Are Singaporeans Happy?

http://www.straitstimes.com/supplements/mind-your-body 31 October 2013

 To detractors who think Singaporeans are a miserable lot, let it be said the nation came out tops in Asia and 30th worldwide in the United Nations' World Happiness Report released last month.

Singapore's ranking improved three places this year. Neighbours Thailand ranked at 36th, Malaysia at 56th, Indonesia at 76th and the Philippines at 92nd.

The UN report used six factors to determine the scores: real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, which is the average real income of a resident; healthy life expectancy; generosity (donation to charity); and their perceptions of social support, freedom to make life choices and freedom from corruption.  But before you give yourself a pat on your back, experts say the report does not paint a holistic picture of the state of happiness in Singapore.

RESEARCHING HAPPINESS

A more accurate picture of how happy Singaporeans are might be painted from research being done by academics here.

For instance, in a book published by two dons from the National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School, Happiness And Wellbeing: The Singaporean Experience, one section analyses data collected over three time periods - 1996, 2001 and 2011 - in which respondents rated their satisfaction with various domains and life in general.

Dr Tambyah Siok Kuan, a senior lecturer in marketing at the NUS business school and one of the authors, said: "Surveys conducted over time provide a sense of how a country has been faring over the years and is probably more helpful than surveys that compare across countries. After all, rankings is just a numbers game."

The other author, Associate Professor Tan Soo Jiuan from the NUS business school, said cultural nuances are lost in the UN report as specific aspects of living in Singapore were not asked.

Happiness survey not an exact science

In their book, however, they charted people's satisfaction with 23 aspects of living in Singapore.

Over the years, Singaporeans continued to be most satisfied with the level of safety and security, the quality of law enforcement and the cleanliness of the country. They were least satisfied with the affordability of cars, properties, health care and cost of living.

In general, Singaporeans were most satisfied with their relationships with parents, children, siblings and romantic partners. In 2011, they were least happy with their income and education - two domains not asked in earlier years.

Singaporeans surveyed in 2011 were more satisfied with life in general but less satisfied with living in Singapore than those surveyed in 2001 and 1996.

The professors also found that compared with 2006, fewer Singaporeans in 2011 said they were happy or enjoying life. Yet more of them reported having a sense of achievement.

Dr Tambyah said people may have channelled their energies into achieving their goals at the expense of doing what they liked.

Associate Professor Christie Napa Scollon, who teaches psychology at the Singapore Management University, found that Singaporeans rated a person who has more material success (earning more than $10,000 a month) as having better life quality than someone who is low in material success (earning $2,100 to $3,000 a month).

Americans' perceptions of people with high or low wealth was less pronounced, she said. Other studies have also shown that Americans perceive a life's desirability to be less dependent on income than on the presence of happiness and meaning in life.

Her study was published in the Journal Of Cross-Cultural Psychology last year. She said the results probably reflected the culture here of people being "chronically concerned about how others perceive them".

The same study also led Prof Scollon to conclude that even if Singaporeans did not personally feel that wealth was important for a good life, they were influenced by other people's beliefs and conformed. She said large surveys such as the UN report are useful for countries to track their own progress.

But such rankings can also lead one to absurd conclusions - for instance, that the fifth happiest country, Sweden, must be a happier place to live in than the sixth, Canada, as conditions differ across countries.

Also, after last year's Gallup poll in which Singapore landed at the bottom of 148 countries, making it the butt of jokes for having the world's most emotionless people, it did much better this year. Some 70 per cent of Singapore respondents reported experiencing positive emotions last year, up from 46 per cent in 2011.

Like other experts, Prof Scollon thinks the bad publicity from last year's poll prompted people to answer more positively this time round. She said: "I don't mean they were answering dishonestly, but they may have lowered their threshold for saying 'yes' to questions such as if they smiled yesterday."

Though none of these surveys tracked the causes of unhappiness in Singapore, experts raised several areas in which Singapore can improve on. Mr Halbert Louis, the director of Connect Consultancy and Training which offers mental-wellness workshops for companies, said Singapore would be better without a culture of complaining. He said people here tend to blame others for making them unhappy. He said: "When I teach stress management, I emphasise to participants that the root cause of our stress is an internal problem.

"Your boss or spouse may trigger your emotions, but our stress comes from our rigid thinking of how things should or should not be."

Dr Christopher Cheok, head of the department of psychological medicine at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, said Singapore was an "over-measured society" where all aspects of life, from academic results or work performance to where one lives, are scored. He said people should accept that there will always be others better than themselves and focus on their own goals to be happy.

A LIFELONG PURSUIT

Dr Albert Liau, associate professor with the Psychological Studies Academic Group at the National Institute of Education and his colleague, Associate Professor Maureen Neihart, head of the Group, are studying the effects of positive interventions on happiness and depressive symptoms in people.

In a study published in the Journal Of Happiness Studies last year, Dr Liau found that undergraduates at a Malaysian private university who wrote gratitude letters and recorded three good things a day, and those who identified and used their strengths, had significantly higher levels of happiness than a control group. They are now conducting similar studies among young people in Singapore.

Experts stressed that achieving happiness is a lifelong pursuit that people need to work hard at.

Dr Wolff von Auer, a counsellor at Counseling and Hypnotherapy Hub at Sime Darby Centre, said: "Rather than wasting our energies trying to gauge how happy we are, we need to recognise that happiness is an unlimited resource and focus on ways in which we can attain more of it."

In pursuit of happiness

 Happiness depends upon ourselves, said Greek philosopher Aristotle.

Aristotle thought that a happy life embraced a broad range of conditions, including physical as well as mental well-being.  Modern studies agree.

While money in itself does not bring happiness, its ability to meet one's physical needs is important. Once people's basic physical needs, such as food and housing, are met, higher incomes do little to boost happiness.

Instead, a hierarchy of needs emerges and mental and emotional well-being come into the picture. That is where people find satisfaction and joy in their work and connections to others. Research has shown that having support through friends, family and social networks is a reliable indicator of happiness.

Spending time with family and friends, sharing laughs with loved ones, coming home to a home-cooked meal, knowing that loved ones are happy and healthy and spending time serving others were the common threads in their answers.

Being in a state of happiness has been linked to the individual having better health. Some studies have suggested that it is linked to having lower levels of stress hormones and better immune systems.

Psychologists and counsellors here and elsewhere are studying how to help people learn to be more positive and, hence, happier.

Achieving happiness is a lifelong pursuit that one needs to work at and the answer to each individual's happiness lies within oneself.

THE HAPPINESS QUOTIENT

Happiness is both an emotion and a state of mind. A person is said to experience positive emotions when he experiences happiness, joy, excitement, calmness, pride, love and affection. These can be brief feelings or permanent character traits.

Indeed, some people are just sunnier than others. According to Associate Professor Maureen Neihart, head of the Psychological Studies Academic Group at the National Institute of Education and author of the book Happiness Is A State Of Mine, 50per cent of people's subjective well-being come from their genetic make-ups. About 10 per cent is due to external circumstances and the remaining 40 per cent can be controlled by the individual.

The world is made up of roughly two-thirds who are born optimists and the rest pessimists, said psychiatrist Christopher Cheok. But pessimists can practise optimism and become good at it, said the head of psychological medicine at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital who, with a colleague, published a toolkit on happiness for World Mental Health Day on Oct 1.

Dr Cheok also holds workshops teaching strategies that maximise this 40 per cent to boost one's happiness level. These aim at boosting substances in the brain, such as the "reward" chemical dopamine, which sends one into a good mood when an achievement is accomplished, and oxytocin, an "attachment" hormone released when a person is around people he is close to.

SMU's Prof Scollon said there is no "signature physiological profile" but happy people experience more positive moods than negative moods, though this does not mean they are never sad.

What is clear from research is that experiencing positive emotions yields short- and long-term health benefits. Prof Scollon said negative emotions, such as anger and fear, increase a person's heart rate and blood pressure to aid survival - the classic "fight or flight" response.

But these physiological changes are not sustainable as they wear down the body. Positive emotions help the body return to a balanced state (homeostasis) more quickly.

Experiments have shown people in a positive mood have quicker cardiovascular recovery after a stressful task than those exposed to neutral or negative mood inductions.

One study tracked the mortality of 180 Catholic nuns who had written autobiographies in early adulthood. It found the greater the number of positive words and sentences, the greater the probability of the nun being alive 60 years later.

Fortunately, the number of negative emotions reported was not conversely associated with mortality.

Another study showed that those with high levels of positive emotions were less likely to develop a cold when exposed to a virus. Dr Cheok said large-scale studies have shown optimistic people face a 48 per cent reduced risk of stroke, up to 20 per cent reduced risk of heart disease and a 7 per cent reduced risk of cancer death.

Strategies to achieve happiness

√ Count your blessings

Keep a gratitude journal, listing what you are grateful for that day or in the past week. It can be about things, events, situations or people, and helps to foster an attitude of thanksgiving.

A similar exercise is to reflect on three good things that happened in the day and why they went well.

Another version of this is a gratitude visit. First, you pen a letter to someone who made a difference in your life but you never thanked properly. You then visit the person to read the letter to him and use the opportunity to discuss your feelings, helping to strengthen the relationship.

Dr Martin Seligman, known as the father of positive psychology, found that people who practised gratitude visits were less depressed and reported greater happiness than those who did not, one month later.

Source: Happiness Is A State of Mine by Maureen Neihart

 √√ Identify strengths and values

In positive psychology, "flow" occurs when people are fully engaged in activities they enjoy so much that they lose track of time.

Using one's strengths is one way to achieve greater engagement. For example, instead of working just for a salary, find a job which appeals to you, matches your skill set and fits your personality.

Ensure your behaviour is in line with your values, which set your direction in life. If you value filial piety, then spending time with your parents is a meaningful activity that boosts your happiness.

Use online resources, such as www.behaviourlibrary.com/strengths.php to identify your strengths.

Source: Achieving Happiness In Singapore by DrChristopher Cheok and Angelina Esther David (available at www.thrive.org.sg/simple_event/detail/21)

√√√ Stop incessant comparisons

Life is like a carousel ride - it is full of ups and downs and there is always someone in front of and behind us.

We should concentrate on improving ourselves, not because others are doing better, but because we are able and want to do better.

Accept that there will always be someone better, cleverer and luckier than you. See yourself as your biggest competitor and aim to be better than you were yesterday.

Once we learn to be happy with ourselves, others will accept us for who we are.

Source: Happiness Within Your Reach: 52 Ideas To A Happier You by Sean Lim

√√√√ Consider different viewpoints

Whenever you encounter a setback in life, look at your situation through a different lens.

If your boss said the report you have submitted is not up to par, you may be very upset initially. But if you looked through a longer lens, you might see how much that remark could mean to you in the future. You are likely to feel less upset about it or even forget about it.

Using an alternative lens also lets you view the situation from someone else's perspective. A colleague may point out that the comment provides a learning opportunity for you. The wide lens provides the big picture, which is how you can learn and grow from the experience. For instance, learn the kind of reports your boss expects.

Know that you do not have the power to change your boss nor to quit your job at the drop of a hat, but you do have the ability to control how you feel and respond to a situation.

Source: Ms Elizabeth Sarah Ragen and Ms Marlene Chua, psychologists at the Centre for Effective Living at the Camden Medical Centre

√√√√√ Learn to regulate your emotions

Life will always hand you setbacks and make you experience feelings such as sadness, anger, grief and disappointment. They are all part of the human experience.

Those who are good at regulating their emotions do not necessarily lead perfect lives, but they do not dwell on negative experiences and know how to soothe themselves.

People can use strategies such as distraction (doing something else to take the mind off the upsetting event), reappraisal (reinterpreting events in a more positive way) and suppression (trying not to think about the upsetting event).

In general, people should direct their attention to people or things which bring them joy and gratitude and make it a habit to create and savour happy memories.

Source: Associate Professor of psychology Christie Napa Scollon of the School of Social Sciences at the Singapore Management University

Studying humanities will make the world a better place

The Straits Times 30/09/2012

Wong Kim Hoh, Senior Writer

MR LEACH, on the importance of the humanities

"Studying the humanities helps to breed civility. Civility may encompass manners but is different from manners. Civility is to respect someone else, and part of that is to understand their background and their world. A world without civility is a world guaranteed to be filled with tension."

Jim Leach has a personal conviction which has been the refrain of many a sage: To understand the present and the future, we have to look to the past. The chairman of the United States National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) also believes that nothing bridges the past, present and future more than the study of the humanities.

"Of all the disciplines, the humanities do the most to tap into and expand the imagination. Literature, art, history, religion and philosophy give meaning to concepts of justice and goodness, and shape our sense of beauty," said Mr Leach in a keynote address delivered in Singapore recently. "They allow us to put on the shoes of others in past ages and different contemporary circumstances. They invite us to ask questions and seek answers."

He spoke at the latest Singapore International Foundation Better World Forum, a series to promote the exchange of insights, perspectives and experiences between global thought leaders and the Singapore community. Titled Cultural Outreach And Citizen Diplomacy, the forum was attended by members of the artistic and diplomatic communities, social entrepreneurs as well as university students.

In a pragmatic world ruled by science and technology, the humanities are often given short shrift. But that, he believes, is a grave mistake.  "Every time there is an advance in science and technology, humanistic questions come into play," he tells The Sunday Times in an interview. It is impossible to talk about cloning and nuclear technology, for example, without discussing attendant ethical and humanistic issues.

A former Republican Congressman appointed by the Obama administration to head the NEH in 2009, Mr Leach views the humanities, in one sense, as having "everything to do with relations, man to man.  The most meaningful discovery in humanities studies is that everything is related to everything else, although we may not know it at the time. The challenge is to discover and then correlate discoveries, the most important of which relate to perspective – values, methods of thinking and doing – rather than fact." 

History and storytelling help many people connect the dots and bind the human experience. History, he says, can be more controversial than current events.  "There can be clarity about certain historical facts like names and dates, but the whys and wherefores of events can be elusive. But despite that, one thing is clear: The deeper our understanding of the past, the greater our capacity to understand and cope with the present and mould the future," he says.

The same can be said of literature.  He mounted a stout defence of literature in his speech by quoting the works of great poets and writers. American poet Walt Whitman's greatest dream, he said, was "an internationality of poems and poets binding the lands of the earth closer than all treaties and diplomacy". Russian novelist and essayist Fyodor Dostoevsky said "beauty will save the world" while the Chinese sage Confucius wrote: "When music and courtesy are better understood and appreciated, there will be no war."

Mr Leach believes that a person who understands his country's history, political theory, jurisprudence, art and literature is more likely to understand his country, his place and his national values. Similarly, a person who has a sense of the world is more likely to understand the thinking of others and apply logic to challenges of the moment.

"How can we contain prejudice and counter forces of hatred if we don't come to know more about each other?" he asks.

These are not casual concerns, but highly important issues in a world filled with tension and strife. It is relevant in the US, embroiled in several wars against terrorism, and it is just as relevant in Singapore where many are grappling with resentment over issues including immigration and foreign talent. "Singapore is not alone," he says, when asked how Singaporeans can learn to cope with the issue. "America has an analogous tension, Switzerland, Scandinavia, Germany and France too."

It is part of a bigger change sweeping the world.  "The bigger change is not someone from another country coming here. The bigger change is occurring in the world. Change is accelerating and when change accelerates, there is a natural discombobulation.  "That would occur whether there is a single immigrant or a thousand. It implies more and more are living in a greater world and it requires effort." 

Learning how to accommodate change is yet another reason why he believes the humanities are important.

Mr Leach – who was teaching public and international affairs at Princeton before his NEH appointment – says the humanities are critical to citizenship, national security, job creation and managing and expanding the store of human knowledge.

Literature, philosophy and history expand the imagination, which he thinks is even more important than knowledge.  Einstein, he says, was not a first-rate mathematician but he became a great physicist because he had such a fantastic imagination. "Einstein once said knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world."

In a highly competitive world, it also makes sense to embrace history, literature, languages and philosophy – subjects which lend perspective and stimulate creative thinking. "How can individuals compete in their own markets if they don't write, think and communicate well and understand their own culture and its variety of subcultures, or abroad if they don't understand foreign languages, histories and traditions?"

In fact, he believes society would be short-changing itself if it short-changed the humanities.

Asked if the Internet has muddied the waters of the humanities, he replies: "The race is on." On the one hand, the Internet has the greatest capacity for people to educate themselves in the world. "On the other, you have two types of people – those who will use the Internet to seek the views of people just like themselves, and those who want to see a wider horizon. The more open-minded you are when you look at the Internet, the better." When he was teaching, he used to tell students who were conservative to find a good liberal blog to read, and vice versa. What is important, he says, is for people to see the big picture. "The big picture is the right thing to have."

But Mr Leach is not done yet. The humanities, he says, emphasise the fourth R – Reality – after the three basics of Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic.

Reality encompasses concern for the human condition. And that includes trying to understand other people and their concerns as empathetically and as comprehensively as possible. When people try to understand each other, conflict will be reduced. "I'm not saying it won't happen, but it will be reduced."

How some countries measure poverty

The Straits Times

 UNLIKE many developed countries, Singapore - along with Canada, New Zealand and South Korea - does not have an official poverty line. 

Singapore does have some estimates on numbers of the working poor, but there is no publicly available government data on how many non-working households there are who can be considered poor. Still, data on how many people fall below a certain level of income is useful as it is a simple yet effective gauge to track numbers of people who might need financial help - and whether their ranks are growing. This is why even countries that do not have official poverty lines, have unofficial ones.

Take Canada. Rather than a single line - which has obvious flaws - it has a more complex and comprehensive method of tracking numbers of the poor. A spokesman for the Canadian government's statistics agency told The Straits Times that it has three different benchmarks to measure how many "low-income" people there are at any given time. 

The first is the Low-income Cut-offs. These are income thresholds below which a family will likely devote a larger share of its income on basic necessities, such as food and clothes. The country keeps meticulous data on how many working and non-working poor fall below these thresholds. It is not a single income level, but is fine-tuned depending on a host of factors such as whether the person lives in an urban or rural area.

The second, the Low-Income Measure, is 50 per cent of the country's median family income, adjusted for family size.

The third, known as the Market Basket of Measures, measures disposable income.

These are treated as "de facto poverty lines", the spokesman said.

At last count, in 2011, there were between three million and 4.2 million Canadians - or between 10 and 12 per cent of the population - who were considered "low-income".

Absolute or relative?

OVER time, the way poverty has been defined globally has evolved and there are now three broad methods - absolute, relative and subjective.

Absolute poverty is the most simplistic. It fixes a level of income, below which it is deemed that the person or family is poor. In developing countries, the World Bank defines the absolute poverty line at US$1.25 (S$1.55) a day, and has set it at US$2 a day for middle-class developing countries. But it gets trickier in developed countries. The US has an absolute poverty threshold set at three times the cost of a minimum food diet in 1963 updated annually for inflation. But these absolute measures tended to have fluctuating numbers of poor depending on recessions and economic booms, according to economist Michael Forster from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Relative poverty is a measure more often used in developed countries, as it is set in the context of the overall distribution of income in a country. The OECD sets the mark at half the median household income, while Britain and Taiwan have thresholds at 60 per cent of median household income. But relative definitions of poverty, by definition, mean that some people will always be less well-off, regardless of how affluent a society becomes. So policymakers have to look at other yardsticks to ensure that the less well-off are not falling further and further behind those surging ahead, with some landing in a condition of being in dire need.

Subjective poverty, a newer concept, asks what it feels like to be poor, taking in cultural and societal attitudes to being "poor". This has led to new and more nuanced ways of measuring poverty, said Ms Sanushka Mudaliar, senior manager at the Lien Centre for Social Innovation. These include multi-dimensional poverty measures with indicators for poor health, lack of education and disempowerment; and an index used by the United Nations which tracks exclusion from social services, and civil and social life.

Yet another is Participatory Poverty Assessments, which involve engaging the community in creating a definition and measure of poverty that aligns with their experience, she added.

Some might argue that since relative poverty will always be a concern, the poor will always be with us. While that might be axiomatic, it should not distract society from seeking to understand the underlying causes which keep some members from breaking out of poverty and trying to give them a leg-up.

As Singapore strives to become a more fair and just society, one which is plugged into a fast- changing globalised economy, the key to maintaining its social cohesion will be efforts that are made - by Government as well as individuals - to help its weaker members stay with the pack that is racing ahead, rather than have them fall further behind.

According to latest official data, 10 per cent of Singapore's resident households, comprising an average of 3.5 members and with at least one working person, earn an average of $1,644. This figure is all the more surprising given that Singapore has one of the world's highest annual incomes per head, of $65,000.

Singapore has no official measurement of what constitutes poverty here, but the Department of Statistics found the average household expenditure on basic needs to be $1,250 a month for a four-person household two years ago. This is average spending on food, clothing and shelter for those living in a one- to two- room flat, according to a paper to be released by the Lien Centre for Social Innovation.

Given Singapore's rapid economic progress over the decades, poverty is a phenomenon that many do not encounter personally, or tend to wave aside because it is not part of their daily consciousness.

Indeed, in 2001, Professor Kishore Mahbubani, dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, declared that Singapore had eradicated poverty. "There are no homeless, destitute or starving people in Singapore," he said, in remarks that some considered too sweeping.

Legal changes about 'protecting our society'

Law Minister K. Shanmugam is unfazed by recent applications for judicial reviews, saying it is people's right to do so. He also tells Tham Yuen-C that changes to mandatory death penalty laws will lead to fewer people being sent to the gallows but that is not why it was amended. Rather, it tightens enforcement to better protect against the drug menace, while murder rates are low so Singapore can afford to relax the penalty for some categories.

  

There have been quite a few applications for judicial review recently, such as over Section 377A (criminalising sex between men) and from Faith Community Baptist Church (ordered to compensate a pregnant former employee sacked after committing adultery). How do you feel about people questioning the decisions of the Government?

There have been a few cases. I wouldn't say there have been a lot of cases. The right to apply (for judicial review), where it is fair or where it is properly applied for, is a matter for the courts. People have a right to apply and that has always been a part of our law. You must allow people to apply.

But as a minister, does it affect your work, or the work of the Government?

Doesn't really affect. In Singapore, we take the obligation to make sure the law complies with the Constitution very seriously. In fact, the previous Chief Justice explained that in other countries, say the United Kingdom, you have various districts with many statutory authorities, local councils. And they may not clear all their actions through lawyers, at least in the past. So these actions may be ultra vires (beyond one's legal power or authority) and you might then find some are successfully challenged.

In Singapore, every piece of legislation is first drafted and vetted by the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) and run through the Ministry of Law, where independently, we look at it to make sure that it doesn't contravene the Constitution. Legislation also has to be looked at by the Presidential Council for Minority Rights to see whether there are any possible breaches. So every piece of legislation has been first looked at for constitutional compliance.

Separately, actions by ministries, administrative actions can also be judicially reviewed. But usually they will make sure that they have received advice from the AGC's office, and some ministries have lawyers in-house. So the likelihood that a piece of legislation is ultra vires is not very high. We have a careful system of checks and balances.

So as a minister, does it impact me? No. I carry on as per usual as I have always been aware that legislation and action can be challenged, and we have put in a system that seeks to minimise that by making sure that in the first place we don't contravene.

Do you feel that the Government's actions are increasingly being challenged more?

I don't know that I will draw that conclusion. These are rights that people have. 

There is a view that the recent changes to the mandatory death penalty laws effectively mean that the death penalty has been abolished. Was this the intention of the changes?

We're not doing away with the mandatory death penalty, we're doing away with it in two specific situations. We have mandatory death penalty for a variety of other offences still, like firearms offences and drug-trafficking offences (where the person is not a courier). For drug couriers, we have done away with it if they are in a position to help us identify and go after people higher up in the drug distribution hierarchy. So we are trying to refine our laws in a way that we can better enforce them and be more effective. For homicide, the rationale is different. We've got 0.3 homicides per 100,000 population, so we think that given the low rate, we can afford to take the risk.

When the Misuse of Drugs Act was changed to make the death penalty mandatory, one reason was that it would be a strong deterrent. How do the changes gel with this message?

Well, it is not just about getting information, we must be able to disrupt a network, information that is useful for us. So it's likely to be the death penalty unless the person is in a position to give us information that allows us to go after somebody else and net a bigger fish and make the enforcement even more effective.

And overall, the point is still to protect our society. So the question you have to ask is not about the death penalty itself but whether these moves help us protect our society better from the drug menace. And I think it does.

But given that a lot of the death penalty cases in Singapore have to do with drug cases, and those charged with murder are seldom charged with murder with the intention to kill, wouldn't removing the mandatory death penalty effectively remove the death penalty?

Not on drugs, no. A wide variety of drug offences will still attract the mandatory death penalty. But if a lot of couriers are able to give us that assistance and we are able to more effectively dismantle the drug networks, of course that's a good thing.

For homicides, there is a risk because the deterrent effect is less. But I think we can afford to take the risk at this point. Now, as Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean has said, we will review what happens after we've done this relaxation, to see whether we have taken the right step.

Would you say it's a deliberate move to send fewer people to the gallows in Singapore?

It's not focused on that. No country wants to send anyone to death, right? What you want is a civilised system of criminal justice but which also protects society. We have the death penalty for a variety of reasons. Deterrence is an important reason. The majority of Singaporeans support the death penalty. This is not designed to say, "Oh, we want to send less people or we want to send more people" to (hang). Nobody wants anyone to (get)the death penalty. This is designed to say, look, since homicides have come down so substantially, do we still need the mandatory death penalty as a substantial deterrent for this offence? The answer is probably, we can make this change and then look at what happens.

So it's a calculated risk?

Yes, there will certainly be fewer people who will go to the gallows as a result of these changes but we believe that that's a move that can be made.

Do you see Singapore doing away with the death penalty eventually or are we moving towards it?

I'm in no position to say. In every society, at a point in time, minds change, social mores change, values change. So whether there is the death penalty or there is no death penalty or what kind of laws we have 10, 20, 30 years down the road, is for that society and that leadership to decide.

A good set of leaders who will continuously look at the societal values would look at what the penalty is intended to achieve and ask whether it is still necessary and relevant.

You tell your staff at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: "If you're not at the table, you could end up being on the menu." Was this borne out in your interactions and dealings at international meetings and with top leaders of other countries?

Yes. We have international conferences and if you are not there to defend yourself, protect your interest, none of the others will have interest in protecting you and they will come up with rules that will not impact on them but may impact on you and it depends on whether they are more powerful than you.

Size is a very big factor in international relations. Even when you are at the table and if you are small and others are big, they can all agree on something that can have an impact on you.

What are some of your more unpleasant experiences as Foreign Minister then?

I wouldn't say unpleasant. It's always the country's interest. What I can say is whether it is Asean, the EAS (East Asia Summit) or a larger grouping, whenever there are discussions on what to do, who's to do it, how should we structure rules, they all have significant implications on us and every country is there looking out for itself.

Singapore's multi-pronged approach to addressing its energy needs

Singapore's energy sources have evolved over the years, and diversification has brought with it opportunities in trade, technology and even talent development. In the second of a five-part series that looks at the various aspects of energy production and distribution, Arti Mulchand speaks to industry players who are all responsible for feeding Singapore's electricity grid that powers up homes, offices, factories and streets.

 IN JUST over a decade, Singapore has managed a complete about-turn in terms of its dependence on petroleum products as feedstock, which is used to create energy. In 2005, heavy fuel oil still made up over a fifth of the country's energy mix. Last year, that figure dropped to 12.3 per cent, with natural gas accounting for 84.3 per cent. Natural gas is considered a cleaner fossil fuel to use for energy since it produces between 30 per cent and 70 per cent less carbon emissions than either oil or coal.

But what has made Singapore's energy future even more secure is the opening in May of the 40ha Singapore liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal on Jurong Island, points out Energy Market Authority assistant chief executive Kwok Foo Seng. It allows Singapore to import natural gas from anywhere in the world, instead of depending on piped natural gas from Malaysia and Indonesia. "When you talk about the right energy mix, you need to look at both having natural gas and having enough supplies of it. We now have extra sources, and that helps a lot in terms of energy security," said Mr Kwok, drawing reference to the 1973 and 1979 oil crises sparked by the Arab nations, when prices spiked. Already, expansion is on the cards both for the LNG terminal and LNG sources.

The city-state also aims to become Asia's LNG trading hub. The continent is now the fastest-growing gas market worldwide and is expected to become the second largest by 2015, says the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Singapore is also looking closely at further diversification of its energy sources, including the potential of renewable resources such as solar energy and biomass. Speaking at last month's Singapore International Energy Week, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office and Second Minister for Home Affairs and Trade and Industry S. Iswaran cited the IEA's estimate that renewable energy is currently the fastest growing sector of the global energy mix. "We have some of the best strategies and initiatives in order to diversify Singapore's energy mix, foster competition in our energy markets and help consumers make more informed choices about their energy use and one key strategy is to diversify our energy sources," Mr Iswaran said.

LNG experience a legacy to share and treasure

In May this year, the $1.7 billion, 40ha terminal on the southernmost tip of Jurong Island successfully launched commercial operations, starting a new chapter in Singapore's energy history. It is one that allows the nation to import natural gas from around the world instead of relying on piped natural gas from Malaysia and Indonesia. The LNG terminal's initial capacity of 3.5 million tonnes a year will increase to six million tonnes by the year's end after a third storage tank and additional facilities start up. There are already plans for a fourth tank. 

Plans to develop the LNG terminal on a commercial basis were first announced in 2006. In April 2008, BG Group (BG) was allowed to import and sell up to three million tonnes per annum of LNG in Singapore. But the initial business model proved untenable. "The model didn't contemplate changes in the LNG business, including the impact of shale and commoditisation. All it contemplated was domestic supply with a small capability for export," explained the civil engineer, who also holds a degree in finance. 

In June 2009, the Government announced its decision to take over the development and ownership of the terminal, and formed SLNG to develop, build, own and operate the terminal. Mr McGregor and his five-man team were tasked with modifying the business plan from something "vanilla" into one more suited to a "growing piece of infrastructure". "It meant picturing the future 20 years out from a business perspective, and then taking my 40-odd years of experience and working backwards," he explained. His plans also made  for a landmark moment for Singapore: a 100m tract of reclaimed land had to be turned back into seafront to allow large ships enough clearance to access the berth.

"It's probably the first time Singapore has given land back," he quipped.

But there were other challenges. "We needed people with key (LNG-related) experience but that had to come from the outside. It was not easy and didn't come cheap," he revealed.Many others had to be retrained from parallel industries, including the petrochemical and power generation industries.

"We leveraged firms that were downsizing through the downturn and took our new hires to South Korea to be retrained. They worked on active LNG facilities there before we brought them back to operate the terminal." Today, SLNG's team numbers about 130, of which 80 per cent are Singaporeans. The international team comes from countries that include Britain, India, Malaysia and New Zealand.

Since then, SLNG together with EMA have been jointly awarded the 2013 CWC LNG Innovation Asia Pacific Award for excellence in commercial or technical innovation, an industry award covering the region.SLNG also signed its first vessel cool-down services agreement and performed its first vessel cool-down within five months of starting commercial operations, earlier than expected. A newly-built or newly-repaired LNG ship's tanks must be "cooled down" before they can load a new cargo of LNG.

 Mr McGregor will hand the baton to Mr John Ng, former CEO of YTL PowerSeraya Group, which generates and retails energy as a wholly-owned subsidiary of YTL Power International. Mr McGregor will remain on the SLNG board as a non-executive director.

"But that's also the benefit of having the Government behind you. Things move," he conceded.  People do, too, and at the end of this year.  

WHEN 28-year-old Valerie Choy graduated with honours in chemical engineering from the National University of Singapore in 2008, she admitted that the prospect of a job in the power sector was not even on the radar. "I wanted a career that was both challenging and meaningful. But the power sector?  I don't think fresh graduates are very excited by working in a power generation company and being stuck in the day to day. It was hard to see the long-term benefits of joining the power sector. They had an image problem." she says.

Ms Choy's reaction was typical of a graduate - one that was highlighted by a 2011 study by the Energy Market Authority (EMA) and the Singapore Workforce Development Agency. In the end, Ms Choy joined another aspect of the sector - energy consulting - but the power sector in Singapore is at a critical crossroads, dealing with an ageing technical workforce yet not attracting much interest among the young. And for all the advancements that the sector has made in technology and know-how, it is this people problem that now threatens to cause the next major trip.

So in March last year, a new Power Sector Manpower Task Force was set up. Led by former Singapore Power Group chief executive Quek Poh Huat, it looked to delve deeper into the issues and propose responses. What followed was a consultation exercise involving more than 300 respondents, a "landscape" review of both local and international manpower initiatives, and then a wider seeking of input from more than 100 stakeholders, including industry leaders, government agencies and even students.

The study turned up some sobering numbers. The median age of the power sector's technical workforce is 48 years, compared with the national median of 42. More than 60 per cent are over 40 years old, and less than 15 per cent are under 30. And the sector could not seem to hold on to its precious young. The attrition rate of young people in the sector was about 15 per cent, much higher than the 2 per cent to 3 per cent for the entire workforce.

The implications for a nation that relies heavily on the unfailing supply of essential utilities like electricity and water to power its key manufacturing and services industries were serious.

"If we don't have the people, we cannot keep up this performance. We know this will be a big challenge for us," says Mr Quek.

In December last year, his task force proposed three key initiatives:

1. the establishment of a fresh talent attraction, retention and development framework;
2.  a sector-wide branding exercise, and 
3. a more coordinated approach to driving manpower efforts within the industry.

In January, they were accepted by the Government, and the wheels of change are currently in motion.

Going upstream

CULTIVATING new talent means having to go as far upstream as secondary schools. So to infuse interest in energy-related matters at an earlier age, EMA has begun working with the Education Ministry to review the lower secondary geography curriculum. The idea will be to incorporate energy-related issues, such as getting students to think about the various constraints to the adoption of renewable energy. The revised curriculum is expected to be implemented as early as next year.

Meanwhile, the new electrical power engineering degree course jointly run by the Singapore Institute of Technology and Newcastle University kicked off last month with its first batch of 60 students. A total of 380 applications were received for the course, which is the country's first undergraduate power engineering course and targets polytechnic upgraders.

Looking to convince more graduates to join the sector, EMA introduced the first-ever dedicated energy sector pavilion, "Powering Lives", at the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University career fairs earlier this year. It also held Open House sessions at Singapore's largest power generation plant, Senoko Energy, and organised Energy Connect, a new national competition and seminar that connected youth with energy industry representatives. Work is now ongoing to develop a sector-wide competency framework and more scholarships for students at various levels.

BUT will all that be enough, given the "unsexy" image of the power sector?

Industry watchers like Mr Ravi Krishnaswamy, Frost & Sullivan's vice-president of energy and environment systems practice (Asia-Pacific), are cautiously optimistic, but add that the sector needs to clear the air about what it really can offer. He says: "Some positions within the sector are perceived to be purely manual and on the ground. Young professionals may not find them attractive - especially the cream of the crop. The beauty is that with developments in technology, the nature of these positions is changing. Those perceptions have to be fixed."

Mr Sanjeev Gupta, Ernst & Young's Asia-Pacific transactions advisory services leader for oil and gas, agrees. But given the global competition for talent, he feels the sector must move faster. "Hiring and development need to take place more quickly and more creatively than they have in the past Companies with strong talent management in place will be the most competitive," he says.

One suggestion Mr Gupta has is for energy companies to continue to invest heavily in the in-house development of talent through training. "(This) is a costly and time-consuming process, but is wholly necessary in the absence of graduates with the necessary skills and expertise," he explains. "The need for companies to invest in their own training programmes is becoming increasingly acute."

In this vein, Singapore Power launched "Edge", a graduate development programme, in July. Fresh graduates undergo one full year of structured training, followed by at least two job rotations to various parts of the company's operations over the four years that follow.

"We expose them to the various parts of the business, give them overseas postings and try and keep things interesting," Mr Quek explains.

Still, it will be tough going and may take many years to change an image of the sector which is, for the average man in the street, dominated by the heat and dirt of pipes and tanks.

Until then, Singapore's power sector may get the occasional hand from market forces, says Mr Gupta.

"Every profession has ups and downs but we will always need energy. "And in five or six years when the talent crunch is at its most acute, salaries will evolve and things will right themselves," he adds, before giving, perhaps, the ultimate sales pitch.

"This is a sector without a sunset."

Senoko's activities to engage the young

Another organisation received special mention for rallying youth around energy causes. The Straits Times speaks to the inaugural winners of the Singapore Energy Award, which honours those who have made transformational changes in the energy sector, and finds out what fuels their passion.

  

IT IS a Saturday but one of Senoko Energy's vice-presidents is at Woodgrove Secondary School helping staff to develop an education module for next year and exploring how the school can become more energy-efficient. Woodgrove Secondary is one of 18 schools that has been adopted by Singapore's largest power generation company as part of the NEA Corporate and School Partnership Programme (Casp). 

Senoko offers the schools training attachments, plant tours and project sponsorship among other things, and Mr Kwong Kok Chan has made it his personal mission to work with them. "When I first started in 2004, I saw it as just part of my job. Now I can't differentiate between work and personal interest," says the 60-year-old, an engineering graduate from the University of Malaya. "The students treat me like an uncle, and I've also learnt from the way they see things. One Admiralty student even challenged me, asking why Singapore didn't harness electricity from lightning. I had no idea what to say!"

It is people like Mr Kwong that Senoko Energy president and chief executive officer Brendan Wauters credit for the company's win in the Organisation category of the inaugural Singapore Energy Awards. "The award reflects the continued and consistent efforts we have put in over the past decade," he says. 

"A lot of people like Mr Kwong are instrumental to what we have done. Mr Kwong loves to interact with students and their teachers. His passion is infectious."

But Casp is only one of many community outreach activities undertaken by Senoko, the only power generation company located in the north of Singapore. "Being in the north, we are closer to residential areas, so it important that we have a relationship with our neighbouring communities," explains Mr Wauters.

Senoko has also partnered with the PUB to adopt Sungei Sembawang and help make young people aware of the need for water conservation. In 2012, the company launched the Senoko Sustainability Challenge, which challenged students from primary schools to junior colleges to come up with solutions to environmental problems.

"It aims to create awareness of the importance of sustainability in general and climate change in particular among the younger generation, who are ultimately the ones who can impact future outcomes the most," says Mr Wauters. A total of 120 teams from 52 schools participated this year.

Senoko, which started in 1975, has, through the years, delivered several firsts.

In 1991, it became the first power generation company to import natural gas into Singapore from Malaysia. It was a landmark moment, representing the nation's first step away from liquid fuel.

Senoko was also the first to use combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) technology in 1995. Being able to fire with either natural gas or fuel oil or a mix of both translated into about 10 per cent in energy efficiency gains and cleaner emissions.

Senoko was also the first company to take the 3R principles of reduce, reuse and recycle to a new level: Its "repowering" approach so far has resulted in a more than 40 per cent drop in carbon intensity over 1990 levels.

Senoko is still on the cutting edge of other innovations, including adopting and testing electric vehicles.

"Power companies are often seen as part of the problem in terms of the environment, but in Singapore, we can say we have become part of the solution," says Mr Wauters.

THE RECYCLER  : Waste-to-energy operations picking up steam

WHEN people think of waste, they don't often think of waste wood. Even fewer think of turning waste wood into energy. But that's what fuels Mr Lee Tse Luen every day. The 36-year-old, who spent close to a decade doing waste management for Sembcorp Environmental Management, now produces steam from waste wood at Sembcorp Industries. "This has been my most exciting posting so far because of the impact we have on the chemical and petrochemical companies here on Jurong Island," said the assistant vice-president of power and utilities. 

"The steam that we produce is economical and competitively priced compared to other energy sources, so we help make these companies more competitive and reduce their carbon footprint. It makes a difference."  The plant he manages, Sembcorp's first renewable energy plant in Singapore, was built in 2011. Following a $30 million expansion, it recently tripled its output to 60 tonnes of steam per hour, produced from 400 tonnes of wood chip processed from the construction and demolition waste collected by Sembcorp's solid waste management operations each day. 

This allows Sembcorp to provide its customers with energy that is clean and environmentally friendly, as well as secure and cost-competitive. It also reduces the amount of waste being tipped into landfills.

Mr Lee oversees the day-to-day running of the plant, which is manned by up to four people at any one point, including him. He checks on production numbers and troubleshoots issues on the ground.

One of the biggest misconceptions among people he speaks to is that the waste-to-energy process is simpler than it is. Construction waste is collected, but it doesn't just contain waste wood. It first goes to a plant in Tuas to get sorted. The waste wood then needs to be shredded to less than 100mm to make it suitable for burning. Each day, over 50 trucks transport seven to eight tonnes of wood chips each to the Jurong Island plant. The 400 tonnes of waste wood, burned at 700 to 800 deg C, become the steam that is distributed to Sembcorp's Jurong Island customers.

By 2016, Sembcorp will also have a $250 million plant that will convert industrial and commercial waste into 140 tonnes of steam per hour. Together, the two projects will cut carbon dioxide emissions by about 120,000 tonnes annually. 

"It hasn't been easy getting people to recycle. The cost of disposing is so low, so it makes alternatives like recycling less viable."That change in mindset takes time. Ten years ago, we thought it would take 10 years. Maybe it will take another 10," he said. 

Sembcorp's growing global footprint - it now has a presence in 16 countries that include the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates and China - also allowed Mr Lee to spend two years over 2006 and 2007 doing a stint in Nanjing. At the time, Sembcorp was working with a Chinese company on a waste-to-resource battery recycling project, and Mr Lee was the assistant to the then-joint venture's chief executive officer Jason Chan. The experience was an eye-opener. "It was really quite a challenge to get the locals to accept some of the things we wanted, like safety standards. So something that would have taken two to three weeks to get done here, took two to three months there," he said.

Even back home, challenges abound.

Solar photovoltaic (PV) power

The rising potential of solar photovoltaic (PV) power is another game changer, said Associate Professor Tseng King Jet, who heads the power engineering division at Nanyang Technological University (NTU). "The falling price of PV panels, the gradually rising costs of grid electricity and the easing of restrictions on incorporating solar PV systems into building roof-tops will result in greater energy security, diversity and flexibility for Singapore," he said.

Today, about 90 per cent of the country's energy needs are met by natural gas, but Singapore has been ramping up its use of solar energy, the only renewable energy source currently connected to the national grid. As of the end of last year, the installed capacity of grid-connected solar PV systems had reached 9,989 kilowatts-peak (kWp) - the measure refers to the amount of electric power that can be produced by a solar PV system at its peak, up from 5,938kWp the year before. Last month, the cap for intermittent energy supply to the national grid was raised from 350MWp to 600MWp. The cap is in place because energy reserves are required as a backup to ensure system stability.

The Energy Market Authority's chief executive, Mr Chee Hong Tat, says there is room for expanded use as long as unstable output arising from weather conditionsand shadows can be managed to avoid outages. "The good news is that we have enough reserves in the system to support up to 600MWp of solar or almost 50 times the total amount of solar currently installed in Singapore.

Despite the growing penetration of solar PV power, it is unlikely to be able to meet more than five per cent of Singapore's average energy needs in the foreseeable future.