Mothership Memo is Mothership’s daily brief on the important headlines of the day. We will also contribute our views on the issues at hand.

Proposed haze law to be tabled in Parliament later this year

Environment and Water Resources Minister Dr Vivian Balakrishnan told The Straits Times that new legislative measures concerning transboundary haze will be introduced in Parliament later this year. The bill will penalise errant companies that cause or contribute to transboundary haze pollution in Singapore.

Minister Vivian was in Jakarta for the Forests Asia Summit, organised by the Centre for International Forestry Research and Indonesia's Forest Ministry. In his speech, he said that the root of haze problem was "misaligned commercial interests", as "companies burn forests for short term profits". He concluded that there is an "urgent need for governments, NGOs and local communities to collaborate, insist on transparency, expedite investigates and prosecute those responsible".

Minister Vivian said that he received good feedback and wanted another round of consultations with those who had made suggestions. Visit the REACH website to know more about the proposed features of the Bill. 

In the meantime, let's be better prepared for the haze this year and purchase our N95 masks early. Temasek Cares, the philanthropic arm of Temasek Holdings, will be distributing free N95 masks to about 1.2 million households. Each household will receive three 3M masks in their mailboxes from today to May 12.

NMP updates: Two NMPs staying on, three potential NMPs from labour movement, the arts and the sports fraternity. 

K Karthikeyan, 54, vice-president of the NTUC Central Committee, was nominated by the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) as its candidate to represent the labour movement. Theatre Box artistic director Kok Heng Leun, 48, and former national sailor Benedict Tan, 46, are likely NMP candidates to represent the arts and sports fraternity.

Among the current batch of NMPs, only two NMPs R Dhinakaran and SMU law lecturer Eugene Tan have indicated that they will seek a second term. The public has until May 20 to propose suitable individuals as potential NMPs.

Is the role of an NMP still relevant today? 

When the NMP scheme was first introduced in 1990 to enable "alternative views to be expressed and dissenting voices to be heard", there was only one opposition MP (Chiam See Tong).  Currently, there are seven opposition MPs and three NCMPs to offer alternative views. 

Former Presidential candidate Tan Cheng Bock said recently that he voted against the NMP bill in 1990. He felt that an NMP should be non partisan and show no favour to the party in power or the opposition. However, it is difficult to find non partisan Singaporeans prepared to enter the parliament. Hence, the NMP scheme took a different path - specifically by allowing sectorial or functional group representation which have their own vested interests. 

Top photo from here.  

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