TR EMERITUS

By Bhaskaran Kunju Last week an article was published on this site, criticising the decision made by the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) and the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) in bringing to task the owners of Mustaffa Centre for alleged fire safety violations and misuse of non-retail space. (read article here)   The author Hurr Riyahi claimed that the establishment was making a scapegoat of the popular shopping centre despite genuine attempts by the retailer to make amends.   The writer misses out the fact that it took multiple violation notices and a court order for the management to even take any considerable measures (the installation of a numbering system to check the volume of human traffic was deemed insufficient and flawed). Apart from that, the claim that the popular retailer is a victim of any sorts cannot be further than the truth.   I personally know too well of the faults at Mustaffa Centre as I have a close elderly relative who has been working there for a good number of years. The problems that have been unearthed by the recent court order are rooted in the retailer’s absolute focus on profits with little focus on welfare, be it for customers or employees.   For starters, anyone who has made a trip to the 24-hr shopping centre will be aware of the high number of non-Singaporean staff working there. As an in-demand shopping destination with customers coming in round-the-clock it would make sense to include non-Singaporeans to bolster the immense staffing needs.   But in the case of Mustaffa the inclusion of foreigners has been almost a rule while Singaporean employees are an exception. The detrimental effect of this practice can be seen in the extremely low wages of the staff.   A permanent full-time counter staff has a basic wage of around $900 a month for a 6-day workweek with absolutely no benefits whatsoever including medical coverage or annual leave. Furthermore wages have been stagnant for the past 4 years while the years before there were only token increments of a few dollars annually.   In any organisation that permits it, working the graveyard shift is a quick way to supplement one’s basic pay with night shift allowances. In the case of Mustaffa however night shift allowances are approximately just $3-4 a night, averaged from a monthly allowance of $100 for a 30-day month with a 6-day workweek.   It is a paltry sum of money and quite easily the lowest rate anywhere in Singapore. In comparison, temporary staff at NTUC’s Fairprice outlets are remunerated approximately $8.75 a night while permanent staff receive $14 a night.   Some might be under the impression that perhaps sales staff might be receiving commissions based on sales hence basic wages are low. However no real system of commissions exists. Staff are permitted to a certain amount of bonus if the sales figures of the entire department reach a specific target. But the set target is deliberately so high that it is unrealistic and unattainable.   On one hand the single-minded profit driven approach of the organisation is to be blamed for this state but with the availability of cheap and expendable foreign labour this practice is only all the more easily enabled.   The supply of foreign staff appears to be endless and the retailer has a relatively high turnover of employees, all of which only further contributes to the issue of low wages and abysmal employee benefits.   Mustaffa Centre is a globally recognised name with an annual income of around $302 million. Owner Mustaq Ahmad was awarded the Tourism Entrepreneur of the Year 2003 by the Singapore Tourism Board and has been held up as an example of a foreigner who has contributed positively to Singapore by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. "You get the right foreigner here, he creates thousands of jobs for Singaporeans like Mr Mustaq and you need to get more people like him," said PM Lee at the National Day Rally in 2006. Additionally Mr Ahmad was ranked 38th in Forbes' list of Singapore's 40 Richest People in 2008.   Given the accolades and recognition that Mustaffa Centre has received, the current state of staff and customer management is sadly unbecoming of its reputation.   One might argue that the high number of foreign workers at Mustaffa is due to Singaporeans shunning it as a place of employment for its less than glamourous appeal. However going by some of the comments received on this site, Mustaffa Centre was pointed out to be one of the few retailers that hire Singaporean Indians indiscriminately and is viewed favourably by some quarters of the ethnic Indian population in Singapore. Hence interest is there from Singaporeans. But given the unappealing wages on offer it is likely that only the most disadvantaged of jobseekers would seek employment there.   The suppressed wages and poor benefits on offer for employees is an exploitation of the desperation of these applicants. Concurrently the foreign staff are losing out on fair employment coverage as well. Even if they may well be contented with what they have been offered it is only due to a comparatively higher benefits that they receive at Mustaffa, vis a vis their qualifications and limited job prospects.   In cooperating with the authorities and dealing diligently with the issues raised by SCDF Mustaffa has tried to show that it does place concern for the well being of its customers. But most importantly, it has brought to a quick resolve an unsavoury saga that would have likely harmed its sales figures and reputation if it had been prolonged.   Those who are familiar with the shopping mall would have already been aware of the difficulty in navigating the cluttered and cramped corridors. In fact a look through several online reviews of Mustaffa Centre reveals similar concerns by visitors. When the building is crowded finding an exit seems to be an impossible task and only adds to the fears of the place being a firetrap.   However a lack of exits and entrances is not a natural feature of the building. There is in fact another exit between Exits 1 and 2 and it is located directly in front of the escalator. In times of emergency that exit would be crucial as it would be the easiest to access for customers coming down from the higher floors. But in keeping in tune with the company’s self-serving profit driven practice that exit is covered by a single pane of glass, with sliding doors removed, and instead a counter has been placed on the spot, retailing sunglasses.   There was no mention of this in any of the news reports or in the primary fire safety violations raised by SCDF. I can only assume then that it had unfortunately been missed out during inspection of the site.   The limiting of the exits and entrances is deliberate and apart from maximising retail space, is intended to ensure a funneling of the customers from the entrance to the exit while providing them maximum exposure to the products on sale in the building. If this incident of blocking an exit for the purpose of expanding sales is true then it is a flagrant offence and should be punishable as well for endangering the lives of the shoppers.    I am not at all surprised that the URA and SCDF have taken actions against Mustaffa Centre, if anything I applaud them for making the unpopular and difficult decision of taking to task not only a major retailer but one that is also ethnically identifiable, a sensitive issue at that.   Hopefully the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) will be next to look into the matter of suppressed wages and lack of proper employee benefits. A few years ago when a complain was made to MOM regarding this matter, the reply given was that a nominal fee had to be paid for formal investigations to be carried out. Though such a fee is probably meant to keep out frivolous cases, it is unfair and insincere of a department whose main scope of operation is overlooking the needs of the labour pool.   Contrary to popular belief, sales staff at places such as Mustaffa Centre are not necessarily replaceable, which otherwise could in part explain the low wage situation. The references made in this article are to full-time employees working nearly 12-hour shifts and long serving ones at that. But nevertheless the recent revelations from the SCDF and URA citations is only evident of a company that has repeatedly shown a lack of interest in the well being of customers and employees alike.   EDITORS’ NOTE: Please join our Facebook page here and invite your friends to do so as well. Copyright © The Temasek Review, 2009   Other articles by Bhaskaran Kunju: >> City Harvest stake in Suntec: The thin line between religion and business >>Why Gopalan Nair is wrong >> The Iceman cometh: The role of foreigners in Singapore >> A rebuttal to Vikram Khanna’s article on need for foreign workers >> How much immunity for a diplomat >> The saga of (dethroned) beauty queen Ris Low >> Is there room for more foreigners in Singapore? >> Why social cohesion is at the forefront of the Prime Minister’s National Day Rally >> Changes in political system to allow more alternative voices >> The untimely departure of Chip Goodyear >> Should universities be re-politicized?   About Author: Bhaskaran Kunju is a Political Science and Communications and New Media undergraduate at the National University of Singapore. He is a regular contributor to the Straits Times Forum and TODAY Voices. He also writes for NLB and FAS and hopes to be a full-time journalist.        Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent   A NTU Associate Professor by the name of Li Jinyan was charged with the molest of a 22 year old woman today. Li was alleged to have touch the left buttocks of the woman in a room at Block N4 on Sept 11 last year, the Straits Times reports today. The nationality of the woman is not revealed. Neither did Straits Times elaborate more on the background of Li. Li is born in China and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the National University of Defence Technology, Changsha in 1991. In 1994, he obtained a Masters in Engineering in Computer Science from the Hebei University of Technology. According to information posted on his NTU website: "A/Prof Jinyan Li is currently in the School of Computer Engineering since June, 2007. He has done significant research work in data mining and bioinformatics, and published over 80 top quality international conference and journal papers. Two of them have been highly cited: one with 300+ citations in data mining field, the other with 800+ citations in biomedical field." There is a significant number of PRC students and professors in NTU School of Engineering such that its campus resemble more of a university in China at times. PAP strongman Lee Kuan Yew said in a recent interview with National Geographic magazine that it is a "good thing" that Singapore has welcomed so many Chinese immigrants (from mainland China) as they are more "hard-driving" and "hard-striving" than Singaporeans. Due to the PAP's liberal immigration and pro-China policies, PRC nationals now make up a sizable portion of Singapore's immigrants, many of whom are unable to speak or understand a single word of English. The state media reported last year of a China National working as a language teacher here who obtained her Singapore PR within two months of application. She subsequently returned to China and proclaimed her loyalty to her motherland proudly on CCTV Channel 7. The relentless influx of PRC immigrants to Singapore has changed the demographics of the island beyond recognition with some areas like Geylang now appearing like a third-tier city in the inland provinces of China. Though it is not stated explicitly, Li should be a Singapore PR or citizen by now given the "ultra-efficiency" of the Home Affairs Ministry in "dispensing" Singapore PRs and citizenships to PRC nationals.   EDITORS’ NOTE: Please join our Facebook page here and invite your friends to do so to create awareness of the current affairs affecting Singaporeans.    Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent Stung by online criticisms that it forced SingTel to drop Al-Jazeera TV after the latter released a social documentary on Singaporeans made homeless by PAP policies, Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, Rear-Admiral (NS) Lui Tuck Yew had stepped forward to deny the accusations. Speaking in Cannes yesterday, RADM Lui said: "I think the subscription was really low. They will tell you what they want you to hear. The truth is that there are so many channels, so many companies operating out of Singapore." RADM Lui did not provide any figures to substantiate his claims. Al-Jazeera TV is one of the few independent channels operating in Singapore. It has produced a few controversial videos so far which are mildly critical of the PAP's policies. RADM added that Al-Jazeera was dropped purely due to commercial reasons: "SingTel had made a commercial decision to drop AJE. AJE appealed for an extended stay. They needed an extra month. SingTel came to us and we said yes, go ahead," he was quoted as saying in the Straits Times. SingTel is a government-linked company owned partly by Singapore's sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings. International media watchdog Reporters Without Borders ranked the Singapore media 133th on its World Press Freedom index last year, a result described by Law Minister Shanmugan as "quite divorced from reality." Few foreign publications and TV channels are allowed to operate in Singapore and many shun reporting on local politics out of fear of offending the litigious PAP. Wall Street Journal, for example, has more news on China and Hong Kong than Singapore. While the paper is able to comment on Chinese politics and even criticize Chinese leaders liberally, it has few articles about Singapore's socio-political affairs. As such, both Singaporeans and foreigners have to depend on the Singapore media for news about Singapore which is largely pro-government and biased towards the opposition. The only press company in Singapore - SPH is a government-linked company whose Chairman is a former PAP Minister Tony Tan. The sole broadcasting station MediaCorp is also owned by Temasek Holdings led by the Prime Minister's wife Ho Ching.   Related article: >> Al-Jazeera removed from SingTel's Mio TV  Read More →