Throwback 2014: March

MARCH 9

It was one of the most shocking, inexplicable incidents in aviation history.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 and no trace of it has been found.

The Boeing 777 was carrying 239 passengers and crew.

It has been nine months since, and like other family members of those on board, Ms Maira Eilzabeth Nari has had to endure a long and desperate wait for news of her missing father Andrew Nari, the chief steward on the flight.

Ms Nari, 18, will be remembered for touching the hearts of thousands on Twitter, where she had shared her personal thoughts.

Hours after MH370 was reported missing, Ms Nari posted on her Twitter handle, @Gorgxous, that she wanted her 49-year-old father back.

She began to receive a wave of support and prayers from well-wishers on Twitter.

After learning that her father was a Liverpool FC fan, the club and its fanbase rallied behind Ms Nari and other families of the missing passengers.

On March 16, she posted: "Daddy, Liverpool is winning the game. Come home, so you can watch the game! You never miss watching the game. It's your very first time. :')."

Liverpool won 3-0 that day.

When we catch up with the teenager, she appears to have come to terms with "not knowing".

She tells The New Paper on Sunday in an e-mail reply: "Right now, after nine months, (whether) they're dead or alive, its okay. We leave it to God now.

"I was shocked that Liverpool actually responded (to) my tweet. They make me feel at home. Twitter is my diary - my public diary. I didn't expect that people would actually retweet and it all became viral. Everything just happened in one click."

SHARED

Her tweet had 4,854 retweets as of March 20 and was also shared by Liverpool FC's official Twitter and Facebook accounts.

But not having her father around can sometimes be hard on her family. She sees it as her personal duty to look after her mother and younger brother.

She says: "It's never easy. We take it like he (her father) is off to work, flying."

She reveals that she has been given hope by the dreams she has had of her father. Nevertheless, the fondest memory she cherishes of her father was his birthday on Feb 21.

Her father was always on the phone and had wanted to get a powerbank, but found it expensive. So Ms Nari bought him one.

She adds: "He was smiling the whole day. I still can't forget the look on his face and his reaction when I got him his birthday present for the first time using my own money."

The search for MH370 continues in the remote southern Indian Ocean, where it is believed to have ended up after losing contact while over the South China Sea and going off course.

Geylang more of a worry than Little India

MARCH 26

Geylang's vice activities were thrown into the spotlight during the Committee of Inquiry (COI) into the Little India Riot in December 2013.

In March, Commissioner of Police Ng Joo Hee told the committee that compared to Little India, Geylang posed "a clear and present danger to public order".

"Today, despite the riot in Little India, I worry more for Geylang than about Serangoon Road," Mr Ng told the COI.

In 2013, there were 49 cases of rioting, assault and affray in Geylang, a red-light district, while Little India had 25.

What led to the Little India riot was the "emotional outburst" following the death of an Indian worker. The man was run over by a private bus after he tripped while chasing after it.

"Most worrying about Geylang is that there is an overt hostility and antagonism towards the police," Mr Ng added.

What the police commissioner had told the COI appeared true when The New Paper on Sunday (TNPS) visited Geylang a few nights later.

There were pockets of streetwalkers, sellers of contraband cigarettes and peddlers of cough syrup in the vicinity.

The police told TNPS then that they will be deploying more fast-response cars for incidents in the lanes while two dozen officers will patrol the streets. A community policing system is also expected to be implemented.

In two years' time, each lorong will have police surveillance cameras and better lighting conditions.

Roughly 200 closed-circuit television cameras will be installed in Geylang.

Drug deaths stop music festival

MARCH 16

It was supposed to be the biggest electronic dance event in South-east Asia showcasing famous DJs.

But the Future Music Festival Asia, held in mid-March in Kuala Lumpur, was marred when six people died from a suspected drug overdose.

"The six victims who died were believed to have taken the drug methamphetamine before going to the concert," a senior Malaysian police officer was quoted in Bernama.

In total, nine people - six of whom were suspected to be Singaporeans - were treated at the Universiti Malaya Medical Centre after they had collapsed.

Due to ongoing police investigations, Livescape Asia - the festival organiser - cancelled the third day of the festival "in the interest of public safety".

The cancellation left thousands of concertgoers unhappy. Some of them began shouting "Open the gates" and "We want in" at the entrance of the Bukit Jalil National Stadium venue.

In hindsight, the deaths had left Mr Iqbal Ameer, chief executive officer of The Livescape Group, "heartbroken".

He told The New Paper in August: "What happened was way beyond our control... For us, we had to lick our wounds, be better and stronger as well as learn from our experiences."

But partygoers can look forward to March 13 next year.

The organisers announced in November that the two-day event will debut in Singapore at the Changi Exhibition Centre.

Motorbike COEs bust $4,000 mark

MARCH 6

March will be remembered by motorcyclists as the start of a fearful trend - rising Certificate of Entitlement (COE) premiums.

On March 5, bike COE premiums closed at $4,001 for motorcycles - the highest since December 1995, which saw a previous high of $3,501.

According to the Singapore Motor Cycle Trade Association (SMCTA), this was due to the smaller COE quota for motorcycles which was "30 per cent lower than before".

Observers also attributed the increase in COE premiums due to "panic buying" before the stricter Euro III emission standards were enforced in October this year.

In 2013, motorcycle COE premiums hovered below the $2,000 mark.

But the "above $2,000" scenario was not unexpected for SMCTA secretary general Tony Yeo.

He told The New Paper in a report in February: "I saw this coming two years ago. If nothing is done, you could see the motorcycle landscape change.

"More people will be riding bigger bikes and smaller ones will be less popular."

In October, the bike fraternity was hit by another record high when COE prices closed at $4,800.

This article was first published on December 21, 2014.
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