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Straits Times
a day ago
- Sport
- Straits Times
IOC president Kirsty Coventry a ‘huge supporter' of Singapore
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox IOC president Kirsty Coventry (left) called on Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam during her three-day visit to Singapore. SINGAPORE - International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Kirsty Coventry has pledged stronger cooperation with Singapore in her first visit to the Republic since she was elected to the top post on March 20. At a luncheon hosted by the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) at Swissotel The Stamford on July 29, she met about 150 Singapore Olympians, youth Olympians and representatives from the national sports associations, partners and sponsors. Her predecessor Thomas Bach was also in attendance. In her speech, she said: 'I know that our partnership will only continue to get stronger. You have a huge supporter in me. My door is always open. 'As athletes, we strive to inspire the next generation. Thank you for the commitment to ensuring that sport remains an inspiration and a platform for young people to live out their dreams.' Coventry is in town for the World Aquatics Championships, which end on Aug 3. During her three-day visit, she also called on Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and attended the induction of the 2025 honorees to the International Swimming Hall of Fame, which included Singapore's Olympic champion Joseph Schooling. (From left) Singapore's Olympic champion Joseph Schooling, former IOC president Thomas Bach, IOC member Ng Ser Miang and IOC president Kirsty Coventry at a luncheon hosted by the Singapore National Olympic Council at Swissotel the Stamford on July 29. PHOTO: SNOC She also visited the Botanic Gardens, where a new orchid, Dendrobium Kirsty Coventry, was named in her honour, before she took part in a tree dedication ceremony at Gardens by the Bay. The 41-year-old, a former swimmer who won seven Olympic medals – including two golds – for Zimbabwe, is the first African and woman to lead the IOC. She is also a former sports administrator and politician. IOC president Kirsty Coventry is pictured with the Dendrobium Kirsty Coventry, a new orchid named in her honour, at the Botanic Gardens. PHOTO: SNOC She last visited Singapore in 2013, when she was a member of the IOC Athletes' Commission. Welcoming Coventry back to Singapore, SNOC president Grace Fu, said during the luncheon: 'Since then, your leadership and impact on global sport have continued to grow, and your presence here today reaffirms our shared commitment to the Olympic ideals. 'Your visit also marks a meaningful moment for our sporting community - a chance to reflect on our progress, and more importantly, where we are headed, together with the Olympic Movement. 'For the Singapore National Olympic Council, our athletes are – and will always be – at the heart of what we do.'
CNA
23-07-2025
- CNA
Courts to extend 'therapeutic justice' approach from family dispute cases to young offenders: Chief Justice
SINGAPORE: The courts will adopt a 'problem-solving, interest-based approach' for cases involving children and young persons with an aim to heal and rehabilitate, similar to the therapeutic approach that is used for divorce proceedings, Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon said on Wednesday (Jul 23). He was speaking to other judges and guests at the official opening of the Family Justice Courts building – known as the 'Octagon', which is at the former site of the State Courts on Havelock Square. The newly refurbished Family Justice Courts building began operations in 1975 as the Subordinate Courts, and the iconic octagonal structure was gazetted as a conserved building in 2013, before being renamed as the State Courts in 2014. In 2019, it heard its final case. Also present at the opening ceremony were President Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Minister for Social and Family Development Masagos Zulkifli and Minister for Law Edwin Tong. The therapeutic justice approach, previously adopted as an 'overarching philosophy' to legal proceedings by the Family Justice Courts in 2020, seeks to address the parties' underlying issues holistically under the care of specialist family judges and allied professionals, said Chief Justice Menon. This can serve to restore their relationships to 'a state that enables them to continue to address those persistent ties', he said. While the focus has been on matrimonial proceedings such as divorce, Chief Justice Menon said the courts "will now direct our attention to another crucial group of court users – children and young persons". 'There is still more that can be done," he said. "We are confident that therapeutic justice principles can be a source of inspiration to bolster our proceedings in the Youth Courts.' CASES INVOLVING YOUTH AND YOUNG CHILDREN Elaborating on the cases that the therapeutic justice approach can be used, Chief Justice Menon noted that they can include the treatment and rehabilitation of youth offenders, applications for the care and protection of children or young persons, and applications for family guidance orders in respect of children or young persons. Adding that there is room for therapeutic justice principles to complement existing practices in the Youth Courts, which he described as the "next frontier", he said a child or young person who needs guidance and rehabilitation lies at the heart of every Youth Court proceeding. 'This essential understanding is already embedded in our approach to youth offenders, where it is well-established that the criminal law does not apply in quite the same way," he said. For instance, in the Youth Courts, words such as 'conviction' and 'sentence' are not used, and the focus is on rehabilitation. 'The law in this area reflects our belief, as a society, that children and young persons deserve the opportunity to turn their lives around, and that this justifies the creation of a distinct system for dealing with young individuals who may have gone astray, save in cases involving very serious offences,' he said. There is thus room for therapeutic justice principles to complement existing practices by encouraging children and young persons to 'come before us to take responsibility for their actions and commit to restorative steps that will pave the way forward towards a positive and meaningful future', Chief Justice Menon said. Under this approach, underlying issues that shape a young person's behaviour and circumstances should be identified and addressed together with the legal issues before the Court wherever possible. 'Children and young persons deserve nothing less than a supportive system that keeps them safe, addresses their underlying needs and sets them on a path towards a better future - whether the presenting issue is criminal conduct, family conflict or parental neglect,' he said. The Youth Court will be housed in the Octagon, alongside the Family and Justice Courts. OTHER MEASURES TO SUPPORT THERAPEUTIC APPROACH The Youth Court's processes will also be "calibrated" to incorporate the new therapeutic approach, said Chief Justice Menon. For one, it will explore the use of a visionary map that is intended to help youth offenders reflect on their past choices, among other objectives. Thereafter, youth offenders can craft a personal commitment – known as a "promise for change" – to lay out a concrete action plan for change. This would allow youth offenders "to take responsibility and to commit to positive transformation and rehabilitation", he said. While the Brutalist architectural features will be retained, the interior of the Family Justice Courts has been "completely transformed" in line with principles of therapeutic justice, said Justice Teh Hwee Hwee, who is the presiding judge of the Family Justice Courts. Vibrant artworks by youths from the Singapore Boys' and Girls' Homes are featured, and interview rooms will have purpose-built child-friendly furnishings. "This is a courthouse that serves not just to be a place for deciding cases, but to be a beacon of hope for rebuilding lives with dignity," said Justice Teh. The Family Justice Courts will also deploy multi-disciplinary teams to deal with select cases in the Youth Courts, who will be entrusted with managing the case and any related matters until their conclusion. 'The consistency and the contextuality that this promotes will help build trust, deepen understanding and promote the delivery of holistic and targeted support over time,' said Chief Justice Menon. He added that the Youth Courts adopt a "whole of community" approach, where the court, parents, educators, social workers and community partners will "move together" to support every child and young person. "In the future we are striving to create, every child or young person who enters our justice system should leave with the tools that will ensure that they need never come back," said Chief Justice Menon. "Our aim is not to be a revolving door, but a one-time intervention that resets a young life on a new and better path."
Daily Maverick
20-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
The challenge of cohesion: Lessons from Singapore for South Africa's diverse tapestry
From 24 to 26 June 2025 I attended the International Conference for Cohesive Societies (ICCS) in Singapore, a global gathering of policymakers, civil society leaders and thinkers committed to the idea that diversity, if carefully nurtured, can be a nation's greatest strength. Held in a city-state widely recognised for its success in managing multiculturalism, the conference offered profound insights, not only into global best practices, but also into the quiet struggles and aspirations of nations grappling with identity, cohesion and belonging. The address by His Excellency Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the president of Singapore, was particularly arresting. He spoke of diverse nations as being like quilts, composed of many distinct patches, each representing a different community, sewn together to create something both beautiful and meaningful. Yet, he cautioned, when storms rage, be they economic, political or social, the quilt may fray, its seams come apart, its integrity tested. Perhaps, he mused, we must begin to weave new cloth, stronger, more resilient, where the threads of our many identities are not merely stitched side by side, but entwined in a shared fabric of common purpose. It was a metaphor that struck deep, not just for its elegance, but for its resonance with the South African condition. South Africa, too, is a patchwork nation. We are black, white, coloured, Indian and many other shades in between. We are Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, English, Tswana, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Christian, African traditionalist and secular. Our diversity is immense. It is beautiful. But it is also the source of some of our deepest tensions. The fundamental question we face is this: Are we, first and foremost, South Africans, a single people forged in shared destiny, or are we, still, primarily members of our separate communities who just happen to coexist within the same borders? Put another way, are we one nation regardless of race and culture, or are we still proud white, black, coloured and Indian South Africans, united, working together to forge a nation for all that live in it? The central challenge of our democratic project This is not merely a question of semantics. It is the central challenge of our democratic project. The Freedom Charter's enduring promise that 'South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity,' is an aspiration that has yet to be realised. In Singapore, I observed a nation that has answered this question with quiet determination. Rather than erasing cultural identity, it has built systems, policies and symbols that reinforce shared citizenship while celebrating difference. Civic identity takes precedence, but not at the expense of personal heritage. They have found, in many ways, a formula for unity without uniformity. For South Africa, the road is more complex. Our history is more painful, our inequalities more entrenched, our wounds more recent. Yet that does not absolve us from the responsibility to forge a stronger social compact, one in which we weave new cloth rather than simply mending the old quilt. What might that cloth look like? It would be woven from threads of shared values, non-racialism, mutual respect, ubuntu and justice. It would draw strength from the fibres of local languages, customs, histories and rituals, but bind them into a fabric of common purpose. It would move us beyond coexistence into co-creation. Beyond tolerance into solidarity. Importantly, this new cloth does not require us to shed our cultural identities. Rather, it asks that we bring them to the loom, consciously, willingly and in the spirit of building something that transcends each of us individually. In this way, we do not become less coloured, less African, less Indian, less white — we become more South African together. Of course, weaving new fabric requires leadership, trust and a willingness to act with moral courage. It demands that we interrogate our education system, our media, our political discourse and our civic rituals. Difficult questions It means asking difficult questions: Why do so many still feel excluded from the national story? Why do young people in townships and suburbs grow up worlds apart? Why do we default to racial categories rather than civic ones? At the conference, I saw nations grappling with these same questions, each in their own context. Yet the most successful examples, Singapore among them, demonstrated one truth repeatedly: cohesion is not an accidental by-product of democracy. It is a deliberate act of national imagination and political will. For South Africa, the time has come to reimagine our social fabric. The old quilt, stitched together in 1994, was a powerful start. But it has been weathered by time, torn by inequality, frayed by neglect. Now, we must begin to weave anew. Let us not be afraid to dream of a cloth that is stronger, more resilient, more inclusive. A cloth where every thread matters, but where what binds us is even stronger than what differentiates us. A cloth we can call South Africa, not as a collection of patches, but as a single, purposeful, living nation. DM
Straits Times
18-07-2025
- General
- Straits Times
A recipe for Singapore: A dash of religion and concern for the planet
Most faiths teach us to care for the environment. We can bring these religious traditions together in a common cause that will also strengthen Singapore. In Singapore, we can tap the common refrain among different faiths to care for mother earth, says the writer. On June 24, 2025, President Tharman Shanmugaratnam delivered the opening address to delegates at the International Conference on Cohesive Societies (ICCS) in Singapore. During his presentation – subsequently published in The Straits Times – he argued that multicultural societies have traditionally been conceived as a quilt composed of many individually distinctive patches that create a beautiful effect when stitched together. However, when factors such as polarisation or economic inequalities put pressure on the quilt, the stitches can come apart. The President argued that Singapore should strive to create a stronger fabric – for example, something more like a tapestry in which many threads of different colour are woven together to create a single integrated textile that cannot so easily be torn apart at the seams. What would it take to create such a material?
CNA
14-07-2025
- Business
- CNA
Singapore will offer tailored support to facilitate Timor-Leste's integration into ASEAN: PM Wong
Singapore will help Timor-Leste participate effectively in ASEAN meetings and boost its economy through regional agreements. These are part of a new initiative, which also includes courses on international trade law and postgraduate scholarships. Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced this during the official visit of Timor-Leste's Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, who also called on President Tharman Shanmugaratnam. Timor-Leste will join ASEAN as its 11th member in October. Aslam Shah reports.
