RPD Bites is a monthly report by MENDAKI's Research and Planning Department that summarizes news articles relevant to the Malay/Muslim community. The September 2021 issue found that community and health issues were widely reported due to rising Covid-19 cases and restrictions. Emerging themes included efforts to support education, mental health, the economy, and employment amid the pandemic. New initiatives targeted issues like dementia, digital inclusion, and supporting vulnerable groups.

1. September 2021

2. What is RPD Bites?
RPD Bites is a monthly scan covering issues and trends surfaced in various local
mainstream media sources that would be of relevance to the Malay/Muslim community. It is
produced by the Research and Planning Department (RPD) of Yayasan MENDAKI.
RPD Bites begins with an article count across different media sources which are
categorised into these main areas: education, economy, employment and employability, social
and community, and Malay/Muslim affairs. Other salient areas for the month are also
highlighted. It then delves into emerging themes and trends observed.
We hope you find this month’s RPD Bites insightful and useful for your needs. We
look forward to your continued partnership and support, and welcome any suggestions you
might have. You can reach us at RPD@mendaki.org.sg to feedback.
RESEARCH &
PLANNING
DEPARTMENT

3. Overall Coverage
• With a total of 294 articles, Community (115), Health (84), and Economy (50) news
were widely reported in September 2021.
• This reflects growing concerns over community and health issues due to the rising trend
of Covid-19 infections and the resultant tightening curbs.
53
42
29
55
62
3
21 29
115
45 50
84
Community Governance Economy Health
No. of Articles
ST BH/BM Total

4. Emerging Themes & Trends

5. Community
Education
• Education Minister Chan Chun Sing announced that MOE
will raise spending to $457 million over next five years to
boost social science and humanities research (ST, 21 Sep; BH,
22 Sep)
– 30 per cent increase from the $350 million that was previously set
aside from FY2015 to FY2020
– A new Social Science Research Council (SSRC) masters research
fellowship pursuing their PhDs or post-doctorate stints overseas.
• Fellowship will offer grants of up to $10,000 to doctoral students
and $200,000 for doctoral postal fellowships.
• Applications for the scheme will open next year.
• First-year Yale-NUS students will receive refunds if they
withdraw by Sept 17 (ST, 16 Sep)
– They will receive a tuition waiver for the first semester and a pro-rated
return on residential fees
• SAF's first inspector-general Mr Tan Chee Wee appointed
chief executive of the Early Childhood Development Agency
(ECDA) (ST, 16 Sep)
• New way to calculate school-home distance to help more
Primary 1 children to qualify for nearby schools (ST, 09 Sep)
– Changes to the way the distance is calculated will result in
slightly over 10% more homes added to the list of those who are
within 1km and 2km of primary schools.
Education Minister Chan Chun Sing.
Source: ST
Mr Tan Chee Wee (left). Source: ST

6. Community
Special Needs:
• Dana Amanah Keperluan Khas Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura
(MUIS) and the Special Needs Trust Company (SNTC) will be
extended for a further two years until the end of 2023, said
Minister of Social and Family Development Mr Masagos Zulkifli
Masagos Mohamad. (BH, 19 Sep)
• Temasek Trust-CDC Lifetime Learning Endowment Fund:
Disabled adults who want to improve their skills or undergo
training could take advantage of new $4 million funds
provided by the Temasek Trust and five Community
Development Councils (CDC). (BH, 10 Sep)
– The fund will provide up to $1,000 to every 4,000 disabled adults
to cover course fees or buy learning support tools.
• New initiatives to support people with dementia and their
caregivers, marking the rebranding of the Alzheimer's
Disease Association as Dementia Singapore. (ST, 1 Sep; BH, 7
Sep)
– Toolkit and resource portal are scheduled to be launched, while
the membership portal and assisted living project are slated for
November
Mr Masagos. Source: BH
Source: ST

7. Community
Technology
• Hackers possibly stole personal data of 79,400 MyRepublic
customers, including copies of NRICs (ST, 10 Sep)
• SAF training now uses advanced data analysis and AI
technology (ST, 23 Sep; BH, 24 Sep)
• More businesses in Singapore switching to digital name cards
(ST, 08 Sep)
• Communications and Information Minister Josephine Teo:
More than 100,000 senior citizens have benefited from
digital skills training conducted by the SG Digital Office (SDO)
(ST, 03 Sep; BH, 04 Sep)
– SDO, which has conducted over 250,000 training sessions for
seniors, has helped 18,000 stall owners
– IMDA’s Mobile Access for Seniors programme: $5 mobile plans
for low-income seniors extended to 2 years
– Seniors Go Digital programme currently teaches seniors digital
skills at close to 50 community hubs found in community centres
and public libraries.
Source: ST
Communications and Information
Minister Josephine Teo. Source: ST

8. Community
Technology
• New farming school to develop talent in Singapore's agri-tech
sector (ST, 16 Sep; BH, 17 Sep)
– 119 trainees in a new agri-tech training facility at 60 Benoi Road,
near Joo Koon MRT station
– It is part of the national effort led by the National Trades Union
Congress (NTUC) LearningHub to meet Singapore's goal of producing
30 per cent of its nutritional needs by 2030 for the country to
become food-resilient.
• Minister of Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan urged nations at
the UN General Assembly to identify a common set of "digital
development goals” to address a wide digital divide (ST, 26 Sep;
BH, 27 Sep)
– 3.8 billion people in the world still digitally disconnected
• Mindef and SUTD sign agreement to build defenses against
cyberattacks (ST, 16 Sep; BH, 17 Sep)
– A memorandum of understanding on operational technology
security for critical infrastructure was signed by Defence Cyber Chief
Brigadier-General (BG) Mark Tan and SUTD Associate Provost for
Research and International Relations Yeo Kiat Seng.
Source: ST
Minister of Foreign Affairs Vivian
Balakrishnan. Source: ST

9. Health
Mental Health
• Singapore Counselling Centre (SCC) study: More than 80% of
S'pore teachers say Covid-19 pandemic has hurt their mental
health (ST, 22 Sep)
– Cited long hours as one reason, with 80.6 per cent indicating
they worked more than 45 hours a week, above the average for
the working population in Singapore.
• Dr Wan Rizal Wan Zakariah, MP for Jalan Besar GRC, seek to
raise awareness of mental health to encourage people to seek
help (ST, 19 Sep)
– Dr Wan Rizal is leading a group of 18 MPs from the People's
Action Party in the campaign #452TooMany which runs from Sept
10 to Sept 30
– Samaritans of Singapore (SOS) reported 452 suicides in Singapore
last year, the highest figure since 2012.
• Covid-19 Survey: Mental wellbeing of the community has
declined since the Covid-19 pandemic began (ST, 28 Sep)
– 76% of the respondents reported feeling sad or depressed
– 65% reported feeling lonely
Source: ST
Dr Wan Rizal Wan Zakariah. Source:
ST

10. Covid-19
• Covid-19 vaccines are 40% effective against infection in
Singapore, and 'very effective' against severe illness (ST,
03 Sep)
– Health Minister Ong Ye Kung noted that Singapore already
has a high vaccination rate of more than 80%, and that
figure is plateauing.
– Ministry of Health (MOH) will change how it reports the
Covid-19 situation in its daily update.
• National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID):
Singapore cannot rely solely on vaccines to fight Covid-
19 Delta variant, cannot let up in its fight against the
disease (ST, 07 Sep; BH, 08 Sep)
• About 3,200 seniors in Singapore received Covid-19
vaccine booster shots as national vaccination booster
programme begins (ST, 15 Sep)
Source: ST
Health

11. Health
Covid-19
• New Covid-19 community care facilities to be set up for
stable patients with underlying conditions (ST, 20 Sep)
• Parents anxious over rise in Covid-19 cases among children
but attendance normal at pre-schools and tuition centres (ST,
24 Sep)
– 367 cases of Covid-19 among children are below the age of 12,
accounting for 0.6% of all local infections
• Tightening of restrictions from 27 Sep to prevent daily
infections: Dining in is capped at 2 and Working From Home
(WFH) the default till Oct 24 (ST, 24 Sep)
• People having more than four weeks of symptoms after
having Covid-19 feared to be at risk of developing dementia
(ST, 13 Sep)
– Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI) formed a working group
of global experts to study the magnitude of the problem
– ADI warned that the current pandemic could lead to a surge in
dementia cases
NTUC Health Nursing Home. Source: ST
Source: ST

12. Health
Others:
• Singapore counsellors face burnout as more people seek
therapy amid Covid-19 pandemic (ST, 20 Sep)
• Pandemic habits are harming children’s development (ST, 13
Sep)
– Number of new cases of developmental delay diagnosed has
risen by 20 per cent over the last five years
– MOH reported diagnosis of about 5,000 new cases in pre-
schoolers last year.
– 60% of the new cases were due to autism spectrum disorder
(ASD) as well as speech and language delay and disorders.
• New online resource portal DementiaHub.SG launched by
social service agency Dementia Singapore and the Agency for
Integrated Care (ST, 21 Sep)
– Resources for four groups: members of a community or
corporation, persons living with dementia, caregivers of a loved
one with dementia and care professionals.
• Persatuan Pemuda Pemudi Islam Singapura (PPIS) and Berita
Harian will host a mental health webinar next month ahead
of World Mental Health Day (BH, 23 Sep)
– Event to take place on October 2, 10.30am to 12 noon, via Zoom
Source: ST
Source: ST

13. Economy
• Tax collection down by 7.3% in the last Final Year, with $28.2
billion in grants given out by Inland Revenue Authority of
Singapore (Iras) to support jobs and businesses during the
Covid-19 pandemic (ST, 02 sep)
• Panasonic retrenches 700 in Singapore: shutting down some
manufacturing operations but Research & Development to
remain in Singapore (ST, 23 Sep)
• Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) study on national pride and
identity found that 83% of Singaporeans say globalisation is
good for the economy, but 50% think immigrants will take
away jobs (ST, 24 Sep)
• Job vacancies in Singapore hit record high of 92,100 in June
(ST, 15 Sep; BH 16 Sep)
– 163 job openings for every 100 unemployed persons in June
– Resident unemployment continued to ease in the first half of this
year
Source: ST
Source: ST

14. Employment
• Progressive Wage Model (PWM) boosts workers' income and
strengthens family economy (BH, 04 Sep)
– PWM will be expanded to more sectors, including the retail
sector from September 2022, food services from March 2023 and
rubbish management from 2023.
• 77% of low-wage workers will go on pay rises, to receive at
least $1,400 (BH, 15 Sep)
– New rules on Local Qualifying Salary (LQS) will begin by
September next year.
– There were 103,000 full-time working people earning a gross
monthly income of below $1,400 last year.
• More than 43,900 employers will receive the Job Support
Scheme (JSS) payments, totaling over $900 million as of
September 30 to support the salaries of more than 570,000
local workers (ST, 21 Sep; BH, 22 Sep)
• Jobs Growth Incentive (JGI) scheme to spur hiring of
Singaporeans extended to March 2022 (ST, 24 Sep; BH 25 Sep)
– JGI supported the hiring of nearly 400,000 locals by 58,000 firms
as of May.
Mr. Mohd Fahmi Aliman. Source: BH
Source: BH

15. Employment
• Ministry of Manpower (MOM) is looking at ways to provide
stronger support to delivery workers (BH, 2 Sep)
– Manpower Minister Dr Tan See Leng: An independent working
group has been set up to look into the issue of job protection.
• Mandatory retrenchment notification: Firms with at least
10 employees will have to notify the Ministry of Manpower
(MOM) each time they retrench any staff (ST, 7 Sep)
• The waiver of foreign worker levies for S Pass and work
permit holders for the duration of their stay-home notice
(SHN) period will be extended to the end of the year (ST, 20
Sep)
– Waiver applies to migrant domestic workers as well.
• Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has ordered crypto
exchange platform Binance.com to stop services in
Singapore (ST, 03 Sep)
Dr Tan See Leng. Source: ST
Source: ST

16. Governance
• Discrimination is not a festering problem, but laws will give
more protection to workers, says Manpower Minister Tan See
Leng (ST, 01 Sep)
– Move to translate the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive
Employment Practices (Tafep) guidelines into legislation
reinforces transparency in workplace fairness.
• Maintenance of Racial Harmony Act will likely introduce new
sanctions, including non-punitive ones, to try and shape social
behaviour and social norms (ST, 04 Sep)
– Mr Shanmugam said his Home Affairs Ministry would introduce
the legislation, which would first consolidate the different existing
laws dealing with racial issues, such as the Penal Code.
• A White Paper with concrete proposals to tackle issues
concerning women will be presented in Parliament early next
year, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (ST, 18 Sep)
– PM Lee outlined three broad areas in which Government policies
and programmes can help: more equal workplace opportunities,
more caregiver support and increased protection for women,
both physically and online
Source: ST
Mr Shanmugam. Source: ST

17. Malay / Muslim Affairs
• AMP appoints new Executive Director Mr Mohksin Rashid
(BH, 02 Sep)
– Mr Mohksin had over a decade of experience working in the
charity sector.
• Centre for Excellence and Cooperation (COEC): a new
initiative by MUIS that has been launched to help local
madrasahs build capabilities (BH, 16 Sep)
– Ensure that madrasahs do not rely solely on public-operated
external courses
• Mr Kadir Maideen will be taking over as the new chief
executive for the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS)
(BH, 18 Sep)
– With over 27 years of experience in Public Service, he was loaned
by Singapore Public Defence Force (SCDF) to MUIS last January.
• More than 170 people attended the Lasting Power of Attorny
(LPA) application training organised by the Lawyers@M³ for
free at Wisma Geylang Serai (WGS). (BH, 26 Sep)
– Government has granted a fee relief for the Application of Form 1 LPA
which is extended to March 31 next year.
– Of the 125,000 LPA registrations, only 1.5 per cent were made by the
Malay community.
Mr Mohksin Rashid. Source: BH
Mr Kadir Maideen. Source: BH

18. Published by
MENDAKI Research and Planning Department
(September 2021)