Singapore national eye center

The Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC) last week invited journalists from Indonesia, including Vincent Lingga from The Jakarta Post, for a two day visit and briefing from its renowned ophthalmologists. His report: We happened to bump into Winawati Sutisna from Jakarta who was on a visit to the International Patient Service department at the SNEC to consult with an ophthalmologist about treatment for her 10-year old daughter’s strabismus, or squint-eye. “I learnt from an ophthalmologist in Jakarta that the SNEC is the best place in the region to treat my daughter’s problem,” Winawati said. She paid S$90 (US$72.30) for a consultation which she said was not much more than the fees charged by a senior ophthalmologist at a modern private eye hospital in Jakarta. Winawati is just one of the tens of thousands of Indonesians seeking quality healthcare or simply having health checkups at government or private hospitals in Singapore. The latest data from the health ministry shows that last year around 18,000 visitors from Indonesia went to Singapore for medical attention. That’s almost 50 percent of the total number of foreigners who travel to there for health services. The Indonesian government has been trying to encourage private investment in healthcare, allowing foreigners to hold up to 100 percent equity in private hospitals in the hope that an increased foreign presence will motivate state hospitals to improve their services.

Despite this expansion, Indonesians who can afford it prefer to go abroad. They are the major contributors to medical tourism in neighboring countries, notably Singapore and Malaysia According to the Mayapada Health Care group, Indonesians spend more than US$750 million annually to travel to Singapore, Malaysia or Australia for medical purposes. As the most modern, well-equipped specialist in eye care in the region, the SNEC has become increasingly popular for Indonesians from cities other than Jakarta, which do not have modern eye hospitals. Since its opening in 1990, the center has steadily expanded and now covers nine subspecialties: in cataract and comprehensive ophthalmology; corneal and external eye disease; glaucoma; immunology and vitreo-; neuro-ophthalmology; ocular inflammation; oculoplastic and aesthetic eyeplastic; paediatric ophthalmology and strabismus; and refractive surgery. Last year alone, the SNEC managed 275,000 outpatient visits, 20,000 surgeries and more than 13,000 laser procedures. Doctor Ho Ching Lin, head of the glaucoma department at the SNEC, said as the local and regional referral center for secondary and tertiary management of glaucoma, her department manages more than 40,000 glaucoma attendances annually. “About 2,000 of them are visitors from Southeast Asia, including Indonesia,” Ho added. SNEC Medical Director Donald Tan, however, did not see the increasing popularity of his center as a zero-sum game with eye care hospitals or clinics in Indonesia. “The SNEC complements eye hospitals in Indonesia. We are actively involved in clinical trials and research into the causes and treatment of major eye conditions such as myopia and glaucoma. “Thousands of ophthalmologists from the region, including Indonesia, have participated in SNEC courses and meetings, which are organized annually,” added Tan, who last year was elected as first non-American president of the US-based Cornea Society. “I myself and several senior ophthalmologists from the SNEC have visited Indonesia often for lectures or conferences with Indonesian eye specialists. We also cooperate with several eye hospitals in Indonesia like the Jakarta Eye Center and the National Eye Center in Cicendo, Bandung,” Tan said. SNEC ophthalmologists and eye specialists from the region regularly exchange views and best practices through the annual meetings of the Asian Association of Eye Hospitals. The best competitive advantage of SNEC has is the Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI), one of the largest eye and vision research institutes in the Asia Pacific region in terms of staff numbers, grant income, research initiatives and innovations and inventions. SERI director Wong Tien Yin said the multi-ethnic composition of the Singapore population is really an advantage because therapies and diagnoses that have been developed in the West may not be directly applicable to Asia. “Its ability to test diagnostics and therapeutics with patients of three major ethnic groups positions makes SERI the eye laboratory for the whole Asian market,” Wong added Research at SERI, which is attached to the SNEC complex, has helped the SNEC develop and apply new eye care services, for example, Lasik, a wonders of modern medicine and technology to improve vision and do away with spectacles or contact lenses. Cataract extraction and intraocular lens implantation is the most common operation performed at the SNEC with more than 10,000 cataract procedures each year, by a team of over 55 full time ophthalmology specialists. “Those who plan to have laser vision correction can now look forward to a new technique beyond LASIK, with the introduction of SNEC ReLEx,” said Cordelia Chan, head of the refractive surgery service. Chan explained that unlike conventional LASIK which destroys the inner corneal tissues, the new procedure does not create a flap in the cornea and uses only one laser for the entire process, thereby resulting in a much stronger eye and less immediate postoperative discomfort and tearing. Tan and his team have developed and patented a new technique for cornea transplants, which used to require at least 20 stitches and a recovery of six months. The new technique, called DMEK, already used worldwide, minimizes invasive corneal transplantation, thereby reducing damage to the new cornea’s cell.

An increasing number of middleclass and high-income Indonesians, especially those in the resource-rich provinces with direct flights to Singapore, look for quality healthcare in the city state, well known as providing the best healthcare center in Southeast Asia.

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Never-ending clash unfolds

A clash of genders, human will, cultures, theater, music and dance swirls across the stage in a heady mix of tradition and contemporary exploration as the tale of Calonarang continuously unfolds.

An artistic collaboration between Bulantrisna Djelantik, with her classic Balinese dance roots, and Retno Maruti, with her passion for classical Javanese dance, the presentation done for the 30th anniversary of The Jakarta Post was a contemporary take on the ancient legend of the cosmic dichotomy of good and bad within human interaction, long existing in both cultures.

On April 25, Calonarang, Courage in an Age of Deceit, a special presentation of the Calonarang legend emerging from the converg
ence of the Javanese dance form known as bedaya and the legong dance genre of Bali, brought the old into a new context at the Jakarta Theater at Taman Ismail Marzuki.
Calonarang tells of power, magic, love and deceit within the setting of intrigue between King Airlangga, of what is now known as East Java, and the widow Walunateng Dirah (played by Bulantrisna Djelantik), whose knowledge of magic brought her power but also distrust and loathing.
When a plague breaks out decimating the population, the widow, who is better known as Witch Calonarang, is blamed. King Airlangga then resolves to find a way to put an end to the power Calonarang wields through a magical heirloom. He sends his trusted aid, Baradah (played by Retno Maruti), to find a way to wrench the heirloom from Calonarang’s grasp. Baradah approaches Calonarang with an offer of marriage for her beloved daughter Ratna Manggali (played by Adrienna Hamida Wallis). Mother and daughter are immediately drawn into this web of intrigue. Ratna Manggali is wooed into purloining the heirloom and giving it to Baradah. Once the heirloom is in his hands, Baradah returns to his king, disappointing the daughter and enraging her mother. A massive clash ensues between the forces of King Airlangga, depicted by dancers subtly and powerfully performing with the sedate, steady, inexorably persistent movements of the Javanese bedaya tradition, and the followers of Calonarang, depicted by dancers exploiting to the fullest the emotionally charged dynamic, almost explosive, dance maneuvers of the Balinese legong. The battle unfolds as expected; with Baradah using the knowledge he has gleaned from Calonarang’s heirloom to lead King Airlangga’s forces against the much weakened sorceress. In the end good prevails over evil, and both sides diverge once again, while it remains clear the larger cosmic struggle between light and dark is not over. Throughout the performance, in which the Javanese and Balinese dancers entered and exited the stage in a tension creating point-counterpoint format, the bedaya dancers’ movements were informed by the calm, repetitive tones of the Javanese karawitan gamelan orchestra led by Lukas Danaswara, accented with the lilting narration of sinden songstresses, and, in stark contrast, the legong dancers’ movements by the sharper, staccato melodies and deeper vocals of the Balinese karawitan musicians led by I Gusti Kompyang Raka. Then as the battle escalated, eventually transforming into an uneasy semblance of victory and defeat, the orchestras, singers and dancers of both artistic traditions, assisted by the culturally knowledgeable artistic design of Sonny Sumarsono, brought the profoundly classical elements together in a merged art form conveying significant messages from the past into the present in a masterful contemporary work of dance-theater. Calonarang, Courage in an Age of Deceit was a profoundly moving presentation, a true anniversary gift, reflecting the lessons to be learned from the past by not only the performing art community, but also by the public, including the mass media, and the nation’s leaders in all sectors.

For the art community, the resounding message from the merging of divergent classical traditions into a dynamically harmonious contemporary format is that the apparent dichotomy of traditional art and contemporary art is simply a matter of perspective and asking the right questions about format and context. Seen within the classical context, Calonarang, Courage in an Age of Deceit, faithfully presented an ancient story within traditional format. Seen within the contemporary context, two strict artistic formats were contrasted starkly to stir the awareness that, as is the case of female and male within the human sphere, there are more similarities than differences, and it is this “likeness” that imbues the old with the new and creates a fresh understanding of the story and the art. For the public, perhaps in particular the journalistic community, there is the message that even traditional thinking on past events is never completely black and white, that there are decided shades of grey to be explored, analyzed, comprehended and shared to inform a larger social context within the contemporary understanding that if a people cannot learn from their history they will repeat the often destructive entrenched cycles of the past. For the nation’s leaders, the core message may be the same — learning from the past is imperative for the creation of a brighter future for the people of this vast archipelago. As well, there is the lesson that art and culture are not valid just within the realm of tradition, but are also of vital import in the informing of dynamic, innovative and creative thinking within the contemporary context of nation building.

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HTC One, Black (AT&T)

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