SINGAPORE (Mar 4): “The state government must make their voices heard.” — Malaysia’s Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, urging the Johor government and Johoreans to speak up against what he sees as a “morally wrong” water agreement with Singapore.

Alleviate inequality and social stratification

Wealth inequality has arguably become greater than income inequality, says Cheryl Chan, Member of Parliament (MP) for Fengshan SMC.

“Those with wealth are not only on a better footing to accumulate more, they have even more access to resources that help preserve their wealth,” Chan said on Feb 27, the second day of the budget debate in Parliament.

Chan is mooting the introduction of a net wealth tax and inheritance tax for the ultra-high-net-worth individuals.

Meanwhile, Louis Ng, MP for Nee Soon GRC, finds the streaming system in secondary school problematic. He thinks scraping it is key to ensuring social mixing and preventing the stigmatisation faced by students in the Normal Stream.

Ng argues that while streaming serves to segregate students based on their pace and learning needs, it ends up being divisive as students in the Normal Stream tend to have a lower socio-economic status than their peers in the Express Stream.

Statistics compiled by the Ministry of Education show that 69% of secondary school students who received financial assistance from the ministry between 2014 and 2018 were from the Normal Stream. The percentage of students living in rental flats from the Normal Stream is also higher than those from the Express Stream. “I am sure streaming was not meant to divide our nation by social economic status, but now we see [it] does contribute to [that],” Ng says.

Although he sees inequality in the education system as inevitable, as “the fact is not everybody is the same”, Ng stresses that “our students are not stupid and should not feel that they are or face that kind of stigma”.

To him, the solution is this: “We need to make sure their future is not decided by one major exam. We need to make sure that like where we live, we don’t have social stratification in where we study.”

Tighter foreign worker quota in services sectors

Tighter quotas are necessary to calibrate foreign manpower inflows amid a nation-wide labour force restructure, says Minister of State for the National Development and Manpower ministries Zaqy Mohamad.

He was affirming Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat’s recent announcement of the government’s plan to further tighten the inflow of lower-skilled foreign workers.

Keeping the labour market tight will make it worth employers’ while to redesign and transform jobs while investing in training their employees, Zaqy says, adding that all of this serves to bring about better employment opportunities for Singaporeans by ensuring that businesses have deep enterprise and human capabilities.

China’s factory activity hits an all-time low

China’s manufacturing activity has shrunk for the third straight month in February, sinking to its worst performance in three years. This comes amid a slowing economy and its trade war with the US. Data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics shows a decline in the country’s Purchasing Managers’ Index from 49.5 in January to 49.2 in February. Researchers say the results point to a weakening economy. China’s economy has been losing steam over the past months, expanding 6.6% in 2018 — its lowest in nearly three decades. This comes as the government grapples with a mounting and rather massive debt pile.

Carlyle founder calls for new Brexit vote

US billionaire David Rubenstein says a second referendum on Brexit is “the only solution” that could break Britain’s stalemate over the issue. Rubenstein, the co-founder of US buyout fund Carlyle, adds that Brexit is hurting the UK’s economy, so considerable “political will” is needed for it to hold a new EU referendum. His comments come as his company, one of the largest private equity firms in the world, cut back on its investments in the UK last year.

Carlyle is not the only company that has adopted this stance. Data provider Dealogic suggests that deals by private equity firms in Britain have nearly halved since the vote to leave the EU two years ago. UK Prime Minister Theresa May is now caught between British MPs and the EU’s refusal to renegotiate the exit deal she agreed to with Brussels. The possibility of a second referendum has also moved up Britain’s political agenda after Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party, said his party will back a new EU vote if its plans for a softer Brexit fail. However, a majority of British MPs are opposed to another referendum.

Trump’s ex-lawyer turns against him

Michael Cohen, the long-time lawyer and fixer for US President Donald Trump, has turned on his former boss, calling him a “racist”, “cheat” and “conman” who sought business deals in Russia to inflate his net worth and impress the public during the 2016 presidential election. Cohen says Trump “has become the worst version of himself” since taking office. “He is capable of behaving kindly, but he is not kind. He is capable of committing acts of generosity, but he is not generous. He is capable of being loyal, but he is fundamentally disloyal,” Cohen said in his testimony to the House of Representatives’ Committee on Oversight and Reform on Feb 27.

He backed up his statement with several documents, including a copy of the US$35,000 cheque he received from Trump’s personal bank account as “reimbursement” for keeping mum about the president’s past affair with an adult film actress.

Cohen added that Trump has inflated his total assets to qualify to be on Forbes’ list of the wealthiest people, and deflated his assets to reduce his real estate taxes.

Additionally, Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress on the status of the building of a Trump Tower in Moscow during the 2016 elections. He said he was told by Trump to lie about it.

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