in the number of Singapore citizens working abroad and marrying non-Singaporeans, which has prompted certain legislative changes that seek to provide …

Busting Myths And Dispelling Doubts About Covid-19, Mark Findlay

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The Centre for AI and Data Governance (CAIDG) at Singapore Management University (SMU) has embarked over past months on a programme of research designed to confront concerns about the pandemic and its control. Our interest is primarily directed to the ways in which AI-assisted technologies and mass data sharing have become a feature of pandemic control strategies. We want to know what impact these developments are having on community confidence and health safety. In developing this work, we have come across many myths that need busting.

Sasa In Singapore: What Went Wrong?, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Twenty-two became a somewhat unlucky number for Hong Kong-based cosmetics retail chain, Sasa, for its Singapore operations in 2019. That was the year – 22 years after it entered the market – that it decided to close all of its 22 stores on the island.

Customer Satisfaction Index Of Singapore 2020: Q1 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. 2020 marks the 14th year of measurement for the CSISG national study.

Singapore's Climate Action: It Is Time To Be More Ambitious, Winston T. L. Chow

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Some nations have declared net-zero carbon emission targets by 2050. Businesses and the people here know Singapore can punch above its weight. The government should lend its support.

Porous Religious Economies And The Problem Of Regulating Religious Marketplaces, Orlando Woods

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper reframes the theory of religious economy by developing an understandingof the effects of transnational religious influence on religious marketplaces. It highlightsthe need to rethink the role of regulation in shaping the ways in which religiousmarketplaces operate. By reinterpreting regulation as the ability of the state to controlthe extent to which religious groups are able to access resources, it argues thattransnational religious networks can enable access to extraneous resources, which, inturn, can enable religious groups to subvert the regulatory prescriptions of the state.Transnational religious influences therefore highlight the porosity of religiouseconomies, and the problem of regulating religious marketplaces. Qualitative …

Place-Making/Management: The Policy And Practice Of Arts-Centred Spatial Interventions In Singapore, Su Fern Hoe

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Singapore has won numerous accolades and garnered global attention for its physical infrastructure and iconic architecture. Despite these achievements, its government has recognized that certain parts of the city still lack a certain human vitality and buzz. Additionally, like other post-industrial cities, the production of a positive urban experience has been identified as that critical competitive advantage that would differentiate Singapore from other cities. Consequently, the Singapore government adopted a strategy called ‘place management’ in 2008 to inject ‘heart and soul’ into the city, and deliver a liveable, globally competitive and amenity-rich urban environment for its increasingly educated and upper …