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SINGAPORE — What a 12 months 2022 has been. It is going to be remembered because the 12 months the nation emerged from a two-year lockdown and when meals and property costs turned a well-recognized fear.
Regardless of the Covid-19 pandemic not being over, life has, in some ways, returned to what it was once, with Singaporeans allowed to journey and attend huge occasions once more, and maintaining with vaccine schedules is now a part of life.
And in different methods, 2022 has been an eventful 12 months, ranging from The Staff’ Celebration nonetheless battling—and showing to beat—the fallout from the Raeesah Khan scandal, with WP chief and Chief of the Opposition rising from it with grace and grit.
Celebration mates Jamus Lim and Nicole Seah, in addition to different WP figures, have continued to make an impression each in Parliament and on the bottom.
Necessary points such because the Items & Companies Tax (GST) improve and the repeal of Part 377A, a carryover from colonial occasions criminalizing intercourse between consenting grownup males, had been additionally a lot mentioned.
Amid all this, there have been standouts all year long, and The Unbiased Singapore has compiled our personal checklist of newsmakers for 2022.
Lawrence Wong
Certainly, 2022 is Lawrence Wong’s 12 months. Two months after giving his first nationwide finances rollout as Finance Minister in February, he was chosen because the chief of the Individuals’s Motion Celebration‘s fourth-generation (4G) staff, to nobody’s shock.
In June, the presumptive successor to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was promoted to Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore, now serving with Heng Swee Keat, as a part of a Cupboard reshuffle.
He additionally joined TikTok, the place he reveals off legit guitar expertise.
@lawrencewongst At all times good to have a while on the finish of the 12 months to unwind with the guitar. Take pleasure in this riff everybody!
♬ authentic sound – Lawrence Wong – Lawrence Wong
Otters
Positively cute and assured to elicit an “aaawww” from most of us, otters, nevertheless, made the headlines for not-so-cute and typically outright damaging behaviour.
Because the otter inhabitants has grown, encounters between folks and these furry animals have additionally elevated. Some have been cute, as when a bunch of otters stopped visitors as they crossed Orchard Highway close to the Istana, and a few haven’t been so candy, as once they chased a girl jogging at West Coast Park or once they savaged a household’s prized koi and goldfish. So yeah, good occasions! For otters, at the very least.
Loh Kean Yew
Did Singapore’s first badminton males’s singles champion win any tournaments this 12 months? No. Did he nonetheless have his finest 12 months ever? Sure! He did!
The standard and affable athlete reached a career-high, rating third on this planet. He was additionally awarded Sportsman of the 12 months on the Singapore Sports activities Awards and was nominated for Badminton World Federation (BWF) 2022 Male Participant Of The 12 months, which was received by world number one Viktor Axelsen of Denmark, who’s Loh’s good pal and coaching accomplice.
“As surreal as it could all be, it has been an exhilarating 12 months. Grateful for all that 2022 gave me, and prepared for you, 2023,” he wrote in a current Instagram publish.
Malaysian chickens
Who would have thought that chickens can be newsmakers? However in 2022, they had been.
After Malaysia introduced in Could that it will briefly ban the sale of recent hen to Singapore as a way to guarantee its personal provide, there was considerably of a spate of panic-buying as a result of everyone knows how a lot Singaporeans love their hen rice.
Many started snapping up birds from moist markets and supermarkets, and enterprising Carousellers began charging unbelievable costs.
Thankfully, this died down after some time, and Singapore’s hen provide is secure. Phew!
Richard Branson
Our remaining newsmaker of the 12 months is British tycoon and anti-death penalty advocate Richard Branson.
He joined the refrain of voices across the globe calling for the pardon of Malaysian convict Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, who was sentenced to demise on drug trafficking expenses and who reportedly had an IQ of 69. Nagaenthran was judicially executed in April of this 12 months.
Shortly earlier than his execution, Mr Branson urged President Halimah Yakob for the third time to pardon him, calling the demise penalty a ‘horrible blotch’ on Singapore’s status.
On Oct 10, World Day Towards the Loss of life Penalty, he requested ‘What’s the matter with Singapore?’ on his weblog, writing, “Singapore nonetheless finds itself on the flawed aspect of historical past is its continued, virtually cussed use of the demise penalty, significantly for drug offences.”
He was later challenged to debate on the problem by Legislation and Dwelling Affairs Minister Ok Shanmugam, which the British billionaire declined. /TISG
So what Loh Kean Yew, iPhone 14, Air Asia & Agoda have in frequent? Nicely, Yahoo 12 months in Evaluate 2022 has the reply!
Ship in your scoops to information@theindependent.sg
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