TR EMERITUS

I received this email to explain the process of submitting a claim for NS reservist pay. It is extremely complicated. I suggest that SAF should allow the employer to fill up a form using Corp Pass, instead of going through a complicated registration process. Email from SAF: Dear Tan Kin Lian, Thank you for your email dated 23 January 2021. 1. We have receive the attachment in your email and we understand that you are facing difficulties accessing the NS Pay eServices. We would also like to bring to your attention of the changes due to the rollout of new NS Pay e-service in mid March 2019 and suggest you to refer to the following link for the step by step user guide for CorpPass and try again: https://www.ns.sg/nsp/portal/site/news-and-media/detail/2017-q1/log-in-to-ns-portal-using-corppass-in-june-2017 2. Alternatively, kindly refer to the following claim process and try again. Step 1: In order to access "Register for NSmen Payment" eservice in NS Portal, the assigned user must be assigned with the Digital Service Role: NSP Admin in your company’s CorpPass account (www.corppass.gov.sg) under the Digital eService: MINDEF/MHA NS Portal. In order to access "Manage NSMen Payments (Employer)" eservice in NS Portal, the assigned user must be registered as the Certifying Officer (CO) in the NS portal and they must also be assigned with the Digital Service Role: NSP User in your company’s CorpPass account (www.corppass.gov.sg) under the Digital eService: MINDEF/MHA NS Portal. Your company's CorpPass Administrator need to select the Digital eService: MINDEF/MHA NS Portal and assign the transacting personnel with the appropriate role and the corresponding CPF Submission Number (CSN) that they can access to. Do note that the CSN is case sensitive; it is to be typed in capitalisation and there should not be any spaces on the front and the back of CSN. (Example: 201912345A-PTE-01) Available Roles for Selection: NSP Admin: To perform registration and update company details NSP User: To submit Make-up Pay claims, enquire on claim/payment status and update company details Note: - A single user can hold both the NSP Admin and NSP User Role. - Please ensure that all Certifying Officer (CO) / Endorsing Officer (EO) / Superior (SP) are assigned with the Digital Service Role: NSP User You may refer to the following link for the steps or contact CorpPass Helpdesk via the following modes for further clarifications and, assistance: https://www.ns.sg/nsp/portal/site/news-and-media/detail/2017-q1/log-in-to-ns-portal-using-corppass-in-june-2017 Email:[email protected] Hotline: 6643 0577 Step 2: Once the appropriate role has been assigned under CorpPass, the user assigned as the NSP Admin may refer to the following steps to register for NSmen Payments if the CSN number is previously not registered. If the CSN number is already registered in NS Portal previously, kindly refer to the next step. i. Go to the NS Portal website. The URL is https://www.ns.sg ii. Log in with your CorpPass iii. You will be directed to the Employer’s dashboard iv. Under “Register for NSmen Payments”, click on “Register” Please note that only user assigned with NSP Admin role are able to access “Register for NSmen Payments” eservice. Step 3: After registration, the assigned personnel will be able to access the NS Portal immediately. A confirmation email will be sent to all the assigned personnel as well. The assigned Certifying Officer may refer to the following steps to access the payment eservices: i. Go to the NS Portal website. The URL is https://www.ns.sg ii. Log in with your CorpPass iii. You will be directed to the Employer’s dashboard iv. Under “Manage NSmen Payments (Employer)”, click on “Access eService” Please note that only user assigned with NSP User role are able to access “Manage NSmen Payments (Employer)” eservice. Should you require further assistance, please contact us at 1800 3676767, or +(65) 6567 6767 if you are calling from overseas. Alternatively, you can email us at [email protected] or visit our website at www.ns.sg for more information. We will be pleased to assist you.     Tan Kin Lian      Read More →

Talk is cheap. Let’s see the PAP Government walk the talk on their sudden impetus to “strengthen the social support system”. They need to put their money where their mouth is. Quite apart from the rhetoric of wanting to “strengthen the social support system”, Covid -19 is simply not the reason that “widened the gulf between the haves and have nots” in Singapore. Covid-19 is certainly not the root cause of the chronic social and economic inequality here. Inequality is infact an indictment of the PAP Government’s mismanagement of the country and its failed social and economic policies. While we may well need a reset of the social compact, it’s not for the Covid-19 reason as advertised per se. Let’s not blame Covid-19 for a problem that the PAP is responsible for. The social compact or contract is the political authority given to the PAP Government that embodies the will of the people to undertake responsibility for the people’s welfare and well being. This responsibility of the PAP Government as defined by the social contract is immutable and does not need a reset. Yes we deserve better. Yes we do deserve a new deal. However what requires a reset is inter-alia, the nature and extent to which the Government must “strengthen the social support system”. Infact we must address inequality in Singapore urgently. Inequality is a symptom not the disease. The disease is systemic in nature and the disease Covid-19 per se is not the root cause of the problem though it certainly has made things worse. What we have here is a system riddled with a debilitating cancer that is spreading within our body politic. The system is rotten to the core. It’s not fit for purpose and does not serve the ordinary citizen as it should. The system needs a reset. It is our social and economic policies that require a reset and not just the social compact. I have previously already several times called for a total systemic overhaul in setting new priorities to achieve a better quality of life for all here in Singapore. We need to reduce the cost of living, stresses and strains and anxieties that plague ordinary households in Singapore. We need to change our way of life. The Government’s key strategy to resolve the chronic social and income inequality in Singapore is job creation economic growth but 60 years of PAP economic strategies have had the opposite effect and have entrenched inequality here instead. The PAP Government want to sell to you the “Singapore Dream” when in fact for most it is a “Singapore Nightmare” with ordinary citizens suffering to make ends meet; with escalating cost of living, depreciating HDB leases, retirement inadequacy and bleak job prospects not just because of the Covid-19 crisis but primarily due to ever increasing competition for fewer and fewer jobs against more and more people that are being brought to our shores under dubious PAP Government immigration and population policies. Inequality makes the hard sell of the PAP Government’s “Singapore Dream” a joke. The solution lies in getting rid of the PAP government as soon as possible since they have failed, neglected and/or refused to address the worsening social and income inequality that has taken root here despite having every opportunity to do so. We need incisive surgical intervention to change the system ; the social compact and the social and economic policies that have caused so much hardship here for ordinary citizens. Not just surgery but emergency surgery is required to get rid of this blight on our society to start the healing process of making Singapore better. The PAP Government has been in consecutive power, being the first and only fully elected government of Singapore, for almost 62 years since 30 May 1959. And chronic inequality is the outcome of their stewardship. Is this the Singapore we want? A reset is indeed long overdue.   Khush Chopra        Read More →

Students & LGBTQ+ Supporters Protesting Outside MOE Building were arrested 1. We, the undersigned organisations, express our solidarity with Ashlee, the transgender student at Millennia Institute whose right to privacy, health, safety and access to education were violated by her school. We are deeply concerned about the lack of institutional regulations or policies that acknowledge and protect the rights of transgender students in Singapore. The facts referred to in this statement were provided to us directly by Ashlee to the best of her recollection and knowledge. For reference, we provide a complete timeline of events from Ashlee’s perspective at the end of this statement. 2. Transgender youths often face violence and discrimination at home and in schools because of their gender identities or expressions. In a joint submission to the United Nations (UN) for Singapore’s third Universal Periodic Review (UPR), Sayoni and TransgenderSG documented many such incidents, including where educational institutions sought to prevent transgender students from transitioning or pursuing hormone replacement therapy (HRT) while at school. TransgenderSG’s 2020 nationwide survey found that over three-quarters of students who were out as transgender in school reported negative experiences ranging from bullying to sexual assault. A third of trans students stated that they did not feel safe at school, and almost half felt they had no one at school they could turn to for help. 3. Despite having parental consent to medically transition, Ashlee was informed by her doctor in August 2020 that MOE needs him to consult and work with schools before referring any student for HRT. On 23 October 2020, Ashlee’s school leaders and administrators met with her and her father to inform them that should Ashlee choose to receive hormone replacement therapy, it would have to be at a reduced dosage. They told Ashlee that she would be expelled if physical changes from the hormones made her no longer able to fit into the boys’ uniform. 4. On 5 Nov 2020, Ashlee was pulled out of class and reprimanded for her hair length. After returning home, the school called her father to inform him that Ashlee was not to return to school until she cut her hair. The school declined her request for home-based learning. Ashlee did not return to school for the rest of the school year from 6 Nov 2020 to 27 Nov 2020. On 11 Jan 2021, the first day of Year 2, Ashlee turned up at school only to be called up by the school administration within an hour and thrown out of the school compound because her hair length did not comply with the boy’s dress code. 5. On 15 January 2021, Ashlee posted on Reddit about her experiences. MOE responded by issuing a statement denying their alleged interference in her hormone replacement therapy or that of any student. On 18 January 2021, the school met with Ashlee and informed her that they would not allow her to attend classroom lessons unless she complies with the hair and uniform requirements for male students, once again denying her right to education on the basis of her gender expression. An allowance was made for her to wear track pants and a polo shirt instead of the boy’s uniform, on the condition she agreed to cut her hair. 6. We affirm that medical advice, in particular medical advice on hormone dosage levels, should be left to healthcare professionals. Schools should not interfere with a student’s healthcare decisions and necessary medical treatments. In addition, schools should not punish - let alone threaten to expel - students for failing to adhere to gender stereotypes and binary gender roles, or invade their privacy by sharing their transgender identity without their consent. 7. Existing research extensively documents a higher prevalence of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation among transgender individuals. HRT is a life-saving treatment that has been proven to significantly reduce this prevalence and improve the mental health and quality of life of many transgender persons with gender dysphoria. In Singapore, a 2016 study found that nearly half of transgender women have had suicidal thoughts. Millennia Institute’s ultimatum for Ashlee to choose between receiving an education or receiving medically necessary treatment violates her basic human rights to self-determination, privacy, personal autonomy and bodily integrity, as well as her right to education and the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. 8. In 2019, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC)5, which Singapore has ratified since 1995, expressed concerns over the persisting discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) children in Singapore and recommended the State to adopt comprehensive strategies, including providing sensitivity training for teachers. The Ministry of Education (MOE) has since expressed their commitment to meeting the mental health needs of students, and implementing measures to combat bullying based on sexual orientation, gender identity or expression at educational institutions. It is thus profoundly troubling and disappointing that MOE’s official statement on Ashlee’s allegations refused to acknowledge her gender identity and chose to misgender her by using male pronouns. 9. In response to the Ministry Of Education’s denial of any involvement in withholding Ashlee’s hormone replacement therapy, and their stated commitment to keeping students safe, we call upon the Ministry of Education and Institute of Mental Health to act on this commitment by working with LGBTIQ organisations to clarify and implement a uniform standard of care for transgender students and other LGBTIQ youths across all schools, in order to ensure safe and nurturing environments for all students regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, or sex characteristics. 10. We invite all transgender and other LGBTIQ students who have faced violence or discrimination in schools to share your stories with us by emailing [email protected]. Signed by: ACAVE Aces Going Places Bissu Dear Straight People Embrace Singapore Equality in Education Free Community Church gayhealth.sg Gender Collective GLBT Voices Singapore Heckin' Unicorn IndigNation SG Inter-University LGBT Network, Singapore Jejaka Kaleidoscope Mates Gone Running Minority Voices My Queer Story SG Nonbinary Singapore Out in SG Pelangi Pride Centre Penawar Pink Dot SG Project X Prout Q Space QUASA SG Queer Friendly Chers QueerNUS Queer Singapore Rainbow Parents SG Ready4Repeal SAFE - Supporting, AFfirming and Empowering our LGBTQ friends and family Sayoni SGRainbow Singapore LGBT Law SKRRT CENTRAL tFreedom Thebearproject The Bi+ Collective Singapore - TBCSG The Healing Circle.sg. The Purple Alliance TransBefrienders TransgenderSG TransNUS Trevvy True Singapore Love Young OUT Here AWARE Singapore ASEAN SOGIE Caucus Asia Pacific Transgender Network MARUAH New Naratif SG Climate Rally soft/WALL/studs The Greenhouse Post-Museum Allen Carr's Easyway (Singapore) I-REVIVE SG Xpointo Media Replica Software You can also download the statement at https://bit.ly/3qycAqP      Read More →